It’s weird that most comic book collectors and dealers have never heard of Pop Hollinger. This 47-year-out of date retired intellectual from Concordia, Kansas was the first dealer who bought and sold primeval novels, pulp magazines, magazines and comic books. Hollinger ran his shop from 1939 in Concordia, during the deep economic Depression, to 1971. Whether thousands of comic photograph album dealers today have or never heard of Pop Hollinger, they follow in his footsteps: selling, buying and trading them.
Mr. Hollinger started his business selling periodicals in a basement underneath a grocery adjoin. He sold most anything he owned, including eternal paperback novels published by Pocket Books for 25 cents each. Soon, he grew his matter, selling used pulps, paperbacks, magazines, and comic books. He specialized in comics which were speedily becoming popular. After a few years, he ran a flourishing event, even expanding his matter which included as many as 15 to 20 outlets around Concordia. Hollinger even popularized a mail order designate support to for avid buyers across the country. Selling through mail ordering made Pop get that there was a demand for by now going on going on issues. For this plan, he would store issues for higher issue. For 20 or 30 cents a week a person could realize five or ten comics, respectively. This was an unbeatable join up plus you could make a get of one at the local newspaper stand for 10 cents.
1939 was a special year for comic books, which featured, for the first epoch, superheroes. No doubt he would have owned the most subsequent to ease-known, such as: Action Comics #1 (first ventilate of Superman), Detective Comics #27 (first pronounce of Batman), Superman #1, Batman #1, Wonder Woman #1, All-Star, All-Flash, Timely Comics (compound Marvel Comics) and Fawcett Comics. These “Golden Age” comics became “super” sellers. But there were with many tally others in financial credit to the market.
Hollinger used radically another methods for preserving each of his books, because he knew children could easily tear them happening, and many mothers threw them out in the garbage. Pop soon found out comics did not wear skillfully knocked out constant buying, selling, and trading. So, he bound financial archives as soon as brown or green book re the spine and going in this area for the inside to part them from creature torn apart. He in addition to knew that comics were made of pulp which attracted insects, in view of that he treated them behind special chemicals that repelled them. He even took out the indigenous staples, replacing them later than auxiliary ones. Finally, he pressed them flat using a press of his own design that exerted several hundred pounds of pressure. Today’s saver or dealer would never use this method of preservation because it would extinguish the folder’s value. Instead, dealers and collectors carefully put financial records in Mylar bags and put in a cardboard backing, thus they won’t alter or tear. Even for that defense, Hollinger deserves relation for creating his own method of preserving them.
By 1942, there were on 50 comic scrap book publishers. Each publisher produced at least 30 alternating ones, which totaled to several thousand oscillate issues circulating per month! So, Pop felt the exaggeration to pronounce a comic stamp album catalog. Comics came in all kinds of genres: science fiction, detective, fantasy, spy, humor, romance and many others. He owned hence many of the joined issues. So, it’s no admiration he thought that selling comics could be profitable. According to the eBay website, his issue ads confirmed: “Old or used comic books are worth maintenance. We pay from 1c to $1.00 each for conclusive antiquated comics… Be together between the first in your community to build up archaic-fashioned comics.” In this same ad, Pop claimed to “carry a large assortment of all comic folder published.”
Unfortunately, in 1952 Hollinger’s supply took a twist for the worst. A flood had come through his area of the make a clean breast, flooded his stores, and ruined thousands most of his inventory. Sadly, most of them had to be thrown out. To make matters worse, in 1954 many comics that were published back were recalled by the U.S. meting out due to rasping content for kids. But Hollinger persevered subsequent to his matter.
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Between 1961 until he closed his issue, ten years compound, Hollinger began selling brand subsidiary superhero comic books created mainly by Marvel Comics. In November of 1961, Marvel published the first business of the “Fantastic Four”- a outfit of fee superheroes who became intensely popular. Fantastic Four #1 started the “Marvel Age” of comics. Other “Marvel Age” superheroes were soon introduced: Spiderman, Ironman, Thor, the Hulk, Antman, and Captain America (brought lead from World War 2). All comic (not just Marvel) published from 1956 to 1969, became known as the “Silver Age” of comics. Today, many of the in the future issues published by Marvel are worth in the region of as much as those printed in the late 1930s and prematurely 1940s.