fallen GA Keys of yesteryear........ 2 2

[showcase4]

Superman and Batman made it.....Tough Kid Squad and Captain Marvel did not. This thread is dedicated to the one time "Big" GA books and characters that no longer are at the top of Wantlists, but used to be "back in the day".

 

Please list, and post some pics of the previous Kings of the GA comic world, and state what you think happened that caused their flame ( no pun intended ) to fizzle out over time.

 

[VintageComics]

Can I get a D-E-S-T-R-O-Y-E-R-!?

 

R.

 

 

[showcase4]

when I started this thread last night, I had no idea it would be biggest bomb of all time......come on guys, this is fun and educational! What caused some of the previous big books to not have staying power.....that's fun, right? Look at this list, and the books I drew a light blue line beside...they were eveidently at the top of their game in the past....some made it, some did not. I'm sure there are some interesting stories there......

[Thegoldenage]

I don't know about that list, but I almost hurled my breakfast when I saw the photo of Theo Holstein at the bottom of his ad...

[rjpb]

I don't know about that list, but I almost hurled my breakfast when I saw the photo of Theo Holstein at the bottom of his ad...

 

I remember his ads from the old Overstreets - Cheeeeeesy!

 

As for prices - I remember Tough Kid Squad as being a mysteriously high priced book (when was the last time one actually sold for guide?) - but Boy Commandos #1 What was up with that?

[G.A.tor]

I don't know about that list, but I almost hurled my breakfast when I saw the photo of Theo Holstein at the bottom of his ad...

 

I remember his ads from the old Overstreets - Cheeeeeesy!

 

As for prices - I remember Tough Kid Squad as being a mysteriously high priced book (when was the last time one actually sold for guide?) - but Boy Commandos #1 What was up with that?

different times no doubt

[The Black Hand ®]

when I started this thread last night, I had no idea it would be biggest bomb of all time......come on guys, this is fun and educational! What caused some of the previous big books to not have staying power.....that's fun, right? Look at this list, and the books I drew a light blue line beside...they were eveidently at the top of their game in the past....some made it, some did not. I'm sure there are some interesting stories there......

 

I don't think that's the first time you've posted that add with Holstein.....is it that you just like posting that add with that picture? Please say no.

When I was a kid, Action 1 ,Detective 27 and All Star 3 were the big ones. All Star 3 seems to have diminished ...just a bit since then.

[Theagenes]

Actually I think is a pretty interesting idea for a thread, but maybe that's because I tend to collect those heroes of yesteryear that no one else seems interested in any more.

 

 

I'll try and get things started with Tarzan. ERB's Jungle Lord was probably one of the most recognizable fictional characters of the previous century. He was the subject of numerous books, movies, TV shows, comics strips and comic books, promotional items, you name it. But today Tarzan is nearly forgotten, the last major appearance of the character in popular media being the somewhat mediocre Disney animated movie from a few years back.

 

As for myself, I remember a much better animated version of the character - Filmation's Tarzan: Lord of the Jungle which aired on Saturday mornings from 1976-79. This was my first introduction to the character as a little kid and I thought it was the coolest thing in the world. Next I discovered the Marvel series and then the original books. As a child I had no awareness of the inherent racism and social Darwinist ideology that the character represented. To me Tarzan was the ultimate hero - always brave, always noble, always the good guy, without the slightest hint of moral ambiguity in his actions.

 

When I got into collecting a few years it was probably inevitible that I would start picking up some early Tarzan comics. The first Tarzan comic strip appeared in January 1929 and is tied with Buck Rogers as the first real "non-funny" adventure strip. The B&W strip, which adapted the first Burroughs novel, was drawn of course by the legendary Hal Foster. Foster would return a couple of years later as the writer and artist of the Sunday color Tarzan strip, which even today has got to be considered one the greatest comic strip runs ever.

 

Tarzan's first appearance in the comic book format was in the first issue of Tip Top Comics in 1936 which reprinted the Sunday Foster strip. This feature ran in Tip Top for a number of years.

 

 

 

 

 

The first all-Tarzan comic book was the oversized Large Feature 5 (1939), which reprinted the complete Foster B&W 1929 strip:

 

 

 

 

The following year saw the release of Single Series 20, which was 64 pages of all-color, all-Foster Tarzan strips:

 

 

 

 

These last two books were once major key grails, but have not kept pace with the big super hero keys over the last few decades.

 

I would say that there are several reasons for the character's decline. When Tarzan of the Apes was first published in 1912, the jungles of the Congo were largely still unexplored by Westerners and still represented a mysterious frontier. The existence of the mountain gorilla had only just been confirmed a few years before. But today the Dark Continent just doesn't have the same mystique. Rather than a symbol of mystery and adventure, Africa has become a symbol of tragedy and exploitation. Tarzan is a fictional product of that Western exploitation - a physical embodiment of the perceived manifest destiny of European colonization. Because of this, the character has become an embarassing reminder of the sins of the so-called "civilized" world. Perhaps there's no more place for such a character.

[The Black Hand ®]

But can't one make the case that characters like Tarzan have reached a peak and leveled off? There was a tremendous amount of exposure for Tarzan, throughout the years, maybe too much. Probabaly a lot more than any superhero. I'd put characters like Tarzan in the same league as a character like Sherlock Holmes. A pretty big literary figure and not just a comic book character.Still popular culture, though.

[Norrin_Radd]

What caused some of the previous big books to not have staying power.....

All Star 3 seems to have diminished ...just a bit since then.

JSA was BIG with early fandom. Not so much anymore.

[The Black Hand ®]

What caused some of the previous big books to not have staying power.....

All Star 3 seems to have diminished ...just a bit since then.

JSA was BIG with early fandom. Not so much anymore.

 

I'm speculating that one of the reasons AllStar 3 is not as big, is that the stories were pretty bad and the covers weren't as good as many others. Since the Journals came out and people started chasing covers a lot of books like All Stars took a lesser position for collectors. When I was a kid, I thought All Stars were really cool, until I read a few. I still thought they were special, since I was a big JLA fan at the time and All Star was always attributed with being the first team up, or crossover.(Actuall it was The Shield and The Wizard.)

[ArAich]

but Boy Commandos #1 What was up with that?

 

 

Simon and Kirby...they were all the rage back then...

[markseifert]

but Boy Commandos #1 What was up with that?

 

 

Simon and Kirby...they were all the rage back then...

 

Yeah, a lot of books on the list are S&K, I wondered if that explained some of it also... although there are plenty of other DC keys he could have listed as well if so.

 

 

[rjpb]

While fandom has always had a superhero bias when it comes to big books - it's clear that keys featuring strip superstars like Tarzan, Flash Gordon and Popeye once held their own - but are now largerly ignored. I think the main reason is while the characters are all still recognizable - little of today's comic fandom has a memory of regular exposure to them - they have become names from the past.

 

As for the JSA - I picked up the first All-Stars Archive at a used book store years ago, and found the stories seriously wanting. However I do have fond memories of some of the later adventures which were reprinted in the early 70s - especially ones with Kubert and Toth artwork.

For me story art is even more important in the earlier GA than later eras, as the stories themselves are largely forgettable.

 

Another reason the magic of the All-Star books may have lessened with collectors not old enough to recall them first hand, is that they weren't really team books in the manner we've become acustomed to - more just a series of connected solo adventures with a brief team wrap up at the end. Things may have come around full circle though - as this format has similarities with the bookended multi-tile cross-over events popular today.

 

[rjpb]

but Boy Commandos #1 What was up with that?

 

 

Simon and Kirby...they were all the rage back then...

 

Yeah, a lot of books on the list are S&K, I wondered if that explained some of it also... although there are plenty of other DC keys he could have listed as well if so.

 

 

I'll buy that reason, as they were the only DC S&K creation to get their own title, but they were my least favorite.

[Norrin_Radd]

but Boy Commandos #1 What was up with that?

 

 

Simon and Kirby...they were all the rage back then...

 

Simon & Kirby! Woo!

 

 

 

But seriously, I think most Detective collectors are in agreement that Tec 64 is overvalued. Great cover, cool Joker story, but not worth the premium that historically has been placed on it due to the premiere of the Boy Commandos.

[seank]

Has the X-Men replaced the JSA as the team of choice? When comic fandom first really started in the early to mid 1960s, we had the FF with less than 100 issues out, the X-men who would go into reprints soon, and the JLA (Sekowsky, ewww) which was an extension of the JSA. I believe that Roy Thomas, an important and early fan, was a big promoter of the JSA.

 

Skip forward 20 years to the 1980s and we have Byrne/Claremont doing great work on the X-men, FF is getting tired, and the JLA is near-extinct. New fans are going to go for the X-men as the team book of choice. I think that momentum has held out over the decades. New GA fans, who weaned their super-team teeth on the X books aren't likely to go back to JSA. They're likely to go to DC's big three, TImelys, or to veer off into other non-hero GA stuff.

 

My speculative on the whole thing.

[rjpb]

Has the X-Men replaced the JSA as the team of choice? When comic fandom first really started in the early to mid 1960s, we had the FF with less than 100 issues out, the X-men who would go into reprints soon, and the JLA (Sekowsky, ewww) which was an extension of the JSA. I believe that Roy Thomas, an important and early fan, was a big promoter of the JSA.

 

Skip forward 20 years to the 1980s and we have Byrne/Claremont doing great work on the X-men, FF is getting tired, and the JLA is near-extinct. New fans are going to go for the X-men as the team book of choice. I think that momentum has held out over the decades. New GA fans, who weaned their super-team teeth on the X books aren't likely to go back to JSA. They're likely to go to DC's big three, TImelys, or to veer off into other non-hero GA stuff.

 

My speculative on the whole thing.

 

Excellent analysis. (thumbs u

[Crowzilla]

Tec #64 is bad, but not nearly as much as Adventure #72 (and to a lesser extent #73). How those books were at one time comparatively priced to Adventure #40 is just crazy.

 

All Star #3? It's a bunch of people sitting around a table talking - not very exciting. If they had at least teamed-up and kicked some butt I could see it.

But even more of a mystery with All Star is the price of #1. In the mid 70s it guided for the same as Tec 29 & 31, and nearly as much as Flash #1 (and twice as much as Adventure #40).

 

Of course the all-time champion is Whiz #2(#1).

Used to be equal in price to Detective #27, and nearly twice the price of Superman #1.

 

[VintageComics]

Ah, but our intrepid fellow boardie Jeff (nearmint) will make sure that Whiz Comics shine again!

 

 

It's too bad about Marvel. Although not as popular as the others he was pretty cool as far as origin/powers are concerned. I think that CC Beck kept him back as he never "matured" like the others (Batman/Superman). He just stayed "childish" and that was his downfall IMO.

 

Lot's of great GA goodness there though. Just can't keep up today.

 

R.