CGC Collectorverse: Collector Origin Stories
Posted on 3/23/2024
For the first CGC Comics Registry Collectorverse newsletter, we were pleased to have longtime CGC Comics Registry member workingdog share in some good old-fashioned comic talk with us. workingdog has a remarkable collection in the CGC Comics Registry showcasing a broad range of collecting interests.
We’ll kick this off with the age-old question of how you got into comic
collecting. Share as much detail as you’d like.
To be perfectly honest, I kind of just fell into it. It was around 1971/1972 and my parent-teacher conferences were not going well. My parents were told I was not at the reading level I should be at. Time went on and one day my dad happened to stop at the local news agency to pick up the Sunday paper. While we were there, I saw on one rack all these wonderful-looking picture books.
My dad said they were comic books, and he told me to pick out a few.
OMG, at 20 cents apiece, he let me pick out 10. Things like Marvel Spotlight 5, Hero For Hire 1, Marvel's Greatest Comics 38, Cat 1, Captain America 151, Red Wolf 2. All Marvel. I even picked up Night Nurse 1. I thought it would be cool to read with my mom since she too was a nurse (and she also loved herself some Harlequin Romance novels). I read them all to death. Believe it or not, I still have them (but certainly not in any kind of high grade).
After getting hooked on comics, apparently teachers noticed because they wanted to know what my parents did. My reading and particularly my vocabulary skills were now far beyond that of my peers. While reading a comic, when I came across a word I didn’t know, I would constantly ask my parents what a certain word meant.
"What does Excelsior mean?" Not long after, I was gifted with a dictionary.
As the years went by, my parents thought I would grow out of reading and collecting comics. Little did they know…
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Much has changed in comic collecting over the past several decades. How have your own interests evolved since you got started? What has stayed the same?
Evolved? Definitely. As I grew older, I started picking up and reading DCs. Mostly to fill in the time because, back in the day, some Marvel comics were printed bi-monthly. It was torture to wait! I did like Batman and, while I didn't collect the main title at first, I did enjoy his team-ups in The Brave and the Bold. This provided me the opportunity to learn about other characters in the DC Universe besides just Batman and Superman.
Because I read the Marvel Doc Savage comic books, I started reading Doc Savage paperbacks printed by Bantam. Little did I know at the time that Bantam was reprinting the pulp stories out of order. But I didn’t care. If I wasn’t reading comics, I was reading Doc Savage paperbacks. As time went on, comics started going up in price and I had to be more selective about my purchases.
Then in the late ’90s/early 2000s, I started seeing these exquisite-looking Marvel statues and mini-busts on eBay. I quickly became addicted to Bowen Design products. Now this was not a cheap endeavor. Fortunately, by now I had a great-paying job, so I could afford to still purchase comics and the various Bowen offerings. Eventually, Bowen went out of business. But I still had comic books to fall back on and enjoy.
At this point, I was aware of CGC but had no interest in having my books slabbed or even purchasing them. That all changed when I came across a certain CGC 9.8 Brave and the Bold with white pages. It was of special interest to me because that particular issue had the first letter that I ever wrote to a comic book company AND get published in the letters page!
A tsunami of nostalgia came over me, and I had to have it. I still have my original raw copy, but this would be an awesome keepsake. It became my first CGC purchase and certainly not the last!
What has stayed the same? The thrill of the hunt for that elusive back issue!
What a cool thing to happen with that letter! Let’s talk about some of the comics in your CGC Comics Registry sets. What are your favorite books and why?
Wow. Where do I possibly begin? One that quickly springs to mind is Marvel’s Tomb of Dracula 1, CGC 9.8, white pages. What Marv Wolfman and Gene Colan put together over the years stands the test of time and is still, in my mind, a great read. And to think I have the first issue with that wonderful Neal Adams cover!
Close behind, would be Marvel’s Fear 10, CGC 9.8, white pages, Signature Series, signed by Stan Lee! The first Man-Thing solo series issue! Quick backstory: I was never a fan of autographed comics prior to CGC. I equated signatures as basically defacing the cover of the book(s). Furthermore, if a comic was signed by a writer or artist, how in the heck could you possibly authenticate the signature if you went to sell it? There was an old “60 Minutes” piece back in the day where they exposed fake “authentic” Mickey Mantle signatures on baseballs. No signed comics for me, no sir. But then along came CGC’s Signature Series program and now I could rest easy that if I bought a signed comic, I was truly getting the real deal.
As for the CGC sets themselves, my favorite hands down would be the Marvel - Picture Frame Marvels set. That set contains all the books from my youth where my dad first introduced me to comics. The set is Memory Lane and of great joy to me. Oh, those days of finding comics on spinner racks at drug stores and 7-Elevens. One local corner market even had a comic book vending machine! To this day, younger collectors don’t believe me when I tell them such a contraption existed.
Now the set I’m proudest of is the one I put together, the Batman (Rebirth- 2016) set. I have strived to maintain a 100% completion rate on this set over the years. A few 9.6’s, a few 9.9’s but primarily all 9.8’s. Obviously, it’s not been without its challenges. All of those variant covers, especially Batman 50.
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How about tough books? Are there any comics in your sets that were hard to collect in the grade you wanted?
Oh yes. Let’s revisit my Batman Rebirth set. Any 9.6 I would love to replace with a 9.8. Like the Batman 51 and 67 Convention Editions Foil covers. What was so aggravating was the way they were manufactured. Poly-bagged with skimpy backing boards. You couldn’t see the back covers! I would purchase a few copies and without fail, the fronts looked great, but the back covers? Spine color breaks galore. If we go to the Census, there are six 9.8’s and two Signature Series 9.8's for 51. For 67, a single 9.8 and two Signature Series 9.8’s. Searched for some time to see if anyone had them for sale. Even posted them on the WTB thread on the CGC Chat Boards. Got nothing but crickets. Hopefully, one day. Fortunately, the Foil Variants of late are of much better quality.
But the toughest nut to crack has to be the variant cover of Batman 29 by Tim Sale. A 9.4 for me. The entire print run for that variant was a complete debacle. It didn’t help that it was a partial black cover and any copy you looked at had a slew of color-breaking spine creases. Back to the Census. There’s my single 9.4, a single qualified 9.4 and a 9.2 Signature Series, and that’s it.
What are some of your current collecting goals? What CGC Comics Registry sets are you trying to complete?
I will continue to collect books in the Batman Rebirth set, until such time DC happens to do a reboot. Then I will probably drop it.
One other set I enjoy collecting books for is The Brave and the Bold. I doubt I will ever complete it because I’m only interested in the Batman team-up issues, particularly those from the Bronze Age.
The only other set I would love to complete is the Marvel - Picture Frame Marvels set. But in order to do that, I would have to win the lottery or some such! Marvel Spotlight 5 and Hero for Hire 1 that I picked up for 20 cents as a kid? There is no possible way I could afford those now in a CGC 9.8 with white pages. Plus, some of the other picture frame books (e.g., Amazing Spider-Man) aren’t exactly cheap in that grade and condition. But once in a blue moon, I do find an affordable 9.8 with white pages, and I snag it as fast as I can. Lastly, certain issues in that set have only one or two 9.8’s in the Census and some don’t even have a 9.8 at all.
Collectors in the CGC Comics Registry are a dynamic community. What do you
enjoy the most about being part of it?
When you discover the single-highest-graded copy of a book in the CGC Comics Registry, and it happens to be yours.
To illustrate, Sgt. Fury and His Howling Commandos (1972) 105 CGC 9.8 white pages in my Marvel Picture Frame set. Only one graded with a 9.8. A fellow member, Ghost Town, refers to these as “unicorns.” I’m sure one day another will come along. I just enjoy it while I can.
Closing Remarks
I would like to share a story that I have done so with friends and family over the decades.
Again, back to the early ’70s. My parents were originally born and raised in Chicago. We would go back to Chicago every so often to visit family. During one stay, my dad surprised me by taking me to my very first comic shop!! A store totally devoted to comics selling new and back issues?
Had I reached nirvana at such a young age?!?
My dad told my mom that as soon we walked in the door it was like I had gone into shock. I wish I could remember the name of the store. I still couldn’t believe what I was seeing. You also have to understand at that point in time my two favorite Marvel books were Avengers and Captain America and the Falcon. As I walked around, I eventually came back to the front of the store where there were some back issues in a glass case.
My eyes glazed over. There was a pristine Avengers 1 for sale for $16!
I begged and begged my dad to please buy it. It then dawned upon him that bringing me to the store maybe wasn’t such a good idea. In his polite but stern tone, he told me “No.” And when my dad said no, that was the end of the discussion, period. I was so heartbroken.
As we were leaving, I remember him saying to me, “Who in their right mind would pay $16 for a comic book?”
Oh, Dad.
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