F For Fake

It really is a great deal, I’m surprised so many books are still available! I already had the ToD, but I know I missed some X-Men and Daredevil volumes that I would have liked to have had. Oh well, I can’t complain!

Yes, perfectly said.

Thanks bud! Love yours too, I really never get tired of that cover.

Uncle Walt is one of the few remaining on my bucket list. For whatever reason, we've just never been at the same show at the same time. He is one of those creators I mentioned previously that I would wait in line for, no matter how long, to have a chance to thank him for his work. If I was able to get a signature or a sketch, I'd be on over the moon, but just getting a chance to say hey would be worth whatever price of admission.

Will echo the praise for Steranko. Regardless of what can be said about his contributions to the medium (I happen to think they're pretty huge) or his art (I happen to love it), he is a real character, and a lot of fun to chat with at a show. There aren't many of those guys left, the real giants. I've talked to him a handful of times and he was always a delight.

Indeed! I started picking these out of dollar bins many years ago, because I liked the slight differences. The easy way to tell them apart is the logo; the 1st print has red lettering on a white bat, the 2nd has red lettering on a yellow bat, and the third has yellow lettering on a red bat. All three were made with the overlay, and also without. I know the second and third prints were available without the overlays as part of multi-packs, but I'm not sure if that was the exclusive origins of those books.. They are also all available with newsstand/upc logos, which also do not have the half sheet. So, yeah, it's a lot to keep track of. Fun stuff!

Ha, yeah, if I was about to make $700 to write my name a few times, dinner could wait!

I guess everyone would have to make that decision for themselves. Like I said, for me, a signature is just a memento from spending a moment with someone I admire. A signature in and of itself is worthless to me. So if it was someone I really wanted to meet, I'd wait however long it took just for a chance to say hi and thank them for their work. I guess for me the issue would be if there were multiple creators I was trying to meet in one show, then I might have to prioritize it a bit. Luckily, at this point I've met most of the creators I really wanted to meet, so I don't have to be in any big hurry.

I'm trade-waiting Last Bot, as I don't buy many modern floppies anymore. Would rather have it on the bookshelf. Trying to avoid spoilers until then, but definitely looking forward to reading it!

Yes, Leon is a very apt parallel, as both are often referred to as "an artist's artist". Stelfreeze is definitely a singular talent, I love his color choices. I can always pick his stuff out just by the way the colors work together. Great talent.

My life's work is keeping...this...thread...on the main page! IST must have discovered a couple of "lost" pallets after their warehouse move, as they suddenly have a bunch of long OOP Marvel Masterworks back into stock. A few volumes have sold out, but there's still lots of good stuff, including several books that sell for $100+. Most of them are listed at $37.50. Can't beat that with a bat. My first shipments arrived this week. I have a few more coming, and hopefully can score the rest from my Wishlist before they sell out again. If you've missed a MMW in the last few years, it's worth taking a look to see if they have it. I also picked up this hardcover reprint of the Superboy LoSH tabloid. This book is huge, and I may need the rest of these now! A lovely $40 book on clearance for $17, couldn't pass it up at that price.

I also have Dave's idea.

The peanut butter thing makes sense. For instance, I love peanut sauce used in Vietnamese cooking (among others). Peanuts have a savory quality. I would try this burger! I can definitely enjoy a pineapple/ham or pineapple/bacon pizza. The pineapple just adds a sweetness similar to what you'd taste with a honey glazed ham, or something like that. Anyway, sorry to derail Doug's thread, hope the books show up! FedEx is the pits.

Very fun report, thanks for sharing. I'd love a chance to meet Don Simpson, that's terrific that you ran into him. I really am going to have to get down to Heroes sometime. Maybe I'll put it on my calendar for next year, that will give me something to work towards!

Stelfreeze is a genius. In a perfect world, he'd be a super star.

Hmm, I would think that a fan would enjoy having those interactions with a creator they admire. To me, a signature is just a memento of having met someone. The experience of meeting them is the real purpose. Sounds like Chris is trying to give fans a meaningful experience. I only met him once, when he did a signing at our shop about 25 years ago, and he was similarly pleasant and chatty, which was great.

As expected the Haslab HISS is already funded, in under 24 hours. They've got 9923 backers out of 8000 needed. Meanwhile, the most recent lightsaber is stalled at 1200. This is a crazy good response. I'd expect we'll be getting more Haslab Classified stuff after this.

I'm assuming everything must be severely delayed at Mezco. I was looking at my BBTS orders the other day, and forgotten that I still have the One:12 Constantine and Wolverine box set on preorder. Ordered both over a year ago, in April of 2021. That's a bit ridiculous. I would probably cancel them by now, but I had to pay a $10 deposit, so it won't let me cancel.

You know, I’m not sure. I didn’t sit through the live stream, I wondered if they showed that? I would assume so, because if not, for $300 that would be a pretty big fail.

The unlockables really will tell the tale. If there are, say, four more exclusive figures, suddenly I'm very interested! But if it's just somthing like blast effects or whatever, that likely won't put me over the edge. Wow, only up a few hours and now it's over 6200. That 8k is going to be in before the end of day, and they gave a deadline of 7/6. I know the threshold is much lower than it was for the Skystriker, but that thing limped to the finish, making up huge ground in the closing hours. Classified fans are showing up for this thing, in a big way.

Since I'm just a dabbler in Classified, the price point may hold me back. It looks really cool, but that's a lot of money for something that is probably going to sit in a box. Looks like they're going to have zero problem hitting that early bird goal, though. Not even up for an hour and it's already better than halfway there!

GLWTS Randall, very cool! Hopefully someone jumps on it quickly, so I won't be too tempted!

Awesome stuff as always, Patrick! Man, playsets for Blackstar and Crystar, I don't think I've ever SEEN those before, much less had a chance to buy. That's very interesting.

Moon Knight is a cool character, and I enjoyed the show. But I don't think there's any way the momentum could be maintained on those books. It's just not realistic, Moon Knight was on his way to becoming a limited series on Disney+, not a worldwide pop culture phenomenon. And I think that's the problem when speculators start gobbling up and pumping first/early appearance books, because the momentum can't possibly be sustained relative to the actual public interest. Moon Knight, cool books, should be valuable, but nowhere close to the silliness we had been seeing with the prices. I'm not sure why we keep seeing the cycle with these movie/show announcements, and prices going bananas. It seems like, at this point, everyone knows that there will be a spike on announcement, and then the trailer, and then the actual THING will hit screens, and interest will die off. Some more than others (eek, sorry to anyone who bought into The Eternals!) I guess it's a game of hot potato, there's money to be made as long as you're not the last one holding when the music stops. Hopefully the folks who really love the characters were able to get their copies before the circus started. In those cases, you likely saw a nice bump on the value of your collection that will withstand the inevitable leveling of the hype/price.

Even though it's cheap drek, I still feel like I stole a couple of books last night. I never thought I'd find a silver/platinum Grendel/Batman ashcan, much less land one in decent shape for $140. Sales for this book have been all over the place over the years, from a few bucks, into the thousands. Allegedly only 25 copies printed, though as we all know, there's no way to prove that, and it seems extremely unlikely, so it is taken with a large grain of salt. Regardless, it's uncommon for sure, and I'm tickled to be getting this one. The Batman 497 was also a steal, as it is a third print that CGC didn't label as such, and CLink didn't catch it either.