Meet Our Team! We needed two pages for this one! Under the Spotlight this week is Edward......

What do you collect?

Predominantly Comics, but also Trading Cards, Star Wars and Modern Diecast

When did you start collecting and why?

My story may be similar to other comic enthusiasts of a similar age. I watched reruns of the 1967 Spider-man Cartoon Series on Saturday morning television in the late 70’s. Even at that young age I could tell the animation wasn’t great, but there was obviously enough within the character and the stories that it piqued my interest. Then when going to my local newsagent for sweets and pop I noticed the Spider-man UK Weekly comic on the stand (specifically Spider-man Comic #323).

Once you start reading comics you then find out about other heroes and villains, a lot of whom you’d never heard of before, which you then follow into their own comics or other comics series that featured them, at which point you’re hooked.

Every comic reader has their favourite eras, mine was the Copper Age (1984 to 1991) and do believe there was a marked improvement in mainstream superhero comics from around the mid 80’s onwards and a greater recognition by the publishers that a large percentage of their readers were teens and adults. I always feel that at an age when I may have been outgrowing comics, comics were also ‘growing up’ so they still held my interest and I stuck with them.

There were some great standalone series produced during the Copper Age (e.g. Watchmen, Batman: The Dark Knight Returns) and I believe the success of these series influenced, and has continued to influence comics ever since.

What is your most favourite item in your collection and why?

I’d struggle to identify a single favourite item. There are lots of individual comic stories and covers that would be at the top of my list of favourites (e.g. Daredevil: Born Again (Daredevil #227 to #233) and The Incredible Hulk #340). Usually if there’s something I’ve been looking for a while and then I get it, that then usually becomes my new favourite item (until the next one).

What is your ultimate collectors’ dream item?

I should probably say something like Amazing Fantasy #15 (First Appearance of Spider-man), Action Comics #1 (First Appearance of Superman) or Detective Comics #27 (First Appearance of Batman) and it would be unbelievable to own any of those, even in a low grade.

That said I’m something of a ‘Lost (Dead) Universe’ Comic Collector, meaning that I enjoy collecting comic series from discontinued comic universes such as Valiant, Ultraverse and Marvel’s New Universe. I also enjoy collecting odd/unique items, recalled comics, comic retailer items, unusual comic promotional items and similar. So, for me probably the dream item would be something like an unusual or unique promotional item related to Marvel’s now defunct New Universe.

What piece of advice would you give to people starting out collecting?

I don’t believe you should start out with the intention of being a collector, having a collection is or should be the result of keeping the things you enjoy. Don’t put too much emphasis on the subsequent resale value of what you’re buying, I was buying several comics during the speculator boom of the early 90’s based purely on their expected future value, ironically most of these series are now the comics that have the least potential resale value. In terms of comics, read the comic series you enjoy, whether you follow specific characters or teams or you follow the writers and artists who produce them. Finally, if you read comics, try to read them as you get them, if you buy them with the intention of reading them at a later date, then you probably never will.