mr_highgrade

RIP Mike. 

Very sad news indeed, my condolences to his family. 

when I was actively searching out newsies in the 2000's at Hudson newsstand at Grand Central & Penn Station, I left behind so many NM copies.  I was strictly only grabbing  NM/MT copies. I should've just grabbed everything. 

On 11/15/2023 at 8:41 AM, Eclipse said:

All of the NY shows except this one are back in business. Sets are standing (i saw a few of them during construction) but everything is just remaining on the stages and the crew is on hold until they are ready to go back.

My friend who works at Silvercup Studios in Long Island City in Queens, NY said that they will start filming again in January. 

I haven't seen any at my Walmart's in ages. 

On 11/13/2023 at 10:07 AM, batmiesta said:

Coming up in the next Clink auction. 9.6, with that corner crease? 

Just finish watching the movie with only one of my four sons. One is away in college, the other two heard the movie sucked and weren't interested in going.  There were some cringey moments that I can do without. You'll know when you see it. One word, "Bollywood".  Overall, my son and I enjoyed it. 

On 11/11/2023 at 1:03 PM, Buzzetta said:

I agree.  I watched the Mets fanbase here in NY clamor for some action by ownership after their disastrous 2023 season.  Ownership let Buck Showalter go.  Now you can debate back and forth whether Showalter is the guy to close the deal but he is a great baseball manager and mind.   The Mets went ahead and hired Carlos Mendoza, the Yankees bench coach as the replacement after he came off his own disastrous season. 

The question that the Mets did not really consider when letting Buck go, who are we going to get that is better.

The Yankees made the same mistake when they let Joe Girardi go.  I would say in retrospect that Boone was not the answer.

You let Kevin Feige go, who is the better suited mind to replace him? 

If the Yankees are smart they hire Buck as a bench coach immediately. I think he's the perfect guy for Boone to lean on. 

I love going to movies with my kids. In fact, we're probably going this weekend to see The Marvels. I don't bring Mrs.Highgrade anymore because she usually falls asleep.  

Batman has always been my favorite DC character. I used to have all Neal Adams covers in CGC 9.2 to 9.6. Sold them wayyyy to early.  He's the only modern DC that I still buy from time to time. 

Speaking of A-listers...this chart never made any sense to me. How did Wonder-man make the Super-Heavyweights? Spidey, should at least be considered a Heavyweight, anyone remember Spidey #33? And how the hell is Captain America in the same class as Daredevil and Moon Knight. 

On 11/9/2023 at 1:22 AM, VintageComics said:

I'm not very well versed in moderns but I did read the Ultimates 20 years ago, and I think it's safe to say that Ultimates propelled (or was partly responsible in propelling) Iron Man into being the A-lister he is today.

I don't think he was before that, was he?

In my humbled opinion, No. I always considered him a B-lister at best. Today, he's a rock star. 

On 11/8/2023 at 11:48 PM, VintageComics said:

I actually don't know if I would have considered Iron Man an A-list character in 2008. 

I think Marvel was trying to get him there pre 2008 in anticipation of the growing cinematic universe by strategically building support for their MCU characters through comic book storylines, but I grew up reading Iron Man in the 70's and 80's and I don't think ANYONE would've called him an A-lister back then. 

 

But just slow down for a second and think about how much effort and time Marvel put into building this cinematic universe around Stark. 

The Ultimates came out in 2002.

That story arc was the cornerstone of the MCU. Why the heck else would we have had a Nick Fury played by Samuel Jackson IN THE COMIC BOOKS except that by 2002 Marvel had already decided they were going to build an MCU...and they'd already been planning it for a few years before that.  

They started preparing the audience by salting the mine in the comics, then 6 years after The Ultimates they came out with 1 lone Iron Man movie. After that we had Hulk, Iron Man 2, Thor, Captain America - The First Avenger - still building Iron Man's legacy, and then finally it all culminated into Avengers in 2012. 

So what you had was a long term, 10+ year project spanning 2002 - 2012. Add in that they probably started planning well before 2002 and you probably have 12+ years of planning to create the Avengers franchise. 

 

It's actually the same when a city builds a new sports arena. The day you see them breaking ground, this is not even the DECADE they decided this was going to happen. In civil planning this started 20 years ago sometimes. It's usually a decade or two from the inception of the idea to the shovel breaking ground because they have to account for EVERYTHING from road / plumbing / sewer infrastructure to population change to traffic flow and even things a small as waste removal.

It's really that way for every every industry whether it's entertainment, or large current events in the news or building a billion dollar corporation. It just looks like it happened overnight because you and I weren't privy to the discussion going on in the background. 

But the discussion in the background is where the real action happens. Once the groundbreaking happens, it's already been a done deal for years.

Ironically, and to prove my point CGC took over 20 years before it was taken over as a billion dollar company. 

I also don't think Iron man was a A-lister character back in those days. 

I wonder if this book will pick up some steam after The Marvels mid credit scene? 

This is not looking to good for the actors. Looks like the studio bigwigs are playing hardball. 

I also got one with an attachment. I just deleted it.

If it ain't broke, don't fix it.