Comix4Sale

Great Godzilla page to go along with your CGC ranked set. James

Chromium Man #3 cover by Adam Pollina Most may not remember this Triumphant Comics independent but it brings back memories of good times for me. My friend, John Riley, owner of Grasshopper's Comics on Long Island, NY, wrote Chromium Man and many other titles in the Triumphant universe. I reached out to Adam and he still had this painting available and I couldn't be happier to own and display this piece on my wall. James

Lots of SS books listed in my eBay store. Contact me through the boards messaging. James

Hi there, Can you please add me to the list? board name: comix4sale ebay name: comix4sale Thanks, James

Darn you Bagofleas, now I feel compelled to write one. This is a difficult list as the last two years seem to blur together. In January of 2013 I got back into comics after a 10 year hiatus. I have never felt as youthful. I've made some great friends at the cons along the way and that would have been my #1 item of a 2013 list. 10 - Crisis on Infinite Earths #7 CGC SS 9.8 (George Perez). The death of Supergirl cover is a classic. Honorable mention to CGC SS #8 which saw the heroic death of Barry Allen. 9 - Fifteen different Superman and Man of Steel issues in CGC SS 9.8 signed by Dan Jurgens and Louise Simonson respectively. Others broke the rules with multiples in a single listing so I will continue with the anarchy I also have a number of Jerry Ordway signed issues at CGC now. 8 - Fifteen different X-Factors issues from #1-39 in CGC SS 9.8 signed by Walt and Louise Simonson. 7 - Sandman Overture #1 blank cover with interconnected Sandman and Death sketches by Serena Guerra (Mouse Guard colorist) at NYCC 2014. 6 - Batman: Dark Knight of the Round Table #1 and 2 CGC SS 9.8 (Jose Luis Garcia-Lopez). I own an original art page from #2 where Bruce in armor lays the sword Excalibur on Arthur's chest at his funeral. 5 - Dreamwalker #0 CGC SS 9.8 (Eric Powell - 1st Goon appearance). I submitted this at Baltimore Comic Con 2014. I originally purchase this directly from the Dreamwalker creator, Jenni Gregory, when she had a table next to mine at a con back in 1999. 4 - Justice League of America #11 blank cover CGC SS 9.8 with a Black Canary pouting sketch by Kevin Maguire. I've been a big fan of his since his work on Justice League in 1987. The JL #1 from 1987 CGC SS 9.8 (Maguire, Giffen, DeMatteis) would have been my #2 in 2013 (see opening paragraph for #1). 3 - Invaders #1 blank covers CGC SS 9.8 (x3) with interconnected sketches of Human Torch, Captain America and Submariner by George Perez. Poor George... He doesn't know what I have planned for him in 2015. 2 - An original comic art watercolor by David Wenzel from the Hobbit #1 published by Eclipse in 1989. I purchased this directly from David at NYCC 2014. I was shocked that there was still a page available. 1.5 - Strangers in Paradise v2 #1 variant cover - Terry Moore was at NYCC 2014 this year so I got his signature on this cover. I had not anticipated that Jim Lee would be at the show and that Mike J, a CGC witness, would be facilitating his signature. What makes this double signature so significant is that I own the original cover art to this issue. What makes it a half grade is that the comic is at CGC going through the grading process so... BONUS... I get to list it next year too when I actually get it back. 1 - An original Joe Giella Batman and Riddler painting. Joe generously donated this made for charity piece to support a Long Island, NY children's charity for Grasshopper's Comics annual charity raffle (www.JTCF.org). It is like Make-a-Wish for Long Island kids. I was absolutely stunned when my name was called for the first pick. Next year I pledge to pay it forward with a larger donation and to contribute some CGC books to the raffle to support this worthy cause. All artwork and sketch covers mentioned above are featured in my Comic Art Fan gallery (linked below). Stop by and leave a comment if you wish. Have a Happy New Year! James To see old comments for this Journal entry, click here. New comments can be added below.

This just arrived directly from Romeo Tanghal on Christmas Eve Happy Holidays! James

Hi all, I picked this up at NYCC 2014. Got it directly from David Wenzel. Hung it on my Man Cave wall with other art and prints. Had the comics signed by David and CGC Signature Series graded. What a memorable experience for me to document along the way. Thanks for looking. James

Gonna bring these outside as the base for my snow fort this winter. The postman came this week and told my wife that my mail would not fit in his truck and that I would need to pick them up. These are most of the invoices submitted at NYCC 2014 in October. There are still three more invoices of books that went to CCS for pressing first. I did not peak at the grades online when they were marked Shipped/Safe and am looking forward to spending the day pulling each book out for the reveal. Fingers crossed for 9.8s and dare I dream for at least on 9.9 (or 10). All are signature series. Thanks to my friends the Bloom, Bagofleas and Tnerb for helping out with these. See you all in Baltimore next year! Also in the mail this week was an Original Art page from DC Firsts - Batgirl and Joker by Terry Moore and Jimmy Palmiotti. I am bordering on cyber-stalking Terry, looking for his artwork online. James To see old comments for this Journal entry, click here. New comments can be added below.

NYCC and Baltimore 2014 Stats NYCC 2014: First off, I picked up a number of Original Art pages and completely blew my budget. Second, I commissioned too many sketch covers and torpedoed what remained of my cash after already blowing my budget. Darn those dealers who take credit cards 6 Invoices 170 Books 221 Signatures 18 Creators 10 Sketch Covers 2 Creators missed 11 Books coming home, not submitted Special thanks to Mike B. and especially Ally at the CGC table in artist alley for working their butts off. Like Baltimore, thanks to Mike J (CGC witness) for helping me get Jim Lee's signature. Some of you may have seen my Baltimore stats but I don't think I posted the journal correctly so here it is again. Baltimore 2014: 14 Invoices 387 Books 465 Signatures 32 Creators 3 Sketch Covers 4 Creators missed 14 Books coming home, not submitted I could have not accomplished this without the help from the following people: - My wife -- She puts up with me and my silly hobby - Bloom -- My friend who came to Baltimore with me and laid out the convention floor where each creator was and texted me when their lines were reasonable - Bagofleas -- He was in the right place at the right time for me. Help keep the Walt only and Louise only books separate from the W&L Simonson books. - Tnerb -- For keeping me fed by inviting me to the dinner group each night - Mike B, CGC SS -- For making sure that I always got a witness when I needed one and being a hell of a nice guy - Mike J, CGC Witness -- For being there for most of my signatures and letting me text him when I needed a witness to come. A fellow Long Islander too! - Cynthia, Molly, and Brittany, CGC -- Thank you for your patience as I juggled books while we closed out invoices. - Baltimore Comic Con: Staff and Minions -- For putting on a great Comic Book show! Now I can enjoy NYCC without the stress of collecting as many signatures. If I can get Terry Moore, Bill Sienkiewcz, James O'Barr, Howard Chaykin, Erik Larsen and Peter David I'll be very content. Stay tuned for posts with pictures of my Original Art and Sketch Cover Commissions. James

How about they put the slab inside a mylite bag, then put the sticker on that? I assume they are storing them that way so that the slabs don't scratch each other... One would think. I know it is about the book but would a restaurant serve filet mignon on a garbage can lid? James

Which one at 9.2 would I want in my collection? Cerebus 1. I would be very happy with that grade on the book but would want a higher grade on Incredible Hulk 181 because they are out there above 9.2. James

Cannot wait until next year already 14 Invoices 387 Books 465 Signatures 32 Creators 3 Sketch Covers 4 Creators missed 14 Books coming home, not submitted I could have not accomplished this without the help from the following people: - My wife -- She puts up with me and my silly hobby - Bloom -- My friend who came to Baltimore with me and laid out the convention floor where each creator was and texted me when their lines were reasonable - Bagofleas -- He was in the right place at the right time for me. Help keep the Walt only and Louise only books separate from the W&L Simonson books. - Tnerb -- For keeping me fed by inviting me to the dinner group each night - Mike B, CGC SS -- For making sure that I always got a witness when I needed one and being a hell of a nice guy - Mike J, CGC Witness -- For being there for most of my signatures and letting me text him when I needed a witness to come. A fellow Long Islander too! - Cynthia, Molly, and Brittany, CGC -- Thank you for your patience as I juggled books while we closed out invoices. - Baltimore Comic Con: Staff and Minions -- For putting on a great Comic Book show! Now I can enjoy NYCC without the stress of collecting as many signatures. If I can get Terry Moore, Bill Sienkiewcz, James O'Barr, Howard Chaykin, Erik Larsen and Peter David I'll be very content. James

I'm a big hockey fan and was fortunate to come across an original Betty cover. Then, earlier this year, Stan Goldberg came to my LCS for free comic book day. He drew a sketch for me of Veronica (in my uniform #19), extending the cover art. Stan is in his 80's and has had some health issues lately. I pray that he makes a full recovery. Edit: Sadly, Stan has passed away this weekend. He will be missed. James

Love the statues. It's nice that you have room to display them. Mine sit in boxes in storage. I boarder between hoarding and collecting. James

I can plainly see that. And why might some of my choices in life seem foolish in hindsight. Let's look at the time period of the late 1980's to about 2003 when I was a regular on the comic book convention scene in the New York area. Here is a list of some of the shows that I set up at: East Meadow -- At the time, this was the longest running monthly show in the New York area, run by Perry. I used to have two tables and would lug about 20 long boxes down a steep flight of stairs every month. Oh, my aching back. Thank you to Peter, the son of another vendor, who helped me in exchange for credit at my table. One day a collector brought in 3 copies of Iron Man 55 in what I remember as 9.0+ shape. He wanted $50 each and I passed on them because that was high at the time and I did not think that Thanos would be a major character after the Infinity Gauntlet storyline in 1991. D'oh! Rockville Center -- I remember a new "kid" setting up a table at the show who showed a lot of promise in the way he interacted with customers and even other dealers. He went on to be a major part of Metropolis Comics and have a job that I envy. Cheers, Vinny! I also remember a few guys at the show bringing stacks of original art and selling them from $10 a page and up. I never bought one Great Eastern Conventions -- I used to drive from Long Island, NY to New Jersey at least twice a month to set up at Fred Greenberg's shows. Once I did his big show in Boston and had a choice of an non-prime location or a table very close to where an up and coming artist was going to be signing books. I chose the one with more foot traffic. The line in front of my table was crazy all day but no one even looked at my stuff or the other dealers in the area, not even when the line wasn't moving. Everyone just stood there waiting for Todd McFarlane to sign their books. Luckily someone fought his way through the crowd a bought Iron Man #2-8 from me that day at my full asking price. Same Boston show - I did have someone who responded to my employee classified ad in my regular job's newsletter regarding "Comics Wanted" show up. He brought a dresser drawer, literally, to my table. Other dealers were trying to entice him to see what he had but fortunately he came straight to me. He had Amazing Spider-man #1-170 plus Amazing Fantasy 15. I took them back to New York (along with the drawer), evaluated them and asked him what he wanted for them to open the negotiations. I gave him a few hundred dollars more than his asking price and still got a sweet deal. I have yet to truly refine my negotiating skills. So far, I've only had CGC grade the AF 15 (2.0 SS Stan Lee) and the AS 1 (4.5 SS Stan Lee) from that collection (see photo). All the other issues were removed from that drawer and now reside in Mylars. People can argue all day about having key silver age books signed but IT'S STAN LEE. If they were higher grade I probably would have passed on the signatures. Selfless plug -- I remember JP also doing the Great Eastern shows and now he runs some very successful shows in New Jersey. We reminisced about the "olden days" and I hope to start setting up in the future at his shows. I also did the monthly Farmingdale, Bayshore, and Floral Park, NY shows if anyone is still reading or thinks they might recognize me if they attended these shows. I stopped doing shows in the early 2000's when I got married and my regular job required more travelling. I couldn't also be selling at a con on weekends when I wasn't home all week. So, was I a fool for some of the choices I made? I don't think so. Everyone lets a purchase opportunity pass and regrets it once in a while. Could I have become a successful Comic Dealer... probably, but right out of college I got a job in the tax department of one of Wall Street's leading Investment Banking firms. How could I could pass up that opportunity with regular paycheck with health benefits? Should I have continued doing shows, even if I cut down to one or so a month? Looking back, I might have sold many of the books from this wonderful collection that I own now. Or I might have spent a lot more buying collections that came past my table and be in some crazy debt right now. I'm happy with the way things turned out. Fortunately I got back into the hobby early last year and have been rejuvenated. I don't buy much now but I enjoy attending shows and getting some of my books autographed and CGC SS graded. I have met some of the boardies at the CGC table and have started friendships from the "pod" as we called it that would stick together with a CGC witness to each get all our books autographed by the same artists. Name dropping: Bagofleas and Tnerb. One last thing: I forgot to give credit to Mick Jagger for the Subject line of my last journal. This one is from Mark Evanier and Sergio Aragones (Groo). I am prone to quoting movies, songs and comics, sometime obscure ones. James To see old comments for this Journal entry, click here. New comments can be added below.

Rune, Many thanks for the hard work and dedication put into the gallery. It was nice to stroll through the "museum" and see some items from my younger days. I have some of the BWS issues, though probably not high grade and it takes time to pull books from my collection to just admire the covers. Gotta love technology even though I'd prefer holding the original and admiring it. I'm partial to remembering #24, the 1st Red Sophia appearance. Oops, meant "Sonja", I'm currently reading Cerebus. The page one splash comes to mind most vividly. BWS at his finest. James

Lacking in wealth and well, taste is subjective. I started collecting when my parents took me to a large Flea Market when was about 10 years old. There was a vendor selling comics and my dad let me pick out a few. I remember an issue of "Kamandi, The Last Boy on Earth", "Adventure Comics" with Superboy and the Legion of Super-Heroes, "Fantastic Four" with Silver Surfer and a "Justice League of America " comic book. Looks like I went for team books. I always looked forward to when my parents went discount shopping, even though they spent hours and hours, just so I could dig through the boxes to buy something to read during the long day. I purchased a copy of that Kamandi issue, #29, on eBay (CGC 9.6) to hang in my office. Ironically it was my first CGC graded comic. As I got older, I began to see my ever-growing pile of comics as a "collection". I created an inventory list so I could fill in the gaps, mainly to finish reading the storyline. Eventually I began to notice that some of the issues that I needed cost more money than others. The key book for me was Batman #232 by Neal Adams so I could learn Ra's al Ghul's origin. This was a whole new way of thinking for me. It was also the first time I recognized a particular artist to follow on top of what already made comics appealing to me, the characters and stories. I helped the local candy store owner put out the new books every week so I could get nice copies of each title on my list. Then I found out about Comic Book Conventions! I shoveled snow, weeded gardens, raked leaves and anything else I could help the neighbors with to work for money to spend on comics. And I read every book I bought. As my collection grew, I knew I needed to sell some books to make room and be able to afford other books on my want list. I approached the local comic show organizer and he let me rent a table for the next show. I loved it! I met people with similar interests, sold some items and bought even more. I eventually branched out into Cards and Action Figures. My collection grew exponentially when I worked with a local comic store and then got my own Diamond account. In 2003 my priorities changed. I got married and closed my account and stopped selling. In 2013 I came back to comics and all the youthful emotions came flooding back. Now I sell mainly on my eBay store but would love to set up at some conventions again, regular job permitting. Every item I list brings to mind treasured memories... but I usually only part with duplicates as I cannot seem to let things go completely. Thanks for reading! James To see old comments for this Journal entry, click here. New comments can be added below.