Before reliable fountain pens became available, pens needed to be frequently dipped into a small pot of ink while the writer worked on a document. Most writing with a pen had to be done at a desk where the pot of ink could be kept secure and prevented from spilling. Since the fountain pen contained its own ink, it freed up writers to pen letters while sitting outside enjoying a beautiful day or barreling through the countryside on a train.

A fountain pen is a pen that carries its own ink in a reservoir inside the pen. The writing tip of the fountain pen is called the nib and is made from metal. Ink is carried from the reservoir to the paper through a combination of gravity and a groove in the nib. There are several sites online where you can find photos of beautiful vintage fountain pens. Try The Vintage Pens Website.

While fountain pens have been around for centuries, they were unreliable and often left unsightly blots of ink on important papers, since the amount of ink flowing to the nib was difficult to control. In the late 1800s a number of innovations were devised, making fountain pens far neater and more dependable. The improved pens became wildly popular and before long businessmen everywhere considered fountain pens indispensable. New companies opened to begin making fountain pens and strove to lure customers with bright colors, different sizes and elaborate decorations. Fountain pens enjoyed popularity through the 1950s. After that inexpensive, disposable ball point pens took the place of fountain pens.

There are many different factors to look at when purchasing a vintage fountain pen. The most important is the condition of the pen. If possible, look at the piece very closely before purchasing to make certain there are no tiny cracks. If a certain style of pen was manufactured in different sizes, larger sizes will cost more, all other factors being equal. Colorful, highly decorated pens also tend to be more sought after.

Jeff Harris is an artist inspired by the comic books he collects and the film noir genre he loves to watch…

How you see or define your collection:
A vast well of inspiration and comfort. Especially with a comic book collection nowadays, I don’t really collect for the quick buck like many did in the 90’s and lost their shirts doing so. Mostly my collection reflects my interests and creative influences.

Do you have any photos to share with us?
Sure. Some of these books were lost for almost 14 years. They were recently found deep in Dad’s garage.

When & how did you start your collection?
Actually in the late 70’s. When I first started reading comics, I used to cut up the books into paper dolls and create stories from the existing characters. And when I started to draw more, I cut up the books a lot less. Plus, there were many books I’d love reread.

When did you acknowledge it as a ‘collection’?
When I started to buy boxes for them in the early 80’s. And when the Virginia State Troopers at a weigh station nearly had me arrested in ‘92, during my move from Maine to Arizona. The U-Haul truck had half of it filled with my comic collection and had also the words “Under 21,000 lbs” on the cab. My paperwork from U-Haul said that I had unlimited lbs on it. The truck was weighed at 29,000 lbs. So some state trooper, possibly deprived of his donut, was going to take the word of the truck cab over my U-Haul paperwork. Fortunately before I was carted off the hoosegow, one sane superior officer finally arrived at work and let me go. This also meant that I had to avoid every weigh between Virginia and AZ. A normal 3 day driving trip turned into 5 in every backroad imaginable.

Has it affected you financially? If so, how?
For the extreme example, see above. But for every day life, I do budget myself. Of course, it’s not like the old days where one could buy an week’s shipment easily. I stick to my favorites and leave room to try some new stuff though. But nowadays, I do budget myself very carefully in that department.

What is the most drastic thing you have done to pursue your collection?
Definitely what I mentioned earlier in the first question was probably the closest thing that I had to do to keep from losing my comic collection and being arrested at the same time. Never really had to do anything drastic to pursue something. Maybe except when I would get in trouble as a kid, Mom would ground me and forbid me from buying any new comics at the time. Still would though and sneak them in my backpack or something like that.

How has it affected your daily life?
In a lot of ways. But the most important one is that it was the main reason I wanted to be an artist in the first place. It also helped take me all over the country and keep me sane at the same time. The collection provides reference of what to do and what not to do. It also helped me get in touch with many of the creative people behind the books, which helped further myself as an artist.

You can see Jeff’s artwork at his website, www.studiohadra.com.

For more comic books, see the following websites:

The Sol and Penny Davidson collection Sol Davidson’s doctoral dissertation, Culture and the Comic Strips, earned him the first PhD in comics in 1959. There was no institutional support for Comics Studies at the time, but Dr. Davidson’s interest in comics has never flagged and The University of Florida offers this unique set of comic books, anthologies, newspaper sections, magazines and rareities slowly accumulated by the Davidsons.

Michigan State University’s Comic Art Collection With over 200,000 items, the collection is mostly comic books, but also included are over 1,000 books of collected newspaper comic strips, and several thousand books and periodicals about comics.

Comics Guaranty Corp The leading third-party grading service for comic books, the site includes registry, census data, message boards and gallery.

Images © Jeff Harris

Around the mid-90’s, the shelves of your average comic store were rife with heroes and heroines who bulged in every which direction but real, and every comic had 15 variant covers. Half of these covers were your good ol’ paper-and-ink covers, but the other half were rare-foil-embossed, alternate-reality variants, designed to draw the buyer into a false sense of ‘collectability’ that still hasn’t panned out 15 years later. Avaricious ‘investors’ from those days are left with garages full of mouldering books that no one really wants anymore. Like that tattoo of the hissing kitty cat that you have on your lower back, it really seemed like a good idea at the time.

During this time, it was easy to get lost in the confusing haze of covers and complete lack of eloquent writing to back them up, but there was always one set of covers that stood out, and made no effort to make themselves obscenely rare or collectable, and those covers usually created by a guy named Dave McKean. Working for Vertigo Comics, an offshoot of DC Comics, McKean was doing some of early work on the covers for books such as Hellblazer and Neil Gaiman’s impossibly complex Sandman. Given the nature of these books, which was largely esoteric, McKean took the opportunity to create breathtaking fine artworks for each over, swimming with allegory and allusion and foregoing the usual method of drawing the reader in by telling them the story contained therein with large, blaring statements on the cover. In a world of exhortations, McKean provided a beautiful whisper, and it was enough to make Sandman an award-winning fantasy comic. His artwork played a vital role in bringing comics respect as a literary art form. Sure, they had writers, but no one’s going to go into the freakshow tent if the barker isn’t outside, challenging the passersby to observe the wonders within. That, and the original cover collages were as big as doors.

Dave McKean is why I picked up my first comic, even though it said ‘For Mature Readers Only’ and brought it nervously to the cashier. The cashier chose not to dispute my purchase, and thus began my lifelong love of all things McKean. With the release of the Henson-captained film Mirrormask, McKean (in the form of director and chief visual artist) has become a household name, and justifiably so, but I can say that I was collecting his works way back when. You can check out a small cross-sampling of his work at a few online galleries dedicated to him, as he’s one of the rare modern artists who has not developed a website for himself yet. I’ve actually found myself contributing some of the rarer images I’ve come across to these galleries over the years.

Being a multifaceted talent, McKean has released everything from books of art photography to tarot decks, albums of music and childrens’ books, art prints and films, most of them seeing extraordinarily limited releases. Of course, having an acute need to see and absorb all things McKean (whom I strangely saw as a kind of kindred spirit), this created my first inklings of those vicious collectors impulses. I would find these rarities, and I would acquire them at almost any cost - not to have them, but to observe them as closely as possible and try to gain access to McKean’s creative process and use it to inspire and augment my own. And as usual, I can justify my insatiable desire to collect things with the fact that I can subvert everything that I collect into either a creative product or a more secure lifestyle.

The list of Dave McKean collectibles is a short and diverse one, though there are a few standout points in it, short of owning an original artwork (which I am still working on).

The original edition of The Vertigo Tarot, released by DC Comics, is an item that can reach up to 250 dollars at auction. It contains a full complement of photographically illustrated tarot cards, along with a general instruction manual and a collectors box to contain it all. Interestingly, many of the cards are concerned with characters from various DC comic books and their role in comics. It’s a beautiful set in any capacity, and DC re-released it a few years back, though in a smaller format and with less accompanying literature. I spent many a basement Halloween party reading these cards to curious onlookers, but today they remain in a pouch on a shelf, too beautiful to really touch. The dustjacket of the manual is long gone, and the large box that it all came in is in the attic somewhere, but as long as I have 78 cards worth of art, I’m happy with it.

Many of the rare items that I’ve come across I’ve bought directly from Dave McKean’s agent and publisher Allen Spiegel, who I was in regular contact with at the time. My most treasured item is McKean’s video-only film, ‘The Week Before’. It’s a short film about the seven days before the seven biblical days in which the Earth was created, when God had some serious creative blockage. Due to the fickle nature of magnetic tape, I’ve invested in equipment to get it onto DVD as soon as possible (for my personal use only, of course), before the image decays any further. I was informed that a collection of McKean’s works was slated for release in DVD format a few years back, but Mirrormask took over the production schedule and the DVD has been pushed back to an undetermined date.

The third item in my Dave McKean trifecta of awesome is the limited-release version of McKean’s comic masterwork, ‘Cages’, which saw only 1000 copies. 500 pages of black-slipcased beauty, signed and numbered in silver, and accompanied by a CD of McKean reading some of the myths in his book in his soothing English accent, complete with music composed by him. When I got this, it was another kind of sacred item, rarely touched. I bought a second, non-limited copy of the book for reading and transporting.

The problem with collecting an eclectic artist is that you have to search through nooks and crannies of things to find unannounced appearances in things. I’ve played through video games just to find the series of scenes that he’d illustrated. I’ve imported CD singles from across the pond to see music videos that were embedded into them. I’ve suffered though expensive eBay auctions that took years to arrive, and all for the love of an armload of books, a wall of prints and about 15 copies of McKean’s signature. I’m not sure why I sought out 15 copies of it, but there’s some kind of collected energy that I irrationally hope to gather in one place. Probably because artists are crazy like that.

McKean’s recent output has been far more complex and subsequently far more difficult to track down and in lesser quantities. When you’re directing a major motion picture, you don’t really spend as much time painting up comic book covers. Like any great artist, McKean is constantly reinventing graphic design and himself, and I’ll be sticking around to watch it happen.

The word “souvenir” is French for “remember.” Travelers love to bring home a little something from the places they’ve visited, something to help them remember days spent vacationing far from everyday headaches and worries. In the late 1800s someone came up with the idea of creating souvenir spoons and a collecting craze was born.

The first souvenir spoons in the U.S. were produced in the 1890s and remained popular for 30 years. Before long tourist towns were jumping on the bandwagon and having commemorative spoons created. Most spoons were fashioned from sterling silver, though silverplate spoons were also made. Some featured enamel while others had a gold wash in the bowl. Some souvenir spoons bore simple designs with the name of the state engraved on the handle, while others carried elaborate depictions of Native Americans in headdresses or state birds and flowers.

The popularity of sterling silver souvenir spoons means that there are many antique spoons available on the market for reasonable prices. Most spoons fetch $5 to $40, but a rare spoon will cost more. While they can be found in antique shops and malls, for sheer volume of choice the internet is your best bet. As always, when purchasing online make sure to ask a lot of questions, especially about the condition of the spoon. Dings and scratches don’t necessarily show up in photos. Also, souvenir buyers frequently had their` names engraved onto the spoons which can bring down the resale value, so make sure to ask about any inscriptions.

Another area of spoon collecting is more modern mini souvenir spoons. These spoons are usually stainless steel or silver plated with an enameled design at the top. These spoons are inexpensive and colorful. They often bear the name of a state, but also can be found for amusement parks, state parks and other tourist attractions. Some like to collect one from every state they’ve visited and display them on the wall, while others aim for a full set of 50 states.

“For those with an interest in popular culture, commercial art and design, publishing history, comic books, paperbacks, pulp magazines, or collecting original art, ILLUSTRATION is the best source for new information on the illustrators of the past.”

So reads the website. Is it too good to be true? Yes, Virginia, Illustration Magazine is that good.

As the golden age of American illustration is considered to be the period of 1890 to 1960, the magazine covers an array of art. Inside Illustration, you’ll find the art of 1940 Marvel comic books, vintage magazine story illustrations, postcards, sci-fi book and magazine covers, posters, pulp novel art, advertising and other ephemera of graphic delight.

Collectors of trashy vintage pulp novels, Elvgren pinups, and vintage magazines (be they men’s magazines, turn of the century copies of Collier’s, or Amazing Stories volumes) will drool. Pop culture addicts will greedily await the next issue. Art lovers, artist themselves and anyone with an eye for style will enjoy flipping through Illustration to find classical creations, stylized advertising pieces, elegant deco drawings, fine art, eccentric arrangements, and other works to ooh and ah over. While the publishers occasionally devote an entire issue to one artist, most issues are a mix of the humorous, the sinister, the sleazy, the graceful, the surreal, the charming & the cheeky.

It’s clear from the quality that for the publishers this is not just another job, not just a way to make some money — this is an act of love.

Printed on heavy weight, glossy paper, the high quality reproductions of of these illustrations are a joy to behold. The magazine includes articles by the artists themselves, as well as historians, professors & fans of the artists and their works; making it not only fun to read, but so informative, each issue is suitable for research and reference.

In an interview with John B. Dwyer at The American Thinker, the publisher and editor, Dan Zimmer, said “My goal is to document the history of a vanishing art form, which is commercial illustration. Most of the history of these artists is unknown or unpublished. In many cases, if I don’t publish a story on a particular artist, chances are no one ever will. I have given a lot of space to ‘lesser artists’ in an attempt to broaden our horizons. The magazine tends to focus on biography more than rigorous academic examination and I think that’s because we need to see more of the history of illustration before we can start examining it critically.”

This helps to put the works in context. And I think that’s equally important in understanding their purpose and value.

For example, Issue Number 13 has 30 pages on W.T. Benda.

Not only do you have an article by Mark B. Pohlad, PhD., an Associate Professor in the Department of Fine Art and Art History at De Paul University in Chicago, a plethora of exquisite reproductions to gaze at (including many full-page images!), but also a piece by Colonel Charles Waterhouse on Benda’s last performance. Reading all of this, one gets information on his contemporaries (such as Charles Dana Gibson), Benda’s bio, the culture of the 20’s and 30’s, a trail of magazines in which his works appeared, but the story behind his gallery work and famous masks. What more can a collector ask for? And yet that’s not all that’s in the issue.

Also in #13 are “The Fantastic Art of Alex Schomberg,” “Sticks and Bones: The Life and Art of Lee Brown Coye,” and book reviews and information on exhibitions and events.

Published quarterly, Illustration is one magazine that illustration and art collectors must have.

(But be warned, this may ignite new passions for illustration, i.e., you’ll end up with another collection or two!)