Post by G on Nov 26, 2011 23:44:06 GMT -5
Stopped by a store and picked up this eclectic mix of comics today. Didn't plan on buying stuff like this, they just sorta happened.
I know some people wouldn't be caught dead buying stuff like this but I've never shied away from it. I've always wanted to have a little bit of everything and that goes for funny books too. I've always felt funny books on their own is not impressive at all. I've got some nice 1st issues but even that doesn't stand out by itself. To me, the best way to make yourself stand out with funny books is to have a whole lot of them. Not just a smattering of them. But a lot. That boxes of it. Luckily I started feeling this way about funny books about 7-8 years ago and I've been collecting here and there and the collection is growing. I have a respectable stash. This was in nice shape and bagged and boarded for a mere 50 cents each and both 40 years old. I can't pass that kind of stuff up. The collector in me just comes out. The shit is old, in good shape and cheap. That makes me buy it.
Ditto with Romance Comics. Got a few of them and the more I have the better I feel about them. But more important than that to me is it's a Charlton and I'm probably one of the most serious Charlton fans you'll ever meet. Why?
Because at one point they were decently big and nobody bought them, including me. And the paper quality was so bad that typically anything in Fine is high end. And anything above that is practically rare. I've been snagging as many as I can over the years and my collection is approaching respectable. I've noticed at shows prices have been climbing as the years go by. In some cases to ridiculous levels. This beauty set me back $1. I'll take stuff like this for a buck all day.
I'm not too big on Westerns, but just like anything I have my share of them. This one got me because it was a Charlton and I just kept liking the cover. That Bullseye and color choices keep making me like it. Condition was solid and so was the price. Another $1 comic.
This was the most expensive comic I bought today. Again a Western. Not something I have a lot of. I do have a few Two Gun Kids and I appreciate the ones I have. This store had a nice collection of them and I was flipping through them and just got attracted to this cover. This is my kind of cover no matter what the genre. I flipped through it when I got home and basically I a bad guy had sawed the legs of the bridge down to where the bridge was still standing but any real weight put on it and it would collapse. I believe without reading it that he wanted the train to go over it collapse and rob the loot from it at the bottom. Enter Two Gun Kid who fools the plot, stops the train from going over the bridge and chases our would be gangster out of town who happens to go over the bridge on his horse and the bridge collapses. Sweet! I totally dug just flipping through this. Totally dug the cover and the condition is pretty high end. Great Gloss and Very White pages. I felt it was worth $12.
And finally, a book from my earliest days of collecting. I started with X-men #110 and was instantly hooked. So when I got to #114 I was by this time loving the X-Men comic. The interior John Byrne art is so banging. I feel like this is Byrne at his peak. His later issues of X-Men weren't as tight as these real early issues. Also, I think I mentioned it some time ago maybe elsewhere. But I recall back in the day, not long after these came out, I had always heard that this was literally supposed to be the end of the X-Men. And I cannot find proof anywhere to back up that claim. But it seems to me back in the late 70s that this was a common knowledge thing back then. The X-Men relaunch in GS X-Men #1 and X-Men #94 on up wasn't exactly making huge dramatic sales. In fact until right before this issue, the X-Men were a bi-monthly comic and struggling to remain in print. The legend I knew of has it that this storyline was developed far enough in advance that they felt this was going to be the final storyline. And as such, the famous battle with the X-Men and Magneto in the Volcano was really supposed to be their demise and the end of the series. However, in the months leading up to this storyline, the X-Men started coming to life in sales numbers and was even streaming up the charts. The comic was promoted from bi-monthly to monthly and the ending of the X-Men was called off and the story altered to have all of them surviving. It really did turn out that way. But if the legend I knew was true, I was always told that this was originally to be the last issue. Its great how it turned out. Turns out I actually needed this comic back in my collection. The shape was pretty nice and the price of $7 was enough for me to take it home.
There you have it. I walked into the store not knowing what I'd get and I come up with the most unlikely set of 6 comics you'll see anywhere. Wasn't a great day but it wasn't bad either. I'm rather happy with this little stack. It was good just to look and buy.
I know some people wouldn't be caught dead buying stuff like this but I've never shied away from it. I've always wanted to have a little bit of everything and that goes for funny books too. I've always felt funny books on their own is not impressive at all. I've got some nice 1st issues but even that doesn't stand out by itself. To me, the best way to make yourself stand out with funny books is to have a whole lot of them. Not just a smattering of them. But a lot. That boxes of it. Luckily I started feeling this way about funny books about 7-8 years ago and I've been collecting here and there and the collection is growing. I have a respectable stash. This was in nice shape and bagged and boarded for a mere 50 cents each and both 40 years old. I can't pass that kind of stuff up. The collector in me just comes out. The shit is old, in good shape and cheap. That makes me buy it.
Ditto with Romance Comics. Got a few of them and the more I have the better I feel about them. But more important than that to me is it's a Charlton and I'm probably one of the most serious Charlton fans you'll ever meet. Why?
Because at one point they were decently big and nobody bought them, including me. And the paper quality was so bad that typically anything in Fine is high end. And anything above that is practically rare. I've been snagging as many as I can over the years and my collection is approaching respectable. I've noticed at shows prices have been climbing as the years go by. In some cases to ridiculous levels. This beauty set me back $1. I'll take stuff like this for a buck all day. I'm not too big on Westerns, but just like anything I have my share of them. This one got me because it was a Charlton and I just kept liking the cover. That Bullseye and color choices keep making me like it. Condition was solid and so was the price. Another $1 comic.
This was the most expensive comic I bought today. Again a Western. Not something I have a lot of. I do have a few Two Gun Kids and I appreciate the ones I have. This store had a nice collection of them and I was flipping through them and just got attracted to this cover. This is my kind of cover no matter what the genre. I flipped through it when I got home and basically I a bad guy had sawed the legs of the bridge down to where the bridge was still standing but any real weight put on it and it would collapse. I believe without reading it that he wanted the train to go over it collapse and rob the loot from it at the bottom. Enter Two Gun Kid who fools the plot, stops the train from going over the bridge and chases our would be gangster out of town who happens to go over the bridge on his horse and the bridge collapses. Sweet! I totally dug just flipping through this. Totally dug the cover and the condition is pretty high end. Great Gloss and Very White pages. I felt it was worth $12.
And finally, a book from my earliest days of collecting. I started with X-men #110 and was instantly hooked. So when I got to #114 I was by this time loving the X-Men comic. The interior John Byrne art is so banging. I feel like this is Byrne at his peak. His later issues of X-Men weren't as tight as these real early issues. Also, I think I mentioned it some time ago maybe elsewhere. But I recall back in the day, not long after these came out, I had always heard that this was literally supposed to be the end of the X-Men. And I cannot find proof anywhere to back up that claim. But it seems to me back in the late 70s that this was a common knowledge thing back then. The X-Men relaunch in GS X-Men #1 and X-Men #94 on up wasn't exactly making huge dramatic sales. In fact until right before this issue, the X-Men were a bi-monthly comic and struggling to remain in print. The legend I knew of has it that this storyline was developed far enough in advance that they felt this was going to be the final storyline. And as such, the famous battle with the X-Men and Magneto in the Volcano was really supposed to be their demise and the end of the series. However, in the months leading up to this storyline, the X-Men started coming to life in sales numbers and was even streaming up the charts. The comic was promoted from bi-monthly to monthly and the ending of the X-Men was called off and the story altered to have all of them surviving. It really did turn out that way. But if the legend I knew was true, I was always told that this was originally to be the last issue. Its great how it turned out. Turns out I actually needed this comic back in my collection. The shape was pretty nice and the price of $7 was enough for me to take it home.
There you have it. I walked into the store not knowing what I'd get and I come up with the most unlikely set of 6 comics you'll see anywhere. Wasn't a great day but it wasn't bad either. I'm rather happy with this little stack. It was good just to look and buy.
