More about a collector who considers non-superhero classics valuable
The Wilmington Town Crier interviewed a local collector who was mentioned in this previous news item, who's fond of storing Golden Age classics, including comics that aren't superhero fare:
And while I think it's admirable Mr. Cole read humor comics that weren't superhero fare in his youth, not only is it sad if he's only collecting for the sake of the speculator market, it's got to be telling if now, he's auctioning it off to more people who'll continue to keep in vaulted away and never read by anyone else. Again, what good is all this profiteering doing the industry? Hardly any. A really serious specialist would be campaigning for reprint archives of all sorts of golden oldies, superhero or otherwise. And from what I can tell, we still have a long way to go before that goal is reached.
Philip Cole’s comic book collection is so famous that it has its own name: the PACole Collection — more than 1,000 graded books that have been admired, and coveted, by fellow collectors for decades.On that note, there's a number of comics from both DC and Marvel's Golden Age resume that possibly haven't been reprinted yet, simply because they're not superhero fare, and that must be their justification for letting them all gather dust in the warehouses. Well that's not right, and as somebody who's lamented how the speculator market takes up far more attention than the archiving and reprinting industry, I find it appalling if the Big 2 let anything languish in obscurity simply because it doesn't fit a narrative. Which could also apply to some of their superhero fare of the time too, if it hasn't been reprinted yet (much of the Golden Age Hawkman hasn't beyond about 20 stories or so, or has long gone out of print in archives). Interesting the paper says the Richie Rich comics aren't as likely to draw much attention, considering a short time ago, they were appearing on the market. Guess they haven't paid much attention themselves.
They’ll have a shot at owning some of these prized books when ComicConnect hosts the debut of the PACole Collection as part of its Event Auction 57, starting Feb. 26.
One part of Cole’s collection, though, is not likely to bring as much attention as the others. Still, it’s “near and dear to my heart,” as he puts it: Richie Rich. It’s where his love of comic books began as a kid growing up in Dunkirk, New York, a town about an hour south of Buffalo on the shores of Lake Erie.
“In the collection is the first comic I ever bought — Richie Rich,” said Cole, 61, who lives in Wilmington, a suburb of Boston. “I was maybe 9 or 10. I remember taking my allowance and paper route money and swinging around every week to the four newsstands in my hometown. They knew me. They would hold the new comics behind the counter until I could get there.”
He would also sneak peeks at the comics kept in the attic by his brother, who was 10 years older. One of them was a Golden Age DC title, Sugar and Spike, featuring the misadventures of two toddlers who communicate via “baby talk” with each other and to other infants, but not to adults.
And while I think it's admirable Mr. Cole read humor comics that weren't superhero fare in his youth, not only is it sad if he's only collecting for the sake of the speculator market, it's got to be telling if now, he's auctioning it off to more people who'll continue to keep in vaulted away and never read by anyone else. Again, what good is all this profiteering doing the industry? Hardly any. A really serious specialist would be campaigning for reprint archives of all sorts of golden oldies, superhero or otherwise. And from what I can tell, we still have a long way to go before that goal is reached.
Labels: conventions, dc comics, history, marvel comics, msm propaganda, sales
