Hibou

This is how I know that my life isn't the same, in these days. As exciting as this Rams game was to watch on this December evening... This is still right at the top of my thoughts. Myself, my father and my (step) son... from 30 years ago... ... ... ... I'll wear it like... ... a tattoo.

Back on to that day in August, at the PulpFest, I was experiencing perhaps a lifetime worth of 'personal wins'. I say that now because what has occurred over the course of these last 5 months has all but erased those perceived achievements. "At what cost would you go, in order to reach back and touch history?" ... ... ... So back to that moment when I got to meet, talk with and listen to Anthony Tollin. I knew his name from the credits of a number of comics... mostly from DC Comics. Towards the middle to the later years of the 1980's, I was a huge DC fan, mostly thanks to the likes of George Perez, Frank Miller and John Byrne through the New Teen Titans, Batman and Superman. So not only was I here, in complete fanboy mode, I was also here grabbing, taking, ingesting... stealing more history with each and every fantastic story he was retelling to me. Stories of his days working with the legends of DC Comics from the 70's, 80's and even into the 90's... how he met his wife, Adrienne Roy. He even showed me a very breathtaking (studio) picture of her. He told me about his relationship with Walter B. Gibson and how he owns the slouch hat that Walter B. Gibson would don. Anthony Tollin likes to tell the story of how "his home is where The Shadow hangs his hat". Hearing that in person, was worth the price of admission to this PulpFest on that day in August. In addition to hearing about all of these stories, I was able to actually address Anthony Tollin and personally THANK HIM for breaking my comicdom paradigm. So, here... I was able to actually thank Anthony Tollin for allowing me to discover this for myself. (As it turns out, it was what he and Will Murray had to write about after discovering the truth about The Batman!) So, after the stories, after the imagery, I was able to thank Anthony Tollin as I pulled out my newly acquired copy of The Shadow Magazine from that November 1st, 1936 issue! In person, I was able to tell him "Thank you!" ...as I was able to pull out that copy and explain to him that he was indeed involved with the breaking of my Matrix!

Sold to woregul - Thank you!

I might not be able to get these shipped out until after Christmas... Conan #23 (1st Red Sonja ** CGC now mentions this on their label **) // Fine - (May be better except for the slice from the top right corner) Marvel Feature #1 : Red Sonja // Fine (Subscription crease but only shows some color break near the bottom 1" of front cover) $135 Shipped - All proceeds to Jim : Sold to: woregul

Once again... A story.

This has been a tough weekend for me for a number of reasons. I'll get back to that soon enough... Anthony Tollin is (in my view) that last living legend that can connect to something that has become dear to me and that is Old Time Radio... At any rate, while I was on the phone this week, over the course of a couple of days, I doodled this Batman drawing and it wasn't until now that I saw just what I was doing as I finished the weekend. I buried myself...

Needless to say, when I realized that here was Anthony Tollin, selling reprints, OA and original Shadow pulps at this show... I fell right back into 15 year old fanboy mode. And really hard... Here was the guy that totally blew up my 'comic-book-safe, paradigm'. I would normally reserve this reaction to John Byrne level, (check out what he has to say at the 15:03 mark... I can see this!) in terms of shaping my visionary ideology... but here was something much more, so much more, that I was strongly right in tune with it at this moment. The actual origin of the Batman.

Who knows why (I might have an idea ), but maybe it just takes a while for me to make simple connections. Such as seeing a bunch of Shadow Magazine reprints, along with some amazing George Rozen original art... mixed in with a dash of authentic, vintage Shadow Magazine pulps... topped off with the name of Anthony Tollin. Yup... that Anthony Tollin. https://www.comicarts-sa.com/anthony-tollin Now this interview is very interesting as this was in 2019 and it's the first time that I heard of the 'Shadow theft' that resulted in the Batman.

So after all of the visits and purchases across various tables and dealers, I happened to find myself at the last one that I found that hadn't been set up yet when I initially entered the show. As soon as you entered the show (and to the left), there were a lot of Shadow Magazine reprints here at this table along with a handful of Shadow Magazine original copies from the 30's and 40's... all in pretty nice condition (G-VG range). I inquired about a few of those original copies but it was the name on the table that intrigued me more than anything else! Tollin. Wait, what?!

So here we are, at the Confessional Dial et al... I was just retelling the final hours of the PulpFest that I attended in Cranberry Township, PA and if I remember correctly... the last table I attended.

Damn. This timeline is all screwed up... but I'll find a way to make it work. Perhaps if I keep pounding away at that Confessional Dial... Yeah, that might work.

I'll guess $858.42

Amazing!!!

When I initially went through the PulpFest show, there were a few tables that weren't set up yet or just in the process of setting up so I went through again, starting near the middle of the room where Jim Steranko was set up and then up to the front. Right near the entrance (across from where Adventure House was set up), was a vendor who was now fully set up and there were a few nice Shadow related items that I bought for a very fair price. The first was a copy of Radio Nostalgia #4 featuring The Shadow (I believe portrayed here by Bill Johnstone) and the other items were a pair of 'Shadowgram' envelopes from Walter B. Gibson. Sadly, I can't remember what vendor this was from but I did have a relatively short but nice talk with him. He told me that the Shadowgram envelopes came from the Walter B. Gibson estate auction and that at one time, he had a lot of other items from that, but this was all that he had left now. I think I bought them for $2 a piece. ... ... ... So... as I've been writing this entry in this journal, I've been also simultaneously writing to an absolute angel to this community. And that's, @skypinkblu It was a very unexpected but heartfelt conversation and as a truck driver, this is a term we use when we know it's time to end the shift... "I'm going to have to park it for the night." To be continued...

After that big purchase of The Shadow Magazine : November 1st, 1936, I went back to Jim Steranko's table as now the crowds surrounding it had subsided a bit. I just wanted to say 'Hello' and take a closer look at some of the original artwork he had brought with him to display behind the table. Upon doing this, I had to tell him how much I had admired his work throughout the years and (keeping with the genre) I had to tell him that I loved his renderings of The Shadow as well. He was very genuine and gracious... this was actually the guy that put Bob Kane in his place. That's a very funny story and if you haven't heard it before, here it is... Anyways, he asked me if I had seen his art book and I answered that I had not. He reached under the table and brought out a few copies of this book and I began to flip through it. It featured a great collection of his work as was presented by the Butler Institute of American Art. I asked him how much the book was and proceeded to buy a copy. Before I left his table I happened to ask him if he was doing any sketches at the this show and he answered that he wasn't but he does commissions. Again, he reached under the table and brought out his portfolio all containing commission pieces he was either working on or had completed. It was all amazing to look at... I asked him how much a sketch of a character bust would be and he answered that it would be close to what I had just paid for my copy of The Shadow Magazine that I had just purchased. Needless to say, I left more than content in seeing his portfolio and my copy of the Butler art book of his work. That was a wonderful experience but there was one more table that I stopped at that just put a complete wrap on this show for me. I guess a gift wrap would be a more appropriate term.

Now you would think that this would be the highlight of the afternoon... nope! Little did I know who I would run into after this purchase. And yes... it's gotten to that point. Intermission.

I walked back to that lonely corner table and reintroduced myself to John. Once there, I asked him... when he stated that he would work with me on pricing, what actually did he have in mind? He stood there and thought about it for a moment and then replied that he would take $150 off of the listed price. Needless to say, I was a bit in shock because I thought that $100 off of the asking price would be the high end. So when he told me that he'd take $150 off... I immediately sprang into 'Buy It' mode! I informed him that I didn't have the cash on me but asked if there was another venue to pursue. He told me he accepted 'PayPal'... my old friend. And there it was. The road that would lead to this unlikely purchase. I wasn't confident that this would work, as I had never transferred this amount before, but once he received the 'confirmed' notification... I was off and running! I actually now owned this dream of an acquisition... I couldn't believe it and I actually took a picture of it in my hand as I walked the floor.

As I walked the floor, paced the floor... actually, who knows what the hell I was actually doing on the floor, I was thinking to myself... "What did he mean by he would work with me? Are we talking $20 off? $50 off? What if it's $100 off?!" It was there that I remembered my plan before I entered this unknown world. And that was that I would treat this as if everything would work out and to go ahead as I had originally planned. Meaning, that I would use the funds that I had gained from the Mexican Daredevil #1 sale for this trip. After a quick calculation, I figured that I might only stretch this trip slightly if I were to go back and inquire more about that book that I had walked away from. I thought to myself... "You could spend your entire budget on that one book (which you'll probably never find again)... or you could get a lot of cool 'filler'...". I don't use the term 'filler' as a pejorative... it's just meant as purchases outside of ones 'focus'. Now there's a term I haven't used since the underwater days. Focus. So, yeah... this is my focus now, isn't it? The 30's and 40's. The Shadow... 'bluecoal' ... Yup, we're going back to talk to John.

So back to this picture for a moment... I did a little detective work this afternoon and was able to confirm that this indeed is John, who came to PulpFest all the way from Oklahoma. His store on eBay is mybckpages : https://www.ebay.com/str/mybckpages After taking in everything that was set up at this 'early bird' opening, his table (the very last one I browsed through) was the only one that had this particular book that I was not expecting to see. A couple reasons behind why I was not expecting to see a copy of it, was because I had been searching the internet for one and couldn't find any. Again, I'm a complete novice at this so I certainly don't have the connections or resources as many of the other seasoned collectors do. But if there was one thing I was certain of... if I couldn't get a copy of The Shadow Magazine #1 (April, 1931), which I most likely never will, there was (for me) the next best thing., which was this. The reason I felt that way was because of the journey that I was right in the middle of... the journey that took me to the ghosts of Pennsylvania, around 1936. That journey underground. It's funny as I just wrote that, I thought - when you enter a cave, caves usually find their way underground. And you find other things in caves as well... Anyways, John had this amazing issue but it was priced at a point that I was uncomfortable with, especially in terms of dealings at a show. Again, I'm a very reserved 'small fry' in this scene and even at a full blown comic-con, around $300 - $400 is my max as for comfort level on a single purchase. The price John had on this book was $950. I asked if I could see the book... in my mind, just to say to myself that I actually held this issue. He gladly handed it me and it was fantastic to see this issue up close. I mostly felt this way because of the thoughts I personally had about a certain topic, along with some notable articles that I read recently. I sadly handed the book back to him and kindly said "Thank you, that's a really nice book." As I was about to walk away, he told me that he would work with me on the price. I said "Thanks", again, and walked away. So here I was, around 400 miles away from home at this show that I had hoped to attend and planned for... and here I was finding a book that had haunted me since I learned of it. I anxiously walked the floor, again almost as if in a daze... that seems to happen to me a lot. I think at this point I had still only spent that initial $10 but there were a lot of things that I had identified as potential purchases.... from original artwork to signed copies of Weird Tales and more. As I was walking around, half depressed and half calculating, those magical words kept running through my head. ... ... "I can work with you on the price..."

And then the version we were all graced with...

This certainly has to be intermission... Hats off to Roy Harper.

Now before I finish the rest of the story here, I'll just finish posting the remaining pictures that I took that afternoon, followed by a video of the convention from Pulp.Net. And the walk-through video... I have a feeling this was taken late in the afternoon on Thursday, August 3rd or early Friday morning (August 4th).

At this point, I figured I was doing well... only down $10. And that's about the point where I reached the furthest corner booth of the room. Usually, the prime vendors are in the beginning of the show and middle, right? Nope. That's where this entire trip, this entire PulpFest was going to make or break my experience. So much has happened to me since this date so I apologize if I get this vendor's name wrong. I think his name was John and I think I might've purchased what I had, after this photo, as I don't see it on the rack behind him...