My latest column for CBG, on all the fun Superboy had during his hazy, crazy days in school has been posted to the CBG website. You can read it here: http://cbgxtra.com/columnists/craig-shutt-ask-mr-silver-age/superboys-school-daze-ask-mr-silver-age-cbg-1683-november-2011
-- MSA
Replies
...This link is not active anymore. Has anyone have a copy or recorded this link! Again i guess that I was in another time portal....I did not know that Comic Buyer's Guide ceased publication with the March 2013 issue! Somewhere in my garage I have a large box full of these past issues! I tried to give these away about 10 to 15 years ago but none of the comic shops in my area wanted them even for free! When my kids were teenagers I was more active on reading and collecting comic books! Attended most of the sci-fi/comic book conventions in my area in the late 1980's and 1990's. I still have a large collection...meaning many boxes of superhero comics from mainly the 1990's plus a large sprinkling of silver age ones! I guess that I may be out of touch today....it seems that the conventions of today cater mainly to people who like to dress up and play superhero for a week-end! I do like seeing all of the activity but miss the days when the conventions was mainly for the buying/selling of comics and superhero toys...books....posters...etc. Most of the program schedule was for visiting past stars such as Johnny Weismuller, Roy Rodgers...etc..... and watching the old movie serials such as the Batman serial of 1948(?) But times change and one must adapt or get left behind! Anyway I can now watch these serials at home cause I have the DVD collection!
Internet Archive has a copy here. It lacks the images I fear.
The CBGxtra site was still (partially) available for awhile after the magazine was cancelled. I'm glad to see that some of it was preserved.
There are smaller, less-publicized comic conventions actually involving comic books in many parts of the U.S. and presumably other countries. Does anyone know of a listing somewhere on the Internet that would make it possible to find these smaller cons?
According to this page there are 337 individual items from CBG available.
CBG is gone but Antique Trader continues. Clearly there are a lot more people into antiques than comics.
did not know that Comic Buyer's Guide ceased publication with the March 2013 issue!
That's a big reason why it ceased publication; many of its former readers found enough of what they wanted online and didn't need what CBG could provide. It made a last-ditch effort to draw in people with a monthly version that included a price guide, but that was so far from it's original mission that it couldn't make it work.
Even so, it outlasted Wizard, which I never expected. I liked CBG's mix of new and old and reviews, but nobody needs to pay to find their favorite blend of that mix online today.
I tried to give these away about 10 to 15 years ago but none of the comic shops in my area wanted them even for free!
Thanks for sharing that information <g>. Issues get posted to eBay all the time for $2-3 apiece, but I don't know that they ever sell. Outdated classified ads, news stories and features probably don't have a large audience. And the long life makes it daunting to collect an entire set. Wizard and other magazines also come up, but they don't sell either, so it's not just CBG.
I still have a large collection...meaning many boxes of superhero comics from mainly the 1990's
From my experience, those will sell approximately as well as your CBGs. I'm not sure what I'm going to do with my 1990s comics that I'll never read again, but the day is quickly coming where I'm going to do something with them.
it seems that the conventions of today cater mainly to people who like to dress up and play superhero for a week-end!
If you mean they cater more to women and families, that's true. My only problem with that is that so many people cosplay as anime and videogame characters I've never heard of or seen, so I don't know how good they are. But I'll take little boy and girls dressed up as Spidey and WW over large guys dressed in black t-shirts they've been wearing all week.
I do find that the big cons in Chicago have less availability of SA reading copies, probably for several reasons. Reprints have made originals in that condition less in demand, there are far more comics out there between then and now, and less of the audience is trying to relive their childhood by regaining cheap copies of those comics. For whatever reason, I've almost given up on hunting for back issues at cons.
miss the days when the conventions was mainly for the buying/selling of comics and superhero toys...books....posters...etc.
There's definitely more attention to merchandise and movie/TV shows, but that's as true of what you find in comics shops as at comics conventions.
I don't know what cons you're going to, as the ones I see are filled to the brim with toys, books, posters, etc. The book market is overflowing with collections of recent comics, older comics, comic strips, original comics, etc. Many of the toys are based on the plethora of movies out there, but there's a lot of merchandise showing old-time covers and such as a nod to retro.
There's probably more interest from more people beyond comics geeks than ever before. The questions I can ask in a trivia contest keeps dwindling because everyone knows comics characters now.
Much of the interest derives from movies, of course, but still, Iron Man statues, action figures, POP figures etc. are still IM figures.
>>Most of the program schedule was for visiting past stars such as Johnny Weismuller, Roy Rodgers...etc.....<<
Unfortunately, the problem there is that those old TV stars and SA (much less GA) creators have gone to join the choir invisible. You can't blame con organizers for that. And, sad to say, back when I was going to SD and they had creator-oriented panels on SA stars, there were about 10 of us in the room to see it.
>> Anyway I can now watch these serials at home cause I have the DVD collection! <<
That's certainly part of why it's not done any more. Those are different to watch in a large crowd, but they're not quite as hard to find any more.
I agree that conventions are changing, but I don't know that it's all (or even mostly) bad. But those who do miss the days that Gil Kane used to sit on the floor in the hallway doing free sketches are going to be sad.
There are still small one- and two-day shows around in hotels in small towns and cities, and they usually have a few local creators come in. But I find those have exponentially less of interest to me than larger shows. The chances of me finding material or merchandise I want is much lower, and the chances I want to see the creators is pretty slim, as they're most likely doing one of the 10,000 comics coming out today I have no interest in.
-- MSA
You have to pick through a lot of Robert Downey stuff to find the rare Gene Colan Iron Man piece of merchandise. Today's Iron Man looks less friendly than the old grey suit that girl said should be made gold in Tales of Suspense#40 because she thought he looked scary.
That's true, but that Gene Colan piece probably wouldn't be there at all without the Robert Downey pieces. The Iron Man POP figure could have anyone inside, but he only gets made because there are movies. I figure it can only be a good thing when the demand for Iron Man merchandise is high. Some of it will involve cool comics images.
-- MSA