500Club

None of these changes were made to satisfy what you call 'social justice warriors'. Marvel and DC are doing what they've ALWAYS done. Rehash the same old ideas and shake things up by changing characters temporarily. You think it was an accident that there was a black woman, a Canadian, a Native American (and others) on Giant Sized X-Men #1? Of course not. They were trying to diversify. You think when Stan Lee and Jack Kirby created the Black Panther, it was just on whim? NO. They were trying to make a SOCIAL statement. Were they SJW's? What is the difference between then and now? They invented new characters, as Artboy99 suggested.

 Those are all Silver Age, with the possible exception of SuperTransvestite, so that point is moot. I don’t think it’s ever been taken to the extreme that it has in the last ten years, though. Hulk derivatives, Spider-Man derivatives, symbiotes out the wazoo, characters with claws and healing factors, amalgamated characters... please, lord, just let it stop.

If John were here, you'd get a 'Ba-Dum-Bum-Bum'

CGC's argument is that submitters noted it as her first...

Forget 'Weekend at Bernie's' … how about 'Weekend at Stan's' ?

Why are you assuming that the people who did not preorder one, but want one from their local comic shop are "dirty flippers" out to just make money? Observation of behavior in the hobby over the last few years probably justifies his cynicism.

For me, the best comics only require a suspension of disbelief around the main concept. Early Spider-Man stories only really required the buy-in to the concept that a man could be bitten by a radioactive spider, and end up with spider like abilities. The rest of Peter Parker's life was grounded in a very relatable reality.

Far from it. You've got me thinking!

CGC doesn't recommend that I'm sure their accountant would.

Tough job. There's deadline stress, month after month. That's doubly hard if you are in the majority of people with time management and procrastination issues. If you work at home, there's isolation issues. That would take a toll on mood. Job security, both from performance, and the whimsies of the market and editors, would be stressful. It's sedentary - lots of sitting - minimal exercise - temptations to snack, smoke and drink to excess. There'd be interpersonal stress - not getting along with the writer or other members of the creative team, or having a hard editor (hello, Mr Shooter). I think of Wally Wood when I consider the grind of monthly art.

I was bagging some of his early Spider-Mans (in the 200s) the other day and thought about his age. I'm 46, and I started doing the math... and holy cow! He is 62! You never expect these guys to age. You have that one picture of them in your brain when you met them, and that's the age they'll always be. Funny you mention JR jr. My first ASM off the stands was 208, his debut issue. There was a picture of him on the Stan's Soapbox page - the young pup in his 20s, breaking in - and I still picture him as that.

You're completely wrong, well according to him at least. On a closely related topic, I do want to urge everyone who reads my newsletter to please resolve to support their local comics retailer during 2019. The economics of selling new issues has become total madness as the cover prices of periodical comics now reach up into the $5/copy range. With comics retailers buying non-returnable (an arrangement that I helped to pioneer in the late-1970's), all the risk is upon them as regards unsold product. That worked well when cover prices were under $1, but today's high cover prices are causing crippling losses to comics retailers whenever a title sells fewer copies than expected. I think oakland is referring to Chuck's back issue pricing. I'm not a big fan of Chuck's, but he's dead on with his laments about the difficulty of ordering and managing new issue sales.

Ahem! JOHN Legend?

I'll call him in, but, remember, if I do, there's no going back...

It's not even modern wood!! It's mostly Copper and Bronze wood!

It's from Grand Master Flash - They said It Couldn't Be Done. As much as I'm a fan of hip hop and music in general, I never liked the idea of mimicking the covers especially when most were done poorly. It SHOULDN'T have been done.

yeah sure.... you can buy one of these $100 bills for only $80 US I'll sell you some for $80 US.

 Trust me, don’t go behind any warehouse with 500club Hey, now, it’s you guys who take customers at shows out to the van to ‘look at stock’.

Yup. You live out that way. Have you ever been to the legendary warehouse in Steinbach?

1976 is Copper?!? Early Copper. Like a cameo. Before the full appearance of Copper.

I love irony.

Popular book. Underordered. We had number ones on the racks here for a while, but two and three quickly got bought up.

I think they do. I think it’s more the house style and the style of the times. There’s a lot of Bryan Hitch style art being done, by guys who aren’t Hitch. They really need an art director who emphasizes clean lines and sequential storytelling. It reminds me of when I started collecting in 1979 and didn’t like the art in DC books. Of course, I didn’t realize then that a whole bunch of guys who weren’t Neal Adams were trying to draw like Neal Adams.

 Smart, but it would be hard to prove it. It’s more the idea that the owners could be asked if anyone had been by to view twice. Of course, if Roy is right and a family contact slipped the book out, that approach is irrelevant.

Thinking about this, Roy, it's possible whoever did it had to go and see the collection TWICE. First, to note the ASM 1, and second, to bring the swap-out GRR copy (unless they were told in advance there was an ASM 1)