F For Fake

Definitely had something spilled on it, you can see the water/moisture damage. As was said above, maybe it lead to mold. If it was a sugary soda like Big Red or something, that could be the case.

So it looks like your bags are 10 1/4, but your boards are 10 1/2, so that's going to be a snug fit. Are the boards straight up "Silver Age" boards, or are they "Silver/Golden Age" boards? Depending on the company producing them, that can make a difference.

Not sure where you're located, but he'll be at Bowling Green comic con in a couple of weeks, if you wanna go rough him up! http://www.bowlinggreencon.com/

When I was a kid/teen fully coming into my purest comic fandom, McFarlane was all the rage. I didn't care for the Hulk, but his Spideys were an event. Seemed so wild. I recently reread his ASM run in Omni form, and wow, it's even worse than I'd feared. The earlier issues were shored up a bit by having competent inkers (I can't recall who...Bob McLeod, maybe? ) but there is some crazy bad art in there. I'll admit that there are a few flashes of brilliance that give you that old charge, but for the most part, McFarlane couldn't draw his way out of a wet paper bag. He improved as his time on the title progressed, but it's still pretty amazing that he became such a star, considering those extremely shaky beginnings.

A friend of mine, when we were growing up, was so peeved because he thought the covers to Sandman were so great, but the interiors just "look like normal comic books." Now, I'd argue that Sandman had a murderer's row of interior art talents, but I understood his point, because they were so drastically different. I think a similar argument could be made for comics with Sienkiewicz covers, or Alex Ross, or any of a long list of artists where the cover artist had an extremely different aesthetic from the interiors. It can be jarring, sure, but it's not false advertising. It's the hook, to get you to pick up the book. And for the record, I love Kelley Jones. He's my favorite Bat-artist. Yes, more than that guy. And that guy too. Yup.

@StrikeOutXXXI'm getting caught up here, a couple of days behind. If no one else has mentioned it, that Spoof Comics Spider-Femme has an Adam Hughes cover, can be a $10-$20 book depending on condition. Other Spoof comics with Hughes covers include X-Babes vs Justice Broads, BatBabe, Daredame, Justice Broads, and amazing heroes swimsuit special. All worth pulling aside.

Yeah, the waist is a big problem for this guy, you find him broken in half quite a bit. There’s a YouTube video out there about repairing the waist, i’ll see if I can dig it up. Luckily this guy was solid and unbroken, just needed some tlc due to yellowing and sticker wear.

My Metroplex resto is complete. Picked up this yellowed Metro from a friend a few weeks ago. He’s a rubber tire version and in solid shape, so I thought he’d be worth saving. For those who might be interested in process: First step was disassembling, and some of those screws were tough to remove! Luckily I got him apart without breaking anything. Next, I gave all of the non-metallic parts a soapy soak overnight to loosen the old stickers. The next day, with the help of an exacto blade and some goo gone, I got the remaining stubborn stickers off. Then another soak and wipe down. Then those parts got a peroxide and sunshine bath, while the rusty rods got a Coca Cola soak overnight. Then I filed the rust off of the rods, and soaked the plastic parts again to remove the peroxide. The hardest part was waiting three weeks for new stickers to arrive from Toyhax! They arrived last week, and I finally had time to apply them last night! And here he is! Missing the Six Gun body and chest. And the small laser pistols, but otherwise he’s all here and looking pretty close to new!

Those are great! I know Marvel Legends sort of killed off the old school Toy Biz Marvel series, but I think those 90’s figures have so much charm.

Thanks bud! The X-Men 6-8 had been at my LCS on hold for a while. I’d asked them to put them back for me until I could get back to the shop, but I’ve been so busy, it took me a couple of months! (These came from the same collection from which I’d picked up the Avengers 1, FF 48, and Silver Surfer 4.) Anyway, I went to the shop today to pick up my books, and lo and behold, the Hulk 181 was on the wall! I couldn’t believe it, it’d actually lasted two days. Couldn’t resist it, especially at their price. It’s low grade, but complete with the stamp. As you know, my motto is “beat but complete”! Very happy to have all of them!

Today was a good day!

Oh wow, that's great! Just the sort of oddball stuff I like.

Oh, well there you go! Even harder to list the stuff now! I tried on and off over the years to list adult comix in the normal section, using various methods of censorship. Some sailed through, but I got my hand slapped enough that it's no longer worth it to try.

It's true, there's still a vibrant subculture of indie bands that are recording music, and while streaming is the easiest and most logical way to distribute music, there's also a desire to have a physical item that you can actually place in someone's hands, and have on the merch table. Vinyl pressing is not only ungodly expensive right now, the wait times are also preposterous. There are a very small number of pressing plants, and larger labels are pushing the little guys out and further down the schedule. Your punk band is going to have to wait to press that 7" because we have to release a 180 gram box set retrospective of some classic rock dinosaur. Them's the breaks. So, a cassette is a nice compromise, a way to say "You're probably going to listen to us online, but here's a physical knickknack to remind you of our music." And that can lead to an interest in cassettes, and media in general. Vinyl came back because although streaming and downloading has never been easier and cheaper, many music lovers consider the collection of physical media an intrinsic part of the music loving experience. (Plus, there's the fact that vinyl sounds better than a crummy compressed MP3.) I am a home media collector, though I sold all of my VHS a while back. While these days most of my money goes to 4K Ultra HD releases, I still seek out laserdiscs for my collection. I don't often watch them, as they've been replaced by hi-def and even ultra hd transfers. But I still love the packaging, and the shiny giant discs. (And like cassettes, and VHS tapes, there are still a handful of titles that never got another release.) So many of us grew up in the era of the "video store", where you'd go to rent VHS tapes, and there is so much heavy nostalgia tied into that experience. So that's one side of it. The other side is supply: not many video tapes were left sealed, unless we're talking about dead dealer stock. It's the same thing with what we're seeing in video games. Sealed copies are going for a fortune, because they were created to be disposable entertainment. Most people weren't buying a tape they never planned to watch, or a game they never planned to play. So to find that stuff in nice shape, much less unused, is a real rarity. And where there's a mixture of nostalgia and rarity, the markets can blossom. Cassette tapes, VHS tapes, laser discs, video games, comic books: all things that have no true intrinsic value, but all of which have provided so much joy to so many throughout their lives. Once the nostalgia hits, and it meets the collecting bug, it's off to the races.

I'm sure I would! And has been mentioned before, adult books can sell like wildfire. There's demand for the Fantagraphics Eros line of books, as well as the old fashioned undergrounds like Cherry, and their ilk. The only problem with the adult stuff is that it can be difficult to find venues in which to sell the material, as eBay restricts this material to Adults Only areas, which is a death sentence for sales. But if you're not selling online anyway, this may not be a problem. And of course, you can always sell them here. I've done well with some of that stuff here. Can't wait to see what all you dig up!

Some of those Barbie Fashion books are worth looking into, as well as the regular Barbie series. BF #13 has a sexy DC Showcase Dolphin tribute cover by Amanda Conner, can sell $15-$20 in decent shape, and more like $50+ if still sealed and in nice condition. BF 39 & 46 are others than can sell for $20+, as they are considered Good Girl Art by some collectors. Honestly, any cover where she's in a bikini, some perv (like me) will pay up for it if it's in good shape. This will often apply to Archie covers as well.

Alien Day has become such a bummer. The first couple of years there were so many great exclusives and releases, but now? Nothin'. I remember before, I could hardly keep up with all of the stuff from Mondo, NECA, etc. Good times. Hopefully the new FX series will revitalize interest in the brand.

Correct, I have steadfastly avoided it! I considered picking it up during the year-long quarantine, but I decided to just double down on Fallout 4 instead, and try to find every item, location, etc. My best friend keeps telling me that Fallout 76 "got much better!" but I dunno, it's just not for me. I don't like playing video games online, with other people, I'm pretty much strictly a solitary gamer. My understanding is that Fallout 76 is pretty boring, especially if you're going completely solo.

Congrats to OP on the pickup, and for being willing to put in the work, and learn as they go. I think this is great. I've seen so many fly by night flippers looking to score collections, thinking they're going to make instant profit. Selling collections like this is real work, it takes time, and it can be a lot of fun. OP seems to have exactly the right attitude going into this, so I think they'll do just fine. I picked up a 3000-ish book collection about a month ago, and I've whittled it down to the last 10 short boxes or so. It's been a lot of work, but it has been profitable and fun, as this is my hobby. 8000+ though, man, that makes me break out in a cold sweat ha Just thinking about hefting the boxes around, ugh. Following up on the comments about the Dark Horse Aliens books, while it's true that most of the money is in the first prints, it's also true that there is a market for high grade copies of later printings. If you find any 9.6 or 9.8 candidates of later printings, I know there are many buyers who are looking for those books. Also, in addition to the earlier Aliens issues of DHP, the later appearances are hard to find and pricey in their own right, primarily 140 and 146, though 117 isn't an easy find either. In your indie boxes, if you run across any chunks of Grendel, I'd hold onto them. Aside from the first appearance in Comico Primer 2, and the original 3 issue Grendel miniseries, Grendel isn't worth much right now. However, there's a Netflix series on the way, so there's a lot of potential in those books. Complete sets and high grade singles would likely sell well now, but if the show is a hit, there's lots of room for those books to continue moving upward. Also, if you have 80's indies, be on the lookout for Dave Stevens covers. These will always sell, particularly in grade. Look for Airboy 5, Alien Worlds 2 & 4, DNAgents 24, Planet Comics 1, Starslayer 2, etc. Dave has had a devoted following for many years, but these books are still out there in the dollar bins of less educated sellers. I still find them to this day. So if you have a backstock of 80's indie books, you almost certainly have some Dave Stevens in there.

Fair enough, and to be clear, I'm not opposed to long movies. Some of my favorite films are in the three hour range. If the subject matter can sustain a prolonged run time, I'm fine with it. I love being submerged in a world like that. But for the most part, superheroes flicks can't sustain that length and pace, any more than horror, action, or most genre pictures can, in general. And I'm a HUGE horror and action movie fan. But once you cross that 90-minute mark, it's increasingly difficult to sustain interest, or distract from how overwhelmingly silly the whole thing is.

@Ken AldredI thought I saw a post from you yesterday about starting out in Fallout 4, but I was on my way out the door, and can't find it now. I think it was regarding Salvation, and storing your stuff. I was just going to say, for whatever reason, I left Salvation pretty quickly, and set up shop in the Red Rocket garage just west/southwest of Salvation. Throughout the course of the game I did acquire several other settlements, but that Red Rocket station was always "home" to me, and where I did most of my crafting/building/storage. My secondary home was Home Plate at Diamond City, I enjoyed fixing that one up a bit as well. So, it's fun to have all of the different options, and set them up as you please, but that first Red Rocket station was always home to me. As for starting out, whenever I encountered Super Mutants and other heavies early on, I'd do my best to run and escape without confrontation, until I could level up a bit. I'd say the best tip I ever got was to pick up the Overseer's Guardian rifle in Vault 81, as it has double attack. Leveling up gun mods in order to mod that gun as much as possible was a huge, huge help. edit: "salvation" is "sanctuary", obviously. I'm not fully awake yet!

I'm trying to get my Transformers collection complete before the IDW contract is up (and I'm close, I think I only need 5 more hardcovers between all of the phases and the second iteration), but with GI Joe, I'm so far behind, I just gave up. What I really hope is that whoever gets the license (is it Skybound? Is that confirmed?) will finally give us a COMPLETE HC set of the Marvel years. Or even paperback's, I'll take them, as long as they reprint the entire run.

Definitely thinking about the Aaron Thor, especially since it’s on sale this week.

Watched The Batman with the missus this weekend. I was pretty stoked, as I'd heard a lot about how it was a REAL Batman movie, delving more into the "dark detective" side of things, which is my favorite part of the Batman mythos. On the whole, I thought it was fine. Certainly not as bad as the Snyder stuff, but not really any better than the Nolan stuff either. What I liked: - The Batmobile as a rocket powered muscle car. Yes please. - The cape/cowl - I dug the funky collar, gave the whole get-up a sorta Dracula vibe. Dig it. - Colin Farrell - I could have used more of the Penguin, looks like we'll be getting it. - the overall aesthetic of a crumbling Gotham - the action: fights were brutal and had nice long takes instead of quick cuts. I also enjoyed Batman eating mess with his glider suit. That was great. What I didn't like: - The Riddler - this really just read like watered down "Seven" or "Saw" to me. We've seen so many of these serial killer flicks at this point, there was nothing new or interesting about this character, his design, or the performance. - The running time - there is just no reason on God's green earth why these ostensible children's movies should be three hours long. Geez Louise. So, yeah, I thought it was pretty much right down the middle for a Batman movie, but I think a sequel could be really great. Let's just try to keep it at two hours or less, for the luvva pete.

For sure, if you're not looking for that black missile launcher or torpedos, it's easy to pass it up.