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So who was ahead of there time...anybody?????
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42 posts in this topic

Just getting ready to turn 49 this year, I grew up reading late 70s/ 80s books and along the way, built a near complete Marvel Silver age collection ( most books from a place in NJ called Passiac book center) The reason for the back ground is during the time I was building my silver age runs ( as many of you know that was how it was done,not just this wacked out key mania stuff going on today) Anyway even then golden age books were not all over the place as many new collectors tend to think. I remember spending hours reading my oversreets guide and looking at the wicked color covers from WWII and just dreaming of the stories inside. Well about 1985 I picked up a Captain America #7 ( Red Skull Issue ) for $50 at a shop called Sparkle City Comic in NJ. Man was I let down, yes the cover rocked but the story was not what I was used to! I was reading Miller Daredevil, Byrne X men & FF, Perez Teen Titans, Kirbys FF & Ditko Spideman, this was not like any of those and I must admit at that time I did not see the magic of those simple stories from a different era. So here is my question during the height of the Golden age lets say 1938 to 1949 what SUPERHERO book would you say was a bit more advanced in terms of story telling or was directed more towards teen readers not pre teens, where there any at all? I am by far no expert on this era and Id love to get some insight into what some of you guys think? Also I am not asking about the art, I know a few pre Robin Tecs stories/covers were darker then most but what SUPERHERO books went beyond those early Batman stories if any?

Edited by Frank Mozz
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I'm in your same age bracket where I loved reading spiderman and FF but reading early GA stories sucked, although I loved reading early Archies for some reason and of course EC horror and crime were the bomb. I also always enjoyed later silver age Superman, Lois lane, Jimmy Olsen....

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WTTB!

Just had to comment because you brought up my old comic stomping grounds, the Passaic Book Center. What a great place with all those boxes of books piled high and those cloth lines of books strung across the room. Did you ever get into the basement through that old trap door in the floor? I swear that at age 14, I thought that basement was a magical cornucopia of comics. Whatever book or runs you were looking for, they just would pull them up out of that celler! :cloud9:

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Atlas horror does not count lol, the book center was just so special, really one of a kind place, I did get into the basement one time to help pull out a Foodtown cardboard box filled with Xmen #1 ( about 6 issues ) to # 30+ no plastic covers, the teenage kid was out sick and the owner sent me down and stood over the top of the door/steps and gave me directions. Also if Irecall the kid bought the place years later and made it a NEW comic store & ruied it, I also think I have one of there old in house sales/price guides some place from about 1983, Dazzler #1 is on the front in very unclear BW

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Great initial post. I will turn 49 this year and also collected Marvel runs in the 70's/early 80's. I remember starting with FF 135 and moving backwards, then getting the mid 40's and moving forward, meeting in the middle. They had great stories that kept my interest as a 12-15 year old kid. I never really saw any GA comics except what I read in The Great Comic Book Heroes and loved the origin stories, and only started reading later issues around 8 years ago. Those non-origin issues do not do much for me. But I love collecting them just the same. More for the historical and cultural significance of the books.

Edited by TheSurgeon
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oh you did say superhero - sometimes hard to see through those Atlas glasses... Late '40s early '50s Airboy issues give you Airboy novelette often excellent, Heap that unique 'force of nature', and a host of quirky historical-etc 'fillers'. Lev Gleason, Crimebuster & Daredevil, driven by Charles Biro, a little wordy but the characterizations a cut above...

I would recommend getting & reading 'The Smithsonian Book of Comic Book Comics' the Captain Marvel novel from issue #100 (in that book) is a wonderful summation of what was great about him. Plus many other fine choices viewing comics form a 'lit' slant...

 

Edited by pcalhoun
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Atlas horror does not count lol, the book center was just so special, really one of a kind place, I did get into the basement one time to help pull out a Foodtown cardboard box filled with Xmen #1 ( about 6 issues ) to # 30+ no plastic covers, the teenage kid was out sick and the owner sent me down and stood over the top of the door/steps and gave me directions. Also if Irecall the kid bought the place years later and made it a NEW comic store & ruied it, I also think I have one of there old in house sales/price guides some place from about 1983, Dazzler #1 is on the front in very unclear BW

 

Oh yeah, a lot of their books had no plastic bags at all. And I agree towards the end quality was lax. I remember asking to see a NM Vampirella #3 off the wall, the kid behind the counter took it out of the bag to let me inspect it but walked away to do other stuff. When I opened the cover, the first 3 pages were ripped out of the book! He looked clueless when I told him it was not a NM book. One last reminisce, do you remember the adult section towards the back of the store that was separated by those wooden saloon doors? You had to pay a buck to go back there! lol

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I am younger than you but that shouldn't stop this...

 

Golden Age Green Lantern and Dr. Fate stories were best. Captain Marvel Jr. is probably one of the best drawn and still written well. Other than that I would go for some Tracy comic strips. They are truly worth their weight in gold.

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Gardner Fox stories for DC were always pretty good reads.Doctor Fate tales are also some of my favs,along with the Spectre.I also visited the Passic Book Center back then looking at all the piles of Goldenage and Silver and how i miss those days. :)

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Captain Marvel Jr. is probably one of the best drawn and still written well.

 

I think the Captain Marvel Jr. stories were on the juvenile side, but the Mac Raboy art visually was unreal and Raboy could outdraw any artist IMO.

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Fletcher Hanks was........ surreal and truly unique. If you want to read some truly bizarre and creative work, check him out. I am yet to figure out who his intended audience is... lol

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Just getting ready to turn 49 this year, I grew up reading late 70s/ 80s books and along the way, built a near complete Marvel Silver age collection ( most books from a place in NJ called Passiac book center)

 

I miss that place. Spent many a Saturday there in the basement sitting on the floor searching through boxes of Archie comics for issues I needed. Just one of many shops that banned Archie to dark corners in the 80/90's. Still great place... They don't make em like that anymore.

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Wow, thanks for all input, can't wait to go look some of these stories & artists up!

 

In regard to the book center, I do remember the saloon doors and the rope, but of all the things that stand out to me about that place ( not counting that wonderful old paper smell) was that even then ( early 80s) you just knew it was a special time & place. Comic collecting was just starting to come into its own and yes there were a few shops around but not like PBC! With the internet many younger collectors have no idea how hard it was to find early silver or gold and to try & complete runs was a huge undertaking on a 15 year olds budget. I used to go there on Saturday mornings and my grand father would leave me there while he went and picked up the fresh baked hot Italian bread around the cornor ( we used to eat half a loaf on the ride home to Little Falls) I could not wait to pull out my want list, I still have a nm/m X men # 3 I paid $12 bucks for. 30/40 years later and people are still talking about the place! It was simply............ magical.

 

 

https://www.google.com/search?q=SPIDERMAN+CHAMELEON%27&biw=1366&bih=643&source=lnms&tbm=isch&sa=X&ei=pEvbVNDaO4e1ggT2_YPoDA&ved=0CAcQ_AUoAg#tbm=isch&q=+passiac+book+center&imgrc=2UcgT471OlVMqM%253A%3Bsa2HNXwlzYuGNM%3Bhttps%253A%252F%252Fc2.staticflickr.com%252F8%252F7439%252F12970324253_8259c13651_b.jpg%3Bhttps%253A%252F%252Fwww.flickr.com%252Fphotos%252F117199927%2540N03%252F12970324253%252F%3B635%3B1024

 

 

Edited by Frank Mozz
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I never visited the Passaic Book Center, although I wanted to since I lived in New York City at the time, but I used to get their thick typewritten style catalogs regularly throughout the 70's. I remember they put them in different colors, some on blue paper or yellow and had them in separate sections for magazines, BLBs, pulps. Absolutely massive stock of paper material, far more than any dealer had at the time. They had an offshoot store called My Friend's Bookstore on Flatbush Avenue in Brooklyn. That shop was run by Manny and Dottie who were connected with Passaic.

 

That said, I find golden age stories and art were far superior than about anything that came out in the late 60's and beyond and the new creators are just apeing or refining techniques invented by the old masters. The old books might not look as sophisticated as the multi book epics we're used to now but the artists and writers of yore knew how to tell concise stories with just a few pages and the art had a raw energy that has never been surpassed, pages had more panels and art as well, something unheard of today. Specific books that were better? Hard to narrow such a thing down, but let's say Daredevil Vs Claw stories, Torch and Subby teamup and battle issues, All Winners Squad, early Caps and early Batmans of course, early Superman, All Star JSA epics, pre-code horror, good girl books like Phantom Lady, the list goes on and on.

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Wow, thanks for all input, can't wait to go look some of these stories & artists up!

 

In regard to the book center, I do remember the saloon doors and the rope, but of all the things that stand out to me about that place ( not counting that wonderful old paper smell) was that even then ( early 80s) you just knew it was a special time & place. Comic collecting was just starting to come into its own and yes there were a few shops around but not like PBC! With the internet many younger collectors have no idea how hard it was to find early silver or gold and to try & complete runs was a huge undertaking on a 15 year olds budget. I used to go there on Saturday mornings and my grand father would leave me there while he went and picked up the fresh baked hot Italian bread around the cornor ( we used to eat half a loaf on the ride home to Little Falls) I could not wait to pull out my want list, I still have a nm/m X men # 3 I paid $12 bucks for. 30/40 years later and people are still talking about the place! It was simply............ magical.

 

 

https://www.google.com/search?q=SPIDERMAN+CHAMELEON%27&biw=1366&bih=643&source=lnms&tbm=isch&sa=X&ei=pEvbVNDaO4e1ggT2_YPoDA&ved=0CAcQ_AUoAg#tbm=isch&q=+passiac+book+center&imgrc=2UcgT471OlVMqM%253A%3Bsa2HNXwlzYuGNM%3Bhttps%253A%252F%252Fc2.staticflickr.com%252F8%252F7439%252F12970324253_8259c13651_b.jpg%3Bhttps%253A%252F%252Fwww.flickr.com%252Fphotos%252F117199927%2540N03%252F12970324253%252F%3B635%3B1024

 

 

..... Passaic Books..... I remember those ads. I've always thought that any collectors from New Jersey who lived near Passaic and those in California who lived near Cherokee Books should be required to give the rest of us a 25% discount......since they had such an unfair advantage :baiting: .... We've got an LCS around here that still has that "old school" feel about it, and it. also, has an Adult section that you have to be 18 to enter..... I call it the "Trenchcoat" section. I love hearing about anything to do with the olde legendary stores.... thanks. GOD BLESS...

 

-jimbo(a friend of jesus) (thumbs u

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...So here is my question during the height of the Golden age lets say 1938 to 1949 what SUPERHERO book would you say was a bit more advanced in terms of story telling or was directed more towards teen readers not pre teens, where there any at all?

 

Although not exactly a "superhero," I'd mention The Spirit by Will Eisner as being notably more mature and modern in its graphic storytelling than just about anything else at the time. Of course, as a weekly Sunday comics insert it was intended for adults as well as kids, so the stories cover a wide range - from crime capers to fantasies and humorous riffs on pop culture, including comic books.

 

But when Eisner was in full "film noir" mode, The Spirit was definitely not directed at the kiddies. Some strips - such as the legendary fight between the Spirit and arch-villain The Octopus in August 1947 - are astonishingly violent for a Golden Age comic. Frank Miller has cited Eisner, and that fight scene in particular, as an influence on his work.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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yes Spirit & Spoon Tracy both nicely adult.

 

& hello Ameri: this is one of the best things I've ever heard on this forum:

 

"That said, I find golden age stories and art were far superior than about anything that came out in the late 60's and beyond and the new creators are just apeing or refining techniques invented by the old masters. The old books might not look as sophisticated as the multi book epics we're used to now but the artists and writers of yore knew how to tell concise stories with just a few pages and the art had a raw energy that has never been surpassed, pages had more panels and art as well, something unheard of today."

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