Vintage Paper is about old comics and more: whether you're interested in the Platinum Age, the Golden Age, the Silver, Bronze, or Copper Ages — or the history behind it all — Bleeding Cool has you covered on that. Featuring articles and research from some of the best experts in the field for comics, pulps, dime novels, and much more.
Even if you're unfamiliar with pulp fiction, chances are excellent that you've seen the cover of Amazing Stories volume 3 number 5, cover-dated August 1928. It has become perhaps the most famous cover of the pulp era because it's the image that is often used to represent the past's vision of the future. Looking beyond […]
Until fairly recently, not much was known about Comic Almanack and Comic Token publisher Charles Ellms. That's a shame, because Ellms played a brief but pivotal role in American comics history. Almanacs had been a staple of life in North American since the 17th century, but it was Charles Ellms who expanded upon the almanac's […]
103 years ago this November, the Bolshevik Party, lead by Vladimir Lenin, successfully carried out a coup later known as the October Revolution and effectively transformed Russian into a new soviet republic. While this is the famed political upset that led to the notable Anastasia mythos, it also birthed an entire regime of communist loyalists. […]
Control and fear go hand in hand, and with the Cold War defining an entire generation's worldview from the mid-1940s through the early 1990s, the idea of the "red scare" bled into nearly every aspect of society. "Better dead than red" became a slogan during the Cold War, with the color being the metaphorical representation […]
Like many Marvel Comics characters, Natasha Romanoff, the Black Widow, has more than a few wild twists and turns in her history and origin story. One might guess that the golden age Marvel Black Widow (unconnected to the more famous incarnation of the character) has a more simple backstory. But there's nothing simple about Claire […]
Martian Manhunter doesn't get the due he is deserved. Sure, us comic folk know and appreciate him for the most part, but the general public is doing themselves a disservice not knowing the joy of reading a comic book starring J'onn J'onzz. Even comic fans tend to forget him until they see him in something. […]
I love stuff like this. Spider-Man fans, remember the Power Records audio comic releases? The ones that took issues of comics and added sound? Well, up for auction today is unused cover art for one of these releases, Amazing Spider-Man #124, "The Mark of the Man-Wolf." This is part of Heritage Auctions Dallas Lot #7236, […]
Charles Schulz's Peanuts syndicated comic strip began its 17897 strip, 50-year run on October 2, 1950. Snoopy first appeared just two days later on October 4, 1950. An earliest-days Peanuts comic strip from November 17, 1950 has just hammered at Heritage Auctions for $192,000 — a record price for a Peanuts daily comic strip. The […]
Darwyn Cooke is one of the most gifted artists comics have ever seen, and his tribute to the history of the DC Comics Universe, DC: The New Frontier, was his greatest achievement. Full of deep cuts, reimagining, and the kind of whimsy that is missing from comics these days, Darwyn Cooke created the ultimate love […]
TMNT is on fire right now, and for once, it is all about the comics. The Last Ronin #1 came out a couple of weeks ago and set the current issue market on fire with shortages and damaged copies galore, making it extremely hard to come by. All that fervor has led to key TMNT […]
J. Scott Campbell covers are hard to come by these days and command huge dollar amounts on the art scene. Especially if they have a woman on them. One secret, though, is that his art can be had for a song if they do NOT feature a woman, like this Superior Spider-Man #22 cover, up […]
Peanuts and Baseball go hand in hand, as, over the years, Charles Schulz had young Charlie Brown over the years know the agony of being bad at sports over and over again. Sure, he always missed the football. But it was his exploits on the diamond will always hold a special place in our hearts, […]
Let's get the obvious out of the way upfront: Frank Frazetta is one of the most important and influential fantasy, horror, and science fiction artists of the past century. Frazetta developed an aesthetic that has influenced thousands of other artists over the past sixty years. Countless of his paintings are familiar icons to both fandom […]
Mickey Mouse made his first comic appearance in Four Color #16, starring in the story "Mickey Mouse Outwits the Phantom Blot." It is a really fun story; I was actually lucky enough to flip through an incomplete copy of the book a few years back and was sad the book was in such rough shape. […]
Despite its historic debut over 81 years ago, Mystery Men Comics #1 remains one of the most overlooked key comic books of the golden age. The issue's publication date, June 15, 1939 according to the Library of Congress Copyright Office's date of publication records (actual newsstand dates would have varied around the country), puts the […]
Any longtime collector will tell you that some of the most fabled comic books and comic book collections have some fascinating real-world drama behind them. Take the case of the Action Comics #1 CGC 9.0 from Nicolas Cage's collection, for example: stolen from Cage's home in 2000 during a party, recovered in 2011 in a […]
If you've ever visited this site to stare in amazement at a nice high grade copy of Wonder Woman #1 or Superman #2 and wondered how they became known as the best-graded copies, or wondered exactly what the difference was between this particular copy of Action Comics #1 and this other copy of Action Comics #1, you're not alone. Learning how to […]
Within a period of a few months between mid-1948 and early 1949, DC Comics updated and expanded the origins of three of its most important characters — Batman, Superman, and the Flash. Batman #47 and Superman #53 expand the original origins of these characters with significant new detail. Both of these comics are highly sought […]
Black Panther collectors are having a rough go right now. Highly collectible for a few years now since the film released, with the tragic passing of Chadwick Boseman, many are being priced out of pieces they need for their collections now. That extends to comics, and especially the character's first appearance from Fantastic Four #52. […]
Harley Quinn artwork has been burning up the aftermarket for years now, and cover artists have had a field day with her. So many great covers and pieces of art are out there, but the special ones always will command a higher dollar amount. Up for auction right now over at Heritage, part of Dallas […]
