SW3D's Journal

A journal by SW3D

0
  • entries
    118
  • comment
    1
  • views
    2,585

Entries in this journal

The Merry Marvel Mutant Welcoming Committee!

AKA: Don't Come Knockin' 'Round Here No More! Conflicted, confused, and terrified of her own siphoning powers, Rogue finds herself at a crossroads in her life, realizing her uncontrolled mutant abilities and villainy have had catastrophic consequences. Rogue makes the toughest decision in her life, turning to help from her mortal enemies: the X-Men. But Charles Xavier's gang of mutie hoodlums and bullies ain't gonna have none of that! How dare they chase down such a luscious piece of ! Am I
SW3D

SW3D

0

Holy Trinity!

AKA: Merry Christmas from Aria and Angela! On Monday and Tuesday, two boxes arrived from the CGC filled with yellow labeled goodies. I purposely waited until this morning to open each box, like an anxious little boy waking-up on Christmas morning and discovering a boatload of presents left by Santa underneath the spruce tree. This beauty was signed by Jay Anacleto on October 11th at the NYComicCon. I got the opportunity to meet the Filipino artist, whose incredible photorealistic illustr
SW3D

SW3D

0

World of Witchblade and Darkness Part 4: A Birthday Celebration!

AKA: Which Witch is the Witch? My apologies to 109... for I believe I may have inadvertently lifted the name of my last few journals from your award winning collection of Witchblade. I honestly thought I was pirating the name from World of Warcraft, Blizzard's famous RPG, but this morning I paroused through your set and discovered your collection was aptly named World of Witchblade. BTW, your set is very, verY cool. I tip my hat to you for the fine collection you have put together. Speaking
SW3D

SW3D

0

World of Witchblade and Darkness Part 3: Total Darkness!

Yep, more of the same... Darkness early issues: 1 through 3, all yellow labels featuring Marc Silvestri and Matt "Batt" Banning signatures. I was fortunate to acquire the signatures at NYComicCon this past October. The first slab features the Variant black cover of Darkness #1 (1st Appearance of Jackie Estacado as the Darkness) graded 9.6. That one features a striking Marc Silvestri signature written vertically and parallel to Estacado's darkness enshrouded countenance. The second slab is
SW3D

SW3D

0

The World of Witchblade and Darkness Part 2: Three Key Moments in Darkness History!

AKA: Jackie... Turn Off The Dark! First came the Darkness Power, probably best described as a "Living Energy"... composed of the negative Spiritual Aspect of the Universe. See Medieval Spawn/Witchblade #1 (the photo features my original owner copy graded 9.6/White Pages). Then came Jackie Estacado, that lovable rapscallion Mafioso Prince and vendetta-driven homicidal assassin in the pages of Witchblade #10. This 9.8 beauty came by way of one of my favorite troll points: Lone Star Comics/MyCo
SW3D

SW3D

0

The World of Witchblade and Darkness Part 1b: The Threesome Redux!

Get your mind out of the gutter! These are four yellow labeled copies of Cyblade/Shi: The Battle for Independents #1, featuring Marc Silvestri's very seductive cover. Shi's green eyes in contrast to her "Death Mask" just mesmerize me. I absolutely love the way Silvestri parts Shi's hair. The full lips on both heroines are another avenue of seduction and drooling. These beauties are pin-ups for sure! The 9.4 and two 9.2's in the pic have triple signatures (Silvestri, Tucci, and Batt), whil
SW3D

SW3D

0

World of Witchblade and Darkness Part 1a: The Threesome!

AKA: Witchy Woman! These five yellow labels just arrived today... my triple signature copies of Sara Pezzini's first appearance in the pages of Cyblade/Shi: The Battle for Independents #1, cover art by Billy Tucci. Featuring the debut of Sara Pezzini and the Witchblade artifact, Cyblade/Shi tells the rather convoluted story of Samurai Assassin Shi (Billy Tucci's gorgeous half-Italian, half-Japanese swordswoman creation), cast under the hypnotic spell of a league of Ninja assassins, while Cy
SW3D

SW3D

0

The 35th Anniversary of Superman: The Movie, "The Greatest Superhero Story Ever Told!"

Do you remember the tag line, "You'll Believe a Man Can Fly"? It was on December 10, 1978, exactly 35 years ago from today, when Superman: The Movie premiered and forever changed the superhero movie genre, making cinematic history and perhaps more. Many great things happened as a consequence of this film. The late Christopher Reeve was introduced to a world audience, and a 9-year-old boy watched, mesmerized and captivated, as 143 minutes of a spectacle as epic and biblical as anything an impre
SW3D

SW3D

0

Happy 35th Birthday Robert Kirkman!

Yeah... we all know who he is! There's no denying this young man is a legend and a force to be reckoned with! I'm not going to even go into praising Kirkman for The Walking Dead, Invincible, or Thief of Thieves... but I will say THANK YOU for all you have accomplished in such a short period of time! I can't wait to see what comes next from your mighty pen. Happy Birthday! SW3D BTW: The dude is a freaking giant! Molly and I saw him at NYComicCon when he came out of the Image booth and I
SW3D

SW3D

0

Happy Belated Birthday Maggie Thompson!

Yesterday, November 29th, Maggie Thompson celebrated her 71st birthday.   Happy Belated Birthday Maggie! Sorry I'm late wishing you birthday wishes.Who? Well, many of you know her as one-half of the husband and wife dynamic duo: Don and Maggie Thompson. And for those of you who don't... Maggie Thompson is a legend in the industry and hobby for many reasons.I came to know of Maggie Thompson back in 1983, when Krause Publications published a now defunct magazine called Comics Collector (1983 -
SW3D

SW3D

0

Happy Birthday Alan Moore!

Yes, today is the Master's birthday! So rise from you chairs, work desks, toilets, or wherever you may be, and sing... "Happy Birthday to You. Happy Birthday to You. Happy Birthday Dear Mr. Moore. Happy Birthday to You!" Now blow out them candles, Mr. Moore, and make a wish. Hmmm... I wonder what Alan Moore would wish for? Probably for me to disappear for putting up this corny journal! Anyway... if by miracle Mr. Moore should read this, "Thank you for all your brilliant work a
SW3D

SW3D

0

Burnt Offerings: The Acquisition of a Holy Grail, Part Two

Fair Warning: for those with ADD and/or Journal Fatigue... this is going to be a long one! For anyone else willing to put up with my tedious ... ...In this journal, I will "gift" two things: The reveal of the aforementioned Holy Grail, and, because of the personal impact and what this purchase of said "Holy Grail" really means to me, it has given me some time to reflect on some life lessons or hard roads traveled, or what I like to term, "Comic Book Collecting Wisdom", which is my second and m
SW3D

SW3D

0

Burnt Offerings: The Acquisition of a Holy Grail, Part Two

Fair Warning: for those with ADD and/or Journal Fatigue... this is going to be a long one! For anyone else willing to put up with my tedious ... ...In this journal, I will "gift" two things: The reveal of the aforementioned Holy Grail, and, because of the personal impact and what this purchase of said "Holy Grail" really means to me, it has given me some time to reflect on some life lessons or hard roads traveled, or what I like to term, "Comic Book Collecting Wisdom", which is my second and m
SW3D

SW3D

0

Cocoon Madness!

Nope, I'm not talking about Ron Howard's 1985 film about a group of old fogies who find the fountain of youth by way of extraterrestrial design in pool waters... I'm talking about everyone's favorite Marvel Golden Boy and Cosmic Messiah: Adam Warlock. So the internet is hot and abuzz with rumors and speculations stemming from the Easter Eggs Marvel Studios has thrown at us in Thor: The Dark World.   SPOILER ALERT! The egg I am most psyched about... ...so there's a scene, where Sif and V
SW3D

SW3D

0

Burnt Offerings and The Acquisition of a Holy Grail, Part One

In the last few weeks, many of us have reflected on the hard choices and decisions of selling comic books... none more heartfelt than Professor Pecora's last journal. I can't say my recent selling decisions were motivated or predicated by equal or comparable reasons, no, on the contrary, they were done admittedly for very, very, selfish reasons... to accomplish a comic book collecting goal 34 years in the making: the acquisition of a Holy Grail! Nonetheless, in order to get to the Promised
SW3D

SW3D

0

She's Back Baby! She's Back!

You've been probably wondering, "How come I haven't heard nor hide nor hair of SW3D's psycho-babble about Angela lately? Or maybe not? Well, if you missed it (or me), or didn't, either way, I'm back, or should I say, Angela's back! That's right... it's another arousing edition of: "For the Love of Angela!" And in this exhilarating segment, we're going to discuss my recent acquisition: Image Comics' Angela #1. Now to most collectors, and even some die-hard Angela fans, this issue may not a
SW3D

SW3D

0

Reminiscing about Miracleman, Marvelman, and Warrior: The Magazine of Quite Weird Heroes...

With the formal announcement by Marvel Comics (at New York Comic Con on October 14, 2013), of the publisher's planned volume reprints of the 24-issues run of Eclipse's Miracleman (hitting LCS racks sometime in January 2014), and the continuation and perhaps the conclusion to Neil Gaiman's saga of the character, I could not help but get nostalgic about the first time Alan Moore's ground-breaking sojourn into superhero deconstruction, appeared in print. Sometime in 1985, I first read the exploit
SW3D

SW3D

0

Overstreet Price Guide and the 9.4's -- 10.0's...

I may have touched off a firestorm of controversy over what I thought was an innocent question along with, admittedly, my overreaction to two boardies responses. I won't go into the latter... it's best to forgive and forget and just move on. But going back to the journal... I obviously failed miserably to get a point across. What I really wanted to ascertain from the responses of my fellow collectors, was whether or not, like me, they were unhappy or dissatisfied or found things lacking with t
SW3D

SW3D

0

Happy Birthday Steve Ditko!

Today, November 2, 2013, comic book legend Steve Ditko turns 86 years of age. Many of you know him as the co-creator of Peter Parker, the Amazing Spider-Man. Others also know him as that eccentric artist... a savant with a black and white view of the world. Still others know him as a follower of Ayn Rand's Objectivism. Hopefully history will see him as the way I see him... a man with a brilliant imagination. Whoever he is, and where ever he is, I just want to thank him for giving the comi
SW3D

SW3D

0

In Search of a Formula: How Do We Calculate the Value of a Comic Graded 9.4 or Higher?

This question is particularly directed to any and all Math Geniuses! I've recently purchased the Overstreet Price Guide 2013-2014 Edition (yep... I'm a little late on this). And like I do every year, I scour and research the raw/ungraded values of my favorite comics and those I want to sell and purchase. Like many collectors, I am "condition sensitive" and only collect high grades, and when it comes to buying graded comics, I have my personal guidelines: Golden Age: 8.0 and up Silver Ag
SW3D

SW3D

0

Those Comics in Your Basement? Probably Worthless

I caught this article on Yahoo tonight, written by Eric Spitznagel of BusinessWeek. See the link: http://finance.yahoo.com/news/those-comics-basement-probably-worthless-095537403.html   I really disagree with it... and I think it's a bit unfair. What are your thoughts? SW3DBarry T. Smith, 44, spent most of his life collecting comic books. And he always considered them an investment. "These books would someday be college tuition, or a house down payment," Smith remembers thinking. "I would lay
SW3D

SW3D

0

Angela's First Appearance in the Marvel Universe

So here is Angela's first appearance in the Marvel Universe, in the last chapter to Age of Ultron. I'll confess, I did not buy any of the first nine issues of Age of Ultron... I had no interest whatsoever. However, when the announcement was made back in May, that Angela would debut in the tenth issue of the maxi-series, I got my money ready. Age of Ultron 10 had a number of variant covers, I believe five in total. I was only interested in the Joe Quesada illustrated cover, which prominently
SW3D

SW3D

0

Angela: Fallen Angel in the Marvel U: Part II

Essential Reading: Angela Pre-Marvel   Two days ago, I ranted about Angela's current incarnation in the Marvel Universe. I was particularly unhappy with Angela's one word dialogue in Guardians of the Galaxy, Volume 3, No. 6, and her rather shallow depiction among other things.I was kindly reminded that GOTG 7 was released on Wednesday, October 16th, and that I should read it. And I promised that not only would I do so, but apologize and retract my earlier comments if I found Angela's ship righ
SW3D

SW3D

0

Angela: Fallen Angel in the Marvel U

Thus far, Angela has made three appearances in the Marvel Universe proper. Her first being in the last issue of the Age of Ultron Maxi-Series. Her second and third, in Guardians of the Galaxy 5 and 6, respectively. In the latest issue of Guardians of the Galaxy, No. 6, Angela takes on the entire team and manages to utter only one word throughout the entire issue. That's right... just one word! WTF?! What happened to the sexy, flippant, "in-your-face", loquacious Bounty Hunter I used to know an
SW3D

SW3D

0

RANT: JG Jones Ultra Rare Fourth Published Work!

Okay, so my last journal (like 5 minutes ago): "Angela: Fallen Angel in the Marvel U" was a mindless rant about of my perceived colorless depiction of Angela in the Marvel Universe. However, as Jeff Bridges in The Big Lebowski would say "Certain things have come to light!"... basically... I may have spoken prematurely. As my good friends Meshuggah and Tnerb pointed out... GOGT 7 was released yesterday, delving deeper into Angela's new Origin and characterization... thus nullifying my tirade an
SW3D

SW3D

0
0