fett

On 8/31/2023 at 7:54 PM, Earthshaker01 said:

Erk!! Sharp.

On 9/4/2023 at 4:57 PM, gunsmokin said:

Tomb of Dracula 20 f/VF $10

 misclick  

On 9/4/2023 at 4:50 PM, gunsmokin said:

DEFENDERS 12,13,14 All VF or better $45

I remember seeing the original painting for the first Monster Manual on Heritage about 20 years ago, but have been unable to find it archived. Anyone ever seen any OA for any of this stuff?

Hey people just wondering if any of the users here operated a comic shop back in the late 1970s?

On 8/2/2021 at 8:52 AM, HighVoltage said:

Is this 'THE' cover for the MOKF run?
I love it, along with #51 and #67 for Gulacy.  #71 and #101 are Zeck faves.

And was this the only book where the main character is drawn as sweating while kicking butt?!
Shang was workin' hard!

notables-more Starlin on #54

On 11/22/2022 at 12:27 PM, Skwerl said:

It's been awhile since I checked this thread, but someone pointed me to it in a discussion about "mutlipack editions" in the "Ask CGC" thread and urged me to post my knowledge here to contribute to the discussion. I grew up in print shops and comic book stores, so the ins & outs of printing and distribution of comics has always fascinated me, and I've sort of majored in 1977 specifically (mostly because I'm also a Star Wars fan), and I've been obsessing over some of these topics for decades. I'm in my 40s now, so I wasn't there in the late 70s, but in the 80s I talked to people who were.

Here's the Ask CGC thread: 

Whitman's parent company Western printed a lot of comics, but they did not print Marvel comics. They did not have a license to. All Marvel comics were printed on the same printing presses, which I believe were always at World Color Press. In a sec, I'll post an editorial printed by Marvel in the early 80s that stated they all came from the same printing presses.

There is not really any such thing as a "multipack variant." This statement has been a little controversial, and I've got no ego here and would happy to be proven wrong (okay, it would be really embarrassing, but I would try and take the L with grace). But I would simply challenge anyone to show three versions of a particular Marvel comic that had a third version besides newsstand (Curtis insignia), and direct (no Curtis insignia). There would have been no reason to print a third version specifically for multipacks which were just a way to dump excess (as in already printed) inventory at a discount. Important things to note, which has made this challenge tricky: The presence of the barcode is not really the defining characteristic of a newsstand edition, but rather it's the Curtis insignia. Curtis distributed to newsstands, and they put some numbers and their mark on the books they distributed. Direct editions went out through other means (I believe this was typically Sea Gate distribution, as World Color did not distribute), and those did not have the Curtis insignia. I think it's common knowledge at this point why bar codes started going away on direct editions: Retailers were returning unsold direct editions for the higher newsstand wholesale prices, and also some retailers were trying to scan the barcodes on the comics in the multipacks rather than the ones on the multipacks themselves. But that's a rabbit hole in and of itself. For now suffice to say that transition didn't happen overnight at once across all titles.

Okay, so this is from Marvel Team-Up #108 (1981), but I've seen it in other issues from around that time, when collectors first started asking what was up with the diamond boxes:

Note that Marvel confirms that there were just two versions, and that they were printed "on the same presses." Which further proves that Western/Whitman didn't print Marvel comics (they never had a license to and you won't actually find a Whitman logo on any Marvel books besides a few oddball examples such as the treasury editions and Superman Vs. Muhammad Ali, etc.). And now, the debate that is opened up on the "Ask CGC" thread was whether or not the smaller diamond box shown here is different than the larger diamond boxes on the so-called "multipack variants." My position is that they're the same thing; the design just evolved in 1978/1979 for aesthetic reasons. But that's an open debate, I'll admit.

Now, on that other thread, as we got into questions of who exactly got what versions, many pointed out examples of mistakes. There was the design of things, the intent, and then you had the reality of a lot of cokeheads working on tight deadlines, and there were lots of anomalies, and "bugs" in 1977, which was sort of the 1.0 release of Marvel direct editions. There were some direct editions printed with the Curtis insignia accidentally. Newsstand editions popped up in comic book shops (this happened even into the 80s). I would not be at all shocked to find multipacks with newsstand editions post-1977. It's sort of the same as finding retailer variants in Wal-Mart packs today. Anything lying around could go into them.

This is a big reason why I try to focus my "arguments" on the things that couldn't have been occasionally messed up: That a) there was simply never a third version printed of a Marvel comic for multipacks; If comic stores existed in 1977-1979 (they did of course), and any of them got Marvel comics through a distributor other than Curtis/ID, then they got Marvel comics without the Curtis symbol on them. There was only ever newsstand, and direct edition, and "multipack edition" is a misnomer.  And 2) Whitman didn't print Marvels, they only got their hands on Marvel inventory that was printed not by their parent company Western, who printed the DC and Dell/GK stuff. Which was confirmed by Marvel who literally said they came from the same presses in that Marvel editorial I posted. So "whitman reprint / whitman edition" is a misnomer as well.

So that's the hill I'm on: No such thing as Marvel "Whitman reprints" or "Whitman editions," and no such thing as "multipack edition;" Those were all just early direct editions, printed by Marvel, on the same presses that printed the newsstand inventory that went to Curtis/ID. But I'm not posting this to "be right on the internet," I'm just a nerd who loves this stuff and would love to learn more if I'm off on anything. Hope something here is helpful for anyone else on that same journey.

How about this issue? One regular newstand, one regular diamond with upc, and another diamond without upc. 

https://www.comics.org/issue/31543/cover/4/

congrats on the find-I love a mystery google search pulls up an old ebay auction with dead links but with some descriptions, and the second listing is for this post.  

don't see it listed at Lonestar website either.  

On 1/31/2023 at 3:39 AM, sfcityduck said:

Did you like it?  I've rewatched the funeral scene starting with the gong on through maybe ten times.  It's brilliant writing (so few words!) and brilliant acting (so much emoting in virtual silence). Award worthy and getting that recognition.

Skarsgard and Fiona Shaw are incredible in this episode. I watch this scene starting with the flute music often. Watch SS's eyes when listening to Mama Andor's speech about the wound at the center of the galaxy that will not heal, and how the Empire is a disease!! Blows me away every time I watch it. I almost passed on this series to begin with. Had to get this made... 

congrats looks like you found one of the comics from the Mary Poppins pedigree.  

On 5/9/2023 at 10:57 AM, Robot Man said:

Wow, that Terry was a player! 

Actually that is Pat Ryan. Terry Lee is the young blonde kid. I haven't read as much of their adventures as I want...  The dragon lady had a thing for both of them over the years. 

On 4/3/2023 at 7:54 AM, Readcomix said:

That is a GREAT description of his work!

Nope. He was just all out of bubble-gum.

One of my faves. Because of this movie I'm ambidextrous.  

always wondered if the last page had anything to do with A Man in Ditko's past...  

daily dose  

what a beauty  

On 3/17/2023 at 9:55 AM, awakeintheashes said:

One last thing/rant on the New Republic, it’s a shame that the sequels are forcing these detours in storytelling, but thems the rules now. Had a well developed story been presented to us, there’d be a lot more freedom for storytellers to explore this time after the fall of the Empire. 

There should just be a show called Star Wars: Here’s How We Got There, and it can run for as long as we have garbage cans to pick up after (mostly) JJ Abram’s mess. 

maybe the next episode will show Senator Padme wake up in the morning, go to take a shower and Annie is in there waiting for her.. It was all a dream babe!!  

On 3/17/2023 at 1:49 PM, jcjames said:

When Dr. Pershing said:

  Hide contents

"It was a trap!"

I screamed out laughing! 

especially considering who he said it to....  

I may be in the minority here but I am glad to see this form of storytelling from Filoni and Happy. They started this with Mando and his entourage showing up during the Boba Fett series for a few episodes. They have alot of story to tell outside of their main arcs, and it is obvious they are setting up future plot points here. I think they are doing a great job so far with expanding the Star Wars universe beyond the original trilogy storyline, and we are getting to see tons of locations and characters that I really never expected to see.