F For Fake

Speaking as a kid who received a few of those Penney's/Sears grab bags at xmas time, the assortment was seemingly TOTALLY random. The issues included weren't "hot" or "notable" in any way. I have no idea how they chose which issues to reprint, but they were about as random as possible.

Aw thanks buddy! Man, What If was so great. Every issue was practically guaranteed to feature some sort of death that you'd never see in the "real" Marvel Universe, so the stakes were always very high. Just a great series. and yeah, I loved that Wolvie SHIELD issue too, Liefeld art and all! ha My letter is a couple of issues later, I think 11? It was another X-Men story where everyone dies. Maybe I'll dig it out later and post it up here, it's sure to be plenty embarrassing. Oh and yes, if anyone want some me to sign their copy for signature series, I'll be more than happy to comply. I'll just use the Neal Adams pricing structure: $50 for a sig, unless it's for CGC, in which case it's probably more like $100 and also I'm gonna give ya dirty looks! And yeah, I love this specific page too. When he said he had a page in his portfolio, I was already going to buy it, no matter which page was. But when he pulled this one out, I couldn't believe it! Phoenix! Goblin Queen! Reanimated Wolvie Skeleton! It's go to it all! The only page I'd want more is the page where Wolvie guts Kitty Pryde, and that one is sitting in a CAF gallery marked NFS. Oh well. I'm quite content with this one. thanks again folks, it was fun to share!

Thanks! And yeah, I was very surprised that he'd just randomly still have pages this old just lying around!

Thanks man, most fun I've had at a show in some time.

Thanks bud, i couldn't believe it. Literal dream come true for me.

Posted this over in CG, but thought I'd share here as well. Got this today at Louisville Galaxycon from Ron Lim. I was telling him how this What If story was my all time favorite comic as a kid, and that my dream as a collector was to own a page one day. That when he told me that he'd found this page at home a couple of months ago, and had debated whether or not it was worth bringing to the show. My jaw dropped. It's not just a page from my all time favorite book, it's an AWESOME page from my all time favorite book! Goblin Queen! Rachel Phoenix! Reanimated Wolverine skeleton. Truly a grail day for me.

Ok, thanks for reading, if you did. If anyone went to Galaxycon, post away! If not, this thread will harmlessly float away as though it never existed.

You know, if I'd come to this show just looking to buy (which is my usual MO) id probably have been disappointed. But this particular year, with this very specific lineup of creators, it was a great show for me. Hmm two hotels, was that Fandomfest maybe? That was a complete disaster run by con artists, legendarily awful. Galaxycon is definitely more of a "pop culture con" than strictly comic con, but it does seem to very efficiently run.

...I told him that my dream was to own an original page from the issue. After all of these years I've only seen a few, and they belong to guys that aren't selling them. So that's when he says "You know, I think I've got one with me." He explained that he'd found it in a stack at home a couple of months ago, had debated whether or not it was worth bringing with him, and had decided to throw it in his portfolio. And THAT is the story of how I've finally attained, at long last, my personal grail: a page from my favorite comic of all time! Who woulda thought? I'm still thrilled.

And now, the moment which made my day, and indeed, became a historic one for me as a collector, and perhaps justifies the creation of this thread! As noted above, like many kids my age, I was obsessed with the X-Men, and the Inferno storyline came at the peak of my fandom. One weekend I was spending the night at my best friend's house, and he'd just bought the new issue of What If, which was "What if the X-Men Lost Inferno." That comic blew my tiny mind! I ran out to the local convenience store the next day and bought my own copy, and read and reread it. I even wrote a letter, which got published a couple of issues later. That comic was IT for me. So, seeing that Ron Lim was attending the con, I dug out my original copy of that book, and brought it to the show. I showed it to him and thanked him, and asked to get I think signed to me with and old fashioned splash page signature. I was stoked. And then...

Speaking of toys, I had to add to my signed Joes collection. I don't collect the 25th Joes, but with the vintage card art I think they're perfect for sigs. First up was Storm Shadow, Keone Young. He was a very nice guy. Next was Arthur Burghardt aka Destro, and he was a super nice and fun guy. He wasn't happy with his signature, and he was very worried about it. I told him it was fine, but he insisted on doing extra stuff, like signing the back of the card with Destro's alias. And then, still not happy, he gave me a free autographed 8x10. Super, super nice guy. If you're a Joe fan, track him down. He's 72 and says he won't be doing it much longer.

I am a hardcore, long time fan of the Giffen/DeMatteis Justice League. It is probably my favorite superhero comic series of all time. It pushes all of the nostalgia buttons for me. A few years ago I got Kevin Maguire to sign all of his issues for free. Last year, I got Giffen to sign the #1. This year I brought all of those books, but at $5 a sig from JMD, decided to only get the first five signed. And by the time I brought these in, Giffen wasn't at his table anymore. So I'll be lugging them around a bit longer. However, Spencer Beck was there with some pages, so I did pick up a couple of cheap Giffen pages, which I got Keith to sign at Spencer's booth. The Trencher splash was nice for the price, even though I know not everyone is a fan of this era of his work, I liked the nice big image. But I was very excited when I found this next piece simply marked trading card. Friends, that's no trading card. That's the card art to the Super Powers Steppenwolf figure! For a hundred bucks I couldn't pass that up. Where are my Super Powers toy nerds??

Next, Howard Chaykin! If you haven't met Howard, he is a real character and a lot of fun. I just like hearing the guy talk. He congratulated me on my superior taste in smut. I do love his trashy babes and tough guys, it's true. Do yourself a favor and meet him if you get a chance, he's a one of a kind.

For the first time ever, I bought a "fan package". I'm not normally a signature guy, but there were a lot of folks here that I legit love, so I ponied up. Silverstri was MY DUDE when I was a kid, UXM 228 was my first X-Men comic ever, that's what got me hooked. So I bought a $50 package where you got five autographs and a poster and a bag and a selfie and etc. So this is what I got signed, the seminal (to me) Fall of the Mutants storyline, plus that classic crucified Wolvie cover. And the included litho was actually really nice. It's horking huge, and printed on a thick stock. Probably worth the price of the package alone. Mr Silverstri was very nice and engaging. He's also very tall. He also wears sunglasses indoors, so may or may not be a vampire. I decline to post the selfie here because there are very few pics of me where I don't look like a doofus, and this one was no exception.

So, today I went to Louisville Galaxycon. This thread will die a quick death, as I don't have the patience/initiative to take pics of wall books or cosplayers. So, none of that is coming, apologies. But, it didn't seem right to hijack another thread, so I decided to just post it here, and if any of the rest of you happened to attend, you can post your stuff here too. Its pretty amazing how this show has evolved. It started off as a small homegrown show called Derby City Comic Con. Then it got sold to another guy, who in turn sold it to the Lexington Comic and Toy Con guy, who then sold it to the Supercon people, who turned it into this. From those very humble beginnings it has grown into a huge show, there had to be 10,000-15000 people there, if not more. For Starters, I didn't buy a single comic! This show is huge, and is one of the kinds where there are tons of "celebs" (I.e. Washed up actors, former Power Rangers, wrestlers, etc) and most of then congoers seem to be mostly into cosplay and anime and stuff I just don't care about. There were a few comic dealers, to be fair, but I wasn't really in the market for anything in particular, and didn't have the patience for box digging. However, the con did a great job in bringing in a wide array of pros, so I got to meet lots of folks and get some signatures, and it was fun to meet several comic heroes. The main draws seemed to be Greg Capullo (who had a line all day. I met him at Lexington a couple of years ago so I skipped him this year, but he is indeed a very nice fellow) and a bunch of people whose names I recognized, but whose work I don't know (Donny Cates, Clayton Crain, Ryan Stegman etc. I'm assuming these names mean something to some of you.) For me, the draw was the guys I grew up reading as a Copper Age Kid...wait, no, let me rephrase that...Child of the Copper Age! First up, Marc Silverstri...

I always dig the stuff that @felixthecat pics up!

You may like it, you may not. If you're of a certain sensibility, it's great. I can see how some stuff may come off as silly or annoying to other folks. It's my kind of thing, though.

Agree 100%! Let's form a genius club!

Kirby, even at his least (don't want to say "worst") still brought so much energy to his work. There's something so kinetic about his imagery, the way he could convey motion with a static image. Steranko, on the other hand, was an absolute master of design. His figure work wasn't as strong as Kirby, but he had such a great eye for laying out an image, and really moved comics into the realm of pop art.

Sweet! One of my favorite covers, and a 30 center too! Nice.

Oh, good! I have heard/seen folks rag on Steranko's Hulk many times over the years, but I find it so charming. I guess I'm defensive about it! ha

Doom Patrol and Animal Man are so great, I am willing to give Morrison a pass even at his wonkiest. Doom Patrol has to be one of the most imaginative comix in the history of superherodom.

It's really interesting that you all bring this up, I just finished re-reading the Bronze Age Swampy Omni recently, and while the post-Wein stories (and to be honest, even a chunk of the Wein stuff as well) are pretty atrocious, there was a moment when I was like "Damn, this story sucks, but suddenly the art is much, much better!" And I found myself actually reading the stories instead of just skimming through them. It was then that I realized exactly what you point out, that Totleben was already on the book. I guess in my brain I just always associate him as starting with the Moore run. But you're absolutely right, he had that thing that Bolland had, which was a sort of deep, dark realism. I don't know how to explain it. The drawings were almost three dimensional in their eeriness, the same way all of Bolland's stuff looks kinda creepy even when he's being completely straight forward.

These are all a lot of fun, but what I like most about this one is that the motion lines indicate that there is some serious jiggling going on, as though their breasts are also locked in mortal combat!