While many comic book collectors tend to focus on burly men in tights, a large and growing number of collectors are researching and seeking out extremely rare comics going as far back as the early nineteenth century.
ComicConnect.com has more than two dozen examples to bid on and win.
From the very beginning of American comics, ComicConnect.com is offering the 1832 American Comic Almanac, and the 1835 Finn’s Comic Almanac. Complete copies of one almanac are quite rare. Humor almanacs of the 1830s, containing single panel cartoons, were precursors of weekly and monthly comic periodicals, which appeared a decade later.
Another rarity, Jolly Joker, or A Laugh All Around, is one of several nearly impossible to find booklets, collecting together material (including the cartoons) from these early almanacs and magazines. Collectors of Victorian Age comics know to grab titles such as this, whenever they show up, because they may never see it offered for sale again in any condition.
The highlight of the auction is The Adventures of Tom Plump, a circa 1850-52 sequential, multi-panel comic booklet, whose Gold Rush tale made it highly sought by collectors of Western Americana, years before comic collectors even realized its existence.
A December 14, 1859 issue of The New York Picayune – a comic weekly – ties into historical events as well. This item hearkens the coming Civil War with “The Great Disunion Splurge”. Picayune issues are fought over on the rare occasion they appear, especially, like this one, when they include an article by Philander Doesticks.
More history can be owned in 1932’s ‘Erbie and ‘is Playmates, attacking President Herbert Hoover and his fat cat Wall Street buddies. This Democratic Committee pamphlet, was illustrated by Fred Opper, creator of Happy Hooligan, Alphonse and Gaston, and Maud the Mule. Opper’s career stretched back to the 1870s.
Puck’s Opper Book, published in 1888, and filled with Fred Opper cartoons and sequential comic strips reprinted from Puck magazine – is amongst the hardest to find and most in demand Victorian Age items. Because it was published as an over-sized, paper-covered magazine rather than under a protective hardcover, few copies of Puck’s Opper Book have survived. The inherent rarity of this copy will generate interest from discerning collectors.
The prolific Fred Opper also illustrated the 1896 Cleveland Bicycle Company giveaway, Shakespeare Would Ride the Bicycle if Alive Today, depicting Edwardians on bicycles, eighty years before Monty Python would make use of the same idea.
Other promotional comics in the auction include several pre-Joe Camel, 1870s tobacco company giveaways – the multi-panel foldout strip stories, Home Made Happy, Adolphus Slim Jim, and Gruff and Pompey, a title highly sought after by Black Americana collectors. The 1893 second printing Barker’s Komic Picture Souvenir is filled with wildly illustrated cartoons advertising Barker’s snake oil for both man and beast. The cover depicts good folks on the journey to the 1893 Chicago World’s Fair.
One of the most significant artists of the Victorian Age was Wilhelm Busch, regarded as the father of the modern comic strip. The premier Busch book to own is the rare, professionally hand-colored 1868 first edition of Bushel of Merry Thoughts. The first edition is distinguishable from later editions as the four sequential stories collected inside were originally sold as individual booklets. The first Bushel of Merry Thoughts involved rebinding unsold copies under a hard cover. Those booklets were sold both black and white and color, and the copy for auction, collects color booklets.
More Wilhelm Busch books for auction include: 1871 & 1883 versions of Fools’ Paradise, Buzz a Buzz or the Bees (1870s), Max and Maurice 1871 (first English language) & 1881 editions, The Tall Student, and an 1899 Plish and Plum.
Several more not-yet-in-Overstreet items are in the auction: another Victorian foldout giveaway, Caws and Effect; Platinum Age booklet Buster Brown’s Latest; and variant editions of Foxy Grandpa, as well as Hambone’s Meditations from 1917, another highly valued Black American piece of Americana.
More Platinum Age books of note include: a 1931 Felix the Cat, a hard to find 1906 Jimmy and His Scrapes by Jimmy Swinnerton, numerous Cupples & Leon books (Bringing Up Father, Mutt and Jeff) and the 1936 Skuddabud Starry Story Series #1, by Columbia Krebs.
This auction ends starting Monday, September 20 at 7:00 PM EDT and lasts through Saturday, September 25. This is a unique opportunity to own a piece of comic book history.
As always, ComicConnect.com does not charge buyer’s premiums. Winners pay the hammer price plus shipping (and sales tax only if they live in the State of NY).
ComicConnect.com provides free scanning for all CGC graded comics shipped to them for auction at $1 start and no reserve!
ComicConnect.com also offers generous cash advances up to $1 million dollars for top-notch consignments. The auction is online. Contact Rob Reynolds at 212-895-3999 or e-mail him at support@comicconnect.com. For international callers, dial 001-212-895-3999.
ComicConnect.com is an online marketplace for comic buyers and sellers, focusing on comic books published between 1930 - 1975. Membership is free, and members may list their comics for sale or auction for free. ComicConnect.com brokers transactions, and accepts a low 10% commission only after comics are sold through the site.
