If there was a Mt. Rushmore for the comic hobby.. 1 1

[tv horror]

27 minutes ago, Black_Adam said:

I'll throw in a vote for Bill Gaines. He didn't write or draw but I believe he helped plot a ton of stories, was the heart and soul of EC and fought tooth and nail against censorship in comics. He has to be at least as important as Teddy Roosevelt, right?

I totally agree with your choice.

[Ken Aldred]

1 hour ago, Black_Adam said:

I'll throw in a vote for Bill Gaines. He didn't write or draw but I believe he helped plot a ton of stories, was the heart and soul of EC and fought tooth and nail against censorship in comics. He has to be at least as important as Teddy Roosevelt, right?

Also, managing to put together the most impressive group of consistently-excellent, ultra-talented A-list comic artists ever to work for a single comic book company, during any one period, in the entire history of the medium.  

As a lifelong EC fan, and thus, completely unbiased and immune to hyperbole, that makes Gaines one of comics' immortals.

Edited July 20, 2018 by Ken Aldred

[Robot Man]

1 hour ago, Black_Adam said:

I'll throw in a vote for Bill Gaines. He didn't write or draw but I believe he helped plot a ton of stories, was the heart and soul of EC and fought tooth and nail against censorship in comics. He has to be at least as important as Teddy Roosevelt, right?

My first thoughts were Gaines and Lee. True innovators who had real vision. Heck Gaines’ dad was responsible for publishing Action #1 wasn’t he? I’d probably have to put Eisner on the list for the same reason. George Dellacourt publisher of Dell comics might round out the foursome. Was the first one to license nearly every humor/cartoon character as well as TV and movies. Probably published more comics than any body else.

[tv horror]

10 minutes ago, Robot Man said:

George Dellacourt publisher of Dell comics

I did not know that thanks for educating me I live to learn.

 

[Black_Adam]

42 minutes ago, Ken Aldred said:

Also, managing to put together the most impressive group of consistently-excellent, ultra-talented A-list comic artists ever to work for a single comic book company, during any one period, in the entire history of the medium.  

As a lifelong EC fan, and thus, completely unbiased and immune to hyperbole, that makes Gaines one of comics' immortals.

Just in case anyone was curious, those two handsome young luminaries in the background are the immortal Johnny Craig and Al Feldstein.

[01TheDude]

For those who are saying Mile High Chuck deserves this type of honor, I would ask the following--

Does finding another persons amazing collection and saving it for the rest of the community really mean that much? Seems like a drop in the bucket to the entire collecting world- important that he did save it and they were some great comics. But honestly, it seems more like luck than actually being an ambassador of collecting. Plenty of dealers and others in the business have found many more of these pedigree level collections. Something about him just rubs me the wrong way.

Never met the guy-- maybe he just gives off an odd feel or something.

Also-- if this is just about artists-- my four would be Kirby, Frazetta, Wrightson, and Adams

[AJD]

2 hours ago, Robot Man said:

My first thoughts were Gaines and Lee. True innovators who had real vision. Heck Gaines’ dad was responsible for publishing Action #1 wasn’t he? I’d probably have to put Eisner on the list for the same reason. George Dellacourt publisher of Dell comics might round out the foursome. Was the first one to license nearly every humor/cartoon character as well as TV and movies. Probably published more comics than any body else.

Another excellent suggestion.

[mr_highgrade]

11 hours ago, zzutak said:

Four people who made significant contributions to the advancement of the hobby (not the art form)?  My vote would be (in no particular order):

• Steve Borock
• Ernst Gerber (author of the Photo Journals; as Dr. Lecter observed, "We begin by coveting what we see")
• Robert Overstreet
• William Sarill (the father of comic book restoration, for you young'uns out there)

Ernie Gerber also invented the Mylar.

[mr_highgrade]

4 hours ago, Black_Adam said:

I'll throw in a vote for Bill Gaines. He didn't write or draw but I believe he helped plot a ton of stories, was the heart and soul of EC and fought tooth and nail against censorship in comics. He has to be at least as important as Teddy Roosevelt, right?

Bill's father was also Max Gaines. I believe he published the first modern comic book. I think it was Famous Funnies.

[James J Johnson]

17 hours ago, jsilverjanet said:

CopperageKids,SolarCadet,GiJoeisAwesome and that kid with the Caps

And lest we forget, a dishonorable mention for:

A诶ēiB比bǐC西xīD迪díE伊yīF艾弗, àifúG吉jíH艾尺àichǐ.I艾ài.J杰jiéK,开kāi. L艾勒àilèM艾马ài mǎN艾娜àinàO哦, and their brother, ó. 

[Black_Adam]

8 hours ago, 01TheDude said:

For those who are saying Mile High Chuck deserves this type of honor, I would ask the following--

Does finding another persons amazing collection and saving it for the rest of the community really mean that much? Seems like a drop in the bucket to the entire collecting world- important that he did save it and they were some great comics. But honestly, it seems more like luck than actually being an ambassador of collecting. Plenty of dealers and others in the business have found many more of these pedigree level collections. Something about him just rubs me the wrong way.

Never met the guy-- maybe he just gives off an odd feel or something.

Also-- if this is just about artists-- my four would be Kirby, Frazetta, Wrightson, and Adams

Wasn't Columbus looking for India when he stumbled across the New World? Worked out pretty well for him. I've never met Chuck either (or even bought from MHC), just wanted to stress the significance of the Mile High collection to the history of our hobby and, like him or not, if Chuck hadn't answered the phone that day I have a hunch the collection would have been landfill.

 

[James J Johnson]

10 hours ago, Black_Adam said:

Just in case anyone was curious, those two handsome young luminaries in the background are the immortal Johnny Craig and Al Feldstein.

I thought those two were a young Frank Frazetta and Bill Murray!

[Robot Man]

8 hours ago, Black_Adam said:

Wasn't Columbus looking for India when he stumbled across the New World? Worked out pretty well for him. I've never met Chuck either (or even bought from MHC), just wanted to stress the significance of the Mile High collection to the history of our hobby and, like him or not, if Chuck hadn't answered the phone that day I have a hunch the collection would have been landfill.

 

Chuck is a very strong supporter of our hobby and very knowledgeable and passionate about it. He is actually a very nice guy when you speak to him. I have had several conversations with him about the collection. He would be the first to tell you how lucky he was. What makes him a little different than most people, he sold and marketed these books and turned into a very successful business. I don't want to do business with him but get a kick of talking comics with him. That being said, if you got only 4 heads on Mt. Rushmore, I don't think his should be there. And his "luck" has come back to all of us who own and appreciate these books. I also give Chuck for giving credit to Mr. Church to, for what ever reason, bought and kept them for us. 

[Gatsby77]

On 7/20/2018 at 12:34 AM, 01TheDude said:

For those who are saying Mile High Chuck deserves this type of honor, I would ask the following--

Does finding another persons amazing collection and saving it for the rest of the community really mean that much? Seems like a drop in the bucket to the entire collecting world- important that he did save it and they were some great comics. But honestly, it seems more like luck than actually being an ambassador of collecting. Plenty of dealers and others in the business have found many more of these pedigree level collections. Something about him just rubs me the wrong way.

Never met the guy-- maybe he just gives off an odd feel or something.

Also-- if this is just about artists-- my four would be Kirby, Frazetta, Wrightson, and Adams

I agree with you here.

I don't think the Mile High Collection advanced the hobby nearly as much as say...Bob Overstreet did.

For Chuck's inclusion, you'd have to argue that Golden Age comic collecting would not have been what it was in the 1980s (esp. early 80s) if the Mile High collection had ended up in the garbage. And I just don't think that's true.

We still had the Wonder Woman and Incredible Hulk live action shows, Spider-Man, Spider-Man & His Amazing Friends; Super Friends; the Christopher Reeves Superman shows and (no doubt) Tim Burton would still have made Batman.

Yes - Chuck's been a great comic book ambassador for 50 years, but his primary innovation was charging 3x Overstreet's for true NM books.

That's it.

It was Bob Overstreet who first really popularized the idea that comics were collectables rather than disposables.

[sfcityduck]

2 hours ago, Gatsby77 said:

It was Bob Overstreet who first really popularized the idea that comics were collectables rather than disposables.

I think that's giving Overstreet too much credit.  I might well put him on my Mt. Rushmore, but not for that.  Comic collecting first gained major national attention back in the 40s, and was firmly entrenched and hitting the popular consciousness hard in the 60s.  

[sfcityduck]

19 hours ago, Robot Man said:

Chuck is a very strong supporter of our hobby and very knowledgeable and passionate about it. He is actually a very nice guy when you speak to him. I have had several conversations with him about the collection. He would be the first to tell you how lucky he was. What makes him a little different than most people, he sold and marketed these books and turned into a very successful business. I don't want to do business with him but get a kick of talking comics with him. That being said, if you got only 4 heads on Mt. Rushmore, I don't think his should be there. And his "luck" has come back to all of us who own and appreciate these books. I also give Chuck for giving credit to Mr. Church to, for what ever reason, bought and kept them for us. 

I give Chuck credit for two major innovations in comic collecting/dealing:  (1) After his discovery of the Church books, he (or his wife) recognized that they were a special collection which warranted multiples of guide, thereby ushering in the whole "pedigree" comic concept which led to astronomical prices; (2) after his discovery of the MH II collection, Chuck took comic book dealing to a new higher national profile by running full page ads in comic books offering back issues with prices.  He did this for years, starting in the late 70s or early 80s.  Those ads let kids like me know that comics had value (and reached more comic readers than OPG or publications like the Buyers Guide) and provided us an avenue for finding issues we otherwise would not have been able to find.  I think those two innovations are a big reason why comic collecting boomed in the late 70s and early 80s, and they certainly changed the nature of the comic dealing world.

Edited July 21, 2018 by sfcityduck

[sfcityduck]

Just bumping this topic up so those who want to discuss the pro side of comics can do so without being confused by my very similar fan side topic.

My apologies to James for causing confusion.  I'm going to re-title my thread.

[Aweandlorder]

Since this has turned to be the official C Rozanski thread I figured I may as well plug my journal here 

 

[Ken Aldred]

20 hours ago, Aweandlorder said:

Since this has turned to be the official C Rozanski thread I figured I may as well plug my journal here 

 

He has a surprisingly poor success rate.

Edited July 23, 2018 by Ken Aldred