F For Fake

Yes, I'd second the Golden Record Reprints. They can be pricey in and of themselves, but are a fraction of what the real thing would run you. Yes, 94 is generally cheaper than GSX 1, but it is starting to narrow the distance! I'd pick one up sooner rather than later. 94 is cheaper than GSX, which is cheaper than X-Men 1. You can still get a nice low grade GSX 1 for under a grand, not sure how much longer though. Mid grades have moved up to the $1k-$1500k point.

Congrats on the pickup! The FANG was also my first Joe vehicle, and it's a great little copter. I picked one up last year in a box of toy junk last year at an estate sale, $5 for the whole box. It was complete except for the red engine cage, which is usually broken or lost, but I was able to get a nice repro for a few bucks on eBay. Love the little chopper. Box art is also so cool on this one!

WTTB! Also, clearly, you kept this book because it is awesome! That one guy is wearing thigh high boots and some sort of diver's mask. What's not to like? I can't decide if these are meant to be a part of the 90's comics style, or a critique of said style. Let's go with critique.

Jimmers! Does the heart good to see ya, bud. Not much to report here other than the same chaos everyone else is living through right now. We are very fortunately none the worse for wear so far, as family remain healthy, employed, etc Thankful for every day that that holds on. I was off the boards for a little bit, but I’m glad to be here now. I did finally ditch FB and Twitter etc and all much emotionally healthier for doing so! stay strong brother!

Cool, I wonder if they're getting new shipments in? Year before last they had a $7 million buyout of DC backstock, and they had stacks of hardcovers, archives, trades, etc all dirt cheap. I spent $400 on stuff that would have been several grand retail. It was an amazing sale. I've been hoping we'd see one again. THey occasionally get random Marvel stuff in, but the only Marvel Omni I've ever seen at an Ollie's is the Avengers vs X-Men Companion for $10. I'll have to check out my shops !and see if we got anything new. I'm not a big GotG guy, but would definitely grab the omni at that price!

Oh yes, loved the Hellraiser series! My LCS got a full set in a week or two ago, I should probably scoop those up.

Yeah, especially at that time. Most comics based on movies were just straight adaptations. Aliens from Dark Horse was groundbreaking in that it told a continuation of the stories from the films. Now Comics also did Twilight Zone comics, didn't they? I wonder if those were all new stories as well. Not to mention Speed Racer, Green Hornet, Fright Night...Now had a pretty diverse line up of licensed titles.

It's really a shame Dave lost his mind, it made the home stretch of Cerebus not a lot of fun to read. The once fun letter columns (which were nearly as much of an attraction as the stories themselves) became screeds. Oh well. The art, not the artist, right? Cerebus deserves its spot in the pantheon, it's a great achievement in comic art and storytelling. But one has to wonder how much better that reputation would be sitting if Dave hadn't gone off his nut. Issue 300 should have been met with industry wide fanfare. Instead, it just kinda came, and went, and that was that.

I know DC changed to the less glossy paper a couple of years ago. I stopped buying new comics a while back, but the last two titles I was getting, Catwoman and Batman, were using the matte paper. Unless things have changed, I'm assuming they're still using it. It's thicker than newsprint, like Baxter, only without the gloss. Colors looked much better. As for their collections, paper quality and binding seem to vary wildly, depending on where the book was published. Quality control hasn't been their strong suit. They never used that Fourth World paper again as far as I can recall. The Absolute Batman Year One has the story collected in two HC', one with slick paper and coloring, and the other on a matte newsprint paper with original colors. If you have any interest in Absolutes at all, it's really lovely.

I had that poster hanging up on my wall as a teen for many years. Who knows where it went? A few years ago nostalgia hit, and I saw what they sell for now, wow! $100-$200 depending on condition. I ended up tracking one down in France, ended up getting it shipped here cheaper than any I'd seen domestically. It was brand new, sat rolled up in a tube in my laundry room. One day I realized I was never going to actually hang it up, so I sold it for about $125, I think. The thing about Jim Lee, is that it's true that from the 90's going forward, many, if not most popular artists looked the same. But he was first. Sure, he drew on a lot of the same influences, but his stuff was electric when it first hit. I soon got totally sick of seeing his artwork, because it looked "like everything else." But eventually I had to admit it only looked like everyone else because everyone else had been ripping him off for 20 years. These days I wouldn't call myself a big Jim Lee fan, but I certainly appreciate him, and still have great nostalgic fondness for that initial X-Men run along with Punisher War Journal and Alpha Flight. All that being said, Marc Silvestri was the one who knocked the door down so Jim Lee could walk through it. His X-Men run is superior to Lee's, and I'll go to my grave believing that. (And also for the record, Paul Smith is my favorite X-Men artist over all, followed by Cockrum, then Silvestri, then Byrne, then Lee.)

That's exactly why I haven't even looked at any pics of the offerings. I left Fwoosh, I don't look at toy sites, I just stay away from new stuff, because if I look, I will want, and if I want, I will buy, and then eventually I'll remind myself "Hey! You said you only collect vintage now!" and then I'll sell the new stuff, and the cycle will continue! JUST SAY NO!

WTTB, and welcome to the hobby as well! Say goodbye to your money, you're hooked!

DC has switched to a high quality newsprint for some of their monthlies and trades. I wish they'd use it for everything, it's terrific. Takes the ink nicely without being murky, and doesn't add that weird glossy sheen you mention to vintage stuff. My favorite of all time was the paper used in the Fourth World Omnibus hardcovers, the thinner four volume set. It was lightweight but sturdy, and looked gorgeous. A lot of folks complained at the time that it felt cheap, but I thought it was perfect. I'd love to see more of that.

So glad you enjoyed the House/Powers book! I think it’s great. Hickman is so good at world building. It’s a dense read for sure, but we’ll worth it! As for the X-titles that follow, Marvel actually has a fairly cheap option that I have been loving; every month they release a trade paperback titled Dawn of X, which collects all of the various x-titles of a single month into one volume. So, volume one has all of the number 1 issues, vol 2 has the #2’s etc. it’s a great idea as it allows you to sample all of the various books across the x-universe in one handy trade. They’re also relatively inexpensive, a great bargain with a cover price of around $18-$20, which means you can get them for about $13 at most retailers. New volumes from IST are only around $10 when they come out. So far they’re up to vol 7, I believe. I’d recommend picking up the first couple and seeing if you like the format. I’m loving it, and I wish DC would use a similar approach for their various families, like a monthly Batman-related trade etc. And yes, Marvel is doing HC’s for the various titles as well. Maybe pick up the Dawn of X books and if any of the individual titles really stick for you, pick up the HC for those books for the permanent collection. That’s my plan, at least!

Is anyone picking up the Demon Trilogy HC? I still have the tall, thin hc's from way back in the day, so I wasn't moving on this one, but it looks like it may be kinda cool.

Agreed, it's interesting that nothing has sold out yet over an hour into it. Maybe stock levels will finally start leveling off. That would be nice. I'd like to return to the times when I could actually wait a day, or a week, or whatever, instead of praying that the book I want doesn't sell out in 30 seconds! Legion is a niche title with a dedicated fanbase, but even within that fanbase, the 5YL run is really divisive. I happen to love it, but a lot of folks can't stand it. I was afraid the print run would be microscopic because demand would be so low. Glad it lasted long enough to grab one. Of course, joke is usually on me, it'll probably end up clearance priced in a year ha

Sorry, you'd have to read the War Report for that information.

Also got my 5YL omni order in, I'm so excited. I can't believe it exists! I would have gotten the Batman Dini omni, but I spent too much on comics this weekend. Maybe it'll be there for a while. As of this moment, I don't think anything from this week has sold out. The Dini omni and Absolute Carnage have already shot up in the Top 3, so if anyone absolutely has to have them, you might want to move soon. I wouldn't sleep on the direct market cover to Conan 4 either, if it's something you all might want. I'm tempted by the Golden Age Marvel 2 omnibus with the Schomburg cover.

I can't remember all of the awesome books I used to pull for a buck. Half Price Books used to be a goldmine before others caught on. From HPB I've picked up Fables 1, Preacher 1, Wolverine Origins 10 (twice!), Lady Killer 1 (also twice), tons of Walking Dead, Spawn and McFarlane Spider-Man, newsstand variants, etc. It's harder to find stuff these days, there's one other buyer (a guy I actually sell to quite a bit) who seems to beat me to the local HPB scores. But it used to be a real honey hole. My LCS (pre-Covid) had tons of $1 and 50 cent sales. I've also pulled tons of good stuff from there. Wolverine mini series 1-4 (for a buck each!), Silver Surfer stuff when it was hot (Infinity Gauntlet) and more stuff than I can recall. But, again, word got out. In recent months when they've had the sale, the line to get into the space is outside and around the store. I used to be able to just walk right up.

I just wish young John Byrne could see old John Byrne, compare him to what Colan was doing at the same age, and then start leveling accusations of hacking it out. Byrne hasn't drawn anything worth looking at since the 80s.

Yeah, this exactly. And "comics superstar", man, talk about damning with faint praise. "I'm a household name for tens of thousands of people!"

I've often thought that Liefeld likely created Troll one day while drawing Wolverine. He realized that his anatomy was even worse than usual, so he just leaned into the deformity and turned him into Troll. Troll is an ongoing joke with one of my oldest friends, and is generally shorthand for "worst comic ever." I used to buy them when I foudn them in 50 cent bins and give them to him. One year I found a great NM set of all of the Troll books, specials, etc. and autographed one of them "Wolverine" on the front cover. Then I mailed them to him. So, basically, if there's ever a bump in Troll sales, it's because I'm buying them as part of a dumb, never-ending joke.

I usually start searching (using the Power Search. The normal search above that is practically useless) a couple of minutes before 3:00, sometimes the search function will pick up the book before the listing goes "live". And always go ahead and log in before hand as well. It's so odd that these are starting to become "flash sales", but I guess that's what it's come down to. Gotta get my FYL today, no matter who I have to trample!

Oddly enough, no, it goes no further than the back cover, though it does stain both sides of the cover as shown. Thanks for your opinion, and honestly I’d still be delighted at 4.5. I was afraid the stain might drop it into the 3.0-3.5 range, so all of these estimates between 4.5 and 5.5 are making me feel better about my chances. Much appreciated!

X-Men Revolution Omnibus As I continue my tour through “the dark years” of the X-Men (post Jim Lee, pre Grant Morrison), this was the volume I was perhaps dreading the most. Chris Claremont’s return! I feared it because I vividly recall being excited about his coming back to the fold back in the day, buying the first couple of issues, and then dropping the book again because of how bad it was. 20 years or so later, how do I feel about it? Despite the massive popularity and sales, 90’s/00’s X-Men seem pretty terrible to me. The art is the primary offender (aside from some bright spots provided by Joe Mad and Alan Davis) but the storylines weren’t helping anything. Cable, Bishop, Gambit, all of that junk, it always rubbed me the wrong way. So, my trip through most of these volumes has been a bit of a chore. There’s some fun stuff here and there, but not much that I particularly enjoy. And with my own memories of Claremont’s return being a bit of a fizzle, imagine my surprise when I found this omnibus to not only be NOT awful, but actually pretty fun, on the whole? I’d had a similar response to my previous read, X-Men vs Apocalypse The Twelve. For one, it helps that the art was improving. Leinil Francis Yu is on board for big chunks of this arc, along with others like Salvador Larroca, and even if they were relatively wobbly compared to the artists they would ultimately become, there’s no question that this is an improvement over the Kubert/Churchill/etc stuff that precedes it. (Though there are a few issues here by Booth, which I was not a fan of.) As for the story, it’s designed to be a good “jumping on” point. Six months have passed since the end of The Twelve. Cyclops is missing/dead. Everyone got snazzy new outfits, which firmly straddle the line between dumb and awesome. Kitty Pryde gets an X-treme haircut and carries around Wolverine’s old bone claws. The X-Men are working undercover at a space station, or something? Look, there’s a lot going on here. With these stories, Claremont makes the initial mistake of putting all of his villain eggs in The Neo basket. I don’t think I ever understood what their deal was exactly, as they weren’t particularly memorable. I can totally understand why Claremont, upon returning, wanted to do something new instead of just play the hits, but these bad guys just never jelled for me, which is a shame, because they eat up most of his run here. That being said, there are issues here that invoke that classic Claremont vibe. And I have to admit that it was a bit of a shock to return to Claremont’s super dense scripts. Having lived in the world of “decompressed” storytelling for so long now, it’s a bit of a shock to return to those stories that “eat like a meal.” You actually have to read them, and it takes longer than 2 minutes to finish an issue. I didn’t realize how much I’d missed these kinds of comics. The stories seem to be mostly centered around Rogue and Gambit, which seems odd at first, but again, Claremont probably didn’t want to go back to his old tricks. I understand that. Speaking of his old tricks, his kinks are ramped up to 11. You’ve rarely seen so many fetishistic bondage traps in an X-Men comic as you will in these issues. Kitty, Storm, everyone gets a chance to be bound. It’s pretty hilarious after a while. The “Black Sun” mini series is included here, and again, I couldn’t really make myself care that much about it. I guess Amanda Sefton becomes Magik? I didn’t remember that happening at all. Also, did anyone ever care about the “new” Thunderbird? Does he even exist anymore? I couldn’t say. This run is full of “new” ideas that didn’t really seem to stick, but I admire the old guy for trying. All that being said, it really feels like just before Marvel yanked the rug out from under him and gave the book to Grant Morrison, Claremont was hitting his comfort zone. I wouldn’t say he was in a groove necessarily, but it did feel like the nervous jitters were more or less worked out, and he was getting back to what he did best, by which I mean overwrought and overwritten superhero soap opera. And…I actually liked it? I’ve never read X-Treme X-Men, but I’m assuming that would be the natural procession from this point. After reading Revolution, I’m generally curious about that title, which is something I couldn’t have said beforehand. Has anyone here read that run? If they release an Omni, I'll pick it up. Over all I couldn’t recommend this on its own, but if you’re on a similar revisitation of the X-Men’s dark years, I can tell you that this one goes down quite a bit smoother than you might expect. Good luck! Looks like this is 31 issues, which should bring my total up to 606 for 2020.