We recently introduced a new regular feature in Scoop: Origin Issue. The subject is a straightforward question, but one with many different answers: Why do you collect? Here are just some of the answers we’ve received thus far:

DAVID TOSH
David Tosh is a Collectibles Specialist in comics and comic art  for Heritage Auction Galleries in Dallas, Texas.

I grew up with Superman. The syndicated Superman television show was my introduction to the world of superheroes, but the lure of collecting comics came a short time later. I recall sitting in a drug store with my mother, enjoying a soda after a shopping trip downtown, in Houston, Texas. I overheard two boys nearby, as one of them said to the other, “Superman died!” “No way,” I thought to myself! It soon became apparent that what the boys were talking about was the comic book version of Superman – in particular, issue #150, which featured the “imaginary” death of the Man of Steel. This was 1961.

Not long after, my father took me downtown to a very large newsstand, the kind they don’t have any more. And the place was huge, with row after row of paperback books, magazines, out-of-town newspapers, and, in the back of the store, an enormous display of comic books. I made my first comic book purchase that day: Batman Annual #1. Soon I knew every store in my neighborhood with a spinner rack!

Today, I catalog the rarest of the rare in comic collectibles for Heritage Auction Galleries, in Dallas, Texas. I’ve worked for Heritage for the past six years, and before that, I owned my own shop, “Mr. Nostalgia,” selling comics, movie posters, old advertising signs, and more.

DR. ARNOLD T. BLUMBERG
A former Editor of The Overstreet Comic Book Price Guide, in addition to serving as Curator of Geppi’s Entertainment Museum, Dr. Arnold T. Blumberg is the author of The Big Big Little Book Book: An Overstreet Photo-Journal Guide, and co-author of The Overstreet Comic Book Grading Guide, Howe’s Transcendental Toybox (the Doctor Who price guide) and Zombiemania: 80 Movies to Die For.

I’ve amassed collections of Star Wars and G.I. Joe toys, comics, magazines, books, and today I’m still at it with Doctor Who and a renewed passion for LEGO. But where did it all begin?

It was the fall of 1978. Harvey’s Casperhad just recently released its 200th issue and they sure didn’t want you to miss it. The cover featured all the characters flying around an enormous “200” at the top of a mountain, a blurb proudly proclaimed this was a “Casper Collectors 200th Special Edition,” and if that didn’t catch your eye there was still more text above the main title trumpeting the fact that this was a “Special COLLECTORS Edition, Casper’s 200th Spook-Tacular Issue.”

Clearly this was serious business. My mother took this comic and a couple others from my already growing collection that featured similar earth-shattering announcements on their covers – definitely a Spidey Super Stories in that group – and cleared a special place for them on one of my bookshelves. She explained that since these comics were particularly special, we’d want to keep them separate from the others and in the best possible condition. We put them in plastic sleeves too.

So it’s her fault.

ED CATTO
Ed Catto, a marketing professional who, with partner Joe Ahearn, is a retropreneur, managing and re-imagining toy properties such as Captain Action and Zeroids.

I’ve always said that it was the Adam West Batman TV show that fostered my love of comics, but as I’ve grown older I now understand my “true origin.” In reality, I’m just a second generation fan. Both of my parents loved comics. Since I was little, my mom let me pour over her lovely Prince Valiant Hastings hardcover. My dad, a big Phantom and Crimebuster fan, would let me and my brother buy a new comic every Sunday after Macaroni dinner. They toughed it out too for comics too. Our hometown, Auburn, NY, was the site of one of the 1950’s comic-book burnings. And as a boy, the school librarian forced my dad to read a copy of Wertham’s Seduction of the Innocent.

Growing up, I pedaled on weekly pilgrimages to “new comic day.” By 1976, our first comic shop opened; Kim’s Collectible Comics & Records. Suddenly, all my neighborhood buddies read comics too. And we’d always attend the nearby Ithaca Comic Conventions and meet pros like Walt Simonson, Murphy Anderson, Jim Shooter and even a young Frank Miller.

My career is in marketing and advertising, and I’ve always found ways to incorporate comics along the way. I’ve worked with Marvel, Disney Adventures and Valiant to create promotions with Nabisco and candy companies. I’ve developed in-store comic shop programming for DC. As a VP of Strategy for Reed Expo, the best part of my job was developing the NYCC’s sophomore year. I’m thrilled that I still have the opportunity to keep a hand in it.

Launching Captain Action Enterprises, LLC., with my partner Joe Ahearn, has been the most fun. We’re acquiring the rights to old toy properties, dusting them off and re-introducing them. We create new stories and collectibles with companies such as Moonstone, Graphitti, TwoMorrows, Round2 Corp, Electric Tiki-Masked Avenger-Sideshow and Cast-a-Way among others. And I’m especially grateful that the Captain Action, Lady Action and soon-to-be–released Zeroids series allow us the opportunity to work with all of our favorite comic creators and get to know all the leaders and luminaries in this kooky, wonderful industry.

JOE AHEARN
Joe Ahearn is an Insurance professional who, with partner Ed Catto, is also a “retropreneur,” managing and re-imagining toy properties such as Captain Action and Zeroids.

As I’ve said in the past, the thing that lead me to comic books was my love for super heroes fostered by the TV Super Hero craze of the mid 1960s led by the Adam West Batman show along with the Saturday morning TV cartoons from DC, Marvel and Hanna-Barbera. This love also lead me to my favorite toy, Captain Action, the first super hero action figure, which I came across while visiting an older cousin.

That early influence lead me to start reading and collecting comics at about age 11. Around the same time I discovered I had artistic talent as well as I began trying to draw these heroes that brought me so much entertainment pleasure, and continue that artistic endeavor to this very day.

In the mid 1990s I began recollecting many of my old GI Joe and Captain Action figure sets some of which I had held onto from childhood. When I saw that Hasbro began reissuing many of the original GI Joe sets, I thought, “Why not do the same for Captain Action?”

And so, I embarked on a mission which led me to broker the idea to Playing Mantis, a mid-western collectible toy producer who took on the task of producing a new line of Captain Action figures in 1998. I was hired as the product line consultant and enjoyed every minute of it.

Fast forward to 2005, I found myself in the right position to acquire the rights to Captain Action and partnered with fellow New Jerseyite and buddy from the on line Captain Action chat group, Ed Catto, to form Captain Action Enterprises, LLC.

This led me back into the comic book world as we embarked on our mission to enhance Captain Action by putting him back into the comics with a fresh new treatment via Moonstone Books. This has been a great experience as Ed and I are executive producers on the book and get to see the whole comic book creation process from start to finish. I have thoroughly enjoyed working with and meeting a lot of the comic creators I grew up admiring and meeting a lot of great new young talent as well. And heck, I’ve even had breakfast with the man who started this all for me – Adam West! I look forward to continuing all the action through Captain Action, and launching our new Lady Action character as well as re-imagining another vintage toy favorite: The Zeroids robots!

PROFESSOR WILLIAM H. FOSTER III
Professor William H. Foster III is an educator, comic book historian and regular Scoop contributor.

Why do I collect comics? Good question! And my answer is easy — to re-live the best parts of my youth.

As a young man, reading comics was one of the best times of the week. For the mere price of 15¢ (or 25¢ if I wanted a “Giant Annual”) I could step into a world of fantasy and imagination where justice always prevailed, heroes always did the right thing and the line between good and evil was always clear.

Later, as an adult, as corny and old fashioned as it may sound, I try my best to incorporate those same principles of fair play as a part of my life.

As a comic book historian, I love researching comics and sharing that information with audiences of all ages. It never gets old. Because let’s face it, no matter what, when you are reading a comic, you are a kid (again), in heart if not in reality. And even when a comic costs more and the subject matter is more complex, the feeling stays the same.

And one more thing – it’s fun to thumb my nose at all those people who told me that comic books would rot my mind and turn me into a juvenile delinquent!

ROBERT TINNELL
In addition to writing or co-writing graphic novels such as The Black Forest, The Wicked West, The Living and The Dead, Sight Unseen, Demons of Sherwood, EZ Streetand Lone Justice, Robert Tinnell wrote the online comic strips Feast of the Seven Fishes and The Chelation Kid, directed such fare as Frankenstein and Me and produced Surf Nazis Must Die. In his spare time, he dreams of sleeping.

For whatever reason, I imagine collectors as these cunning guys, far smarter than me, stealthily seeking out and acquiring treasures for a pittance – then flipping said item for big bucks. I see myself as the opposite. I operate on impulse, with zero business sense and no plan. It’s my understanding that the smart collector consolidates his acquisitions into, um, collections that benefit from their common characteristics. Complete runs of cool comics. Stuff like that.

Actually, I know the above is a crock. Because most of my friends that are collectors operate pretty much like me: we buy what we like because it makes us feel good to own certain things. Inspired, even.

My collection, such as it is, is pretty eclectic. Like many of my four-color-soaked brethren, I was a victim of my mom throwing out the bulk of my childhood comics’ collection (although in the interest of full disclosure I’m going to go ahead and admit the majority had covers hanging in tatters. In my world, comics are meant to be read). In spite of that tragedy, I somehow managed to hang onto my very first comic, albeit minus the cover, of Peter Cannon, Thunderbolt. Which I still think was pretty cool, by the way. He passes into a hidden jungle where dinosaurs still roam.

Over the years I developed periodic obsessions with various and sundry fanboy obsessions. Tomb of Dracula was huge with me (along with the Marvel black-and-whites like Dracula Lives). And it was that particular obsession that drove me – decades later – to spring for the original cover art to Tomb of Dracula #25 (That and the fact I picked it up for a measly $25!).

There were other love affairs – particularly Super 8mm digest versions of horror and science fiction movies. Own an eight-minute version of Star Wars – in color and sound, no less – was a big deal for a kid in 1978. We didn’t have VCRs, mind you. In fact, in my small town in West Virginia we’d only recently graduated to more than three networks and PBS.

Along the way there was the voracious appetite for the monster movie magazines (especially The Monster TimeS) and in particular the horror fanzines (I own very few complete runs of anything – but Dick Klemensen’s awesome Hammer ‘zine Little Shoppe Of Horrors is on that list – in comics I think I’m limited to Camelot 3000 and Sword Of The Atom – which no doubt brings a smile to the face of all of you boys and girls who invested better than I did).

Once I invested in a daughter and a son, my collecting was greatly curtailed. They are so selfish, what with their incessant desire for food and drink and shelter. Don’t they realize how desperate I am to purchase Tim Lucas’s epic Mario Bava tome? Did it really hurt them to skip a couple of trips to McDonald’s so Daddy could pick up Mark Evanier’s magnificent Jack Kirby book? Me thinks not.

The thing that makes me a bad collector is also what makes me, in my humble opinion, a lucky collector. You see, I won’t ever sell anything. I cling to all of it. And sometimes – on a bad day maybe – I’ll slip into our storage room and leaf through old comics and magazines and fanzines. Or I’ll sit in my office and stare at my gorgeous statue of Dracula ala Colan (thanks to my pal, Neil Vokes, who is always ready to feed my inner fanboy)while listening to some cool horror movie music. Or I’ll stretch out on the hammock with a stack of my favorite issues of Hellblazer or Preacher. And I’m transported to a better place. A place where I’m not so cynical and perpetually inspired. Forgive me, I can’t put a price tag on that.

If you’d like to share your origin issue, drop us a line with “Origin Issue” in the subject line. We’re looking for a maximum of 200 words addressing why you collect (and it doesn’t have to be comic books).