davidtere

Thank you Oakman. I am most impressed with your post. I have to believe you have some crazy stories.

After a career in shipbuilding (new construction and repair military vessels), I published my first novel last year.

I'm not sure that Kirby intended this as a prelim, but it's not the finished piece. Unfinished and pure Jack pencils.

There are various versions of this prelim that Ward did before the finished piece. Some are rougher than this and one that I have seen is fairly tight. But this one is mine.

Take B&V 68

My only sketch cover.

I was fortunate to have picked up two complete Sagendorf 16 page OA stories. This is one of the pages. Love me some Popeye.

I'm amongst the group who didn't know him, but appreciated his posts. R.I.P.

I first searched for artists I was interested in. No luck. Then, I sifted through at least 3/4 of the art starting from highest to lowest. There were about 10 pieces that I was willing to take a closer look, but 8 out of the ten pieces, that caught my attention, and were fairly priced, were already gone (at least they had been removed). I'm guessing that means that someone was selling. Ultimately, I ended up not purchasing anything. I appreciate CAF and CAL. IMHO, many of the biggest dealers are pricing OA much like someone in this thread already stated, not like it's 2023, but like it's 2033. I wish them well.

Thank you Mike for facilitating this contest.

I love The Fly, but I mostly love Fly Girl. Here is my one and only OA Fly page by John Rosenberger

I am in

Matt Baker.

Jack Kirby. My favorite comic book artist and creator. Remembering the King's birthday with one of my favorite comics (Boys' Ranch) and OA from my CAF page.

Jon was a gentleman. He would take time for everyone and enjoyed sharing his love of the hobby. I was fortunate to know him through his contributions to the AACC and his visits to SDCC. He will be missed. My condolences to his friends and family. R.I.P. Mr. Berk.

Thank you CGC Mike for all the hard work you put into this contest. Your efforts are very much appreciated. Good luck to the finalists!

Only a certain amount of nostalgia is the driver to my comic book collecting and reading. I consider comic books to be the perfect medium for my entertainment. I started reading comics slightly after Robot Man and my first comic that I can remember was Batman # 161 (1963) and my first Marvel was Marvel Tales # 1. (1964). I enjoy good art and good stories, which is why the medium is perfect for me. I spent my wonder years reading Marvels (after my first one) until Kirby went to DC. My collecting interests mostly lie in the Golden (Fiction House and Fox and other GGA esoteric titles) and Silver age (Superman Family titles) and my favorite reading is DC late 50's to mid 60's), none of that for the most part were comics I read / collected when I was a kid. I love most everything produced by Simon & Kirby, no matter the genre. I read a comic story every day. I'm currently engaged with the Superman Omnibus Vol. 7 with the latest Barks reprint from Fantagraphics on deck. None of that is nostalgia driven. I just love comic books and comic book stories. Oh, yeah...and a bit of original comic book art strikes my fancy. I lead a fairly balanced life...married 40 years, adult children and the youngest grandchild just graduated H.S. and will be attending SDSU in the fall. As a retired guy, I keep busy with my home life, my dogs, golf, and I just received my author's copies of my first book that will be out sometime late fall, early winter. Very exciting times for a boomer. I like to check in on the boards to see what you all are doing. I'm appreciative of all of you who contribute regularly. You guys are a lot of fun and always give me a lot to think about regarding our hobby. Collect what you love, read what is fun. Enjoy what you do.

It's always fun. Thanks Mike! I'm in.

I always appreciated John Romita Sr.'s artwork. He was the best of the second wave of Marvel artists IMHO and his run on Amazing Spider-Man from # 39 to # 52 are some of my mid 60's favorites. I can't tell you how many hours I spent staring at the ASM covers especially 39 and 40. At first I was shocked...suddenly Peter Parker was handsome? I felt that after # 52 that the stories suffered a bit, but JRSR's artwork never faltered. One of my great moments was meeting him at an AACC banquet at SDCC. He gave me his address so that I could send him the picture I took of him and Gene Colan (there may have been someone else in the photo, but I don't remember. All my AACC photos are in floppy disc drives...someday I will need to get them converted into a viewable format). What a gentleman as well as a super nice guy. In his honor, I will read a couple ASM by him today (from the run listed above). I only have one piece of Romita Sr. original art (attached). As you can see, he did a pretty great Captain America. RIP Mr. Romita.

My personal favorite is 'All In Color for a Dime' by Lupoff and Thompson.

Exactly this.

My participation in these contest reminds me of my golf game. I'll be playing along, score a couple of pars, maybe even a birdie and then comes the inevitable quadruple bogey blow up hole making me remember what a snake killing hacker I am. Just the same, it's a lot of fun and I try not to over think any of it. I greatly appreciate Mike doing all the work to put these on. Thank you, Mike! I look forward to them.

Thank you Mike for all the time, work and effort (plus patience) for the grading contests.

I'll take the tripple dog dare. I've had this for several years now. The previous owner who sold it to me had it posted on his CAF page, but I haven't done that (so still within the Grape-ish ones rules). This is one of the original designs by Steranko for Harvey Comics in 1966. Later on he did other more detailed variations.

Got my set in the early to mid 90's. Used them so much I bought a backup set in case they ever fell apart on me. That hasn't happened yet. I still use them but not as often as I'm not chasing after Fox GGA comics any longer (completed all of the runs that I wanted)