gadzukes

I just bought this Australian copy and it looks to be in pretty nice shape. I actually think the illustration woks better on it, those Pals n Gals headers are pretty busy. Still, I'm going to be on the look out for a nice copy of the US version.

I have this amazingly high grade front cover (except for the spine edge) to Black Rider 8 (the Stan Lee cover). I've been told it also it's almost certainly from the "New Hampshire pedigree". Most copies you see of this issue are not super high grade. From what I can tell from the ones I've seen, my cover is the nicest. I've had a thought of buying a mid grade copy of the issue, removing the front cover from it, and having my cover leaf-cast onto it. What do you think? Is this a stupid idea? It obviously would get a restored label, but because of the nice quality of the cover it might get a higher grade. My other thought is to just slab the cover and request the Pedigree label..... yeah... maybe this is the way to go. If I were to get the pedigree label it would look pretty sweet.

Wow..... is this an issue that rarely comes up? I just went to GPA and there is NO data for it. There are a couple of low grade copies on ebay. I'll have to wait it out and find a nice one.

What US Archie comic was this Australian copy taken from? Is it an Archie, a Laugh, a Pep, or something else. I like it!

I knew the prices went up, but I didn't know they changed the names.

I made a submission a looooong time ago under the "Value" tier. I noticed there is no such thing as a "value" tier any more. What did the Value Tier become? Economy?

I submitted an AF15 at the end of May. I guess I was supposed to mark on the package that it was Walk thru. The box hasn't even been opened yet. So much for getting it back quickly.

Yeah, I see what you're talking about. I got it back out and "in hand" you can tell that it's not trimmed. It's slightly imperfect, but definitely an original trim from the bindery process.

It's not trimmed, you're just seeing a little waviness in the paper. This came from an OO collection of which there was no resto in any comic.

Does CGC do negative grades? If so this one might get a "-.5" It's still an FF 1 and there's plenty of people who still envy you.

Thanks in advance for your opinions.

I did some research on this one because of what looks to be a finger smudge on the free edge...... it's actually a printing defect. MANY of this issue have the defect in varying degrees. I'm not sure that CGC grades down for it, but keep it in mind that it is not a finger smudge. I absolutely LOVE that these MCP comics had comic art on the back covers too.

Please let me know what you think. I'll be sending it in for grading soon. Pretty weird seeing the OJ ad on the back.

In my opinion a Big Mac beats "fermented shark" any day of the week, however there was a lot of great seafood (I even saw Puffin on the menu at one restaurant). I didn't see even one McDonalds while I was there, which was really refreshing.

I just got back from an 11 day trip to Iceland. GO IF YOU CAN it's gorgeous. Lots of Game of Thrones sites. I saw this painted on a van and just had to get a photo. Btw.... I found one guy selling comics in Reykjavik. He was a cool dude. His shop was hidden down an alleyway. He didn't have much but when he saw my interest he pulled out a few old Icelandic comics... Donald Duck, Hulk, Alf lol. And then he took me downstairs where he had his Grandfathers giant antique printing presses from the early 1900s. I felt like I was in a museum, it was really cool (why didn't I take pics?).

I bought a 600 or so Bronze comic collection with a slabbed Hulk 181 1.5 that was missing the MVS last week from a guy. He told me that pretty much all the comics with MVSs he had clipped the MVS as a kid. And as I went thru them I saw that was true. In buying the collection he casually mentioned that he had still had the Marvel Value Stamp Book filled with all the original stamps that he had clipped. It was in his garage somewhere. We agreed on a price and I bought the collection, and we agreed that when he found the MVS book he would send it to me. He found it today and it has about 95 or 96 of the original stamps including the Shanna 54 stamp from the Hulk 181. Here's my question: If it was your Hulk 181 would you try to restore it to the comic since it's the exact one that went with it? Or maybe put it in a tiny baseball card mylar and keep it with the slabbed comic, or just leave it in the MVS booklet? After all, it's only a 1.5 comic.

Hard to believe.... but I found Minty Mint "Hidden Gems" in a bunch of boxes that looked like this:

Amazingly, when I got all the comics out of the horrid cat vomit bags and boxes they were 95% in Minty Mint condition. In other words.... the bags did their jobs amazingly well. However..... 75% of the comics are 90s drek and pretty hard to move. I've made 100% of my money back, made a little profit, and am waiting for the key issues to be graded by CGC. When all is said and done I am going to do really well.

Always have your "radar" on and you will find comics. I walked into a library once and they were doing a "Super Hero" theme for kids during the summer. Someone had donated a box of comics to the library and they had tacked a bunch up on the walls. I saw that they were all Bronze age. I asked the children's Librarian what they were going to do with the comics when the Summer was over. She said "You can have them all if you want. In fact we have the box with the rest of them in the back room". I tried to pay her something for them but she wouldn't take my money. I probably got 75 bronze comics for free that day, and came back for the rest at the end of the Summer (unfortunately no huge Key issues, but a couple minor keys)

SWEEEET!

When I was 13 I was playing up at the park (half a block from my house), and a kid I didn't know walked up to me and asked if I had any comics. He said he collected comics. I knew me and my brother had a small stack of maybe 20 comics in our garage. We got on our bikes and rode down to my house. I had a bunch of Superman, a couple Sad Sacks, a Hulk 182, and a Doctor Strange 9 (I actually remember the exact Hulk & Doc Strange comics). He asked if I wanted to trade so we biked to his house. He traded me some Marvels and some SGT Rocks. The only two of the ten that I remember exactly are Thor 236 and X-Men 94 (cuz they made an impression on me). After reading the Marvels...... I decided I wanted to collect comics, and that's when my adventure began.

Step 1). Tell every friend you have on any social media platform that you collect comics and ask if anyone knows anyone who is looking to sell. Step 2) Patiently wait........ and wait......... and wait........ and every once in a while this happens: The last two collections I've "found" have come to me thru friends. And they both ended up being "deals". If I even find 1 collection a year, I'm pretty happy. This year.... 2 have come my way, a modern, and a bronze. 2 years ago I had a massive Silver collection come my way (I was in heaven). Step 3). Find stuff on ebay. I find deals on ebay all the time, but you have to search.

Who are you?...... Saul Goodman? How's your Hummel collection coming?

Who cares about backgrounds anymore..... I want to discuss the foregrounds....... WTF is going on with T'Challa's kneecaps??? Are those bone-spurs or tumors? Is this still Herb in his "happiness" phase?

There's no art in the backgrounds of the panels. That's like Golden Age Captain Marvel art. When you never have to worry about background art you can churn out the pages faster. That means you meet your deadlines faster. And that equals.... happiness.