Suspicious activities all around us... it's been that way for a number of years. 

So much of this has affected so many of us and it seems to be spinning faster and faster.  This video doesn't really tie into that concept I'm describing but it's a great Elvis song. 

I suppose this is what I was trying to tie into my post from last weekend...

Ok, now that I've gone through and cleaned up some of the mess of posts from the weekend, I can try to get back on track.  I kind of got myself stuck... and started to sink into that dark abyss that I sometimes find myself in.  Was all that brought on by watching that special, "The Day the Music Died"?

I think so. 

It's a depressing song as it looks back on unrest and tragic loss.

So when getting into that mindset and simultaneously looking back on my family, it leaves me with good memories but with a lot of sadness.  My younger daughter will be graduating in two weeks after having spent the last 4 years in college.  That's kind of where I started this journal... starting it back at the onset of our "suspicious pandemic"...

2020 - Theendoftheworld.

The Day the Music Died.

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In these 4 years, my younger one has lived through a shut down, seen mass protests and civil unrest, escaped to what I can only describe as an island of magic only to return and have to face a crushing and devastating loss to our family.

That's where I was trying to head with the start of my Wonder Woman post before I derailed myself.

And that all started with Lynda Carter's social media post which slid right into The Day the Music Died.

That being said, there are a lot of really good people in this community but I found it interesting that it was two sales from the same board member that served as bookends during two moments of uncertainty and tragedy.

And that's what I'll get to first before I get into Free Comic Book Day.

In order to start this next post I need to (sadly) "Flashback" to three years ago, but actually four years ago now...

Yeah, I know this was supposed to tie into Wonder Woman and my 'Wonder Women' - so why am I starting this with the Scarlet Speedster?!

So, just to summarize that linked post, it was in April of 2020 (theendoftheworld) when I was in this frame of mind as I posted to Rob on that early Spring day in 2020.

So it was in this period, four years ago when I happened to stumble upon a sales thread from Sharon ( @skypinkblu ) and purchased her copy of Flash #123 which I still proudly own. 

So what are the chances... what are the chances that during my darkest days, I would (once again) happen to find my way onto these boards and stumble onto a sales thread of hers during the winter months of 2023?

Recently, I've been introduced to the concept of these "Earth Angles" 

Well...

It was in December of last year (2023) that I once again hit a personal low. 

But in this case, it wasn't because of a personal loss but more because of a financial loss. 

I doubt I'll ever tell the story here but I can strongly announce here that for the first time in my life, in the professional world, I now believe that the only true source I can trust, is myself. 

And that, in-itself, is my win.

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My son, David, was born a week before Christmas and so this was an incredibly difficult time for us as a family and as so, one night...

I found myself pouring a Scotch and browsing through these board posts to numb the pain. 

So, of course, it was around this time that I, once again, stumbled upon a sales thread from Sharon ( @skypinkblu ) ... what were the chances, right?!

Well... here we were.

She was, once again, selling a portion of her collection, and here I was just falling into her sales thread.

This one book that she had for sale, absolutely grabbed a hold of me.

Just as I needed that Flash #123... I needed this copy as well.

I sent a DM to Sharon about this book and we were able to strike a deal.

That wasn't the prize though.

Sharon, is forever the Den-mother here and she can intuitively sense when one of us is enduring something devastating.  Well... such was the experience here.  The value in this interaction with Sharon wasn't in buying a "comicbook" from her.. rather, it was in the personal stories she shared that helped me work through my own personal catastrophe.

Thank you so much, Sharon.. prayers to you and you family.

One day I hope to meet you and give you the biggest hug!   

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So what was this book that I found from her?

Well... only her origin.

My Wonder Woman!

Hugs right back at you (((David))) ...

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What an emotional and fulfilling few days this was for us...

This weekend was our younger daughter's commencement which passed through these three days in which we traveled back and forth numerous times, as well as transporting members of her immediate family.  I'm so proud of her as she has successfully sailed  through her primary goal and is now set to tackle her next one.

I haven't even had the chance to tell my friend, Rob, that she will be working in the same building as he is, as she has accepted an internship and a job for her further course of study at our local university!

What a crazy commencement for the Class of TheEndofTheWorld...

I heard that it was in the range of 10,000 attendees!

On our way back home this evening, I heard this song and it just seemed to fit...

Thank you so much, Sharon!

@skypinkblu

And here we are...

I've fallen behind here a bit and really need to catch up... it's been a while since I did some 'house cleaning' and I'll probably have to go that route here soon.  Anyways, I know I have to get back to talking about FCBD (Free Comic Day), which was about a month ago now, but I really need to start with the nice weekend I had last week.  I found out late in the week, prior to last weekend, that I would have Sunday night off from work so I immediately got a hold of Rob to see if he was free for an impromptu get together over some beers.  Gladly, I found out that he was and so he decided on a new spot to meet up last Sunday afternoon. 

This place was really quite unique and I loved the entire vibe there.  It was kind of like this art / beer commune complete with a beer barn, a couple of unique shops as well as food.

I met some very nice people there and we had a few (or is that a couple few ) excellent beers and engaged in our usual discussions about all things pop-culture but as the afternoon left and the evening began to set in, our conversation turned a bit.  I have to admit that when I'm out, whether in an environment such as this one or simply at work, I have to consciously push away the perpetual internal sadness I hold and almost become a stage actor.  Going through the motions, acting out my lines... giving the right expressions at the right times. 

But this night was different and it was for a good reason.

As my PC has been doing that thing lately, where it'll just dump all of my written words, I'm going to try to do this in parts so not to get totally frustrated tonight and end up outside at midnight, with a cigar, and trying to communicate with the dearly departed.

So to close out this part, not only was I introduced to some nice people here, I was also introduced to some good new music (to me) as well and this one... well, this one kind of hit me just right.

 Now this is a going to be such the strangest transition, based on music videos, but I can't think of another song to use as a segue so here we are...

If you actually watch this video, I chose this one for a reason as it was made by a father for his dearly departed son.

As I mentioned in the above post, the discussion Rob and I were having as the evening crept in, shifted a bit from the safe and ordinary to one of 'real-life', mortality and the fact that we're both about to be in our 50's and we're just not young anymore despite what our brains wish to believe, or rather, want to... create that reality.  He works at the university here and as I mentioned a few weeks ago, my daughter will now be working in the same building as he as she enters her Masters program. 

An interesting side note - that building was where I (sort of) met my dear wife some 35 years ago and where I met my best friend Rob, around 25 years ago.

Anyways, he was telling me how difficult it is becoming as the Freshman class that come in every year, keep getting younger and younger. In fact, this is because each year, he gets older and more wise (life=experience=wisdom)... it's the sad end chapters of life.  However, I do have to add this caveat...

Who is to say how long your book (your story) is?

We talked a bit about some of the issues that he's had going on in his life as I listened and tried to offer (probably) unsolicited advice.  In the above post, I mentioned that for me, this night was different and I'd like to take a moment to recognize that and to make a mention of what made it so.  Like I said, I feel like I've become a pretty good actor - I can 'play' myself pretty convincingly, however I know for a fact that my face and hair will always betray me. That being said, it was probably between the 2nd and 3rd beer (Rob insists that is the sweet spot ) where I sat back for a moment to realize just what I had the privilege of enjoying... good weather, a safe and friendly environment, good beer and an amazing friend.  I don't think there are a lot of people that could have that all in one day. 

And it was with that, where I dropped the act. 

I felt like I could just enjoy this moment in public... complete with my devastated heart.

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To close out this evening's post, I do have to include a (somewhat) updated picture of Rob's 'Wall-O-Fame"... these incredible wooden (?), hand painted and lamented 'heads' that he's been collecting from this artist who he found online.  I do know that these are a bit pricey so they're certainly not 'Spin-Art' from your local fairgrounds ... yes, I intentionally dated myself.

What isn't shown in this picture is the portrait of the (variant) Werewolf, Gill-man (Creature from the Black Lagoon) and the GOAT, Vincent Price! 

I'll get those pictures later, if possible.

As of right now, it's very hard for me to pick a favorite. 

And finally, I have to show you the 'extras' Rob got for me that he found in his 'lost trunk of gifts'... that'll conclude this post once I get some good pictures.

Edit -

I figured this would be just as easy so these are the 'lost gifts' that Rob said he had stashed away and had been meant for some past Christmas get together

I love all of the retro packaging on the Super 7 stuff...

https://super7.com/collections/universal-monsters

And the black and white versions of the Funko monsters look great!

Blue October has become one of my favorites lately... so much emotion in Justin's lyrics.

@detective35 has a freaking museum here on the CGC boards... I can't tell you how many times I look at his Shadow collection he's posted.

I already know that this weekend is going to be tough.  Just as I knew that Mother's Day was going to be incredibly tough for my wife.  Well, I had no idea that my older and younger daughters were collaborating and scheming to get them both at our granddaughters apartment on that day which proved to be the perfect remedy for this this sorrowed day.

But now, for Father's Day.

Yeah, it's going to revolve around a drink or two...  in this lifetime.

As I've written before - what a great song written and sung by two legends! 

But here is the magnificent Maire Brennan today against (the wind) her formal self which is what we discovered all of those years ago.

(Dedicated to my dear wife as we would gallop towards better shores, all in search of "Butter Beer"... well before JK Rowling! )

** Butter Beer is what my wife and I would call beer while we would visit Montreal, Quebec, etc... it just seemed to taste so much smoother than their domestic counterparts.

And here is Maire today - just as magnificent now as when my wife and I discovered her all of those years ago.

Just as we were setting our own path... to be written by our shadows.

Ah, there it is -

Serendipity.

I found it, David.

Our Shadows.

Happy Father's Day to all the fathers out there.

This turned out to be a very nice day as we had the opportunity to celebrate an early Father's Day with my Father and Mother... we went out for lunch at a local Vietnamese restaurant which serves excellent food at (still) very good prices.  I have to work tomorrow evening and we have plans to get together with my wife and two daughters so I thought it would be a bit much to try and fit in everything in a day.  I'm glad we decided to do it this way as it made for a very enjoyable and relaxing afternoon today.

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I have a new project set up for myself that I'm really excited to talk about but I think it's going to be a few weeks before I can get to that.  All I can say right now is that I found something on eBay that, surprisingly, not only survived time but also survived the shipping process.  I was thrilled to open this box and see that no damage had occurred to this kind of very rare item that is most likely around 80 years old.  Not only that, it relates to one of my favorite subjects!  When we got home this afternoon, I was happy to see that my shipment from Lonestar (mycomicshop.com) arrived.  They are such a great business... between their prices, shipping and inventory, what a gem of a resource. 

Anyways, enough gushing over that...

I just recently found a 'hidden' Street & Smith publication.  Now I'm sure it's not hidden as in the literal sense but it was a publication that I wasn't familiar with until now.  Street & Smith's "PIC" magazine (looks to be about the same size as Life Magazine) was published from 1937 - 1961 and always seemed to feature some alluring ladies on their covers.  It was advertised as "Covering The Entire Field Of Entertainment" and based on their covers, I suppose it would've been a bit difficult to have been able to accurately gauge, exactly what type of magazine it was supposed to be.

So I bought this issue and from flipping through it, it's kind of half cheesecake with a quarter newsworthy material and a quarter editorial.  It's actually a very nicely laid out magazine and I could easily start a collection of these as well but I won't actively seek them out at this point.

Anyways, this was the issue (not EXACTLY this one)  that I purchased from Lonestar...

In case you're wondering what in the world would be the interest in this particular issue from March of 1941, well that would be revealed on page 16 as this issue takes a look back at 10 years of The Shadow!

What's interesting and kind of funny, is that Walter B. Gibson, is pictured and referred to here as Maxwell Grant.

I just spent a good portion of this evening texting with my friend, Rob, on all sorts of topics from AI to Ralph Fiennes and from Pine Needle beer to Reece's Peanut Butter Cups. 

As it stands, he's not at home because this area is in the grips of a hellish heat spell.  It's so bad that I'm hearing that politicians are formulating a plan to blow up the sun.  All kidding aside, but of course, not really... I myself have called for the arrest and detainment of "Weather". 

This has gone on long enough...

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Anyways, I'm sort of in between things right now as I alluded to last week.  I have this project set up for myself but in order to complete it, I have to come up with a bit of extra spending money.  That seems to be an issue now as things are getting tighter for various reasons.  In addition, I have a few comics and pulps that I really want to get graded and there are a few books that I've targeted as well in terms of those that I'm actively seeking. 

So... where does that leave me right now?  Well, I flipped a few keys on eBay that I recently purchased in what I thought was a good deal from my LCS... that will help answer some of my current issues.

In terms of what's next here?

Well... it seems that at the rate I'm going, Deadpool and Wolverine is going to be here before I know it and I guess I'm holding off on a lot of things until that comes around.

That movie is going to be rather difficult for us, for obvious reasons.

As my wife has put it - the entire theater will be hollering while we'll probably be in tears. 

Yes, I'm trying to strategically plan this just right of course, as my family and I will be seeing this within the first two days of the release, but I'd also like to see this with my friend, Rob as well.

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And so...

I might get into an obscure topic and title tomorrow night involving Disney, of all things!

But until then, and to close out this night, I have to link this amazing version of this song that I just heard over the course of this past week.

This is one of my all time favorites, Robert Plant, along with Allison Krauss from Wolf Trap National Park in Vienna, Virginia.

When The Levee Breaks...

... goin' down.

Going down, now.

Well, I never got around to that Disney themed post that I wanted to add last weekend but here we are yet again at another lost weekend.  The main reason why I didn't get to that post was because I would have had to un-bury my large flatbed scanner to scan this CGC slab (as well as several others that I have to get to as well) and I'm just not motivated enough at the moment.  I'm not sure where this is going to go tonight as I'm half watching the Heritage auctions with that crazy CGC 9.9 GSX... I'll get to that later.

I guess the best thing to do right now though is to get into some...

House Cleaning (Part XX)

I'm still watching this GSX1 CGC 9.9 and very interested in the hammer results. 

For the record, I'm listening to Mickey's broadcast... @Swagglehaus

As we're waiting for the final auction results, I'll have to post this 'relevant' music video from Cannons

Cannons : Shadows (2019)

Fire For You

And there it is...

The single highest graded copy of Giant Size X-Men #1 at a CGC 9.9 just sold on the Heritage auction for $170,000.

Behind the scenes with Michelle Joy...

A day later but yes, I'm still in House Cleaning mode...

I do think that the GSX1 CGC 9.9 Heritage auction was a bit underwhelming, but to be fair, there a ton of exposure on CGC's new grading standards which certainly allowed for the 9.9 to enter the market.

There's an expression for this, but it fails me at the moment.

So, back to House Cleaning...

This seemed to be the weekend where the Deadpool / Wolverine merch dropped and it all started with an innocent stop last weekend to a mall around an hour from us..

This was the display set up at Hot Topic.

I'm so sorry that I've been taken away from my usual comforts.

My best friend Rob is certainly to blame here.

Why?

"Hey, let's go to the local "Townie" bar here."

Rob - "Are you sure?!"

"Hell yeah..."

My famous last words!

 I know I led with a rather ambiguous introduction for this weekend's entry from last night so I'll start it again here with a more appropriate video...

I'll get to the reason behind this clip from Wonder Woman : "Amazon Hot Wax" (Season 3, Episode 9)  soon enough and yeah, it's a good one!

Anyways, yesterday (Friday) started innocently enough where i was able to get an actual full night's sleep after having Thursday off for the 4th of July.  I normally don't work on Friday and Saturday so this was truly a nice little bonus.  I went out during the afternoon to run some errands and hit a a few stores while also restocking my cigars and visiting a liquor store that I hadn't been to in a while.  I found this Scotch there, which was something I certainly needed to try as it was about half the price of what a Laphroaig 10 (my favorite "affordable" Scotch) costs.

As I'm finally trying this now, it needs to be cut just a tad but for a blend, it's a very good substitute for a Single Malt, if peated (Islay) Scotch is your thing.

So as the day wound down, it was nearing the time when Rob and I had agreed to meet up at his "Townie" bar (he corrected my spelling of it as I wasn't quite sure last night) for his birthday... albeit, around a week late.  Anyways, he had sent me numerous texts about this bar and he told me that he thought I would love this place.

I think he knows me too well...

His first texts to me about this place focused around the "dark and carpeted" atmosphere.  To say that I wasn't immediately intrigued by this description would be a lie.  To me, it sounded like a place that (Agent) Harry Vincent would frequent... 

And so, after a quick stop at Burger King for one their Chicken Philly wraps (which I love), it was time to head over to Rob's Museum... I mean apartment.  His door was left opened as I approached and I quickly realized why that was, as I entered into his 150 degree kitchen where he was cooking up some bacon as a snack, I suppose.  After some small talk and some of my picture taking of his galleries, I gave him his birthday gifts which consisted of a few small items as well as this officially licensed, double breasted, TVA approved Loki jacket.

Despite the fact that it was hotter than the Sun in his kitchen, like a champ, he donned the jacket and as I later explained, he effectively cloaked himself from the TVA as my BlueCoal time damper that I set up in his basement had stopped working.

Through my lapel camera, he was totally unaware that I was able to snag this picture!

I figured it would best to do this update in parts as my PC is doing that thing. 

Hmm... after 10 years should I reinvest in a new PC?

I think it is time.

These are the newly updated images of Rob's Muse... Apartment...

Now this (freaking) amazing piece of art was done by the "Bartender" downstairs of where he resides... are you kidding me?! 

(It was given to him for his Birthday)

This was just sick to see in person with the depth and complexity.

Absolutely brilliant!

(Acrylic on Canvas)

And yeah... that's his awesome Wolverine (Art Adams) Standup display from the 90's.