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.
An obscure comic book series from the perspective of modern collectors, Super-Mystery Comics was the most successful early comic book title from Aaron A. Wyn's Ace Magazines, a publisher who is best remembered for his paperback publishing endeavors. The title lasted 48 issues from 1940 to 1949, launching as a superhero series, then veering into […]
Every comic book tells more than one kind of story: the story on its pages, and the story of its creation. The second part is actually many different stories that all collide together; of creators, editors, publishers, and the world they lived in. Such details are what make some comic books, like Action Comics #1 and Amazing Fantasy #15, […]
Every once in a while, doing research like this on comic book history shifts our perspective on how that history fits together. While Avon's Eerie Comics #1, cover-dated January 1947, is considered the first all-horror comic book, it is widely understood that it is not the first comic book horror of the Golden Age. There […]
Bleeding Cool has been running a series of articles on BleedingCool related to the Pixelmon Media Golden Age Good Girls Facsimile Kickstarters of late. Well, the Kickstarter for the Black Cat Mystery #50 facsimile offers donors the option to guarantee a slabbed copy by CGC, 9.8 or better, for $89. And they are also suggesting that folk could get […]
If Phantom Lady #17 is one of the most infamous single issues in vintage comics history, as we discussed last week, then Crime Does Not Pay is without doubt the most notorious comic book series in all of that history. It achieved incredible success while eventually inspiring the creation of the entire crime comics genre. […]
There's more than a little irony in the notion that Fredric Wertham's Seduction of the Innocent cemented the legendary status of a number of comic books, and arguably an entire era of them. Practically used as a guidebook to that era's most notorious comics by collectors in the decades since, no single book has benefited […]
The very top end of the vintage comic book market is showing signs of a realignment the likes of which has not been seen since 2010. In that year, during a three-day period, high-grade copies of Action Comics #1 (the first appearance of Superman) and Detective Comics #27 (the first appearance of Batman) hit and then quickly […]
Metropolis/ComicConnect has just announced the sale of an Action Comics #1 CGC 9.0 for an all-time record $15 Million, the highest price ever paid for a comic book. This private sale was negotiated on behalf of the anonymous owner by Metropolis Collectibles/ComicConnect of New York. The buyer is also currently anonymous. While the seller has […]
According to a letter that surfaced on eBay in 2009, Bill Everett's mom Grace Everett is likely the co-creator of Centaur superhero Amazing Man. In a letter dated March 1, 1939, she wrote, "Bill has a lot of work to do on his present three comic strips, and Centaur Publications wants him to do a […]
Serious Golden Age collectors know Exciting Comics #22 for the debut of the American Eagle, one of several patriotic hero debuts that followed the success of Captain America Comics. But a year and a half after the debut of that series, Exciting Comics #22 hits a very specific wartime nerve. Cover-dated October 1942 and on […]
Matt Baker's cover for Cinderella Love #25 (St. John, cover-dated December 1954) is considered among his best pieces of cover artwork, and it's easy to see why. A festive, celebratory theme, a budding romance in the background, and a beautiful woman in the foreground who clearly has something on her mind. Like much of Baker's […]
Liberty Scouts Comics #3 from Centaur is one of those Golden Age books where the timing is everything. With a June 1941 on-sale window and an August 1941 cover date, it lands in the narrow range of months when the United States was still officially at peace while also bracing for the possibility of all-out […]
Three months before Pearl Harbor, Silver Streak Comics #15 was already playing out the details of what the unfolding conflict might soon mean for America on the newsstand. Cover dated October 1941 but on sale September 5 of that year, it drops Captain Battle, Daredevil, and a supporting cast of heroes into a pre-war American […]
Keen Detective Funnies had become one of the most interesting anthologies in comics by the time #20 arrived. Hitting newsstands around the same time as Adventure Comics #48 (which was introducing Hour Man in that issue) and Marvel Mystery Comics #6, there was certainly plenty of competition by that time, and like some others, the […]
Blue Ribbon Comics was the debut comic book title from MLJ Magazines, the publisher which would soon become known as Archie Comics. But MLJ's earliest star was a wonder dog named Rang-A-Tang. Created by Norman Danberg and Will Harr, Rang-A-Tang was a German Shepherd who ran away from a small-time carnival after being abused by […]
Zip Comics #33 hit newsstands around December 1942, delivering art and stories ripped directly from the headlines of the world at war during that year. While many Golden Age comics used the war as a generic backdrop for superheroics, this issue hits harder than most, using a wide range of then-recent real events for its […]
Released around September 1942, Cat-Man Comics #14 hit newsstands at a moment when American wartime paranoia was arguably at its peak, and not for no reason. That July, the FBI announced that the U.S. government had thwarted the plans of Nazi agents captured during Operation Pastorius, a failed plot to destroy American industrial targets. Six […]
Shield-Wizard Comics #11 is a stand-out horror cover of this unique MLJ Magazines series. Though a little-known name in comics history, cover artist Clem Weisbecker (sometimes known simply as "Clem") worked in comics from about 1941 to 1943 for publishers including MLJ Magazines, Marvel/Timely, and Fawcett Publications. He often combined superheroics or adventure with horror […]
Best remembered today for its cover by Lou Fine, the publication of Wonderworld Comics #6 in late August 1939 captures a powder-keg moment for both the comic book industry and the world. In hindsight, it's no surprise that these things are related. From that point forward, over the next few months, the comic book industry […]
Publisher Lev Gleason apparently had a lot riding on the appearance of The Saint in the company's early-days flagship title Silver Streak Comics. In an editorial in issue #20 of that series, he noted, "I have spared no expense to give you the very best. We lead off in this issue with The Saint by […]
