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News & ArtsFriday, February 27, 2009
Books Comic Book Guy
Posted by Paul Constant on Fri, Feb 27, 2009 at 4:54 PM
This is a good idea that's maybe not explored to the fullest: Wired interviewed comic book store employees and owners and took photos of them at work and at home.
The questions seem like a missed opportunity ("If you could be any comic book character, who would it be?" Duh-hut!), but there are little interesting bits sprinkled throughout, occasionally transcending the stereotypes of comics store employees. I especially enjoyed the interview with Olive Panter, the daughter of comics artist Gary Panter (she was named after Olive Oyl, which seems unnecessarily cruel to me). Panter works at a Brooklyn store called Cosmic Comics, and she tells a story that is at once heartbreaking and embarrassing:
On a Wednesday, a regular customer came and bought a ton of comics as per usual. Then the next day he came in he was completely scab-covered and bruised on his face. We were like, "Dude, what happened to you? Are you okay?" Turns out he started falling down on a escalator while holding his comics and rather than protecting his face he protected his comics. But they still got a little bent, so the next day he came back and re-bought them.
1
That's the part of the comicbook scene that I've never understood: the obsession with perfection. When I buy a comic (I prefer buying trade paperbacks to single issues, but either way), they're for reading. They ride around in my bag, they lay next to me in bed, they sit on the coffee table, and when I'm done they are open to be borrowed by anyone interested in reading them. Becaus they're for reading. I find it highly unlikely that, with the saturation of the market, anything that comes out today will be worth that much in the future (unless it's a purposefully small run in order to drive up the price). How can a comicbook be more important to someone than their face?
3
The last guy they interview reminds me so much of a childhood friend o' mine it sort of hurts. The photo of him in his house (defensively posed) is really good.
4
@1:
You've pretty much nailed it. I made a similar comment a while back. Fanboys have forgotten the most essential rule of economics: demand is driven by supply.
The only reason comics have achieved the astronomical value they have as collectors items is because of simple scarcity; that guy about to sell an "Action Comics #1" for umpteen gazillion dollars has millions of American Moms to thank, because they threw out their kid's collections as "junk" 30, 40, 50 or more years ago.
Now that the collector base probably averages in their late 30's and NOBODY THROWS ANYTHING AWAY, none of what they're holding is going to appreciate in value due simply to reduction in supply, because even 20 or 30 years from now, there will still be literally thousands of copies of just about any issue available.
And frankly, condition value isn't going to improve much either, because even casual purchasers (such as myself) don't think twice about spending an extra $0.05 to buy a sleeve and board, while hard-core collectors now go to extraordinary lengths to protect their "investments" So, everything that does survive is going to be in near-mint or better condition, which basically means there's going to be very little to distinguish these thousands of pristine copies.
(And let's not even start on all the so-called "collectors edition" gimmicks publishers have come up with in the past decade or so.)
The only way anybody is going to make any money on any comic sold after about 1985 is to have complete collections in mint condition, but even then I suspect we're not going to see anybody willing to fork over a cool half-mil for "The Boys #1" or any other contemporary comic series.
You've pretty much nailed it. I made a similar comment a while back. Fanboys have forgotten the most essential rule of economics: demand is driven by supply.
The only reason comics have achieved the astronomical value they have as collectors items is because of simple scarcity; that guy about to sell an "Action Comics #1" for umpteen gazillion dollars has millions of American Moms to thank, because they threw out their kid's collections as "junk" 30, 40, 50 or more years ago.
Now that the collector base probably averages in their late 30's and NOBODY THROWS ANYTHING AWAY, none of what they're holding is going to appreciate in value due simply to reduction in supply, because even 20 or 30 years from now, there will still be literally thousands of copies of just about any issue available.
And frankly, condition value isn't going to improve much either, because even casual purchasers (such as myself) don't think twice about spending an extra $0.05 to buy a sleeve and board, while hard-core collectors now go to extraordinary lengths to protect their "investments" So, everything that does survive is going to be in near-mint or better condition, which basically means there's going to be very little to distinguish these thousands of pristine copies.
(And let's not even start on all the so-called "collectors edition" gimmicks publishers have come up with in the past decade or so.)
The only way anybody is going to make any money on any comic sold after about 1985 is to have complete collections in mint condition, but even then I suspect we're not going to see anybody willing to fork over a cool half-mil for "The Boys #1" or any other contemporary comic series.
6
The ultimate answer to the question "If you had a superpower, what would it be?" was given by a cartoonist named Chris Goodchild at an interview last month at the Library about cartooning. He said "I want the power to reach into my dreams and bring the things I dreamed about into real life." NO MORE CALLS, WE HAVE A WINNER.
7
@1, 4, you're missing the point; there's no thought to an "investment" in these items, or actual perceived intrinsic monetary value. This compulsion to "collect" whatever pop culture detritus is fundamentally almost indistinguishable from a disorder that drives an ill person to collect cats or mason jars of their urine.
8
... how do these questions present a missed opportunity? They're retail employees. Not diplomats or Nobel laureates. Jesus Christ.
9
Flight or invisibility?
I think it's a symptom of Seattle's passive-aggression, how many people here would choose invisibility.
I think it's a symptom of Seattle's passive-aggression, how many people here would choose invisibility.
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