Hibou

I scheduled to meet Rob at our local, coastal pub... The Brokered Grill.  He had just arrived looking like he stepped out of a Gorton's Fish Sticks commercial. The weather outside wasn't being kind to say the least as with this time of the year, heavy rainfall enveloped the island. I had already ordered my Scotch and a Stout for him. Within the time-frame that it took for him to pull up a stool at the bar and grab the stout, I could sense that something was drastically wrong. He told me that the local fisherman had been spooked the night before by some strange lights that seemed to drift slightly below the water's surface... almost as if they were waiting. This island has been known to inhabit numerous 'tall tales' and local lore but this was something different, You could feel it permeate the village. It's part of the reason why we were assigned to this area by our local newspaper employer.

"Find out what the hell is happening over there!" ... our last directive.

I didn't even get a chance to finish off half of my Scotch before Rob stood right up and said he had to show me what he had found, outside.  He slammed his pint down and headed to the door as I grabbed my jacket to follow. Once I got outside, all I could see was the rain through the lamplight with the fog swirling throughout.

"Rob?"

He was gone.

His funny yellow fisherman hat lay upon the rain pelted dirt of the walkway...

Now with the new year here and all of the assemblage of the holidays behind, I felt that I would try and approach this new year with a better plan. My new job was slowing down a bit, as was expected, but I wanted to be able to use this upcoming down time to secure some finances.  At this time, I had no idea what happened in the world of comics and collectibles but was just going about my normal routine while looking for interesting things to buy and sell. I had purchased some cheap comics here and there and then one Sunday, while at our local flea market, I found a collection of pipes that I couldn't take my eyes off of.  Now it had been many years since I had smoked a pipe as I had more or less replaced that with cigars. I still had my own small collection of pipes and accompanying tools but this small collection contained some unique pieces that I wanted for myself and thought that maybe I would pick up pipe smoking again. The more I looked at these, the more I thought that I could actually sell the majority of them at some point down the road and hope to double the money I was tempted to spend and still be able to keep the ones I really liked for myself.

So I did just that and for the next few weeks, I immersed myself in learning and relearning all about the various pipes, styles and manufacturers.  It was certainly fun and kept me busy.  I did go down to a local tobacconist to buy a few ounces of an aromatic blend of smoking tobacco but I never did pick it back up on a consistent basis.

Shortly after this, I was at my LCS and saw that the owner had purchased a small collection of comics and I'm not sure if it was an impulse buy or simply having sympathy for these 'forgotten books', as I called them, but I bought the collection of Classics Illustrated / Comics. Now aside from the select horror books in the series, I never really got into these but on this day something hit me and changed my perception. I think at first I was just feeling that I could keep the handful of ones that I wanted (the Sherlock Holmes issue was included which was a book I had never seen in hand before) and sell the rest, much like the pipe collection I purchased. However, after I got them home, re-bagged them and flipped through the pages, as well as reading a few, I quickly began to get attached to them.  To me it was something new and so many of these books had shown signs of such wear that I thought that these books were either well loved and read or so neglected, that they were simply cast aside.  I decided that maybe this would be a new focus for me and I would start hunting down Classics at the various antique stores around the area. I kind of got hooked on that for a while and felt such a feeling of victory when finding early prints of the horror issues or like this Matt Baker, Lorna Doone copy.

Despite this purchase though, it still had not occurred to me what was taking place around me, both in this hobby as well as others. I think the first hint for me that there was something different transpiring in the collectible market came about when my daughter asked me if I had any 'top loaders' used for sports card and collectible cards. She has these photo-cards of pop stars that she needed them for and so I went to a gaming / sports card shop to pick some up. It was here where I first heard that supplies were so scarce and apparently the reason behind this was because, "Eveyone dug out their baseball cards during the lockdown."

Hm. 

Ok... well, prior to this encounter, I hadn't heard of that before.

Coincidently though, during 'the lockdown', I had been assembling a collection of older Los Angeles Rams football cards when and where I found them so I felt that there was certainly some truth to that. Even now, I'm still hunting for these.

So on that day, I was introduced to the fact for the first time that there was a rekindled interest in trading cards.  I thought that was nice as I had a bunch of Football, Baseball and Hockey cards so maybe I could sell some.  I never did get fully back into that hobby aside from gathering cards from the teams that I like...

This discovery kind of led me down the path of looking into what was new and happening and what was going on in the world of collectibles.  It was around this time that I found that the new 'Mego' had introduced a Creature from the Black Lagoon figure and so of course I had to get that and I had to send my friend, Rob a shrunken Stan Lee figure as well!

Then, (seemingly) out of the blue, it happened... for me it was like a shot or an alarm that sounded which informed me that I was way behind in this new (post shutdown) reality. I needed to schedule a meeting with Rob where we could discuss this, over beers of course!

There was just one problem...

On 7/16/2021 at 3:12 PM, Falcon760 said:

You don't like the Creature do you?

Well...

Ok. 

Technical issues resolved.

So before I put a complete end to the abomination called '2020', I have to share what awesome gifts Rob got me despite my best attempts at blowing up his car and sticking a Gremlin in there.

Wait...

Get the hell out of my beer, Spider-Man!

Sorry about that.

So, lately it seems that Rob corrupts me by buying some really good whiskey to try and he usually finds something that I haven't had before because either I haven't seen it or because it was too expensive. Now this year, he got me a bottle of Redbreast 12 Irish Whiskey and let me tell you that was absolutely delicious! I suppose if he has a theme, it's been some awesome Irish Whiskeys mixed with Creature of the Black Lagoon merchandise. I have so much Creature stuff that I need to redo an entire room just to be able to properly display it all.  Now these coasters he actually made... using magic or something.

And of course, every 'Gillmaniac' needs a reference compendium!

And just to give you an idea of all of the Creature of the Black Lagoon stuff he's got me over the years, here are a few pictures I found in my phone...

Yes, this is a hand crafted ring!

...

...

And now I can close out 2020. 

With the new year ahead, it was to be the start of a new collection but I had no idea what I would be discovering along the way or how it would affect me and my collecting habits!

This is not meant for suspense. 

I think I so wanted to get past the 2020 stuff that I forgot to include the proper conclusion to the end of the year.

So here's what Rob got me for Christmas...

(Ok, more problems with ye olde buckets o' photos 😡)

Of course I forgot to mention that there was more to add to the Christmas get together...

Ok, I realize that the last video intermission I left with was a bit harsh and so here is my 'cleanser'...

It was what it was.

I'm old...

Yes, this is from almost 20 years ago, but so fitting for me now.

As time flies, I hope to never have been boring. 😊

Wow...

What a delay in posting!

So much has happened in these past few weeks.

OK, so even more big money is getting infused into our hobby.

How grand.

As if I couldn't afford anything as it was.

Rewind...

I can do this.

We're back at my get together with Rob at our Christmas party in (now) January of 2021. The end of the world now firmly behind us!

So he had to guess what the gift was or risk his car blowing up... (one of these days!)

Let's start with the 1922 Peace Dollar.

The thinking here was that there would be a connection to the year prior and the Batman / Two Face reference.  In actuality, it was the dualism reference... or change.

A shift.

I have so much more to talk about in terms of the Challengers of the Unknown #3 but I'll leave that for later. What it represents here is a shift, or simply changing from one thing to another.

The Tommy Gun Vodka?

OK... that was a reach.

Do you remember a scene that resembled a 20's mobster scene in Gremlins? Well, I did and this represented that. So, maybe it wasn't quite that but it was close enough for me! So yes, a glass Tommy Gun filled with Vodka!  And now finally there was this transforming water and a plush Gizmo. It was right around here that he did guess the gift but he had doubts.

A Gremlin?!

Yup.

A Gremlin.

Despite this being the serene backdrop to our Christmas beer fest...

Shortly after he arrived, I had this waiting in his car.... more wrapped up of course!

And sporting a tie.  Everyone needs a tie. 

Ties are cool!

And so, in a nutshell... that was the official end to 20endoftheworld.

2020 in the rearview.

The End to whatever this was.

Whatever it was.

(So many questions... so few answers.)

On 6/29/2021 at 11:03 AM, BlowUpTheMoon said:

Thank you for your service.

+1

... and what an awesome display!

Christmas 2020 musical intermission...

This version is hard to find but it's my favorite.  I love The Band's original version too but this is just so much more...

It's just all Robbie Robertson goodness!

Wow.

For a minute there I thought that this journal was gone forever...

So glad that CGC paid that 30 Dogecoin ransom to get us back up and running. Now they need to do the same with their submission page. 

...

Ok, where were we?

Ah yes, there's always a twist and we're in December of 2020 and it's time to put together Rob's Christmas game! So how this kind of works is that I stumble across something that I feel he absolutely needs and then I work backwards from there.  So in December I found this *item* and thought that it would be a hilarious gift.  But of course I had to make a beer drinking game out of it and so I started thinking back to some of our earlier beer get-together discussions.  I remembered a discussion we had about silver and especially Silver Dollars. Hm... you know, I could kind of bounce something off of last year's theme with the Joker and try to wedge in Batman here.

My mind was starting to run around all over the place...

I immediately thought of a Peace Dollar, but not any Peace Dollar... Two Face's 1922 Peace Dollar. I was able to purchase a nice (AU) 1922 dollar (AU) easily enough but there's one thing I couldn't do...

I couldn't deface such a beautiful coin so what I did was I printed out an image of the defaced Two Face coin and stuck it onto the Air-Tite.

This would be the first hint and surly the Batman reference would throw him after last year's Cesar Romeo debacle!

This was a good start.

The next thing I found was a solid (although maybe kind of moldy) copy of Challengers of the Unknown 3.  For those of you that know this issue... you know this issue.

I found this awesome bottle of Vodka that was shaped into a life size 'Tommy Gun'... that would (kind of) fit the game I was building.

I sort of had to take some liberties with that one but it worked.

The last two items I had to get was a 'Transforming' Water, such as this...

And finally, a Gizmo.

Now to piece this all together... this year, for certain, I would be able to blow up his car. Now this year, I would resort to a cell phone remote device instead of placing a Bat Bomb into his vehicle.  The table was set and now I would just have to wrap everything before our meet up in a few weeks.  I'll explain how that went soon enough.

...

But as Christmas was fast approaching now, I had to come up with this year's cocktail and I was having a very hard time.  For one, it was 2020 and secondly, our Christmas this year would be far from normal.  What would normally be 15 to 20 people gathering together would only be around 8 this year.  I'm not complaining but it was different to say the least.

So after mulling around a few options, I decided that this year would simply be a Mistletoe Martini.

Vodka, Elderflower Liqueur, Simple Syrup, Cranberry Juice, Cranberries and Mint.

Simple yet festive!

Trying to get back to a peaceful footing, no Grinch!

Christmas of 2020. 

It was certainly different for all of us...

But of course... there would be a twist!

Believe it or not, I do have more to write on John Byrne later but for now, it's best to not jump ahead too much (despite my excitement to do so) and just focus on finishing up this very long recap of my collecting renaissance during the forgettable year of 2020.  November obviously ended well for me although I'll definitely take my 50th birthday enjoying a Led Zeppelin cover band with my wife over a Byrne original art purchase any day!

No disrespect intended... just real talk.

It's funny but up until this week, I really didn't think we would ever see packed stadiums again... my excursion to our local flea market today (June, 2021) made me think otherwise. A ton of people all shoulder to shoulder and mask-less.  It was enjoyable to witness! 

Anyways...

Wait, my vinyl purchases today were Shirley Bassey, Marvin Gaye, Prince and Kiss!

Let's go with Shirley for our musical intermission...

And since this whole blog feels like something familiar yet foreign, lets go with this one.

It was now December of 20endofth... no. It wasn't that now.  It was another new year on the horizon and we'll go with that! It was getting to my favorite time of the year... buying gifts for friends and loved ones! Something I hope to return to this year! And so I had to come up with a theme for my friend, Rob and I had to get some shopping done for my wife and daughter.  Rob is easy.  I know that sounded bad but it is what it is... I could buy for myself and it could be for him and I'm sure vice-versa. My wife is easy too... oh, look - they both have the same astrological sign.  My daughter? 

Go RAMS!  Yes, she's an Aries.. as it should be. I won't tell you how, when she was a toddler, we used to get on the floor and pretend we were both Rams and butt heads...

Wait, what?!

Okay.

So December.

My new job was filling in quite perfectly and I was feeling a sense of peace.

As a matter of fact, it was a feeling of absolute joy!

It was time to go Christmas shopping and start to think of this year's holiday drink!

Like a strike of lightning, it occurred to me... Rob would be getting a silver dollar!

So just to compare the handwriting, I found this online and I used it to compare some of the letters. 

It looked close enough for me...

And I had to get out my Art of John Byrne book to see if any of those Alien heads made it elsewhere but I didn't find anything in there that was close.

So this latest entry was weird to write.  As I stated earlier, I simply planned to talk about this sketch piece as a replacement for the Alpha Flight 25 page but didn't expect to find out that the page had just sold... on my birthday of last year.  The irony was just so rich.  At the same moment that I had purchased a new John Byrne piece of original art, my old Byrne piece of original art had sold on the Heritage auction site.

Just as a reminder, this was when I sold it here on the boards 9 years ago...

When I was looking through Google images to find a reference picture for the page, I saw an image for the original artwork and then I saw that it was through Heritage. So I clicked on it but had to actually log in to see the price it sold at and the date.  As I was entering in my user name and password, in my head I was playing a game of "how much did it go for?"... a number popped up in my head and I thought to myself that it probably went for somewhere between $1250 - $1750.  I figured an increase of around 400% would be expected.

I wasn't prepared to see this though.

The John Byrne Alpha Flight page that I hand picked from Jim Warden all those years ago... the page that hung in my comic room that I admired quite often...

It didn't sell for 400% of what I had sold it for.  It didn't sell for 800% of what I sold it for...

...

It sold for over 2100%...

Lesson learned.

What equates to a great day?

Meeting up with your pal for some new beers at a new place in the middle of Spring!

Such was the case this afternoon... before I continue on with this story, I have to mention that Tully, NY ( http://www.oncoferment.com/ ) was the setting for this afternoons get-together!

Excellent beer!

As well as some excellent story telling if not demented at times.

So I last finished off this thread by talking about some revelations of mine through the opening of an old and locked Photobucket account. Actually, this afternoon, Rob and I revisited our last beer stop in 2012 at a TGIF (I think) in NJ on the way back from the NYCC. He was pretty sure that he had a Blue Moon that evening while I had some version of a Black and Tan.  I joked with him in saying that the picture that I had just posted was like the first appearance or origin issue of his beer-escapades!  How quickly time flies.

At any rate, we were talking about what has pushed up the values on these comics and what I gathered from him is that it was a confluence of things. 

Again, this is something I'll get to later.

So how in the world does this entry end?

...

I sold a John Byrne page years ago, I bought nice comics, I sold nice comics, I bought nice comics... what gives?!

With the comics I have owned and sold, I have a certain reaction to when I find them once again or a similar book of the same title and grade.   And that's the point... I might have owned a book at a grade of GCC 2.5 at some point in my life... only to sell it later for the same price or a small profit. Such is the case with that Detective Comics 69 shown in one of those Sig Lines above. 

I loved that book but ultimately I sold it off. I believe I paid around $750 for it at the time and then resold it some time later for around the same price.

I didn't lose, but I didn't win either on that short term investment.

Long term?

Oh, I lost a lot!

In fact, a CGC 2.5 sold around my birthday just 2 short years ago for...

Yes. that says $8100.00.

But that's OK.  There are numerous copies of that issue whether they're graded or not.  With the right amount of money, you can purchase what you want as long as the finances allow it.

So what's not replaceable?

Original artwork and that leads us back to the Alpha Flight 25 page.

...

...

It was November and I had thought long and hard about finding a new original piece of artwork from my favorite comic artist, John Byrne.

Perhaps it was serendipity but I logged on to Anthony's Comic Art on a whim as that memory from 2012 played out in my head.

As I scrolled through the pages, this one piece popped out at me... spoke to me.  Hell, it yelled at me!  This one.  Buy this one!

My birthday was approaching and after all, it was the end of the world so I might as well take this last chance opportunity to replace that missing piece. The price was perfect, as a matter of fact, I felt it was too good.  I've always had a thing for sketches and studies from various artists... as I said earlier, I love to be able to 'see' their thought process and take in their 'mindless', wandering line work.  Everything lined up too well and so I pulled the trigger and purchased this piece after I did some quick research.

Did the handwriting match?  It looked so to me.

Did the line work match?  To me, absolutely!

I purchased the item and just before my birthday, this John Byrne piece arrived!

I was so thrilled. At long last I had replaced that piece that I had sold 9 years ago!

And here it is...

Courtesy of ... https://www.anthonyscomicbookart.com/

It was advertised as from John Byrne's sketch book from 1978 and I absolutely love this piece of art

I totally understand that it is on the most destructive form of material (on an artistic level) but it didn't matter to me.  So it was on (basically) chipboard... OK.

But looking at the studies, I couldn't help but wonder if possibly the figure was an alternate version of Wolverine? His alien sketches, which resembled Leonardo's caricatures in my mind, spoke of countless possibilities!

His Grandmother's phone number? Maybe.

And ultimately, Tony Dispoto's phone number. This was what authenticated the whole piece for me.

It's funny but thinking back, that 2012 NYCC was a pivotal point in many different ways. I didn't get that John Byrne Hulk sketch but I got something better, an introduction to what a 'real' comic convention was as well as the start of what would be many beer get-togethers with Rob where we talk about about the ridiculousness of the world along with endless conversations about everything pop culture.

(I can't remember what these were but they were "the best beers in the world" after a long day in NYC and at the 2012 NYCC!)

So now that I've had a week to reflect on where this story goes next, I have to point out something very strange that happened at the end of the previous post last week and how it has provided me with much clarity. I had to cut the last post short for a couple of different reasons. To start, I was afraid that the computer would crash again and I would lose everything once more and secondly, Photobucket (yes, I still use that) started acting up and so I just abruptly wrapped it up.  For some reason, the next morning when I tried to get into my Photobucket account, I was met with a message indicating that they were having major issues and that they were working to get everything back up. I didn't think much of it until later on that day when I was able to finally get in only to find that for some reason, my old Photobucket account was now unlocked.  I had started a new account recently and I was paying for the extra storage on that one, but my old account had been restricted because it was way over the limit. Now this account was the one I had when I first started here on the boards and I was able to go through and view every saved image I had in there. Every book I purchased that I posted about, every book I posted to sell... all the comic lots that I sold and even the pictures that I'm a bit embarrassed by now. For some reason, they all seemed to involve Katy Perry...

Going through all those pictures brought back so many memories and ultimately a realization.

Now I did make sure that my new Photobucket account was still active so I was relieved by that but I was absolutely transfixed on going through these old pictures and re-saving them and then re-uploading them to my new PB account!

So the irony in this is that as I was looking for a reference picture of that Alpha Flight 25 page, I discovered something that brought me down into a bit of a depression only to have that moment act as a catalyst to open EVERYTHING up as if to show me "look, look at what you had and what you lost!"

Along with that, it also showed me... reminded me... of exactly how much fun I had here on these boards, collecting comics, buying comics, selling comics and talking comics.  This was my life, my passion for many years.  Looking back at my purchases, 2010 to 2012 was my Golden Age in terms of acquiring books as this was shown to me through these (once thought lost) pictures. These two years, looking back, was so magical in terms of acquiring books that at one time, I only dreamed of owning, and now realizing that the prospect of owning most of those again, is yet again, a dream.

So what to make of this. Did I remain depressed for the entire week? No. Actually, I was happy... happy to be able to see once again, what I was able to assemble, what I was able to talk about and then ultimately, what I was able to sell in order to facilitate a much more important aspect of my story and my life which was told in "Rusty Staples and Sunken Treasure".

I kind of figured that where this post should go now, before I complete this latest entry, is to revisit these once owned books, these once owned treasures... sort of like paying my last respects.  I have much more to talk about in terms of books that were sold years ago and where they are now as well as what kind of FMV (Fair Market Value) they currently hold but for now, I just want to take a trip in time once again and remember those Golden years!

...

...

When I first came to these CGC boards, this was the extent of my collection...

I had just begun to collect again and for the first time in many years, I was passionate and serious about it! 

I didn't stop there though, I was almost addicted and that small collection grew to something much bigger...

These pictures were from 2010 to 2011... amazingly, ten years ago!

I graduated from collecting raw books to getting them graded through CGC and then that brought my collecting habits to yet another level.  In another year to two years, my collection grew even more! 

I discovered Signature Series books as well as Restored books and Qualified books... I was having the time of my life here!

And then the madness continued until I felt like I had my own comic shop...

I was buying and selling all types of books... trying to find a spot to focus on.  In a few years I thought I had settled on that focus only to realize later that what I was doing was setting the ground work to save my own life.

I hope most of you just breezed over that because there's no way I can explain that last statement.

I was certainly fortunate to have been able to acquire those books and yes, I have assigned a FMV amount to what many of those books are valued at today and it's... incredible.

These two books in particular, at the grades that they were at, or appeared to be at, kind of illustrates that thought. At the time that these were purchased, I don't think I spent more than $500 for the 2 books.

Today?

May of 2021... 10 years later?

These two books (in these respected grades) would cost you close to $10,000.00

There are more, obviously... those I'll get to later when I talk about the state of the hobby today. But as I was going through my old PB pictures, something hit me and that was just how much time I would take in creating what were called the CGC Signature Lines.  I believe those are now gone but I loved that little thing.  It was a perfect identifier to the board member that immediately told you a lot about that particular individual.  It told you what they liked, what they were proud of and in a way, what their personality was and where they were in life!

I'm so glad that I was able to view these once again as these absolutely marked my timeline here.

The CGC Sig Line.

This was the first that I could find and I believe that it was my first.

The next one that I could identify...

Here you can see the beginning of the Underwater collection...

2012/2013 - My GOLDEN AGE has arrived!

2014. We're underwater... big time.

And finally, The End.

And so, yes... this ceremonial visit to those books once owned but now departed made me realize that I actually did reach a level that I should be proud of. 

I am.

I had an absolute thrill collecting these books thanks in part to CGC.

Yes, there is an end to this story and how it relates to my old Alpha Flight 25 page but that will be concluded soon enough.

Lesson learned.

(Lesson ignored.  You've been deceived - story of your life.)

I had been typing away for the last couple of hours, gathering images and video and posting them here, there and everywhere in this thread, only to have it all disappear as my computer crashed under the assault I was putting it under.

So let me try again...

...

...

As I was spending more time on the road, I had less time to pursue comic collecting but more time to plan out a road map of what it was that I wanted to do. 

As I mentioned earlier, I wanted to go back... go back to the beginning.

(This post is going to be very strange as I'm writing it by trying to recreate the initial text of the post while still reacting to the emotion of what I found out right in the middle of what I had already written.)

Start over.

As I thought back, there were certainly books that I had regretted selling but books could always be repurchased.  Back in November 20endoftheworld, I had yet to realize what was about to happen or rather, what was happening to this market and the 'explosion' there set upon it. At that moment, I believed that I could get those books back that I had sold (again, I did not foresee what was about to happen or what WAS happening!) but what I also knew was that it would be very difficult if not impossible to get back something else... original artwork.

There was one sale that I had regretted but at the time, it was a decision I made in order to fulfill a need for that moment in time.  It was a piece of art from my favorite artist and I remember when I purchased it how I felt.  I was thrilled to have a piece of artwork from this artist that featured a dramatic but serene scene of a main character and from a title that this artist had created. To me, it was like having a page from an early issue of a Fantastic Four comic drawn by Jack Kirby!

(Red smoke from the inside billows over the floor
Curiosity has got a mind of it's own
You take a plunge into the dark
A bell rings...)

Edit - It was right about here when I was initially writing that I had stopped in order to find some images to post so I could describe this next part of the entry.  I was not at all prepared for what I was about to find.  I fell into a quick depression and started posting various videos to capture what I was feeling.  I needed another beer and I needed to listen to these videos. After a bit of an intermission, I told myself that it was time to look past this and get to the happy part of this post and to where I really did learn a valuable lesson!

So many videos just shot through my head, but these were the two that I was stuck on for a bit...

Ok.

Back to the story...

The piece of artwork that I had and sold was a John Byrne page from Alpha Flight #25.

It was almost 10 years ago that I sold it here on the boards for $425.00.  I do remember that I was happy with the sale at the time and here it is, courtesy of CGC archives...

This was a regret that I had and always thought that someway, somehow I would replace that loss.  Thinking back, I had a chance in 2012 when my friend, Rob and I went to NYCC Comic Con.

I remember as we were leaving I passed by a booth selling original art work and flipped through the bins.  The dealer was Anthony's Comic Book Art and in the section of John Byrne art, there was a sketch of the Hulk that was labeled as being from the late 70's... (maybe 1979).   It looked great to me and I really wanted it but it was priced at $300.00 and I had exhausted all of my comic con finances at that point so I had to pass. I kept thinking to myself that it would be great to have a piece of art from Byrne from the time when I first discovered him and that was during the very early 80's.

So yes, this was a memory that I certainly retained!

(To be continued...)

The rest of the Fall season seemed to roll into one month of SeptemberOctoberNovember as winter approached. I was now fully focused and dedicated into my new job and things were going very well on that front although it was certainly exhausting as expected.  I kept using the term 'Boot Camp' around this time for various reasons. This definitely altered any and all free time I had so being able to focus on comics was kind of hard to do. I was thinking about it a lot but I just didn't have the time to actively pursue anything and maybe that's why I was caught by surprise and perhaps a bit off guard when I finally came around to see what exactly was happening in this hobby and prices  As I mentioned, most of my time was learning and applying the new procedures of this job that I was being trained for and also just trying to do my best to basically pick up what I left behind and plop it right here with this new company. To some degree, I think I succeeded in that but only time will tell for sure.My daughter was adjusting very well to her new world and I seemed to be doing so as well, so in general, everything seemed alright.

Even though I was mostly distracted from what was transpiring here in this world of comics, I certainly had time to think about where I wanted to take my collection and what did I want to do. Of course we all have daydreams (or is that Dream Days?) of major keys that we'd love to acquire but for me, being back on the road daily, I could think a lot about the stories I left behind that were told through these various books that were no longer a part of me. Would I or should I try to rebuild the Underwater collection? Despite those covers still having a huge draw on me personally, that story had been told and those books served their purpose. There are those that are extra special to me (Detective 70, Wonder Woman 60...) but for the most part, I didn't feel the need to completely go back to that.

I needed to go somewhere though, right?!

Backwards.

We're going backwards...

I felt like I was trying to go back in time with my occupation so maybe it was time to try and go back with my comics as well? I certainly wasn't feeling like this was the (Covid19) end for all of us at this point, frankly, I felt just the opposite... we were all starting over again!

Renewed.

Good and Bad.

(Music intermission...)

So where did my story start?

I thought back to my story of my artistic parents.. both my dear mother and father...

(My father's artwork from 46 years ago)

Was it there?

Or was it when I turned 11 in 1982 and tried to emulate a fellow school mate?

Was it when I discovered my 1st LCS in Dream Days?

Or was it when this kid, Brian, introduced me to the All-New X-Men in 1983?

I do think that was it...

But there was one more thing attached to that memory. It was a name attributed to something I had once owned but no longer... so, yes... this would absolutely be where I should start once again and yes, this would be...

...  for me.

Very Big, indeed!

But as my new job advanced and as I made my new home there, it was one day in the middle of October that brought me back to an old friend...

New York City.

The summer hadn't been kind to you but here I was just mere footsteps from your threshold.

It was a nice familiar sight and it was defiantly a nostalgic visit!

(Taken from my window...)

And now we're back...

As July came around so did the opportunity to start going back into the ("non-essential" their word, not mine) stores that had now reopened and were allowing limited amounts of people with guidelines of course. I visited the last LCS I went to right before the shutdown and it was a bit surreal. The last time I was in there, I wasn't sure what our futures held not to mention the fact that I didn't think that this store would be open ever again. They had tried to set up curbside pickup a couple of months prior but there weren't any new books coming out due to Covid rules and regulations which affected production and distribution. I went through the store though and picked up random back issues just to be able to start supporting them again. Following this stop, I visited my other LCS and did the same. The owner at this one was trying his best to keep everyone informed of what he was doing on social media and even offering books for sale on Facebook which I thought was a good idea but here's an interesting side story. Right before I was able to physically go into the shop, the owner had offered up about a dozen CGC books on Facebook. One book in particular caught my eye right away but it was too much to make a solid commitment on. It was a book that I had never owned and always wanted a copy as I kept saying to myself over the years and even decades(!), "one day I'll get that one". Well, I felt that this time should be that time but I was going to have to ask him if I could do a layaway option on the purchase. As we've had a very good relationship, I didn't think that was going to be a problem. And so, I contacted the owner only to be informed that I was 10 minutes too late as someone else had claimed the book.  So what was this book and how much was it? It was a copy of Giant Size X-Men #1 - CGC 5.0 (VG/F) and it was priced at $1250.00. For most of you reading this, you all know what has happened just recently and I'll certainly be getting to that soon enough. Let's just say that if right now (today), I had 3 times the amount of what that asking price was just 10 months ago... I still wouldn't be able to buy that book.

I was disappointed of course but kind of relieved that I didn't tie myself down with a commitment like that. I remember thinking to myself that I would find another copy later...

So when I was able to go into the shop, I was looking at the books that were still available from the FB sale but nothing was appealing. I looked around the shop as he seemed to have some new 'wall books' and this one book I saw felt like it would be a good buy on this day. It was another book that I had never owned before but wanted... it just wasn't on the top of my list of books to get. Looking back at this purchase now, I'm glad I got it when I did and at the price I did. I was hesitant at first because it was in the wrong plastic... nothing personal, that's just a thing I have and why I'm here on these boards.

So this was my "I'm still here to help support your store" purchase and I'll most likely send this one in to CGC once things stabilize a bit...

Conan #1  (Fine+)

It was right around this time, towards the end of July and the beginning of August, that I could feel that 'bug' creeping up again as I was naturally again starting to feel that thrill of comics and collecting. Perhaps it was a response to the months that were behind us and the feeling of relief that things were looking up in general. Whatever it was, I found myself fueling that fire as I was now going to the places that I could looking for back issues. I found some good books at our local flea market here and it was the start of rebuilding a collection.

Little did I know (or see) at that time, what was coming next!

It was also at this time that I decided to do something else a bit drastic and risky. So much had changed in the world and for a lot of people, that I thought that maybe this was the right time to make a move myself... kind of like jumping into this 'time-shift' stream (I'll just call it that because I don't know what else to refer to it as) and see what I can make of it. Take a chance... gamble on the future. I thought long and hard about this one but my daughter was going to be going away to college in a month and I was going to need more income and better benefits in order to prepare for this new future. Aside from that, here I was about to be 51 in a few months and I thought to myself, can I go backwards... back in time? What I mean by this is that as we go forward (as the years progress), it becomes harder to go backwards. It becomes harder to start over. So if I were to want to make this jump, it was going to be now or never. Trying to do what I was thinking about doing would be so much harder at 54 than at 50. I had been employed at my job for the past 17 years and liked it. I liked the people, I liked the job... I liked the company. So there was no need to leave. However, I kept hearing this story play out in my head. I'm not sure who it was narrated by, perhaps it was me, but it told the story of the guy who decided to leave behind one world to go to an identical world but one where the results of his labor would be different. Hm... The Flash of Two Worlds. I knew I would be starting all over but I also kind of knew what to expect as it would be very similar to what I was doing 26 years ago. The only problem was that I was 26 years older now and going to go and try to do what I was doing when I was 24 was an uneasy feeling.  Like I said, trying to go back 26 years would be hard but how hard would it be to go back 30 years?  I could remain where I was and comfortably do that for the next 10+ years or I could try and squeeze out one more big move.

And so, I decided to make the big jump... (metaphorically speaking) I went over the top, cut the wire and crossed into No Man's Land.

Doing this only ensured that the rest of 20endoftheworld would be an absolute whirlwind but of course, leave it to social media to accurately describe this feeling!

Of course I would have to take one thing at a time and so, after I made my final decision and started the transition to my new world, it was time to face that which I had been blocking out a bit and that was my daughter leaving to go to college. Thankfully, she chose a college only an hour and a half away but still, it's a difficult thing to work through.  Thankfully, we were able to properly hold an outdoor graduation party for her with a small number of our family members and the weather that day was perfect. Being able to briefly see family that we hadn't been able to see in months was a great feeling and it just made that day all the more special.

The following week, it was time to pack the car and take her to her college dorm. The entire summer had been incredibly frustrating for us in that regard, as it was for many, because there was still so much uncertainty in terms of whether the kids would actually be able to be on campus or would it all be remote.  I don't care to get into the constantly shifting information on that but needless to say, it actually worked out rather well with all things considered.

And so on that Saturday afternoon in August, it was time to say goodbye.

Of course, it was only temporary and just for a few months until her break, but still, it was a bit difficult for me to somewhat let go...

...

Consider this the intermission...

(Ok, apparently I can't use the Thompson Twins video )

My daughter graduating was a big point of happiness in my life for 2020. The fact that it didn't all go as planned was (kind of) OK because nothing ever did go as planned for us. Those are stories to be told at another time but to be able to have this time, after what was seemingly doom, was a blessing. I continued my (somewhat) involvement here on the boards and decided that this one book was too good to pass up as it was offered in the Marketplace.

It brought me back to an older time, certainly, but it was a book that I just felt that I needed to own again. The draw and passion was too intense... this was another hallmark of my collection and I just felt that, now, I needed a new representation of this as everything else that I once had was gone.

And so...

I saw this sales thread from @danchoi03  in mid June of 2020 for a Swamp Thing #1 in a 7.0. Looking back, I wish I had enough foresight to have bought all of his Star Wars #1 copies he was selling (9.0,9.2,9.4) because I probably  could've flipped those for enough profit to pay for my daughters room and board for the year! At any rate, I was just focused on that Swamp Thing #1 because it had so many features I looked for in a book from DC in the early 70's and that mainly being TWO (nearly) FULL CIRCLES!

(Shhh.. there's a date stamp too!)

As older readers would note, that was certainly one of the things I had to have in these issues and so that was enough to convince me that I had to get this one too!

In a way, I was starting the next phase in my comic collecting journey and not even realizing it at the time.

On 6/27/20 I was the last sale on this sales thread but the proud owner of a Swamp Thing #1 once again!

Buying that Flash 123 was a bit of a turning point as it reminded me of interests that I hadn't recently given much thought to.  Even though the local comic shops were all shut down (and in my mind, never able to reopen) this quiet period gave me the opportunity to sit back and reflect a little on my main hobby, interest and yes, passion. The collections that I had assembled and sold over the many years, the books that I would say to myself, "one day I'll get a copy" and the books that I just enjoyed as a child all became front and center. As this is a point I'll get to later, I wonder if it was the shut down that also created this catalyst in others that would make the collectible market explode (along with pretty much everything else)?

A sense of nothing being guaranteed so to seek and enjoy this time now as tomorrow may not be. It's hard to say, but I'll get into that later.

I was still struggling with this new reality, as I'm sure most of us were, but I was also trying to find humor in it too. At one point, I thought to myself that if our new reality was to be masked and protected, then I had better get myself a suit of armor. I would need two helmets, in case one should get stolen...

...and I also needed two sets of gauntlets as well  Foreshadowing the Black Knight perhaps or just crazy - you decide.

Thankfully, I regained my senses and that was as far as I went with that. From here it was back to the other make believe world of comics.

Once I started to reflect on my collecting habits and books that I had from when I first became a 'serious' collector, in my mind I went back to the beginning. The thoughts of being introduced to John Byrne and the X-Men in the early 80's are certainly a defining point in my life long admiration of the hobby and in turn, that led to my absolute obsession with the (All-New, All-Different) X-Men throughout the 80's.

As my parents understood this, one of my favorite memories was from Christmas of 1983. (My other favorite memory was from Christmas of 1980 involving Vince Ferragamo and the Rams... I'll tell that one later.

I was 14 years old and my parents knew that there was a comic dealer that I would buy X-Men comics from on Sunday at this local flea market situated on the Fairgrounds. At this point, I still maintained a newspaper route, which I had since I was 11 and that was my source of comic spending money. So the books I were able to buy were not that expensive at all... $15 for a book was almost out of reach so there were a lot of $1 - $5 books. As the story goes, my parents talked to this dealer during this Christmas season and was able to get some information from him in terms of what I would like as a gift. At that time, X-Men 94 was THE big book (Giant Size X-Men 1 was a kind of afterthought) and so that was not something that would be obtainable for them. They did find me a nice early issue and when I opened that present on Christmas morning, I absolutely loved it!

It was a glowing copy of X-Men 96 with a beautiful yellow cover!

I was thrilled to get that yet also perplexed as in how they were able to know about this book, not to mention actually BUY a copy.

Parents.

(Now I know.)

I loved looking at that cover... the primary colors in the title struck boldly against that beautiful yellow background set the stage for a composition featuring my favorite heroes about to battle a ferocious demon! A few months later, in 1984, I decided to try and recreate that cover. Surprisingly, I still have that drawing today.

I guess I didn't care for Professor X too much and based on Storm, perspective was still a tricky thing to solve!

So it was this cherished memory that I went back to around late April of 20endoftheworld. I decided that I needed to get this book back too. What happened to my original X-Men 96 that my parents had bought? It was sold and most likely it involved girls...

So right after finding that Flash 123 from @skypinkblu, I found the perfect book yet again. This copy of X-Men 96 looked to be right about in the same grade range as what I remembered my original copy being (Fine+ to Very Fine-) and the price was perfect at $60. So thanks to @goodrockrich , I was able to fill in the space that needed to be filled!

As we were exiting spring and getting into summer, things started to feel like they might be rounding the bend... or was that flattening the curve, I forget.

On social media I was seeing that two of my favorite local comic stores were now offering curb-side pick up and trying to adapt to this new retail world. Maybe I had it wrong all along... maybe we were actually going to be OK and maybe, just maybe we would be able to actually go in these stores again!

But more importantly, was the fate of my daughter's graduation in June.

Would there be one... would she actually be able to enjoy one day celebrating her achievement of her last 12 academic years?

I'll leave the discussion of schools alone but I can answer that yes, as chaotic and swift as it was, my daughter was able to recognize her graduation day at the end of June...

20endoftheworld.

This was right at the end of April and the perfect bookend to what was an insane period for most of us!

@skypinkbluhad a sales thread in which she was selling off her Flash collection.

It didn't take me long to realize what was being presented here.

The last thing I wanted to read before the end of the world was Flash 123 and so, I bought the deluxe hardcover edition.

But thinking back... wasn't that the book that introduced me to this place?

It was.

Way back in 2009... 11+ years ago.

I came to these boards to understand what "cover reinforced with glue" meant.

It was my restored Flash 123 in question...

Over some time, I understood a lot in terms of grading and CGC for that matter.

In terms of "collecting comics", this was my book and this would now be my Covid19 book.

And with that, it didn't take long to realize that I NEEDED to buy this book from Sharon!

And so I did.

It felt right... and it was from the right person, @skypinkblu .

It was perfect.

This book will never leave my collection... it's as important as my Detective Comics 70!

EDIT- Rob just laughed his @$$ off at that comment. I guess he knows me pretty well.