The Four Color Media Monitor

The subject of wrapping comics in plastic both hard and soft has surfaced again, and as someone who thinks that reading is more important than the value of money these books can have, I'm not pleased at all:

Remember when comic books were considered too juvenile to be read? Now it appears that they have become too valuable to be touched.

A company in Sarasota, Fla., has created a sensation among collectors by taking their comic books, both rare vintage issues and brand-new ones, and encasing them in plastic slabs that make them both unreadable and instantly more valuable.

What's so valuble about them if they can't be read? Somehow, I fail to see the point in these steps.

Depending on the age and pedigree of the book being appraised and "slabbed," CGC charges from $12 to $1,000 for its services, and in upcoming months, the 7-year-old company will slab its 1 millionth comic book. That book may be a 68-year-old issue of Detective Comics that introduced Batman; it now costs as much as a Porsche. But it could also be the latest $3 issue of "World War Hulk." About half of the books that come to CGC are fresh from the printer, and probably 80 percent of them have never been read.

Given that Marvel's latest x-over would surely have to be worthless, isn't that why there's less of a point in slabbing them to begin with?

Fortunately, there are those who don't find this something to smile about at all, and rightfully so:

All of this seems like heresy to many old-time comic collectors.

"It's changed the nature of the hobby. It's turned comic books into a medium of exchange instead of a medium of entertainment," said James Friel, who works at Comic Relief, the landmark store in Berkeley, Calif. To Friel, who has been collecting comics since 1958, "it makes these books a sealed-up commodity. You can't read them. It makes me sad. Some of these books will be sealed up forever."

Frank Miller, possibly the most important comic book artist of the last two decades, has seen plenty of fans lock up his books in the slabs in recent years, and he shakes his head at the whole concept.

"I think it's all pretty silly," said Miller, whose graphic novels "300" and "Sin City" were made into hit movies. "But I'm of a generation that loves the feel and smell of these ephemeral old leaflets. ... Maybe it will get to the point where I can put out comics that have blank pages inside - just covers - and no one will notice."

They're right, it's disgraceful indeed. To think that some jerks - yes, some JERKS - out there are buying comics NOT for the purpose of reading and re-reading them, and encouraging others to do the same, but rather, for the monetary value?!? For heavens sake, that just shows how comic books have spectacularly failed to make a genuine impression on some people. And those people, who decidedly are worth taking to task, don't deserve to have any comics if that's all they're going to do with them. They should be ashamed of themselves for just buying the books for monetary value! That's another problem with comics today, and as I can see, it's also why some bad comics ostensibly sell well in spite of having a bad story inside. Because non-reading collectors are buying them up like hot cakes. But why should a book that's bad have any genuine market value? Especially if it turns out that the story say, has anti-patriotic leanings to it, or any other kind of negative example?

These collectors with no concern or interest whatsoever in story value are exactly what need to be taken to task and denounced for their foolish choices. Because that's another way in which comic books get ruined.