STORMSHADOW_80

Also great seeing Scott Koblish again. He goes to a lot of SoCal conventions.

On to the convention... I got there early. First stop was CGC. I dropped of my universal batch of books. Then started getting signatures. Alex Sinclair was added to artist alley a couple days before the convention. He is the colorist for Jim Lee so I had him sign my batman books. Unfortunately I forgot to take a pic and never saw him later as he was doing panels and exclusives with Jim all day. It was great meeting Larry Hama!

As con time got closer, Wondercon did something different this year. Instead of having lines for the raffles for exclusive signings and panels they did it all online. Which I think is brilliant. You had to log in and confirm which exclusives you were interested in. I was only really interested in the Jim Lee signing as I haven't got a chance to meet him yet. Unfortunately I didn't get selected but it's all good it didn't affect my CGC books for Jim. I was really impressed by this system and wouldn't be surprised if SDCC did this too as many people complain about the linathon convention and Wondercon is part of the same organizers for SDCC.

X-Men 94. This is a book I've been meaning to pick up for a while. X-Men is one of the focuses of my collecting. One of my friends who is also the shop owner of Comics, Toons, & Toys in Tustin just got back a graded copy from CGC that would go perfect with my GSX. He gave me a great price on the book and was going to have a booth at the show so it was a great opportunity for me. Now I shifted gears and went into selling mode. I've had a few books I've wanted to offload for a bit as they don't fit in with my collection as good anymore and needed the money for Xmen 94 as well as CGC/signature costs. I sold a couple on my IG page. The rest one of my friends helped me out with listing on his ebay account. I got pretty much what I hoped for just in time. A few late nights packing up boxes but it was all worth it. Since that went well I decided to do another blue universal batch to drop off at CGC. A couple of these I already have graded copies of so they will help recoup the cost. There is a Robotech panel at the convention so I sent my New Generation 1 to keep with the theme  

I had this dilemma when I was first going after the X-Men books. I decided to go after all of them. There's some great X-Men history still in the later issues. Just sell off other books. That's what I'm going to be doing.

Now for the good stuff of 2018 Wondercon Once again after Cal Comic Con in Yorba Linda I decided to give Wondercon another shot. My initial planning was I could at least get the Jim Lee books done even if I just turned them into CGC for the private signing. So I bought a Friday ticket to be at the first day of the convention. Little did I know how much I would pack into that Friday. What I learned from the previous year is creator contingencies and to make a plan B. Not too long after I bought my tickets I saw Dan Jurgens name on the guest list. I was like cool he did death of Superman. I loved the story arc and it's historic impact. Still I wasn't like I have to have him sign something. Then I saw Larry Hama's name on the guest list. That was a game changer for me! As almost the sole G.I. Joe creator I had to meet him. I have a few graded Joe books already so I was sure I could come up with something.

Everyone collects a little differently. I like to think of myself as a well rounded collector. I hunt books, I hunt books a lot! I'm not a reseller so finding books in the wild helps me stay in my budget tremendously. The other year I went to an estate sale a little further than I normally would travel but I took my boys with me after their game. They found some baseball stuff and I found a nice lot of Superman 75s still in sealed bags along with some 90s X-Men metal figures. Fast forward to just a couple weeks before the show I was ecstatic when I came across some awesome Joe books in the wild!! I never even seen a Special in person before much less think I would find it in the wild. I decided to get 155 and the GI Joe Special 1 signed by Larry Hama instead of cracking my other graded Joe books. To top it off I saw Scott Koblish the Joe artist was going to be in artist alley so I could get them double signed!! Since I was getting those books done now and with my good fortune I thought I got to check out my Superman books to see if I had one in high grade. It's a slight risk as most people want them still sealed if I was to sell them later. At this point I already gave away about half of them to my friends, but I still had some. Out come the scissors. BOOM! The first copy I opened was super clean. I opened a few others in case I wanted to get two done. The others weren't that great. One of them has potential but I decided to set it aside for now. The Special, 155, and Sup 75 I was going to have fast tracked and CCS'd.

To conclude the 2017 convention. We made the best of it. My kids enjoyed seeing all the coplayers and took pics with some of their favorites. For me it was great meeting Craig Kyle. I learned the layout of the convention at least and learned what to expect from a Jim Lee signing. Onto to 2018...

Unfortunately I didn't realize how in demand Jim Lee was. After fighting traffic to get to the parking lot, I got in the convention on Saturday shortly after they opened. First stop CGC. They had done their private signing with Jim Lee the day before. I thought no biggie I wanted to meet Mr. Lee anyways. My witness and I went to his line just to find out that it was closed off. They actually had people lining up at 6 in the morning for a chance to be in a raffle to win a wristband to be in his Saturday signing. Well there goes that. I didn't want to submit those book for blue labels so I just held onto them until this year. Coming off of Terry's show Cal Comic Con about a month before I didn't have big comic plans other than the Jim Lee books. There wasn't much interest for me on the guest list. Craig Kyle was a guest at the CGC booth so I brought my NYX 3 to be signed. In this instance I didn't want to crack it open so I had him just sign the case. (I had just got it reholdered in the new case) I'm happy with it. His signature is nice and neat and doesn't look bad even though it is on the outside. My 2 year old daughter loves super heroes so we had her cosplay as X23. The Logan movie was being released around this time. Mr. Kyle thought my daughters cosplay was really cool. I told Mr. Kyle that his X-Force team got me back into collecting and NYX3 was actually the first CGC book I purchased. A very good move on my part as back then it was cheap.

So 2017. The week after Wondercon that year my kids were going to be on Spring break. So we decided to combine Wondercon with a family vacation. We went to Sea World San Diego the following couple of days. This was my first time going to Wondercon. As far as books went my main focus was getting some books signed by Jim Lee. I saw he was going to be there Friday and Saturday. We went with Saturday tickets so I didn't have to have my kids miss school and they could settle in the hotel. When I get books signed I do a lot of prep work. I use top loaders with a window cut as well as a backboard in front. I have all my info filled on the backboards along with a separate bag & board to put the books in after they are signed. I started off with 7 books but narrowed it down to 5.

Will do! It's an 8.5.

I still have my Wolverine and Punishers. Those were some of the first books I remembered reading when I was a kid. One run I almost had complete was GI Joe. Then I gave up because the later issues were so expensive only to later find the later issues in the wild a couple weeks ago I wish I still had the run. It would have been only a few issues away from 1-155

That's the list. Thanks man! It's taken me a while to get there, but worth the effort. I should be picking up a 94 next weekend

Other runs I've finished have been fun too. Wolverine 1-189 was my first full run. Then followed by Punisher vol1 and war journal.

.....ASM is also a dream for me. But you know how that goes

Excellent choice for a journal! I too have this same dream. I also started reading X-men in the late 80s and has always been a fave for me. About 5 years ago I decided to get serious about collecting but not sure where my focus would end up. I bought a few small collections and noticed I had a pretty decent run of Late bronze and copper X-Men. At first I wasn't sure if I would go past 300 but decided why not.

My current list just so you know where I'm coming from is 1-12, 14-17, 20, 27, 28, 35, 42, 43, 50, 65-94, 448, 453, 456, 458, 460, 463-467, 470, 478, 491, 495, 496, 497, 507, 512, 513, 534, 535, 537, 538, 539, 542, 543, 544

A lot of the later issues can be found in discount bins. Or even cheap online so I'm not too worried about those. Like you silver and early bronze age is the hardest for me. I've been able to knock off some by looking for sales locally, and even at conventions. I was able to get some from friends on social media (IG). I too struggled with still wanting to collect a lot of new titles but I found once I gave those up it became a lot easier.

Are you going to go after the reprints? I'm a bit undecided, or at least it will be secondary for me.

Good luck with the hunt!

Good stuff! I hope it grades high for you. I look forward to seeing what you are getting done at the upcoming shows.

1 hour ago, Comics-n-ERB said:

Very nice work!  Really like it!

Thank you very much!

8 hours ago, Lucky Baru said:

Thanks for sharing that.  Very NICE!

You're very welcome! Thanks for checking it out. Much appreciated 

On 8/17/2017 at 8:21 PM, shadroch said:

Fantastic.    Much as I'd love one, I would never ever be able to do that.

Great workshop, by the way.

Thanks Shadroch. Sorry for the delayed response. I haven't checked this journal in a while. Honestly I would have paid up some to just buy one of these but they only made them in kits.

I've been slacking but I have started the war machine statue. I added custom lighting to it and mainly just need to work on the painting now. My goal is to have that done within the next couple of weeks so I can put it with my Punisher display since Frank will be the new war machine in the book that comes out.

6 hours ago, Brian48 said:

 

Thanks Brian!

Got Conan home the other day. Now he is in his resting place.  He barely fit on the detolf shelf. I'm really proud to be able to put a blue ribbon next to it. 

I took the day off of work so my son and I could check out the first day of the fair. I won first place!!!! I'm so happy  There were many other great exhibits. People really get into the model planes and cars.

Here he is all set up. I had to reserve a larger case because of the size. I left him there for the duration of the fair for a couple weeks 

On 7/12/2017 at 5:10 PM, STORMSHADOW_80 said:

Thank you! New journal and being able to upload pics was pretty cool. I'm going to enter the statue in my county fair in a couple weeks. Fingers crossed I get a ribbon. That will be first time entering something.

Here is Conan on his way to the fair. I was pretty nervous on the drive. 

12 hours ago, oakman29 said:

Just an amazing job. 

On 7/10/2017 at 6:05 PM, nepatkm said:

Looking great!!! Like the eye change 

Always great to have a good helper. 

Thank you guys! I took some better pics last night now that it is more dry

42 minutes ago, Bobbyusc said:

Turned out amazing!  Thanks for sharing.  Hopefully this will inspire you to start AND post future projects.

Thank you! New journal and being able to upload pics was pretty cool. I'm going to enter the statue in my county fair in a couple weeks. Fingers crossed I get a ribbon. That will be first time entering something.

All finished. Necklace was a pain getting through the holes again. Added the clear coat that is still drying. I'll take some better pics once it dries all the way. Thanks for everyone checking out my journal. It was a cool project and I learned a ton.