Silver Age Comic Book treasures

The Treasure of Bellevue, Nebraska.

Chuck, a friend, and fellow collector I work with was kind enough to share some old photos and stories of his hey-day as a comic collector in the late 50s to mid-60s.

Here's the basics of the story:
Chuck and a buddy of his essentially wanted to specialize in selling comic books at a time when that was unheard of. They talked to publishers about trying to buy directly from them, but were ignored since they were just a couple of kids. So, they decided to buy up every copy of every book that came out at the local grocery stores and shops and build an inventory of back issues. They collected "reading copies" and stored the surplus duplicate issues in manila envelopes for safe keeping. Years later Chuck co-collector sold off the whole collection for a thousand bucks.

They collected everything; Silver Age, old Golden Age and Pulps. There was a lot of early Marvels, silver age DC and other books from that time period. They were also big into the early comic fandom, befriending other fans and collectors. Very cool stuff. There some comics here that make my mouth water.

Most of the B&W pics are from 1963, I believe the color ones are a few years later.

A box of comics, notice the minty fresh copy of "Amazing Fantasy" #15

Four classic Superman comics, "Superman" #2, "Superboy" #1, "Jimmy Olsen" #1, and "Lois Lane" #1.

Part of the inventory.

Amazing Fantasy #15 and Amazing Spider-Man #1 (They had a few of each)

More comics

And More...

And moooooreeee....

Early Tales to Astonish issues

Comic dog-pile. Notice the Sensation Comics #1 (first Wonder Woman appearance)

Visiting another fan who had been given tons of original artwork by DC during the 60s. The art is the splash page for "Brave and the Bold" #36 , by Joe Kubert (3rd Silver Age appearance of Hawkman, first Shadow Thief and early Hawkgirl). Apparently the guy they were visiting had an "in" with DC and got a ton of original art and books DC was going to toss out.

Also shown is a scan from an art auction.

Comics at another collector's house they visited.

Printer's lobby in Sparta, Ill. that put out comics and magazines.

Hope you enjoyed this glimpse into early collecting.

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DR.G