Secret origin and part one of my Baltimore Comic-con reflections

I guess I should start with a brief introduction. I've been a comics reader all my life, and assert that I learned to read by associating the actions in the panels and words in the balloons with what my parents read and explained to me as a small child. Most of what I had back then were old Whitman reprints of Disney and Warner Bros characters. Even then, I could recognize the difference between average comics and those by the anonymous "good duck artist," later found to be the great Carl Barks, of course. I progressed into Marvel's GI Joe due to the toy tie-in, I still have my ragged first GI Joe comic: the famous #21, "Silent Interlude." I progressed into the Marvel Universe at about the time of Secret Wars, and gravitated heavily toward the X-Books. Bear in mind, this only meant Uncanny X-Men and New Mutants at the time, but X-Factor and Excalibur were soon to follow. I kept this up for about ten years, but by 1995 had quit comics completely. In mid-2001, the revitalization of Marvel with JMS on Amazing Spider-man, Grant Morrison on New X-Men, and Joe Casey on Uncanny X-Men brought me back. Since then, I've transitioned fully to DC for new books. I just don't feel that Marvel is putting out comics that reach me. Ever since Civil War the Marvel characters have been strangers.

My favorite part of collecting back issues is the pursuit. I love going through bins of dollar comics and pulling out gems, and pulling low to mid-grade copies of keys. I'd rather have a low-grade copy than no copy. After all, that Fair copy of Batman #155 with the first Silver Age Penguin appearance may be the only one I can actually find in affordable condition. Last weekend I bought a Conan the Barbarian #62 30-cent price variant for $1 that I would call a VF/VF-. Very satisfying.

I also went to Baltimore Comic-con last weekend, more to say about that later. A friend of mine flew in for the con, and I brought my most recent arrivals from CGC for an unboxing. I had refrained from checking my grades online so I would learn the grade as soon as I actually saw the book. I had assessed the books to be in the 7.5-8.5 range based on some previous submissions, and was thrilled with what I got back. I admit that I hadn't checked this copy of Daredevil 131 and was surprised to see it tagged as a Mark Jewelers insert. I grew up near Ft Campbell, KY and didn't realize that all comics didn't have these inserts until just a few years ago. I'll wrap up this introductory journal with a photo of the results of that unboxing last week.

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