Collecting Bronze Age Comics

For comic readers who grew up in the 1970's to the early 1980's, bronze age comics will always have a special place in their heart -and collections.

Comics were a viable form of entertainment in the 70's. There were only a couple of channels of TV available, and the Atari video game system was just starting to make it's way into kids homes. Without computers, DVD players and today's involved multi-player video games you needed something to do, and reading comics were a great way to kill a couple of hours.

For kids and teens who grew up in smaller towns, many have fond memories of wandering down to their local corner newsstand or stationary store and checking out the comics on the spinner-rack. For kids in cities or busy suburbs, they may have been fortunate enough to have one or two comic speciality comic stores that were just starting to pop up in their town to shop at.

I can remember going to some of the early comic conventions that were held in New York City and buying older comics that were wrapped in saran-wrap, because the modern comic bag and board hadn't been invented yet. Prior to that, some collectors actually wrapped their comics individually in newspaper for protection.

Today, 70's comics are becoming the new 60's comics, meaning that the value of many bronze age comic books has sky-rocketed in the last 10 years or so. In the 80's and 90's many 1970's comics sat in 25-cent bins at comic shops and comic conventions. In a recent online auction, a CGC graded copy of Luke Cage, Hero For Hire #1 sold for $670.00! Sweet Christmas! This would have been impossible to believe 10 or so years ago. A graded copy of Iron Man #128 from the "Demon In A Bottle" Tony Stark alcoholism storyline recently sold for over $2000.00!

Original comic art from this era has also become highly sought-after today. Works from bronze age artists like John Byrne, George Perez, Neal Adams, Gil Kane and Gene Colan tend to run anywhere from $500-$2,000 per page. I've had customers tell me that they remember seeing pages of original art from some of these artists hanging on comic shop walls with $20 price tags 20 years ago.

With the popularity of the internet and large-scale comic conventions running so frequently, it has become relatively easy for fans of bronze age comics to rebuild their childhood collections. Lesser grade copies of almost all of these comics can be had at reasonable prices, so if you're looking to add to your bronze age comic collection, hit some comic shows this summer or browse the internet and give a bronze age comic a home today!

Good resources for Bronze Age Comics:

Mile High Comics