Black_Adam

Great comics, namisgr! Your Thor collection would make Loki green with envy. Here is another of mine (best I can do with my tablet):

17 minutes ago, namisgr said:

I love how there's a blue warrior who broke through the picture frame.  

He looks like he took a wrong turn and now he's trying to figure out how to get back into the picture frame!

One more...release the Kraken!

3 hours ago, Ken Aldred said:

For years I thought this was drawn by Aparo, but I eventually discovered it was Adams...  

To me, the opposite effect - Adams mimicking Aparo.

I also would have guessed Aparo over Adams from a distance, but up close the crooks' faces are a giveaway. Great comic! 

Barely escaped with this one from Heritage (after all the fees)

I could post his Phantom Stranger covers all day long, but figured I'd toss in a couple self-portraits:

4 hours ago, namisgr said:

His style seemed a derivative of Adams and he worked on some of the same characters, so the comparison was inevitable.  He did some fine work: this cover is flat-out awesome.

 

As a kid growing up in the seventies Aparo was 'the Batman artist' (I was a big Brave and the Bold fan) but I think some of his best cover works were on the less popular stuff like the aforementioned Spectre Run in Adventure Comics and Phantom Stranger.

18 hours ago, valiantman said:

Keeping the eye candy going, even if we've seen it all before. 

Who needs Farrah Fawcett? I had this poster on my bedroom wall as a teenager in the eighties. Wish I still had it...

I think I read somewhere once that collectibles do have a place in a portfolio (say 5 - 7%). Which means if you are fortunate enough to have 100k saved you shouldn't have any more than 7k "invested" in comics. If your collection takes off in value, sell some and rebalance that money into the rest of your portfolio. If, on the other hand, your comic collection is your retirement portfolio...well, let's hope you loaded up on keys and not cases of Bloodstrike: Rub the Blood #1.

29 minutes ago, djpinkpanther67 said:

Take take take!

Well, there goes the monthly budget. Congrats, Thomas! Another great addition to your set! 

Being basically born in the Bronze Age, twenty cent covers (especially the ones with that big DC logo) always catch my eye and fire up spinner-rack memories. And one artist in particular always stands out for me - Jim Aparo. I think he did a slew of great covers , but I never hear his name mentioned much. Is it because he was overexposed in the Seventies or just overshadowed by the Adams, Wrightsons, et al?

In any case, I thought I'd take this chance to post one of my favorite (I have many) Aparo covers:

3 hours ago, djpinkpanther67 said:

this will be arriving in a couple days

Wow, that one is special! Nice addition, Thomas

11 minutes ago, Pontoon said:

Somehow I managed to snag this in a Foolkiller sales thread; it had even been sitting there for a few hours IIRC.

 

Nice snag! As far as JIM goes this ish and #109 are at the top of my want list

2 hours ago, namisgr said:

That's an impressive run, KJ.  By the mid-seventies, the title was running out of steam for me, and it became a chore to read.  So in '76 I quit buying them.  When Simonson came on board, the title was completely refreshed and the artwork outstanding, and I was hooked again.

Your comment about some weak stories in the early issues rings true.  The JIMs without Kirby pencils were especially brutal.  That said, I find the early issues interesting for the way the character and supporting cast were slowly developed - there was a lot of Donald Blake early on and most of his time was spent on Earth, but his appearances progressively waned and the stories became more cosmic.  The Jane Foster ill-fated love angle seemed pitched to the young female comic readers of the day.  Once JIM97 introduced the Tales of Asgard backup story, at least there was always something interesting to read, even when the lead story may have been weak.

Here's the first ish with the Tales of Asgard feature.  I think it's underappreciated, and on top of that it's got another great Kirby cover.  It's even a 'Super Special Issue'.  

 

I totally agree, namisgr. As a kid in the 70s my first introduction to Thor was my older brother's 25-cent covered castoffs and the character never grabbed me. Then one day he dumped a stack of beat up Marvel Spectaculars he was done with on my bed and those Lee/Kirby reprints were like no Thor I'd read before!

I was hooked on the Hammer. I picked up the series at #292 (the second part of the Eternals Saga) and have been a fan ever since!

23 hours ago, collector_bill said:

some Comic Link buys 

 

 

True brotherly love...

Nice Thors collector_bill!

On 7/30/2017 at 6:37 AM, namisgr said:

Pacific Coast pedigree

One of my favorite Thor covers. Perfect colors and Pedigree.

I'm a sucker for black covers from the Bronze Age, and this Brunner classic is one of my favorites!

1 hour ago, marvelmaniac said:

I go from JIM 83 up to Thor 265, that is where I stopped.

All raw with the early JIM's in lower grade.

Unfortunately my JIM 83 is a GRR in VF- 7.5

 

 

 

 

 

Just completing this run (in any condition) is an accomplishment of Asgardian proportion, and there's nothing unfortunate about owning a GRR JIM 83 that looks as nice as this one! 

51 minutes ago, Pitboss said:

Who could resist this?

 

 

You were the one that outbid me! 

Nice pickup!

Two more for my small but cherished Dave Stevens collection.

Oh, I snuck up on this one, too (also on Comiclink).

Newly captured on Comiclink. One I've always had a hard time cornering in high grade.

12 minutes ago, Comcav said:

Hahahah!  Zing!  Well played sir.  A touch outside of my wheelhouse. 

Are you sure? Because it looks like a GGA bondage cover to my eyes.

Never had a problem with Canada Post either, but lately I've been sticking to Chit Chat Express (luckily, there is a branch only a few blocks from my  office). They take your shipments across the border for a minimal fee and ship them USPS.