Superman Through the Ages! Forum

So, what other comics do you all collect?

I collect only Superman titles every moth. But, I read other things in Trade Paperback. Most notably, Justice League.

-Ray

I collect Supergirl and Superboy classic comics :D

I am also starting to get into classic Batman comics as well.

As far as the Superman books go, I regularly pick-up Birthright and Superman/Batman, both of which I enjoy very much.  The others - Action, Adventures, and Superman - I'll pick-up (or not) on a case-by-case basis.  I'm currently checking out the new team - looking up, but it's not really anything to write home about.  The recent deluxe projects I enjoyed were Red Son and Secret Identity.

I also regularly read Fantastic Four (Waid and Wieringo), The Escapist (Michael Chabon and many others), Bone (Jeff Smith), and Uncle Scrooge (for the Don Rosa stories).

Sounds like a small list, but it sure costs a bundle!

I try to collect Supergirl comics aswell. Preferably the silver age books but it gets pricey. Alot of the times i'll buy whatever's cool. Toys, unusual covers, really eye catching art. I wish i had more money...

Hi. I just registered just recently. I stopped collecting shortly after the "Death of Superman" with Doomsday.  It was enough of a shock when Byrne completely revised the character but then everything changed.
I have a collection of Action and Superman dating back to 1958. I also collected GL, Superboy, Supergirl, Flash and just about anything else. I also have the complete Crisis series including all crossovers and the Who's Who series and much more. Over 3000 at last count. I'm thinking of starting to collect again.

I can't say I have a big interest in new comics anymore.

I still like to see what's going on, but I feel the best comics right now are being published by independents.  I think the last really good thing DC published was the Bizarro Comics book, because independent creators were allowed to do whatever they wanted with DC's mainstream characters--and it worked!

My focus seems to have shifted almost entirely to old comics, and I find myself searching for more comics from that golden era 1962-1972.

Why is this a golden era?  Well from about '72 onward I had enough money to buy the comics I really liked so there's very few titles I missed.  If I missed 'em it's because I didn't care for them, and wouldn't much care for them now. So from about '72 onward, with few exceptions, I have all the comics I ever wanted.  And before '62 the cost of buying back issues is beyond the actual entertainment value of the comics themselves--again with a few exceptions.  But between '62 and '72 there's enough comics I don't have that I want to have for a reasonable price that this seems to be my main focus now.

Of course it helps that most of my favourite artists and writers and editor were active during this period (Carmine Infantino, Gil Kane, Curt Swan, Joe Kubert, Murphy Anderson, Sid Greene, Bob Oksner, Kurt Schaffenberger, George Papp, George Klein, Edmond Hamilton, Jerry Siegel, Gardner Fox, John Broome, Arnold Drake, Otto Binder, Leo Dorfman, Mike Sekowsky, E. Nelson Bridwell, and Julius Schwartz).

It's rather funny -- I abandoned comics after the Crisis, though I kept myself semi-informed about what was happening at DC.  Got a couple comics in the 1990s, but they were "special events".  It wasn't until "Many Happy Returns" and the ending of the Supergirl seires (which I rarely paid attention to during its run) that I realized it was the death of Kara Zor-El that disillusioned me.

So for the last year I've been gradually collecting old DC comics -- mainly the Super-titles, but occasionally a "bargain bin" series captures my fancy.  I got back in at the right time.  Since five local comic book stores have either moved, changed owners or gone out of business, I've been able to grab a lot of Silver/Bronze Age issues for literally pennies (I'm not very fussy about condition).

Completed Sets

DC:  Supergirl v1, v2; Who's Who v1; DC Challenge!; The Man of Steel; World of Krypton v.1, v.2; World of Smallville; World of Metropolis, Superman:  The Secret Years; The Legend of Wonder Woman; Amethyst v1, v3; Isis; Atlantis Chronicles; Crisis on Infinite Earths (TPB); History of the DC Universe; Spanner's Galaxy: Sun Devils; Shadow Cabinet; Scarlett; Lab Rats (OK, that series was dirt cheap -- and STILL not worth it!); Superman: Metropolis; Zero Hour; Superman vs. Aliens I; Conqueror of the Barren Earth; Invasion; The Krypton Chronicles; Phantom Zone; Rip Hunter: Time Master; The Prisoner; Phantom Stranger v.3.

Non-DC:  DNAgents, Terra Obscura

Nearly Complete

DC:  Superman Family (1 left!); Secret Origins v.3 (3 left); Wonder Woman v.1 #244-329 (25 left); Amethyst v.2 (4 left); Adventure Comics #381-424 (11 left); Silverblade (1 left).

Still Collecting

DC:  Batman Family v.1, v.2, Power Company; Night Force v.1, v.2; DC Comics Presents; The Huntress v.1; Crisis and Zero Hour crossovers; plus large runs of Action Comics, Superman, Teen Titans/Team Titans, Legion of Super-Heroes, Tales of the Legion of Super-Heroes, Legionnaires, and The Legion.

Non-DC:  Elementals v.1, v.2

Current Comics

DC:  Superman:  Secret Identity, and selected issues of Action Comics, Adventures of Superman, Superman, Superman/Batman, JSA.

Not bad for one year, huh?   :wink:

I can't really say that I "collect" other comics but I do buy stuff other than Superman if that's what you mean.  

Superman I've got:

Action comics archvies 1-3
Superman achives 1-6
Supergirl archives 1-2
I'd say around 25 other hardcovers that are about Superman
Around 100-150 Superman comics.  Some reprints, some original old ones.
A lot of other books I don't see now and will only think tonight in my sleep...lol...

Not Superman:
About 20 to 30 Marvel Essentials
Most of the Millenium Editions
Batman through the 50s, 60s, ect.
1 of Batman Archives, Spectre ARchives, Aquaman archives.
A few Marvel masterworks.
3 or 4 Chris Reeve Bios
Lots of 100 pages reprints, ect...  I love reprints.
Dc Greatest stories - got 'em all!  (Flash, Superman, Joker, ect...)
A lot of mags that have Superman movies' pictures
Other stuff too I can't think of.

I collect
Hard Time (DC Focus)
Kinetic (DC Focus)
Wonder Woman
Supreme Power
and
Street Fighter

I buy comics to read, not collect.

Solo

I'll probably buy the new Supergirl comic, when it comes out.

Green Lantern: Rebirth curently and probably the fist arc of the new Green Lantern comic.

As to Superman, I'm getting the collections.  60's, 70's, 80's.  The Silver Age archives.

But, I'm finding more entertainment in titles such as Go Girl! of Dark Horse and Flare of Heroic Publishing.

The only comic I went after as far as collections go came out long after I quit collecting from DC or Marvel and it was the "Lost In Space" series that was based on the old 60's TV show.  :roll:

I collected comics heavily in college, but since then (the late 90's), I guess I've drifted away from buying them (too annoyed with stuff like endless crossovers, the current "Batgod"/jerk qualities of Batman, buying other stuff, a lack of $$$, etc.).

These days, I seem to be mostly buying 70's and 80's back issues of stuff like New Adventures of Superboy, All-Star Squadron, and Superman.

Also taken to buying trade paperback compilations---"Crisis On Multiple Earths" , "Superman in the 70's"---along with various comic strip compilations, though from what I've seen (via lurking before registering with here a few days ago) there might not be much of an audience on here for what I like to read, since among my comic strip compilations include "This Modern World" (left-leaning alternative newspaper comic strip), "Doonesbury" and "Chelsea Boys" (a gay-oriented comic strip); also enjoy reading "FoxTrot", "Dilbert", "Sally Forth," "Pearls Before Swine," "Get Fuzzy", "Funky Winkerbean," and "Dykes to Watch Out For" (strip about the lives of various middle-aged lesbian women, with some amount of political humor thrown in).

Well, we're not all "right wing nut jobs".  Just me and a couple others.  :D

If I'm not a big fan of some of those strips, it's not so much because of their political leanings but because they're political at all.  I don't think it's possible to be preachy and funny at the same time (which is why M*A*S*H went in the toilet so early and stayed there).

But wait a minute, is "This Modern World" the one by Tom Tomorrow? 'Cause if nothing else at least the art is cool on that one.  I used to dig "Funky Winkerbean" back when the cast was in high school and it was more humor-oriented than the "Gasoline Alley"-type slice of life stuff Batiuk's doing now (he's a nice guy, though...met him at Mid-Ohio Con a couple of times).  "Sally Forth" I don't get at all...on that strip's best day ever you might get a mild chuckle. Makes "Family Circus" look like a laugh riot.

In general the decline of newspaper comics has been even more dramatic and complete than that of comic books.  I haven't seen a really strong strip since "Calvin."  But I do love the old stuff: "Krazy Kat," "Polly And Her Pals" and "Pogo" (hey, that got pretty left-leaning!).  Plus the adventure strips that, after all, spawned comic books in the first place: "Wash Tubbs and Captain Easy", "Dick Tracy", "Tarzan", "Terry and the Pirates" and "The Phantom."  And in the event of fire, I'd probably leave behind my "Superman Archives" and save my complete Kitchen Sink collection of Alex Raymond "Flash Gordon" hardbacks!

As far as daily newspaper strips go, "Mutts" is extrememly well done and very funny.  I find it reminiscent of Krazy Kat and Peanuts.

I may be a nut job, but I'm not a right-wing one.  More left-wing with some libertarian tendencies.

Im with Niight wing on the Flash Gordons by Alex Raymond altho I only have the lone Nostalgia Press volume in glorious black nd white.

I enjoy reading Mutts when I happen to pick up a paper which is rare but some of the other juist leave me cold.

And yes, Calvin and Hobbes are sorely missed in their brilliance.

I like my comics to be just that - comics and not op-ed editorials.  If I want politics, I'll read the US News & World report or some such political tracts.

Though I didn't use the phrase "right/left wing nut job," my political leanings are, well, pretty leftist (don't expect to see me chaining myself to trees or anything anytime soon, though ;-) ). And as long as I'm listing "groups I'm a part of", I'm also African-American and gay, which probably influences some of my outlooks on such matters...

I do think that political humor (of whatever stripe) can be done in comics---it's quite a versatile medium. Whether it's done well, or one agrees with the viewpoint expressed might be another matter (I don't agree with "Mallard Fillmore" or "Prickly City"'s conservative perspectives, but of the two, the latter's much better done than the former...). The fact that I drew political cartoons (however badly done) in college might influence my feelings on this matter, though. ;-)

Social commentary, or a serious analysis of matters, in comics can also be done---see comics such as "Maus" (which I haven't read, I admit), along with probably a few independent publications out there...

Yep, "This Modern World"'s done by Tom Tomorrow.

Granted, the comics page is littered with stuff like "Garfield" or "Hi and Lois", but I do like a lot of the better done newer strips out there, along with old ones (particularly "Peanuts", "Calvin and Hobbes," "Bloom County" and "The Far Side").

All the above said, though, comic books for me usually = reading about, well, Superman. :-)

I bought my last comic in 1972 and my family has long since thrown them away...

Mainly Superman, Superboy, Action, Adventure, with the isolated odd others...I was a big fan of the Barry Allen Flash and usually bought JLA 80 page giants...

Hadn't even heard of the Crisis untill 2000 or so...

Sorry, didn't mean to imply you called anyone a "right wing nut job," I was just adopting the term from that hilarious "JibJab" internet film last year, arguably the single bright spot in an otherwise miserable slugfest of an election.

You'd be the "liberal weiner." :-)

I guess my issue with political "humor" is that by definition (at least these days) no matter which way you lean, you're taking a side roughly half the country won't agree with.  And humor that divides is, for me, a contradiction in terms.

Plus, once we know a cartoonist's views there's really no reason to keep reading...we get the point.  By now the only reason to read Doonesbury is to see exactly HOW he will skewer the right.  Ho-hum.  This kind of thing was probably "radical" and "dangerous" back when he started (in Nixon days?), but by now its a tired cliche.  Just like Saturday Night Live...you can only be "the rebel" for so long...eventually just by hanging around long enough you become an "institution."  And in comedy, that's a death sentence.

Oh, yeah, I remember that film now... that was amusing. :-)



Well, true... but sometimes politically-oriented comics can make or express an argument in ways that other media might not be able to convey... or if (sadly enough) other media don't bother to cover at all. Early 20th century political cartoonists, IIRC, were fairly influential in their time...



Well, I still think Doonesbury has life left to it (and it isn't all about politics---the fact the characters have actual lives besides commenting on the latest political hijinks puts it halfway between just "about politics" and the usual newspaper comic strips. Plus, Trudeau does occasionally criticize the left/his strip's leftist characters...). (The strip was started around 1970, during the Nixon years)

Granted, I'm also looking at all this from the perspective of someone who's been reading comic strips since I was five, longer than comic books even (I'm 29 now)... though my enjoyment of Superman (thanks to, well, watching his various cartoons on TV as a kid, along with the Reeve films) has been around about as long.

To make a formal list (pulled from my bookmarks) of what comic strips I usually read: Baldo, The Boondocks, Crankshaft (thinking of dropping), Dilbert, Doonesbury, Dykes to Watch Out For, For Better or For Worse, FoxTrot, Funky Winkerbean, Get Fuzzy, La Cucaracha, Luann, Monty,Mother Goose and Grimm, Mutts, Sally Forth, Pearls Before Swine, This Modern World.

As for "Saturday Night Live," the word "mercy killing" would sum up my feelings toward giving it the axe about now (haven't liked it since "Wayne's World"). ;-)

(http://www.samcci.comics.org/notbrandechh/forbush-man.gif)

I like nick fury and of curse Frobushman :P

I have the Superman Funeral series from 1993 in near mint condition.

I am trying to find the last two from the 4 part series of DC vs. Marvel.
I have episodes 1 & 2, I need 3 and 4 which were published in 1996.

This one had me up against Thor, Supes against the Hulk, Batman against Captain America, Aquaman against Sub-Mariner, etc;  
 The crossover series.   I am just trying to find the last two to the 4 part series.