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Murdonian Size Effort -- Advice needed

I've been collecting comics in one form or the other for close to 30 years. I've accumulated a lot: Essentials, Masterworks, Archives, Microfiche, single issues, Showcases, Chronicles, digital comics, you name it. I decided this year to, as well as keep up with current books weekly, to a historical as published reading of comics, starting with the DC Comics of 1935 (all 5 I have access to) and continue from there. I'm currently in March of 1938. The only publisher is DC Comics (The earliest Marvel and Dell I have access to, I think is 1939; Quality, Fawcett, and Fox 1940), the only comics are More Fun, New Adventure, and Detective. Stand-out features are Slam Bradley, Speed Saunders, Spy, Steve Conrad, Dr. Occult, The Golden Dragon, and Slam Bradley, and fear of the 'yellow peril' is in overdrive as 90% of the threats in the strips seem to come from an Asian threat.

Here is where I need advice. Listening to the spotlights has really made me yearn for the stories mentioned, but at the rate I'm going, I'm a good 10 years (or so it feels) from hitting the 60's. Should I diver from my course? Try to have three different tracts: Current, Silver Age Marvel, and all time?

What would you do?

Comments

  • CaptShazamCaptShazam Posts: 1,178
    I say keep doing what you are doing, but maybe take a break from your historical reading during a weekend once every few months and read some of the later stores just for a fun change of pace.
  • miscatonicmiscatonic Posts: 59
    Where are you getting the info as to publishing dates for the different companies?
  • CourtOfOwlsCourtOfOwls Posts: 41
    The approach you should take, I think, should be based on what your goals or rationale is/are for reading in any given particular order. It also depends on how much time you have free to devote to reading comics. You have a considerable collection, and are significantly behind in your reading. What do want to accomplish? What is your most important priority and/or goal? If you have no deadlines to meet, ie no book your planning to write on your readings, or article that has to be handed in on a certain date, then the only thing that should matter is which approach would be the most fun and meaningful for YOU, personally. If you are able to keep up with your current approach, & you are enjoying reading this way, why change? It sounds like you are having a hard time progressing in your reading doing things your current way - why else would you be asking for advice? - so I would suggest that the best way to resolve the issue to choose based on what gives you the most pleasure and/or least pain.
  • shroud68shroud68 Posts: 457
    I don't see any intellectual, historical or practical reason to try to read from the late 30's to the 60's in such slavish way. I'm no historian but you will see so much connection to Marvel 60's to today's books so why wait. Attack the Silver Age now.
  • gothamkidgothamkid Posts: 42

    Where are you getting the info as to publishing dates for the different companies?

    I use Mike's Amazing World of Comics as my source. This all started when I stumbled upon his website and I wanted to make a chart of the types of stories DC were doing in the Silver Age versus the type of stories Marvel was doing (I think I have a post here somewhere earlier about it). My goal was to try and gather facts to see if the anecdotal tropes of Marvel vs. DC were true re: inter-company crossover frequencies, best use of villains, etc. Then I started charting the Golden Age as my project now became kind of a character appearance cross-index, and then I got the idea, wouldn't it be cool to read the comics I had access to chronologically to mimic the experience of seeing how comics changed over time.
  • TrevTrev Posts: 310
    A very cool and ambitious idea!

    what are you going to do when the genres all go nuts in the 50s? Horror, Crime, Romance, Funny Animal, TV, Movie, Superhero, etc . . . at one point, there will be a lot of books to track -- many in genres that may not appeal to you.

    You're in the easy stage now. :)

    It's a very cool project but all current comics start more or less in the 60's (save Detective and Action) with their universes. There is a fairly hard break between gold and silver for most books, so you could skip gold and start from silver to present.
  • CaptShazamCaptShazam Posts: 1,178
    If you have access to the material, you might as well read the golden age stuff. While the stories may be a chore to read, they still have historical value.

    How much material do you have? Are you buying new stuff to fill in holes or are you just reading what you already have?

    What is your reading schedule like? Sticking too hard to the chronological schedule may lead to burn out and boredom.
  • [Deleted User][Deleted User] Posts: 0
    edited May 2013
    Not sure why a person would do this, other than to satisfy that OCD we all have as collectors. BUT, you're probably missing out on a LOT of good stuff...

    Remember... comics are JUNK publications, especially from the 30's to the late 50's... no slam on comics, but they were, in large part, disposable entertainment, written by the uninterested and uninvested, for an audience of what they perceived to be immature and unintelligent.

    In the Golden Age, you are only going to encounter the diamond in the rough about .05 % of the time, in my opinion. Move into the 60's and you'll hit that about 5% of the time... 70's about 10%, etc...

    My point being, I would hit the high spots, the greatest stories ever told, the Spirit, etc... We only have so much time on this world, and there are a LOT of junk stories. Think about if you were an architecture fanatic, and decided to , instead of visiting the greatest architectural sites known to man, you were going to do it all by some other criteria, which means you have 20 years of strip malls and high-rise college dormatory buildings to see first, before you get to the Pyramids or Notre Dame Cathedral.
  • gothamkidgothamkid Posts: 42

    If you have access to the material, you might as well read the golden age stuff. While the stories may be a chore to read, they still have historical value.

    How much material do you have? Are you buying new stuff to fill in holes or are you just reading what you already have?

    What is your reading schedule like? Sticking too hard to the chronological schedule may lead to burn out and boredom.

    I've been collecting for close to 32 years with a large break in the 90's, and my collection includes issues, pocket digests, trades, hardcovers, digital, and microfiche.

    Based on the comments here, I've tried to break it up. Thursdays and Fridays I normally reserve for current books, then the rest of the week I alternate between Golden Age (I'm in May, 1938) and Marvel Silver Age (Feb. 1960).

  • gothamkidgothamkid Posts: 42
    Tonebone said:

    Not sure why a person would do this, other than to satisfy that OCD we all have as collectors. BUT, you're probably missing out on a LOT of good stuff...

    Remember... comics are JUNK publications, especially from the 30's to the late 50's... no slam on comics, but they were, in large part, disposable entertainment, written by the uninterested and uninvested, for an audience of what they perceived to be immature and unintelligent.

    In the Golden Age, you are only going to encounter the diamond in the rough about .05 % of the time, in my opinion. Move into the 60's and you'll hit that about 5% of the time... 70's about 10%, etc...

    My point being, I would hit the high spots, the greatest stories ever told, the Spirit, etc... We only have so much time on this world, and there are a LOT of junk stories. Think about if you were an architecture fanatic, and decided to , instead of visiting the greatest architectural sites known to man, you were going to do it all by some other criteria, which means you have 20 years of strip malls and high-rise college dormatory buildings to see first, before you get to the Pyramids or Notre Dame Cathedral.

    True but its the forgotten gems in the junk that I want to find. Arguably with my Golden Age reading, I'm before what most people would call the good stuff, but I love the strips by Algiers like Ol' Oz Bopp and the Great Goofo in New Adventures and More Fun, and my absolute favorite golden age strip right now is Slam Bradley from early Detective.

  • gothamkidgothamkid Posts: 42
    For anyone interested, I've started a blog, www.spinnerrack.blogspot.com to track my progress and write my thoughts about what I'm reading. Feel free to check it out and leave comments. Thanks and Welcome in advance.
  • So how has this project been going?
  • WetRatsWetRats Posts: 6,314
    Stay the course!

    Extreme geek cred hangs in the balance.
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