Saturday, November 18, 2017

Adventures in Comics: 'Secondary Collections'...






Redartz:  Good day, and a hearty hello to all! Let's share a few thoughts today about collecting. Speaking as a comic book collector primarily, I find that pursuing those paper pleasures keeps me quite sufficiently occupied (after all, a person only has a limited amount of spare time, let alone funds). Nonetheless, over the years, I've branched out into a few other 'sidebar' collections. Some as a result of my comics fandom, some just sort of happened. Today we will look at some of our secondary collecting pursuits, and see how they relate to our overall interests.

Once I started collecting comics, I soon picked up some actual magazines as well (Savage Tales, Planet of the Apes , and comic fanzines for example). But as an avid reader and history buff, some other magazines started to creep into my 'keeper' pile. I eventually added a few music magazines, particularly the Billboard year-end issues. After all, if there was anything I enjoyed nearly as much as comics, it was pop music. And these year's top hits issues made a great compendium of a year's musical output, in those days before Wikipedia.

One day at a flea market, I found a Life Magazine issue from 1969 that contained an overview of the 60's. Such convenient historical packages were right up my alley, and upon seeing them appear at the end of subsequent decades, I made a point of acquiring each one.  The "60's", "70's" and "80's" each had a retrospective devoted to it, somehow I missed the 90's. But I did get a volume dedicated to the 2000's.  It turns out they fit, sizewise, nicely on the shelf next to my Fantagraphics Popeye volume. My  magazine pile expanded even more as I added Newsweek issues devoted to historic events or interesting subject matter. The articles notwithstanding, even the advertisements were an interesting feature to those old magazines, as well- another reflection of the then-current state of popular culture.






And yet there were still more magazines: TV Guides. I started out selecting the "Fall Preview" issues to keep for posterity. Those are great sources for tv history, and usually had a full Saturday morning cartoon schedule for the season included.  You could often find them cheaply at those wonderful events known as flea markets. But once again, I started adding other issues covering shows of appeal to me: for instance, a couple years ago I found one with a cover feature on "Kung Fu", so out came my wallet.  

Now, don't think I was limited to magazines (comic or otherwise). Trading cards were another area that pulled me in; some vintage Marvel cards, some newer ones as well. Just about anything from the 60's or 70's that featured comics characters would get my attention. Not nearly to the extent that the actual comics did, but enough to justify a storage notebook to hold them. Granted, this group of trading cards dates from the 90's, but the art by the Hildebrants really knocks me out.




Comics, magazines, trading cards- a lot going on, but still not enough. I started adding original comic art and creator sketches. Comic promotional posters. For awhile I even collected Overstreet Price Guides! Obviously, comics held (and hold) such interest for me that they could generate a desire for almost anything else that was remotely connected to them. Oddly, though, one area I never got into was that of action figures and figurines. With the exception of one Aurora Spider-Man model, I've none whatsoever.  I never even had that first Mego . Go figure (sorry, couldn't resist that one)...

So now that you've seen some of my sidebar interests, let's hear about yours. Other than your comics, what collectibles  have you pursued? Do you have related magazines, books, cards, or whatever? Perhaps you have shelves filled with those Mego's I missed out on. Take an inventory and give us all the details...













8 comments:

Eric said...

I have four volumes of the Overstreet Price Guide for comic books. They were randomly purchased over the years. No real logic to why I have them other than that they were purchased prior to online pricing became easier to research. Now they serve as time capsules on how much the industry has changed.

Disneymarvel said...

'Growing up' in the '60s & '70s when prices for these secondary collections were relatively cheap, I picked up everything I could get my hands on. In fact, my gum card collection started before I really even knew who the Marvel Super Heroes were. My sister and I would walk to the neighboring five and dime and pick up the 1966 Marvel trading cards and have fun putting together the puzzle formed from the back side of the cards. I didn't even know who I was 'assembling' but I was fascinated by the artwork and the characters and wanted to know more. I'm sure I found the cartoons soon after.

At the age of 6, it was the 1967 Fantastic Four cartoon that got me wanting a puzzle based on the show and I must have put together that image 100s of times. I also got the Big Little Book and read it to death!

From bubble gum machines, I would get the mini comics, the flicker rings and so many other great things. And, of course, I ate my way through numerous boxes of cereal to get all those fantastic pvc figures, whether they were comic book related, featured characters from the cereals themselves, like Quisp and Quake, or Saturday morning cartoon related, like a Woody Woodpecker mug and bowl or Freddy the Flute from HR Puffinstuff. I loved them all! And I had a lot of them, so I could continue for days! But no time today. Thanks for a great topic.

Mike Wilson said...

"[S]omehow I missed the 90s"; don't worry, you didn't miss much ;)

I used to collect baseball and hockey cards; I still have a few, but most of them were thrown away by my parents. I have a fair number of Star Wars and G.I. Joe action figures, though I can't really afford to add to the collection since prices for the originals are so high now.

I'm not sure what else I have that would count as a collection ... Hardy Boys books? I have quite a few of those, but haven't bought any for decades. I also have quite the menagerie of stuffed animals left over from my youth--I suppose that could be considered a collection.

Garett said...

I did pick up some art trading cards in the '90s. Jusko, Boris, Rowena, Corben, etc. The reproductions were excellent for color and clarity, and some of the artists didn't have books out. I still have them packed away somewhere. I don't buy nearly as many art books these days with all the high quality art you can find on the internet. But in the '90s these cards were fantastic.

Charlie Horse 47 said...

Hmmm...

I have accumulated many things but as far as print material goes, I target 1930 to WW2 Time Magazines on subjects of interest to me.

Also, I do occasionally pick up things off ebay from the town I lived in, in Germany, for 4 years or my wife's home town in France.

But it's not serious collecting and the process is part of the enjoyment.

david_b said...

As mentioned previously.., I've got a pretty healthy (and impressive) 1:6 scale Joe (and Action Man) collection, up through the mid-70s toy line. Also, some nice Space:1999, TOS Trek and Galactica items. Incidentally, I just got a great deal on the Signature Edition vintage BSG Viper helmet (only 500 made..), love how it lights up just like in the series.

Yep, I actually AM running out of space in my lovely but small home, but eh.., it's all still fantastic. Also collecting several European Beatle albums (HorZu, Dutch releases..), it's all fun stuff.

Killraven said...

In the early 70's I started collecting trading cards. First it was sports cards, baseball, football, hockey .Then it was tv shows and just about anything that tickled my fancy, Kung-Fu, POTA, Whacky Packages, Funny Cars, Star Wars....

Still have thousands and thousands of baseball cards but everything else is gone.
Love seeing that Slurpee cup, I had a good 20 or so of them. The problem was I used them too much and they eventually started fading. Then one day they were just gone.

They only thing I currently "collect" are the Superhero pint glasses. Maybe 1 or 2 a year and the images must be Bronze era or earlier :-)

Redartz said...

Thanks for the comments, all!

Eric- Those Overstreet Guides do serve nicely as a reference source. Great for looking up artists and crossovers; loads of information on titles and numbering. I still keep one for just that reason; quicker than looking it all up online. And it's still enjoyable to leaf through it and see those thousands of vintage covers.

Disneymarvel- you mention some terrific items! Those flicker rings from the gumball machines-I'd forgotten about those. The Quisp and Quake toys? Oh, cereal premiums- that could be another whole topic! And thanks for mentioning the Fantastic Four Big Little Book. Didn't that have Kirby artwork?

Mike W.- cool that you still have your stuffed animals! Mine are looooong gone, although we have a box of Beanie Babies collected by our youngest son. He wants us to sell them for him; still waiting for that market to return...

david_b- yes, your figure collection is legendary around here. One of these days we might have to do a post of photos from our collection displays- remembering yours from such a post back at BAB, it seems. Also, those European Beatle lp's sound intriguing. Variant cover artwork from the UK and US editions?

Killraven- Superhero pint glasses? Hmmm, sounds like something to look into...

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