FCBD 2020: The Overstreet Guide to
Collecting
Written by: J.C. Vaughn
Illustrated by: Brendon and Brian Fraim
Colored by: Hi-Fi's Brian Miller, Chris
Summers
Lettered by: Marshall Dillon
Edited by: Carrie Wood, Amanda Sheriff
Cover: Billy Tucci
Released: Aug. 19, 2020
If one of the goals of Free Comic Book Day is getting new people interested in the art form and the hobby, it makes sense to offer something of an instruction manual. The Overstreet Guide to Collecting aims to deliver just that with what I’m assuming are annual offerings, although I could only find a couple in my scattered collection.
The 2020 edition celebrates the 50th anniversary of the most famous price guide in comics.* It starts with an overview of the guide and the hobby, none of which will be breaking news to longtime fans and collectors. But it's delivered while homaging a variety of comic artists and styles to keep it entertaining for the more experienced FCBD customers – as if that Usagi Yojimbo/Painkiller Jane cover isn't reason enough to pick it up.
The most pertinent piece of advice is “Collect what you love and you’ll never go wrong!” Judge me all you want for devoting effort and money** to completing my run of NFLSuperPro, but it was fun. I was searching for those issues even before I finally got around to starting this blog. Also, it's a heck of a lot easier to fill out a collection of Excalibur, Quasar and Ultraverse comics from dollar bins than it is to find and justify paying for DC Comics Presents #47, where Superman takes on He-Man and Skeletor.
My kids won't go to college on those SuperPro issues, which also spares me the emotional quandary of having to sell them. But if I do part with or misplace them, it won't be as bad as when I realized I'd lost my copy of Uncanny X-Men #244.***
I joke, of course. I would even sell my Squirrel Girl collection to help my kids. I mean, it is available on Hoopla after all.
Where were we? Oh, right. Overstreet. Free Comic Book Day 2020.
After a text piece on taking care of comics, which mainly suggests learning more about storage materials, we move into “The Horror Comics Horror!” It provides some fairly obvious but accurate tips about watching out for deals that are too good to be true. Still, this is aimed at less experienced collectors, and it's pretty funny.
The issue finishes up with a piece by Mike Oeming on the Hero Initiative, not only how it helps comic creators in medical and financial need in general but Oeming’s wife, Taki Soma, in particular. Told in his signature style, it makes the work of the organization much more relatable.
* - Sorry, Wizard.
** - Admittedly not much.
*** - First appearance of Jubilee, which
also wouldn't
put either of my kids through one class at college.
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