The ages of golden & silver age fans

[Dr.J.]

From my observation, both of my likes, and most fans I've talked to, the books that are most dear to their hearts, are those of their schooldays,from first to 12th grade. The first comics came out in 1933. Lets say, a 17 year old,in his last year of high school, picked them up, and got hooked.That kid, would have been born in 1916, pushing 91 today. It was superman, who really hooked the fans, as well as batman, a year later.A six year old kid who picked up the first issue of action, would be 75 today.EC artist Johnny Craig,got hooked on supes at age 13,in 1939.So there are supes collecters out there, over 80!Some put the end of the golden age at 1954,others at 1955.The last kids of the golden age era, were born around 1948, pushing now, 60 years of age.Thus I'd say, the great majority of the golden age collectors, are those from 59 to 91.The readership ages between the golden and silver age, blur a bit. I read in the men of tomorrow book, that it was the 12 to 14 year olds back in 1961, who went for the ff.Those born between 1947 to 49, now 60 to 62 years old. But it was also some as young as six back then, born in 55, who got into them.Most put the end of the silver age at the end of 1970, so lets say, the final fans who got hooked, were the six year olds of 1969,born in 63.That puts the hardcore marvel silver age fans, at the 44 to 62 year old group. Overall, the first silver age fans, were born in 1950,going to 1963.These, are the most pasionate of golden and silver age fans, The heart,the backbone of fandom.When they pass on,it will enormouslly affect the hobby,in more ways then one.

[Agentum]

But remember that superheroes was not a big thing in the 50s, kids those days would have read crime, horror and western comics etc.

And people die, why would it change so much when the original buyers of the old comics dies?

Every generation has thier own things that they are having nostalgic fellings about anyway.

The only bad thing i can see in this is that the creators and others involved in those old comics dies, and often without being interviewed, that is losing history forever.

The books themselves like Tec'27 or Action 1 will problably still be extremly expensive to own, but we have reprints of a lot of the old stuff today if we want to see it.

You should be more concerned over why kids don't read comics today instead, i don't think comics will die as an artform, but maybe it will end with print on demand or just computerfiles, THAT will change the hobby for real.
For me it's hard to think about not having a real book in my hands to read and instead read the book on a screen and not having anything "real".

[shaxper]

I think the demand for Golden Age comics has seriously flatlined in recent years, as the people who grew up with those comics have largely passed on. The prices continue to climb, but there's almost no demand for non-key issues. Most of the vendors I know won't even bother bringing them to conventions anymore.

On the other hand, the Silver Age was the begining of almost everything we know about Superheroes today. You can look at a Golden Age Green Lantern adventure and see almost no connection with what you read now, but the same is not true of a Green Lantern adventure from the Silver Age. The characters are largely the same, even if the writing and artistic styles are now outdated. I think fans will keep coming back to the Silver Age back issues for many years to come.

[Simon Garth]

Well, I'm at the tail end of the silver age generation, by your reckoning, but I've got zero interest in golden age comics, and near-zero in the silver age.

I loved some of the silver age stuff (particularly the Ditko Spider-Man & Doctor Strange), but quite honestly, it leaves me totally cold now, and I have no desire to read any of it again. About the earliest stuff I have any interest in re-reading is mid/late 70s

[JKCarrier]

I was born in '65, but I still grew up reading Silver Age comics, because they were heavily reprinted throughout the '70s. DC's 100-pagers, Origins of Marvel Comics, the tabloid books, etc. Loved 'em then, still love 'em now.

[Lone Ranger]

I think the demand for Golden Age comics has seriously flatlined in recent years, as the people who grew up with those comics have largely passed on. The prices continue to climb, but there's almost no demand for non-key issues. Most of the vendors I know won't even bother bringing them to conventions anymore.

I don't know about that...

I've sold a lot of Golden Age stuff on eBay in recent years and it always attracts a lot of attention. Sure, you can throw out the Overstreet when it comes to certain titles (Feature Comics) or publishers (Columbia) as they've sold for peanuts, but there's a good market out there and I've seen lots of books in mid-grade go for 60-100% of Guide.

EC stuff always sells well for me, no matter the grade - as do DC superhero titles (stuff like Mr. District Attorney lags). I've been pleasantly surprised by how much interest there is for Fawcett, as I think collectors know that they are a relative bargain and we are not likely to see many of these stories reprinted. 50-75% of Guide is pretty typical for a Marvel family title in the VG to FN range. Lower grade stuff doesn't attract the same attention, but still sells.

People sometimes say that there is no interstest in western, but I've sold a ton of low grade Atlas stuff from the 50s for 60-75% of Guide. I think people buy for the artwork, and they no there's never going to be an Essential Ringo Kid.


I can understand why a dealer wouldn't bother with brining non-keys to a convention. What are the chances of selling a copy of Black Terror #18 at full Guide to a room full of people who just want to meet Alex Ross and gawk at scream queens.

Heritage Auctions sales also reflect the fact that there is a good deal of interest in the High Grade domain, but that's outside of my zone.

[Kirk G]

I started by buying about two dozen silver age Marvels at a school carnival sale, and I grabbed all the books that had the corner box that said Marvel on them. I was very interested in the ones that had the four faces, one on fire and one orange and rocky. I even picked up those that had only those two faces and somebody Dr. Strange on them. This was June of 1965 and it started me on my love of Jack Kirby's artwork. Almost every book that I got in that initial haul was drawn by Jack or had some Jack artwork in it. It must have been another Jack Kirby fan that dumped their collection for the betterment of our elementary school.

As a result, I value more than anything else, those Silver Age books that I got, and those adjacent to them in time.

As a result, I've picked up at reduced price, almost every Marvel Masterwork hardbound volume produced.

[Hintermann]

I started reading comics in 1964 when I was 8 and a bit years old. They were contemporary ones back then, but since it was Silver Age, I have developed a taste for comics between the early 50s to the late 60s with very few exceptions. I think the drawing, storylines etc had a lot to do with post WW2 influence and so many varied comics had a strange similarity to each other. Silver Age fans like me often tend to favour only that period; for instance, I am a great Phantom comic fan, but by far prefer those published in the Silver Age compared with titles before or after.

Come to think of it, Agentum has made a good point. Superhero comics, a big thing in Golden Age, underwent a brief decline in early Silver Age where post-war austerity saw the need for more 'funnies'. It was not until late into Silver Age or even Bronze Age that Superhero stuff took off in a big way once again, but a few people like me never got into those. My Silver Age fixation has got a lot to do with my relative dislike of superhero comics.

[Agentum]

Yes demand will go down for non key issues as the people that has nostalgic feeling for that eras comics dies.

Like with cars, a Fort model T or something like that is not worth much today, the prices for that type of really old car has gone down a lot, the people that had nostalgic fellings for them has died.
Instead 50-60s cars especially american cars is skyrocketing in price, because now is the kids of that era old enough to buy the cars they dreamed about.

But like with a Action 1 there is special cars that always will be expensive, they are rare or key cars :-D

[spoon_jenkins]

The DC Archives Survey (http://www.comicsarchives.org/2006demographics.htm) has some data on the consumers for the Archives reprints. The average age of the readers is increasing, but it's late 30s which is still younger than one would expect if the consumers were mostly contemporaries.

[Beria]

I guess you could call me a fan of both the Golden and the Silver Age, as some of my favourite comics (The Spirit, Plastic Man, EC, Ditko, Kirby) are from those days, even though I was born in '75. But I think my affection for those has more to do with the quality of the material, than nostalgia, even if I was quite young when I became acquainted with these comics.

When I look at the comics I read when I was 10-12 today, they don't really interest me much. I mean, what would you rather read, Secret Wars or Plastic Man? Claremont's X-Men or The Spirit? Over here in Norway EC's horror comics was introduced in, I guess, 1988, and published regularly for several years. Earlier I had only read some of the DC "horror" stuff, so I quickly understood that these were vastly superior. I was 13 then, and I love them just as much today.

So, even if I'm a child of the eighties, comics wise, my all time favourites are from the 40's, 50's and 60's.

[md62]

Even though I started reading in 1968 I love both the Golden Age & Silver Age. In the 70's there was alot of reprint material for fans to enjoy the older stories. DC had the 100 page books & Marvel did the 64 page Giant issues.

[stelok]

Golden Age & Silver Age comic books were a popular medium of entertainment for kids in an age where the video games, DVDs and internet weren't invented yet.

Kids in this day and age prefer to play video games, surf the net, watch DVDs and read manga rather than reading American comics.