Comic Book Marketplace Memories 4 4

[lou_fine]

Since we are talking about Gary Carter here, whatever happened with that so-called Indian Reservation pedigree collection or was that really nothing more than an urban legend based upon unsubstantiated rumours?  

[BuscemasAvengers]

1 hour ago, Larryw7 said:

I've always wondered about the inside dope of why Carter left. I also wish eternal rest to Keith Contarino, whose article was posted above. His writing was always entertaining, and never dull.

  

 

Any chance you can provide some details about Keith? For me, one of the challenges is finding out who some of the people are from the earlier days of the hobby ... love learning about the early collectors! 

[GreatCaesarsGhost]

4 hours ago, Ricksneatstuff said:

Starting with paragraph 3 it is interesting that the same concerns I hear lately were stated back then and yet the comic market has only continued to grow in all that time.  

 

I really enjoyed Keith Contarino's stuff, and the other day I tried to track him down.  I'm sorry to see he passed away under some tragic circumstances

[GreatCaesarsGhost]

3 minutes ago, BuscemasAvengers said:

Any chance you can provide some details about Keith? For me, one of the challenges is finding out who some of the people are from the earlier days of the hobby ... love learning about the early collectors! 

_{Just google "Dr. Keith Contarino"}

[BuscemasAvengers]

4 minutes ago, GreatCaesarsGhost said:

_{Just google "Dr. Keith Contarino"}

Yes, of course that's always an option ... just think it's tremendously more authentic coming from those here who knew/know these guys, and are able to share the stories such as the ones shared above!

[n2wdw]

The early issues were the best.  I learned alot about comics from these mags.

[MrBedrock]

4 hours ago, adamstrange said:

4 hours ago, Ricksneatstuff said:

Starting with paragraph 3 it is interesting that the same concerns I hear lately were stated back then and yet the comic market has only continued to grow in all that time.  

There are similar sentiments expressed in Rocket's Blast Comic Collector.  From the 1970s.

According to a History Channel special about cave men those same sentiments turned up on cave walls.

[lou_fine]

1 hour ago, BuscemasAvengers said:

Unless these are available digitally (or in an older buried thread), it would be very cool to post (occasionally) the kind of articles like Mint Mania II above, with the vets giving some background as to who the author is, etc. ...

Well, besides Keith's column which always tended to focus on the investor side for the hot SA market, another one of the columinst that I really enjoyed reading at the time was Sean Linkenbach with his fantastic Sleepers column.   This column attemtpted to highlight some of the soon to be hot or in demand GA books from his point of view that were still flying under the radar at the time with the general marketplace.    

[aardvark88]

1 hour ago, BuscemasAvengers said:

 who some of the people are from the earlier days of the hobby ... love learning about the early collectors! 

GA article by Sean Linkenback from CBM #2:

I think I will start faxing all these old geezers that got their letters published in CBM to see if they have any GA funny-books to sell to the younger generation. e.g. Dean of BC, Canada @lou_fine

[thehumantorch]

Love the mag and was very disappointed when it ceased publishing

[adamstrange]

1 hour ago, lou_fine said:

Weren't there also runours at the time that he was hoping to be the heir apparent for the Overstreet Guide whenever Bob would eventually decide to leave or the Great Comic Shop in the Sky came calling for him.  I believe he got the message that this was not going to be his destiny within the Gemstone Publishing Empire and decided to leave.

Gary sold his magazine to Overstreet and went to work with certain expectations.  When Overstreet got divorced and the business was sold to Geppi, it became clear those expectations were not going to be met.  I have not heard of any promises made subsequent to the sale, but that doesn't mean there weren't any.

[lou_fine]

2 minutes ago, aardvark88 said:

GA article by Sean Linkenback from CBM #2:

Allan;

I prefer some of the later issues where he covered some of the 2nd and 3rd tier publishers as the DC's and Timely's were just too obvious and common from my point of view.  

Since it was only issue #2 and his first Sleepers column, I guess he had to start with the Big 2 publishers of the day.  

[adamstrange]

1 hour ago, BuscemasAvengers said:

Yes, of course that's always an option ... just think it's tremendously more authentic coming from those here who knew/know these guys, and are able to share the stories such as the ones shared above!

There were tragic circumstances with respect to Keith and google is unlikely to yield a fair perspective.  The full truth is unlikely to be known and unrelated to comics.

[lou_fine]

5 minutes ago, thehumantorch said:

Love the mag and was very disappointed when it ceased publishing

Sadly, I had the exact opposite feeling as I simply couldn't wait for the mag to end its long awaited death.  Especially with rspect to the direction that Russ had taken the once great fan magazine and turned it into his own personal soapbox which virtually nobpdy had anymore interest in by the end.    

[adamstrange]

37 minutes ago, MrBedrock said:

According to a History Channel special about cave men those same sentiments turned up on cave walls.

Goes to show that comics have always been BIG! 

[Robot Man]

I know sacentaur wrote a bit for the magazine. Some great Centaur stuff which at the time knew nothing about. Perhaps he will chime in here...

[GreatCaesarsGhost]

2 hours ago, BuscemasAvengers said:

Yes, of course that's always an option ... just think it's tremendously more authentic coming from those here who knew/know these guys, and are able to share the stories such as the ones shared above!

I wasn’t being difficult. I just didn’t want to say it.  He ended up accused of distributing drugs to his friends and family, and other bad things. Here’s a link to a 17 page thread here on the boards

 

 

[BuscemasAvengers]

24 minutes ago, GreatCaesarsGhost said:

I wasn’t being difficult. I just didn’t want to say it.  He ended up accused of distributing drugs to his friends and family, and other bad things. Here’s a link to a 17 page thread here on the boards

 

 

Thank you for sharing this ...

[damonwad]

I loved the Carter years of CBM.

The Cochran years were a big drop off to me.  You knew the magazine was in trouble with his comments on Kirby's FF #48 cover.

 

 

Also, as far as board member contributions go, none were bigger than: 

 

 

[Scrooge]

2 hours ago, damonwad said:

as far as board member contributions go, none were bigger than:

Of course. And right alongside Pat's columns were Michelle Nolan's columns. Lists!! What's not to love for an indexer in a column that talked about obscure subjects in depth with lists and data to back up her assertions. Nothing was more sweet than those columns and they were the first items I looked up in the mag. I discovered CBM right when AE started back up (as the reverse side of CBA). Grabbed all the back issues I could as quickly as I could.