What is the focus of your collection?

[mrc1214]

Ive notice around the boards that people focus on certain characters, authors, artists,certain era etc. I was wondering what some of the people here like to focus on. Im a reader so condition doesnt matter much but I do like to read certain book. Heres mine

Fantastic Four- this was almost unexpected I finally organized my books and had a ton of FF so I might as well keep going

X-Men/X-Men related- As far as Uncanny X-Men Im pretty scatterd but I should be able to fill in. I have all of Peter David X-Factor, New Mutants 1-54 and various minis

Avengers- Im doing good with this run and its pretty good throughout.

Im thinking of starting a Spiderman and Teen Titans.

I forgot one the Legion which I started because I know a few people are trying to complete that run on here and most of it is really good.

[DDM]

Right now, I am focusing on early Fantastic Four a la Stan Lee & Jack Kirby. I'm also filling out the original Moon Knight series; the same applies to the Peter David Incredible Hulk, & Roger Stern's Amazing Spider-Man run. At some point, I am going to start buying the Frank Miller Daredevil comics.

[dan bailey]

I forgot one the Legion which I started because I know a few people are trying to complete that run on here and most of it is really good.

One of whom would be me. I've got everything Legion-related through the Silver & very early Bronze Age in the form of Legion Archives vols 1-6 & 9-10, as well as the individual issues that make up volumes 7 & 8 (Adventure 359-376, Superboy #147 & Jimmy Olsen #106).

After that, by my count I'm more than 90 percent done, having accumulated --

56 of the 62 issues of Superboy & the Legion of Super-Heroes.

All 96 ishes of Legion of Super-Heroes vol 3 (1980), though I still lack Annuals 4 & 5.

58 of the 63 issues of Legion of Super-Heroes vol 4 (1984)

110 of the 125 issues (plus the first annual) of Legion of Super-Heroes vol 5 (1989)

78 of the 82 issues of Legionnaires

68 of the 70 issues of L.E.G.I.O.N. (not actually a Legion series, but very much related, as the team in question is the LOSH's 20th-century forerunner & includes ancestors of future Legionnaires)

34 of the 38-issue Legion (2001)

All 41 ishes of the current series,

And I guess I really should start collecting the current "Johnny DC" Legion of Super-Heroes in the 31st Century for completeness' sake. As it is, I've go maybe the first 5.

Otherwise, I lack the Superboy & the Legion Limited Collectors' Edition #C-49 treasury, 5-ssue Timber Wolf mini (which I'm in no hurry to pick up at any more than bargain-box prices, given how craptastically early '90s Image-istic the art looks), Legion of Super-Heores Secret Files & Origins #1 & Teen Titans/Legion Special #1. And a handful of turns in DC Comics Presents, of which I've only recently taken notice.

I've got all of other various minis, one-shots & limited series that I know of -- Secrets of the Legion, Legion Lost, Legends of the Legion, Legion Worlds, Cosmic Boy, Inferno, Superboy's Legion, Teen Titans/LOSH: Universe Ablaze, Legion: Science Police & Legion of Substitute Heroes.

[Ryan K]

My focus is all over the place.

In terms of floppies/pamphlets/singles/whatever-we're-calling-them-today:

X-Men - This is the collection I've been working on since I was 10. It spans about 18 short boxes and over 2000 comics (estimated). It includes full runs of most of the various titles and spinoff series. The only holes are 2 issues of Uncanny between #94 and present, a lot of Wolverine, Cable, and Deadpool books (I never card for the solo stuff), and various minis and one shots (this is the majority of what I still buy).

Legion of Super Heroes - my other big collection. I basically have everything since the mid-70's (I'm missing a 2 issue Elseworlds book). My focus is no on getting some of the earlier Superboy and the Legion issues and the Adventure appearances. I've also been buying their guest appearances. I don't have a checklist, but given their existance in the 31st century, this has been relatively easy.

Superman - I've been building this one slow, but lately its the one I've been the most actively seeking. There's probably 7 short boxes worth. I have most of the Post Crisis stuff except minis and on shots. So those have been my focus, as well as lower grade Pre Crisis stuff.

Avengers - All the New Avengers stuff has really dampened my desire to build this one up over the last couple years. My collections still a solid 4 short boxes with full runs of most of the spinoff books (save solos of course).

Justice League - I started this one just a couple years ago after I found a ton of books for a nickel apiece. Save new books, I don't buy many issues for more that .50. Still its coming along nicely.

There are other books I've collected and finished over the years, but those are the big one I'll be collecting for a long while. As for characters I specifically look for, I think the only two that apply are Jubilee (whose appearances are mostly in X-books anyway) and Harley Quinn (a pretty simple one).

There are creators I guess you could say I collect. Los Bros. Hernandez, Grant Morrison, Alan Moore, Mike Allred, Peter Bagge, Frank Miller, Jack Kirby, etc., etc. I don't know if collect is the right word though. Ultimately I'm reading everything I buy from the creators I like. There's a lot of creators I feel committed to in that I'll read all of their new work. But I wouldn't say I collect them like I collect shitty X-Men comics.

[Slam_Bradley]

My "collection" and I use that term in it's absolute loosest sense (since I almost utterly lack a collector mentality) is almost completely lacking in focus. I buy what I want when I find it cheap.

[dan bailey]

Annnnnnd I collect


Sgt Fury & the Howling Commandoes (got all the non-reprint issues except #1)


The Silver/Bronze Age Submariner (all but #s 1 & 35 ... well, & the 31 Tales to Astonishes, which is why I'm still keeping an eye out for cheapish copies of the two Marvel Masterworks)


Silver Age & up Captain America (missing 434-443 from having 215-454)


All DC giants (got all the '60-'65 annuals except for Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer, all 89 80-Page [& subsequently 64-page] Giants, all issues of DC Special except #29 ... still have most of the 100-Page Super-Spectaculars & Super DC Giants to go)


The DC Blue Ribbon digests (lack the final two DC Specials & probably around half ot the Best of DCs, though a bunch of those are funny-animal & teen humor & the like, which I'm not particularly interested in)


All "modern" JSA titles & offshoots (got everything I can think of)

From the looks of my myriad short boxes & ever-expanding want list, at least half the other comics published since 1970.

(Titles I have complete runs of -- Master of Kung Fu, Ripley's Believe It or Not, UFO Flying Saucer/UFO Outer Space, Secret Origins, DC Captain Atom, Booster Gold, DC Blue Beetle, American Flagg, 2nd-series Mister Miracle, Sovereign Seven, Power Pack, Crossfire, Ms Tree, New Adventures of Superboy, Airboy, Nexus (missing a couple of mini-series), the most recent two Hawkman(/girl) series, second She-Hulk, Marvel Fanfare, Astonishing Tales, all 3 Ka-Zars, second Spectre, second Catwoman, etc etc etc, as well as of course loads of shorter-lived series.

(Titles I'm 5 ishes or less from completing -- Zot, Superman Family, All-Star Squadron, Infinity Inc, second Starman, Maze Agency, Marvel Saga, Archer & Armstrong, Quasar, etc. Expand the cut-off to 10 issues & Birds of Prey, the first Martian Manhunter & the '81 Teen Titans get in under the wire ... as well as the entire set of DC's Impact line.)

[MDG]

My "collection" and I use that term in it's absolute loosest sense (since I almost utterly lack a collector mentality) is almost completely lacking in focus. I buy what I want when I find it cheap.

Slam said it for me. Though I follow some current creators like Dan CLowes and Kim Deitch.

[Cei-U!]

This possibly comes as no big surprise to most of you but my main focus is the Justice Society of America, particularly the Earth-Two canon. I have, in one format or another, all but a handful of JSA stories, from All-Star #3 through JSA #50, plus a big chunk of the members' solo series--Sandman Mystery Theatre, the James Robinson Starman, four different Spectre series--to boot.

That said, much more of my collection centers on the Silver and Bronze Age Batman material, including "complete" (by my definition only!) runs of Batman, Brave and Bold, Justice League of America and World's Finest and a healthy chunk of the Detectives. (I lump the old and new Teen Titans in this category.)

In a similar vein, I love the Paul Dini/Bruce Timm-inspied DC animated titles with long runs of most of the older series.

Within the last couple of years, I've come so close to my goal of owning (again, in one format or another) every non-reprint Silver Age Marvel super-hero story produced while Stan Lee was EIC that I've had to branch out to the war and western titles to keep the bug alive. Not that that's a bad thing, dan b and Lone Ranger!

Other than that, there are a handful of characters and/or series--Pogo, Nexus, Astro City, Freak Brothers, Popeye--and creators--Kelly, Ross, Rude, Perez, Ordway--important enough to me that I actively seek them out.

Cei-U!
Spent more time writing this than I intended!

[Ryan K]

One of whom would be me. I've got everything Legion-related through the Silver & very early Bronze Age in the form of Legion Archives vols 1-6 & 9-10, as well as the individual issues that make up volumes 7 & 8 (Adventure 359-376, Superboy #147 & Jimmy Olsen #106).

After that, by my count I'm more than 90 percent done, having accumulated --

56 of the 62 issues of Superboy & the Legion of Super-Heroes.

All 96 ishes of Legion of Super-Heroes vol 3 (1980), though I still lack Annuals 4 & 5.

58 of the 63 issues of Legion of Super-Heroes vol 4 (1984)

110 of the 125 issues (plus the first annual) of Legion of Super-Heroes vol 5 (1989)

78 of the 82 issues of Legionnaires

68 of the 70 issues of L.E.G.I.O.N. (not actually a Legion series, but very much related, as the team in question is the LOSH's 20th-century forerunner & includes ancestors of future Legionnaires)

34 of the 38-issue Legion (2001)

All 41 ishes of the current series,

And I guess I really should start collecting the current "Johnny DC" Legion of Super-Heroes in the 31st Century for completeness' sake. As it is, I've go maybe the first 5.

Otherwise, I lack the Superboy & the Legion Limited Collectors' Edition #C-49 treasury, 5-ssue Timber Wolf mini (which I'm in no hurry to pick up at any more than bargain-box prices, given how craptastically early '90s Image-istic the art looks), Legion of Super-Heores Secret Files & Origins #1 & Teen Titans/Legion Special #1. And a handful of turns in DC Comics Presents, of which I've only recently taken notice.

I've got all of other various minis, one-shots & limited series that I know of -- Secrets of the Legion, Legion Lost, Legends of the Legion, Legion Worlds, Cosmic Boy, Inferno, Superboy's Legion, Teen Titans/LOSH: Universe Ablaze, Legion: Science Police & Legion of Substitute Heroes.

Very nice Dan!

My L.E.G.I.O.N. collection isn't near completion. I only have about half of it, but I refuse to pay more than .50 per issue. I always find issues cheap but for some reason I keep finding the same ones. One day I'll get there. And I only have 1 issue of the R.E.B.E.L.S. Follow up series.

I had a number of the Archives but they've since been reprinted in the Showcase Presents books so I've bought those and traded my Archives. I'll continue to buy those and not focus on those issues that'll be reprinted. I focus on the 20 or so Superboy and the Legion of Super Heroes that I need that never got reprinted in the Archives.

The only mini series I'm missing are Superboy's Legion (which has really eluded me) and Secrets of the Legion. I have the others you listed plus (in cae you need to add them to your checklist) Legionnaires 1-4 (1986) and Who's Who in the Legion of Super Heroes 1-7.

I have the other spinoff ongoings. Karate Kid 1-15, Wanderers 1-13, and Valor 1-23.

The Johnny DC title is pretty good by the way. The last couple issues have been very enjoyable.
Is C-49 the Lightning Lad/Saturn Girl marriage book? The one that's magazine size?

[dan bailey]

I buy what I want when I find it cheap.

Well, yeah ... that too. Except for the 80-Page Giants, virtually everything I listed was purchased at an average of less than $1 an issue (except of course for stuff bought new recently, like the current LOSH) ... far less, in probaby the majority of cases.

As I've said before, it helps that I pay no attention to condition whatsoever, assuming that an ish's cover is in reasonable proximity to the pages.

[Samurai]

With 20,000 books, it's hard to say where my focus is, LOL! It's generally superhero books from Marvel and DC, though I have some bronze age horror, golden age jungle titles, nearly every book made by Crossgen, etc. I have long runs of many titles (issues 16-400 of Fantastic Four, with all giants, specials, minis, and annuals 2 and up, and similarly long runs of Justice League, Spider-man, Legion of Superheros, etc.) I just love all kinds of comics, titles, and characters...

[dan bailey]

My L.E.G.I.O.N. collection isn't near completion. I only have about half of it, but I refuse to pay more than .50 per issue. I always find issues cheap but for some reason I keep finding the same ones. One day I'll get there. And I only have 1 issue of the R.E.B.E.L.S. Follow up series.

That's probably about what I've paid via eBay. One of the L.E.G.I.O.N. lots I bought included about 2/3rds of R.E.B.E.L.S., & I haven't yet gone looking for the rest.

The only mini series I'm missing are Superboy's Legion (which has really eluded me) and Secrets of the Legion.

Superboy's Legion is one I definitely broke the heck out of my less-than-$1 standard to procure, about a month ago. Can't remember the details now, but the same seller had a bunch of other stuff (not necessarily Legion-related) that I also got off him, so all in all I got a relative bargain anyway.


I have the others you listed plus (in cae you need to add them to your checklist) Legionnaires 1-4 (1986) and Who's Who in the Legion of Super Heroes 1-7.

The first Legionnaires I do have but neglected to mention. The Who's Who volumes I do need, unfortunately. (I should also get the Legion Companion & Best of Legion Outpost TPBs, come to think of it.)

I have the other spinoff ongoings. Karate Kid 1-15, Wanderers 1-13, and Valor 1-23.

*sigh* Karate Kid & Wanderers I completely forgot about -- I don't have single issue of either, though I bought KK off the spinner racks when it was new. (Wasn't very impressed -- Ric Estrada just isn't ever going to be one of my favorites.) I do have the Valor run.

The Johnny DC title is pretty good by the way. The last couple issues have been very enjoyable.

I was afraid of that ... in the sense that I already buy waaaay too many new releases (in addition, obviously, to old stuff) already. Looks like only the first 6 issues have come out in TPB (in digest format, I presume), & as noted above I've got probably most of those, so maybe they'll step up the pace on those. And/or I'll find them cheap somewhere.

Is C-49 the Lightning Lad/Saturn Girl marriage book? The one that's magazine size?

That would be it.

[dan bailey]

I just love all kinds of comics, titles, and characters...

Well, yes, there's that. Take away all of the runs listed above & you've probably eliminated only ... I dunno ... maybe 10 percent of my comics. And that's not to mention more TPBs than I care to think about (maybe ... 350? That would include probably around 90 Marvel Essentials & DC Showcase Presents combined), along with substantial runs of Alter Ego, Back Issue & Comic Book Artist.

All of this after ditching 99.9 percent of a fairly sizable collection in '81. *sigh*

[mrc1214]

My "collection" and I use that term in it's absolute loosest sense (since I almost utterly lack a collector mentality) is almost completely lacking in focus. I buy what I want when I find it cheap.

Id shouldnt have put it that way. Its really just what books do you tend to buy more of.

[rwe1138]

I only collect stuff I want to read. That being said, I call my niche "Great Books That Should Have Lasted Longer But Were Cancelled Too Soon." I've got:

Stars & S.T.R.I.P.E.
Irredeemable Ant-Man
Hourman
The Order
H-E-R-O
Aztek
Chase
Everything starring Ambush Bug

[dan bailey]

As for creators, not surprisingly I'll buy anything that John or Marie Severin or Russ Heath had a hand in, if I can find it cheap. That's often not the case, of course, since John & Russ, in particular, were quite prolific during the Era of Pricey Back Issues.

Everything else being equal, I'll also buy back issues that I otherwise might not pay attention to if Gene Day, Pat Boyette, Tom Sutton, Wayne Howard, Al McWilliams, Gray Morrow, Don Newton, Kevin Maguire, Paul Gulacy, Mike Zeck or Val Mayerik was involved. No doubt that applies to plenty of other artists as well, but offhand those particular personal favorites come immedately to mind in that context.

(I'm assuming that such titans as Ditko, Wood, Kirby, Swan, Colan etc go without saying ...)

Seeing Bob McLeod credited as inker will lead to a back-issue buy as well. Same for Sid Greene.

Current artists whose presence will make me buy a book sight otherwise unseen include Mike Allred, Cliff Chiang, Amanda Connor, Leonard Kirk, Jimmie Robinson, Darwyn Cook, Emily Stone & Jamie McKelvey. Probably Barry Kitson as well. Indy artists Aaron Williams, Thom Zahler & Jimmy Gownley definitely qualify, too, though offhand I gather they pretty much only draw their own titles.

I know there are plenty of others, but I don't necessarily recognize their stuff by name (&/or without squinting can't really tell their work apart, like Philip Bond & Simon Gane, both of whom sort of remind me of John Severin) ...

[Aaron King]

Here's a list of what I will buy without thinking about it: Jack Kirby, Mike Mignola, Doom Patrol, Steve Gerber

Other stuff I generally but not always buy: comics about the Bible, Peter David, Grant Morrison, Greg Rucka, Ed Brubaker, Bob Haney, Jeff Parker

Runs I'm working on that aren't included above: LEGION, Starman, Usagi Yojimbo, Jonah Hex

[dan bailey]

Jeff Parker


Definitely. I'm normally not a writer-oriented comics fan, but I tend to love everything of his I read. (Dan Slott, too, except that now he's doing Spider-Man, & I just don't do either major company's mainstream titles ... except of course when DC does something diabolical like guesting the Legion in Action.)

[jackdaw53]

Tend to buy, read, sell, buy something else. So the stuff I keep is what I'm confident I'll re-read at a future date. Net result the 2000 or so comics I've got lying tend to be based round a few writers.
Examples:-
Peter David: Hulk and Supergirl runs.
John Ostrander: Suicide Squad, Martian Manhunter, and Grimjack
Garth Ennis; Hitman

But really I'm not much of a collector... I've sold and occasionally given away even stuff by favorite creators. (e.g. Scout by Tim Truman.)

[zilch]

Golden age characters in the modern age mostly.

Scarfing up GA reprints and downloads (complete books only).

The occasional Silver Age book when i can get em for cheap.

Western Johnny Thunder (totally awesome artwork there, Silver Age DC before the superheroes)

But all by myself (and about eight other people in the world according to EBay) im closing in on a complete run of Tomahawk.. Awesome artwork in the '50s issues. Fred Ray gets a bit dull later on in the run, tho still good stuff.

Always looking for cheap Challs, BHawks, and Metal Men.

And National Lampoon (have '76 on). John Hughes "Vacation '57" story is much better than the Chevy Chase movie. And stuff from the sequel "Christmas Vacation '58" shows up in 16 Candles instead of the Chase sequel.

[MWGallaher]

Although I have a wide-ranging collection, with a lot of long runs, there's really only one subset that has a sincere focus: I'm probably about 7 comics away from having the complete published comics stories of Jim Aparo in their original releases (and that's only assuming that there's at least one comic book story he drew of which I'm unaware; I only know specifically of six published Aparo stories that I don't yet possess: five 2-page stories from a Charlton music magazine and an issue of DC's Witching Hour). I'm not concerned about getting all of his reprinted work (not that there's much of it out there: the last year or so has produced the overwhelming majority of Aparo's reprinted comics in five volumes of Showcase Presents). I'm also not in a hurry to get all of the comics that have Aparo covers, but not interior art, although I have plenty of them anyway. I'm just not willing to pay the prices to get so much late 70's/early-80's Batman, especially since his covers of that era reflect the work of other cover designers (like Ross Andru, who did layouts for Aparo's Detective covers of that era) more than they show Aparo's own artistic sensibilities.

[Kirk G]

Right now, I am focusing on early Fantastic Four a la Stan Lee & Jack Kirby. I'm also filling out the original Moon Knight series; the same applies to the Peter David Incredible Hulk, & Roger Stern's Amazing Spider-Man run. At some point, I am going to start buying the Frank Miller Daredevil comics.

Yeah, my focus has been the Stan and Jack Fantastic Four since the begining, but I've also branched out into the Byrne/Clarmont X-men, the Avengers, the Frank Miller Daredevil runs, and several other off shoots as well.

I follow what appeals to me, and engaging storylines, as well as trusted artist friends...like Byrne, Stern, Miller, Kirby, etc.

PS: Anybody want to buy an extra copy of that reprint Avengers/Invaders #1 that just came out? I forgot how much I hate Frank Robbins art....

[Roquefort Raider]

Great thread idea.

There are many titles, authors or runs of which I'm a big fan, but the only real focus to my collection (which is more of a big pile than a proper collection) is the Marvel version of Conan. That's the character who really got me into American comics, and the first one that got me to pay more than cover price for back issues (back when back issues were available only from the few people who advertised in the publicity pages of comics, their address crammed in little yellow boxes wedged between ads for X-Ray vision glasses and authentic shark teeth pendants).

I started reading Conan in a translated version, and in black and white; "my" #1 was actually Marvel's #15. The first original version I bought was issue #67, which looked pretty good in color -even though the newsprint was of cheaper quality than in the translated book. And it had the drawback of being in English, of course. Still, the collector instinct being what it is, I snatched up every issue I could find. I'm convinced that Roy Thomas is the major reason I learned English a long time before any of my schoolmates!

[DDM]

Yeah, my focus has been the Stan and Jack Fantastic Four since the begining, but I've also branched out into the Byrne/Clarmont X-men, the Avengers, the Frank Miller Daredevil runs, and several other off shoots as well.

I follow what appeals to me, and engaging storylines, as well as trusted artist friends...like Byrne, Stern, Miller, Kirby, etc.

PS: Anybody want to buy an extra copy of that reprint Avengers/Invaders #1 that just came out? I forgot how much I hate Frank Robbins art....

I have Uncanny X-Men #94-present, but I am still looking for some original X-Men books. I have 2 1/2 boxes of The Avengers. I think the earliest issue is The Avengers #57 (1st Vision).

I go what interests me as well. I just feel the need to start building Stan & Jack's Fantastic Four (40's-100's), Moon Knight (1980 series), Peter David's Incredible Hulk, Roger Stern's Amazing Spider-Man, & Frank Miller's Daredevil. At some time, I'll will go back to buying The Avengers & X-Men back issues.

[Ryan K]

That's probably about what I've paid via eBay. One of the L.E.G.I.O.N. lots I bought included about 2/3rds of R.E.B.E.L.S., & I haven't yet gone looking for the rest.

That's probably the route I'll go with R.E.B.E.L.S. My L.E.G.I.O.N. collection is scattered so I'll have to assemble it through quarter bins. But thats OK, I have a lot of fun with the hunt.

Superboy's Legion is one I definitely broke the heck out of my less-than-$1 standard to procure, about a month ago. Can't remember the details now, but the same seller had a bunch of other stuff (not necessarily Legion-related) that I also got off him, so all in all I got a relative bargain anyway.

I rarely see it for less than $20 for both. And like you, I'm pretty set on getting everything cheap. I think the most I've ever paid for any of my Legion stuff is around $5 (for the death of Superboy issues). I may have paid slightly more for C-49, but I'd never seen it before the day I bought it.

The first Legionnaires I do have but neglected to mention. The Who's Who volumes I do need, unfortunately. (I should also get the Legion Companion & Best of Legion Outpost TPBs, come to think of it.)

I have the Legion Companion. Great bathroom reading material. I forgot about the Best of Legion Outpost book. I had it in my hands once but didn't like the price.

I was afraid of that ... in the sense that I already buy waaaay too many new releases (in addition, obviously, to old stuff) already. Looks like only the first 6 issues have come out in TPB (in digest format, I presume), & as noted above I've got probably most of those, so maybe they'll step up the pace on those. And/or I'll find them cheap somewhere.

I'm afraid it'll be cancelled now that the cartoon has been cancelled. So wait a couple months and plenty of people will be selling their complete sets on ebay cheap.

[benday-dot]

My criteria is stupidly simple. If it's good I'm interested.

I rely on what I read... and a lot of that comes from the esteemed opinions of the good folks here... to determine what is good.

I'm not much of a compiler of lengthy runs, for the sake of completion. I'd rather jump all over the place just trolling about and culling up all the dandy story arcs or great displays of comic book artistry from whatever genre and whichever title they belong to.

I mean there are a nauseating amount of, say, Thor books out there, (and Superman, and Spider-Man, and Hulk, and Flash... etc., etc.) but it would depress the hell of out of me to catch myself trying to amass the whole less than mediocre mountainous lot of them just, well... because it would be cool to say I have them all. I guess I share that with Slam... I don't know if I'm a collector or not, but certainly not a completist. Just the good bits please.

I'm not utterly liberated from the dross, but I don't mind selling off chunks of stuff, even if it fractures a burdensome continuity that at times makes me feel like its slave, if you know what I mean.

So I have a lot of diversity in my collection. Titles from lots of publishers and bits and pieces from all over the Four Colour map.

Having said that, but very much connected with it I suspect, is a real zest for seeking out work of certain creators who, I feel, have consistently put out very good work indeed.

So yeah... at the risk of completely contradicting my rambling preamble... anything by Kirby and Ditko is an automatic for my reading plate.

I got the issue by issue, story by story ("original") Kirby oeuvre from 1970 and on, and I'm leisurely working my way back. Thank the comic gods for reprints.

[Reptisaurus!]

Oh geez.

Kim Deitch. Joe Kubert. Pirates. Early sixties Charlton Monster Comics. Steve Gerber. Zap! Team-up books. The Ray Palmer Atom. (Made much, much easier by the recent showcase collections.) Lynda Barry. J. H. Williams III. Hoppy the Marvel Bunny. Jason. The comics "canon." Stegron the Dinosaur Man. Seven Soliders. (Morrison version.)

Gilbert Hernandez, and post 1990 Jaime. Stuff that looks cool, in general. :)

There's probably a lot more.

It may be too unfocused to really call it a "collection."

Edit: Dinosaurs. The Krytonian Thought Beast. Seventies Marvel Steve Engelhart. Ambush Bug!

I am kind of a completist. but I will always go for the cheapest possible format.

[InfoBroker]

five 2-page stories from a Charlton music magazine and an issue of DC's Witching Hour).

I can't help with the music magazine, I know for sure I never bought those, but if I have the Witching Hour comical book, I'll gladly send it your way as you are definitely and without a doubt the number one Jim Aparo fan on this or any other planet.

And not to get your hopes up but I don't have too many Witching Hours. :(

-jb the "pretty big fan of Aparo as well" ib -

[Aaron King]

John Ostrander! I always forget about John Ostrander. He's so reliable.

And gorillas. But that's a given, I think.

[Kirk G]

DDM, If I may suggest, push your start on the Avengers volume one back two more issues, to include the seminal #56 where cap goes back in time with the Avengers to witness the death of Bucky.... and the follow up which appears in Avengers Annual #2, the first appearance of the Scarlet Centurian. Both are vintage Roy Thomas and for years, formed the cornerstone of the Bucky is dead belief. In this day and time, it needs to be revisited.

Even if you have to find reprints (Marvel Triple Action?) it would be worth picking up to read. Good luck!

[dan bailey]

Old-school flying saucers. Duh.

And Lockjaw. Who, in retrospect, totally should've been in my 12 Days of Christmas list of '06.

From that list, Squirrel Girl & Volstagg the Voluminous.

The Legion of Super-Pets. Infectious Lass.

Among new characters, Black Alice. And of course Image's Editor Girl.

[Reptisaurus!]

Infectious Lass.


Oh yeah. Me too.

[dan bailey]

Hmmm. Odd. Even though I've posted in this thread several times, of course, thanks to the glare from the lamp on my computer desk I just glanced at the title & misread it as "... the feces of your collection."

I own them only because they were part of lots & such that people basically gave me, but I do own at least a couple of dozen early Image titles. Some probably even feature "art" by Rob Liefeld.

[dan bailey]

Anybody want to buy an extra copy of that reprint Avengers/Invaders #1 that just came out? I forgot how much I hate Frank Robbins art....

Aw, c'mon, now. Unfortunately, I take a back seat to no one in my dislike for Robbins' art, but the issue in question also features a really nice Sal Buscema-Sam Grainger Avengers story from '69, an Al Avison-Al Gabrielle Captain America from '43, & that neat Invaders Annual from '77 that featured an Alex Schomburg cover & interior chapter, along with chapters by Don Rico & Lee Elias, plus the fun lead story from the '06 Giant-Size Invaders #2 (strange to already see that reprinted ... heck, I can scarcely believe that 2 1/2 years have passed since I bought it) with very nice pencils by Lee Weeks.

Yeah, there's a fair amount (well, actually -- I just couinted -- only 18 pages -- of Robbins' art in there as well, but where I really found his style jarringly inappropriate was in modern-day strips like Morbuis & Captain America & Ghost Rider & whatever else he handled. His gracelessness really sort of suits the Invaders' WWII setting, considering the vigorous-yet-crude stylings of so many Golden Age artists.

Even 30-plus years later, I still don't like his art on the Invaders (I'm pretty sure I never bought a single issue when it was coming out, which makes me wonder how I happened to take home a copy of the aforementioned annual, which I remember quite well ... had to've been the allure of Schomburg), but these days I can at least sort of resign myself to it. And if Marvel would put out an Essential, I'd buy it.

Probably.

Eventually.

[earl]

I sold my original collection about the summer of 1990, it was pretty huge and had a bit of everything and didn't look back until a few years ago.

Since I got into reading comics again, I tried to stay a bit away from the super hero stuff except the stuff that was my favorites back in the 80s, but I ended up getting hooked and checking out all sorts of newer stuff and building up some runs in some titles.

The only thing I have going back quite a few years is some of the Batman stuff with some of it filled (more recent) with trade paperbacks as there is no way I would pay that much for about any back issues from the past twenty years or stuff. I've got nice runs of Batman and Detective going back into the early 70s.

I do think it is great that a bunch of the classic stuff is IN PRINT these days. It used to be before they started reprinting some of this stuff that the only way you could read it is if you found it. I don't get why it took Marvel and DC so long to realize this back in the 80s when kids were paying crazy amounts for stuff that was just a few years old and not even stuff like early run X-men but say The 'Nam or early issues of The Punisher.

It also trips me out that some stuff that used to be quite expensive can be found pretty affordable these days. I got a nice copy of The Warlord #1 for $4 bucks at a convention. That used to be a pretty expensive book and it was one I never even found at the right price back in the 80s.

Reprints and lower values have led me to read some stuff I never even had back in my youth, like the early Byrne/Claremont Iron Fist, 60s Silver Surfer, Jonah Hex, Kree/Skrull war Avengers issues and Master of Kung Fu (which was never reprinted and held some decent value in back issues back in the 80s).

Either way, with the internet, it is a heck of a lot easier to find something. I used to drive all over the place trying to find odd issues of some weird Eclipse or Comico book back issue. You would look and look and there would still be some odd issue you could never find, now go to the web and whammo...it is all there.

Stuff I like- Nexus, Grimjack, Scout, American Flagg! (early issues), Marshall Rogers, Wolfman/Perez Titans, Frank Miller, Alan Moore, Mike Grell, Byrne, Jim Starlin, The Shadow (both the 70s and 80s DC books), Chaykin, etc.

The only things that are out there that are a bit beyond my reach is those Miracleman issues and I wish Marvel would get with it and get those Spider-man Essentials up into the mid-80s as they are way too rich for me.

[DDM]

DDM, If I may suggest, push your start on the Avengers volume one back two more issues, to include the seminal #56 where cap goes back in time with the Avengers to witness the death of Bucky.... and the follow up which appears in Avengers Annual #2, the first appearance of the Scarlet Centurian. Both are vintage Roy Thomas and for years, formed the cornerstone of the Bucky is dead belief. In this day and time, it needs to be revisited.

Even if you have to find reprints (Marvel Triple Action?) it would be worth picking up to read. Good luck!

I bought Avengers Annual #2 sometime ago, but I don't have The Avengers #56. I will put it on my list.

[Kirk G]

I bought Avengers Annual #2 sometime ago, but I don't have The Avengers #56. I will put it on my list.

Dude, the original Avengers Volume 1 #56 is the first half of this story!:cool:
You GOT to read it to make sense of where they were coming from...

You won't be sorry. Find a reprint if you need...Marvel Masterworks...
Essentiall Avengers #3, or Marvel Triple Action... but snag a copy if you can't find the original.:rolleyes:

PS: I'll sell my latest Avengers/Invaders copy at cost, no tax, you pay for shipping, if anyone wants to enjoy the "goodness" that Dan refers to above.:biggrin:

[dan bailey]

PS: I'll sell my latest Avengers/Invaders copy at cost, no tax, you pay for shipping, if anyone wants to enjoy the "goodness" that Dan refers to above.:biggrin:

Word on the street is that people are waiting for you to reach the point where you're offering to pay them ...