thehumantorch Posted January 8, 2021 Share Posted January 8, 2021 2 hours ago, Math Teacher said: I guess I'm the exact opposite. When I began collecting again, I looked for books that I had yearned for when I was younger. I remember seeing pictures of these books in the Overstreet Price Guide, and I just thought, "How cool would it be if I had one of those books?" I remember when I got my Showcase #22 from Ebay. I said to myself, "I have only seen pictures of this book, or I have seen this book up on the wall at cons. Now I own this book." I NEVER thought I would would own a Showcase #22. Since then, I now have all the Marvel SA keys except for TtA #44. I had previously owned FF #1, AF #15, SM #1, and DD #1. I have since added AV #1, IH #1, ToS #39, XM #1, JiM #83, TtA #27, and SFahHC #1. I have also gotten several DC SA keys, such as SC #22, BatB #28, and JLA #1. along with a complete run of BatB #1 - #24 (reader copies). I have now moved on to the upgrading stage of my collecting, although I am considering working on collecting Rex, the Wonder Dog. Plenty of people, including me, have FF #1 - #10. How many people do you know that have Rex, the Wonder Dog #1 - #46? My wife and I have virtually no debt. As a retired teacher, I am drawing my IPERS pension, and I earn $2000+ each month as a substitute teacher. We have plenty of disposable income, although we spend way too much on our grandchildren. However, spoiling is in the job description for grandparents. Now that I can afford it, I have been trying to get the books that I had always dreamed about owning. And you can own and enjoy these books and probably at some point you can sell them and more than recoup your investment. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Poekaymon Posted January 9, 2021 Share Posted January 9, 2021 (edited) I know some people do like Silver stories, and I enjoyed some of them as a kid, but I got a couple omnibuses recently of highly regarded silver runs, like Surfer and F4, and I still find them pretty cheesy and cliched. And the Golden Age stuff is super cheesy. I really don't think anyone collects the Golden age stuff for the stories. That's as much cover driven as modern variants. And I personally feel that moderns, which I define as 1990s on, are mostly craparama. The variant craze, and cover collecting, has exacerbated this. But don't lump coppers in with moderns because the 1980s were solid and had lots of well-written stuff--not just one or two outlier titles. And a lot of stuff that was more like a short novel than the comics of today. Can you imagine if they tried to do Dark Knight Returns today? Forget about it. But that's not the only one. Watchmen. Wolverine. And major runs like Daredevil, X-Men, Thor off the top of my head, were super solid through most of the 80s and the writing actually holds up today. Not that long ago I grabbed some random Black Cats and a couple other random 2020 titles because of the covers. Figured I'd actually tried to read them. The art was nice, but man the writing is just atrocious. I actually don't know these people get these jobs. There are a few exceptions, but even Hickman can't do it all himself. (I personally found this X of Swords stuff terrible.) But in general I can only assume the publishers spend the majority of the budget on the cover and then the interior art and then some random nephew of some executive writes the story. That or they are talented people who are just phoning in a bunch of projects in bulk. Anyway, don't lump in that stuff with 80s Claremont and Simonson, etc. None of this applies to the major fists though. I don't think anyone really cares how the art or story is in AF15 or TEC27 or H181 or (recently) ASM300. These things have reached mythical status and people just want the firsts of their favorite characters, regardless. I even have some NM 98s and I think Liefield is worse than cancer. Edited January 9, 2021 by Poekaymon D2 and Von Cichlid 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
kav Posted January 9, 2021 Share Posted January 9, 2021 I collect silver age books for the stories. DC had a lot of imagination and Marvel had great characterization. Liefeld 90s stuff and most moderns not so much. JJ-4, Comics4All and frozentundraguy 3 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Comics4All Posted January 9, 2021 Share Posted January 9, 2021 2 hours ago, Jeffro. said: Not a big fan of Trimpe's art. He isn't the greatest but I thought his style worked well for the Hulk. Here are some good examples of his style working for the Hulk and the Villians/Monsters he fights ernster, FoggyNelson and speedcake 3 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
kav Posted January 9, 2021 Share Posted January 9, 2021 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
FoggyNelson Posted January 9, 2021 Share Posted January 9, 2021 I want old grails‼️👍 speedcake, badback83, Comics4All and 1 other 4 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Comics4All Posted January 9, 2021 Share Posted January 9, 2021 40 minutes ago, kav said: Hulk is watching you He better watch yourself! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
greggy Posted January 9, 2021 Share Posted January 9, 2021 4 hours ago, kav said: I started collecting in the 60s and continued to the 80s. I stopped dead in the 90s, picked it back up in 2000. the end. That's what you said. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
kav Posted January 9, 2021 Share Posted January 9, 2021 1 minute ago, greggy said: That's what you said. Silence, jackanapes. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
greggy Posted January 9, 2021 Share Posted January 9, 2021 1 minute ago, kav said: Silence, jackanapes. That's what I won't do. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
kav Posted January 9, 2021 Share Posted January 9, 2021 Just now, greggy said: That's what I won't do. You just better watch yourself. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
greggy Posted January 9, 2021 Share Posted January 9, 2021 3 minutes ago, kav said: You just better watch yourself. Mod1 notified Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
kav Posted January 9, 2021 Share Posted January 9, 2021 Just now, greggy said: Mod1 notified that's what she said. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
comicdonna Posted January 9, 2021 Share Posted January 9, 2021 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
HotKey Posted January 9, 2021 Share Posted January 9, 2021 7 hours ago, Ride the Tiger said: There is no universal definition to Grail. Collect what you want. Call the books you want grails. As long as it's not Ravage 2099. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Deadpoolica Posted January 9, 2021 Share Posted January 9, 2021 Funnybooks 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
KCOComics Posted January 9, 2021 Share Posted January 9, 2021 I'm 38 and I'm sure I grew up reading allot of the same titles you did.. Spawn, Batman, Spidey, punisher, X-Men.... I pretty much only collect GA and SA. DC bronze horror are about as modern as I get. I really enjoy the history of comic books. I love reading about it, learning about artists and where ideas were born. As for reading, I only read super hero stories with my son. It's been a long time since I've enjoyed reading super hero stories. I buy reprints of big SA keys so him and I can read it. It's cool to show him where these movies he enjoys started. The only books I really set out to read for myself are atomic age horror and science fiction. I love the stories and art and when I do find them, I love going through them. Long way of saying, people have different tastes and I'm just happy so many people are still interested in comics after nearly a century. speedcake, Funnybooks, Readcomix and 1 other 4 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
KCOComics Posted January 9, 2021 Share Posted January 9, 2021 1 hour ago, Sferg said: As long as it's not Ravage 2099. I have original art from Ravage 2099..... So, please, call it a grail!! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Math Teacher Posted January 9, 2021 Share Posted January 9, 2021 5 hours ago, kav said: If you just collect 90s grails arent there only like 2 of them? Just out of curiosity, what would those be? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
kav Posted January 9, 2021 Share Posted January 9, 2021 6 minutes ago, Math Teacher said: Just out of curiosity, what would those be? like new mutants 87 and 98 I guess. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...