Old silver age kid here. I have recently tried to get back into some modern stuff. The first thing I learned is that the covers of modern books have little or nothing to do with the story. I loved Spider-Man as a kid, so I have been purchasing and reading the new Ultimate series. I just finished #4, and the whole book was Peter and MJ chit-chatting at dinner with Norman and Gwen. There was not one panel with Spider-Man in the whole book, but it was still a better read than some of the other modern books that I have read with characters standing around going "hnf" multiple times. I have grown up taking Stan Lee for granted, but the writing of modern books sure has caused me to appreciate Lee's ability to allow new readers to jump into the middle of stories and have a fun read. I sure can't say that about many modern books (Marvel books in my case). At $5 a pop, modern books are expensive with often cool covers, and poorly written stories. ' '
I’d say for people getting into comics, trades and compendiums are the way to go, read to stories in the best format then if they like the story get the single issues they want
Very smart suggestions: I basically tell people if they plan to Read and Collect Physically: Tpbs (Boxsets if available to get complete stories) OR THICC Tpbs aka: Compendiums. Although some older Omnibuses such as Dark Horses or IDW do it similarly to Compendiums. I steer them away from: Floppies, Oversized HCs due to them being waaay more expensive than nevessary & they take up alot more space along with being a nightmare to bring outside if you want to read on the go.
Not so much "comic book " but collected editions see I did this around 2021, and i have to shout you and a few other youtubers out for providing us which a large amount of information, being from the UK makes this even harder but honestly watching reviews of omnibus and then being told what you need to have read before hand and what comes after makes such a huge difference. A lot of youtubers have realised to keep this hobby around the best way is to educate new people and i myself am so thank of this, even down to Instagram accounts when you get a new omnibus and just saying how you thought it was and what you'd need to read for it to make sense, this why i started with preacher on your recommendation as its an easy pick up and read and just enjoy, but when it comes to single issues and slabs this is something i have very much stayed away from and as you've said this is purely down to it being a huge wing in prices which make zero sense
The way that I got into collecting was by reading. I grew up in the 80’s where the LCS had a 10 cent bin, and that was my introduction to comics with $3 my dad gave me to spend on what I wanted. Later I spent all my allowance and started to find different ways to make money before I could legally work to buy comics. I would ride my bike about 8 miles down a main road to get to my LCS at that point. I grew to love it. And my collection grew and grew. Then conventions came into my life. I was buying so many books my “too read” pile was becoming unmanageable. At some point I lost interest in some books and sold off pieces of my collection here and there. The more I sold the more I bought. The more I bought the more I knew about key issues and what comics were worth. And I think this is the best way to do it. You learn by doing the work it takes to collect. Researching pricing and having a list you keep in your wallet, or on your iPhones notepad at this point, of books to look out for. For me now, I’ve pared my collection down to books I care about and fund, partially, my collecting by buying books I find along the way that are underpriced or neglected and pass them along to other collectors for a price that’s created to move books and help me grow my collection even more. If you love something you learn it’s ins and outs just by being in it. Do you make some mistakes and missteps? Possibly. But if you love comics, then in the end how much they are worth monetarily doesn’t factor into anything other than how much you have to set aside to get your copy.
I started with my favorite character from the movies, Batman, and asked around what the best series were. I read Year One, Long Halloween, and Dark Knight Returns. The rest is history
You really can’t go wrong with Watchmen or Sandman Neil Gaimen. I’ll hand you that. Especially nerdy high school girls for Sandman it’s got mythology, Shakespeare, goth brooding, it really gets the imagination going, it’s a masterpiece.
I love how you mention to lead them in with reading, so so true! Can’t tell you how many people got in the last few years just wanting to get some of the “cool variant covers and cover buys” literally every person I know who gets in that way bows back out with in a few years when they realize all they have collected is covers that looked cool at the time they bought them and now mean absolutely nothing because there is no content to like and you don’t even know what’s in the book nor do you care much at that point. Sucks all the fun out of the comic… keyword “BOOKS”. Great video again keep it up 👍
The big question here is does your friend want to be a comic book collector or a comic book speculator? In the beginning he was mostly showing you encapsulated books which if his ultimate desire is to speculate then fine. But then if he is looking to experience why comic books are great then how was he going to enjoy them if he can't read them? We are currently in the "Cover Age of Comics". Hundreds/thousands of variant covers that have nothing to do with the interiors. Limited print runs that create collectables for speculators but nothing for the appreciation of the actual comic book enthusiast. Years from now we will look back at this time and shake our heads at the foolishness of it all. Most TH-camrs now only speak about the financial value of today's comic books but never tell you if you should read them or not. I like beautiful cover art but I like good stories and interior art more. It finally looked like he went in the direction you were trying to gently guide him to. Open some great books and enjoy the experience. Hopefully this will help him get to what he is really wanting to go.
Making age appropriate comics available to kids would also help bring in future readers. Not sure how much luck a parent would have picking a random book of the shelf in an LCS Maybe facsimiles of the most classic stories is the way to go? And then if they like those, get a collection of stories from those creators. Eg. A facsimile of FF 52 and, then a collection of Lee and Kirby FF Events from recent decades are too overwhelming with way too many characters and backstory.
My advice would be ( apart from what you said which was all good) would be use a basic price guide ‘ platform’ something like my comic shop where you can view pictures of grades etc then spend about 100 hours watching you tube channels and finally learn from your mistakes and remember you’ve got to be in it for the long haul . Great show ❤keep em coming
For something getting into comics, they would definitely need somebody to guide them. Probably better to start with the classics rather than anything recent. Batman is always good to start reading because there are so many stories that aren't in strict continuity.
Im quite new to the hobby both reading and collecting. Quite overwhelmed with watching a lot of videos where people kind go into dollar bins and pick up keys. I also am having the dilemma of should I just be picking up keys? or should I read first. I read digitally . So should I go about reading digitally and then if I like the series pick out the keys that I like and overtime I will build a wealth of knowledge of which books are keys ? and then will also have the ability to bin dive and find keys ?is that the secret?
"Why don't Marvel and DC comics have a begining, middle and end like manga?" Because they arent supposed to. So many people coming in from outside the hobby have a really hard time wrapping their brain around this concept.
The only way to get a person into comics is to first loan them some trades of some of the very best….Weapon X by Barry Windsor Smith… Byrnes FF….top ten Batman trades…or the best collected stories of whatever genre they are interested in. If they are just wanting to get into CGC encapsulated comic “trading cards”…. I’ll pass.
It’s easy to get into comic books, started at age 12, Avengers 151 was my first purchase, got back into it after my 13 year marriage ended, now have over 6,500+. Love the hobby even at age 60 😊
What got me interested in comics originally was the media I was watching had comic books in it The Simpsons Boy meets world had Cory reading X-men 99 and I searched for that book years later Doug on Nickelodeon had comic books and references Man-O-Steel Man was Doug’s favorite comic character Then Doug became Quail man in his daydream with his friend Skeeter who was Silver Skeeter instead of silver surfer There was other factors like Batman the animated series I’m not sure how to feel about celebrity autographs on a book I have the Futurama voice cast on one of my Futurama comics but it’s more fitting cause it’s been the same cast for 20 years $300 might’ve been a fair price especially if his autograph is $100 when you meet him plus CGC fees and shipping But again at least for me celebrity autographs are tough to gauge because if that celebrity stops being popular the demand for their autograph decreases Where if you have the artist or writer of the book as the autograph more people are going to want a Neal Adams autograph or something It’s why I cringe whenever someone ruins a Silver age book getting the MCU actor like RDJ or Chris Hemsworth to sign it
It's hard because all the really good and desirable comics are friggin expensive. I'm poor. I can't find a wolverine number 1 for reasonable money. You have Jubilee first appearances Going for forty to fifty dollars raw at LCS's. It's almost as if others don't want you in the hobby.
That’s why I build my collection completely from mystery boxes so I don’t have to worry about all this stuff
😂
Old silver age kid here. I have recently tried to get back into some modern stuff. The first thing I learned is that the covers of modern books have little or nothing to do with the story. I loved Spider-Man as a kid, so I have been purchasing and reading the new Ultimate series. I just finished #4, and the whole book was Peter and MJ chit-chatting at dinner with Norman and Gwen. There was not one panel with Spider-Man in the whole book, but it was still a better read than some of the other modern books that I have read with characters standing around going "hnf" multiple times. I have grown up taking Stan Lee for granted, but the writing of modern books sure has caused me to appreciate Lee's ability to allow new readers to jump into the middle of stories and have a fun read. I sure can't say that about many modern books (Marvel books in my case). At $5 a pop, modern books are expensive with often cool covers, and poorly written stories.
'
'
My mate got me into comics when I was a kid, he had such a passion for them and got me hooked with his enthusiasm and knowledge.
I’d say for people getting into comics, trades and compendiums are the way to go, read to stories in the best format then if they like the story get the single issues they want
Very smart suggestions: I basically tell people if they plan to Read and Collect Physically: Tpbs (Boxsets if available to get complete stories) OR THICC Tpbs aka: Compendiums.
Although some older Omnibuses such as Dark Horses or IDW do it similarly to Compendiums.
I steer them away from: Floppies, Oversized HCs due to them being waaay more expensive than nevessary & they take up alot more space along with being a nightmare to bring outside if you want to read on the go.
Not so much "comic book " but collected editions see I did this around 2021, and i have to shout you and a few other youtubers out for providing us which a large amount of information, being from the UK makes this even harder but honestly watching reviews of omnibus and then being told what you need to have read before hand and what comes after makes such a huge difference. A lot of youtubers have realised to keep this hobby around the best way is to educate new people and i myself am so thank of this, even down to Instagram accounts when you get a new omnibus and just saying how you thought it was and what you'd need to read for it to make sense, this why i started with preacher on your recommendation as its an easy pick up and read and just enjoy, but when it comes to single issues and slabs this is something i have very much stayed away from and as you've said this is purely down to it being a huge wing in prices which make zero sense
The way that I got into collecting was by reading. I grew up in the 80’s where the LCS had a 10 cent bin, and that was my introduction to comics with $3 my dad gave me to spend on what I wanted. Later I spent all my allowance and started to find different ways to make money before I could legally work to buy comics. I would ride my bike about 8 miles down a main road to get to my LCS at that point. I grew to love it. And my collection grew and grew. Then conventions came into my life. I was buying so many books my “too read” pile was becoming unmanageable. At some point I lost interest in some books and sold off pieces of my collection here and there. The more I sold the more I bought. The more I bought the more I knew about key issues and what comics were worth. And I think this is the best way to do it. You learn by doing the work it takes to collect. Researching pricing and having a list you keep in your wallet, or on your iPhones notepad at this point, of books to look out for. For me now, I’ve pared my collection down to books I care about and fund, partially, my collecting by buying books I find along the way that are underpriced or neglected and pass them along to other collectors for a price that’s created to move books and help me grow my collection even more. If you love something you learn it’s ins and outs just by being in it. Do you make some mistakes and missteps? Possibly. But if you love comics, then in the end how much they are worth monetarily doesn’t factor into anything other than how much you have to set aside to get your copy.
I started with my favorite character from the movies, Batman, and asked around what the best series were. I read Year One, Long Halloween, and Dark Knight Returns. The rest is history
@Stickygoose do you have a room tour video by chance? Id love to see your set up. Also do you play/collect video games as well? Love your channel❤
You really can’t go wrong with Watchmen or Sandman Neil Gaimen. I’ll hand you that. Especially nerdy high school girls for Sandman it’s got mythology, Shakespeare, goth brooding, it really gets the imagination going, it’s a masterpiece.
Oh ya and cats don’t forget it’s got plenty of cats.
I love how you mention to lead them in with reading, so so true! Can’t tell you how many people got in the last few years just wanting to get some of the “cool variant covers and cover buys” literally every person I know who gets in that way bows back out with in a few years when they realize all they have collected is covers that looked cool at the time they bought them and now mean absolutely nothing because there is no content to like and you don’t even know what’s in the book nor do you care much at that point. Sucks all the fun out of the comic… keyword “BOOKS”. Great video again keep it up 👍
Reading is where it starts. Collecting and investing are byproducts
The big question here is does your friend want to be a comic book collector or a comic book speculator? In the beginning he was mostly showing you encapsulated books which if his ultimate desire is to speculate then fine. But then if he is looking to experience why comic books are great then how was he going to enjoy them if he can't read them? We are currently in the "Cover Age of Comics". Hundreds/thousands of variant covers that have nothing to do with the interiors. Limited print runs that create collectables for speculators but nothing for the appreciation of the actual comic book enthusiast. Years from now we will look back at this time and shake our heads at the foolishness of it all. Most TH-camrs now only speak about the financial value of today's comic books but never tell you if you should read them or not. I like beautiful cover art but I like good stories and interior art more. It finally looked like he went in the direction you were trying to gently guide him to. Open some great books and enjoy the experience. Hopefully this will help him get to what he is really wanting to go.
Could not agree more, great point on how the speculation pricing leverages the naivete of new hobbyists
Great advice Sticky Karen. I got back into the hobby 7 months ago and wasted a lot of money on slabs. Now i will only buy raw.
Making age appropriate comics available to kids would also help bring in future readers. Not sure how much luck a parent would have picking a random book of the shelf in an LCS
Maybe facsimiles of the most classic stories is the way to go? And then if they like those, get a collection of stories from those creators. Eg. A facsimile of FF 52 and, then a collection of Lee and Kirby FF
Events from recent decades are too overwhelming with way too many characters and backstory.
My advice would be ( apart from what you said which was all good) would be use a basic price guide ‘ platform’ something like my comic shop where you can view pictures of grades etc then spend about 100 hours watching you tube channels and finally learn from your mistakes and remember you’ve got to be in it for the long haul . Great show ❤keep em coming
I've always found it weird.How when you go to watch an MCU movie There are never any advertisements for marvel comics.
For something getting into comics, they would definitely need somebody to guide them.
Probably better to start with the classics rather than anything recent.
Batman is always good to start reading because there are so many stories that aren't in strict continuity.
Im quite new to the hobby both reading and collecting. Quite overwhelmed with watching a lot of videos where people kind go into dollar bins and pick up keys. I also am having the dilemma of should I just be picking up keys? or should I read first. I read digitally . So should I go about reading digitally and then if I like the series pick out the keys that I like and overtime I will build a wealth of knowledge of which books are keys ? and then will also have the ability to bin dive and find keys ?is that the secret?
You gave your buddy great advice, man.
It’s just as difficult to get out of books. I have tons of books I’d love to sell. It’s so hard to sell them because buyers are rough.
Random joke: Who is the most popular guy at the nudist colony?
The guy who can carry a dozen donuts and two coffees.
Getting into comics is like having to explore the ocean.
So much info!
I am buying cheap Wolverine. Why? No idea.
"Why don't Marvel and DC comics have a begining, middle and end like manga?"
Because they arent supposed to. So many people coming in from outside the hobby have a really hard time wrapping their brain around this concept.
Don’t forget Free Comic Book Day is coming up this next Saturday.
Actually Sticky X-men Adventures 1 is the 1st app. of Morph in character form.
"Actually Sticky, x men adventures 1. Sounds like you just wrote "Sticky x men adventures 1" wo adding the comma 😅
@@JCtheComicGeek Apparently you aren't familiar with comment sections.
@@WarriorsforInfoTV it was just funny when I read the comment as "Sticky X men adventures 1" I was like did that really come out!?🤣
1st app. in comic books. Not to be pedantic.
@@FormerfishsFinds He has a previous as Kevin Sweeney, but not in Morph form.
I think if u want to read comic and collect books then get a few tpbs from sale shelves if u want covers then just rinse the dollar/pound bins
The only way to get a person into comics is to first loan them some trades of some of the very best….Weapon X by Barry Windsor Smith… Byrnes FF….top ten Batman trades…or the best collected stories of whatever genre they are interested in. If they are just wanting to get into CGC encapsulated comic “trading cards”…. I’ll pass.
👍
Trades or a digital subscription to the publisher is the best way to consume the stories and the ability to jump into other arcs.
It’s easy to get into comic books, started at age 12, Avengers 151 was my first purchase, got back into it after my 13 year marriage ended, now have over 6,500+. Love the hobby even at age 60 😊
What got me interested in comics originally was the media I was watching had comic books in it
The Simpsons
Boy meets world had Cory reading X-men 99 and I searched for that book years later
Doug on Nickelodeon had comic books and references Man-O-Steel Man was Doug’s favorite comic character
Then Doug became Quail man in his daydream with his friend Skeeter who was Silver Skeeter instead of silver surfer
There was other factors like Batman the animated series
I’m not sure how to feel about celebrity autographs on a book I have the Futurama voice cast on one of my Futurama comics but it’s more fitting cause it’s been the same cast for 20 years
$300 might’ve been a fair price especially if his autograph is $100 when you meet him plus CGC fees and shipping
But again at least for me celebrity autographs are tough to gauge because if that celebrity stops being popular the demand for their autograph decreases
Where if you have the artist or writer of the book as the autograph more people are going to want a Neal Adams autograph or something
It’s why I cringe whenever someone ruins a Silver age book getting the MCU actor like RDJ or Chris Hemsworth to sign it
Ron Perlman is woke af.
So is David Harbor
hard? just buy the crap comictom is shilling 😂
Swilling the shill.
It's hard because all the really good and desirable comics are friggin expensive. I'm poor. I can't find a wolverine number 1 for reasonable money. You have Jubilee first appearances Going for forty to fifty dollars raw at LCS's. It's almost as if others don't want you in the hobby.
If you don’t care about collecting as much you can get reprints. They don’t look as good but it’s cheap.
Don’t start by watching TH-cam videos…
Comic Tropes and Total Recall are a must when it comes to informed comics buying and an appreciation of the history of comics and sequential art.
LOL, you don’t get into comics…dude you been collecting for 4 years. You weren’t there when comics were the price on the book.