Rune

I try to avoid nostalgia too when buying pieces, but maybe I'm subconsciously prone to nostalgia Would Dr. Freud agree that nostalgia doesn't influence my preferences A method for avoiding nostalgia is asking my sons ages 9 and 13 what's cool and what's not, they rarely like old pieces but generally prefer newer pieces (they don't care much for Kirby or Ditko). Most of my pieces are framed and on display, especially to inspire the kids - so I try to avoid pieces that only mean something to me (ok, got some dark and disturbing covers, those I bought for myself and they are hidden from the kids) Or another idea, buy art from books you've never read or seen before (that goes for 90 % of my covers). Then again, there's nothing wrong with nostalgia - I just try to buy pieces because I like the art in itself, and in some cases nostalgia may disturb my judgement.

Thanks I was expecting grade 8.0 +/- 0.5, so it was a nice surprise.

My first girl (It was my reading copy, but I thought I'd better get it in a holder - now I need a new reading copy ) But then I saw her And suddenly Bill Hughes dumped his girl and she went straight into my arms Now we're all living together, because I don't have the heart to dump a nice girl My collection beyond #1: http://www.myslabbedcomics.com/GalleryRoom.asp?GSub=2512 PS. I got a few more fun ones for the rainy days

I don't think the Donnellys make the overlays themselves - in fact I know James Pascoe worked on one of their pieces. This is the original by Alex Ross (The Shadow #11 painted cover): Then after Pascoe made the overlay: Source: http://jamespascoe.net/site/Restoration_Galleries.html#3 And now you can buy it from the Donnellys: http://www.coollinesartwork.com/Featured.asp?Piece=305317 Normally Pascoe is quite fair in his pricings, but of course Pascoe isn't free, still a 10x markup isn't justified by Pascoe's work. There's also Robert Dennis, rumor has it he's more expensive than Pascoe - and Dennis has made some impressive restorations: http://www.comicartfans.com/gallerydetailsearch.asp?aty=1&gcat=57422&GSub=171440 I don't mind nice overlays made by experts, the problem arises when a piece with an unoriginal overlay or other restorations is sold without disclosing all (or any) details about the restorations. Especially this piece was in an auction with no disclosure of restoration: - which I think is close to fraud, because the oa was limited to this: At least this time the Donnellys have disclosed that the Obama image isn't oa: http://www.coollinesartwork.com/featured.asp?Piece=294775 Personally I got Pascoe to make an overlay for one of my oa covers. The overlay is not attached to the cover but is simply a loose overlay which in no way interacts with the oa - you can see it here, and notice I've disclosed that Pascoe made the overlay: http://www.comicartfans.com/gallerypiece.asp?piece=1343221

I love desserts too!

I'm not sure it was my grail when I bought it, but it has grown on me. I've collected Savage Tales mags for many years (currently I've got the highest ranking Savage Tales set in the Registry), so of course nostalgia is involved. I never thought I'd one day own one of the covers and seeing the colors and the art behind glass won me over. I see the painting almost every day and so far it hasn't ceased to amaze me. With its amount of detail it must have taken Barr days to paint it. And I finally got the 9.8 mag too (currently there're 6 in the Census) - my 5-year-old son is holding the mag, sorry about the red eyes, sigh (my skills as a photographer are very limited)

Yes, who really cares about the boring Miller DKR OA covers - compared to the ToD #10 cover I'm still working on a plan, but it's sooo hard. It has to look real - you know like: Gene: "Wow, that was close - thank God you were here, Rune - you saved my life - is there's anything I can do for you in return - and I really do mean anything?" Rune: "Think nothing of it, Gene, I'm just glad I was around, yeah, what are the odds - I'm just happy to help - I really don't wan't anything, but hey, do you still have that ol' ToD #10 cover?"

#16 It has always been one of my favorite ToD covers - you've got some great books, perfect centering and WP!

#10 is a problem in 9.8 WP. - I hope to find a nice copy one day, luckily I'm not in a hurry. Fun (or sad ) thing, the single 9.9 book is offered on CLink for 125k http://www.comiclink.com/itemdetail.asp?back=%2Fsearch.asp%3F_SORT%3DYES%26where%3Dsell%26title%3Dtomb%2Bof%2Bdracula%26ItemType%3DCB%26x%3D0%26y%3D0%26f1%3DCondition%26ODire1%3DDESC%26f2%3D4%26ODire2%3DASC%26f3%3DIssueNumber%2C%2BVolumeNumber%26ODire3%3DASC&id=1099710 If only the centering was better ;-) The OA is on CAF: http://www.comicartfans.com/GalleryPiece.asp?Piece=1045962 BTW, I just started reading the books again. It's been decades since I read them, strangely now the horror seems scarier/better than ever. For example, here Dracula succeeds in using large mirrors to travel through dimensions, and Dracula uses Taj as some sort of live beverage. Actually if I was a strong vampire that's not a bad idea Thinking of the Comic Code, the above panel shows how Dracula uses other persons and only cares for his own wellbeing. Another fun thing, when travelling through a dimension it seems Dracula met some collectors who had either trimmed some art or books - or maybe had just forgot to remove sold books from the Registry Here's an example of how Dracula ingeniously mentally reframes a potential threat into a source of nourishment: And another example of Dracula's extreme selfishness: Unfortunately I'm not sure that everybody considers Dracula to be a negative role model. - He's quite smart and shows incredible survival skills and he turns many desperate situations to his own advantage. I'm wondering if the Count doesn't have a lot of fans and if the Comic Code really worked to protect young minds Maybe reading ToD when I was 9 years old profoundly impacted my personality development ToD books are still some of my favorite comic books (of all time) and Colan's art is amazing

My wife thinks I have a rare neurological condition making me unable to sell anything, and I'm not necessarily disagreeing with her So thank you for the offer, I just can't 

That sounds great, thank you, then I can buy some nice OA - how do you want to pay the 20k?

The old holders weren't watertight, I haven't seen the new holders tested though - maybe a new job for Newshane More likely the book got the wrong grade on the label Now I wonder if I have some CGC 9.2 books that really should have been 9.8

My quest is to get issues 1-10 in 9.8 with pure WP (no OW-W or worse), it's not easy, my results so far:

Thank you - I guess it did take something special to win me over - and maybe I should say that to my wife and score some cheap points Still, looking at the many great pieces in this thread maybe there's some truth to the first piece being something special and hard to resist...

It's sad to read that Murray Ball has passed away March 12, even though he was 78 years old and suffered from dementia the last years. Must be like 30 years ago I read my first Footrot Flats books - I still have a few on my shelves, maybe I should read some tonight (In the strip above I think Mr. Ball tries to warn against letting the wife drink too much red wine during weekends )

You're a lucky guy, sigh - make that *double sigh* The last time I was truly happy was in 2008 (green arrow) Now not so much (red arrow) I'm paying about 30 - 40 % more than in the good days. So 4K in 2017 is like 5K or even 6K in 2008 - 2014. But I don't care that much, I need my books and art, guess there's nothing to do than to bite the bullet...

It's Simon Baz - quote from Wikipedia: "Simon Baz was a Lebanese-American child living in Dearborn, Michigan during the events of the September 11 attacks in 2001. Growing up, Simon and his sister Sira were both persecuted due to their ethnicity. As a young adult, Simon got involved in street racing, and eventually car theft; the former put his brother-in-law in a coma in the hospital. Simon is fired from his job and, in a moment of desperation, he steals a car. While trying to evade the police in the stolen vehicle, Simon finds out that there is a bomb in it. Simon drives the van into the abandoned car factory he was laid off from, knowing that no one would be hurt in the explosion. The resulting explosion is seen as an act of terrorism by the authorities, and Simon is brought in for questioning. As Simon is being interrogated, Hal Jordan and Sinestro's fused and malfunctioning Green Lantern Power Ring finds Simon, and selects him as the new wielder, flying him away from captivity. With their suspect gone, the federal agents interrogating Simon contact Amanda Waller about the situation, a transmission Cyborg of the Justice League picks up. Cyborg relays the transmission to Batman and asks if anyone has spoken to Hal Jordan since he quit the League. Meanwhile, Simon lays on the ground, knocked out, while elsewhere, the Third Army begins to spread..." https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Simon_Baz BTW, Baz has a forearm tattoo that reads “courage” in Arabic. Actually I found out what the tattoo means right now (I just looked it up ) - but as a fun thing, originally I bought the cover to illustrate the emotion "courage", guess Mahnke really nailed that one! (To secure variation among pieces I try to find pieces showing different emotions - so I don't end up with superheroes fighting all the time)

My first OA: More info here: http://www.comicartfans.com/gallerypiece.asp?piece=1134252

Awesome I'm a great fan of Edwards - and Batman

What drives you to collect? My idea was to buy OA with Marvel and DC superheroes to represent series I didn't already collect as CGC comic books. It's the best of both worlds I love OA and would like to inspire my sons by showing them some true art. My sons were ages 2, 6 and 10 when I started annoying my wife by decorating walls in my man cave and in the kids' gaming room with comic art. Do you love the medium and just can't get enough of comic art originals? I love the medium, but I don't love all pieces. It has to be love at first - or second - sight. I might go through a 1000 pieces and find 1 or 2 pieces I really care about. But that's a good thing and helps me focus. Are you a "Prestige" collector and only looking to pick up some top pieces? You got me baffled here - all my pieces are top pieces Well, maybe not to other collectors but as I wrote - I only buy love at first sight (no pun intended ). I mostly buy covers, often I don't know the books or stories behind a cover before I buy it. I mostly judge my covers on their own merits, you know - as people say "never judge a cover by its book" I try not to buy out of nostalgia, and often I prefer modern pieces which may be more energetic and emotionally engaging than older covers - possibly because modern books are directed at an older audience. I don't like comic art that looks like it was made for children, maybe modern art with an edge sums up my interests... Mostly... Are you really just a comic book collector that ran out of stuff to get and this seems the next logical step? No, I still collect books too I think it's ok not having to decide to eat strawberry or chocolate cake when you can have both Furthermore I like that OA is one of a kind - that all pieces are the single highest graded - and price might not go down, because Census is never increasing Are you interested because of the money aspect and if you're going to invest money, it might as well be something fun you're interested in. I'll get back to that in 30 years - oh, well, the kids will probably get everything or it'll be part of my Viking burial (=my stuff and corpse in a boat, then all is set on fire ) Are you a full time collector just dabbling? Maybe something inbetween

Hi Mollie, Right now there're two Savage Sword of Conan sets - one collecting #1-100 and one collecting #1-235. Boris Vallejo kick-started the series with his amazing cover art, and #15 was his last cover for the series. Would it be possible to make a new and smaller set of Savage Sword of Conan mags #1-15? Just like you have three sets for Conan the Barbarian - that would be awesome

Congrats - it's truly an awesome book Looks like March is an expensive month, and it's not over yet

Thank you and no - my ST #1 9.8 isn't from CL, but some of the other 9.8 mags are.

Thank you all - hope I can find #7 in CGC 9.8 one day, or maybe I should give Rosland an offer - although he probably isn't selling, sigh (we have written together a few times and touched upon this delicate subject ). Rosland has the single highest graded #7: https://comics.www.collectors-society.com/WCM/ComicView.aspx?PeopleSetComicID=107632 The hunt just never ends...

I didn't buy any new magazines this week, but I finally took some photos of #6, 10-11 + Annual 1, and I'm done with the set - I think Took 8 or 9 years to build the set, all but #7 are highest graded. Larger photos can be found here: http://www.myslabbedcomics.com/GalleryRoom.asp?GSub=2548 And then there's this one with my 5-year-old son. I'm not good at taking photos, sorry about the red eyes, sigh: