F For Fake

I know it's nigh heresy to say this considering his entire body of work, but I think that's my favorite DPS in the King's library. It's so bonkers, absolutely psychedlic.

Yes, this is it precisely. The imagination and the imagery has so much power, only the most dramatic dialogue could possibly contain the intensity!

I picked up a run of Devil Dinosaur at DragonCon many many years ago for about $2 a piece. It's a personal favorite, as it's absolutely nuts, and so gorgeous. I was going to get this image as a tattoo, and may still get it one day. Went as far as getting it priced out by an artist, but then they left town and I never got around to finding another. It has to be JUST RIGHT. I picked up the Omni when it was released, but true to form, I sold it when it went OOP. I don't cry over that one TOO much, as the individual issues are still pretty cheap and easy to get. But I'd definitely buy it again if they reprinted it.

Agreed. I'm a huge Kirby fan, and in my mind there's no question that Fourth World is his masterpiece. However, folks who are used to modern writing and storytelling may find the dialogue to be hokey. I get it. When I was a kid I chafed a bit at the melodramatic tone, but as I got older I came to recognize that it was absolutely essential. Jack didn't have the smooth patter of Funky Flashman, but he was telling a huge, bold story, so only something nearly operatic in stature would suit the work. What I found goofy as a kid I now think of as charming.

You should be covered, but you may have to be diligent. If they side against you (not sure how they could, but eBay tends to punish sellers and believe all buyers) be sure to appeal it. A few months ago I had a buyer receive a toy, which she then broke. She wanted to return it to me, even though she admitted that it had arrived as described and SHE had been the one to break it. I refused, she opened a case, and eBay sided with her. It was only $30, but I was livid. I appealed the decision through eBay, and they immediately reversed it and found in my favor. Buyer didn't get her money back, and I didn't lose the money I'd been paid. Hope it works out well for you. Very frustrating. I've sold on eBay for 25 years, but I'm about to give up on it, as the user base has gotten dumber and/or shadier, and eBay fails to police them properly.

Well, I think you're correct, there will always be SOME audience for a monthly Batman and Superman book, as long as books are published. But that's really the hang up right there. Publishing is in rough shape across all formats. In time there won't be any physical products at all, except from boutique labels. I think it's coming sooner than later, or at least I hope so. I don't buy floppies myself, and only a few trades of modern material, but I'd hate to see them all go away. I think it's more likely that DC licenses their periodical publishing out to another publisher.

It's true, they really churn this stuff out. It is literally impossible for me to keep up with financially, as well as in regard to available shelf space, so I have to pick and choose the stuff I REALLY want, and plan on getting it right away. As we've discussed previously in the thread, it used to be that you had some time, maybe a year, maybe YEARS, to pick this stuff up. But print runs are so low now that many books are selling out right away. Some end up reprinting down the road, some never do. It's hard to keep up with for sure. I'm finally on top of my X-Men, Carl Barks, and Wonder Woman sets, but I still have a lot of Batman and Justice League stuff I'm missing, in addition to other things I'd like to read for the sake of curiosity. Crazy times! As for Conan, once I missed volume 1, I just went ahead and gave up. ha I'd assume that there's enough of a demand to warrant a reprint, so I'll play the waiting game, I suppose.

It's a great presentation of terrific material. I sold mine to fund the Absolute edition above. Kinda hated to see it go, but I needed the shelf space. You can't go wrong with these stories in ANY format!

I agree, I'm not really a McFarlane guy, but that statue is gorgeous. Still deciding which version I want, as there's a 2.0 coming with a slightly different deco. DC Direct were huge. For many, many years, they were our only source for DC toys aside from Batman, and they still produced figures that we've never seen anywhere else. Plus the artist specific lines, the statues, the props, etc. I will miss it like crazy. I was a devoted DCD fan for many years. (Not sure if we have anyone here from the old DCD boards, but those were fun times.) I like Sideshow a lot, but DC was able to pack a lot of awesome into their mid-range statues, in the $75-$150 range. Sideshow doesn't do very much on their own that isn't $300-$600. Tweeterhead has done some great stuff too, but I remain partial to DCD.

We're definitely headed that way, but I think it's going to be much sooner than 10 years. I think it'll be under 5, and it will be exactly as you outlined: digital and tpb's for shops. We covered a lot of the same discussion ground back when DC broke away from Diamond, but I'm still sticking with the idea that the days are numbered for floppies, we'll be getting trades in the comic shops, young adult stuff in bookstores, and that's it. DC Direct/Collectibles has been scrambling for some time now. Sideshow has been carrying a lot of DCD product, as well as producing their own licensed DC products and as you said, McFarlane has the collector action figure license (and Spin Masters has the kid-centered toys.) I'd expect Sideshow will just go ahead and assume the complete DC statue License and create everything in house. I wonder how this will affect long standing lines like the Batman Black and White Series? I guess I can kiss my beloved DC Essentials action figure line goodbye as well. I don't buy the McFarlane figures because they're ugly as sin, so it's going to be slim pickins as a DC action figure collector. OH well, I'll save some money.

Still waiting on a package that was supposed to be delivered on 7/31. No movement since around July 26th. But again, the way things are going, I'm not surprised, and I'm not blaming the seller. Yesterday I couldn't get any tracking to upload at all, or schedule a pickup. USPS site kept giving errors. Meanwhile, like some of your examples, a lot of my media and first class shipments as a seller are showing up on time. So who knows? It's chaos. That's the point.

Says who? "Unread" just means it hasn't been read. It doesn't tell you anything about the actual condition at all. Lots of books hit the stands with spine dings and corner bends. No one ever read them, but they still aren't in excellent condition.

This for sure. I was in middle school, and all of the gang wanted the first Todd McFarlane, nobody much cared about Venom yet. I traded a buddy my 298 for his 300, and he was thrilled.

This has been around as long as I've been collecting. Even as a kid, people would push "unread" as meaning the same thing as mint. I was talking to a friend of mine last year about the comics he had growing up, and he said they should be mint because they were "unread". His mind was blown when I explained to him that the majority of comics aren't even "mint" when they first hit the stands, due to the way they're printed, packed, shipped, and put out for sale. By the time you purchase a book off of the stands it doesn't matter if you leave it "unread", because by that point who knows how many hands have been on it?

This is what I'm seeing as a buyer. Packages are in limbo for three weeks or so, then just magically appear with no update to tracking status. As a seller I sent out about 60 first and media mail packages over the last couple of weeks. No complaints so far, but I'm bracing for the "where is my stuff???" Storm.

Yeah, I'm a sucker for the Fantagraphics boxed sets. They make some sweet lookin' books!

Try the Original Art forum. Lots of information there. Most "production art" pieces are fakes, or worthless, or both. There IS a market for true hand colored separations, but this isn't that. But yeah, dig around i the OA threads, lots of good info there!

And now today's mail call: at long last I've completed my Mickey Mouse by Floyd Gottfredson Library! Been looking for this for at least a couple of years, at a not insane price. Picked it up in an eBay auction, and then waited three weeks for USPS to get it here. Seller did a very poor packing job, but luckily it survived. The shelf is now complete!

It really is lovely. That silver ink on the white matte background, it's a really beautiful volume.

Well, these days the problem with waiting it out is that print runs are so small, many of these volumes are selling out within weeks of release, if no sooner. Some will linger for a few months, it's true, but by and large, the days of print runs in the thousands that you can feel pretty safe in waiting around to pick up seem to be over. There have been several instances just this year where volumes sold out at retailers like IST ant TOW within hours of release. Some got a reprint weeks or months later, but some still haven't. Marvel seems dedicated to keeping certain perennials like Amazing Spider-Man Omnibus Vol1 and Uncanny X-Men Omnibus Vol 1 in print, but otherwise it's very spotty. Sometimes you wait 5 to 10 years for a reprint. And even then, sometimes they don't come. In general I'd agree with your hesitation about a multi-volume series; there were plenty of folks left hanging when DC discontinue the Archives line, for instance. However, in this exact instance, I'd say that chances of Volume 2 coming are nearly 100%. The files were restored for the recent Omnibus, so there is no (or at least not much) additional cost in preparing the material. There's cover and slipcase design will be from scratch, I'd imagine, but everything else is sourced. Also, Fourth World tends to be a strong seller for DC. For instance, I believe this is the fifth reprinting of this material I've bought to date: the Baxter reprint series, the greytone trades from the 90's, the four volume HC omnis, the huge all-in-one omni, and now this one. It's a story they know they can always sell, like Sandman, Watchmen and Swamp Thing. I think the second, final volume is all but assured.

Geez, you guys, I'm not even collecting this line, right? If I end up going to a Target and blowing a stack of cash, you all have to explain it to my wife, not me!

This monster finally showed up today, after floating around USPS for nearly three weeks. Well worth the wait. This is the book of the year, by my reckoning, just gorgeous. Totally worth selling my omni to pay for it, can't wait for the next volume!

Looks like a fun, comfy space to hang and nerd out in!

WHOA

I've got a package that arrived in state on 7/31. It's about a 30 minute drive from here. Hasn't budged. I could walk there and get it at this point and be faster.