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About My Comic Book Collecting Experiences

I’m fairly new to collecting comics. While I have been acquiring movie posters and cameras for years as my two largest collections, it was only after I decided to publish a comic book series that vintage comics became an interest.

My first memories of comics were from the late 60s/early 70s when the nearby grocery store used to sell them on the bottom rack and my friends and I would go inside and rummage through the latest issues. I recall that my favorites were Sgt Rock and the Unknown Soldier, however, the coolest ones to bring home were the black and white Eerie and Creepy issues from Warren. They were so interesting because of the horror content to a 7-10 year old but primarily because my mother hated them with a passion. So naturally, I made sure to hide them under my bed after reading through them the night before (anticipating the associated nightmare that would come). Needless to say, none of the copies ever remained in the house for long.

For my current collecting focus, I’m really interested in first issues, primarily golden age. I’ve been picking up from auctions which I quickly found becomes an expensive way to acquire, especially graded slabs. Here’s one of my first issues (Columbia 1941) that I found the cover to really catch my eye.

I like the use of a sparse background and the story in the characters and their actions. Also, as a small publisher, I enjoy finding other small publishers. According to Wikipedia, this Skyman series only had 4 issues.