An Introduction to Old Chinese Comics

Chinese junk markets are a passion of mine. I say this, because antique stores are places where history can be discovered -- especially when you are a foriegner. The above is a comic book, and the title in white Chinese characters can be roughly translated as "The Bloody Battle of Changzhou City." I have lived in Changzhou for almost three years, and so I find this comic book infinitely fascinating. Someday, I will know how to read Chinese, and I can't wait to read this. I know the outline of the story. During the Yuan Dynasty, Changzhou was looked at as a city of nerds and bookworms and scholars, and the Yuan forces thought they could tear through it within a couple of days. Yet, those alleged nerds and geeks fought to the death -- even after having some of their limbs hacked off. 

Old Chinese comics are not like the ones you will find America. The first introductions of Batman, Superman, and Captain America were colorful and on cheap paper. Old Chinese comics were also on cheap paper, but the printing is in black and white. Old American comic books have multi-panel pages, whereas Chinese ones tend to be smaller and single-panel pages with a numbered caption. 

The topics of these old comics usually tends to be either revolutionary communist history, or really and old ancient dynastic history. As a cultural artifact, they tend to be the same. Color cover, black and white illustrated interior. While collector culture differs between the USA and China when it comes to comics, when thing remains true. The price of these things depends on their scarcity. Another thing is how they are released as "collector items." 

The above is a box set released by the Chinese Philatelic Corporation. Yes, an organization dedicated and concentrated on collecting Chinese postage stamps publishes comics as collector items. The more China becomes an economic world leader, the fancier these box sets become. Here are two older box sets. 

Many Americans collect comics or stamps or coins as investments. It's a scarce thing of value that can be sold when these things mature with age. If I said I bought this stuff for that purpose, I would need to be deservedly punched in the face for wasting my money.  If you want to make profit, buy into Bitcoin, Ether,  some fashionable alt-coin of the moment (recently, that would be ZCash), precious metals, stocks, bonds, or whatever. This is so not that. However, things like comics have a another value, and that worth is intangible. They can teach you about history and a culture, and knowledge is always more valuable than money.