Discussing the minutiae of comic book collecting.
Discussing the minutiae of comic book collecting.
Your friend and mine, Walter Durajlija, the “Big” in Big B Comics, has initiated a panel discussion of Canadian Comics that will take place at Niagara Falls Comic Con (June 8-9) at the Scotia bank Convention Centre.. The panel itself…
Interest in Canadian war-time comics, popularly known as the “Canadian Whites” is growing and with a scarce and limited supply of them available, their values continue to escalate. The other day I picked up one of my WECA books and…
G.I. Combat #138, DC Comics, (November/December 1969) DC War comics are a very active collecting strain. I’ve features two DC War comics here on the Undevalued Spotlight. Spotlight #7 featured the 1st Sgt. Rock while Spotlight #2 featured the 1st…
In the mid 1950s the U.S. Senate forced comic book publishers to adhere to the guidelines of a Comic Code Authority. The ‘Code’ was brought in to protect America’s youth from what was then deemed disturbingly graphic and blatantly sexual…
There were four main publishers of Canadian comics in the WECA era. Anglo-American Publications out of Toronto and Vernon Miller’s Leaf Publications out of Vancouver started the whole thing off in March of 1941 with the issue of Robin…
The Funny Comics was the penultimate main title to come out of Commercial Signs/Bell Features in the early forties. First came Wow Comics in Sept. of 1941, then Dime Comics and Active Comics in Feb. of 1942, followed by Joke…
What are the key factors that drive demand and thus values in comics? What should be on your checklist when looking to invest in a comic book? Basic Economics 101 tells us it’s all about supply and demand and I…
Crime Does Not Pay #22, Comic House Inc (July 1942) Here’s another Spotlight I’ve been sitting on for a while, not sure why I haven’t posted it yet? Put simply Crime Does Not Pay #22 is one very important comic…
As a boy I never missed the X-Men cartoon every Saturday morning. Compared to the other buttoned-down members of the X-Men, Wolverine was the dynamic anti-hero with a mysterious past. Despite his inner rage and desire for revenge against those…
Ted(d) Steele With April Fool’s day just passing by, I want to bring attention to perhaps the quirkiest comic creator from the WECA period, Tedd Steele. Theodore Arthur Steele was born on April Fool’s Day, 1922 and his creative juices…
Avengers Special #1, Marvel Comics (September 1967) The Avengers went through a major line-up change back in Avengers #16 (May 1965). Iron Man, Thor, Wasp and Giant Man left leaving Captain America, Hawkeye, Quicksilver and Scarlet Witch as the new…
No, this is not going to be a piece about good girl art in the WECA books, nor about the small handful of female heroes (Nelvana, The Wing, Polka-Dot Pirate, Betty Burd etc.) that graced the pages of those…
Amazing Spider-Man #360, Marvel Comics (March 1992) You know which comic book characters are proving to be important to the collecting community these days? Venom is important as is Michone as is Deadpool as is Carnage. Younger collectors love owning…
The use of this term “WECA period” or “WECA books” is probably unfamiliar to a lot of you. I use these terms to more accurately describe the First Age of Canadian Comics—those books more commonly and affectionately referred to as…
Robin Hood Comics Vol. 3 #34, Anglo American, (Dec 46/Jan 47) The second Canadian Whites (or WECA period) meeting was held by the “Team Canada” group, or is it the “Eh Team”? Actually we have no formal name yet…
A few weeks back, in my “Team Canada” post, I made the point that WECA era books did not produce a super hero team like the JSA at National. This week I want to make note of the fact that…
Comictrend’s Marvel Modern Age Index was the star performer for 2012, outshining the Silver and Bronze Age indexes. In fact, the latter indexes had ho-hum years. In a year when the Avengers smashed box office records and many high profile…
Imagine that time in Canada during the early forties with the spectre of war looming over the homefront. No internet, no computers, no reality shows (except for war newsreels) or TV to speak of and everything in film-noir black-and-white. The…
ComicLink just wrapped up their February Featured Auction, which had a considerable amount of original comic art. In fact most of it was silver age, with a smattering of golden age and modern. A lot of great stuff, but the ones below…