F For Fake

All of the Dark Horse The Thing books (The Thing From Another World, Climate of Fear, Eternal Vows) are easy sales, and can hit good prices. The bonus is you'll often find them in dollar bins. I'm a huge fan of the Carpenter film (and I like the original Hawks movie as well) so I got my sets a loooong time ago, but it seems like with every passing year, the cult of Thing fans grows, and there's not much in the way of merch out there to buy. So the prices on the existing stuff continue to inch upward. Really, most horror film related comics from this era are worth taking a chance if you find them cheap enough. Horror collectors are another breed, and will pay top dollar for the stuff they want, that most comic fans wouldn't care about at all. I should know, I'm one of 'em!

Oh for sure, Vampire Lovers is way up there for me as well! Really, the whole Karnstein Trilogy is terrific. (And, again, Ingrid Pitt! ) Absolutely, those are all great. House of Wax really got him going with the villainous roles, and it's still a hoot. Red Death and House of Usher would be my runners up for the Corman Poe movies, for sure. They're all great, really ,except for the Raven, which I just can't ever really get into. But Red Death, Pit ,Usher, Tomb of Ligeia, all top notch, and Vinnie is great in all of them!

Hi @piper ! Well, as I've been revisiting them over the last couple of months, I've been giving it a lot of thought. It's hard to narrow them down to a short list, but I think this is how it shakes out - My favorite over all Vincent Price movie is probably still The Abominable Dr. Phibes. It's fun, it's genuinely funny, great supporting cast (Joseph Cotton, Terry-Thomas), wonderful sets and colors, it's got it all. My favorite of the Corman Poe flicks is Pit and the Pendulum. Vincent's performance runs from restrained to zany, and it still has one of the great twist endings of all time. I like all of the Corman Poe movies (well, I don't love The Raven) but I think Pit still stands above the rest. My favorite 50's Vinnie movie is House on Haunted Hill. He gets to play it straight forward, debonair, mysterious but sinister, without going full blown camp. It's my favorite William Castle movie as well. Genuinely creepy, a couple of good gags/scares, and a really fun ride. As for Hammer, I'm all over the place. I guess if I had to pick something to be #1, I'd say Twins of Evil. Great performance by Peter Cushing, and it manages to successfully bridge the atmosphere of the gothic horrors they made in the 60's, to the sexier films of the 70's. The Collinson Twins, man oh man. Homina homina. Runners up would probably be Countess Dracula (love love love Ingrid Pitt), The Devil Rides Out (Christopher Lee's best hammer role), or To the Devil a Daughter (dumb climax aside, a very creepy movie.) Favorite Dracula is Taste the Blood of Dracula (the blood drinking ceremony is still so powerful) and favorite Frankenstein is Evil of Frankenstein. Favorite of the black and white films is The Quatermass Xperiment. I could talk about this stuff all day, but I'll cut it off there! Happy to hear your picks as well!

I have several conflicting feelings about the theater experience vs my home theater. Long-winded free association to follow: I've been a home theater nerd since the mid-90's, when I got my first job out of high school, bought a 42" tv, laserdisc player, and Dolby Pro-Logic receiver. I've upgraded my tech and media library throughout the years as needed. For the last several years I've had a 65" Sony Aquos LED set with a Yamaha receiver. This past June was our 10th wedding anniversary, so since we couldn't travel due to COVID, we decided to get a 75" 4k Samsung set, and a new Sony 4k player. (My wife took the 65" set for the living room, where she can watch "Hamilton" on repeat until the end of time, god bless her!) I've really enjoyed the new set, though the difference in Blu-Ray and 4k isn't as much of an eye-popping leap forward as it was when I shifted from VHS to LD, or LD/DVD to Blu Ray. Some of the differences are subtle, some are more pronounced. When there's a new 4k master of a classic film, it can be a real joy. For instance, recent 4k scans of 2001, Jaws, and Alien are just beautiful to behold. And has been mentioned, sports look great, although I really only watch college basketball, and a little bit of NBA, so I haven't had much of a deep dive on that end. Also, the new player/tv combo has unlocked Dolby True HD and DTS, which rocks the house. (I'm still not springing for Atmos, though!) At any rate, I've been working from home since March, and I've had a LOT of time to watch movies, enjoy the new home theater set-up, and think about movie theaters. And here's where I'm at: On the whole, I've enjoyed my home theater experiences in recent years more so than my movie theater experiences. I get the best seat, I can make it as loud as I want, and it's just me and the wife, or one of the cats, or both. (Or, during happier times, a room full of our friends.) Since September I've been holding my own personal Vincent Price/AIP and Hammer Horror film festivals, and it's been great fun. I think about the fact that one of the last times I went to the theater, it was a real nightmare. I'd been really excited to see Knives Out. We went on a Friday night, actually paid for the popcorn and cokes, did the whole shebang. Ended up having to sit near the back, where the speakers barely registered. I had to strain to make out the dialogue as it was, never mind the fact that the entire back row was made up of teenagers who spent THE ENTIRE MOVIE running up and down the stairs, laughing, playing on their phones, and doing anything other than watching the movie. (And I'm only 43, so I really hate to already be a guy who complains about teenagers!) It really ruined the night, and it definitely wasn't a rare occurrence. In fact, I'd say most of my theater visits in recent years leaned in that sad direction. However, a couple of weeks ago I watched the new Borat movie, alone at home, and I chuckled a few times; but all I could think about was how when I went to opening night of the first Borat movie, and saw it in a packed theater, the whole place was ROLLING the entire time. I laughed until I cried, and everyone else did too. What a great night! A room full of people feeling joy, together. And I thought about how I went to the same theater to see the Mr. Rogers doc, Won't You Be My Neighbor, and the entire theater was BAWLING. That wasn't as much "fun", but it was still a shared catharsis. We all went through something together. That's powerful stuff, you know? And THAT is the magic of the communal movie experience. On one hand, I give home theater the advantage because it is an environment that I control 100%. But when you're seeing a great movie in a full theater with people who are all on the same page, sharing that same experience, man, it is really hard to beat that experience, you know? Of course, at this moment we're not going to a theater anytime soon, unlikely within the next year or more. And I don't mind that much, because I still have plenty to watch here at home. But sometimes I'll watch those "Avengers Endgame Audience Reaction" videos on Youtube, and I'll tear up a bit at the joy of that shared experience, and find myself really missing the movie theater experience (and I don't even really care about the Marvel flicks!) tl;dr: old man rambles, doesn't come to any sort of valid conclusion.

@Wolverinex and anyone else, Target is running another Buy 2 Get 1 free sale starting today. Looks like they've restocked some stuff since the last sale. As always, the deals can be great, fair, or not good, depending on what you're specifically looking for. Pre-order titles are all full MSRP, so that's not help, but in stock books are generally competitive with Amazon et al and a killed deal when you add the free volume. Have fun!

I'm very similar. About 10 years ago I sold nearly all of my "floppies", and moved to exclusively buying collected editons. Once we got into our current house, I had a bit more space, so of course I was back to buying "floppies" again. However, my enthusiasm for collected editions continued. When I was a kid, one X-mas my grandmother got me a copy of the hardcover, leather-bound The Complete Frank Miller Batman. Then on my birthday, I got the first Marvel Masterworks of Uncanny X-Men. I've been a big fan of the format ever since. The smell of the leather covers, the quality of the printing, I was hooked. And for most of my life, collecting hc's has been a pretty simple hobby. Sure, out of print volumes would rise in price, but you sometimes had months, even YEARS, to purchase the material before it went OOP. These days, whether due to decreased print runs, quarantine-related staffing/printing issues, or a combo of both, it seems like you have to either pre-order, or be sure to get your order in within an hour of a book going on sale, or you've already missed the boat. It's nuts. I think the scalpers/flippers finally figured out that collected editions can be worth big $$$, so we are dealing with those folks as well. Not that I turn my nose up at flippers, I get it, I sell stuff myself. But the decrease in availability plus an increase in the buyer pool has added a great deal of anxiety to the hobby that I'd never really had to deal with before.

Also, you're making me wish I'd pick up the variant cover on the Black Widow omni, I always loved that cover, didn't realize they'd used it for this collection!

Great news! So glad to hear it! I'd seen some chatter on the MMW boards that orders the last couple of weeks were starting to shake lose, so maybe they're finally making some adjustments at IST. I sure hope so. Very glad this was a happy ending!

Whoa. Respect!

That looks nice! It seems like the drive with statues nowadays is to go bigger bigger bigger. Sideshow did Premium Format, then XM Studios came along, Prime I Studios, all of that stuff. There should still be a market for pieces in this size range, like what Bowen gave us for so many years. I like it!

AvP is indeed still available in dollar bins, but Aliens 1 hasn't been a dollar bin book in many, many years. Even at its lowest, raw NM copies of #1 first print were still $15-20. I think the cheapest I ever found one was $10? I've been buying them since 1988. They've never been dollar books. It is possible that you'd find a DHP 24 in a dollar bin mixed in with runs of DHP by clueless sellers, I guess, but I've personally never found one there. DHP 36 on the other hand is still out there in the bargain bins, as it should be, there are a blue million of 'em. As for 9.8's of the miniseries, they've been pricey and very hard to find for a long time. I got my #1 9.8 here on the boards many years ago. Seller told me it "wouldn't be cheap". I didn't care, I had to have it. Paid $350 for it, was pleased as punch to do so. Looks like I made a good investment, though I'd likely never sell it anyway. #2 took much longer, got it in part of a much larger trade, but equivalent value we agreed on was about $600. Again, that was a few years ago. Anyway, everyone shut up about Aliens, they're all mine!

My work here is done!

My mother loaned me an album of old family photos so I could scan them, and these seemed relevant to the thread. First up, please note the school uniform underneath the costume smock. I call this look "Business Casual Skeletor". Second pic is my first dog, Tani, but on the couch you can spot MOC Trap Jaw, He-Man, and some assorted Care Bears. Yeah, I played with Care Bears, you gotta problem with that? Don't make me break out the Care Bear Stare on you! Also, noting the shag rug, the color and patterns of the furniture and curtains, it's worth repeating that the first several years of the 1980's were really still the 1970's.

Next up was House of Secrets Omni v2, which I came just a day shy of finishing during Halloween season! Sweet bronze DC horror, that's the stuff! Alcala, Redondo and Aragones shine as always, but I think Ramona Fradon's work may be the best in this volume. Clean, animated, just great stuff. You likely know how these stories read; most are amusing, a handful may be genuinely creepy, and some are more than a little goofy. But they're all a pleasure. Good times. I could eat this stuff with a spoon. Brings my total to 677. Time is getting tight!

Forgot to add this one to my total, which speaks to the quality of the material. This is the last collection I had to will myself to power through, as the Morrison run is up next! Not much to recommend here, aside from the inclusion of X-Men Forever, which is a fun read for X-continuity nerds, and features the great Kevin Maguire on art. The rest mostly ranges from bad to dull. Search for Cyclops is both! This brings to total to 634.

Yeah, I can't find the DC solicitations, but several sites suggest that Who's Who is coming in April! Stay tuned!

Looks like OHMU was solicited in September for a March release, which Amazon also confirms. https://www.previewsworld.com/Catalog/SEP200725

Yessss, the lord loves a nice, orderly shelf!

Oh sure, there are always outliers. I keep checking the listings every week, just to be sure. But considering how relatively anemic sale season was this fall, compared to past years, I'm not expecting much. BUT, I never give up!

Yeah, I'm pretty sure I'll leave them as is. It's funny how if you open them, the cards inside are virtually worthless, but the sealed box can bring good money. But that inner 12 year old is like "DUDE, a whole box of cards! Open 'em up! Think about how fun that would be!" It should be noted that my inner 12 year old isn't very bright.

Nothing wrong with two buddies keeping each other warm on these cold fall mornings!

We officially weren't "doing Halloween" this year, but I kept a bowl of Kit Kats by the door just in case I saw some whippersnappers walking around. We ended up going downstairs to watch The Haunting (1963) as the wife wanted to see something "spooky but not terrifying". Never heard the doorbell, never saw any kids. We live on a dead end street, and I think only three houses had their lights on, so I'm not surprised. Normally we get 50-70 kids on a nice Halloween, but zip this year, which is probably just as well. Like Robot Man, I'm ready to get this turd of a year out of the way, and hope next year is much better. After the wife went to bed I poured a glass of apple cider and rolled The Texas Chain Saw Massacre, while my little personal jack o'lantern burned. All in all, not a great Halloween, but not a bad night on its own!

Especially if it's a situation where the dealer has to "look up" the prices. I walk if stuff isn't priced, because the chances of scoring a deal are pretty much nil at that point. The odds that they can't grade, or will use outdated or incorrect information to base their price on, is very high. Dealers: price your books!

Looks like garage sale season is winding down, which I expected. Sun is coming up later, temps are much colder in the am, etc. There was only one sale that caught my eye this weekend, so out I go at 6:00am to drive to the boonies to look at a listing with "comics and cards". The comics weren't anything I could use, but there were a couple of good deals on cards. Picked up this sealed box of Jim Lee X-Men 1991 for $10, and the Boris 3 box for $15. Now I'm fighting the temptation to open up the boxes! I don't really collect cards, haven't for years, but the nostalgia is strong here. I think I'll keep them sealed though. The sealed Jim Lee boxes sell for $80-$100. Now, I could open it, and IF I get an autograph card, that could be around $200 right there. But more likely I won't get an autograph card, and then the box will be effectively worthless. Bird in the hand is worth two in the bush, as they say, so I'll likely just keep them sealed and sell 'em before I'm further tempted. He had bunches of loose hologram cards, but I don't know much about those anymore. My impression is that they're mostly worthless these days, so at $3-$4 a piece, I passed. I DID pick up these two Marvel Masterpieces Foil Etched cards, because, once again, the nostalgia was very strong. I got a sealed box of these for Christmas one year, and that is something I'll never forget. Happy hunting, gang! I think the season will be wrapping up soon around here.