Bigger and better than last year...

Last year the Amazing AZ Con was held in downtown Mesa at the Convention Center. This year it moved to downtown Phoenix at the Convention Center there. It was five times as big as it was in Mesa and we had a great time.

Funny story. We paid 12 bucks to park the truck then walked to the Con from there. We were standing on the corner next to another family and this dude in a Joker outfit, complete with straight jacket, waiting for the light to turn green. When it did, the Joker dude lets out this crazy laugh and starts running across the street then up the Convention Center steps. The family we were standing next to starts to follow when one of the kids, a little boy about 3 or 4 years old, says...Not that way dad, thats Joker. Too funny.

So I was bummed that Stan Lee couldnt make it, but I went to the Desert Winds booth and dropped off my FF 28 CGC 7.5 and Strange Tales 120 CGC 8.0. Stan will sign them once he kicks this flu bug and the books will ship to CGC...Economy, so I should get them back in July. Im extending a lot of trust to Desert Winds that they wont damage the books taking them out of the slabs. The big guy I was talking to there says he likes to tell the story of the previous tool he used to take books out of their slabs...he would let his two rottweilers tear the slab off then pull the book out before they could get their teeth into it. Yeah. The sad thing is some people actually believed him.

I didnt submit any other books this time around. I figured the 200 dollars I spent to have the two books signed by Stan and resubmitted for grading was enough for one day. I looked for a high grade copy of Uncanny Xmen 286 to have Jim Lee, who also had the flu, and Scott Lobdell sign but no luck. This was the last Uncanny Xmen issue Jim Lee drew, even though it was only the cover, and it was the first Uncanny Xmen issue Scott Lobdell ever wrote so I thought it would be pretty cool to have them both sign it even though it has no other real significance.

Wow this is one of the longer journals Ive written. Hope Im not boring you guys. So, I got to see my buddy Frank at Aspen Comics and he gave me a 1 in 200 copy of Legend of the Shadow Clan 1 which looks to be a pretty cool series. Then I visited all the other vendors and browsed their books. I didnt see any high grade books that interested me so I started looking to fill holes in my collection for the reading copies I needed. You would be surprised how difficult it is to find an Avengers 195. Finally found a copy that was like a 9.4 but the seller wanted 50 bucks. Huh? Oh I see, its the first appearance of Taskmaster. Really, 50 bucks? Needless to say I did not make that purchase. I did find a lot of other reader copies I was looking for though and as we were leaving I happened to stop at one more dealer with a really small booth...flipped through his books and found a Fine copy of Avengers 195 for 5 bucks. Score.

My oldest son was most excited about the weapons booth and Japanese candy. We ended up letting him buy a hunting knife, though its more like a replica than anything. My youngest son bought a couple TPBs and a few Marvel tokidoki blind boxes...those little figures are way cool.

At the end of the day our dogs were barking and stomachs were growling so we walked down the street to Majerles, named for the owner...former Phoenix Suns player Dan Majerle, grabbed some sandwiches, and headed home. All in all we had a great time. Cant wait to come back in May for the Phoenix Con.

Til next time...

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