Graphic Novels From Heaven. Well, from Tnerb anyway.

This is a hobby that is near and dear to my heart. It holds eternal memories of me and my father collecting together. With his passing in 2001, I unfortunately sold off the vast majority of our collection.

I regret it to this day, but with five years of CGC collecting under my belt now, I am happy to say that the true joy of comic collecting is alive and well in me again, and I now have something that brings my father closer to my mind and emotions everyday.

With that said, this hobby has also done some things that I never would have dreamed. For the first three years, I simply grabbed up every graded comic book I could that meant something to me.

But then, through the course of posting a few journals and speaking with a few other registered members, I wound up in touch with Tnerb and Ronnylama.

Ronnylama, I would later find out, is one of the most generous people I have ever known. He has sent me numerous comics to help me in my collecting endeavors, and everything he sends is top-notch stuff!!

I now know he has done this for others on the registry over the years. WHAT A GUY!! Even now, I am still receiving issues that I have submitted due to his generosity. I am forever grateful to you, Ronnylama.

Tnerb, however, is a different story. In effect, we met because he bought the first 9.8 copy of New Mutants #47 off of WorldWide Comics literally within a 20 minute window where I was not paying attention. He had sent me a couple of messages previously about how my New Mutants set was incredible and inspiring, but it was this purchase that actually got us really talking to each other.

We both agreed to help each other with our favorite set and we both came through on the promise. He would point out issues that popped up on auctions to me and I would do likewise. I even led him to the 9.9 copy of #1 that he now owns.

Little by little, he gained on me with his New Mutants set until he finally managed to pass me for the top rank! As I watched him gaining on me, I noticed he was getting more and more SS copies, giving him a decided edge on the registry points.

At the start of 2013, I knew I would be attending Megacon in March. Beyond that, I had no idea how the rest of the year would pan out in my CGC collecting.

When I came across the Orlando Megacon online just over a year ago, I decided to attend the show and start working on getting my New Mutants copies signed by creators. Since Chris Claremont and Bob McLeod were both attending, it made sense to start there.

In fact, it was thanks to the generosity of Ronnylama that I now have an SS 9.8 copy of New Mutants #47! He sent it to me, and I had Claremont sign it at Megacon. Both he and Tnerb cheered me on as the issue achieved its ultimate glory, and I hope to someday have Tnerb join me with his copy as well.

After Megacon, Tnerb and I continued our collecting and signature chasing. I managed to attend Supercon in July, where I was able to return some of Ronnylamas generosity by getting some of his comic books signed for him.

I was sure that I was done with cons for the year at this point, but not so fast...

Tnerb began to tell me about the Baltimore Comic Con, and after looking into it, I was astonished at the sheer number of creators attending the show! I literally had over 300 graded issues I could get sigs on!!

But the best reason for me to go to Baltimore was to actually meet Tnerb for the first time! I was more excited about that than I ever would be at getting comics signed.

I could not afford so many comics all at once, not to mention the difficulty of physically acquiring so many sigs in just two days. So I whittled 300 down to 80 issues and cracked and prepped them all.

In the meantime, I ran down to the Tampa Bay Comic Con for one day and got some of my comics signed, including both mine and TNerbs copies of New Mutants #63!

Then came Baltimore. I went to the show and met with Tnerb and a friend of his, and had an absolute blast!!!

It had been at least 17 years since my father and I walked around shows together and bought comics and talked to the dealers and met with creators. Doing all of these same things with Tnerb brought it all back to me again. It was a very nostalgic experience.

As a result of this show, I now have the big brother that I never had before in my life. Now I cannot imagine how I got along without Tnerb around to talk to and confide in and ask questions of. Ronnylama too!

Anyway, one of the many things that Tnerb did for me in Baltimore was to give me four Graphic Novels. He knows I am putting together a set of Marvel Graphic Novels and he had three copies that he felt would give me a chance at some rare graded copies.

These were MGN #2, #3 and #34. Since there were creators in attendance at the show who could sign on #3 and #34, I went ahead and got the sigs on them and submitted them for pressing and grading. I am currently waiting on submitting #2 until I can get it signed.

The fourth Graphic Novel he gave me is a really cool copy of Star Trek Debt of Honor!! I remember seeing this book when I was younger but never owned a copy or read it before. Very unusual for a big time Trekkie like me.

I sat down the night he gave it to me and read it all the way through. Really neat story! I looked online to see if there was anyone at the show starting the next morning that could sign it. Lo and behold there were up to 3 people who I could get sigs from!!

So during the course of getting everything else done at the show, I managed to get two of the sigs! I never did see the third person, even though I checked for them three times. Oh well.

So now, after five months of waiting, these 3 Graphic Novels that Tnerb gave me are now back in my hands! The results?

MGN #3 Dreadstar - SS 9.4 WP signed by Jim Starlin

MGN #34 Cloak and Dagger - SS 9.8 WP signed by Tom DeFalco

ST Debt of Honor - SS 9.4 WP signed by Adam Hughes and Karl Story

I'm totally stoked about the Cloak and Dagger!! Are you kidding me? Awesome! The only SS 9.8 graded copy in the world!! OAK!

The Dreadstar was less than the 9.6 I hoped for but still awesome! It may be some time before I get a higher graded copy, but even then, this one stays with me forever!

But I am ASTONISHED at the ST!!!! I would not have thought it would grade that high! Pressing must have really done a number on it! I had it at 8.5 or maybe 9.0 before pressing. It is the only graded copy out there now and has two sigs as well!!! Look at the pic below to check this OAK out!

Thank you so much, Tnerb! You are the best big brother a guy could ask for!

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