Or It is a Longshot

When I first started collecting comic books, I stayed away from wall books and back issues. The fourteen issues I needed for The New Mutants was the only exception. I didn't have anybody tell me the bins were where the history was, where the money was, and that it is totally worth the extra money. My mindset was stuck at $3.00 could either get me four new issues or one back issue. At the time I was a quantity over quality type of guy, after all I loved reading these things.

Over the years my mindset has changed. I attribute this to a few different factors. One was Dane, ( http://comics.www.collectors-society.com/JournalDetail.aspx?JournalEntryID=7866 ) a man who I truly wish I knew better in my youth, but nonetheless a man who introduced me to the Mecca and diversity of the Back Issue Bin. I began with Daredevil #171, a three dollar, in your face, slam down, Daredevil versus Kingpin, beautiful, back issue. I tried to acquire all the Frank Miller issues between and including 158 through 191.

Throughout this original 34 issue immersion into the more expensive world of collecting comic books, the two issues, which I only knew as the more expensive issues were #158 and #168, which I learned later in life were considered "keys". They didn't sit in a card board box, no these iconic issues sat protected in a Mylar sleeve tacked to the wall. They also hefted a heavy price I wasn't akin to spending.

Even though each visit to the comic shop had me search through The Uncanny X-Men, Daredevil, and The Amazing Spider-Man, the twenty dollar (issue 158) and thirty five dollar book (issue 168) seemed a bit expensive, but the completist in me wouldn't allow me to have the other 32 issues without them.

As I would look around the store with glazed eyes at these wall books, my attention wandered to others that were hanging precariously by a single thumb tack, TMNT #1, X-Men #137, and the early issues of SandMan #1-#8 by DC. It was where I found Longshot, in all it's glory hung in numerical limited series order on the back wall. I promised myself I would soon buy each issue chronologically.

The amazing artistic talent is what helped pave the way to the affection I have for my New Mutants Special Edition. I was introduced to the luckiest X-Men alive (other than Wolverine) and the Sadistic machinations of Mojo which made Arcade look like a seller of Disney movies instead of a paid for hire assassin. The first and last issue bookend the cheaper issues in between, but I still paid $15 and $12 consecutively, or the amount it would have been to get 36 new comic books at the seventy-five cent cover price.

I couldn't decide what had me turn page after page. Was it panel after panel of the best artist I have ever seen? Was it the story written by a scribe who could give legendary writer Chris Claremont a run for his money, or was it something more like magic. The chemistry between Art Adams and Ann Nocenti electrified each page from cover to cover.

The problem with Longshot was being a limited series, the team of Rita and Longshot ended, and so did Art and Ann. I got my Art Adams fix through the Special Edition and X-Men Annual nine, and was happy enough that Ann Nocenti was editing my favorite title.

Decades later I still have my original six in the same Mylar Bags I purchased them in. I found and bought all six issues graded by CGC in a 9.8, even going further to purchase Bagofleas lone copy signed by Whilce Portacio of issue six. Ann was originally going to be at a show but cancelled, and now I'm glad she did. I've already started calculating on what I'm bringing to ECCC and am waiting patiently until after Thanksgiving to purchase airfare. And mind you as much as I am looking forward to traveling across the country to meet these creators, I'm looking forward to seeing RonnlyLama, Lee K, and Shivabali a lot more.

Thanks for Reading

Tnerb

Ps. The wall books I started to buy were my babies, the Mylar sleeves they were in is what they stayed in, after reading them of course. I soon picked up those Sandman issues and took notice of two new wall books directly behind the register, copies of a Daredevil #1 and Amazing Spider-Man #129. Now, what was I going to do about those?

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