A Guide to Alternative Comic Book Collecting

hendri — Sun, 19 Jul 2009 09:18:18 +0000

When it comes to alternative comic book collecting, forget your DCs and your Marvels, this is not your typical comic books. Alternative comic books have been in production since the 1960s. Throughout its inception, it has steadily gained a following via the underground comics movement, the same movement which made comic books very popular.

Basically though, alternative comic books are aimed for adults. Its contents are highly graphical and their storylines are dampened with violence, sex and a lot of adult themed scenarios. This may not be very popular as a choice for a comic book collection, but because of their rarity and their animosity, a comic book collection of this sort may certainly have great value in the future, if not sooner.

Not everyone though is suited for alternative comic book collecting. But if you are really interested and have had a glimpse of what it is about, then here are some tips to get you started on your alternative comic book collecting.

You can’t start a collection if you don’t know where to purchase your comic books. Unlike before, alternative comic books can now be purchased in some comic book stores. But your safest bet would be searching online sites. Many popular alternative authors and artists serialize their work so this means there is someone out there who probably has some copies that they are willing to part with. If you’re in luck, they might even to decide to sell their complete collection.

If you are squeamish, then maybe alternative comic book collecting is not for you. You have been warned, comic book collecting comic books are very graphic and contain sex and violence. Usually, artists and authors use alternative comic books as a means to convey their messages, no matter how taboo they are.

If you are into superheroes and the American dream, then alternative comic books are not for you. This type of comic books usually features average Joes in unusual circumstances. You wouldn’t find wall crawling characters or any man of steel here. It’s all about common folks surviving in any way that is dealt to them.

And once again, alternative comic books are written and drawn for adults. If you find stuff like this offensive, then steer clear away from it. But for those who enjoy taking the path less taken, then alternative comic book collecting may just very well be the thing for you.

Comic Book Publishers

hendri — Sat, 18 Jul 2009 09:11:43 +0000

Comic book publishers are those corporate entities that publish comic books. Comic book publishers started to boom within the magazine and newspaper industries during the 1930’s and up to this moment it is still creating large revenues. There are almost 125 Comic Book publishers in the United States, producing and publishing different titles. A handful of large companies dominate the Industry such as the DC and the Marvel Comics; most of the remaining players are small firms who publish either one or two titles a piece.

The Comic Book publishing industry is divided into two segments, the Major Publishers and the so-called Independents or indies. For the past three decades, two of the major publishers (Marvel and DC Comics) have the combined market share of 80% of the total industry shares.

Publishing of comic books are based on different frequencies. Most of the time they are published monthly, biweekly and sometimes even annually depending on a particular title.

Given that number of publishers across the United States, then it would be better to discuss only the Top Comic Book Publishers who has transported us to different places, led us to meet new people and of course love super heroes.

Marvel Comics

Marvel Comics was originally called the Timely Back during the 1940’s, during the span of more than 60 years the name of the publishing company has evolved into what is now known as the Marvel Comics. Now Marvel is considered as one of the Major Comic publishers as well as one of the most successful in the United States.

Marvel Comics is now best well known for the works of Jack Kirby, Stan Lee and Steve Ditko. These artists were the ones responsible for the creation of the primary characters of the Marvel Universe in the 1960’s such as the Fantastic Four, Spider-Man, and the Incredible Hulk. Most of these comic titles became so prominent, that these titles were even made Film adaptations. Other famous comic titles coming from Marvel Comics were the Uncanny X-Men, Daredevil, Elektra, Ghost Rider and Iron Man which recently has also been adopted into film.

DC Comics

DC comics is an American native comic book and a subsidiary of the Warner Bros. Entertainment. It is considered as one of the oldest and most well known of the comic book publishers in the industry. It is also considered as one of the worlds largest English language publishers of Comic Books. The company launched a number of well known characters, including Superman, Batman, the Allstar Society, Wonder Woman, and the Justice League, who are among DC’s most popular comic books.

DC Comics an abbreviation of the Company’s popular title detective Comics was founded as the National Allied Publications in 1934. DC Comics books are distributed to bookstores by Random House and a comic shop specialty store Diamond Comics Distributors. Some DC comics were also adopted into the Silver Screen such as Superman, produced during the 1980’s and 2000 and Batman which is now being anticipated to hit the movie houses by this year.

Dark Horse Comics

The Dark Horse Comics considered as one of the largest independent American comic book publishers behind the Major publishers like the Marvel and DC comics. The Comic Publishing Company is owned by Mike Richardson, owner of comic book stores in Oregon. The company started publishing during the 1980’s and released their anthology series called The Dark Horse Presents.

Dark Horse publishing publishes many comics including the comics based on Star Wars of George Lucas, Frank Millers 300 and Sin City as well as Buffy the Vampire slayer. Most of the famous comics by the Dark Horse Publishing was also had film adaptation. While its other Comic titles were adapted into Television such as Buffy the Vampire Slayer series.

Archie Comics

Archie Comics is also considered as one of the oldest comic books companies still around today going side by side with DC Comics. Unlike most of the comic book publishers, Archie Comics does not base their stories on violence and super heroes. Instead its story is based on the story of the fictional teenage characters of Archie Andrews, Betty Cooper, Veronica Lodge, Forsythe Jones and Reggie Mantle. All of these characters were created by Bob Montana.

Although The Characters in Archie were never immortalized into the movie screens, the characters are still alive and still read by people up to this day.

These Famous Comic Book publishers have never failed to give entertainment to people for the past 60 years, and with Comic book publishers creating more and more characters up to this moment, who knows? Maybe the comic book industry would even last for centuries, or millennia. If time allows that.

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A Guide to Alternative Comic Book Collecting

Comic Book Publishers