Last week you heard, and maybe saw, the fireworks going off, but you were probably mistaken about the cause. It is my theory that those illuminating the sky with rockets were celebrating the release of the 2020 updating of Bottorff’s ComicBacks Price Guide & Checklist (in PDF).
Some of you may have noted that I have an obsession with those comic strip and cartoon reprint books as printed in mass market paperback editions. But far outstripping my fascination with the product is Ray Bottorff, Jr’s infatuation and knowledge of those pocket book comic books.
Years ago, when Yahoo Groups was still a viable message board, Ray created one such forum for what he coined “ComicBacks.” I was honored to sit at the feet of those far wiser than I and learn. Ray described those 6¾” x 4¼” (give or take) mass market paperback comics like this:
ComicBacks is a term copyrighted by Ray Bottorff Jr to refer to mostly mass-market sized paperbacks that are comic-related. Comic-related means that the paperback has its origins in Comic Books, Comic Strips, Animation, Hero Pulps or other related Sister Arts. I have no problem including paperbacks in this list which may not have originated in comics, but are of a Super-Hero theme. The list can cover both comic reprinted work and prose material from comics or comic characters.
I thought Ray was far too liberal in his definition and what he allowed (Doc Savage, Nick Carter),
but who am I to contradict the creator of the term?
Ray had worked up a checklist of ComicBacks and would occasionally update it.
And now, from The Abominable Showmen to Zowie Girl Meets Boy…
from Charles Addams to Bill Ziegler (that may be a stretch)…
from Agatha Crumm to Ziggy,
Bottorff’s ComicBacks Price Guide and Checklist for 2020 has arrived -748 pages in PDF!
From Ray:
If you keep copies of my PDF versions of my ComicBacks lists, I am overdue to provide an updated one. Here is a link to an updated copy:https://drive.google.com/file/
d/1stSop5LK9- AFwCny1rpP7BvEWncR-3PW/view? usp=sharing it is free to download. Feel free to send me any corrections or updates.
Since my last update, I’ve overhauled the source info, that is located here in a separate PDF:And significant updates to several series, more cover scans, more pricing info, and more info for several obscure books thanks to the Copyright Catalog.Enjoy!my best-Ray Bottorff Jr
Does Ray mention anything about why ComicBacks have gone out of favor? Used to be they were everywhere, now I can’t remember the last time I saw a new one.
Garfield. It’s all Garfield’s fault. When the first Garfield book from Ballantine ( https://www.comics.org/issue/564004/ ) came out in that landscape format in 1980 it was the beginning of the end for ComicBacks. That format proved so popular that at one time the New York Times trade paperback best seller list was made up of the first 10 Garfield books (that may be a slight exaggeration). All publishers of comic strip reprints followed suit and by the 1990s the ComicBack was, with a few exceptions, a thing of the past. It’s all Garfield’s fault!