Or maybe its Days of Future Passed all over again: Rise of the Lead Age

Just a couple of things that I wanted to share my thoughts on.

First, what is the deal with CGC, they do some things that don't seem to make any sense! Now I been collecting comics for a long time and I've seen a lot of comics and even I can only grade silver and modern age books with a relative skill. I'm no CGC grader but I can grade a book as a 9.4 or 9.6 with relative skill, 9.8's not so much. That being said, I believe somebody out there with " special eyes " can tell the difference between a 9.6 and 9.8 consistently. But riddle me this, who can consistently tell the difference between a 9.8 and a 9.9, or better yet a 9.9 and a 10. Lets get real, 10's don't really exist, there just a gimmick CGC throws out there every now and then to keep us all ourselves looking for. I mean come on, people press 9.8's and there still not 9.9 or 10's. I understand that 10 is the max but realistically there shouldn't be any. Even my wife agrees and she could care less about Captain Skywalker or Voldemort.

Second, why does CGC still comment on white pages on books that come out nowadays. I've got a friend who submits books that just came out and he's like " Oh my Peter Panzerfaust #000b Variant A is 9.8 with white pages ". I'm like, well its less than 24 months old and its printed on glossy " Vogue Magazine " paper. When will these newer books ever fade or degrade. New books are made with such greater quality that they should last forever. I know its not a popular idea but I feel like for books made on glossy paper or magazine quality they should skip the page quality. I've never seen a Lead Age book with off white or cream colored pages.

Third, I spoke with a friend of mine regarding getting books slabbed and he opened my eyes to whats really going on. I was of the old school mindset where you dug through boxes at mutiple physical and online locations until you found good clean copies of what you wanted. Hell every now and again you'd find something that you weren't necessarily looking for that becomes a target of opportunity. Now, I hear its like who cares about " high grade " just find a copy thats not too bad ( no bad defects ) and get it pressed up then slabbed. I don't know how to feel about this. I mean its good for me in that I've got literally several hundred books that I wouldn't mind going up a grade or too. You know , I've got a couple 8.5's that I wouldn't mind being 9.0's more than a few 9.2 & 9.4's that I wouldn't mind being 9.6 and 9.8's. I must admit that I feel a little disingenuous though, I mean I don't think of pressing as restoration but there's something weird about buying something thats not that good and turning it into something better than it was originally. I mean, I don't have to find a 9.8 anymore, I just need to find a 9.6 with good defects and press the hell out of it.

Overtime, as pressing becomes more popular, won't higher grade books proliferate and thus bring down the overall value of a 9.8 except for the truly rarest of the rare. Don't get me wrong, I've got a couple of books that are relatively good but if they go up from an 8.5 or 9.0 to a 9.2 or 9.4 it'll change the value by a couple of hundred bucks or more. My friend informs that he doesn't get anything slabbed unless he's absolutely sure its a 9.8, otherwise its gets pressed first.

Latly, I stopped collecting new comics over 10-15 years ago for monetary reasons. What happened though was that I ended up getting stuck in the time period that I grew up reading and have lost the ability to palate much else. Books from the 70's - 90's remind me of my childhood, its all about the storytelling and nostalgia. I like musty, cream page colored, powdery silver, modern, and bronze age books. I've thought about getting back into see what newer books are all about but they all seem so foreign. Half the characters I don't recognize the other half I would recognize but I'm not sure what universe we're in. I mean all the characters I remember are now either gay ( which is OK ), hispanic ( which is OK ), or exist in so many different incarnations that I just get exhausted ie. savage Wolverine, slobbering Wolverine, hand clappin Wolverine or now there are 6 different Venom's and Venomses. What I feel is not OK is making a character gay to generate excitement around a stale character or making a character hispanic or black to generate artificial intrigue. How about making the character gay, hispanic, black, or otherwise because it enriches the character not the other way around.

Also, a friend of mine told me to buy a copy of Sixth Gun cause apparently there's a TV show in the making. So I go to LCS and tell them this story and they point me to the appropriate box. I buy a copy of issue #1, and yes its pages are white ( who knew ), for cover price like 4-6 weeks ago. Now 4-6 weeks later people are buying issue # 1 on Ebay for like close to $350. Go figure. I'll probably press and slab it then sell it for some ridiculous price then go out and get something OLD. Sixth Gun will not make me happy over the long term, first appearance of Thanos will though. Although Sixth Gun is a good read its still junk food.

Below are a couple of pressing candidates with good defects from the archives. If the images appear upside down do not adjust your screens, this is just a test.

- Spexx -

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