‘One-man crusade’ against CGC grading, slabbing

[Erndog]

Dear Derf,

 

I have slabs.

 

I have also read approximately 100,000 comics

 

Your Friend,

 

Dahmer

 

 

[JAM_NYC]

He's freeing the comics from their slabs?????

 

My god, what a revolutionary idea. No one in the history of the world has ever had that idea before.

It really is an empty gesture, isn't it? Cgc is so backed up, they would need to discover a way to bend space/time in order to catch up to their stated TOT. But Johnny Comicseed here is going to walk the earth, freeing comics one slab at a time. Shine on, you crazy diamond!

[Tony S]

He's freeing the comics from their slabs?????

 

My god, what a revolutionary idea. No one in the history of the world has ever had that idea before.

 

For real. There are lots of people - many on these boards - that "free" books from slabs all the time. Buying a slab books offers them an assurance of no restoration and grade. Unslabbing them takes up less space and fits with their collection.

 

Sometimes slabs are just good deals. A lot of books ending up selling for less in slabs than they do raw.

 

[Dr. Balls]

Derf Backderf?

 

 

Any relation?

[Transplant]

Is this really enough to be considered a crusade, per se? Sounds more like a fervent excursion.

[rob_react]

" Most of these “collectors” wouldn’t know the difference between Wally Wood and Wally Walrus. They’re just collecting a number. It’s an affront to everything I hold dear.”

 

Collectors willing to spend on high grade GA books most certainly know, and appreciate Wally Wood...

 

 

and some high grade SA books, too.

 

While it's true that some people are just chasing a number, spending a few minutes in the subforums here would dispel any notion that that's the majority of he collectors here.

 

I'm consistently amazed at the depth of knowledge here about comics as an artform, stretching back to before comic books looked like comic books (and before Wally Wood was even born )

[comix4fun]

comicbookresources.com/

 

 

Comic books are made to be read. But along the way they’ve grown to become a collectible in the minds of some, leading to an interesting bifurcation of fandom: collectors and readers.

 

My Friend Dahmer cartoonist Derf Backderf is a longtime fan who, while downsizing his collection, wandered upon the uniquely placed Certified Guaranty Company (CGC). The avowed comic fan who followed his hobby into a career was shocked at the degree to which comics collecting had subsumed the readability of comics, especially given that “true collectors” would hermetically seal their comics in CGC “slabs,” leaving them unable to be read — you know, the original intent for the comic.

 

“For someone who has devoted his life to making comics, and who takes several years to painstakingly craft each one … to be READ! … this is an abomination,” Derf wrote in a long post on his blog. “For baseball cards, fine. because you can still read everything on the card. With a comic book, 90 percent of the contents are lost forever! Most of these “collectors” wouldn’t know the difference between Wally Wood and Wally Walrus. They’re just collecting a number. It’s an affront to everything I hold dear.”

 

Derf, who has been reading comics since the mid-1970s, covers the growth of the secondhand comics market and the rise of collectability through the Overstreet Price Guide and now through CGC. Because of this severe leaning toward collectability limiting the readability of comics, the cartoonist has started what he calls a “one-man crusade against slabbing” by buying CGC books and “then free[ing] them from their plastic coffins.”

 

It's highly interesting that when anyone posts an article that is in any way critical of CGC or its slabbing practice, that the frightened masses always resort to mass-image SPAM in hopes that it will just go away and they can get back to caressing their precious slbas.

 

 

You don't see the comedy in someone posting an article that starts with:

 

"But along the way they’ve grown to become a collectible in the minds of some, "

 

Really? These people would have to have been under a rock, that was under a much larger rock, for the better part of 40 years to make a statement like this with a straight face.

 

Or this gem "With a comic book, 90 percent of the contents are lost forever!"

 

As if it's the only copy in the universe, that (in the case of every key book every created) hasn't been reprinted dozens of times, collected in TPB's, HC, Omni, Absolute, OmniAbsolute, and SuperAbsolute editions over and over and over again.

 

It's not frightening, it's maddening that yet another delicate genius believes he's the first one to think of this fallacious argument that a comic is "LOST FOR ALL TIME" when slabbed. Take the previously mentioned hard copy reprints and digital reprints out of the mix and I hope the author can ask himself exactly how many people are reading an original copy of Tec 27 or Superman 1 because they want to read the story.

 

 

 

[techvoodoo]

most comics aren't worth reading anyway, and if they are, how hard is it to take them out of the slab.

 

purchasing a graded book is just another step in the process of insuring that you are getting what you paid for, it's not like they are locked in their cases permanently. open it once you get it in the mail and stop whining. this guy sounds like a wingnut.

[GOTHAMCENTRAL]

So you're all upset that a someone who use to be friends with Jeffrey Dahmer doesn't like CGC?

[comicwiz]

[jaybuck43]

I have numerous slabbed Shock Suspenstories and Crime Suspenstories especially BECAUSE I revere Wood's art. I also plunked down hundreds of dollars for the EC archives of those books because I want to be able to read them. Wouldn't feel comfortable reading a $500+ raw so I would rather just sit on the John and read my reprint...

[comix4fun]

 

 

 

 

The "Bat-Girl vs. Batgirl" thread is 5 posts down.

[gaz973]

So you're all upset that a someone who use to be friends with Jeffrey Dahmer doesn't like CGC?

It's more when people get up on their high horse, deciding how other people should enjoy their comics that it strikes me as being quite arrogant. If the process was irreversible and the comics were forever sealed away, then I'd be in agreement with him.

[500Club]

 

 

My Friend Dahmer cartoonist Derf Backderf is a longtime fan who, while downsizing his collection, wandered upon the uniquely placed Certified Guaranty Company (CGC). The avowed comic fan who followed his hobby into a career was shocked at the degree to which comics collecting had subsumed the readability of comics, especially given that “true collectors” would hermetically seal their comics in CGC “slabs,” leaving them unable to be read — you know, the original intent for the comic.”

Derf's right on the ball.

 

Wait until he finds out his friend Jeff killed some people.

[Heronext]

I'm going to give Derf the benefit of the doubt... I think he probably doesn't know much about The Slabbing.

[Prince Namor]

His Dahmer comic was kinda creepy. I liked it.

[500Club]

So you're all upset that a someone who use to be friends with Jeffrey Dahmer doesn't like CGC?

It's more when people get up on their high horse, deciding how other people should enjoy their comics that it strikes me as being quite arrogant. If the process was irreversible and the comics were forever sealed away, then I'd be in agreement with him.

It's also a very naive worldview. Comics aren't the only item that have become collectible, and risen to a value that obviates the original purpose of the item.

[Prince Namor]

Revenge of the Readers.

[revat]

seriously, just ask him if he had an Action 1 near mint if he would read it or put it in a highly protective case.

[comix4fun]

So you're all upset that a someone who use to be friends with Jeffrey Dahmer doesn't like CGC?

It's more when people get up on their high horse, deciding how other people should enjoy their comics that it strikes me as being quite arrogant. If the process was irreversible and the comics were forever sealed away, then I'd be in agreement with him.

It's also a very naive worldview. Comics aren't the only item that have become collectible, and risen to a value that obviates the original purpose of the item.