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1st Smurfs 1958 (yes 1958) Spirou 1071/1072 Club
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303 posts in this topic

On 11/24/2018 at 3:46 PM, vaillant said:

A good alternative for collectors looking for the magazine is the publisher-issued hardbound collection (they used to do that each year). Here’s one from eBay.fr in very nice shape:

https://www.ebay.fr/itm/SPIROU-ALBUM-RELIURE-N-69-1958-SANS-Supplement-Noel-ETAT-SUP-BE/163392860044?hash=item260af92f8c:g:b-AAAOSwKXdafaDO:rk:2:pf:0
This contains all of the 1958 issues, but not the complete story (which ends in 1959).

Are the albums reprints of the issues or are they original issues bound together? 

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On 12/2/2018 at 2:02 PM, Ryan. said:

Are the albums reprints of the issues or are they original issues bound together? 

The 1958-59 reliures are publisher-issued collection of bound together original issues (with nice new covers). Each one is about 10-12, IIRC.
The 1960 album is, technically, a reprint (the story collected in one volume of "Joan and Pirlouit), but for the french market collecting logic it’s the key one.

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2 hours ago, vaillant said:

The 1958-59 reliures are publisher-issued collection of bound together original issues (with nice new covers). Each one is about 10-12, IIRC.
The 1960 album is, technically, a reprint (the story collected in one volume of "Joan and Pirlouit), but for the french market collecting logic it’s the key one.

surprised the French view the 1960 as the key one.  

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1 hour ago, Spiderturtle said:

surprised the French view the 1960 as the key one.  

It has always been like this: the stories (be their first printing in an anthological magazine or already as a standalone one off) are valued in their album form (hardbound or softcover).
There is to say that as early as in the 1930s, in France they collected almost immediately the story arcs (which were serialized in a few pages a time installements on the mags) in albums, so it’s clearly understandable the interest gathered around these (which always had unique covers, BTW).
In the USA most comic book stories were already complete in each issue, and – aside exceptions – they were almost never collected or represented in volumes.
Each collecting market has a different logic, but it is enriching to see the other ones.

In Italy, for example, the most valued books (keys) are basically these which are either scarce (less copies on the market), sought after or both. First apperances in the life of a character are important, but not seen as something "to be had" just to mess up a whole series of books, artificially causing a situation for which someone going for the full runs see himself deprived of a book because a minority of people wanted "just the key".
Keys defined by actual rarity alone in many ways make much sense. :)

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11 hours ago, vaillant said:

It has always been like this: the stories (be their first printing in an anthological magazine or already as a standalone one off) are valued in their album form (hardbound or softcover).
There is to say that as early as in the 1930s, in France they collected almost immediately the story arcs (which were serialized in a few pages a time installements on the mags) in albums, so it’s clearly understandable the interest gathered around these (which always had unique covers, BTW).
In the USA most comic book stories were already complete in each issue, and – aside exceptions – they were almost never collected or represented in volumes.
Each collecting market has a different logic, but it is enriching to see the other ones.

In Italy, for example, the most valued books (keys) are basically these which are either scarce (less copies on the market), sought after or both. First apperances in the life of a character are important, but not seen as something "to be had" just to mess up a whole series of books, artificially causing a situation for which someone going for the full runs see himself deprived of a book because a minority of people wanted "just the key".
Keys defined by actual rarity alone in many ways make much sense. :)

From looking at the 1st page in this silver age forum, we have 28 topics, 11 of which have a "club" as part of the title :smile:.  The usa market is heavily swayed towards being the big dog or being part of a "club".  Been hanging in the AF15 club all these years so been wired to think of catching the big fish.  I enjoy the different panels you posted of the smurfs before the big introduction in 1071

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10 hours ago, Spiderturtle said:

From looking at the 1st page in this silver age forum, we have 28 topics, 11 of which have a "club" as part of the title :smile:.  The usa market is heavily swayed towards being the big dog or being part of a "club".  Been hanging in the AF15 club all these years so been wired to think of catching the big fish.  I enjoy the different panels you posted of the smurfs before the big introduction in 1071

Surely it’s important to consider the key moments of a character as most important stories, but probably that’s the speculation which got wild and out of control in the last 15+ years that negatively affected the US market. What I enjoy about all other relevants comics markets (Italy, France-Belgium, Netherlands, Japan, South America, Nordic countries and to a lesser degree Germany) is that speculation is momentary, might affect just single issues, but in general it‘s just love for the characters/series AS A WHOLE that still rules the collecting environment.
Probably the "superhuman" movies helped to "move" the US collecting market, but they have negative downsides as well… :)

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Happy to see comiclink offering spirou 1071 cgc 4.0 and spirou 1072 cgc 5.5 in their January auction.  

1071 and 1072 had strong results in their November auction.  

heritage is the only major auction house to not offer these 2 books.

 

 

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On 11/24/2018 at 12:46 PM, vaillant said:

Yes, I believe the collectors which grew interested in it were mostly participants here. Then board member Beige – which IIRC is from Australia – decided to slab a set, and I believe it’s the one which then was bought by Jim. This gathered further interest, but even with the current interest do not make the mistake to consider the Spirou issues "scarce" by any means: the magazine in 1958 already had a huge print run, and the best thing if one wants the magazines instead of the hardbound first print would be to get a run of the issues with the full Johan and Pirlouit story.

A good alternative for collectors looking for the magazine is the publisher-issued hardbound collection (they used to do that each year). Here’s one from eBay.fr in very nice shape:
https://www.ebay.fr/itm/SPIROU-ALBUM-RELIURE-N-69-1958-SANS-Supplement-Noel-ETAT-SUP-BE/163392860044?hash=item260af92f8c:g:b-AAAOSwKXdafaDO:rk:2:pf:0
This contains all of the 1958 issues, but not the complete story (which ends in 1959).
To have the full story one would need the 1959 run as well, which is this one:
https://www.ebay.fr/itm/Album-Du-Journal-Spirou-70/273564617931?hash=item3fb1b8cccb:g:5ysAAOSw5tNb3Yhh:rk:4:pf:0

But the french collectors aim for the first hardcover of “La Flûte à six schtroumpfs” as the “must have” book. The hardcover came out in 1960.
This is an early edition, no copies of the 1960 first edition are available on eBay.fr right now:
https://www.ebay.fr/itm/JOHAN-ET-PIRLOUIT-n-9-1961-EDITION-RARE-LA-FLUTE-A-SIX-SCHTROUMPFS-TBE/323556329607?hash=item4b5575c887:g:QDgAAOSwwmlZhtBX:rk:1:pf:0

This must be 1960 version, it’s from a USA seller, so no need to worry about translation 

https://www.ebay.com/itm/SMURFS-1ST-APPEARANCE-1st-COLLECTED-EDITION-1960-JOHAN-MAGIC-FLUTE-RARE-DUPUIS/401652956934?hash=item5d8461bf06:g:1Z4AAOSwHjtb9HRw

Edited by Spiderturtle
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5 hours ago, Spiderturtle said:
16 hours ago, valiantman said:

The 60th anniversary reprints seem to have drawn a lot of attention to the real thing.

Do you have the links to the reprints?

Sorry, I just checked Ebay and it looks like those were originals.  Dozens of copies of Spirou showed up in December with low prices like "$2.20" or "$3.30" with "60th Anniversary" in the title, so I just assumed they were reprints. :blush:

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55 minutes ago, valiantman said:

Sorry, I just checked Ebay and it looks like those were originals.  Dozens of copies of Spirou showed up in December with low prices like "$2.20" or "$3.30" with "60th Anniversary" in the title, so I just assumed they were reprints. :blush:

Possible reasons for an increased interest?

1. Last months comiclink auction

2. This month's comiclink auction

3. This thread(maybe)

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Some of you might be interested in this fun little fact.

While the french and walloons were reading Spirou in 1958, the dutch and flemish were reading Robbedoes.

Just like Spirou, Robbedoes was printed in 2 versions with different ads.

Robbedoes 1071 appeared on the exact same date as Spirou 1071. These magazines are rare to find.

R1071-001.jpg

Edited by gnoe
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