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I get what you're saying. When I was purging cause we were moving, it was fairly easy to trim a big part of my collection. What I loved was easy for me to identify, same thing for what I didn't really care about.

I MUST go to this show next year!

Some recent pictures of my comic room: One of my rules is, only comic related stuff can go into the room. So even for these tissues, I have this hand made Pac Man holder (that I got from a Steel City con a couple of years ago). This next picture is the door to the comic room. There's an Olivia original (of Marilyn Monroe) on top and Betty's Bath by Dave Stevens below. Janesko and more Olivia to the sides. Recently I added a 2nd lock, the dead bolt lock above the keyed lock. I never paid attention to locks until recently. Turns out they have different grades. This dead bolt is Grade 1, which essentially means you could blow up the house and the lock would still be locked (although there wouldn't be a door anymore). Also, I think I mentioned we are selling our big house (where we raised our kids) and are moving to our beach house, and as part of that we rented a storage unit to hold things like old high school yearbooks, Christmas decorations, etc. I also keep my miscellaneous alphabet and magazines in this storage unit. I've organized things so I can easily add to the long boxes.

@PeterPark and @adamstrange - Thanks for this information. Both comics are now on my want list!

Thanks for the information.

Nowadays for kids, it's cool to be a geek. So my kids think it's cool their dad is a geek. Also, 2 of my daughters are into cosplay, all my kids are into video games, all have read Bone, everyone loves Game of Thrones and Harry Potter, they like the Marvel and DC movies, so my kids think my collection is cool but they are not directly interested in comics like superheroes. All my kids are very respectful of my stuff. I also keep candy in the room so the kids are always going into the room for a handful of Skittles or chocolate. Our beach house is small, and my comic room by its nature is a private room. Often when one of my kids wants privacy, like to make a phone call, they will go into my comic room. Also, my son when he was a young teenager once made out with a girl in my comic room. (I told him to NEVER do that again!) One time when my youngest daughter threw a fit and was mad at the world, she went into the comic room to sleep. So I guess my comic room is like a sanctuary for my kids. I like it that way.

Who is she?

Interesting. So is John part of the group behind the Dave Stevens Estate sales on eBay?

South Beach, Miami This past weekend, the wife and I went to South Beach. We needed some relaxing as we're trying to sell our house, and that's one of the most stressful things you can do in your life (according to things I've read). We mostly stayed by the pool, so here's our views the last few days. Mostly we did nothing, other than sitting in the sun by the pool, and eating and drinking. I love avocados; here's the avocado toast with a poached egg I got for breakfast one day. Here's a smoked Manhattan from dinner one night. They do it the same way I do. You get a slab of wood, put on a small pile of wood chips, fire up the wood chips, and then put the glass over the smoke. The glass extinguishes the flame, and then you turn the glass over and pour in the drink (which you mixed while the glass was being smoked). This is something I covet for my bar.

Thanks for the info. That issue's now on my want list.

I'm so jealous! I agree, pulps and paperbacks are incredibly cheap compared to comics. Lately I've been buying so many, I have to organize my collecting so as not to lose focus.

Thanks for the information. I placed 3 bids but didn't win any. That's probably a good thing for me. The last I need is to win a few Mile Highs and then trigger the collecting bug inside me to build a Mile High collection. I'm actually having fun buying photo covers cheap and then sending the best ones into CGC. The only Mile High in my collection is Junie 5, which I somehow managed to pry away from @Ricksneatstuff a couple years ago. I bought it with found money. My daughter was graduating from high school. For my 2 older daughters, we had a graduation party where we catered in fajitas from our favorite tex mex place (Uncle Julios). But this daughter (Abby) didn't want that; she wanted me to smoke pork shoulders, chicken and burgers on my Big Green Egg. I was all for that, as smoking meat is fun for me. But I saved so much money from not catering, that I PM'd Rick about the Junie. And as they say, the rest is history. When I die, I plan to leave my comic collection to my 4 kids equally. Except for Junie 5. I plan to give that one to Abby since I didn't have to cater her HS grad party.

take

I thought I'd post all the Valkyrie covers in my collection -- I have a total of 3 at this moment. I actually don't know how many exist. I probably should go through Gerber and make a want list. In fact, I think I will do that the next time I'm in my comic room at the beach house. Air Fighters v2 #2 with the first appearance of Valkyrie still ranks as one of my best all time comic purchases. I got it at a Baltimore con a few years ago. It was ungraded and on the dealer's wall, but I don't think he knew what he had. I threw out an offer and he took it. Baltimore is a great con, but I've only been able to go that one time because of other life commitments (even though I live relatively close). I got into Airboy from the Eclipse series in the 80s. It was only later that I became a fan of Dave Stevens, and I realized that he too had an appreciation of Valkyrie. Here's Airboy 5 of the Eclipse series, with Dave's homage to Valkyrie's first golden age appearance. I've always been struck by Dave's version. In the original, Valkyrie stands over Airboy. The same is true in Dave's version. But in his version, Airboy isn't chained, and he's gripping Valkyrie's boot. The 2 compositions are similar, but in Dave's version there's so much more tension. What a great talent!

Dr. Love - Thanks for your post. Your love of comics really shows! I don't think I've ever read a better description of any kind of comics! Do you know where/when these comics are being offered? For me personally, I haven't got to the point where I'm collecting my publisher. Although, I might evolve into that if my collection of photocovers gets big enough and I have to start focusing.

Here are a few more comics I've gotten back from CGC lately. Here's Air Fighters #7, to add to my collection of Valkyrie covers. And here are some romance picture covers. They are hard to find in high grade, but when you do find them, they're surprisingly cheap.

The Exciting Comics is chilling! (Now it's on my want list, so what does that tell you about me?)

Yeah, that's definitely a disturbing cover, even more so in today's world.

Speaking of Dave Stevens, I recently got back from CGC 2 comics to add to my Dave Stevens Covers registry set (I'm proud to say I've had the top position in this set for 2 years). First is program from the 2002 Dallas Comic-Con. You may wonder how this is relevant to Dave Stevens, since the cover is by Lisner. But, the Dave Stevens Cover set includes both front and back covers. And for this program, the back cover is by Dave (a tribute to the Rocketeer). The second comic is Venus Domina. Very tough to get a high grade copy. I've used the spoiler function to show the full cover, so I don't have to ruin the cover art with cut outs.

Here are a few recent additions to the comic book room. First is Crime Does Not Pay 46. I got this from a person on the boards. This Biro cover has got to be one of the most chilling covers ever, especially for parents. I've been looking to get a copy for some time now. There's a very nice looking 3.5 on Lone Star right now, that I almost bought a few times over the last year. I'm kind of surprised CGC didn't give this one a purple grade given the hole punched through above the M. But that hole helped me get a few dollars off, so I'm happy to have it. Here are a couple GA GGA covers I recently got back from CGC. I'm pretty happy with the grades. Dogface #5 is a borderline classic cover, and I've always liked Comedy 4 as my kids lifeguard on the beach (although they don't wear makeup doing it!).

take via pm

Strip House New York City I haven't posted any food pictures in a while, so here we go. In the past month, I've been to NYC 3 times (twice for work). And I've been to the Strip House twice. Strip, as in steak rather than inspiration for Zenescope. Here's a feel for the Strip House vibe. It's a small restaurant with alot of NYC energy. The most recent time (this past Wednesday), I started with their vodka martini. What sets this apart are the olives. Not only are they blue cheese stuffed olives, they are truffle blue cheese olives. I had this the first time at the Strip House, and craved it so much I had to have it the second time. After the martini, I got their barrel aged old fashioned, because life is short and I've got more years behind me than in front of me. With this I said a silent pray for Luke Perry. As for food, I got the grilled wedge salad (kissed with smoke), and a medium rare bone in ribeye. I washed it down with a couple of glasses of their house cabernet, but as I write this I cannot remember what it was (with is a testament to the martini and old fashioned). The food was wonderful (almost as good as the drinks).

Some photo covers I've gotten back from CGC recently. The guy in My Own Romance has got to be a stalker.

Thanks!

Yes, the Eerie 25 is the highlight of those books. To get a Steranko cover like that is pretty amazing. I'm also very happy with all the others. As for DL 3, I'm happy to have it. It's a really good copy, even though it got hammered by CGC -- it's the only book I was surprised by of all the mags I bought from you -- I had pegged the book at the same grade as you -- so I figure I'm way ahead! I'm looking forward to your next magazine sale!