Solsticeguy-migration

The death of Destiny and the birth of my collection. Salutations to everyone, For your viewing pleasure, pictured below is Uncanny X-Men # 255 graded at 9.8. In this issue, Destiny dies at the hands of the Reavers. This is the comic book that started my addiction. My mother had taken my brother and I to Walgreens to fill a prescription. As we waited for the pharmacist, our mother indulged us each with a comic book from a spinner rack. I had picked out X-Factor 48 with the Jean Grey cover and my brother picked this Uncanny X-Men. I thought the covers were amazing and compelling. As soon as my brother put down his comic, I picked it up and read it, read it again, and then read it some more. The spark hit me. I was hooked. The story was amazing. There were so many X-Men that I did not recognize and all with different powers, most wearing the iconic X-Men colors. The X-Men in this comic book were on Muir Island. It seemed exotic to have the X-Men in Europe and under siege. Chris Claremont's writing was fantastic and the story was so rich with various threads. My only previous exposure to the X-Men was with the Saturday morning cartoon, Spider-Man and his Amazing Friends, in the mid 80's. So we had picked up this comic book probably 5 years later and it proved to be more than what I had dreamt. This is one of my all-time favorite comic books. It does not hold much value but to me it's priceless with all the wonder and magic that it gave me and the memory it has given me of my mother. She is alive but it is nice to appreciate our loved ones today. It has been about a year since I last posted. I am glad to be posting again on these chat boards. To see old comments for this Journal entry, click here. New comments can be added below.

How to plan for 2014? Happy New Year Everyone, Here we are at the start of a new year. Started the year off to a good start with the ubiquitous New Year's traditions with family and friends, a toast at midnight, lucky grapes, money in the pockets, lucky dinner with greens, Hoppin' John black eyed peas and lucky pork, a clean house, laundry all washed, and a freshly trimmed Einstein, my dog (a trimmed dog is not necessarily good luck but it goes along with having everything in order). This is the first year we've done so many luck rituals. I hope one of them pans out. Here I am now trying to plan on how to make the most of 2014. I asked myself, "what am I missing and what can I do better?" These are big questions. I have a plan for the big life goals but I am stuck in a quandary when it comes to my comic book life. Having only recently joined CGC, I am building up my CGC Registry Points. Right now I'm at a meager 1,119 but it is inching up. I just realized I do not have anything pending from CGC so I need to submit some moderns and early 1960's issues from my complete sets of Avengers and Uncanny X-Men. As it takes quite a bit of pocket change to do this, I will be submitting sporadically with the most economical options. But my biggest realization has been that in all my 20 some years of collecting comic books, I did not have an autograph from Stan Lee. Let's be honest, I don't have very many autographs period. I only just went to my first comic book convention this past fall in Baltimore. Being a Marvel zombie, my main goal in 2014 is to get Stan Lee autographs. Stan Lee's birthday just passed and I feel it's important to get this done. The next questions are how and where? I live in DC and I'm from Chicago so I'm willing to venture to comic book conventions in Chicago, New York, Philly, Baltimore and Pittsburgh. Where would I be able to get an autograph from Stan Lee directly? I can't seem to find any info for Stan Lee's schedule. I have already started angling the comic book convention websites but it seems to be too early. What am I to do? Well, since patience is a virtue that I will be attempting to improve, meaning that I don't have much, I just purchased my very first Stan Lee autograph today: Uncanny X-Men #148 Signature Series 9.8. I couldn't help it. This is the first and last one I am purchasing this year. I want all future Stan Lee's to be obtained directly. I hope to run into some of you guys along the way. May 2014 be prosperous and full of good fortune for everyone. To see old comments for this Journal entry, click here. New comments can be added below.

Wanting a comic book room These are the first CGC books I have displayed in my home. These hang in our bedroom on my side of the room. They are the first thing I see when I wake up. I generally don't wake up to an alarm clock so my mornings are not jarring. This comic book wall makes my day. But I do wish I had a full fledge comic book room. We have an office. It has been argued that the office is my comic book room but I beg to differ. Our office is definitely an office. There is a big desk with a Mac that gets in the way of comic book boxes. Now that my CGC collection is growing, I will need more boxes, CGC boxes. Space is already limited. I guess the grass is always greener... But what a nice problem to have. To see old comments for this Journal entry, click here. New comments can be added below.

There was no turning back after this one. My first taste of CGC was my first CGC purchase off of ebay, X-MEN # 7 at CGC 7.5. Now I'm hooked. It was at the Baltimore Comicon that I obtained 3 signatures and submitted my first orders to CGC. To see old comments for this Journal entry, click here. New comments can be added below.

My first journal: my bio OK, I'm obsessed with my dog Einstein, doing good in the world, and Comic Books. I'm in the middle of applying to five Grad Schools and yet Comic Books are constantly on the brain. I'm a full on Marvel zombie. I have tried to venture onto other publishers but Marvel is my mainstay. My foray into comic books began at eight years of age when my Mom bought me an X-Factor and Uncanny X-Men comic books off of a spinner rack at Walgreens. Well, actually, the X-Factor was mine and the Uncanny was my little brother's. Let's just say I kept them both. Lately, my fascination with recent modern releases is waning. I have completed my entire collections of X-Men v1 and Avengers v1. Now I'm moving on to Amazing Spider-man. Can't believe I'm doing it. Having recently joined CGC, my immediate aim is grading my collection. Further collecting will wait. Current "Top 10" list in my collection: 1. X-Men v1 # 1 2. Avengers v1 # 1 3. Avengers v1 # 4 4. Giant-Size X-men # 1 5. X-Men v1 # 4 6. Fantastic Four v1 # 48 6. MiracleMan # 15 7. Ms. Marvel # 16 8. New Mutants # 98 9. X-Men v1 # 94 10. Brave and the Bold # 54 Top Wants: 1. Amazing Fantasy # 15 2. Amazing Adventure # 11 3. Incredible Hulk #181 To see old comments for this Journal entry, click here. New comments can be added below.