Badmike wrote:With the plethora of trade paperbacks and Marvel Masterworks and DC hardcover collections now available, my wife has pretty much convinced me to sell the bulk of my collection and just go out and buy the collected editions. Lots easier to read and store.  And pretty much everything is now collected...I saw the other day that the wacky cult title weirdness of all time, Marvel's series "Omega the Unknown", has come out ina collected TPB.  The Marvel Masterworks series are beautifully presented, also, with all the key runs of Silver age titles (Fantastic Four, Spiderman, Avengers, etc) collected and re-colored on nice paper.  

Mike B.

do you know if they have done a Conan one? its about the only series I would like to collect...

Brette:)

beasterbrook wrote:
do you know if they have done a Conan one? its about the only series I would like to collect...

Brette:)

Brette;

Do you mean the present series or the classic Marvel?

As a matter of fact, I have the classic Conan comic series in the collected trades, and they are beautiful!!!!  They are put out by Dark Horse in softcover format, and cover the first few years...all that gorgeous Barry Smith, Gil Kane and John Buscema artwork.  I have up to Volume #7, which covers the Marvel Conan saga up to #51.  Each contains very insightful behind the scenes commentary by Roy Thomas. Probably the only flaw I could tell, was that due to the contractual agreement with Marvel comics to have Dark Horse print these, there are no covers available to be reprinted. Still, all those great stories and particularly the first couple years where Barry Windsor's Smith's artwork just blew me away when I was as small fry....!
 As for the newer series, I'm sure they have also all been collected by Dark Horse if you are interested...

Mike B.

Badmike wrote:
Brette;

Do you mean the present series or the classic Marvel?

As a matter of fact, I have the classic Conan comic series in the collected trades, and they are beautiful!!!!  They are put out by Dark Horse in softcover format, and cover the first few years...all that gorgeous Barry Smith, Gil Kane and John Buscema artwork.  I have up to Volume #7, which covers the Marvel Conan saga up to #51.  Each contains very insightful behind the scenes commentary by Roy Thomas. Probably the only flaw I could tell, was that due to the contractual agreement with Marvel comics to have Dark Horse print these, there are no covers available to be reprinted. Still, all those great stories and particularly the first couple years where Barry Windsor's Smith's artwork just blew me away when I was as small fry....!
 As for the newer series, I'm sure they have also all been collected by Dark Horse if you are interested...

Mike B.

Oh Goody! The Classic series is the one that I really want, there are no comic book shops up here I'd have to order em I suppose.. recomend a site? Would Noble Knight to something like that? I did go down to melbourne and did see some of the collected series but I was pulled out so fast that I didn't get a good chance to look at what was available...
Yes its a pitty about the covers, that would of been a nice added bonus for sure...


Brette:)

Beyondthebreach wrote:Hmmm     I guess I am the only one then who will have nothing to do with a reprinted comic in any way, shape or form?


Don't listen to them Brett!     What does a "colleced reprint edition" of Conan cost anyway?  $24.95?  $29.95?  more?

You could search out large, low-grade lots of Conan on ebay and probably pay less for the entire run than it would to pay for these.  Granted, your first 24 issues will costs a bit more, but if condition isn't a factor (which it is obviously isn't as nothing could be "lower grade" than a reprint!) then even Conan #1 won't be too outrageous.  

Right you are BYB!



There is nothing like the original.



Anyway, here is another one:

http://cgi.ebay.com/Amazing-Spiderman-c ... dZViewItem



That CGC thing really makes a difference. The books that are not rated seem to be selling for 1/3 or less of the CGC books...

Badmike wrote:
Golden Age comics are always worth something, no matter the condition.   And if my brothers had ever destroyed any of my comics, they would be long dead.....

Mike B.

I still have most of them, just missing the covers, and a few pages where they cut out pictures...

Oh, and they did pay.

Kingofpain89 wrote:
As much as I like the Dark Horse series (I have every single issue), I still miss The Savage Sword of Conan magazine that Marvel put out during the 70's and 80's.  The black and white artwork was stunning.  Especially the run by Gary Kwapisz.  IMHO his artwork far exceeded the stuff done by Barry Windsor-Smith, John Buscema, and the other guys that I cant remember right now.  

Yes Savage Sword was classic.  Conan at his best IMHO

Badmike wrote:
But the problem is,with modern printing techniques, the reprints (at least in the case of the Conan comics) look MUCH NICER than the originals. Has a lot to do with being printed on high quality glossy paper over the one step up from newsprint crap they used in the 70s.  The color reprint of Barry's Smith's "Red Nails" blew me away....
PPlus there is the advantage of having the entire run in one spot on your bookshelf instead of in a unwieldy longbox under the bed.....

Mike B.

Nice try Mike    ,but it's kinda like convincing the Acaeum diehards that 3E is actually good . . . I'm just not buying it.  

I've gone both routes with collecting comics — actual issues versus trade-paperback collections — and both have some merits.

With the trades, the savings in both time and money is substantial. Using our Conan discussion as an example, I have collected the first 90 issues of the Marvel-era Conan with almost no effort at all (I typically get them from Amazon) and I've never come close to paying the price that's printed on the cover (Amazon again). And, as mentioned above, modern printing is just light years ahead of 1978 printing, so I'm actually getting a higher-quality product.

Now, I've also collected individual issues of Conan for many years. I have nowhere near a complete run of the first 90 issues, I have no hope of ever owning any of the first five issues (not without a subsequent divorce, that is), I've gotten burned by sellers who have graded their issues too high, I've had to buy issues here and there on eBay (often losing out to a last-minute snipe), wait however long for media mail shipping, and on and on. On the positive side, it's nice to own the actual issues, complete with 1978-style ads for Sea Monkeys.

So which way is better? There's no answer. I'm not claiming this is a winnable argument; I just thought I'd add a voice in support of trade paperback collections. For some people, they will never be good enough; only the actual issues will do. For those of us with limited time, money, and resources, though, they are a very attractive alternative to being thrown into debtor's prison.

I guess it's easy for me to criticize as I've already got my run of Conans     And Red Sonja . . . regrettably I sold my Kull's, but they can be had for cheap.

Incidentally, I will always remember getting Conan #1.  My dad took me to a comic covention  and we searched out a dealer who had a nice, high grade copy.  It was $90 and was my 12th birthday present.  Probably the best gift I've ever gotten.