Marvel Westerns and Romance Comics 2 2

[Dogsupreme]

Marvel Westerns and Romance Comics

Anyone have any love for the non-hero Marvel comics? I've been picking up Marvel westerns (the "Kid" comics) and romance comics on the cheap but they are incredibly hard to find in high grade.

[Get Marwood & I]

27 minutes ago, Dogsupreme said:

Marvel Westerns and Romance Comics

Anyone have any love for the non-hero Marvel comics? I've been picking up Marvel westerns (the "Kid" comics) and romance comics on the cheap but they are incredibly hard to find in high grade.

 

I've been getting into Westerns through my pence research. I think they're great. There's some good looking Kids in here:

 

[Dogsupreme]

What's great is that since no one cares about them I am able to get them pretty cheap. However, they are hard to find since a lot of dealers carry very few westerns. I often find a lot of them in the bargain bins.

[KirbyJack]

You're dead on about collectors having little interest in most romance and western Marvels, but there is an exception. Rawhide Kid #17 is no longer cheap, and Two-Gun Kid #60 is close on its heels. The early Kirby art issues have a following, and this even includes the romance books! The romance comics are brutal in high grade.

[Get Marwood & I]

8 hours ago, Dogsupreme said:

What's great is that since no one cares about them I am able to get them pretty cheap. However, they are hard to find since a lot of dealers carry very few westerns. I often find a lot of them in the bargain bins.

I'm trying to collect the pence Western copies over here in the UK and they are close to non-existent. When they pop up on ebay, and it's a copy I need to prove it's existence, the competition is sometimes fierce. So there is a market. Here's a few I've managed to get over the last year (any excuse to post pretty pictures, eh):

[Dogsupreme]

I love seeing these old covers! You are right about Two Gun Kid #60. I have never seen a copy until now. I wonder what a high grade copy would go for.

[Aman619]

These are cool!

[bronze johnny]

1 hour ago, Dogsupreme said:

I love seeing these old covers! You are right about Two Gun Kid #60. I have never seen a copy until now. I wonder what a high grade copy would go for.

The Silver Age gets a bad rap thanks to the some who incorrectly think it's all superhero. I see posts questioning why a war book is in Overstreet's top 20 Silver Age keys. Some people can't get beyond the fact that the Silver Age had great Western, Romance, Sci-Fi, Mystery, and War comics. The guys over in Gold brag about how fantastic Golden Age books are, and they are. Silver Age books are awesome too- the Silver Age art of Kirby, Gil Kane, Swan, Infantino, Anderson, Steranko, Adams, Kubert, Grandenetti, Heath, Cardy, Buscema, Ditko, Romita, etc. stands on its own and in many cases- is superior to their Golden Age predecessors. Unfortunately, the focus of the Silver Age forum for a vociferous few is on subjects based on questions about "how much will my Spidey be worth?; what's the best book to invest in? Why hasn't TOS 39 in such and such grade not sell for more? When will Hulk 1 go up in value? Will the movie raise the value of my book? etc.  This is a refreshing thread that identifies the multi-dimensional Silver Age- more than the return of the superhero. Romance and Westerns!! This late SA gem, along with its counterpart, My Love 1, started the last of Marvel's romance books. The sun was setting on the romance genre, but how beautiful that sunset was while it lasted...

[Dogsupreme]

I agree! Some of the best stories are the western, romance and sci-fi titles. Even humor titles like NOT BRAND ECHH, PLOP, and ARRGGH! had great art and stories. FORBUSH MAN FOREVER! I've always liked TWO GUN KID and RAWHIDE KID. Also, who can forget PATSY WALKER who somehow worked her way into Marvel Superhero continuity. Didn't she eventually become HELL CAT?

 

[Crimebuster]

4 hours ago, Dogsupreme said:

I agree! Some of the best stories are the western, romance and sci-fi titles. Even humor titles like NOT BRAND ECHH, PLOP, and ARRGGH! had great art and stories. FORBUSH MAN FOREVER! I've always liked TWO GUN KID and RAWHIDE KID. Also, who can forget PATSY WALKER who somehow worked her way into Marvel Superhero continuity. Didn't she eventually become HELL CAT?

 

 

Patsy Walker is a tremendous title. Right at the end of the run it shifted from Archie style humor into high melodrama. There's a storyline where Patsy's boyfriend Buzz goes to Vietnam, is wounded in action, and comes back in a wheelchair. Imagine if that happened in Betty and Veronica and you have an idea how insanely weird this series got at the end. 

[Get Marwood & I]

3 minutes ago, Crimebuster said:

 

Patsy Walker is a tremendous title. Right at the end of the run it shifted from Archie style humor into high melodrama. There's a storyline where Patsy's boyfriend Buzz goes to Vietnam, is wounded in action, and comes back in a wheelchair. Imagine if that happened in Betty and Veronica and you have an idea how insanely weird this series got at the end. 

Sounds intense! It's not my area of expertise - is Patsy Walker this Patsy too? Or was everyone called Patsy in them days? 

[marvelmaniac]

I collect and Love the old Westerns.

I collect Kid Colt Outlaw, Rawhide Kid and Two Gun Kid but only collect the .10 cent issues so...

Kid Colt Outlaw 1 - 102 (Need 1, 2, 12, 24)

Rawhide Kid 1-25 (Need 1 and 15)

Two Gun Kid 1-60 (Complete)

(Yes I know #60 is a .12 cent book but new origin by Kirby, had to have it, also have issue #75 Love the Alamo cover)

 

Unfortunately the books I am looking for/need to complete my runs very seldom come up for auction and the eBay BIN books and MCS "consignment" issues are vastly Overpriced, even for lower grade reading copies which I am fine with, so I wait.

Edited May 22, 2017 by marvelmaniac

[Get Marwood & I]

13 minutes ago, marvelmaniac said:

I collect and Love the old Westerns.

I collect Kid Colt Outlaw, Rawhide Kid and Two Gun Kid but only collect the .10 cent issues so...

Kid Colt Outlaw 1 - 102 (Need 1, 2, 12, 24)

Rawhide Kid 1-25 (Need 1 and 15)

Two Gun Kid 1-60 (Complete)

(Yes I know #60 is a .12 cent book but new origin by Kirby, had to have it, also have issue #75 Love the Alamo cover)

 

Unfortunately the books I am looking for/need to complete my runs very seldom come up for auction and the eBay BIN books and MCS "consignment" issues are vastly Overpriced, even for lower grade reading copies which I am fine with, so I wait.

You want to try getting pence copies @marvelmaniac! Good luck finishing the sets. And why no Gunsmoke Western? 

[Crimebuster]

On 5/20/2017 at 4:22 PM, Marwood & I said:

Sounds intense! It's not my area of expertise - is Patsy Walker this Patsy too? Or was everyone called Patsy in them days? 

 

Yes, that's her. Hedy is her Veronica style frenemy. 

Like her solo book, this title also became a soap opera style merlodrama once the Marvel Age began. The two of them moved to the big city to get jobs as reporters. 

 

(not my copy):

 

[Get Marwood & I]

1 hour ago, Crimebuster said:

 

Yes, that's her. Hedy is her Veronica style frenemy. 

Like her solo book, this title also became a soap opera style merlodrama once the Marvel Age began. The two of them moved to the big city to get jobs as reporters. 

 

(not my copy):

 

Ah, thought so, thanks. Have to say, they look kind of cool. I wonder how many boys bought these to school back in the day 

[FineCollector]

I'll pick up westerns I know Gene Colan worked on, but I won't touch his romance stuff.  I have enough on the go, I don't want to open that door.

[Dogsupreme]

I just noticed that Marvel did a "Archie" style book called CHILI that is also a red head. Someone at Marvel must really like red heads (I have to admit a bias as well).

 

Edited May 22, 2017 by Dogsupreme

[catman76]

I love marvel westerns, just was looking at this one last night, it has cool Jack Davis art in it.  People seem to ignore or just aren't aware that superheros were never the most popular comics, until like the 80s and even then I don't think they were. As far as silver age, superheros were no where near as popular as people like to think. the amount of superhero titles was tiny compared to everything else. In the early 60s you have Uncle Scrooge and Walt Disneys comics and stories selling like a million or a milion and a half copies a per issue alone and I think a couple archie titles were selling in those numbers too. Go back to the 50s and it was even more, with like 600 titles a month and only about four of those being superheros. I never understood why superheros became this thing comics are known for. People just ignore the fact that any other comics exist or play down how non superhero comics were always way more popular. I can't even tell anyone I am into comics without them assuming its batman and spiderman. It just confuses them if you try and talk about anything else. It's sad.

[marvelmaniac]

15 hours ago, Marwood & I said:

You want to try getting pence copies @marvelmaniac! Good luck finishing the sets. And why no Gunsmoke Western? 

Gunsmoke Western was not a book I read as a kid and that is what comics are all about for me.

It was the three Westerns I mentioned that my friends had and I read or traded for.

 I never bought any Westerns as a kid, I barley had enough money to buy my superhero books (.25 cent a week allowance and comics were .12 cents, baseball cards were .5 cents a pack and of course Slurpee's when you went to 7-11 to get baseball cards, tough choice's for a guy.

I decided to start collecting Westerns and Pre-Hero Marvel after I had completed all of my superhero runs and my Sad Sack runs.

(another title I enjoyed reading as a kid)

[Straw-Man]

not a focus of mine, but the curator book in my s.a. ped type-set.