Bronkster

To help break in the new Sub-Forum I thought I'd start a thread to see how many people around here are into the older comics.

I haven't been purchasing any older comics lately, but still collect older Superman comics when I can.

Silver Age-wise, I'm trying to fill in the gaps I have in the early Fantastic Four, but doubt I'll ever complete that unless I win the lottery.

Anyone else into older stuff?

davidh777

I love the Archive-type series but they're so expensive that I've really only been picking up the Legion. I've enjoyed a lot of the '70s color trades they've been doing, including Avengers and Captain America, but am also digging some of the black-and-white Essentials. I need the new Defenders volume in a bad way.

JasonF

I love the older stuff, although I primarily stick to reprints rather than original comics. Currently, I'm working my way through Showcase Challengers of the Unknown and Essential Defenders Vol. 2 (which is Bronze Age, not Silver, but what the heck).

I think my favorite Silver Age books are Spider-Man -- particularly the first year or so after John Romita took over from Steve Ditko -- and Legion of Superheroes.

Trevor

What years are considered Silver Age? (and Golden I guess, but I know I don't really collect that far back)

Sessa17

I've been picking up all the Spirit Archives, I can't get enough of the stuff. I just picked up volume 21.

Not really getting older comics (individual issues) though.

dadaluholla

I have quite a few, but I only collect older books from the series I'm trying to get full runs of like Captain America, Avengers, Fantastic Four, Daredevil, Hulk, Amazing Spider-Man, and Daredevil. I haven't bought much lately, but I used to just try to buy large bulk lots at auctions or estate sales and pick the good stuff out of them.

I think the oldest I have is Fantastic Four #8, and I doubt I will be picking up #1-7 anytime soon unless I get REALLY lucky. Still need to pick up an Iron Man #1 sometime.

TheBang

The Golden Age runs from about the introduction of Superman in the late 30's to the mid 50's.

The Silver Age is roughly late 50's to early 70's.

The Bronze Age roughly goes from the early 70's to the mid 80's, with the end of Crisis on Infinite Earths and Secret Wars, and transitioning into the grim & gritty "Modern Age" with Watchmen and Dark Knight.

stingermck

Love the older stuff! I use to get a lot of random stuff when I was younger, but now focus on keys. The only thing I have straight, is a complete run of Batgirl (Barbara Gordon) Apps from 1967 to 1988.

Some of my personal gems are:

Brave and the Bold #28 (1st JLA)
Showcase #22 (1st Hal Jordan GL)
Superman #76 (1st Superman - Batman teamup)
Batman # 6

Trevor

I guess my first love then was the late Silver early Bronze age.

I still have a passion for DC titles back in the 20 cents a book time, with the 75 cent then dollar giants. I collected titles like Flash, Green Lantern, Superman and Batman Family giants, Plop, Justice League of America, and the horror titles like House of Mystery.

I don't get this lucky anymore, but a few years ago when I could find those titles in the dollar bins at conventions I'd scoop up any title that was from that 1970-1982 or so timeframe.

JasonF

Actually, we could do a whole thread on what constitutes the Golden Age or the Silver Age or the Bronze Age. It would go on for 60 pages, crash Geoff's server, and we'd still never agree.

Here's what people do agree on:

The Golden Age started with Action Comics #1 -- first appearance of Superman.

The Silver Age came after the Golden Age.

The Bronze Age came after the Silver Age.

Beyond that, there's not much agreement.

I don't know that I've ever seen an agreed upon end of the Golden Age in terms of a particular calendar date or a particular "last Golden Age" book. Generally, it's agreed that when superheroes became less popular after WWII, the Golden Age ended. Is that the last Marvel title featuring superheroes (Captain America Comics #73, July 1949) before the title became Captain America's Weird Tales? Issue #74, which did have a Captain America superhero story mixed in with the horror stuff? The first EC horror (Vault of Horror #12) in April-May 1950? The last All-Star featuring the JSA (All-Star #57 in March 1951) before the title changed to All-Star Western? I've heard all of those dates used as the end of the Golden Age, and then others say the Golden Age lasted right up until the Silver Age started ...

... and there's a dispute about when that started, too. The three most common starting dates I've heard the first appearance of the Martian Manhunter (Detective Comics #225, Nov. 1955), the first appearance of the Silver Age Flash (Showcase #4, Sept-Oct. 1956), and Fantastic Four #1 (Nov-Dec. 1961). For ending dates, I've heard everything from the end of the split books at Marvel to Kirby's departure from Marvel to Kirby's arrival at DC. I've even heard people put the end of the Silver Age as late as Crisis on Infinite Earths, which strikes me as absurd.

As for the Bronze Age, some people insist there's no such thing, since the Golden and Silver Ages are superhero-based and the Bronze Age is associated with things like the sword and sorcery books or the kung fu books. To the extent there's consensus on when it started, I generally see people point to Conan #1 (October 1970). I've never heard any kind of consensus whatsoever on when it ended.

Seeker

I have tons of Silver Age 1960s stuff - since I collected them as they came out.

As for Golden Age, I have some, my prize is Batman #10

Gotta sell a bunch of it soon.

JumpCutz

Silver Age for me.

Late Sixties /early Seventies to be specific. Neal Adams, Bernie Wrightson, Jack Kirby, Jim Steranko, Barry Smith, Mike Kaluta etc.. iconic comic book artists.

Steve Gerber, Roy Thomas, Len Wein et al...great writers.

Autotelik

I have a lot of early Amazing Spiderman from #40 to #120 or so (don't have death of Gwen Stacey and Green Goblin). Bought most of them in a crazy spree on Ebay back in the late 90s, cost me about $500 total I think. Don't think I'll ever get around to completing the entire series though, that's just too much $$$$

Trevor

I did a similar thing with the original Justice League.

I used ebay to pick up low condition early issues. I ended up getting the first appearance, Brave and the Bold #28, and most of the run.

I think I have them all except maybe 20 of the first 50 issues.

I gave up when I decided that I'd rather have the nice hardcover collections of the early issues, although I may go back someday and fill in the gaps if I find them cheap enough.

My collection "prizes" include a coverless Daredevil #1.

Paul_SD

My first brush with collecting comics was around '72-75...when I was still in single digits. The 100 page super-spectaculars that DC put out were my big favorites. The were like phonebooks to my little 2nd grade hands. Plus they provided a wonderful early exposure to golden age characters and stories.
At one point in the mid 80s there was a comic shop where I could have picked them up relatively cheap...one or two bucks a piece- but I never did. Now when I see them they run around $30 on up in decent condition. A little too rich for my blood at the moment.

two years ago I was anticipating a DVD release of the Marvel superheros cartoons from the 60s. When I heard it was cancelled, I decided I would take the opprtunity to get a couple essentials to get the early stories. The size of them, plus the fact they were on good old pulpy newsprint, reminded me so much of the super-spectaculars I had as a kid, that it got me into reading this stuff again regularly.
I just went nuts with the buy/google sale and picked up about 9 archives and even more Showcases and Essentials. It will take me forever to finish them, but at a cost of about $6.50 per Essential, it was just too good to pass up.
Plus its great to finally get introduced to characters I never had any familiarity with before- like The Unknown Soldier, Doom Patrol, Enemy Ace, Challengers Of The Unknown, among many others. Lots of great stuff in these reprints.

Trevor

Can totally relate with you there Paul. I loved those 100 pagers. The combination of new material with Golden Age stuff, fun extras like humorous or cartoony stories occasionally sprinkled in, A list characters headlining but with solo stories of the B and C list heroes as well, made it a p-leasure to read those giants. I'd dig one out right now if my comic collection wasn't so buried.

I was about to pick up tons of the Showcases and Essentials in the buy/google deal, but ended up stopping myself at one or two. I spent WAY too much during that promation (maybe $500), and ended up concentrating on the newer stuff. If they do a deal like that again I'll fill a bookcase with the older collections.

davidh777

I read the Super Spectaculars too, and three of the comics I subscribed to (when they came in the brown paper wrappers, initially folded in half!) were Marvel Team-Up, Marvel Two-in-One, and The Brave and the Bold. While that sounds kind of weak in terms of comics history, I did like how they introduced me to a lot of new characters like the Guardians of the Galaxy etc.