Any Silver collectors not collect GA? 1 1

[SLR5]

i collect only SA comics or what I call pre-Silver.  Sold most all of my GA through Heritage and CL and mad some $$.  I love my SA DC comics especially The Flash, The Atom, and Kubert War Books.  The stories and artwork of GA are very crude for the most part.  I prefer Curt Swan, Gil Kane on the Atom and GL, Gardner Fox and the Murph.  I like Kirby's DC work especially DC Sci-Fi but not a fan of his work on Marvel.  The Hulk is overrated though I do enjoy early X-Men Comics.  This is just my opinion of course..  DC Rules.

[piper]

4 hours ago, SLR5 said:

i collect only SA comics or what I call pre-Silver.  Sold most all of my GA through Heritage and CL and mad some $$.  I love my SA DC comics especially The Flash, The Atom, and Kubert War Books.  The stories and artwork of GA are very crude for the most part.  I prefer Curt Swan, Gil Kane on the Atom and GL, Gardner Fox and the Murph.  I like Kirby's DC work especially DC Sci-Fi but not a fan of his work on Marvel.  The Hulk is overrated though I do enjoy early X-Men Comics.  This is just my opinion of course..  DC Rules.

[FineCollector]

Atom age makes more sense to a Silver/bronze age collector.  Batman, Superman, and to a lesser degree, Wonder Woman have no clear delineation in style or story from one age to another.  Guys like Cardy, Colan, Ditko, and Infantino were doing their thing back then.  Marvel collectors could work their way backwards from the first Thor, Ant-Man, and Iron Man.  My first Atom age book was an Atlas Black Knight, because Dane Whitman's ancestor started there, and I felt my Avengers collection needed it.  None of this required that you start something new, just track back from what you already had.

I love Jack Burnley, so his G.A. Batmans, Supermans, and Starmans are on my radar.  I'm also trying to make a run of Captain Marvel Adventures, although most of the run is post-war.  The rest?  I'm not paying for pointy boob covers, or Schomberg's angular faces.  If that material was plentiful and cheap, I still wouldn't buy a lot of it, and I'm convinced a lot of G.A. collectors wouldn't like it as much either.  I don't have any nostalgia for Golden age comics, so when I see a lot of it for the first time, it's cave drawings to me: significant, but not enjoyable.

[Knightsofold]

How can you not like this awesome war cover?

[fishbone]

Better question is what GA collectors do not collect SA  -- I think SA is the gateway drug to the harder stuff ..........

 

was for me .... 

[SECollector]

I would LOVE to own a Cap #1 some day. But I should probably accept that it will never happen. 

Other than that, I think I will be busy for some years to come with my SA (and some BA) collecting. After that, who knows...

[FineCollector]

Not my copy, but here's a big one.  Significant cover because of the death camp imagery, but at the risk of incurring the wrath of the G.A. collectors, Captain America himself looks terrible.  The only person to draw him consistently worse was Frank Robbins.  What's this copy worth, $3000?  No, thank you.

 

 

[aardvark88]

On 7/20/2017 at 11:11 PM, SLR5 said:

i collect only SA comics or what I call pre-Silver.  I love my SA DC comics especially The Flash, The Atom, and Kubert War Books.  The stories and artwork of GA are very crude for the most part.  I prefer Curt Swan, Gil Kane on the Atom and GL, Gardner Fox and the Murph.  DC Rules.

Overall I agree with your assessment of the strength of the SA DC. For 'Marvel Zombies', they have little reason to collect before 1960. For ASM devotees, they would not collect before 1962.

[1950's war comics]

Although many SA comics are very pricey , advanced collectors concentrate on GA....

speculators are a whole other story....

[bronze johnny]

11 hours ago, 1950's war comics said:

Although many SA comics are very pricey , advanced collectors concentrate on GA....

speculators are a whole other story....

It's kind of insulting to say advanced collectors concentrate on GA since it assumes SA collectors don't know much about what they collect. Advanced collectors can concentrate on infinite variations of Gold, Atomic, Silver, Bronze, Copper, & Modern. Some focus on Schomburgs. Others on Baker covers, or Centaurs, or Fox covers, or Fiction House jungle books. SA collectors have their advanced focuses- Gil Kane Green Lantern covers, or Showcase runs, or FF runs that focus on Lee & Kirby, or Steranko covers, or Adams Deadman books, etc.

One thing about my separating Atomic from Gold and why I'm highlighting Atomic - it's not Gold- take it out of the GA forum and see how quickly things quiet down there. The Golden Age came just prior to the Second World War's beginning in Europe and went the War's end. Historically speaking, there is a tremendous difference in the United States between the war years and the post war years- and the comics reflect this. The Cold War era that coincides with the Atomic Age brought newfound fears to Americans and the comic books and cinema demonstrated this. I'm pointing this out since many collectors and these boards throw Golden Age patriotic comics into the pile with precode horror and crime (true, CDNP 22 came out during the war and points to the evolutionary trend toward precode crime and away from the wartime superhero dominance), the Korean War, and the anti-communism of the '50s. Very different times.

The advanced collector looks beyond the superficial tendencies of some SA collectors interested in only acquiring keys- in most of those cases- the Marvel keys. The evolution of the SA following the failures of the Atlas attempts to use Timely superheroes to fight communism during the mid-50s gives rise to an age where baby boomers growing up watching Davy Crockett and the tv westerns discovered more than the usual stuff offered in Batman, Superman, and Wonder Woman comics. New characters came about and they gave American kids a new variety of superheroes that included war heroes. The Marvel Age follows the prehero era and takes the superhero comics to a level that supersedes the comics of the Golden and Atomic Ages.  We see evidence of just how influential the material of the SA is in this current era of superhero films- see Marvel. These SA trends have a great deal to offer the advanced collector who has the patience and determination to carefully study them.

There's a hell of a lot more to collecting SA books than the keys- the advanced collector understands this.

Edited July 30, 2017 by bronze johnny

[ThothAmon]

49 minutes ago, bronze johnny said:

Advanced collectors can concentrate on infinite variations of Gold, Atomic, Silver, and Bronze.

I agree with the proviso that you add Copper and Modern. At this stage of my comic book collecting I certainly am most interested in the Golden age but if I happen upon a TMNT 1 or a Walking Dead 1, amongst others, I certainly won't turn my back on them. 

[bronze johnny]

56 minutes ago, ThothAmon said:

I agree with the proviso that you add Copper and Modern. At this stage of my comic book collecting I certainly am most interested in the Golden age but if I happen upon a TMNT 1 or a Walking Dead 1, amongst others, I certainly won't turn my back on them. 

Added.

[1950's war comics]

2 hours ago, ThothAmon said:

I agree with the proviso that you add Copper and Modern. At this stage of my comic book collecting I certainly am most interested in the Golden age but if I happen upon a TMNT 1 or a Walking Dead 1, amongst others, I certainly won't turn my back on them. 

you can get one of those tomorrow if you want.... there are many examples of mainstream GA titles without a single eBay listing in the last 4 years ... simply unavailable  except for the most patient of the advanced collectors

[ThothAmon]

1 hour ago, 1950's war comics said:

you can get one of those tomorrow if you want.... there are many examples of mainstream GA titles without a single eBay listing in the last 4 years ... simply unavailable  except for the most patient of the advanced collectors

So you say. If your pockets are deep enough you could pretty much have any GA book tomorrow or Tuesday the latest. Not sure why the need to demean other collectors anyway. After all they're all just four color funny books. 

[Comicdey]

On 7/30/2017 at 3:49 PM, ThothAmon said:

So you say. If your pockets are deep enough you could pretty much have any GA book tomorrow or Tuesday the latest. Not sure why the need to demean other collectors anyway. After all they're all just four color funny books. 

That's not how I read that .  Although with the dealer network out there all but the rarest of GA can be found for the right price too.  Maybe not in condition desired but GA to Atomic can be acquired.  SA and later are just more relatively available period.

[chrisco37]

On ‎7‎/‎20‎/‎2017 at 11:50 AM, Pontoon said:

I'm not sure how to answer; depends on what is considered GA. I collect books throughout the '50s but some folks don't consider them GA. I guess the answer is yes if Atom Age counts and no if it doesn't.

Pretty much me as well.  I like the EC books and will pick them up on occasion.

Bought one Timely (so I could get a Schomburg busy cover) and would love to buy more, but so pricey when I have other books higher up on my want list.   I like to gawk at GA books I can't buy though. 

[FineCollector]

On 30/07/2017 at 6:21 PM, 1950's war comics said:

you can get one of those tomorrow if you want.... there are many examples of mainstream GA titles without a single eBay listing in the last 4 years ... simply unavailable  except for the most patient of the advanced collectors

See... I don't have the desire to wave a book in front of someone and ask them if they're jealous because they don't have a copy.  Rarity means nothing to me, but if you're saying that a box full of Gerber 8's is what I should be collecting instead of what I like, I'll get right on that.

[entalmighty1]

11 hours ago, FineCollector said:

See... I don't have the desire to wave a book in front of someone and ask them if they're jealous because they don't have a copy.  Rarity means nothing to me, but if you're saying that a box full of Gerber 8's is what I should be collecting instead of what I like, I'll get right on that.

Yeah, advanced is just a really poor choice of descriptor.  I had an interest shift in my collection recently, but there are still books in my collection that I love that aren't rare or valuable, much less both.  

I can appreciate everyone's reasoning in this thread.  The art doesn't speak to some, the stories don't speak to some, price limitations, nostalgic feelings...we all have different reasons for collecting what we do.  

[entalmighty1]

On 7/30/2017 at 6:59 AM, 1950's war comics said:

Although many SA comics are very pricey , advanced collectors concentrate on GA....

speculators are a whole other story....

I would call @Ghost Town a VERY advanced collector, and I don't see him posting golden age acquisitions, but I do know he has the most mindblowing Spider-Man collection I've ever seen.  To each their own.  If you aren't passionate (or at the very least interested in) what you're collecting, what the heck is the point?  

[KirbyJack]

On ‎7‎/‎19‎/‎2017 at 8:19 PM, pickycollector said:

SA/BA only.

Never did read a good GA story

Specific E.C.s I can recommend would be Impact #1, Master Race and Frontline Combat #4, Air Burst.

If it's superheroes for you, I might agree that silver (and later) is the place to be.