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.
Issue for issue, Fox Features Syndicate's 1947-1949 run of the title Phantom Lady is one of the most sought after titles in American vintage comics history. It's 12 issues of gorgeously delineated covers and art from Matt Baker, Jack Kamen, and others. Countless articles have been written about Baker and his talents — his sure-handed […]
War Birds was a short-lived, three-issue air combat series from mainstay Golden Age comic book publisher Fiction House. The debut issue has no date month but was on the stands at the same time as August 1952 cover-dated Fiction House titles, and its Library of Congress copyright date places its release around July 7, 1952. […]
It seems that one evening around the first week of March 1876, dime novel publishers Norman Munro and Frank Tousey and comic paper publisher and editors George G. Small and John A. Harrington were enjoying a game of pool at Tim Flynn's Billiard Room, when the stakes got rather heated. The three publishers mentioned were […]
This post started as a Chilling Adventures of Sabrina article, largely about MLJ/Archie comic book editor and writer Abner Sundell — with maybe a footnote or two about Sundell's weird blunder into the political realm in 1964, which I've been meaning research further ever since I stumbled across it in 2017. A couple of WTF-inducing […]
In June 1953, an organization calling itself The Committee on Evaluation of Comic Books, which claimed to have 84 "trained reviewers", evaluated 418 comic book titles which were then available on the newsstands of America. These reviewers placed the output of American comic book publishers into one of four categories: no objection, some objection, objectionable, […]
Star Wars comics are on fire right now, as prices skyrocket on the back of The Mandalorian tv show. If you have been speculating or sitting on Star Wars comics for a while now, it is the time to get them out and sell em. If you are looking to but, this might now be […]
Ahh, Atlas Comics. Mystery Tales have always eluded me in my collection; it seems whenever I come across them, I get priced out really quickly before I can consider which to get. #52 has always been one of my favorite covers, the man running towards you and the mystery of the shadows in the sky, […]
KISS fans are increasingly looking for nice copies of the Marvel Comics Super Special from 1977 as of late. They certainly seem to be drying up fast, as more and more fans attempt to get the original comic of the act, one of the biggest urban legend books in comics history. Over at ComicConnect right […]
Spider-Man 2099 is one of the most-loved characters of the 90's, and with good reason. Look at just the costume alone, it instantly jumps off the page and just FEELS cool. Not a lot of characters make a splash like this version of Spidey did back then, and is still making a huge impression now. […]
A guest post from Rick Akers, a Heritage Auctions Consignment Director and Comics Buyer. He also heads up the Heritage Auctions Comic Market direct sales dealer program and is an expert in pulps and other vintage material. The golden age comics market has been exploding with new interested collectors over the last several years and […]
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 […]
It's no secret that countless comic book concepts were inspired by their pulp and even dime novel predecessors. For example, it's fairly well known that the origins of the Justice League of America were deeply influenced by important pulp science fiction figures such as HP Lovecraft and Ray Cummings. Their first villain crossed the weirdness of a […]
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 […]
