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RANK THE TOP 5 MOST IMPORTANT PERSONS IN COMIC BOOK COLLECTING OF ALL TIME
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98 posts in this topic

1 hour ago, Point Five said:
On 4/23/2017 at 3:42 PM, Mmehdy said:

RANK THE TOP 5 MOST IMPORTANT PERSONS IN COMIC BOOK COLLECTING OF ALL TIME

Whoever eventually fixes the Photobucket glitch here will shoot to #1 on the list.  :D

+1 :)

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Two names that haven't  come up but were huge influences on me: Phil Levine and Ron Goulart. Goulart's Great History of Comic Books really appealed to the historian in me. Phil bringing the Bridwell Collection to the Atlanta Fantasy Fair in 1986 was my first exposure to rare early DCs (I walked away with New Comics 2 & 3, More Fun 9 & 13, plus high grade non DCs like Hit 3, National 2 and 5 and Jungle 3). He was always willing to talk comics and was my first exposure to original comic art when he repped Ward. 

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9 hours ago, Straw-Man said:
12 hours ago, gino2paulus2 said:

For me personally,

GAtor, Ciorac, MrBedrock, Primetime, Cat-ManAmerica, Point Five, comicjack, sagii, GothamKid, Sha, Robotman, Catrick, sacentaur, Ricksneatstuff etc. there are Tons more but the great boardies who are passionate about funny books really got me back in the game for keeps after my re entry from childhood!! Oh and also my Dad, my Mom, my best friend Scott, and my grandma Michaelina who were there for me in the beginning not only introducing me to comics but also supporting this crazy addiction ?

and Mitch you odd duck you're a cool dude in my book ?

i'm going to need to call it a day and head home early, in light of my omission here.

He said "etc." :makepoint:

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2 hours ago, IngelsFan said:

Phil bringing the Bridwell Collection to the Atlanta Fantasy Fair in 1986 was my first exposure to rare early DCs (I walked away with New Comics 2 & 3, More Fun 9 & 13

Now, those are some tough early pre-hero DC books that you tend to never really run across.  :cloud9:

Do you still have them to this day and what kind of condition are they in?  hm

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4 hours ago, tth2 said:

He said "etc." :makepoint:

Yes i did :foryou: and BP, Tony, and Timely etc. you know you stand up gentleman made the cut so as BP predicted yes my apologies that one kind of got away from me I meant the Boards as #1 for me with a specific shout to certain people who i'd assumed knew who they were ? ? then the other 4 I mentioned to round out the 5. BP i think i made my first ever sale (Avengers #4 5.0?) to you brother you took a chance and I still appreciate that to this day so yes i apologize up and down you DA MAN as well as Tony and West etc. (you all deserve more than a etc. btw this is me using my shovel to dig myself out haha!!) ?

 

 

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5 hours ago, gino2paulus2 said:

Yes i did :foryou: and BP, Tony, and Timely etc. you know you stand up gentleman made the cut so as BP predicted yes my apologies that one kind of got away from me I meant the Boards as #1 for me with a specific shout to certain people who i'd assumed knew who they were ? ? then the other 4 I mentioned to round out the 5. BP i think i made my first ever sale (Avengers #4 5.0?) to you brother you took a chance and I still appreciate that to this day so yes i apologize up and down you DA MAN as well as Tony and West etc. (you all deserve more than a etc. btw this is me using my shovel to dig myself out haha!!) ?

 

 

well, at least I was mentioned first...kudos hehe

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On April 23, 2017 at 0:42 PM, Mmehdy said:

RANK THE TOP 5 MOST IMPORTANT PERSONS IN COMIC BOOK COLLECTING OF ALL TIME

 

 I just made a comment on the Geppi section, and a thought occurred to me what are the most  important  5 people have made or helped create comic book fandom. Now of course, lets not count the professionals, the Stan Lee FF letter column and marvel in general  really got the ball the rolling on a nation wide basis, and EC while important, laid the foundation for comic book fandom by creating "adult" comics with Stan Lee following up with Amazing Adult Fantasy which are great even still today...the marvel effect his the entire nation and so by scope the MMM world put us here today.

Because I was there in the beginning, buying FF1 on the stands, just as the earlier generation with the EC's EVERYBODY new something was up....different about the FF's, Hulk and Spiderman, but as I recall things really got started on issue 4 of the FF...I would say 4,5,and 6 we the keys that this was not a fluke and things were changing.

 

My top 5 are heavy towards early fandom which laid the foundaiton for what we have today....the CGC, the boards,....billion dollar superhero movies....

 

1- BOB OVERSTREET: the old saying "you had to be there" applies, when the first guide came out it hit like a bomb...BUT THE SECOND GUIDE hit like the atomic bomb.......it took over the market and set a FLOOR as to value...the second guide must have sold 5x what the first one did...but it helped create a credible source for those who laughed at comics and in part because the "red book" of coin values was considered a very valuable source.

 

2- Russ Cochran..... collectable comic art...this man created the term...especially with comic stip....and he put his money where his mouth is..publishing wise..changed his whole life for fandom. Publishing the most respected EC comic books and selling the greatest comic art collection of ALL TIME the Gaines EC art collection,  as well as selling most of the Carl Barks oils, Ganies file copies  etc. 50 years from now this man will be appreciated 

3- Bruce Hamilton....besides being Russ's publishing partner, and a very early comic book dealer, I can remember him being there at the SDCC #2 with cap 1 for sale for $150 bucks, a pioneer in creating the most important comic art book for its time, which was the barks oil collection at a unheard of price of $75...the printing still holds up today but it created RESPECT among non-comic book/art collectors at the time. He published  the complete Carl Barks, Little Lulu etc....but he and Irving Bigman were the two go to dealers creating a model for many, many other comic book dealers, again he gave up his career as a very successful Radio announcer and gave fandom everything he had until his death during a hospital stay.

4-Steve Geppi- In business, its ups and downs....and Steve had his share of them, but there is no denying that his organization of comic books distribution has helped fandom overall, as well has creating a museum with his own funds..we owe this man a lot thanks. He is not ranked higher because he effects were felt after the pioneers who again risked everything at a time where there was no "sure" thing.

5  COMICS AND COMIXS -Bud Plant, Robert Beerbohm, John Barrett...In 1972 this store helped create the market for underground...self publishing comics...the creation of fandom had come full circle...it gave credibility  even in the store name...and launched a creative force which today impacts the world........John Barrett, RIP, was the nicest guy in fandom......his early death was a robbery.....one most remember that the SF/Tom Reily  collection was the first BIG  pedigree  collection to hit comic book fandom...years before the mile high collection and this collection was sold there stores and SDCC etc.

 

 

WHAT ARE YOUR TOP FIVE AND WHY.......

 

That's a hard list to limit to five since you made it an all time list. The fan movement should be broken down in sections from the early days until now. Probably everyone on your list deserves to be noted but it leaves out to many with equal or greater importance. 

Steve Geppi may have had a great impact on the hobby but I would argue how much was good and how much was harmful. Either way I don't see him in the position he was able to make for himself without Phil Seuling. I've learned in life some make opportunity, some take it and some are lucky enough to have it fall on them. Timing as they say can be everything.

I do find the omission of people like 

Don and Maggie Thompson

Buddy Saunders

Jerry Bails

Alan Light

Roy Thomas (fandoms early fan to pro and publisher of Alter Ego)

Biljo White

etc...

glaring since they existed at ground zero for the fandom movement and certainly pushed it into something more than geeks reading comics in their garage.

Also Shel Dorf and company who created something called the San Diego Comic Con which is by far the most famous convention to exist and probably has been one of the biggest promotors of the genre as well as the face of fandom  to the general public in the last couple of decades.

How about the founders over at CGC who decided slabbing comics might work with grading?

 

Fandom has had so many working parts over the last 50-60 years to get to where it is today I'm not sure picking 5 is really possible. Fandom includes those      who remained only readers, those who collect for themselves, those who collect as a business, those who established the market, those that changed the way the product was sold and marketed, those who organized people together, etc...

You don't get to collecting without some or most of the above.

Lots of pieces to the comic book fandom puzzle...

 
Edited by N e r V
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7 hours ago, gino2paulus2 said:

Yes i did :foryou: and BP, Tony, and Timely etc. you know you stand up gentleman made the cut so as BP predicted yes my apologies that one kind of got away from me I meant the Boards as #1 for me with a specific shout to certain people who i'd assumed knew who they were ? ? then the other 4 I mentioned to round out the 5. BP i think i made my first ever sale (Avengers #4 5.0?) to you brother you took a chance and I still appreciate that to this day so yes i apologize up and down you DA MAN as well as Tony and West etc. (you all deserve more than a etc. btw this is me using my shovel to dig myself out haha!!) ?

 

 

I've been appointed spokesman for the etcs, and I've been authorized to say that we still love you. :foryou:

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I thing Alan light/Don and Maggie would be a solid #6....as commented above but the top 5 for me is pretty solid especially Russ whom really put his all in fandom with top quality products.

50 years from now : Overstreet and probably Jim  halpin who  took comic book auctions into the 21st century.

 

Edited by Mmehdy
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Burrell Rowe had the greatest impact on me...and the way he was treated by many that he considered friends - including specifically Russ Cochran and Bruce Hamilton - makes it very hard for me to include them on a list of greats. Great hobbyists don't shrink the hobby by acting that way toward others.

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29 minutes ago, MrBedrock said:

Burrell Rowe had the greatest impact on me...and the way he was treated by many that he considered friends - including specifically Russ Cochran and Bruce Hamilton - makes it very hard for me to include them on a list of greats. Great hobbyists don't shrink the hobby by acting that way toward others.

Unfortunately, there's been more than a few instances of dirty work at the crossroads by some of the hobby's luminaries.  

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1 hour ago, Moondog said:

Bob Overstreet

Alan Light

Steve Geppi

Stephen Fishler

Don & Maggie

Bob is Numero Uno because without him only D&M would still be on this list.

+1

This is about as precise a list as I have seen so far in terms of the Top 5, from my point of view.  (thumbsu

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16 hours ago, MrBedrock said:

Burrell Rowe had the greatest impact on me...and the way he was treated by many that he considered friends - including specifically Russ Cochran and Bruce Hamilton - makes it very hard for me to include them on a list of greats. Great hobbyists don't shrink the hobby by acting that way toward others.

I tried to separate the fact the thread listed people who were "important" to the  hobby with the good and the bad. I had assumed (maybe wrongly?) that the impact they had could just have been easily been a negative one. 

Numerous names on the original top 5 and others mentioned since are not what I would consider fine upstanding individuals as human beings go.

There has been a lot of "ends justify the means" when viewing some of these persons in retospect on what they "did" for the hobby.

How they cheated and screwed people along the way to "add" to the hobby would probably make a lively but doomed thread.

 

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12 hours ago, Moondog said:

Bob Overstreet

Alan Light

Steve Geppi

Stephen Fishler

Don & Maggie

Bob is Numero Uno because without him only D&M would still be on this list.

I rate Overstreet easily on any top list but it's kind of funny now but if you did a poll among collectors in 1970 I don't think he'd win any popularity contests. lol

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