Buy, Buy, Buy, Buy, Buy

Today begins the Wizard World Chicago comic convention, one of a few I go to every year (I'll also attend the Chicago ComicFest in the Spring, and I put on my own con twice a year, the Chicago Comic Book Marketplace, although I rarely actually get to go shopping at that, I'm too busy running around figuring out how much money I'm losing).

I attend these shows for two reasons: 1) to meet up with friends who I haven't seen since the last con, have some lunch, a few beers, talk about Wonder Woman, whatnot , and 2) to buy comics.

All kinds of comics.

(It also gives the wife a few days without me, which I'm sure she appreciates.)

For the sake of the theme of this blog, however, I'll focus on the lovey-dovey comics.

By one person's count, nearly 6,000 romance comics were published in from 1947-1980. I have around 600. There are a lot I still don't have, obviously, and conventions (along with eBay) are the best places to find them. Since there are so many to choose from and my pockets aren't bottomless, I usually have a few guidelines of choosing what to buy.

1. Price: I'm cheap, and if I can get a pile of comics for $2-$3 each, I'm very happy to walk away with a pile of them.
2. Unusualness: I have a ton of Atlas, DC, Fawcett, Quality, Harvey and ACG romance titles. I have very few from Toby, Superior, Star, Fox, and many others that may have had only one or two titles. If it's a choice between another Falling in Love or some title I've never seen before, Falling in Love goes back in the box.
3. Charlton: There were many great writers and artists who worked on Charlton comics. Steve Ditko, Dick Giordano, Pete Morisi, etc. Unfortunately, most of them didn't do their best work for them, and the stories are terrible. Slap-dash art (with what they were paying, I couldn't blame them), boring writing, bad printing. Put it together, and you have a not-so-hot comic book company, and since I already have dozens of Charlton books from the 50s to the 80s, I'll pass up most any one unless they're just willing to throw it in my stack for free.
4. Original art: I have a few pages and stories of original art (much from Standard Comics, as those pages seem to have survived more than others), and in many cases, I don't have the coresponding issue. For those that I'm missing, I'd gladly pay a little over my budgeted amount. Also, if someone's selling some romance original art and the price is right, I'll maybe pick up a page or two.
   

So that's it. I'll be heading out shortly for the convention, want list in hand, hoping to snag something good. On Sunday, I'll scan some of the best in and show you (show and tell is the best part of buying old comics, I think).