MisterX

Hey, Bone fans -- Can anyone explain why eBay BIN prices are so high for the Bone One Volume Edition with the "variant" cover?

Gemma -- I should know the answer to this, but I don't! Do you need to be a Collector's Society Member to drop off books for grading at the upcoming NYCC con?

Love the designs on the wings! This is my second favorite, by far, after my own, of course

Bats on the bikini top and...the Greggy Code!

That's awesome!

There's a cat peeking out between pumpkin man's ribs...

Very cool HOM cover, Matt! Just out of curiosity, what other forms of media would you consider (or have considered) Halloweenizing? i.e. pulp & paperback covers, rock posters, album covers, non-sports trading cards (hmm..."Destroying a Veggie Dog"...) Dungeons and Dragons material, etc. etc.

Got some sharp Jonah Hex books from Ed, plus super fast shipping!

Thanks, Andy! Yeah, as a BA collector the greytones weren't even on my radar until I came here and saw you guys posting them. They are very cool, some day I may go chase after them.

I did it! I finally finished my SSWS/Unknown Soldier run 151-204! Thanks to Weird for pointing me toward Worldwide Comics. I checked out their site and saw a slabbed 9.6, but they also had a raw 9.2 from the Peter Kuper collection listed as well. (Kuper is a political cartoonist currently drawing Spy vs. Spy for Mad Magazine.) I emailed Worldwide and asked them to bring the raw book to the show. Stephen said it would be there, and it was (thumbs u -- the good kind! Some day I'll get around to scanning and posting books. But let me tell you, it is very sweet. No spine stress, sharp corners, just amazing for a book with a mostly black cover. That Kuper guy took good care of his comics! As an added bonus, I picked up the elusive-in-high-grade Men of War 26 from Mr. Dale Roberts for 50% off! Although I was not specifically hunting for war books this time around, I did notice a few things: A lot of greytone covers now seem to be wall books, with higher prices, and about Fine being the highest grade. OOAW leads the pack in terms of dealer stock. I saw a ton of them. Next up SSWS (dinosaurs, a few Enemy Ace/Unknown Soldier), GIC (mostly from about 140 to 200), OFF (Hellcats and Losers) and finally All-American Men of War. A scattering of Atom Age stuff, but no Foxholes that I could find. Wish I had more to report, next year I'll pay more attention.

Dear Gator, Will Fiction House books be doomed by the "generational shift," or does GGA, gorillas, rocket ships, bondage and fightin' marines never go out of style?

Awesome! Thanks so much, Weird!

Thanks, Andy! I think it's come up a few times before, but it's always funny with these BA DC war titles which random issues never seem to turn up in HG. For SSWS 151-204, I've seen more HG copies pop out of 151 and 154 than I expected. But, since they're the two big keys, it makes sense more would materialize. The 48 and 52 pagers also seem to be more available. I remember having a tough time with 158 and 162. For the 20-cent issues, 171,172 and 175 come to mind. I had no trouble finding 181 and 182 (the enemy ace issues), but 183 was tougher. (Hmm, did you hook me up with that one, Andy?) Great cover, the first time they reveal the Unknown Soldier's hideous face. 25-cent issues that were tough -- definitely 187, another great cover with the U.S. getting his mask torn off. Black cover, too. Also, 204 was tough. I was able to find most of the Unknown Soldier 205-268 in grade fairly easy. Again, random issues were unexpectedly tough. The Frank Miller issue (219) was widely available, no trouble finding that. Tough US issues in grade for me were 205,225,228,235 and 246 (a reprint of SSWS 159) . Quite a few of these don't have a Kubert cover, mostly Ayers, I think. Once I've finished, I think I'll finish my Men of War run. It's been neglected for awhile. The tough issue seems to be 26, the final issue with a Sgt.Rock/Easy Co. cameo.

I'm one issue away from completing my SSWS mini-run featuring the Unknown Soldier. I broke down and picked up the 171 CGC 9.4 and a 175 9.6 in a Clink auction awhile back. Now I just need to find 172 in grade. Tough, tough black cover on that one. I'm going to look for a copy at the NYCC, and I'll probably be happy settling for a strict VF.

Ah, I figured the Usual Suspects would drop by... Thanks for sharing your insights and your great covers,everybody! There's a lot of really cool stuff to sort through here. And kudos to you, Scrooge, for that very helpful genre analysis you posted.

I'm thinking of dipping into the Atom Age, Pre-Code Horror and maybe Crime as well. I recently finished the EC Archive of Crime Suspenstories, and really enjoyed it. Plus, there's some cool Alex Toth reprints from Crime and Punishment in the Toth Reader V2 published by Pure Imagination. Is Shock Suspenstories considered Pre-Code Crime? Cuz I like those, too. But that's all the Pre-Code crime I've read. Don't know much else about it. Well, except in every OPG the advisors repeatedly state Crime is a "slow seller"... So, what titles/ covers / artists / issues would you all recommend? And is the market as dead as the advisors claim? Thoughts and scans, please!

I thought of another semi-tough book this evening: Chris Ware's first comic, Floyd Farland:Citizen of the Future, published by Eclipse in 1987. Print run unknown. Based on a newspaper strip he did at the University of Texas at Austin. Currently there are six copies for sale on eBay, with very high BINs. Guess there's not much demand anymore (or the asking price is too high). Still, it is a major talent's first published work. Maybe it still has potential? Also, there's a funny rumor that Ware is actively buying and destorying every copy he can get his hands on. He'd better get cracking!

That could be very true. I suppose printing less than 10K for a publisher like Fantagraphics would not be profitable. However, by 1994 the book had been out for five years and had a large, growing fan base. But the first issue came out in late 1989, I believe, with very little for folks to go on other than that Clowes was the Lloyd Llewellyn guy. Bagge had more fans, I think, when he launched Hate (a few months later in 1990).

Kudos to the following boardies -- TuppenyConan Cimm Kramerica Great, accurately graded books and fast shipping!

Anybody know the first print runs of Hate and Eightball, especially the early issues, say the first five to ten? I really have no idea. 2000? 5000? 10,000+? It took me a few years to complete sets of both in first printings, and Eightball took alot longer than Hate. I had to settle for VF range copies for the first eight or nine issues of Eightball in first print. I'm guessing maybe first prints of Schizo, Black Hole, Dork and Angry Youth Comix could also be tough to find. (Not impossible, just tough.)

Hey, EwanUK -- Speaking of British comics, how rare is 2000 A.D. Diceman #5, the one with Ronald Reagan on the cover? I spent well over a decade looking for a copy (even during two vacations in London) and came up empty. Then I finally snagged a copy off eBay UK last year in an auction and paid quite a bit for it. But now it is mine...

Long overdue kudos to Bellrules1 and nochips for some great comics, and to shiverbones for some spooky postcards!

Moebius 1/2, published by Graphitti Designs in the late 80s is a pretty tough book. I've seen two copies come up on eBay over several years, and there's currently one $100+ copy for sale on Amazon. (The "1/2" is a play on the numbering of the Marvel/Epic/Dark Horse series of Moebius graphic novels published in the late 80s/early 90s. Epic published #1-9, Dark Horse published #0.) Although not as rare as the comics being talked about here, the Marvel/Epic Moebius series has a few other tough books. Moebius 7 Moebius 9 Blueberry 5 End of the Trail Lt. Blueberry the Iron Horse Lt. Blueberry Steel Fingers Lt. Blueberry General Golden Mane Marshall Blueberry: the Lost Dutchman's Mine Some of the Marvel Conan GNs were hard to find, but I haven't gone looking for them in a while.