F For Fake

I love collecting Joes due to nostalgia for my childhood which was filled with G I Joe. I love the figures and vehicles, they're great, and I've been enjoying picking them up as I run across pieces that I like. But I would never drop a ton of money into them, or ever view them as an investment, because they're not built to last. None of this stuff is, really. So I'd never put more into it than I'd be willing to lose if it all turned to dust the next day. For me, the hunt is a lot more fun than owning it, but I do enjoy looking at the cases and seeing the stuff all set. I'm hopeful that they'll last until my retirement, but I'm not counting on it.

FWIW Spencer was set up at the Louisville Supercon here back in November. He was set up next to Keith Giffen, who was great. I didn't go to Spencer's booth because I didn't have much cash and didn't want to kick myself if I found something I wanted. I'm hoping he comes back this fall, and I'll come ready with some money. Onlline, I've bought a lot of stuff from him over the last 10+ years. We all know the drawbacks of his site and general confusion, but as has been pointed out, there are often some really good deals to be found on contemporary art, if you manage to find something that you want that he also actually still has in stock. I usually don't have a lot of luck with the annual sale, but when I do, the prices are hard to beat.

Interesting that the topic has twisted and turned enough to lead us to Judgment Day, of all things. And stranger still to find others (like me) who dug it (Liefeld art notwithstanding)! I actually loved almost all of Moore's Image work, aside from his terrible Spawn books; his WildCATS run was terrific, as was Supreme, and all of the ancillary titles. In fact, (and I think we've talked about this before) his issue of Wildstorm Spotlight with Mr Majestic is one of the best things he ever wrote, IMO. He managed to give dimension to Rob Liefeld and Jim Lee's ripped off fan fiction characters, which is quite an accomplishment. Need to see if they've collected those stories...

Yeah, this point seems to keep flying over people's heads, and it confuses me. TMNT were a comic property that was translated into other media like cartoons, movies and toys. Scooby Doo is a cartoon character that had tie-in merchandise such as comics. They're not comparable.

Yeah, the majority of the buyers at these stores aren't comic savvy. If they find a book that they think is "old", in their minds, that tends to equal "valuable". So they'll take some crazy asking price from eBay or Amazon and slap it on there. I've never found any of their "good" books that were worth picking up. But I've found countless gems in the $1 bin. It's interesting how it seems we all have different experiences. My shops keep the bins pretty well organized, never put stickers directly on the books, etc. I guess it call comes down to the management of individual shops.

Hey man, not really actively seeking them, just pick them up when I run across them for a buck or two. Appreciate you asking!

That's a nice story, Hourman is great! The DCD figures were a lot of fun to collect over the years. I know for a long time on the DC Direct forums, fans kept complaining about scale and sculpts and character selection, but I was just overjoyed to finally have figures of characters that I assumed would never happen. Although DC Universe Classics was more consistent with scale, and "bland vanilla poses" and superior articulation, I still think there's a lot of great stuff in the DC Direct line. When I can get them this cheap, i sorta HAVE to get 'em!

I'm thinking I might enjoy Clyde Fans in a collected format, or at least I expect I'd enjoy it a lot more than I did in serialized form. Waiting for those books to come out in dribs and drabs, and such brief reads once they arrived, it just never gained any momentum for me. Still a big fan of his cartooning and sense of design, that story just didn't grab me. Like I said before, though, i owe it another shot. Oh yeah, Wimbledon Green was a great deal of fun! I think HPB had a buyout on them at one point, you could always find new copies at those stores for a few bucks, for at least a year or two. Probably dried up by now, but still a fun book for sure!

Seth can be a little chillier than Matt and Chet Brown, as the nature of their work was very much autobio, while I think Seth's stuff is more narrative storytelling with a little autobio thrown in here and there. I'd recommend "It's a Good Life, If You Don't Weaken", which collects his most celebrated Palookaville storyline. It's probably the best example of his blending autobio and fiction. It has that melancholy that I tend to associate with the Drawn & Quarterly books of that era, but it's also a celebration of classic cartooning. If you like Joe Matt and Chester Brown, I think you might dig it!

My stores did the $2-$3 thing for a year or so, but it must not have been working, because recently they've moved back to everything being a dollar, except the "good books". HPB is a shoot, it just depends on what people bring in. Yes, they have a tendency to dramatically overprice mid-grade bronze and copper stuff (i.e. "old" books, according to the younger folks working there), but there are still plenty of valuable moderns that get put out in the $1 bin, more than enough to make it worth the hunt. In the past few months I've pulled 3 NM copies of Wolverine Origins 10, two NM copies of Lady Killer 1, etc. Moderns just don't seem to be on their "valuable" radar, so there are steals to be had. At least there are enough to make it worth it to me to keep going back every couple of weeks.

As for the main topic, I don't personally think that "people hate most modern books". I don't think it's true. BUT, if you DO think it's true, it's probably because you are living in a time where everyone's opinion is being Facebooked, Tweeted and Youtube'd at you 24/7. And CGC Boarded, too, of course! Social media has given us the gift :cough: of constant exposure to everyone's opinions about every single thing that they encounter. If I had to wager (and if there was anyway to prove such a nebulous assertion, which there definitely isn't) I'd say that every generation has had MORE than its fair share of readers who hated the "modern" books of their time. Have you all ever spent any amount of time in a comic book shop, ever? I've been going to shops for 35 years, and in all of those times, the 80's, the 90's, the 00's, and now, there is ALWAYS SOME AWFUL MOUTH BREATHER RUNNING HIS TRAP ABOUT HOW EVERYTHING SUCKS NOW. But back in the day, if you wanted to know what people thought about the comics, you had to have the misfortune of running into these cretins at your local shop or store, or, you know, you had to wait two months for the letters column. Nowadays, you can have this negativity shot directly into your brain.

Man, I looooooved "It's a Good Life if you Don't Weaken", but "Clyde Fans" was just a snooze for me. Maybe because it seemed like we got 20 pages every 2 years or so (I'm sure I'm exaggerating, but maybe not by much). I probably owe it a reread, so a new collection sounds about right. Will give it another shot soon.

PS: i don't think he has her "attached" to the base, just sorta standing/leaning in front of it. Like I said, there are "footholds" on the base that the Select figure slips into...there may be foot pegs too, I can't recall. The Select figure attached not quite midway up the base, sort of hovering above it. In this vid it just looks to me like the Legends figure is sorta standing up against the background.

I had the Marvel Select Phoenix way back when it came out (and subsequently sold it off) and my recollection is that there are spots where you stick the feet into the sculpt. My memory is that it didn't stick very well, but YMMV. It was a nicely sculpted and dynamic figure, but without the stand, it was useless. as the weirdly sculpted legs/feet were made to fit into that base, and she couldn't stand on her own.

Any fans of old school DC Direct figures around here? I have a great fondness for the early figures, in the days before DC Universe Classic gave us definitive action figure versions of these characters. You only got so many waves per year, there was no telling what they were going to be, and God help ya with the scale issues. But, at the time, it was all we had! When DCUC came (and went) it killed a lot of the market value on the DC Direct figures, because, well, the DCUC figures blew them out of the water, for the most part. But I still think the DC Direct figures have a lot of charm, and there are some instances where I prefer them over their DCUC counterparts, simply because the relative lack of articulation makes for a "cleaner" looking sculpt. Anyways, picked these up at HPB this weekend for less than $10 each. Back in the day these were worth some $$$, but no longer, which is cool, because now I can buy them all back dirt cheap! Packaging is a little rough on most of these, so I'm going to go ahead and open them up, and try to complete the Golden Age Justice Society set on the cheap.

After several days of single digit temps, the sun returned this weekend, and brought temperatures in the 50's and 60's with it. A gorgeous weekend for running around. Picked up some cheap Parrillos, and a bunch of really sharp, dumb Venom books. I never see that silver 2nd print of 362, I'd forgotten they even made one.

I'm not the OP, but my personal philosophy is for $1 or less, why not? Over the course of a year of bin digging, I may pick up 5 to 10 copies of any of these books, so my investment is practically nothing. Throw them in a box (well, don't THROW them...) and if they pop down the road, great! If not, well, it's just another comic sitting in the box. If you have thousands of comics, another short box of cheap first appearance gambles isn't gonna take up that much more space. I said this in another thread earlier this week, but Morrison's X-Men run is full of these weird character first appearances, and aside from Fantomex 128/129, you can still find them for next to nothing. Show me a Half Price Books store, and I'll show you a bin full of issues of New X-Men! The risk is very low, the reward is potentially great. I picked up bunches of 128/129 sets over the years for 50 cents or a buck, and sold them for anywhere from $10-$40 + (when the book was really hot). People may not care about the book now, but you never know when a new writer is going to come onboard and make that character a central player, or a decision is made to put the character in the background of a movie. Look at all those worthless X-Force books that popped when the Deadpool 2 rumors started coming in. You wouldn't want to pay "full market" price for, say, the first appearance of Bedlam; but if you happened to have picked one up for a dollar, you did pretty well in that short window when you could get $15-$20 for them. At the end of the day, it's all about whether or not it's worth your time. These are small potatoes. No one expects Quentin Quire or the Stepford Cuckoos are going to become the next Venom or Wolverine. But if you can pick up their first appearances for $1, stick 'em in a box for two or three years, then some day an announcement his that turns it into an overnight $10-$25 book, why not do it? I enjoy bargain bin digging, and if just gives me something new to look for.

Thank! Yeah, I pick up all of the gold/copper/silver etc 2nd prints when I see them, but I don't run across that one very often. Ghost Rider 5 is probably the one I see the least.

All i know is Bronze Tiger better be in there. Can't believe they left him out of the first movie. Bronze Tiger IS Suicide Squad!

To be fair, I think all of the criticisms of that particular page are well founded. It's pretty hilarious. It's just the general deevolution of the conversation into "Millenials are the worst" that we seem to come to over and over again around here. And I say that as a forty-something with a snowy white beard.

For me, when I see an MCU figure, I breathe a sigh of relief, as that's one less figure I have to buy. I like the Marvel movies well enough, but I don't need to own any merch from them. The costume designs work (mostly) ok for the movies, but I don't think they translate into interesting looking figures. I just want the iconic comic versions of characters I like, period. Oddly, the one exception is Ant Man. I think those are probably my favorite comic-to-movie costume translations so far, so I do have an MCU Ant-Man and Wasp. Plus, uh, Evangeline Lilly is a cutie.

This thread = I mean, yeah, that page is not good, but there's a lot of grumpy grampys in here, geez!

Stopped in a used movie store last night to see if anyone had already stolen and resold a copy of the new "Suspiria", as my local stores were all sold out and I don't trust Amazon to ship me a copy with a nice slipcover! Struck out on the movie, but found some decent books in the dollar box. The Spawn and Spidey 13 (always a good seller for me) are newsstands, as is the GR15, but I only bought the GR15 because I buy every copy I can find for a buck or less, and put them in my comic rack, because GLOWING SKULL. I've got a few dozen copies by now, but only a handful of the newsstands. Go figure. That silver 2nd print of ASM 101 is pretty sharp. Not selling for much now, but I'll sit on it (hey) until closer to movie dropping.

Please don't black out in rage on my behalf, I don't want that on my conscience! Like I said, the casino heist thing was the only part that didn't work for me, it seemed like it needlessly bloated the middle. Otherwise I was into it, including their treatment of Luke. I liked that the movie seemed to be making a clear break, and was committed to doing its own thing. 40 years of Star Wars movies, I'm ready for something different. But, I'm not here to argue, or to render you unconscious! I know a lot of people had problems with TLJ. They're just not problems for me. As always, YMMV. Now, to get this thread back on track, are there any other sock puppet/shill accounts out there that are needlessly gobbling up Carnage comic book appearances and then paranoiacally obsessing over perceived grading defects for our amusement?