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Who Was the First Great Comic Collector?
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Started by sfcityduck,

87 posts in this topic

comicdonna

comicdonna

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15 minutes ago, PUNYHUMAN said:

A dozen Action #1's. Unbelievable!! Michelle Nolan said his collection was incredible also. thanks for the link.

I think it said 2 dozen Action #1's

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sfcityduck

sfcityduck

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1 hour ago, jools&jim said:

What makes this thread complicated is the OP's definition of a "great collector" as someone who was also, very early on, a prominent advocate for comics collecting and fandom in general.

Edgar Church clearly amassed, for his own reasons and at the very dawn of the Golden Age, a "great collection" -- easily the single most significant assemblage of comics in the history of the medium -- which almost by definition and by any objective standard makes him the "first great collector".  But he doesn't make the cut because he wasn't a proto-"fan" in a contemporary sense.

 

Exactly right!   Also, we should note that although Church assembled the largest pedigree collection, he did not assemble the earliest pedigree collection.  Billy Wright's collecting started a year before Church's.  Lost Valley pedigree may also have started before Church.

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sfcityduck

sfcityduck

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40 minutes ago, comicdonna said:

I think it said 2 dozen Action #1's

There's been some great posts over the years about Rick D on this site over the years.  I think he was the first guy to pioneer the collecting model that guys like Anderson would follow in the late 70s and early 80s.  The story about what happened to his collection is not good, and worth chasing down.  

 

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comicdonna

comicdonna

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11 minutes ago, sfcityduck said:

There's been some great posts over the years about Rick D on this site over the years.  I think he was the first guy to pioneer the collecting model that guys like Anderson would follow in the late 70s and early 80s.  The story about what happened to his collection is not good, and worth chasing down.  

 

What happened to his collection?

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comicwiz

comicwiz

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1 hour ago, jools&jim said:

But he doesn't make the cut because he wasn't a proto-"fan" in a contemporary sense.

That seems extremely narrow in practice, since it was the Church collection which is the foundation to which all pedigrees have since tried to emulate. Try to tell a dedicated pedigree collector they aren't a fan in the contemporary sense.

This notion of trying to grow a fan base out of an activity which is meant to be done in isolation is strange even in the contemporary sense. The "fan" culture these guys wrote about in early fanzines could never anticipate the cutthroat nature of the way the hobby has evolved. Even with social media acting as an enabler, and eBay providing us an unlimited repository to build our collections, most people still only use these tools to achieve goals, not because it makes them feel a part of a fan culture. Even this "sense of community" has evolved to using symbolic gestures more than any substantive communal feeling where people are looking out for one another. Come to the forums to complain about a bad deal, overgrading by someone reputed to do so, or other problem which has been rehashed many times over, and you're relegated to nuisance, or worse someone who deserves what you got for not taking the time to do your due diligence. I'm partly being fecetious here because I do see the forums here as being starkly different from when I joined in '02.

I was thinking about how difficult it was for me to put a run together of Byrne FF by relying on 3 shops near my home at the time. One place seemed to curtail their submissions about mid-way into the run, and I found myself having to jump on a bus once a week for an over hour long bus ride to a comic shop to complete it. Looking back, I know which issues those were because they were direct editions, where as the rest were newsstand issues. I compare my experience to what it must have been like to put a collection like Church's in the late 30's and later, and I simply can't resign to any notion that what he did wasn't a demonstration of dedication and passion, regardless of how we look at it in the contemporary sense.

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sfcityduck

sfcityduck

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2 hours ago, jools&jim said:

 

Anyway...great thread.  I'm looking forward to the big reveal from the OP...

I'm looking forward to see what folks think about my candidate and, more important to me, his story.  I bought this 45 recently, and the handwritten message is a good teaser for the collector's story.

 

IMG_0242.thumb.jpg.456ddeeee180a3088a59d1d5978628af.jpg

Except, I'm sure that some here HAVE heard of this collector.  But, I think I'm going to be able to reveal some really interesting information about this collector and his importance to comic collecting that are far from common knowledge.

 

 

Edited by sfcityduck
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sfcityduck

sfcityduck

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There are a number of factors that I think should be taken into consideration when evaluating if a person is deserving of designation as a truly "Great collector," as opposed to merely having a "great collection."  Very few people, if anyone, will tick every box.  I don't think you need to tick every box to be considered a truly "Great collector."   These factors include:

  • The extent of the person's enthusiasm and love of comics and collecting;
  • The length of time the person collected comics;
  • The breadth of the the person's comic collection;
  • The quality of the person's comic collection;
  • Whether the person has sought out comic book back issues to fill in gaps in their collection, as opposed to just buying comics off the stands;
  • Whether the person has engaged in comic collecting strategies which go beyond just the normal for comic collectors (normal being buying new off the stand and buying back issues from bookstores);
  • Whether the person deals comics;
  • Whether the person has been a market maker;
  • Whether the person has taken the next step to collect comic book original art;
  • Whether the person has shown the enthusiasm to take advantage of publisher sponsored fan interaction opportunities (e.g. letters to the editors, joining publisher sponsored fan groups like Sentinels of Liberty or Supermen of America, entering contests, etc.);
  • Whether the person has directly communicated with comic creators (artists, writers, editors) or publishers;
  • Whether the person has created or availed themselves of opportunities to interact with other fans (fanzines, adzines, conventions, networking);
  • Whether the person has gained a significant depth of knowledge about the comics they buy (first appearances, creators, importance to comic history);
  • Whether the person has gained a significant depth of knowledge about the comic business;
  • Whether the person has shared their knowledge with other comic collectors;
  • Whether the person has advocated in favor of comics and/or comic collecting;
  • Whether the person has authored articles on comics or comic collecting;
  • Whether the person has created or published amateur comics;
  • Whether the person has attempted to or become a professional comic creator; and
  • Whether the person has done other acts to further comics or comic collecting (a catch-all)
Edited by sfcityduck
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PopKulture

PopKulture

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5 hours ago, jools&jim said:

Good article here...

https://www.newsfromme.com/2008/12/02/bookstore-memories/

Does anyone have a larger version of the photo shown in the Evanier blog from the above link? The link in the blog itself appears invalid. 

That is a stupefying photo - not just the comics, but also the big little books!!  :cloud9:

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PopKulture

PopKulture

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1 minute ago, Robot Man said:

Those were just his 'under copies'....

Did you ever get to meet him? He sounds like the sort a shiny, young robot would run into when he wasn't surfing or chasing girls...  :baiting:

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Robot Man

Robot Man

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I went over to his house once with a couple of older collectors. I was just a young Robot to young to chase girls. I was just blown away. Nice guy if I remember and was very nice to a kid with eyes like saucers. and yes, that darn cat was there...

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