Celebrity Collections: Comic Books

Comics! Remember when you were a kid and comics were the answer to everything? Still throbbing from a visit to the dentist? Comic. Need to kept occupied during a flight? A few comics. It’s the school holidays and your parents have run out of things to do with you? A lot of comics!

For some of us, the obsession may not have ended in childhood. These days, continuing comic geekdom can be worn as a badge of honour. However proud you may be of that box file of Sandman issues or the shelf housing a host of Iron Man graphic novels though, you probably won’t have the funds to amass a collection as large as that of certain celebrities. Let us guide you through the stars who love their comics almost as much as they love the limelight.

Make sure you also read our post about some of the strangest collections on this planet.

Nicolas Cage

A huge comic book fan, Nicolas Cage must have been living out a childhood dream when he got to play Marvel character Ghost Rider in not one but two movies. Two…not very good movies. Hey – sometimes you need to be careful not to fulfill your dreams! Cage’s comic book geek credentials are also confirmed by his choice of acting name. His real name is Nicolas Coppola but he took his more famous surname from the Marvel character Luke Cage. A sensible move – who ever heard of anybody called Coppola being successful in Hollywood? Oh. If comic character names are good enough for him then they’re also good enough for his sons, one of whom is called Kal-el, Superman’s name on his home planet of Krypton.

Cage’s comic book collection hasn’t been a trouble-free escape from reality though. In 2000, he suffered the theft from his home of copies of Action Comics #1 (first appearance of Superman) and Detective Comics #27 (first appearance of Batman). He found the theft traumatic enough to sell off the rest of his extensive collection at auction. This included an issue of Detective Comics #38, featuring the first appearance of Batman’s sidekick, Robin.

In a strange storage-based twist, ten years later a copy of Action Comics #1 (in the same condition as the stolen one and believed to be it) was found in an abandoned storage locker. In 2011, this copy (thought to have been returned to Cage’s ownership) was sold at auction for $2.16m, the first comic book to sell for more than $2m.

Jonathan Ross

The TV host puts his love for comics down to his brother, Paul (yes, he of the deeper expanses of Sky’s channel selector), who one day arrived home clutching some American comic books from a local junk shop. Some of these early gems apparently remain in the ever-growing collection of one of the nation’s favourite interviewers. Remembering his experiences with Russell Brand, it’s probably safest for Jonathan if these are the kind of comics that he sticks to.

In recent times, he’s been able to combine his love of comics with his love of film to enjoy the sight of the greatest superhero team-up in movie history courtesy of Avengers Assemble. Ross has also branched out professionally into the world of comics by writing his own comics, Turf and America’s Got Powers. In 2009, Wossy had a special visitor come to his house to view his comic book collection… Eminem! Generous Jonathan even gave him a copy of Avengers #3, saying that he knew the rapper needed it as they both buy their comics from the same dealer in America.

Rosario Dawson

Proving that it’s not just men who can geek out over the graphics, actress Rosario Dawson is an avid fan. The star of Quentin Tarantino’s Death Proof and Danny Boyle’s recent film Trance has also taken the Jonathan Ross route and released her own comic book series – Occult Crimes Taskforce was a 4-part mini-series that may yet become a TV series. The actress also provided her vocal talents to an animated movie featuring DC Comics superheroine Wonder Woman.

Dawson also worked on the movie Clerks II with another huge fan of comic books…

Kevin Smith

Having sold his initial comic book collection to help fund his first movie, Clerks (released in 1994), hopefully director, podcaster and general geek-about-town Kevin Smith has been able to reconstruct it. Given that the success of his film career enabled him to buy his own comic shop (Jay & Silent Bob’s Secret Stash – named in honour of his and Jason Mewes’ characters in his movies), it seems like a safe bet.

As well as writing comics featuring characters such as Spiderman, The Green Hornet, and Batman, he also hosts his own podcast discussing DC’s dark knight – the self-deprecatingly titled Fat Man on Batman.

If your own comic book collection is getting out of hand but you don’t fancy following either of Kevin Smith’s models –

a) Sell it to fund a movie

or

b) Set up your own comic book store

…maybe you should get in touch with Flexistore. We’re used to storing all kinds of collections and we’ll be happy to give you more information and a free no-obligation storage quote. Get in touch today and we’ll guarantee safe storage of your precious collection!

0845 430 9333

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