SREW's Journal

A journal by SREW

0
  • entries
    18
  • comments
    0
  • views
    336

Entries in this journal

FF versus Deadpool

The best and the worst of comic movies Great to see the new Deadpool trailer is so good, really catching the spirit of the comics with Ryan Reynolds obviously born to play this role. Happy. Tragic, however, to see the Fantastic Four movie tank so badly. Shame on Fox for getting this so wrong, and please let them give the FF back to Marvel, where they belong. It beggars belief that with so much money at stake, a film company can squander it through choices that are so blatantly wrong. The good
SREW

SREW

0

London Super Comic Con - submission abandoned

No insurance for shipping CGC books internationally I was delighted to hear that CGC would be at the London Super Comic Con this past weekend. As an eager Collector's Society member I had a coupon for four standard books in hand and spent a month figuring out the best books from my collection to submit. I settled on some gems such as Tales to Astonish #44, Batman #232, and a VG Tales to Astonish #13, one of my prized books! So then I read online, just before the show, that CGC does not offer i
SREW

SREW

0

Emerald City Comicon Days Two and Three: The Walking Tardis

Dr Who is getting pretty big... Well another ECCC is done, and it was truly excellent. In the end I didn't buy any graded books, but spent most of the weekend talking with artists and starting up a little sketchbook which several were kind enough to draw in - everyone from Jacen Burrows, who provided a creepy Cthulu monster, to Don Rosa, who drew me a Huey and Louie for my two nephews. What a great bunch of people! I also found some nice reader copies of EC horror titles for $20 a peice, one o
SREW

SREW

0

Emerald City Comicon Day One

Hmmm...? Well it's that time again. Took the bus over to the Seattle Convention Center at 2pm, for the 2012 ECCC. First off, it took 30 minutes to get through the queue - note to self, don't prepay for a ticket next time, it's much quicker to just buy tickets on the day! Then enter the exhibition. It's very crowded, seems busier than last year, and that's with an extra floor added for gaming. This show getss bigger and bigger! Now onto the books. Last year I did three submissions at ECCC and t
SREW

SREW

0

One week to ECCC

Decisions, decisions! I agree with TNerb that the smaller cons are better. I was lucky enough to be in Philadelphia for the Ramada Inn meeting last autumn and it was GREAT! Nevertheless, I am excited about the up-coming Emerald City Comicon next weekend - my local spectacular. It will be my last chance to buy graded books for the rest of the year, so I am thinking about what to look out for. Should I decide on a title to get, or just a budget? Should I drag my Overstreet guide with me all week
SREW

SREW

0

Learning from my Mistakes

Avoiding Restored Labels Well, I love my comics but I can't afford to get them graded and most of them aren't worth grading anyway... so once a year, when I renew my CGC membership, I can at least send in as many books as they provide vouchers for. Last year, my first submission, was a disaster -- three went off to CGC and all three came back with PLODs, including a Green Lantern #76 and an ASM #121 -- ugh! Boy did I learn my lesson. So this year I checked the submission very carefully before
SREW

SREW

0

How Green is my Collection?

Does comic collecting harm the environment? It strikes me as a comic book collector that an awful lot of plastic is involved in our hobby. Despite my best efforts to use canvas bags in the supermarket, and to recycle paper and garbage at home, somehow I manage to use or throw out oodles of plastic bags for comics. Add to that the heavy plastic content of a CGC case and we have many pounds weight of possibly horrible pollutants on our hands. Is there an alternative? We hear that many a Golden A
SREW

SREW

0

No More Green Labels for Gifts!

Qualified Label for Comics with Gifts Many first issues of UK comics came with free gifts up to the 1990s (now every issue likely has one). Marvel UK issued new Hulk, Spider-Man, Captain Britain, etc. comics with gifts. On eBay UK, buying a comic with the gift intact will cost you much much more than buying it without. Mighty World of Marvel no. 1, for example, is $30 without the gift in fine condition, but goes for about $150 with the gift (a Hulk transfer). Now CGC do not include inserts in
SREW

SREW

0

Restoration Screening

Please offer separate restoration check! I sympathize with duckduckmike's gloom on getting an SA grade on his X-Men #3. For all the money we collectors pay to CGC, surely they could offer a service where they just pre-screen a book for restoration for, say, $10 a book, and then let you decide if you want to pay the extra to have the book slabbed. It seems impossible to avoid sending restored books to be graded when CGC's techniques for detecting it are so much more advanced than the average co
SREW

SREW

0

Emerald City Day One

Party Time in Seattle! Yesterday was a great first day at the Emerald City Comicon in Seattle. I went two years ago when I knew nothing about collecting comics and just bought a few old dollar-a-piece Hulks. This time, two years of buying later, I think I know what I?m doing (well?I at least now understand why Hulk #181 costs more than a dollar). Of course it was a blast! A treasure trove out there! ?Back on planet Earth I found a nice CGC Iron Man #1 in 5.0 and some reader copies of my CGC bo
SREW

SREW

0

Bone #1

Information on Bone #1 (July 1991) (updated) Bone is one of those books you can go back to again and again and it?s still fresh and still funny. Jeff Smith?s art is so great ? he has such an expressive style, you could take out all the text and it would still work fine ? always a sign of a great comic book. Bone appeals to children and adults, and it?s a story that?s simple and clever, dramatic and hilarious. I hear they?re making a CGI movie of it (although a retro Disney -styled animation wo
SREW

SREW

0

Poor Richard on Comic-Buying

Wise words on collecting Once in a while I have to remind myself of Benjamin Franklin's wise words about buying too many comic books on eBay: *BEWARE OF LITTLE EXPENSES: A SMALL LEAK WILL SINK A GREAT SHIP *MANY HAVE BEEN RUINED BY BUYING GOOD PENNYWORTHS *MOLEHILLS, IF OFTEN HEAP?D, TO MOUNTAINS RISE I guess Franklin probably just stuck to the occasional very high end key issue - good for him!
SREW

SREW

0

How has Ebay affected new comic sales?

Has a change in the availability of old comics contributed to the reduction in sales of new comics? Has a change in the availability of old comics contributed to the reduction in sales of new comics? When I was a kid, with a weekly subscription to ?Mighty World of Marvel?, the only thing I could know about the Hulk et al was what that week?s issue told me. I never saw a back issue older than the first issue I bought because there were no comic shops or dealers or internet. I didn?t have any aw
SREW

SREW

0

Emerald City Approaches

Grading at the Comicon Well, I bought my ticket today for the Emerald City Comicon in Seattle, and now I have to figure out what books to take there to be sent away for grading - my first submission! Today I had the pleasure of finding a near mint copy of John Byrne's Next Men #21 in the 25? bargain bin at a local bookstore, and a first edition of Freak Brothers number one, a bit battered, but still nice! So these could go off, but the Freak Brothers is probably too low a grade to preserve, be
SREW

SREW

0

Grading: A Mini-History

Where does the term ?grading? come from and what is its history? When did quantitative grading of goods begin? How is the grading of goods and the grading of people related? Here are a few thoughts, based on the Oxford English Dictionary and a small pile of history books. I'm interested to hear more on the history of grading... The word ?grade? comes from the Latin gradus, meaning a step. In the 1560s in Europe, to grade meant to admit someone to a degree in a university ?he was graded doctor,
SREW

SREW

0

Horrific #3

Suspended Elimination What is it that makes Don Heck?s ?bullet in the head? cover of Horrific #3 so impressive as an image of horror? Obviously ?it?s a guy shot in the head?, but there are plenty of similar images that don?t appeal the way this one does. So how does this image work? Here are some thoughts. First off, some formal qualities. All the background has been erased to concentrate the eye entirely on the head of the shot man. The man?s hair, spiky and standing on end, is both a sign of
SREW

SREW

0

Octopus Attack

A forgotten genre? Today I nearly bought a copy of Fantastic #9, which features an impressive monster octopus on the cover, but sadly a cover that was loose. Octopus attacks, usually on busty women, seem to be an enduring genre of comic covers, and I might make them a theme for my monster-oriented collection. That would bring in Wonder Woman #75, Ms. Marvel #16, and the excellent Terrors of the Jungle #20 and All-Top #16. Also Star-Spangled Comics #68 and More Fun #83. I wonder what other oc
SREW

SREW

0

Grading British Comics

Grade Britain! As a Brit living in the States, I collect both US and American comic books (or just 'comics' if you're British). British comics like Wham!, 2000AD, the Beano and Dandy, the Mighty World of Marvel and Eagle have a lot to offer, mixing humor and superheroes, and a variety of formats, printing styles, and coloring methods. Unfortunately, the smaller market and their irregular sizes mean that it's very rare for British comics to get graded. I have seen a CGC-graded issue of Hulk Co
SREW

SREW

0
0