Ian_Levine

I understand your POV entirely, but its a POV as rare a Happy Tooth, which is why I enjoy the picture !

I still maintain that anyone interested in DC Comics would be fascinated by something like Happy Tooth.

Oh I don't doubt it for one minute! I'm sure there are many incredibly tough oddball books. Just not the typical book you would see in a group shot with Action 1-10 !

That photo, taken in 2005 when I completed the collection, pictures both the most valuable DCs and the rarest and scarcest DCs.

Of course a Happy Tooth dentist promotional comic looks odd on the same photo as Action 1, but if you have enough money to spare, you can fairly easily buy an Action 1 or a Detective 27, if you were as rich as Simon Cowell and didn't care what you spent, someone would sell you one tomorrow.

But you try and find a Happy Tooth, A Superman/Bradman, or a Twisted Metal for ANY price.

Or a Buzzy 70.

The "Happy Tooth" book is an incredibly difficult book to find. I am still

looking and have been for at least 8 years.

The rarity of Happy Tooth, Twisted Metal, Take No Prisoners, The Aquateers Meet The Super Friends, Supergear, Lightning Racers, the set of five Flash Force 2000, and the Superman Bradman Custom Comic, all made for private or promotional purposes, is staggering beyond belief, and much much rarer than some of the Golden Age classics.

Twisted Metal in particular has become an urban myth. I could sell a copy tomorrow for $1500.

Ian,

 

You started with a JLA run. At what point did you decide to go for them all? Your Action 2 is in a slab. Are many of your books in a slab?

I took Action 2 out of the slab when I bought it, in 2003.

The only one comic I have kept in a slab is "What Do You Know About This Comic's seal Of Approval", and that was because it was the only one in history ever slabbed.

I hate slabs.

 

 

Lovely? That's the first time anybody's ever called me lovely, that's for sure. No worries.

Well I knew it began with a letter "f", but I didn't want to get it mixed up with Flaming Telepath.

Ian:

 

Which ones if any of the Action #1 through #10 posted are restored?

I honestly can't remember. 1,2, and 4 certainly are.

The restoration was so professional I would never have known. The number 2 was slabbed as a 9.0 restored, but I can't detect any restoration to the naked eye so it must have been seriously minimal.

They all look fantastic to me

 

The first DC title I completed was the Justice League as well.

 

Which moved me on to the other SA DC titles.

 

And then on into the Golden Age books.

 

Now it just won't end

It was the early Justice Leagues that started it all for me.

OK, upon Ian's return in 2008, the snarky comments declined and he shared a lot of good information and photos.

 

 

Throughout 2003 and 2004, I spent ten hours a day seven days a week on e-Bay.

Plus bought extensively off Harley and Metropolis and Rich Muchin and Gary Dolgoff.

 

Plus spent endless Sundays at UK comic cons till my feet ached, looking through every single dealer's boxes.

 

Plus did endless research to track down everything I was missing once I decided to take my forty year quest and finally comp;lete it once and for all.

 

I remortgaged my house to do it.

I sold all my Doctor Who film prints, my extensive and unique collection of Doctor Who props, and every valuable Northern Soul and Motown record that I possessed, after collecting them avidly for also a forty year period.

 

I sacrificed everything I had and everything I possessed to complete my comic collection, deciding it was better to have one definitive collection of something, rather than four collections that would always remain somewhat incomplete.

 

You cannot put a value on that amount of man hours other than as a quest to achieve a person's lifetime goal.

 

 

This is all absolutely true.

One of 21 cool covers put together by fans for these CCC:

 

Oh My God

I'd forgotten how amazing the artwork for that set was.

Not many people have a complete set of those.

Stunningly beautiful.

I got up the energy to go through about half of this thread. Nice reward half way through (posted below).

 

Ian, great stuff and I have appreciated the information you have been sharing.

 

 

Further to what someone said earlier, they don't look all that low grade and tatty to me.

I got up the energy to go through about half of this thread. Nice reward half way through

 

Ian, great stuff and I have appreciated the information you have been sharing.

 

 

I'm impressed how sharp they are.

The jpgs I have show a lot less detail.

Let's be clear. Ian comes back and in the matter of a couple of hours, people dredge up years old matter at the first chance. Makes for a welcoming place

 

I don't blame Ian one bit for being tired of the pettiness ...

Some people were very kind.

I got my "Supergear" through these boards as a trade, got given a Buzzy 70 for free as a present, and completed my entire collection with New Adventure 26 that someone passed onto Harley Yee for me.

These people were wonderful.

But others were not and drove me away, whilst at the same time accusing me of using them.

Who was the lovely guy who did the Supergear deal for me ?? Can't remember his name.

As grateful as I am to all those who helped me, yet the trolls seem to think it was my duty to come on here daily to prostrate myself in humility.

If you are truly trying to mend your ways

I'm not trying to mend anything.

I'm not aware of ever doing anything wrong.

I met some very nice people through here, and I met some who I hated.

I did nothing and would change nothing.

I am somewhat new here and don't know the whole story of what you did or did not do, but you have to have thick skin on here. Especially if you are going to take on as big of a task as you did.

I'm sorry but I don't see why one should result in the other.

I've just spent months helping DC without even charging them, just to help with their history.

I don't need to come on here to be bullied.

Certainly not all over again, for sure.

 

You clearly are utterly blind to your own conduct.

 

You were trolled in the main because you treated people like sh!te and you treated the resources of this board like sh!te.

 

You could have been an immense contributor to these boards, but instead everything you did or said was focused solely on yourself and your quest. You took a lot but gave little in return.

 

As I said, I commend your achievement...but not your conduct.

And you see, this is exactly why I kept away for five years.

 

Ian and Arnold Blumberg used to go at it regarding "fixing" Overstreet:

 

And now we go at it on Gallifrey Base.

Interesting how I've been answering questions from nice people on the other DC Completionist thread, and quite enjoying it, but yet when this albatross of a thread resurfaces, it brings all the unpleasant Usual Suspects back into the daylight.

Well ... if your goal is to truly own every DC comic ever to appear on a newstand, arguably you haven't met that goal with the Double Action that's on Comic Connect.

I don't get this.

My beautiful copy is here safe and sound and was just photographed by DC for the Taaschen book in November,

I commend Ian on what was undoubtedly an unbelievable achievement.

 

However, the manner in which he completed it and the way in which he treated these boards and the people who posted here...he made Cap look like Mother Theresa.

That's disgusting and unfair.

I had so much trolling on these boards, I simply didn't wish to be subjected to such persecution.

For every nice poster who meant well, there were ten trolls, back five years ago.

Rather than get embroiled, I just cleared out.

Wow !!.......what else is there to say.......(yea, even though this happened almost 4 years ago) .....Wow!!

You say that, but I'm still searching for some of the rarer promos, although yes I do have every DC comic ever released for sale right up to date.

Ian - Great collection...obviously.

 

What do you do about direct editions and newstand editions? Do you only collect one, both, or mixed?

 

Also, do you have all of the DC Burger King mini-comics? I thought about you when my daughter brought one home in a kids meal.

I'm only interested in one.

I only collect variant covers when the artwork is clearly different, apart from giveaway editions. The same applies to "pence" versions too. I think collecting both the direct editions and the newsstand ones becomes a bit anal.

I believe I have all the Burger King giveaways and minis unless you know of some I have missed.

Still need to know if anyone's ever seen this...

Kinda' funny how you've had 2 completely different board experiences... the second time has been quite the "charm" for you thus far.

You're quite right there.

I kept the scan from the guy I bought it from, if anybody wants to see what the rarest DC looks like.

I'm not sure it's technically the rarest DC, simply because it was pulled by DC for being illegal.

Plus I know of three copies in existence, whereas I only know of two copies of The Dirt-Minator, and DC themselves certainly don't have one.

Hi Ian,

 

I know this has probably been asked before... but do you scan each comic (the older ones or the rare ones at least) and have them in some sort of digital format for the future?

 

No but I did scan loads of the Doctor Fates from More Fun for Scott Nybakken, for the DC Archive Collection.

So, Flying Donut is a man of his word, and my holy grail of the DC promos finally arrived after so many years.

Dan thankyou. I so appreciate it.

I actually had given up on ever owning a "Supergear" and now I do. There's not that much else that I need now that I know about of the promos and giveaways.