lou_fine

After 2 weeks the movie as almost at 500 million, is that really bad these days? I think you have to look beyond the one world wide box office number and take a look at the fact that the weekend box office receipts dropped by more than 61% which is one of the biggest drops ever in the MCU for a second weekend performance. Based upon the standard multiplier which is often used, it looks like this latest version of Spidey is now forecasted to do no better than their previous versions on a domestic level. I guess only time will tell. This would actually represent a drop in the number of movie tickets sold due to the inflation factor of ticket prices. So, yes although the big number is good, I somehow believe the MCU studio bosses were hoping for something stronger and with better legs like Wonder Woman.

There are a lot of books in that auction I think some of us are wishing we could have taken another swing at. There was some petering out at the end of the auction IMHO. Also a lot of books would have been the focal point in a smaller auction and sold for more, but were drowned out by the volume. In hindsight I see deals on a lot of books. Here's to hoping more get listed. As I've said from when this auction was first announced, this result was totally expected due to both the massive quantity and quality of the collection. As such, dealers have always used these auctions as one of their main sources to acquire books which they believe are possibly flying under the radar and which they hope will sell for more money on their own websites. Nothing at all different about this auction here, except that the quantity of the quality books being offered probably presented them with many more opportunities to snag what they believe to be under priced books. Especially with collectors pockets only so deep that if one book started to go beyond their price range, they probably simply stopped bidding and saved their money for the next book that they wanted since there were just so many of them in this auction here. I believe in a smaller regular auction, bidders would have gone a lot harder for these books since there was not really that much more if they passed on the current book they were bidding on. It should be pointed out that I am not referring to the headlines grabbing highlight books here, but more so to the non-highlight run books of which there were just so many of quality in this auction here.

I can't believe they are for sale this quickly after the auction. Don't understand why you would be surprised by this since Ritter's Worldwide Comics website has already have a whole slew of them listed and resold already, even while many of the board members are still waiting to receive their order of Berk books from CC.

Now that the much ballyhooed and long-awaited MCU version of the Spidey movie is finally out and dropping like a rock in terms of box receipts, is this going to have a bit of cooling effect on the recent accelerating prices for AF 15? Or is a cooling effect always expected anyways, similar to all other movie hyped books after a movie comes out, even if it's a big hit.

There are -- post WWII. Found one of these for you. It's the Church copy of Phantom Lady 16 with just the large capital "D" from the Heritage archives: https://comics.ha.com/itm/golden-age-1938-1955-/phantom-lady-16-mile-high-pedigree-fox-features-syndicate-1948-cgc-nm-94-off-white-pages-matt-baker-turned-on-the-hea/a/823-41369.s?ic4=ListView-ShortDescription-071515

In SA.....totally agree with you and can't blame you at all, absolutely no challenge at all as there probably isn't a single SA book in existence that you can't find and buy by simply picking up the phone or turning on your computer.

Isn't Pep 22 worth more in basically every grade? +1 Grade for grade, I would most definitely take a Pep 22 over an AF 15 any day of the week, and it wouldn't even be a close race at all.

Cool, thanks. Definitely good to know. Gotta look that issue up in my box then as I had basically given up on the CBM by then after I had stopped reading them due to the horrid editorship of the magazine under Russ Cochran.

From my own personal point of view, probably not so much. The girl here on the cover of Rangers 33 appears smaller and more off to the side of the cover, resulting in her not attracting your eyes as much as the girl on the cover of Rangers 39 when you first look at the cover. In addition, I find the posture and the angle of the girl on the cover of Rangers 39 to be both more provocative and alluding in the classic GGA style of artwork, more so than the girl on the cover of Rangers 33. But to each their own, I would have to say.

Beauties,and some fine reading too. Bottom right is the book that got me into Rangers books. You right definitely correct about the Rangers 39 on the bottom right which I've always considered to be a classic cover in waiting, even more so than how Seven Seas 4 was finally broken out of its grouping and given its rightful classic cover designation.

.5 for books missing centerfolds is a useless grade for evaluating a comic. A beat rag that would barely be a 1.0 complete, will get the same same grade as an otherwise high grade appearing copy for missing the same centerfold. Incomplete with a qualified grade is a more accurate way to describe such books. +1 In complete agreement with you here that an 0.5 universal grade is both useless and misleading when it comes to an otherwise high grade book with a missing interior page or a clipped coupon. This is the perfect and ideal time when a Qualified grade should be used in conjunction with a label note detailing the missing "piece" since this would impart much more information along with a more relevant and accurate grade to all parties involved. In the particular example of the All-Select 4 here, however, it would certainly not appear to be a Qualified Fine condition book in its original state before Ritter "fixed" it up. Yet, at the same time, it's probably not a 0.5 graded Poor copy either.

I saw that. On that one, his price is so high that I find it hard to believe he'll attract any reasonable counters. Maybe he just wants to have it on his site for the attention it will attract, with the expectation that the market might catch up with his asking price a year or two down the road. +1 That was also my line of thinking when I saw his $22K price tag on the book. Have always loved the use of colors on this book here, but it certainly did not help the valuation when they reattributed the cover artwork from Fine to George Tuska for this issue #6, as it used to guide for more than its surrounding issues. Still, a very beautiful cover for sure and also interesting to note that the detailed line work for the character's feature at the bottom left of the cover sure seems similar to the alien's facial features in the foreground for Fine's cover for Jumbo Comics 11. Now, if this was a Church copy of Mystery Men 7 in the same condition grade or even at CGC 9.4, I think it would have no problem at all selling for the $22K asking figure here. Especially since MM 7 is the first Blue Beetle cover, and along with Mystery Men 11 are the 2 toughest of the early MM books with the more popular style of cover artwork to find in grade. And as clearly evident by the fact that Berk's Church copies for both of these issues were only graded as CGC 8.0 and CGC 7.0 respectively, when almost every other issue of the Church MM run were well into the 9's in terms of condition grade.

Miller did only 2 Batman story lines of any significance in the 80's. One of them was Dark Knight and the other which I actually liked better was Batman - Year One. The best story line which I thought Miller did, however, was Daredevil - Born Again which I thought was superior to the 2 Batman story lines. Of course, that's just my own personal opinion.

The part I don't understand is why he still has it in the CGC Jon Berk designated slab, similar to his still unsold slabbed Church copy of Fantastic Comics 12. Especially when virtually all of the Berk books which he has cracked out and listed raw have already resold at huge premiums or even multiples of what he had paid for them. Even for a formerly restored Amazing-Man which is now an unrestored raw copy since the color touch has since been scrapped off, and yet the grading is still touching on the same condition level and the PQ has also improved at the same time. Since virtually everybody here vouches for Ritter's accuracy when it comes to grading raw books, I am starting to think that CGC was most likely leaning a bit towards the tight side when it came to grading Berk's books. It's probably psychological since it's easy to become a bit jaded when you see so many nice quality books at one time. I know that my books were certainly nice relative to grade, but I am probably not the best person to ask when it comes to graded books since I really don't have that many.

Interesting to see how times have changed over the decades and it looks like we are now heading back towards a lighter tone and away from the darkness. Yes, the early darker versions of the Batman related movies definitely pulled in the audience and were box office hits compared to the low budget Marvel character related movies of the early 90's which went straight to late night TV if they were lucky to make it even that far. Fast forward 25 years to the past few years and it looks like the darker versions of the DC movies are no longer in vogue as the box office records are all being set by the lighter and more humor related tone of the Marvel movies. Especially in terms of the much talked about Deadpool movie which is certainly approaching campiness much more so than darkness. Sounds as though DC has finally seen the light and the majority of their movies are going to shift away from the darker approach and take the more lighter humor tone of the successful Marvel movies going forward.

The 29 is special book with a great cover..No I am on the bottom of the barrel with 'Tec books.......... I assume this is the picture of the 'Tec 38 that Peter was talking about: Since you are already at the bottom of the barrel with respect to your 'Tec books, I assume you probably sold it off to fund some of your subsequent OA purchases.

I guess we must be showing our age. For my money and in equivalent condition, it would be no contest as I would take the Marvel 1 over the Cap 1 any day of the week. From my point of view: (Significance + historical popularity + rarity) > (Significance + more popularity right now + relative availability)

I absolutely love these later Wings issues with the GGA covers by Lubbers and feel they have some of the best GGA covers out of the entire GA time period. The one I loved in particular was issue #90 and was really upset that I had missed out on the HG Lost Valley copy of that book. Have alway tried to obtain a nice copy of that book at a reasonable price, but have only ended up with 2 upper end mid-grade copies to date. Found out one day that I actually have a HG copy of Wings 94 and starting to like this cover quite a bit also. I guess my bias must be showing. For all of you Lubbers aficionados out there, just curious as to which one of the 2 books (i.e. Wings 90 or Wings 94) is considered to be the more classic cover and the go to book to get since I have been unsuccessfully after a uber HG copy of Wings 90 for so long that my opinion would be worth diddly-squat here?

I wonder if he received this once former Jon Berk copy from World Wide even before he received his initial order of Berk books from CC?

But, but, they made a profitable movie about Birdman a few years ago. Yes, and I certainly hope that Bob Kane's estate went after them for rights and royalties also.

I would have to assume the book was pressed and cleaned. I know both the centaurs listed do look nicer than when slabbed? Yeah, the dust shadow on the Star Vol. 2, No. 7 is much lighter: CC auction scan: http://www.comicconnect.com/bookDetail.php?referral=EAlist&id=717658&title=STARCOMICS World Wide scan: http://www.wwcomics.com/comicdetail.asp?Product_ID=StarComics_7_2_84860 Actually, the one that I was thinking much more about was the All-Select 4: CC Auction Scan: http://www.comicconnect.com/bookDetail.php?referral=EAlist&id=716330&title=ALLSELECT COMICS World Wide Scan: http://www.wwcomics.com/comicdetail.asp?Product_ID=AllSelectComics_4_58197 Clear evidence to me that an improperly encased book in one of these new fangled CGC case holders along with a poor scan taken by the auction house at the wrong angle does not stand a chance against a book which has been released from its imprisoned tomb to revert back to its all-natural photogenic self in all its glory and wonder. For the life of me, I cannot think of any other explanation as to how an overpriced CGC 0.5 Poor graded book can change into a underpriced Qualified Fine book just like that.

Yes, he did......if I remembered correctly, he came to Finger with some silly bright red costumed figure with mechanical wings or something like that and called him Bird-Man.

Be sure to say Hi to Chuck if you run into him as we heard that he has now left the building, with the big SD Con doors hitting him on his behind on the way out.

That is shameful! Were they really destitute? What a pity. Kirby is the example that seems to get the most attention... Is it the work of their attorneys saying "give them nothing" because it might open the floodgates to legal actions, like an admission of sorts? Today's creative personnel indeed have it a lot better than their predecessors. Noticed how I conveniently and accurately left Bob Kane out of this group who was able to live the playboy life of a real Bruce Wayne and convorted with Hollywood actresses while doing no real work throughout all of this. Bob Kane, one of the real dirty snakes in all of this who stole all of the credit from Bill Finger who was the real and true creator of the Batman character. Kane who then went on to throw the other 3 under the huge DC bus years later come contract renegotiation time just so he could continue to enjoy his exclusive playboy lifestyle.

On a relative basis, probably not as I believe that Miller got very well compensated for his critically acclaimed, but rather short and limited work on the Batman series of books. He certainly gained a ton of fame and notoriety out of it however, and managed to use it as a stepping stone to much bigger and better things in the entertainment sphere. No, the DC execs really owe a ton to Siegel, Shuster, and Finger for their initial creation and continuing work on the Superman and Batman characters in the first place, instead of leaving them pretty much destitute on their death beds.