OMG What a wonderful trip down memory lane! In 1970 I was 12 years old and already a veteran of making the 2 hour trek from Mississauga to downtown Toronto to check in on Captain George (part of the reason the trip took 2 hours was because I wanted to save the extra 2 dimes you had to pay Mississauga transit and it was only an hour walk each way so not bad -- but can you imagine letting your 10 year old walk an hour to subway and then take the subway to the big city unaccompanied by any supervision?). I was always hunting for Dare-Devil #1 -- the holy grail of my little gang of collectors -- and the absolute thrill of finally getting it... for $2. I don't remember how the heck I got $2 together when my allowance was 50 cents but my buddies were sure green with envy!
Daredevil #1 for $2!!! Definitely worth saving the 2 dimes for! It's great hearing from others about Captain George from this video - he was an institution for comic book collectors in Toronto. I heard a heartbreaking story about how he had an Action #1 in the display window and someone broke the window when he was closed and stole it. Apparently he wasn't the same after that. Sadly I was never able to experience his store, but he was a trailblazer for sure.
Good afternoon Raph Brilliant idea for a show! Really I think comics will remain healthy, we now have generations of comic book lovers, and you see in the convention videos that there always seem to be plenty of eager young fans at the boxes. I have only ever seen the for sale lists in the back of the old comics. I remember Mile High Comics, East Coast Comics, LoneStar Comics. Thank you for a very enteraining year. Happy Holidays to the Raph's Retro Comics family Cheers Al The GoldKeyFourcolorkidownunda
Season's Greetings Al! Always a pleasure hearing from you. These old fanzines with comic book ads are a lot of fun to go through. I do have plans on doing one about Mile High in the new year, as I used to buy from them in the 1990s, and Chuck Rozanski is a pioneer comic book retailer. I'm encouraged there are a good number of younger readers out there, and I hope they will continue to read and explore comic books, especially old comic books! Happy holidays to you and your family!
Thank you Raph. I recently read Chuck's tale of his beginnings and the Edgar Church collection, you could feel every sweaty moment of the process. I guess the adrelin gave him super human strength to move thise comics. I look forward to your show on that great place . Cheers Al
Many thanks for this look at a unique publication. I still see back issues of this rarity in my local comic shop and it is still definitely worth checking out!
They can easily be missed, as a lot of issues don't have the title on the cover or only 'RBCC'. I honestly can't remember when or where I picked this up, but it was years ago. I'm glad you're able to find these still, as the print runs were small, but they seemed to have survived pretty well.
It's interesting to see how quickly prices would increase after Overstreet published the price guide. I have a few later issues of RBCC and prices went up very quickly. To be fair, inflation was higher as well, but the increase in prices for back issues was a lot higher. Seeing that video about Captain George's store in 1970 made my eyes pop!
@raph-retro-comics During the last half of the 1970 in United States during President Carter there was highest inflation that was not matched until 2022-23. Plus there was a gas shortage during those years also.
Hi, Raph! By the time I started reading comics in 74, there were several comiczines or fanzines about comics out there, but I've never seen a copy of this 'Rocket's Blast' publication. It is fun to look back through old comic book catalogue lists like this and see how cheap comics were going for way back before the days of speculators and such. This looks like a fun magazine. In an aside, I'd like to get back to that Roy Thomas X-Men run. It amazes me that even today's experts can't figure out why the Thomas/Neal Adams run didn't sell well, and those X-Men stories were just a few years before Adams' Lantern/Arrow run. My theory is simply that people slept on that run. Prior to Neal Adams coming on board, Roy Thomas' writing was rendered by the likes of Werner Roth and Don Heck, if I recall, and those stories weren't exactly rocking the casbah for me; probably not for anyone else either. So when Neal Adams came on board, I think he was mostly an unknown name at that point, and by then no one was reading X-Men, so everyone missed it. Then when Neal Adams' name blew up later, some people went back to find those X-Man issues after the fact. At least that's what I believe.
I was surprised as well when I saw that information from Roy Thomas about the poor sales of X-Men. There seems to be a fair amount of hand-wringing about that run and the 'cancellation' of X-Men at that time. He also mentions that the change in costume for Captain Marvel #17 resulted in very strong sales, which revived the title. But if you look at the publication dates for Captain Marvel, it was very spotty in 1970. I think it was cancelled again and re-started with #22. As a younger reader, I always paused at the centerfold to look at the Mile High Comics ads in comic books from the 1980s. I'll still pause and look at them when I come across them - it's a lot of fun to look at these lists! There were so many fanzines/adzines/indexes that were published at that time. I'm hoping to do another episode on these in the future!
Wow, I could only imagine the great stuff that would be been at the show. I think the first convention I went to was at OCA, not even sure what year it was, maybe 1989. I have friends tell me of shows they went to at York University as well.
Raph another solid segment! I always picked up the OPGs for years as my go to information source. I have the first 50 editions. I truly enjoy looking a the first few guides and wishing for a time machine. That clip you linked is great and brings back many memories!
That clip is priceless for comic book collectors! I've seen some other footage of old comic book conventions, but nothing this old. I do like going through the older Overstreet Price Guides as well, there's a charm to them for sure.
Original art to me was always 'expensive' compared to comic books. I had several opportunities to buy original art early in my collecting years but I just thought it was too expensive. Now, it's way out of reach. At least back then I could have afforded it. I remember seeing the Dave Cockrum cover for X-Men #147 for $150 in the early 1990s at a comic book store. Sigh.
@ I was given two pieces of original art in the 70’s…a Jack Kirby pencil sketch of Captain America and a penciled & inked drawing of the X-Men by Dave Cockrum. I have a pencilled & inked drawing of Wonder Woman by George Perez that I got for my ex-wife but decided to keep for myself.
There is something magical about the covers Cockrum did for X-Men from 98 to about 109. While his later covers after 144 were fine, they just don't have the same energy level. The only original art I have are small sketches I was able to get for free from generous artists in a small sketchbook I have. My favorite is a little head shot of Plastic Man by Ramona Fradon. I remember asking her if she missed penciling and she said 'Hell no!'. Perez Wonder Woman! That's something I definitely would have kept for myself as well :-)
Great video. Loved taking a trip down memory lane. I was too young to buy comics in 1970 but Wow knowing what I know now I could have done some damage. Lol Keep up the great work. 😎
I would have been broke! But I would have had some nice comic books. It feels like this has pretty much been the story for a lot of my collecting life. I look back at all the times I passed up on books that were very cheap at that time. Best not to think of it and move forward 😅
We need a time machine. lol Just visited a shop this weekend, that prices all back issues (non-keys) at cover price of when they were published. Picked up a ASM, Web of Spider-Man and Marvel Team up. a total of 39 books for $42.50.
Wow, great score Brian! I wish more brick and mortar stores would price their books according to their local market. Just because something sells for a certain price on eBay doesn't mean it will sell for the same price locally. I find prices can be all over the place at stores I visit, usually on the very high side.
Wow! Crazy prices. The Tomb of Terror and the Unseen books for $0.50 are both popular covers. I've bid on and lost out on both a couple of times. Most recently just last week. The Tomb is becoming out of my price range. A 7.5 sold on Comiclink for $4600. The Unseen went for $400 for a 4.5 but I had already bought the Matt Baker book and just couldn't spend another 400
@ThatDamnSilva That Tomb of Terror has such a great cover. Not surprised it's a pricey book. I had never even heard of The Unseen before coming across it in this ad. I don't think I saw any ads for Romance titles in this issue, which surprised me a little bit. The ad for the cheap horror books was one of the few that had a good variety.
I had the chance to buy one a couple years ago, but I passed up on it. I have a feeling you can still find these easier in Toronto, but it would have been nice to have included it in this video. I hope you were able to check out the CBC interview!
A lot of those ads for prices were bait and switch. Every dealer would always request you put 2nd and third choices in case first choice was not available and I'd always get the 2nd and 3rd choices. Never were popular books at those prices available. The only time I could get the book I want was to either go to the dealer's place or at the lcs.
@monkeyideas Yeah, a lot of those prices just seem too good to be true, even for 54 years ago. I wonder about the sets though? You would be buying in 'bulk' so you couldn't really list alternatives. They seemed like the better deals as well.
Hello fellow Torontonian! I went to junior high and high school in the High Park area. I remember one of the first comic book stores I went to was the Paperback Shop at Runnymede and Bloor. Still remember the half price comics on the spinner rack!
Dude LOVE your stuff- GREAT CONTENT- super informative and highly entertaining- plus very well thought out. One thing though: it’s fan-ZEEN (like “maga-ZEEN”), NOT “fan-ZINE” as in “enzyme”). Gotta bets the BASICS right brother!
Markham Street in Mirvish Village was a great little street to walk down. You wouldn't be able to recognize it now, but I do remember Dragon Lady set up shop there for a while as well as other great stores like Cinema Graphics and Vintage Video. I'm glad the Beguiling was able to relocate to College but I've only been there once since the move.
@@raph-retro-comics a lot of buildings have been torn down around there .a lot of comic book stores are gone . now its a job to get to a comic book store .
interesting video. 1970 was the year to buy if you were alive. so in 1970 you could get SUPERMAN 1 for 300 dollars then by 1974 it jumped to 3000 dollars (price of a car) I just wonder WHO decided these comics have big prices and now if you want that high grade SUPERMAN 1 it will cost 1 MILLION. WHAT IF these comics had NEVER risen much above the 1970 prices so then SUPERMAN 1 would be worth 500 dollars today. I still wonder WHO decided on these big prices and why it continues. so in that case SUPERMAN 1 will be worth 30 MILLION DOLLARS in 2050
I noticed that as well with later issues of RBCC as well as the Overstreet Price Guide. Prices just skyrocketed in a short period of time. When I was a lot younger, key Golden Age books were still very expensive, but still seemed somewhat attainable. Now, they're all out of reach. One thing that's interesting that I forgot to mention were Duck books - these were really expensive back then and they've actually gotten cheaper in lower grades when you factor in inflation. They are other examples as well like Dick Tracy.
@@raph-retro-comics I was lucky to get an amazing spiderman 3 and 14 in low grade (not cgc rated yet) back in 1993 for 500 each. I will probably keep 3 and sell 14 in the future. I will make a profit but will not be super rich. I had a giant size xmen back in 1993 in high grade for 300 that went for 1400 but now would be worth 10k . so yes you can make a profit but best to treat this as a hobby and IF you make a profit then good.
Many thanks for this look at a unique publication. I still see back issues of this rarity in my local comic shop and it is still definitely worth checking out!
OMG What a wonderful trip down memory lane! In 1970 I was 12 years old and already a veteran of making the 2 hour trek from Mississauga to downtown Toronto to check in on Captain George (part of the reason the trip took 2 hours was because I wanted to save the extra 2 dimes you had to pay Mississauga transit and it was only an hour walk each way so not bad -- but can you imagine letting your 10 year old walk an hour to subway and then take the subway to the big city unaccompanied by any supervision?). I was always hunting for Dare-Devil #1 -- the holy grail of my little gang of collectors -- and the absolute thrill of finally getting it... for $2. I don't remember how the heck I got $2 together when my allowance was 50 cents but my buddies were sure green with envy!
Daredevil #1 for $2!!! Definitely worth saving the 2 dimes for! It's great hearing from others about Captain George from this video - he was an institution for comic book collectors in Toronto. I heard a heartbreaking story about how he had an Action #1 in the display window and someone broke the window when he was closed and stole it. Apparently he wasn't the same after that. Sadly I was never able to experience his store, but he was a trailblazer for sure.
Good afternoon Raph
Brilliant idea for a show! Really I think comics will remain healthy, we now have generations of comic book lovers, and you see in the convention videos that there always seem to be plenty of eager young fans at the boxes. I have only ever seen the for sale lists in the back of the old comics. I remember Mile High Comics, East Coast Comics, LoneStar Comics. Thank you for a very enteraining year.
Happy Holidays to the Raph's Retro Comics family
Cheers Al The GoldKeyFourcolorkidownunda
Season's Greetings Al! Always a pleasure hearing from you. These old fanzines with comic book ads are a lot of fun to go through. I do have plans on doing one about Mile High in the new year, as I used to buy from them in the 1990s, and Chuck Rozanski is a pioneer comic book retailer. I'm encouraged there are a good number of younger readers out there, and I hope they will continue to read and explore comic books, especially old comic books! Happy holidays to you and your family!
Thank you Raph.
I recently read Chuck's tale of his beginnings and the Edgar Church collection, you could feel every sweaty moment of the process. I guess the adrelin gave him super human strength to move thise comics. I look forward to your show on that great place .
Cheers Al
Keep up the great content 🤩
Thank you! Very much appreciated, this one was a fun episode to make!
@ your welcome
Many thanks for this look at a unique publication. I still see back issues of this rarity in my local comic shop and it is still definitely worth checking out!
They can easily be missed, as a lot of issues don't have the title on the cover or only 'RBCC'. I honestly can't remember when or where I picked this up, but it was years ago. I'm glad you're able to find these still, as the print runs were small, but they seemed to have survived pretty well.
Just think if we had the money and the knowledge when we started collecting and the collection we would have today.
It's interesting to see how quickly prices would increase after Overstreet published the price guide. I have a few later issues of RBCC and prices went up very quickly. To be fair, inflation was higher as well, but the increase in prices for back issues was a lot higher. Seeing that video about Captain George's store in 1970 made my eyes pop!
@raph-retro-comics During the last half of the 1970 in United States during President Carter there was highest inflation that was not matched until 2022-23. Plus there was a gas shortage during those years also.
Hi, Raph! By the time I started reading comics in 74, there were several comiczines or fanzines about comics out there, but I've never seen a copy of this 'Rocket's Blast' publication. It is fun to look back through old comic book catalogue lists like this and see how cheap comics were going for way back before the days of speculators and such. This looks like a fun magazine. In an aside, I'd like to get back to that Roy Thomas X-Men run. It amazes me that even today's experts can't figure out why the Thomas/Neal Adams run didn't sell well, and those X-Men stories were just a few years before Adams' Lantern/Arrow run. My theory is simply that people slept on that run. Prior to Neal Adams coming on board, Roy Thomas' writing was rendered by the likes of Werner Roth and Don Heck, if I recall, and those stories weren't exactly rocking the casbah for me; probably not for anyone else either. So when Neal Adams came on board, I think he was mostly an unknown name at that point, and by then no one was reading X-Men, so everyone missed it. Then when Neal Adams' name blew up later, some people went back to find those X-Man issues after the fact. At least that's what I believe.
I was surprised as well when I saw that information from Roy Thomas about the poor sales of X-Men. There seems to be a fair amount of hand-wringing about that run and the 'cancellation' of X-Men at that time. He also mentions that the change in costume for Captain Marvel #17 resulted in very strong sales, which revived the title. But if you look at the publication dates for Captain Marvel, it was very spotty in 1970. I think it was cancelled again and re-started with #22.
As a younger reader, I always paused at the centerfold to look at the Mile High Comics ads in comic books from the 1980s. I'll still pause and look at them when I come across them - it's a lot of fun to look at these lists! There were so many fanzines/adzines/indexes that were published at that time. I'm hoping to do another episode on these in the future!
my first comic book convention was in 1966 at hart house univer' of toronto . comic books '' paprbacks and some pulps .
Wow, I could only imagine the great stuff that would be been at the show. I think the first convention I went to was at OCA, not even sure what year it was, maybe 1989. I have friends tell me of shows they went to at York University as well.
Raph another solid segment! I always picked up the OPGs for years as my go to information source. I have the first 50 editions. I truly enjoy looking a the first few guides and wishing for a time machine. That clip you linked is great and brings back many memories!
That clip is priceless for comic book collectors! I've seen some other footage of old comic book conventions, but nothing this old. I do like going through the older Overstreet Price Guides as well, there's a charm to them for sure.
I wish I’d picked up some original artwork back in the 70’s when I started collecting.
Original art to me was always 'expensive' compared to comic books. I had several opportunities to buy original art early in my collecting years but I just thought it was too expensive. Now, it's way out of reach. At least back then I could have afforded it. I remember seeing the Dave Cockrum cover for X-Men #147 for $150 in the early 1990s at a comic book store. Sigh.
@ I was given two pieces of original art in the 70’s…a Jack Kirby pencil sketch of Captain America and a penciled & inked drawing of the X-Men by Dave Cockrum. I have a pencilled & inked drawing of Wonder Woman by George Perez that I got for my ex-wife but decided to keep for myself.
There is something magical about the covers Cockrum did for X-Men from 98 to about 109. While his later covers after 144 were fine, they just don't have the same energy level. The only original art I have are small sketches I was able to get for free from generous artists in a small sketchbook I have. My favorite is a little head shot of Plastic Man by Ramona Fradon. I remember asking her if she missed penciling and she said 'Hell no!'. Perez Wonder Woman! That's something I definitely would have kept for myself as well :-)
@ A Fradon sketch is definitely something I’d like to have!
Great video. Loved taking a trip down memory lane. I was too young to buy comics in 1970 but Wow knowing what I know now I could have done some damage. Lol Keep up the great work. 😎
I would have been broke! But I would have had some nice comic books. It feels like this has pretty much been the story for a lot of my collecting life. I look back at all the times I passed up on books that were very cheap at that time. Best not to think of it and move forward 😅
We need a time machine. lol Just visited a shop this weekend, that prices all back issues (non-keys) at cover price of when they were published. Picked up a ASM, Web of Spider-Man and Marvel Team up. a total of 39 books for $42.50.
Wow, great score Brian! I wish more brick and mortar stores would price their books according to their local market. Just because something sells for a certain price on eBay doesn't mean it will sell for the same price locally. I find prices can be all over the place at stores I visit, usually on the very high side.
Wow! Crazy prices. The Tomb of Terror and the Unseen books for $0.50 are both popular covers. I've bid on and lost out on both a couple of times. Most recently just last week. The Tomb is becoming out of my price range. A 7.5 sold on Comiclink for $4600. The Unseen went for $400 for a 4.5 but I had already bought the Matt Baker book and just couldn't spend another 400
@ThatDamnSilva That Tomb of Terror has such a great cover. Not surprised it's a pricey book. I had never even heard of The Unseen before coming across it in this ad. I don't think I saw any ads for Romance titles in this issue, which surprised me a little bit. The ad for the cheap horror books was one of the few that had a good variety.
i have some of those captain george fanzines sitting on the shelf .
I had the chance to buy one a couple years ago, but I passed up on it. I have a feeling you can still find these easier in Toronto, but it would have been nice to have included it in this video. I hope you were able to check out the CBC interview!
@@raph-retro-comics some of them they had to stop because of the copy rights .
I was at Capt. George's in 1970.
A lot of those ads for prices were bait and switch. Every dealer would always request you put 2nd and third choices in case first choice was not available and I'd always get the 2nd and 3rd choices. Never were popular books at those prices available. The only time I could get the book I want was to either go to the dealer's place or at the lcs.
@monkeyideas Yeah, a lot of those prices just seem too good to be true, even for 54 years ago. I wonder about the sets though? You would be buying in 'bulk' so you couldn't really list alternatives. They seemed like the better deals as well.
Stellar video shout all my Toronto homies I’m in high park!
Hello fellow Torontonian! I went to junior high and high school in the High Park area. I remember one of the first comic book stores I went to was the Paperback Shop at Runnymede and Bloor. Still remember the half price comics on the spinner rack!
@ haha so neat! A convenient store close to my house used to have those packs of 4 comics for two dollars that’s how I got my start
i usd to go to captain george ; in 1966 ' he was origonaly on queen st ' down by university
Dude LOVE your stuff- GREAT CONTENT- super informative and highly entertaining- plus very well thought out.
One thing though: it’s fan-ZEEN (like “maga-ZEEN”), NOT “fan-ZINE” as in “enzyme”).
Gotta bets the BASICS right brother!
Thanks brother! Don't know why I can't get this right - I've said it incorrectly in other videos too where I've been corrected.
later on he sold posters in his store .
Markham Street in Mirvish Village was a great little street to walk down. You wouldn't be able to recognize it now, but I do remember Dragon Lady set up shop there for a while as well as other great stores like Cinema Graphics and Vintage Video. I'm glad the Beguiling was able to relocate to College but I've only been there once since the move.
@@raph-retro-comics a lot of buildings have been torn down around there .a lot of comic book stores are gone . now its a job to get to a comic book store .
interesting video. 1970 was the year to buy if you were alive. so in 1970 you could get SUPERMAN 1 for 300 dollars then by 1974 it jumped to 3000 dollars (price of a car) I just wonder WHO decided these comics have big prices and now if you want that high grade SUPERMAN 1 it will cost 1 MILLION. WHAT IF these comics had NEVER risen much above the 1970 prices so then SUPERMAN 1 would be worth 500 dollars today. I still wonder WHO decided on these big prices and why it continues. so in that case SUPERMAN 1 will be worth 30 MILLION DOLLARS in 2050
I noticed that as well with later issues of RBCC as well as the Overstreet Price Guide. Prices just skyrocketed in a short period of time. When I was a lot younger, key Golden Age books were still very expensive, but still seemed somewhat attainable. Now, they're all out of reach. One thing that's interesting that I forgot to mention were Duck books - these were really expensive back then and they've actually gotten cheaper in lower grades when you factor in inflation. They are other examples as well like Dick Tracy.
@@raph-retro-comics I was lucky to get an amazing spiderman 3 and 14 in low grade (not cgc rated yet) back in 1993 for 500 each. I will probably keep 3 and sell 14 in the future. I will make a profit but will not be super rich. I had a giant size xmen back in 1993 in high grade for 300 that went for 1400 but now would be worth 10k . so yes you can make a profit but best to treat this as a hobby and IF you make a profit then good.
i prononce it fan seen '''
I don't know why I pronounce it with the long 'I', when it should obviously be pronounced the same as 'magazine'. 😁
Many thanks for this look at a unique publication. I still see back issues of this rarity in my local comic shop and it is still definitely worth checking out!