Doohickamabob

No, just this one, thankfully. I hope to recover it too. There is a comic collector out there who has it, somewhere. Really uncool for collectors to steal from other collectors.

How strange that they photoshopped it? I wonder what the thinking was, or why they had time to make such a minor adjustment. EDIT: Oh, now I see. They were using the image as part of a graphic, not as a photo. There were compositional and legibility considerations... etc. Cool either way!

Way cool! I hope they send the tchotchke soon!

I think it's up to the buyer to check the book and make sure it looks like what you described. At that point if they're satisfied, then the transaction is over. I think it's unreasonable for the buyer to put the seller in a position where the seller has to wait for the buyer to get the book graded, and if the grade reveals something, the seller is on the hook for whatever the seller missed, as well as having lost an entire month or more with his payment in a state of limbo. If the buyer is going to have that high of expectations, the buyer should only purchase books that are already graded. Or better yet, the buyer should become enough of a restoration expert that he can figure things out before sending the book to a guaranty company. The exception to the above would be if a seller were discovered to be purposely concealing restoration on an ongoing basis. If the seller had such a pattern then it wouldn't just be a case of the buyer having the right to a late refund; it would be outright fraud and the buyer would be justified in telling the comics community to avoid the seller.

According to this article, Wayne's cancer is more likely to have developed because he chain smoked as much as four packs of cigarettes a day. (That's what his widow's theory was, at least.) But the region indeed was highly radioactive and likely caused many of the 100,000 local residents to develop cancer. https://www.theguardian.com/film/2015/jun/06/downwinders-nuclear-fallout-hollywood-john-wayne

No indication the magazine itself is in peril, at least not for now. I read about this in Bleeding Cool News, and haven't seen a follow-up. https://www.bleedingcool.com/2019/02/04/bill-morrison-vp-executive-editor-dc-comics-mad-magazine/

It's funny, you're replying to a post I wrote in 2011. I'm glad my posts have such longevity! I understand that you, personally, don't need to check the page count with the Grand Comics Database. Somebody newer to golden-age comics might find that a worthwhile resource, though. It was valuable for me as I was figuring stuff out. (And I like to give that website a shout-out whenever I can, because it's great, and I recommend people donate to it.) There are some anomalous golden-age comics that have strange page counts, like 68-pagers, and annuals with high page counts (100's and stuff). Usually it's like you said, though, 36 or 52. The quick and dirty way to check is just to count to the middle, or go to the middle and see if the story has continuity or if the page numbers line up. Of course, it's worth it to count the pages anyway, and I always do: I check for clipped coupons or panels, torn sections, or pages torn out (which sadly, has happened a few times when it was a comic I *really* wanted to have in complete form).

Put "Not CGC." That way people will know it isn't CGC. Very helpful!

As a buyer, I don't like it when there is barely any separation between the outside of the package and the stuff inside, especially if the outside has packing tape etc. that has to be cut to be opened. In addition, I've had some problems with sellers who make a cardboard sandwich but then tape it with the sticky clear-plastic packing tape. That interior stuff shouldn't have outer-package tape on it. The interior stuff should be taped with masking tape or painter's tape, which is easy to peel off without using a knife or scissors. Best practice is to avoid putting the buyer in a position where they need to put a sharp object close to the comic in order to un-pack the comic.

Can't get my nostalgic east-coast friends to stop talking about Cookie Puss... Not to mention the seasonal variations, like Shamus O'Puss (St. Patrick's version). Listening to old Beastie Boys albums is also a factor.

Cookie Puss!

Doodlin'. This one was a speed doodle.

Apparently DC just laid off a bunch of employees, including several editors. One of them is Mad's new editor, who helped launch the new LA-based version (and successfully too -- the circulation has increased substantially). So.... Mad is in limbo, I guess.

After they figure out this mystery, let's talk about C3-PO's junk.

So this is from a Batgirl comic? Which one? Is the rest of the art as bad as this panel? How does something like this exist, and how does it get past professional editors? It's like they used a computer to draw the room, and just had a template of a room and added bathroom stuff with a few mouse clicks, or something. It is astonishingly awful.