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...

 

Two Questions: Jim Shooter Writing and Thor the Mighty!

Martinex1: I have a couple of questions (or series of questions) to last you the next couple of days, so please share your thoughts and commentary.  Cheers all!

Question 1: What do you think about Jim Shooter as a writer?  We can discuss his work as an editor as well, but how does his work in both creative areas (writer and editor) compare?  Where does Jim Shooter fit in your rankings as a comic creator?  In what ways did he impact your collecting or enjoyment of the art form?

To refresh your memory, here is just a tiny sample of the issues that Jim Shooter wrote (starting way back in 1966).

Did you know that Jim Shooter also pencilled some issues?  His work had a bit of a Steve Ditko feel.  Here is an example from Peter Parker, The Spectacular Spider-Man #57.  The example is inked by Jim Mooney.

Question 2:  With Thor on our minds because of the recent movie, what Thor stories resonated most with you?  Many people consider the Walter Simonson issues to be among the best, do you agree?  Other than those stories are there Thor books from the Bronze Age that you admire?   What are your favorite Thor tales?  Who are your favorite Thor creators?  Did you like Thor's supporting cast?Where does Thor rank as a character that you follow or collect? Why do you despise, tolerate, like, or love the character?

Follow the Leader #47: The Physical Book!

Martinex1: Here we are again for another post in which we turn over the reins to you - the faithful reader   Be the first to post a new topic and we will all join in with our opinions and commentary.

Cheers!

Sound and the Fury: Considering Compilations...

Redartz:  Just about all of us, no doubt, have a fair collection of music (perhaps less extensive than our comic collection, but still impressive). You may have shelves of vinyl lp's, or racks of cd's. Or you may be 'up to date' and have thousands of tunes on your computer or phone. Regardless, many of those tunes are organized as albums, and probably most feature a single performer or group. Beatles albums, Kiss albums, Police discs, whatever. You get the idea. 

Well, I have many such as well; but I have an addiction to something different: compilations. It started back in the vinyl age, when K-Tel and Ronco albums offered twenty top hits on one cheap lp. With my limited budget, these discs were often purchased in place of a given artist's offering. And the wide range of music they  offered added an element of fun; often several of the included songs were new to me.

 A few years later, when the compact disc arrived, the compilation compulsion hit me double time. Now there was unprecedented variety of themed compilation discs: Beach music, British Invasion Hits, Dr. Demento's hits, and much much more. Among the most fun were "Television's Greatest Hits", a series of cd's which collected tv themes from the fifties to the present. Loads of fun. 

But one particular category of compilation discs stands out for me, and represents a large percentage of such discs in my collection: year-themed discs. These include the Time/Life sets (sets for the sixties, the seventies, organized year-by-year). Similarly, the "Billboard's Greatest Rock and Roll Hits" series (the only downside to that series is that they only feature ten cuts per disc)). Then there are the "Rock On" cd's; similar to the Billboard series but they contain a dozen  songs each, and tend to have less commonly-found picks). These 'yearly' discs appeal to the obsessive-compulsive in me: I love organizing it all chronologically (I will sometimes binge listen to a decade's assemblage, in proper order of course). 

And there are many other compilations to be found, too many to name. One cool set I picked up last year at a yard sale was a five-disc set called "Living in Oblivion: the 80's Greatest Hits". This massive set had about twenty songs per disc, and were heavily oriented towards UK new wave music. Loads of songs I'd only heard a few times, or not at all. These cd's only set me back a dollar apiece, so that got me a load of music quite affordably. That's one of the big appeals to compilation discs: usually a lot of bang for your buck. That, plus the likelihood of finding an intriguing compilation of tunes appealing to whatever esoteric nature you possess. That may explain why some friends call me the 'king of compilation discs'. Ok, not the greatest title, but one takes what one can get. In conclusion, here are a few choice collections from my collection...