BassGMan

YYZ is awesome, but La Villa Strangiato would be unreal. What would be unreal would be finding anyone but Alex Lifeson who can play it right. Exactly! The thing is though, how many people are even going to notice or care if it is just 80-90% right? Only a few Rush fans and musicians, and not even all of those! It all comes down to who is willing to put in the time to make everything note for note when few if ever will even notice how exact the performance is to the original. Heck I don't have the patience to learn all my stuff note for note. I'm more interested in the babes in the crowd moreso than pleasing the couple of musicians waiting to pick everything apart and be critics. As a musician I keep this in mind when seeing other performers too. I get no more satisfaction from seeing a guy nail it note for note than one who doesn't get it exactly right but still plays really well. I'm more interested in great musicians than musicians just playing something exactly like the original. Sorry, a bit of topic!

Sounds awesome! I'm envious that I won't be there, and even MORE envious that I'm not there playing bass with y'all! Combining rock music with comics is unfortunately a double pleasure I have never indulged in.

First time I saw the date for next year! Waiting one day less than a year. Cool, because for this year we waited almost two weeks more than a year! I think last year was July 8-12 or something like that.

I like her hairdo better on Gotham. -slym Yum! I loved her in Homeland, especially the very first episode of the series - if ya' know what I mean. Morena will be making an appearance at the Emerald City Comicon next month. I would pay for a photo op with her but I am not so geekboy that I am willing to stand in line for who knows how long just to get it.

Move ahead twenty years.You could still ask the same thing.Though he is old enuff, Bruce still relies on Alfred. 20 years ahead and it is a completely different situation where Bruce obviously does not need a legal guardian anymore. He still relies on Alfred of course, but in very different ways than when he was a child.

I just got caught up in this series. I'm really loving it now. The first six or seven episodes I thought were somewhat juvenile as I could not stand the lame "villain of the week" concept, but the show has since grown up. Question: Alfred is the legal guardian of Bruce since the death of his parents. But Alfred is also the butler and is now Bruce's employee. Who has authority there? Does it just depend? I see Bruce telling Alfred what to do and Alfred does seem to do what Master Bruce wants, but other times Alfred seems to have authority over Bruce. So legally who has the authority? Does it depend on the situation? Does Bruce need to respect Alfred's wishes as his legal guardian and does Alfred need to respect Bruce as his boss and be a good employee?

Homeland? Much bigger role than she had in Firefly. I never saw Firefly but I'm a big Homeland fan and I enjoyed her in that, especially that first episode, and before she cut her hair.

I agree. The Penguin is just stealing the show. Every scene that guy is in is enjoyable. I would have thought that would be the impact The Joker had (whenever he shows up!) but now look what he needs to top. People expect The Joker to be the cool one, so hopefully they have something great in store for us, otherwise it will be a disappointment after having such a great Penguin. This was my favorite episode of the series so far. After the last couple I was even thinking of dropping it. I was becoming bored with the typical psycho of the week. I thought all of them were pretty lame. Tonight's episode was the first where they gave us something more interesting. Hmmmm... I always thought of Pengy being a little cheesy in the comics. I wonder if this series is going to cause a spike in his early or better appearances?

Considering that they came from Terminus, I am sure that by now they must be fairly well aware that everyone turns upon their deaths, and at what point after death does the meat become tainted? At least on the show, the bodies were bled out, but we don't know at what point they were decapitated. Certainly they died before this, so would the meat become tainted immediately? And no guarantee that eating tainted meat would cause them to die from infection the same way a bite would. I am no expert on the matter but I think that food does not necessarily enter the blood stream.

The Penguin is still by far the best character in the show and I am looking forward to his rise in the ranks. I am anxiously awaiting the arrival of The Joker. Have we heard when that will be? Any clues out there?

The Penguin/Cobblepot just steals the show every time he is in a scene.

I call it a plus when humour is used in a drama, Sopranos, Six Feet Under, Breaking Bad did it well. Walking Dead can use it once and awhile Those three shows you mentioned are three of my favorite series ever. Sopranos really did not have campy humor, just some light touches here and there, a bit of exaggeration perhaps but not too bad. Breaking Bad had some humor in there, especially with Sol, but I would not call it corny. Six Feet Under perhaps was cornball at times, especially in the intro scenes where they would come up with some bizarre way of killing someone off in a freak accident. This show, Gotham, is taking something that is trying to be a drama and tossing in all kinds of cornball cartoon humor in there, making it hard to take this show seriously. Maybe that is what audiences want, I don't know, but I prefer the more somber Walking Dead atmosphere. However I am still watching Gotham, at least for now, because I like the idea behind it, basically Batman: Year -10. Plus the Penguin is just plain cool. Like what? The whole balloonman thing was just silly. The way they were handcuffed and lifted to the sky was like slapstick comedy. In the premier episode the way Bullock and Gordon were hung upside down in the meat locker was campy. Some of the over the top dialogue and scenes are not handled realistically, even considering this unrealistic setting. I like a show that takes a setting, albeit not very realistic, but that at least handles itself seriously within that setting. This show does not do that, it is silly. But I watch it for the interesting visuals and because I am a Batman fan. I just wish it was handled more seriously, but I realize that is just me, a lot of people like those humorous touches. I like a drama to be dramatic, and a comedy to be funny, when they meet it doesn't work for me.

I call it a plus when humour is used in a drama, Sopranos, Six Feet Under, Breaking Bad did it well. Walking Dead can use it once and awhile Those three shows you mentioned are three of my favorite series ever. Sopranos really did not have campy humor, just some light touches here and there, a bit of exaggeration perhaps but not too bad. Breaking Bad had some humor in there, especially with Sol, but I would not call it corny. Six Feet Under perhaps was cornball at times, especially in the intro scenes where they would come up with some bizarre way of killing someone off in a freak accident. This show, Gotham, is taking something that is trying to be a drama and tossing in all kinds of cornball cartoon humor in there, making it hard to take this show seriously. Maybe that is what audiences want, I don't know, but I prefer the more somber Walking Dead atmosphere. However I am still watching Gotham, at least for now, because I like the idea behind it, basically Batman: Year -10. Plus the Penguin is just plain cool.

I'm liking the show but I really can't stand some of the corniness in there. That feels campy to me. I'd like the show to get more serious and cut the comedy. I've never liked a drama with a comedic overtone. That is why I like Walking Dead so much, it is dead serious, no cornball humor.

Yeah I never thought they could cultivate the Penguin into anything worthwhile but they are doing great with the character. And did we not possibly already see the Joker in the first episode The producer of the show was asked about that during an interview. He hinted at one of the acts may end up as Joker. But he wouldn't confirm this just yet. I think I read somewhere that the producers were going to throw a few characters in there of people who might end up being The Joker. The first of course was the comedian from episode one, and there may be a few more "maybes" until he is revealed. The comedian to me looked too innocent and normal to be The Joker. The Penguin actor, even out of character during interviews still has that twisted look and I'm guessing the actor who portrays The Joker will have a look like that as well. Hoping for a look something like Willem Dafoe.

I like the show but can do without the campy humorous touches. I love The Penguin and my guess is that they are going to make us wait in anticipation for the introduction of The Joker.

This whole "First Silver...", "First Bronze..", etc. appearances is just pure BS concocted by OS and their dealer coalition to drive demand towards more available books. A lot of these GA books are quite rare, so instead of looking for them fruitlessly, the OS advisors decided to artificially create new first appearances based on era. Those books were easily obtainable, and flipped for massive profits, so the trend continued. But it's just one big scam. That sounds like an awful lot of speculation, and then to accuse OS and the "dealer's coalition" of a big scam sounds kinda' over the top if you ask me. I think the more notes OS wants to put into their listings the better. If anything, I would guess, but I am not going to make an accusatory statement, that it was we the collectors who were the ones that made "2nd appearance" or "first silver age appearance", etc. stand out as something worthy of being mentioned in the guide. We collectors can come up with all kinds of excuses as to why WE are going to make a book hot, first artist on a character, first time a writer has worked at a company, first battle between two well known characters and etc. Yeah, like OS and dealers are going to try to sell their existing inventory for higher profits by including more informative text in the OS price guide. Granted, some of those notes do help collectors seek out issues based on these added facts, but that applies to every stat listed. These are great points. I think it works both ways. You don't think dealers end up with truckloads of a particular book and spread stories about why it should be worth something? I can understand that theory, but is it really practical? We can come up with an idea like that and even make it sound like it makes sense, but has this really been done? And if it has, has it actually made any impact? If so, can anyone provide any examples?

This whole "First Silver...", "First Bronze..", etc. appearances is just pure BS concocted by OS and their dealer coalition to drive demand towards more available books. A lot of these GA books are quite rare, so instead of looking for them fruitlessly, the OS advisors decided to artificially create new first appearances based on era. Those books were easily obtainable, and flipped for massive profits, so the trend continued. But it's just one big scam. That sounds like an awful lot of speculation, and then to accuse OS and the "dealer's coalition" of a big scam sounds kinda' over the top if you ask me. I think the more notes OS wants to put into their listings the better. If anything, I would guess, but I am not going to make an accusatory statement, that it was we the collectors who were the ones that made "2nd appearance" or "first silver age appearance", etc. stand out as something worthy of being mentioned in the guide. We collectors can come up with all kinds of excuses as to why WE are going to make a book hot, first artist on a character, first time a writer has worked at a company, first battle between two well known characters and etc. Yeah, like OS and dealers are going to try to sell their existing inventory for higher profits by including more informative text in the OS price guide. Granted, some of those notes do help collectors seek out issues based on these added facts, but that applies to every stat listed.

Nope, according to greedy OS advisors, those are all BA (Wolverine Ltd was released mid-1982 BTW) and everything through 1984. I think we should give collectors more credit. We aren't THAT stupid! I don't care who says what about when BA started or ended. I buy what I want to buy and for me personally I consider BA as being the 70s decade, '70 -'79 and that's it. Is anyone really going to use these definitions of when the ages start or end as part of their criteria for deciding what to purchase? Like I said, we are not that dumb.... I hope.

I don't know about that. The economy may be terrible or great depending on your personal situation. For those that are unemployed and/or broke, obviously they aren't buying many comics and the economy just sucks, but for others that have retained their jobs (by far the huge majority of us) and especially for those invested in the stock market which is booming and currently at an all time high, for those the economy is doing quite well. There are ALOT of people that have plenty of money to spare right now. With that said, depending on what people are buying, there are some deals out there to be had and there are record prices being paid out there as well. It's all relative.

That's a surprise! I just dug out my BFs and I've got a very nice copy. Might be going to Ebay! Any others in this series doing anything? Was I correct in seeing somewhere that the Joker's daughter is reappearing in new comics?

Sterl, I've been around, just haven't contributed much since I haven't been buying any comics over the last 6-9 months. I'm still in bass collecting mode but slowing down. I think I'm done buying and am gonna stay put at about 20 or so (with about 15 others ready to sell). So now I'm trying to get inspired again about comics. And like others have said, the nostalgia part is one of the main forces that is bringing me back. This thread made me think about 100-pagers again.

Totally. In my 40s now, about 90% of my collecting interests are driven by nostalgia. I feel like an old fogie saying that, but it's true. Something about these 100-pagers, and to a lessor degree the Marvel Giant-Size issues really brings that all back. Perhaps it was because of all the cool reprints in the back, all the ads for Sea-Monkeys and X-ray specs and life-size Frankenstein monsters just made these books so cool. Yeah, I don't really care about the graded copies, but nuthin' much beats flippin' through a 100 pages of 70s comic goodness.

As usual, from my experiences the grading on Ebay is more likely to be off in the higher grades than in the mid and lower grades. Since price really starts to escalate around 9.2 and up, there is NO WAY that I would ever buy a raw comic on Ebay advertised as being any higher than a VF/NM. I think since the 9.0s and under (generally speaking) are reasonably priced, dealers are not trying to squeeze that extra grade as much as with higher grade books. Yeah, it happens when they say 9.0 and you get a 7.5 or a 8.0, but the frequency is much less, and considering you are not talking multiples in price for an 8.0 or a 9.0, it is much easier to take, and less costly for sure. Granted, I'm not really into high grades, but during times when I was looking for a super high grade book, I just wait for the conventions. I feel that if you are looking for a 9.4 and up raw book on Ebay and you actually get one, consider yourself lucky, as it is certainly not the norm.

Hey, I'm becoming like Shiverbones recently, just barely making an appearance from time to time. I just wanted to "check in" and say " " and " " to the boyz. I feel as if I've been neglecting my "comic side" recently for my other collecting interest, bass guitars. The comic fever has left me temporarily, but it'll be back soon enough and I'll be joining you guys again at that time. In the meantime, keep up all the posting as I am often still reading along . I also hope that some of you will be in San Diego coming up in July as I'll certainly be there. Andy, hook up with your cousin and make the trip, it's well worth it.