F For Fake

@Parabellumit was a team effort! I spouted some stuff from the top of my head, and you came in and cleaned up and confirmed what was what! Go Boardies! @BeigeI'm glad you got your answers, good luck with the books!

Here's a bump, ending soon! Someone throw a crazy bid on this thing, so I don't have to!

It was also my first computer, made that thing last all the way into high school in the early 90's, at which point my senior English teacher said "Dude, a dot-matrix printer?" Was shamed into getting a PC! But oh the hours spent on the C64. Spent lots of time with the RPG's like AD&D Pools of Radiance and Wasteland, and groundbreaking games like Project:Firestart, which was TERRIFYING at the time. Also of course had the Alien and Aliens games, and lots of other junk. Those were the days, using software to "break" games and copy them on floppy discs. Lots of good times. Logo, Bank Street Writer, Oregon Trail...these were what my computer education were built on!

Comic-wise, I don't have much planned, aside from wanting to upgrade my Avengers 4. I also kinda have a hankering to get the first four TMNT books, but we'll see. It's not a must-do. I will hopefully pick away at my cheap drek registry sets (Grendel,Gen 13, JLI etc.) Oh, and I always need more Alien books! Otherwise, I tend to just take things as they come, whether I find something cool at a local shop, or I find some bargain on CLink or MCS. Toy-wise, I'd like to get closer to finishing my G1 collection, which is going to be a years-long process, but I would like to get some nice pieces. I also like to get at least one nice big GI Joe piece at each Joe show in the year, so that's two this year. Right now I'm preparing to pay the 2022 tax bill, and then I need to finish paying off the HVAC system we had installed last year (long story, where we paid for it upfront, then had a charge back, now have to repay the difference...long, dumb story) and once those are taken care of, I can start putting a dent in those comic and toy collections! Grown-up stuff first, then fun stuff, but it shouldn't be too long!

Yeah, not sure if it'll be helpful to him, but at least it should be a starting point!

I really dig them, but at the price I just can't justify it. If they were $10 I'd buy every single one they made. As is, I will look for sale prices and even then cherry pick. I love the idea of them, these are the toys I wanted as a kid. I never cared about Transformers TRANSFORMING, I just wanted the robots to look like the cartoons. So these are right up my alley. But at $18-$20 a pop, I just can't do it. Same with GI Joe. I have bought a few because I LOVE the way they look, but no way I can justify the purchase of all of them.

Woooow, tight!

Having scrolled back, I see you Beige specifically mentioned Charles Weyland Bishop. As far as I can recall, that character only exists in the Aliens vs Predator movie, and never appeared in comics. In comics you have the android Bishop (Lance Bishop) and you have Michael Bishop, his creator, in Alien 3, both of which appeared in the Alien 3 adaptation. I don't think C.W. Bishop exists outside of AvP, though I could be wrong.

To my knowledge, CGC has never noted the specific appearance of Hicks or Bishop on a slab, unless they started doing so recently. Hicks first appears in Aliens #1. Bishop...I'm not sure, unless he appears in a flashback sequence, I don't think he shows up until the Alien 3 movie adaptation. I would have to double-check. Ripley, and the Alien, first appear in comics in Heavy Metal Magazine, and in the collected Alien The Illustrated Story collection, but I don't think CGC notes that. As far as they're concerned, they've said that Aliens 1 is the first appearance of Aliens in comics, and if we're talking strictly comic format, I guess that's true. (There was a lot of back and forth for a long time about DHP 24 being the first appearance, but I believe this is settled now.) As for the Dark Horse comics, Aliens is about Hicks and Newt (later retconned to Wilks and Billie, in the wake of Alien3). Ripley doesn't show up until the last panel of the of the last issue of Aliens Volume 2 (this also retconned to actually be a synth, following Alien 3), and is the featured character in Aliens Earth War. So, while she may be mentioned in volume 1, if we discount Heavy Metal and Alien TIS, her first physical comic appearance is Aliens V2 #4, but since that isn't REALLY her (wink wink) I guess it's technically Alien 3 or Newt's Tale? What a confusing mess. So yeah, I don't know if CGC will note any of that, but from a story and historical perspective, I think that's right. Parabellum or someone else may correct me on the Bishop thing, though! If Rip shows up in Aliens v1, it's a flashback, and I don't recall that being the case. edit: having typed all of that, it occurs to me that Bishop would have been in Newt's Tale as well, but according to the listings at MCS, the Alien 3 adaptation came out in June '92, and Newts Tale was July '92, so it looks like Alien 3 would still be first.

I think that's a great idea!

Oh wow, awesome work! I have been asleep at the wheel, this completely fell off my radar. Great job!

Just wanted to say that my most recent submission only took about two weeks for MCS to receive and enter into the system, so, not bad at all!

Can't go wrong with Plas! I have the 8 archives that DC published, and wish they'd go ahead and give us a Plas omni! Some of the best comix ever comicked!

They used to be much more reliable, but sadly, it's true, these days "In Stock Trades" seems to mean "Trades we're PRETTY sure we can order from our distributors, fingers crossed!" Had two volumes out of my last order canceled and refunded. To be fair, these are older books, I haven't had "new" books canceled in a very long time. But still, yeah, not great!

I came into the FF during a fallow period, post-Byrne, pre-Simonson. it was the "spiky Thing" era. Love it when I was a kid, but even then it was pretty clear that the FF weren't "cool". My recollection is that Simonson's run wasn't very popular either, although now, as an adult, I'm a huge fan of Walt and enjoyed his run in hindsight. Definitely feels like the book lost its shine after Byrne's popular run, when it was in competition with X-Men and Spider-Man, which were all anyone seemed to care about. They were a long way from being "The World's Greatest Comic Magazine", so much so that my recollection is that for a time, the blurb changed to "World's Greatest NON-MUTANT Comic Magazine". If you have to add a qualifier, that's a not a good sign, even if tongue in cheek.

I read a whopping FOUR comics this week. So, already not a great pace, but better than nothing. A new Love and Rockets is always a cause for celebration. I have to say I'm still not 100% locking in with Gilbert's most recent Fritz stories, but I still enjoy them. Jaime's Animus story is nicely drawn, but I'm also not 100% there. But again, not bad, certainly. The winner is Jaime's return to the world of Locas, this time visting Frogmouth's wedding. It's alternately hilarious and touching. Tonta is a fun relatively new character, but the brief interaction between Hopey and Ray is the thing that hits my heart and reminds me that I have pretty much literally grown up with these characters. Really hit home for me. Vampiress Carmilla- still not the real thing, but if you want a cheap Warren-lite fix, this will do the trick. Up to 19 for 2023!

A few months ago I noticed that IST had put several volumes on clearance, so I copied a few of them down and sent them to the missus, saying "Hey, you know, X-mas, birthday, etc?" Then X-mas came and went, and I'd pretty much forgotten about it. So, this past weekend was my birthday, and the wife surprised with this enormous box! Boy, these Books of Magic omnis are THIIIIICK. Now I need volume 3! Lots of good reading to do in the new year.

This one was released during the pandemic, and was subject to the weird distribution troubles going on at the time, when books were stuck on ships and in ports, trickling out at retail, and selling out in MINUTES on sites like IST. This one came and went FAST. A couple of months later there must have been another batch make its way through the channels, and it was up for sale for two or three weeks. That's when mine was purchased. It's a really nice set. As popular as X-Men are, and considering how cruddy distro was at the time, I'm surprised they haven't gone back to print on this one. But I'm thinking they haven't reprinted any of these box sets, at least not so far. (I could be wrong! It happens!)

Wow, that's an AMAZING deal, congrats!

To be honest I've not followed many MCS auctions, usually sticking with CLink and eBay, so I'm not fully familiar with how their lots tend to go. But I'd still be surprised if this didn't take a run before all is said and done. Such a cool book!

That cover is always awesome in ANY grade!

I will give Bumblebee a pass, if just for the opening scene on Cybertron, which is really all I want from a Transformers movie. No more humans. I don't care about Spike, or Sam, or the girl from Bumblebee whose name I've already forgotten...I don't need PEOPLE in my robot movie. Just gimme them goldarn robots!

I think the first Transformers movie is pretty fun. Not great, but certainly not bad, and it was a fun time at the theater that opening weekend. The rest of the series are varying shades of bad, but that second one, woof, it's a dog.

When thinking of "bad movies", I personally take into consideration the intention of the filmmakers versus the final product. I also consider things like their resources, budget, etc. As a long time MST3k fan, sure, there are an enormous number of incompetently made, cheap, cheesy flicks out there. But even they have some charm. Are Ed Wood movies good? No, of course not. But in relation to the works of, say, Coleman Francis, they at least have some zany appeal. And as has been mentioned, of course, Manos: The Hands of Fate would be a qualifier, but I've watched it far too many times via MST3k and Rifftrax to ever HATE the movie. As goofy as it is, I can still watch it. So, when I consider the amount of money spent, and the resources available to the filmmakers, I think I have to conclude that the worst movie I ever saw was probably the second Transformers movie. It was so bad I can't even remember what it was called. It was, like, offensively stupid. Made no sense whatsoever. When it got to the part where Shia's spirit went to Autobot Heaven, or whatever it was, i felt my consciousness leave my body. If I could ever truly HATE a movie, I hated that movie.

Agree, not much of an Evil Dead vibe, BUT as long as it's a solid horror movie, I can deal with that. Definitely teased some very squirmy, uncomfortable moments. I don't get "scared" at horror movies anymore, but some mutilation scenes can still make me squirm in my seat. Looks like it's going to bring the intensity.