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Any experts on Spire Christian Comics out there?
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56 posts in this topic

It's (obviously) a paperback collection of b&w reprints of biographical stories originally published in color, and in comic book format, under the Spire imprint of the Fleming H. Revell company starting in the early 1970s.

My guess is that it's pretty scarce, and probably dates from 1975-1977 or so, given the 39-cent cover prices quoted for the comics themselves on the back cover. 

I've been collecting comics in paperback form (reprints and original stories) since the 1970s, and have never seen it.  Cool find...I'd buy it in heartbeat if I found one in the wild.

Btw...Spire--who put out the Christian-themed Archie comics, among many others--was NOT the "doom & gloom" publisher .  Shad is probably thinking of Jack Chick, whose material was MUCH more strident and dogmatic.

Edited by jools&jim
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Didn't Spire put out The Crusaders? That was pretty gloomy and  doomy. Read the Cross and Switchblade many many years ago.

Jack Chicks stuff was bugged.

Edited by shadroch
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21 hours ago, jools&jim said:

A well meaning old lady I worked with when I was a stock boy at Bloomingdales gave me the Crusader books to read. They gave me nightmares but I knew they couldn't be true. After doing a lot of research,  I found out they weren't. 

Chick is dark and paranoid. I think Spire took a more positive approach with their stories.

 

P

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5 hours ago, Larryw7 said:

 I think Spire took a more positive approach with their stories.

I grew up with Spire comics... they were very positive and upbeat, and mostly fell into three categories:

  • Archie stories with a religious bent
  • Biographical stories of people like Johnny Cash and (Dallas Cowboys head coach) Tom Landry
  • True Adventure stories about people smuggling Bibles into Communist Europe, or leading the resistance to the Nazis, or turning kids in street gangs away from a life of crime

They were evangelical and overtly religious, but not fire and brimstone, end of days kind of stuff.

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On ‎6‎/‎21‎/‎2018 at 12:58 PM, shadroch said:

They have a very limited appeal. Might have something to do with their doom and gloom literature.

I was always taught that Armageddon was fun! (:

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1 hour ago, jaeldubyoo said:

Let's not forget this one....

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That one had a moral to it.

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1 hour ago, chrisco37 said:

Hansi is the only Spire book I’m aware of with any real “collectibility”.  Such a strange book.  

It was one of my favourites as a kid. IIRC, it's a true story about a young girl who starts out in the Hitler Youth, but becomes a Christian and ends up joining the Resistance. Of course, it's been a loooooooong time since I actually read it.

There are a few others that are still somewhat collectible... some of the Archie's do OK in high grade, and the Johnny Cash biocomic can do well at times.

Overstreet on most of these is about $20, though not all are listed. I'm not sure what the basis is for that price, though... maybe 40 years of price bumps from the pricing algorithm.

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11 hours ago, Brock said:

I grew up with Spire comics... they were very positive and upbeat, and mostly fell into three categories:

  • Archie stories with a religious bent
  • Biographical stories of people like Johnny Cash and (Dallas Cowboys head coach) Tom Landry
  • True Adventure stories about people smuggling Bibles into Communist Europe, or leading the resistance to the Nazis, or turning kids in street gangs away from a life of crime

They were evangelical and overtly religious, but not fire and brimstone, end of days kind of stuff.

^^

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Here is a question to pick your brains.  What about the Archie themes or if any other children’s themes like Barenly Bear (spelling?) without cover price 39c printed? I have one with no 39c on cover and is a first printing 1973. 

Curious to know if there is any information to that by the publisher?

 

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I have 8 Archie Comics by Spire Christian Comics in my collection.... I'll have to start looking for the rest  :x

  • Archie Gets a Job #1A 1977 (no cover price)
  • Archie's Car #1 1979 (49 cents)
  • Archie's Clean Slate #1A 1973 (39 cents)
  • Archie's Family Album #1 1978 (39 cents) 
  • Archie's One Way #1C 1973 (39 cents)
  • Archie's Something Else #1 1975 (39 cents) 
  • Archie's Sonshine #1 1973 (39 cents)
  • Archie's Sonshine #1A 1973 (49 cents)
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