Pictures worth a fortune.


The Adventures of Tintin is one of the world’s most-loved comics. (Getty)
One of Scott Roby’s first loves wasn’t a girl in elementary school or a kind teacher, but rather Marvel comic books.
He loved the thin paper books for their “superhero stories with bold, raging coloring” and was captivated by their single-image, splash pages with a “whole, whammo sense of action”; and cliff-hangers on the final page.

Now 49, the Potomac, Maryland-based voice actor and religion teacher has been collecting comic books for almost 30 years.
The almost 1,100 comic books in his collection — which he keeps in special boxes in the study in his home — are written or illustrated by authors or artists he follows. Particular favourites include Neil Gainman's “The Sandman” series from the 1990s, Grant Morrison's “The Invisibles,” Warren Ellis' “Planetary” and Jonathan Hickman's “East of West.”
One thrill Roby gets from collecting is reading “a story before it gets the Hollywood treatment,” he said. “So many movies come out now with storyboards that are straight from comics.”
Comics also feed his imagination as a storyteller and educator, and convey a sense of nostalgia he is eager to share with his nine-year-old daughter.
“I enjoy seeing what particular writers and artists are doing to evolve a character or storyline that has been around for years,” he added.
The appeal
The appeal of comic books is global and enduring, according to industry watchers and fans, who point out that television and movie developers aggressively mine the medium for dynamic characters, thrilling plotlines and summer movie blockbusters. The Adventures of Tintin series, for one, created by Belgian Georges Remi under the pen name Herge, has been adapted for numerous films. And Japanese comics, called manga, have influenced illustration and storytelling around the world.
"People have a natural attraction to comic books," Barry Sandoval, director of operations for comics and comic art for Heritage Auctions, a Dallas, Texas-based auction house, said in an email.  Schools and public libraries now stock graphic novels “to motivate readers and increase children’s engagement with the written word,” while adults — such as Roby — “relish the nostalgia, strong characters, fantasy and the art itself."
Others buy comic books for investment purposes, though experts caution against this, because returns aren't guaranteed.
Andy Colman, a 50-year-old London-based collector, who also was a comic book dealer for a number of years, warns against considering such an investment.
“You won’t necessarily make money,” Colman said. “It takes a long time to make money. You have to go into this hobby for the right reasons; it does have to be fun.”
Most coveted
For investment purposes, the date of a comic book’s publication is crucial, as is its condition. The most rare and coveted titles in pristine condition with their original cover can fetch well into the millions at auction. The value declines as condition deteriorates.
The “Golden Age” of comic books spans 1938 to 1950, when Superman, Wonder Woman, Captain America and other superheroes were introduced. Titles from this era are the most valuable. During the “Silver Age”, from 1956 to 1970, characters including the Fantastic Four, Spider-Man, Thor, the Hulk, Iron Man, X-Men and the Avengers all made their first appearances. During comics’ “Bronze Age”, from 1970 to 1985, stories grew darker and underground comics began to influence mainstream titles. Those trends continue today, the “Modern Age“.
The hottest comic books to collect now are Golden and Silver Age titles with the first appearance of superheroes such as Superman, Spider-Man, the Hulk or Fantastic Four, experts say.
Comic books with first appearances of desirable superheroes can appreciate from 10% to 15% annually, said Eric Thornton, manager of retailer Chicago Comics.
In 2010, Heritage Auctions sold a copy of Detective Comics #27, featuring Batman’s first appearance, for close to $1.1m. And in August, 2014, Darren Adams, owner of Pristine Comics in Federal Way, Washington, sold a copy of Action Comics #1, with Superman’s first appearance, on eBay for a record $3.2m.
Franco-Belgian titles popular with collectors include Asterix and Lucky Luke, a Belgian comic set in the American Old West, according to Heritage’s Sandoval. In addition, work by French cartoonist Jean Gireaud, who created for many years under the pen name Moebius, is “eagerly collected by those in love with the craft”, he added.
What to look for
Comic books that are turned into popular movies — even those long past the first appearance of a superhero such as Daredevil, Hulk, Superman and Batman — can sometimes get a “short-term bounce” before and after the movie is released, said Mark S Zaid, a collector and dealer who practices national security law in Washington.
Western comic books from the 1950’s, Classics Illustrated and Disney titles are the least coveted. However, there is still demand among European collectors for Disney, Archie and other comics they “associate with American TV”, Thornton said. Most new comics are not valuable and are unlikely to appreciate because so many copies are published and collectors will not necessarily throw them away, as occurred when Golden Age comics were destroyed in paper-recycling campaigns during World War II.
Auctions, such as those held by Heritage or ComicConnect.com, are among the best ways to offload your old titles, or add to your collection, experts say. Reputable dealers are also a good option.  Collectors and dealers can also meet up at comic book conventions, including the premier event, Comic-Con International in San Diego, California; New York Comic Con  and other regional events around the world.
The record-breaking August sale of Action Comics #1 notwithstanding, Colman and Zaid urge collectors to be wary when buying from online market places such as eBay, to ensure you're getting the real deal and not a reproduction. If buying online, Colman recommends carefully studying the seller’s scan and description of the comic book, any discussion of restoration of the book (which could potentially make it less valuable) and details of the seller’s return policy. Zaid suggests getting the seller’s phone number to discuss a sale in person.
There are many resources and services that help collectors buy wisely.
Heritage’s website has a database of its comic book auctions from 2001 to today, while Gemstone Publishing publishes The Overstreet Comic Book Price Guide, considered to be a top reference for collectors. Sarasota, Florida-based CGC Comics is an independent, impartial, third-party comic book grading service, used by Heritage and others, while GPA for Comics tracks, records and averages online auction results.
In addition, CGC runs a collectors society which has online forums for collectors to discuss their experiences with dealers, while the social news website Reddit has a forum on comic book-collecting. Websites including Newsarama.com, BleedingCool.com and ComicBookResources.com also track the latest developments.
The bottom line
Should you decide to collect comics as an investment, Heritage’s Sandoval recommends thinking about “what today’s eight-year-old kid will be nostalgic about when he’s 35 or 40”.
“You should buy what you like, and if you’re investing, think about things that transcend the subculture and could become part of pop culture,” said Peter Birkemoe, owner of The Beguiling Books and Art in Toronto.
As with any major asset, you should take care to protect your collection. Comic books should be stored in a dark, dry, climate-controlled place or in a bank vault, encased in a plastic or Mylar bag with a backer board to absorb acid. Experts suggest insuring them if they are valuable, though many homeowner’s insurance policies might not cover them. One company which does is Collectibles Insurance Services in Bala Cynwyd, Pennsylvania.
bbc.

Popular posts from this blog

UK GENERAL ELECTIONS:Inquiry announced into memo alleging Sturgeon wants Tory election victory.

Image
Civil service instigates investigation into leaked memo from Foreign Office about supposed comments made in February Scotland’s first minister, Nicola Sturgeon, with David Cameron in her office at the Scottish parliament earlier this year. Photograph: WPA Pool/Getty A civil service inquiry into a leaked memo which claimed that Nicola Sturgeon privately wanted to see David Cameron remain in power after the general election has been instigated following calls from the First Minister. Ms Sturgeon described the allegation as “100% untrue” and accused Whitehall of “dirty tricks”.
Read more

Sandhurst's sheikhs: Why do so many Gulf royals receive military training in the UK? A parade outside the building at Sandhurst Continue reading the main story In today's Magazine The death list that names 5,000 victims Is this woman an apostate? Voices from a WW1 prison camp The Swiss selfie scandal Generations of foreign royals - particularly from the Middle East - have learned to be military leaders at the UK's Sandhurst officer training academy. But is that still a good idea, asks Matthew Teller. Since 1812, the Royal Military Academy Sandhurst, on the Surrey/Berkshire border, has been where the British Army trains its officers. It has a gruelling 44-week course testing the physical and intellectual skills of officer cadets and imbuing them with the values of the British Army. Alongside would-be British officers, Sandhurst has a tradition of drawing cadets from overseas. Many of the elite families of the Middle East have sent their sons and daughters. Perhaps the most notable was King Hussein of Jordan. Continue reading the main story Find out more Matthew Teller presents Sandhurst and the Sheikhs, a Whistledown production for BBC Radio 4, on Wednesday 27 August 2014 at 11:00 BST It will be available on iPlayer shortly after broadcast Four reigning Arab monarchs are graduates of Sandhurst and its affiliated colleges - King Abdullah of Jordan, King Hamad of Bahrain, Sheikh Tamim, Emir of Qatar, and Sultan Qaboos of Oman. Past monarchs include Sheikh Saad, Emir of Kuwait, and Sheikh Hamad, Emir of Qatar. Sandhurst's links have continued from the time when Britain was the major colonial power in the Gulf. "One thing the British were excellent at was consolidating their rule through spectacle," says Habiba Hamid, former foreign policy strategist to the rulers of Dubai and Abu Dhabi. "Pomp, ceremony, displays of military might, shock and awe - they all originate from the British military relationship." Sheikh Hamad Bin Isa Al Khalifa, King Abdullah, Sultan Qaboos Sandhurst alumni: King Hamad of Bahrain, King Abdullah of Jordan and Sultan Qaboos of Oman It's a place where future leaders get to know each other, says Michael Stephens, deputy director of the Royal United Services Institute, Qatar. And Sandhurst gives the UK influence in the Gulf. "The [UK] gets the kind of attention from Gulf policy elites that countries of our size, like France and others, don't get. It gives us the ability to punch above our weight. "You have people who've spent time in Britain, they have… connections to their mates, their teachers. Familiarity in politics is very beneficial in the Gulf context." "For British people who are drifting around the world, as I did as a soldier," says Brigadier Peter Sincock, former defence attache to Saudi Arabia, "you find people who were at Sandhurst and you have an immediate rapport. I think that's very helpful, for example, in the field of military sales." The Emir of Dubai Mohammad bin Rashid Al Maktoum with his son after his Passing Out Parade at Sandhurst in 2006 Sheikh Mohammad bin Rashid Al Maktoum, Emir of Dubai, with his son in uniform at Sandhurst in 2006 Her Majesty The Queen's Representative His Highness Sheikh Hamad bin Khalifa Al-Thani, The Emir of Qatar inspects soldiers during the 144th Sovereign's Parade held at The Royal Military Academy Sandhurst on April 8, 2004 in Camberley, England. Some 470 Officer cadets took part of which 219 were commissioned into the British Army Hamad bin Khalifa Al-Thani, the Emir of Qatar until 2013, inspects soldiers at Sandhurst in 2004 Emotion doesn't always deliver. In 2013, despite the personal intervention of David Cameron, the UAE decided against buying the UK's Typhoon fighter jets. But elsewhere fellow feeling is paying dividends. "The Gulf monarchies have become important sources of capital," says Jane Kinninmont, deputy head of the Middle East/North Africa programme at the foreign affairs think tank Chatham House. "So you see the tallest building in London being financed by the Qataris, you see UK infrastructure and oilfield development being financed by the UAE. There's a desire - it can even seem like a desperation - to keep them onside for trade reasons." British policy in the Gulf is primarily "mercantile", says Dr Kristian Coates Ulrichsen, of the Baker Institute in Houston, Texas. Concerns over human rights and reform are secondary. The Shard at dusk The Shard was funded by Qatari investors In 2012 Sandhurst accepted a £15m donation from the UAE for a new accommodation block, named the Zayed Building after that country's founding ruler. In March 2013, Sandhurst's Mons Hall - a sports centre - was reopened as the King Hamad Hall, following a £3m donation from the monarch of Bahrain, who was educated at one of Sandhurst's affiliated colleges. The renaming proved controversial, partly because of the perceived slight towards the 1,600 British casualties at the Battle of Mons in August 1914 - and partly because of how Hamad and his government have dealt with political protest in Bahrain over the last three years. A critic might note that the third term of Sandhurst's Officer Commissioning Course covers counter-insurgency techniques and ways to manage public disorder. Since tension between Bahrain's majority Shia population and minority Sunni ruling elite boiled over in 2011, more than 80 civilians have died at the hands of the security forces, according to opposition estimates, though the government disputes the figures. Thirteen police officers have also lost their lives in the clashes. "The king has always felt that Sandhurst was a great place," says Sincock, chairman of the Bahrain Society, which promotes friendship between the UK and Bahrain. "Something like 20 of his immediate family have been there as cadets. He didn't really understand why there was such an outcry." David Cameron and King Hamad David Cameron meeting King Hamad in 2012... A protester is held back by police ... while protesters nearby opposed the Bahrain ruler's human rights record Crispin Black, a Sandhurst graduate and former instructor, says the academy should not have taken the money. "Everywhere you look there's a memorial to something, a building or a plaque that serves as a touchstone that takes you right to the heart of British military history. Calling this hall 'King Hamad Hall' ain't gonna do that." Sandhurst gave a written response to the criticism. "All donations to Sandhurst are in compliance with the UK's domestic and international legal obligations and our values as a nation. Over the years donations like this have saved the UK taxpayer a considerable amount of money." But what happens when Sandhurst's friends become enemies? In 2001, then-prime minister Tony Blair visited Damascus, marking a warming of relations between the UK and Syria. Shortly after, in 2003, Sandhurst was training officers from the Syrian armed forces. Now, of course, Syria is an international pariah. Journalist Michael Cockerell has written about Libyan dictator Colonel Gaddafi's time at the Army School of Education in Beaconsfield in 1966: "Three years [later], Gaddafi followed a tradition of foreign officers trained by the British Army. He made use of his newfound knowledge to seize political power in his own country." Ahmed Ali Sandhurst-trained Ahmed Ali was a key player in the Egyptian military's removal of Islamist President Mohammed Morsi That tradition persists. In the 1990s Egyptian colonel Ahmed Ali attended Sandhurst. In 2013 he was one of the key figures in the Egyptian military's removal of Islamist President Mohammed Morsi, now rewarded by a post in President Sisi's inner circle of advisers. In the late 1990s there were moves by the British government under Tony Blair to end Sandhurst's training of overseas cadets. Major-General Arthur Denaro, Middle East adviser to the defence secretary and commandant at Sandhurst in the late 1990s, describes the idea as part of the "ethical foreign policy" advocated by the late Robin Cook, then-foreign secretary. Tony Blair and Robin Cook Tony Blair and Robin Cook at one point planned to end Sandhurst's training of overseas cadets The funeral of King Hussein in 1999 appears to have scuppered the plan. "Coming to that funeral were the heads of state of almost every country in the world - and our prime minister was there, Tony Blair," says Major-General Denaro. "He happened to see me talking to heads of state - the Sultan of Brunei, the Sultan of Oman, the Bahrainis, the Saudis - and he said 'How do you know all these guys?' The answer was because they went to Sandhurst." Today, Sandhurst has reportedly trained more officer cadets from the UAE than from any other country bar the UK. The May 2014 intake included 72 overseas cadets, around 40% of whom were from the Middle East. "In the future," says Maryam al-Khawaja, acting president of the Bahrain Centre for Human Rights, "people will look back at how much Britain messed up in the [Middle East] because they wanted to sell more Typhoon jets to Bahrain, rather than stand behind the values of human rights and democracy." "It's one thing saying we're inculcating benign values, but that's not happening," says Habiba Hamid. Sandhurst is "a relic of the colonial past. They're not [teaching] the civic values we ought to find in democratically elected leaders." line Who else went to Sandhurst? Princes William and Harry, Winston Churchill, Ian Fleming, Katie Hopkins, Antony Beevor, James Blunt, Josh Lewsey, Devon Harris (From left to right) Princes William and Harry Sir Winston Churchill Ian Fleming, creator of James Bond (but did not complete training) Katie Hopkins, reality TV star Antony Beevor, historian James Blunt, singer-songwriter Josh Lewsey, World Cup-winning England rugby player Devon Harris, member of Jamaica's first bobsleigh team line Sandhurst says that "building international relations through military exchanges and education is a key pillar of the UK's international engagement strategy". Sandhurst may be marvellous for the UK, a country where the army is subservient to government, but it is also delivering militarily-trained officers to Middle Eastern monarchies where, often, armies seem to exist to defend not the nation but the ruling family.

Image
Generations of foreign royals - particularly from the Middle East - have learned to be military leaders at the UK's Sandhurst officer training academy. But is that still a good idea, asks Matthew Teller. Since 1812, the Royal Military Academy Sandhurst, on the Surrey/Berkshire border, has been where the British Army trains its officers. It has a gruelling 44-week course testing the physical and intellectual skills of officer cadets and imbuing them with the values of the British Army. Alongside would-be British officers, Sandhurst has a tradition of drawing cadets from overseas. Many of the elite families of the Middle East have sent their sons and daughters. Perhaps the most notable was King Hussein of Jordan. Four reigning Arab monarchs are graduates of Sandhurst and its affiliated colleges - King Abdullah of Jordan, King Hamad of Bahrain, Sheikh Tamim, Emir of Qatar, and Sultan Qaboos of Oman. Past monarchs include Sheikh S
Read more

Ebola Outbreak: Guinea Declares Emergency As Overall Deaths From Ebola Rise To 1,069

Image
Health workers take passengers' temperatures infrared digital laser thermometers at the Felix Houphouet Boigny international airport in Abidjan on Aug. 13, 2014. Ivory Coast on Monday banned air travellers from Guinea, Liberia and Sierra Leone, the three countries worst-hit by the Ebola outbreak, and ordered its flagship carrier Air Cote d'Ivoire to cease flights to and from them. Reuters/Luc Gnago Guinea, one of the worst-hit West African nations in the ongoing Ebola outbreak, announced a state of emergency Wednesday. The World Health Organization, or WHO, also  said  that four new people died in Guinea between Aug. 10 and Aug. 11. The total death count in Guinea from the latest epidemic was estimated at 377 by WHO while the number of cases reported had risen to 510. Overa
Read more