F For Fake

I was surprised that this guy showed up today, as I just ordered it from IST last Tuesday. That's by far the fastest shipping turnaround I've had from them in several months. Hopefully a good sign that things are returning to something like normal for them. I picked up the Variant cover as a knee jerk reaction, figuring it would sell out quickly, which it did. However, I'm hearing that the newest printing of the standard cover has a rounded spine, whereas these variants have the completely flat spine like the last printing did a few months ago. Also...I don't love this cover. I could sell it at a profit and buy the Miller cover, and may do so one day, but I'm not in any hurry. Luckily there was nothing for me this week, so I get a breather before the bloodbath on the 22nd!

Yes, I enjoyed Surpreme more than 1963. 63 was a fun throwback, but it felt more like pastiche than something new. Supreme straddles that nostalgia line but ends up being very much its own unique thing. Oh yeah, if you haven't read his WildCATS run, check it out, it's terrific! As a fan it would be great to see him in the DC and Marvel toy boxes again, but I 100% understand his stance. He's a bit of a crank, but I think in these instances he's a justified crank.

Man, I love Ollies. That DC buyout they had a couple of years ago was killer. Bought tons of Archives for $6, hardcovers for $4, trades for $3. Those were sweet times.

Yes, I had high hopes for 1963 as well, I guess it is what it is. Still seems odd that he was slumming with Image, but I guess that speaks to the deterioration of his relationship with DC and Marvel at the time. Loved his Supreme run as well as WildCATS. Both are so much better than they have any right to be!

Yes, two copies! They actually had four, but I thought "Eh, I've already got a couple of these at home, how many do I really need?" Well, in many cases, that philosophy would be correct, but of course there are exceptions! I had a complete run of Sandman that I put together in the 90's, which I should have held onto based on prices for some issues. Most of the run from 30's through the end are inexpensive, but the first 10 or so (as well as 22) have popped a lot lately due to Netflix show news. I recall buying my #1 & #8 a my local shop back in the 90's, I think I paid about $60 for the 1 and maybe $30 for the 8? Definitely not going to find them for that price nowadays. So, you win some, you lose some!

Very sorry for your loss, Patrick. I know it's part of the bargain we make by letting these fur babies into our lives, but it doesn't make it any easier to say goodbye. Take care.

Finally got back on track and continued my hardcover tour through the X-universe this weekend. Age of Apocalypse Omnibus, Companion Omni, and X-Men vs Apocalypse The Twelve. I haven't revisited any of these since I read them upon their initial publication. My general recollection of my X-Men reading was that the period between Claremont and then Lee leaving the books, and Grant Morrison starting his run was generally fallow, with the Age of Apocalypse being a rare highlight. Reading them now, 20 years or whatever later, the AOA stuff...ain't great. It's fine. It's definitely an improvement over what preceded it, but maybe wasn't as exciting as I'd recalled. The early Joe Mad art still has some sizzle for sure, but all in all I thought it was fine. The material in the companion volume was a bit of a slog to get through. I didn't recall much of The Twelve storyline, so after my relative disappointment with my revisit of AoA, expectations were low. I was surprised to find that when you cut away the needless fat (I.e any issue of X-Man and Cable that is included here), the main storyline was pretty engaging. This is helped enormously by the occasional Alan Davis appearances on art duties. He's the primary plotter for most of this book, and its fine, but on the occasions where he does the art as well, it really sings. Man, I love Alan Davis. And in this volume especially, his art is a cooling balm for my eyes after being assaulted by the Rob Liefeld art also included herein. That's a cruel trick to pull! Oh, I also read the first two issues of Alien the Original Screenplay. I don't really get the point of this series, but it's Alien, so I'm powerless. Into the collection it goes. This should bring my 2020 total up to about 575. Better than halfway there!

Went down to the lake with the missus for the holiday weekend. Made a trip into town, she stopped in Tuesday Morning and Ross, while I visited 2nd & Charles. Comics are Buy 5 Get 5 Free, which is good if you can find at least 10 that you want! I left with a stack. Most were .95, a handful were $2 and a couple $3. I think it averaged out to about 70 cents a book, which I could live with. Nothing life changing, but I'm good with what I dug up. I've now been able to put together a 40+ issue run of Sandman over the last two weeks for less than a buck a book, so I'm happy with that. Also picked up a stack of Milestones books, though no Static, as you might except. Was surprised to find this run of Alan Moore Supremes, which is most of the run. These aren't very expensive, but it's a terrific run, and I don't find it in bargain bins very often. All in all a fun way to kill an hour or so while the wife looked at purses or shoes or whatever it is she spends her money on. I'll have to ask her one day!

That's terrific! I love Bloom County so much. It seems pretty quaint (though still hilarious) today, but when I was a kid it seemed like pure anarchy. I think this is just super. I've never priced originals, so this seems like an awesome thing to have all the same. Congrats!

Like a lot of folks, when I first started selling on the boards, I was always sure to leave Kudos and ask for the same. Over the years that kind of fell by the wayside, as I seem to have built a reputation (I usually end up selling to the same little group of people who must like the same stuff I do) and I'm here often enough. I'm not hard to find. If someone asks for it I will happily do so, and if someone leaves it for me, unasked, it's a nice surprise! I have two threads, and I can't find one of them, it's buried so deep. I found another one and it is linked in my profile just so I won't forget where it is again.

Yes, they really are lovely books! Fantagraphics does terrific stuff with their jacket/slipcase/cover design work. The Carl Barks and Don Rosa books are great, as are the Peanuts sets. But I agree complete, they knocked it out of the park with the Mickey set!

I somehow missed this announcement a couple of weeks ago, but apparently Marvel is doing as expected and are issuing the DH Aliens material in Omnibus format. While it will be nice to have so much material collected in a single hc, I still vastly prefer the oversized trim and slimmer volumes from DH's Library series, and wish we'd had more in that format. They're really lovely books. I'm still going to hold onto my set of the small paperback omnibii from DH, in case Marvel doesn't eventually get around to collecting everything. You never know these days. Also curious that it lists Aliens "Space Marines" as opposed to "Colonial Marines". Not sure what the reasoning would be there. If Marvel has the full Aliens comic license I would expect that to also include the term "Colonial Marines". Weird. https://www.marvel.com/articles/comics/aliens-omnibus-volume-1-collects-the-original-alien-comics

Yeah the site was craaaaaawling when the new solicits went up. It was a big week. I got Bats Morrison 3 last week at the Target sale, and Wolvie today. Spectre was the only other one I was interested in. Hopefully they’ll get more back in. House of Mystery 2 also sold out right away, but they had restock that lasted a couple of weeks. Hopefully a few more Spectres will shake loose. If not I guess I’ll bite the bullet and grab it from CGN. Next up for me is LoSH 5YL which I’ve been waiting for most of my life. I will not be denied on that one! I’ll wake up with my finger on F5 that day!

Damn, IST is already sold out of Wrath of the Spectre. When the solicitations went live I placed my order for the Wolverine variant cover omni (which is also now sold out), so I could come back with my additional 2% discount, which made Wrath of the Spectre $60 straight up. Put it in my cart, then had a call from work, had to take care of something right away. Came back to my cart and it's already sold out. Insanity. CGN still has it, but it's $87, which is a kick in the teeth seeing as how IST was $25 cheaper just an hour or so ago. Amazon is $112. Stuff is crazy these days. IST still has Longbow Hunters and Morrison Batman 3 if anyone needs them, as well as the regular Wolverine omni cover.

Eh, it's still cool. I have one that is around 2.0 to 2.5, but I'm happy with it because it's still an Avengers 4. It always looks great regardless of the grade!

Nice copy! Looks pretty white. And I totally dig the stamp on the cover. Doesn't ugly up the book or get in the way of the image, and gives it a bit of an air of history. Great pick up!

I have my Terror Drome, and it is JUST HUGE ENOUGH. No idea what I'd ever do with a Flagg. When I lived with my folks I had it set up on an old pool table we never used! When it came time to move out, I sold it to my best friend for about $50. I think I paid about $25 for it myself, so, hey, I doubled my money! 25 years or whatever later, he still has it, except he cleaned it up and completed it. He moved to California and was there for about 11 years, but came back home about three or four years ago,and now he lives about 3 minutes away, just a few streets over. So, I can just go visit my (former) Flagg whenever I want, and don't have to worry about storing it. Perfect situation!

My first comic "shows" were held at the local shopping malls. They'd happen a couple of times a year, and I loved them. I remember shelling out $4 for a really nice copy of UXM 137 (Death of Phoenix) and thinking that was a LOT to spend on a comic. At another show I traded my Alf #1 to a dealer for a bunch of X-Men comics, I felt like a wheeler dealer! Our first real convention was DragonCon 1997. My friends and I had all turned 20, or thereabouts, and it had never occurred to us to drive to a big show. Atlanta is about 6-7 hours away, so we made the trip. Comics were just a small part of the show, but I'll still count it. This was back when D-Con was much smaller. I remember when we got there, we just walked right up and got our badges, there may have been 3 or 4 people ahead of us. I think attendance was around 15,000? Nowadays I think they pull over 50,000. We went back to DragonCon every year for several years after that, and the wait to get badges became an hours-long affair. Three or four hours of standing in line in a ballroom. I haven't been in about 10 years, hopefully they've figured that out by now. Everyone got old and got married, and taking the wife to that show is just not as much fun as it was hanging with the guys, so I haven't been for a while. Maybe we'll get the crew back together when we turn 50 and do a victory lap. We fell in love with DragonCon because it was such a great freak show. It was a 24 sexy nerd party. So many hazy, altered state memories. So many bad decisions that made for good stories that I can't tell here. What a blast. So, having conquered Atlanta, we decided that we'd up our game and go to SDCC in 1998. We were amazed by how tame it was, having enjoyed the excesses of DragonCon. It was practically a sleepy family show. Yawn. However, there was no question that it was a terrific comic book show. I met pretty much everyone in comics I'd ever wanted to meet, all in one place. Los Bros, Chris Ware, Seth, Archer Prewitt, Joe Matt, and yeah superhero people too. What a great time. It wasn't a drink and drug fueled freakshow, so it was a bit dull in that regard, but as far as meeting comic pros and buying stuff, it was terrific. I paid about $100 to ship back a giant box of all of the stuff I bought. Statues, Japanese toys, etc. We went to the Eisner Awards, which was neat. I met Bob Odenkirk in an elevator. It was a good time. That was the only time we did SDCC, and I'm satisfied with the experience. I don't think I'd have much use for what SDCC is these days. Nowadays I only go to local-ish shows. I really enjoyed Lexington Toy & Comic Con until the last couple of years, as it too got too big to be fun. I'm happy they've had such success, but I don't want to wade through 25,000 people waiting to get Chuck Norris' autograph. My favorite nearby show (about 3 hours away) is Gem City Comic Con in Dayton. Just comics. No washed up child actors, no wrestlers, no power rangers, just people buying and selling comics. I usually get some great deals there. I used to really enjoy the Cincinnati Comic Con, which was created as an alternative to Cinci Comic Expo, but it only lasted a few years. The Cinci Comic Expo is itself a fun show but once again, it's just too many people. You may notice a theme here.

Another illustration of the rule I live by: appreciate a good deal when you find it, and don't get greedy!

Love it. The little playsets and battle stations are some of the coolest things they ever did, IMO. I have the checkpoint and I love it, right down to the clipboard!

Definitely heed every word that @Lightning55 helpfully provided, and also check out the link from @theCapraAegagrus After you've done that, if you still feel like you want to sub your books, try posting a couple of them over in the Please Grade My forum, as you may be surprised by what a truly Near Mint book looks like, and the differences in a 9.4 vs 9.8. "Never been read" doesn't really mean anything in regards to grading, because books are handled several times over before they've ever hit the stands, and therefore can sustain damage before they're ever purchased, much less read. Like Lightning said, if it's for your own personal use, then slab whatever you like. But if you're slabbing for the sake of value/reselling, most of these books are 9.8 or bust, meaning that if they're under 9.8, they're likely not worth the cost of grading. Good luck and have fun!

It's totally random. It seems like it happens more often at the start of the year. For instance, back around January/February, hey had the Buy 2 Get 1 free sale for about three weeks straight, and it applied to most books, movies and music. After that, it's only popped up a couple of times. Sales go live at 12ampst/3amest every Sunday morning. I just keep a bunch of books in my cart, and check when I wake up Sunday morning to see if a sale has gone live. If so, it'll say "Offer available". No real rhyme or reason to when they run the sales, but definitely worth checking out! Also, if you have a Red Card you can get an additional 5% off and free shipping. I loaded up on Omnis back in the winter. The deal sort of hinges on what they have the books priced at. It's also kinda random. Some are priced in line with what Amazon is charging, or near it, and some are still full MSRP. So, if a book is priced around Amazon prices, the B2G1 is a great deal!

It's insane to me that Critters has finally taken off. I loved the book, used to always buy them, ended up selling off what I had left for nearly nothing a year or so ago. The only issue I kept was #2 as it has the preview of The Adventures of Captain Jack, which is one of my favorite comics. So that went in my Captain Jack collection. Critters was a great title, I wish they'd do a collection of all of that stuff, but I wonder if the rights issues for the various characters would prevent such a thing happening.

UXM 248 was key for a long time for no reason other than it was Jim Lee's first work on the X-Men. It even got a gold second printing, again, just because it was Jim Lee. UXM 268 is the other X-Men Lee key, because of the classic Jim Lee cover. It's also not particularly pricey, unless you're talking about the JC Penny version. That one is expensive. But those are the Jim Lee keys, to me.

It’s true. When I was still selling, my bread and butter was 50 cent and $1 books that I could sell for $10-$20. Small potatoes not worth the time for a lot of sellers, but it was a fun and relatively lucrative hobby for me.