Unpopular Golden Age Opinions Thread! 9 9

[The-Collector]

15 hours ago, Robot Man said:

I have never felt that Cole was an incredible artist. I have seen some originals and they left me a little flat. What he excelled at though, was composition and color. He must have really understood marketing and how to sell product on a crowded shelf. His coloring was maybe the best in the business. And I do love his work for that reason.

I agree 100%. His composition and colouring are 1st class, but his actual draftsmanship not so much. 

[Point Five]

6 hours ago, The-Collector said:

I agree 100%. His composition and colouring are 1st class, but his actual draftsmanship not so much. 

That's fair enough. I love his covers myself but I could live with that assessment.

 

[RBaumann02]

On 7/22/2016 at 9:22 PM, Point Five said:

Sexy cover = yay

Sexy cover on superhero book aimed at 10-year-old kids = insane

 

Hope this helps.

 

 

Golden Age Comics especially during the war years were read by a wide strata of society. So having a scene like that on a book where the AVERAGE reader was probably a 20 year old male makes some sense.

[tabcom]

IMUGAO (In My Unpopular Goldenage Opinion), the beloved Mr. Shomberg gets it wrong as often as he gets it right.  When does his covers get it right? When he exercised restraint and applied the 'less is more' axiom.

[AJD]

30 minutes ago, tabcom said:

IMUGAO (In My Unpopular Goldenage Opinion), the beloved Mr. Shomberg gets it wrong as often as he gets it right.  When does his covers get it right? When he exercised restraint and applied the 'less is more' axiom.

I see where you're coming from with that opinion, but sometimes the sheer audacity of the multiple layers of mayhem appeals in its own right.

[Sqeggs]

On 7/12/2019 at 10:10 AM, Point Five said:

On 7/12/2019 at 3:11 AM, The-Collector said:

I agree 100%. His composition and colouring are 1st class, but his actual draftsmanship not so much. 

That's fair enough. I love his covers myself but I could live with that assessment.

 

Yeah, me, too. His romance covers had a distinctive style, particularly with respect to often drawing very large figures in the foreground, but he could be repetitious and for sheer drawing ability, among romance artists I'd rank him way behind Baker, Kinstler, or Colletta. Still, I do like his stuff. Here's one of my favorites. 

[Sqeggs]

11 hours ago, AJD said:

11 hours ago, tabcom said:

IMUGAO (In My Unpopular Goldenage Opinion), the beloved Mr. Shomberg gets it wrong as often as he gets it right.  When does his covers get it right? When he exercised restraint and applied the 'less is more' axiom.

I see where you're coming from with that opinion, but sometimes the sheer audacity of the multiple layers of mayhem appeals in its own right.

His over-the-top Timely covers do have a cartoon-like manic appeal. But I'm with tabcom in preferring his earlier (and later) more restrained work. 

[AJD]

20 minutes ago, Sqeggs said:

His over-the-top Timely covers do have a cartoon-like manic appeal. But I'm with tabcom in preferring his earlier (and later) more restrained work. 

I want to agree with this, and I especially like the airbrushed Xela covers on Thrilling.

But this makes me smile every time I look at it. "Hmm, insufficient mayhem - better add a tiger".

[The-Collector]

On 7/13/2019 at 12:10 AM, Point Five said:

That's fair enough. I love his covers myself but I could live with that assessment.

 

Don't get me wrong I still LOVE his work. One of the best. 

[october]

When it's all said and done Cole is probably my all-time favorite cover artist, but there are literally hundreds of his books that I have no desire to own. Can't say the same for Lou Fine. Even his worst covers are worth owning. 

[Comicdey]

Unpopular GA statements ... love it

i think Supersnipe is more entertaining than 98% of all golden age comics and he used to sell like hot cakes but now only a few realize how cool they are, aside from the couple Hitler Nazi covers they sell for pennies compared to other GA.

[ageofsilver]

Too many of you are presenting good thoughts; ideas that might even be popular. Being so stimulated, I feel the spirit of unpopularity coming over me. You know, like when someone opined that Spirit # 22 displayed a less than gorgeous example of deadly female pulchritude. How could you! 

Ok, how about this: High grade file copies should not be given quite the appreciation they are accorded. Let's get right to the heart it with the EC Gaines File Copies. Yes, a wonderful story; Bill cared enough about what he produced to carefully store them. Every EC fan can't help but love the tale of the unwrapping, raw grading, "sniffing", etc. However, consistent with the proper direction of this thread, I have to call foul on the unlimited love for these books. First of all, no teenager searched through the rack for the best copy, paid his or her dime, carefully took his prize home and then actually read the stories. And what amazing stories they were! Then, having enjoyed the comic as a young person should and recognizing the importance of it (if only to himself) he carefully stored it with the rest of his New Trend ECs for a decade plus. One day, as a young college professor, he happened to notice a crude handbill put up in Palo Alto, California, by a couple of guys buying, selling and trading back-issue comics from one of their mother's garage; after school and on weekends. I recall from well over half a century back, the gentleman's unhappiness at my top offer of one dollar each, for the boxes of delight he brought us. Even in the mid sixties their retail value was considerably higher, being a near complete new trend and "new" new trend (as we used to say) set, beginning with the three Crypt of Terror issues, and all in very high grade. Still, it came to a lot of money. Embarrassingly, I had to borrow the cash from my mother, selling the CoT issues to Bud Plant and a few others to some of  the other San Jose guys to help pay her back. My partner Jim and I agreed on a "brother deal" price per copy, if we wanted to purchase issues for our personal collections. Jim quickly scarfed up WSF 29 and a few other issues, and I took the rest! Really should see about a pedigree designation some day real soon now... The point is that I then read the books (Ahhh) and then stored them with OCD love until Gerber first came up with Mylar and alkaline buffered boards and boxes, wherein they reside to this day. No doubt Gaines file copies are delightful, but high grade books used as they were intended deserve special love.

[porcupine48]

Who,WHO put down Spirit 22?Mine is numbered 21 so it doesn't count,right?

[Robot Man]

1 hour ago, ageofsilver said:

Too many of you are presenting good thoughts; ideas that might even be popular. Being so stimulated, I feel the spirit of unpopularity coming over me. You know, like when someone opined that Spirit # 22 displayed a less than gorgeous example of deadly female pulchritude. How could you! 

Ok, how about this: High grade file copies should not be given quite the appreciation they are accorded. Let's get right to the heart it with the EC Gaines File Copies. Yes, a wonderful story; Bill cared enough about what he produced to carefully store them. Every EC fan can't help but love the tale of the unwrapping, raw grading, "sniffing", etc. However, consistent with the proper direction of this thread, I have to call foul on the unlimited love for these books. First of all, no teenager searched through the rack for the best copy, paid his or her dime, carefully took his prize home and then actually read the stories. And what amazing stories they were! Then, having enjoyed the comic as a young person should and recognizing the importance of it (if only to himself) he carefully stored it with the rest of his New Trend ECs for a decade plus. One day, as a young college professor, he happened to notice a crude handbill put up in Palo Alto, California, by a couple of guys buying, selling and trading back-issue comics from one of their mother's garage; after school and on weekends. I recall from well over half a century back, the gentleman's unhappiness at my top offer of one dollar each, for the boxes of delight he brought us. Even in the mid sixties their retail value was considerably higher, being a near complete new trend and "new" new trend (as we used to say) set, beginning with the three Crypt of Terror issues, and all in very high grade. Still, it came to a lot of money. Embarrassingly, I had to borrow the cash from my mother, selling the CoT issues to Bud Plant and a few others to some of  the other San Jose guys to help pay her back. My partner Jim and I agreed on a "brother deal" price per copy, if we wanted to purchase issues for our personal collections. Jim quickly scarfed up WSF 29 and a few other issues, and I took the rest! Really should see about a pedigree designation some day real soon now... The point is that I then read the books (Ahhh) and then stored them with OCD love until Gerber first came up with Mylar and alkaline buffered boards and boxes, wherein they reside to this day. No doubt Gaines file copies are delightful, but high grade books used as they were intended deserve special love.

Post some of them. I love those “freaks of nature” and get what you say. 

I remember about that long ago going to a guy’s garage full of comics, pulps and paper. He had full runs of ECs which what I wanted bad. He wanted to sell them in full runs. No way I had the money. I was crushed. So he offered to sell me just all the annuals for a hundred bucks which was what he knew was all I had. He also threw in the run of Piracy because I loved them. I even had to leave a Timely Subby #1 due to lack of money. I made several trips back when I could save up some money. Asking my parents for a loan for comic books would never happen. Other kids were making trips there as well. He seemed to have different stuff every time I went there.

One day I showed up and the garage was closed and empty when I looked into the window. No one answered the door. Never found out what happened to him and that wonderful garage. I still think about it once in a while and can still smell all the old paper...

And welcome to the boards!

[thunsicker]

I must say, this is one of my favorite threads in gold.  Some of them I actually agree with.  Some are preposterous.

[Point Five]

11 hours ago, thunsicker said:

I must say, this is one of my favorite threads in gold.  Some of them I actually agree with.  Some are preposterous.

It's been a fun one. I want to keep it going so I am trying to think of some more unpopular opinions that I hold. At this point I'm afraid all the opinions I have left are popular and awesome. 

 

[GreatCaesarsGhost]

14 minutes ago, Point Five said:

It's been a fun one. I want to keep it going so I am trying to think of some more unpopular opinions that I hold. At this point I'm afraid all the opinions I have left are popular and awesome. 

 

Here’s mine. I am reminded by the new OPG annual how tired I am of the unrelenting and over-the-top enthusiasm in each marketplace report about how great the previous year has been. I love the fact based reports but could use a little less of the rah rah rah. I don’t need it anymore. You already had me at Hello

[Larryw7]

I think that goofy DC covers like the infamous Action Comics Snowman cover are examples of pop art and are worthy to be displayed in museums.

[Yorick]

On 7/15/2019 at 5:35 PM, Comicdey said:

i think Supersnipe is more entertaining than 98% of all golden age comics

[Comicdey]

15 minutes ago, Yorick said: