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Why is GA so awesome?
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62 posts in this topic

17 hours ago, exitmusicblue said:

Why is GA so awesome?

Because it was a simpler time?  Classy + classic?  Just something so pure about the era in comics.

Because they were just fun hacked out things without any pretenesousness at all, done to make a quick buck. I love the "crude" drawings and crazy stories, they were aimed at kids, so they are fun and absurd, they weren't aimed at teen and adult fanboys and a tiny inbred superhero group like today. Also the staggering variety of different types of comics is what I love. Last night I was looking at a coverless comic I have, I don't even know what title it is, but it has a funny animal story with pigs, then right after that a crime story with splash page of a woman dead with a knife in her chest and blood all over, then after that back to a humor story, then some puzzle pages and a story about boxers. All of it beautifully crude and crazy. To me that's why I like "golden age" comics and really all comics like pre 1962 or so. After that pretty much you have to go to undergrounds and self published stuff for really cool interesting comics.

Oh, and just the fact that they are old does it for me too, these crumbling old artifacts from a different time and that awesome smell of old decaying newsprint, there's nothing like it.

Edited by catman76
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2 hours ago, MrBedrock said:

I would love to have a complete run of The Goon in my collection - a title that is more fun than any golden age book. Fantastic Four 20 through 60 is the greatest run of comics ever printed and I would certainly have each and every issue in my collection if I could.

I think collecting Golden Age is great because I'm not competing against the vast majority of my customers who want to buy silver, bronze and other more modern books. If I didn't have a store I probably would have many more comics from the 1960s and onward.

and we do appreciate it!  

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I agree in large part with much of every post thus far, but it's all this and more somehow. It's not just that they were for kids (some of the Gleasons and 50's stuff seemed like it might be for whoever picked it up; crime and romance books certainly) and they were more unpretentious (there were didactic stories for sure; take the concentration camp story in Boy 24) but while they may have been hack work they also seem to be executed with love, with the energy that drives creators when they are doing something completely new. And that's something subsequent creators Just could not have going for them; sure, some did new things with the form; that's what the silver age is all about. But the GA guys were the first kids with the keys to the car, and it shows.

And the art is not necessarily simpler, cruder as is so often referenced. I love the realistic look that the Adams wave brought in the early 70's, but Frazetta was there way before. And bringing action to the page? Kirby taught everybody. Those modern innovative layouts? I just see Eisner. Sure, there's an iterative aspect to the evolution of comics art, but it's not like the GA was cave scrawl. Iterative modern (by which I mean silver forward) greats of the field stand on the shoulders of giants.

One aspect of the art that was simpler, and I like it far better, was the coloring. The inability to do tones meant full colors only, which saturated that newsprint with rich lead ink. It's just a kind of pretty that can't be replicated on slick paper.

Anyone think age has to do with one's perspective? I think it's only one factor. As the director Whit Stillman said, "It's not just the truth. It's when and how you learn it." For me, I was a grade-schooler in the 70's, reading bronze. Silver was the aspirational stuff in the LCS for me; Golden age was legendary and seen relatively infrequently. Maybe that's part of it. 

But I am awed by the likes of Schomburg and Biro (and countless others, some not well-remembered I'm sure) in ways that  I just don't get from too many subsequent artists.

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On 5/15/2017 at 10:02 AM, Ricksneatstuff said:

This is a response I had in a thread 6 months ago discussing how the GA forum has the most activity:

The beauty of golden age collecting is the treasure hunt. :whee: It is finding those few elusive books that show up once every few years online or maybe digging through the back boxes and some store and seeing that obscure book you have never seen. It is the pre-code era and all that came with that and then the mid-50's post CCA when they were trying to hint at the things they were doing outright in the early 50's. It is the diversity of collectible interests that were represented so well in golden age comics with different publishers bringing their own flare to the table. It is wild speculation about what must be in the jungle, what they thought was in outer space and what we will be flying or wearing to get there hm . It is full of political incorrect language and imagery of the time. It is Barks and Baker, Frazetta and Feldstein, Shores, Simon and Kirby, Kane, Fine, Schomburg, Wood ,Zolnerowich, Eisner and Everett and so many more.

In the early 90's I had virtually every silver and bronze age Marvel (except never an AF 15) and most of the DC books from '61 on but never experienced anything like the magic and mystery of golden age comics.

Here I thought you just liked collecting girls on covers....

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On 5/15/2017 at 6:14 PM, MrBedrock said:

I would love to have a complete run of The Goon in my collection - a title that is more fun than any golden age book. Fantastic Four 20 through 60 is the greatest run of comics ever printed and I would certainly have each and every issue in my collection if I could.

 

You have good taste in moderns. Every comic fan should give The Goon a try. Eric Powell lives in Nashville, so back issues are plentiful here and I made sure years ago that I got copies of the Exploding Albatross and Avatar individual issue, and all of the DH trades as they come out. Excellent stuff. 

You should pick up Hillbilly (also by Powell) if you haven't already. Just as good. 

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14 hours ago, Ricksneatstuff said:
14 hours ago, N e r V said:

Here I thought you just liked collecting girls on covers....

Well, that's the short answer...yes. B|

He likes collecting girls UNDER the covers.............. GOD BLESS...

-jimbo(a friend of jesus)(thumbsu

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On 5/15/2017 at 5:14 PM, MrBedrock said:

I would love to have a complete run of The Goon in my collection - a title that is more fun than any golden age book. Fantastic Four 20 through 60 is the greatest run of comics ever printed and I would certainly have each and every issue in my collection if I could.

I think collecting Golden Age is great because I'm not competing against the vast majority of my customers who want to buy silver, bronze and other more modern books. If I didn't have a store I probably would have many more comics from the 1960s and onward.

Ive always be partial to Fantastic Four 90 to 93

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1 hour ago, batman_fan said:

Ive always be partial to Fantastic Four 90 to 93

I like those too. The Thing in a zoot suit was pretty cool.

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7 hours ago, MrBedrock said:

I like those too. The Thing in a zoot suit was pretty cool.

Marvel comics back then were just so good. I loved just about everything they did. I keep thinking about finishing up some of my Marvel SA runs. At some point the right copies will come up and I will do it. 

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On 5/15/2017 at 8:32 PM, catman76 said:

Because they were just fun hacked out things without any pretenesousness at all, done to make a quick buck. I love the "crude" drawings and crazy stories, they were aimed at kids, so they are fun and absurd, they weren't aimed at teen and adult fanboys and a tiny inbred superhero group like today. Also the staggering variety of different types of comics is what I love. Last night I was looking at a coverless comic I have, I don't even know what title it is, but it has a funny animal story with pigs, then right after that a crime story with splash page of a woman dead with a knife in her chest and blood all over, then after that back to a humor story, then some puzzle pages and a story about boxers. All of it beautifully crude and crazy. To me that's why I like "golden age" comics and really all comics like pre 1962 or so. After that pretty much you have to go to undergrounds and self published stuff for really cool interesting comics.

Oh, and just the fact that they are old does it for me too, these crumbling old artifacts from a different time and that awesome smell of old decaying newsprint, there's nothing like it.

I love the smell of GA comics in the morning. 

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As others have mentioned, for me it all comes down to owning a book I like in a condition that very few people have in their collections. For instance, the idea of holding an Edgar Church book graded at 9.4 with the next copy in the census graded at 4.5, is very appealing to me. Sure, someone can spend thousands of dollars finding and purchasing the only 9.9 graded copy of an ASM book, but is the eye appeal of that book really that much better than a 9.8, 9.6 or even a 9.4 copy? We're talking about a minor invisible stress mark in most cases. Also, like others, I have owned semi-HG copies of most SA Marvel keys. However, if someone made me an offer of 10 to 20% more than the FMV for these books, I haven't hesitated in the slightest to sell them...........knowing I can get a similar copy later. With GA it's a different story. It's very difficult to part with a book (even at 2 or 3 times FMV) if you know you'll likely never find a similar copy in HG. Sometimes I've gotten offers via Heritage for GA books I've purchased through their website, but have responded that the book is already sold just so I don't see the next tempting offer to entice me to sell it. With SA and BA, I'd be wheeling and dealing right away. That being said, the only SA book I still have in my collection is an 8.0 CGC graded copy of ASM #1. The only reason I haven't sold it is because I know my wife will never let me spend $25k to get a similar copy back. :(

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