F For Fake

Congrats! Capt Kirk is the real deal. Whoo doggies that's a lot of Supes!

Yes,I was just going to say, weren't some copies manufactured without? I'm sure we've had that discussion before, but I can't recall if it was confirmed. If so, it would be nice to know if there were any telltale signs to be certain.

Although I will say I'm still not a fan of McFarlane's sculpts, I do appreciate that I at least recognize the characters in the Page Punchers line. With the Multiverse figures, I have no idea who most of the stories/characters are. I'm assuming it's all very recent stuff. That's fine, fans of newer books need toys too, but it sure is saving me a bunch of money compared to the DC Direct/Mattel days.

Hugely important writer in my youth. RIP to a great one.

I've only been once, in 1998. For me, the big deal was that pretty much every creator I wanted to meet was there, from across all genres, publishers, and eras, all in one room. So you could meet Los Bros at the Fantagraphics booth, or Seth and Chet Brown and Joe Matt and Julie Doucet at Drawn and Quarterly, or zip across the room to meet Chris Ware, or go meet Julie Schwartz and Shelly Moldoff, and you STILL had ample time to stand in line at the DC and Marvel booths for the superhero dudes. And even those lines weren't that bad. It was pretty amazing. I don't think I bought any comics at all, but I did buy a lot of toys. This was before internet shopping was widespread, so this was absolutely the best way to pick up all sorts of weird, rare and random imported toys. Bought a lot of Japanese exclusives. Bought so much I had to ship it all home. Man, it was great. So, I'd say everyone should go at least once, if they can do so, but with the caveat that I haven't been for around 25 years, and I'm sure the show has changed considerably. I have no interest in seeing movie stars or any of that junk, and I'm also not into wall to wall crowds. So, I think the show has passed me by, but I'm glad I flew out for it way back then. I will say that we went to SDCC the year after we'd gone to DragonCon, and we were thinking/hoping that SDCC would be a much bigger party, since DragonCon had been so off the hook. We were very disappointed that everything seemed to shut down around 7pm or so, and it was all very nice and polite and relatively wholesome. Following the 24/7 nerd orgy at DragonCon, that aspect definitely paled in comparison. We never returned to San Diego, but we went to DragonCon nearly every year after for about 15 years. Great times.

I'm really tempted to pick this up, but I'm not sure if I can afford the book AND the number of servants I'd need to hold it up so I could read it. If you think an omnibus is a wrist-breaker...whoo boy! I had that enormous Taschen DC book from a few years back, the one that came in a veritable suitcase. Had to just lean it up against the wall, had no place else to put it! I do love these things, but man alive, how much bigger can we go? If it's a glued binding, that may be the ultimate deal breaker. I just don't see something that enormous staying in one piece after reading it, unless it's sewn. Thanks much for the pics. They definitely have me tempted. Maybe they'll hang around long enough that I can ask Santa for a copy...

I totally, 100% understand.

Beauties, Dave! Love those books. I ended up selling most of them when it looked like they were going to collect most of that stuff in Omnis, but as time goes on, I'm wondering if that was a smart decision! I held onto my Plastic Man set, doesn't look like we're getting a reprint anytime soon, and I consider those essential books They look so nice together, but why did DC have to do us like that with Legion Vol 6? Drives me up a wall!

Hell, I'm 45, and anything that happened before the last week or so is just one big blur of time.

There are no “bad” copies of these books to own, I’d be thrilled to have any of these. Congrats!

100%. At first I was doing a good job of keeping up with the Hickman era stuff via the monthly Dawn of X and Reign of X tpbs, but then I fell behind, and ultimately gave up. To get a better idea of the whole story, you really need the HoX/PoX oversize HC, the X-Men by Hickman Omni, the X of Swords OHC, the Hellfire Gala OHC, the Inferno HC…and even then you STILL won’t have all of the bits and pieces. It’s kind of crazy. There’s no easy, clear way to read the entire story without jumping around several formats. Kind of maddening.

I think boats are great…as long as they belong to someone else. Having family with a boat is a great time. But nearly everyone I know who actually owned boat was driven insane.

This is an awesome piece, which takes me right back to high school, but the misspelling of Pop Will Eat Itself, with the errant apostrophe, is making my eye twitch like Herbert Lom.

I’ve always thought that, as midlife crises go, toy collecting is relatively benign. Cheaper than a mistress or a boat, and unlikely to land me in rehab or divorce court.

You find the best stuff, Patrick. That is a real winner.

Well, to be fair, they’ve only announced the first few in the line, so I wouldn’t start regretting the purchases just yet! The way publishing is these days, nothing is guaranteed. They may eventually reprint them all, but at the rate of 1 per month, it’ll still take many, many years to get to everything. Like 25+, to get to where we’re at now, at that rate. To get to the bronze books…5 years? 10? It’s going to be a while! In the meantime, you’ve already got those sweet, sweet books in hand! Of course nothing has been officially solicited yet, so we don’t know exactly what the new covers will look like. I’m assuming they’ll be nearly identical to the originals, but there will probably be some tells, likely the cover price for one, that will make it easier to differentiate the printings. I’d hope the spine dress would remain the same so that our bookshelves will be uniform, but given what Marvel did with the Omni spines, who knows. Hoping for the best!

It’s never too early for March Madness!

So, I stopped subbing a year or so ago, when TAT's and QC seemed to be out of control. Recent announcements of the new QC manager (or whatever the title is), as well as finally offering free grading notes, etc had me hopeful about subbing again, maybe even later this year. But this has be right back in the no-sub group. Although my hassles with FedEx pale in comparison to the horror stories I've read here over the years, they are sufficient that I will never use them, for anything, ever, never, ner-ver. So...seems like I'm sticking with slabs from CLink and raws from my local shops!

This is one of my favorite shows. I can't make it this year (going to be out of town) but this is a COMIC show, full of COMICS. I've found tons of great deals here over the years. Terrific little show.

One of my favorite movies as well as novels. Man, if you really want to mess a kid up, give them a sweet little double feature of Watership Down and The Plague Dogs.

Wow, that's great, thanks so much for sharing. Going to save a copy of this info to my Notes app for when I'm out and about!

I think the disagreement here is due to differing interpretations of the original intent of the phrase "buy the book, not the label" as it has been used on these boards as long as I've been here, and no doubt much longer. It's a general statement meaning that not all books in a single grade are created equally, so look at the book in question. There are 9.8's sitting in 9.6 slabs, and vice versa. And even buying online, you should be able to get some idea via scans and pics. For instance, eBay, or CLink, or whoever, may have a dozen copies of Spawn #1 9.8 at any given time. But these copies aren't identical, and if you look at the scans, you can get an idea of which 9.8 is the best. Some books present better than others, even in the same grade. You can find some really beautiful 9.6's, hell, even 9'4s, that look as good as the same book in a 9.8 slab. So, it's not sour grapes or jealousy, it's just good advice, generally speaking. Now, if someone wants to apply that philosophy to ultra highgrade books like 9.9's and 10's, the phrase would have a different connotation, I'd agree. In those instances, sure, it seems like a buyer may be chasing a label rather than the book because frankly, for a long time, the difference in a 9.8 and a 9.9 could be practically invisible, and seemed somewhat arbitrary. So, the logic of "overpaying" for a 9.9 or 10 when they are oftentimes virtually indistinguishable from 9.8's could be called into question, especially when we're talking about thousands upon thousands of dollars in difference of cost. In those instances, I'd say it's less a matter of "buy the book not the label", and more "caveat emptor". With shipping, mishandling, SCS, etc, I wonder how many 9.9's and 10's that were slabbed years ago would still qualify for those grades? To me, it would be too risky to pay a premium for those grades. If I hit the lottery upon submission, better believe I'd be selling the book ASAP, picking up a 9.8, and pocketing the difference. But in 20 years or so of subbing, I've only hit a 9.9 once. At the end of the day, everyone should collect how and what they want, but I do think that the "buy the book" philosophy, as originally intended, is a good one.

@2Sunnycongrats on your book, and also congrats on taking the constant questioning, condescension, and accusations, with good humor. A belated WTTB to you.

The first mini was a lot of fun, but it was diminishing returns as Marvel (predictably) beat it into the ground. Still, a zombie Spider-Man or Cap or whoever, covered in gore and eating brains, is always going to be a fun and amusing image. Used sparingly, it's still a fun idea.

That's great, thanks so much for sharing! And yes, whenever it's convenient, would love to see your research. More information is always good to have!