http://www.krause.com/static/comics.htm
If nothing else, this book will make a great paperweight during a tornado. Man, this sucker has to weigh close to 6 pounds. You hit a bug with this, the bug is going to know it has been hit, letmetellyou.
Krause Publications, the brains behind the Comic Buyers Guide, have released a nifty Big book (as opposed to a nifty –little- book) designed to compete with the main bible of the Comic book industry, The Official Overstreet Comic Book Price Guide.
What they did instead, at least to me, is deliver a massive tome that works in conjunction with the Overstreet guide. Combing information from the “Comic Base” CD (http://www.comicbase.com/news.asp) and lots of research the authors and editors have come up with this new edition, loaded with over 140,000 items.
And it is scary to open at first. You almost hear the sound of Maggie Thompson laughing evilly behind you, saying, “So, you think you know Comic Books?” hahahahahaha… although a nice person, Ms. Thompson can be dangerous when sensing a victim.
This thing tries to list every Comic sold in the U.S. at least the English-language books, including reprints, Archive Editions and Marvel Masterworks, DC Digests and for the love of mike it even has a section dealing with one of my personal favorites, ARCHIE DIGESTS!!!
But, it even includes Mad, Heavy Metal, Warren, Creepy and Cracked.
This alone was a massive undertaking. But, it was not enough; no, not for these psy… uhm.. Professionals… Yeah. That’s it.
They also include the original cover price when they can plus a price for it now in near-mint condition, plus a table to work out prices for different grades. In some cases, it also has a CGC price listed, with a high and low price for the book at auction.
As if that was not enough, you can usually find cover dates, and story information on many books. As an example… No, I don’t want to use that one… Ah, here was go, page 508, “Family Affair”, Gold Key. A Brief history of the original TV show and the Comic, with information about the poster that was with issue #1, number of issues, and date it came out, January of 1970. Dear God, how old am I? I remember seeing that book.
Some of the listings include Diamond or Capitol City distribution numbers, artists, writers and there are lots of keen photos. And you thought the work “keen” would never be used in a review, didn’t you?
This book is nothing short of great. Like I said, it is not a replacement to the Overstreet as much as it is a book that can go along with it. Using both as reference works would help just about any collector fill in their empty spaces or win at Trivial Pursuit.
And I am sure that folks with sharper eyes then mine will spot things that are out of place or downright wrong, but I think it pretty well covers a lot of information and does it very well.
I did notice that there does seem to be a genre missing, however. I didn’t find some of Skywald or Stanley Magazines listed. Yes, they had a few but not all of them. I could not find Skywald’s “Terror Tales” for one, but since I am probably one of the few that remember them it isn’t that big a deal.
This is a treasure to have, and truth to tell…
It is a lot of fun just to look through.