Jayman

Finished my Star Wars mail in display stand this week. I'm so happy with it. Looks just like the one I had on my shelf as a kid. Bonus pictures of the rest of the figures on the top of the bookshelf. 😎

I bought this Vortex Comics, Mr. X poster with Paul Rivoche artwork years ago.  It's quite large.  36 x 27 or so. 
The frame guy said he could flatten and mount it no problem.  I said "Do it".  What good does it do me hiding in a 
drawer or box.  I wanted to look at it. 


I got the Schomburg poster at San Diego Con back in the 80's.......  FROM ALEX SCHOMBURG  !!  
I watched him sign it.  

You would think so as it is the best copy, but I do know who won it.  He wishes to remain anonymous.
 

I didn't know Jon Berk, but it sounds like he was a good friend to the comic community. Here is my one book of his.

I’m sure my father saw Dracula too, but I guess the Frankenstein movie was more memorable to him.
I did find this tidbit on Wikipedia though:
wikipedia notes: When the film finally premiered at the Roxy Theatre in New York on Feb. 12, 1931, newspapers reported that members of the audiences fainted in shock at the horror on screen.

My father, long since passed, was born in 1922. He told me once that he saw Frankenstein in the theater when it was originally released. He remembered the scene where the monster walked out and you get to see him for the first time, people were literally screaming and covering their eyes! He did too. Modern society has become very jaded as to what we deem scary anymore.

Well I have to disagree with the index tonight. I really enjoyed this issue, maybe more so because the index described it as “a rather poor issue”. As such, I was going into this issue not expecting much. I was pleasantly surprised.

This Sanjulian cover is so good! I was surprised to see this certificate in back of my copy. I had forgotten about this collection.

First off, the Corben art I did not see as “clumsy”. A silly tale but the art was nice!

1. Vampirella: The Resurrection Of Papa Voudou!
Now the Vampirella tale was so good that the page count flew by. Goodwin delivers a very well thought out story that stayed with the continuity and worked on every level for me. Gonzales continues to bring it with this opening splash showing the madness of the Carnevale.

The sexy women and voudoo gave me that James Bond vibe.

The sequential art here was top notch in giving motion to these still frames. This I like a lot!

The story had room to breathe and let the characters develop. They even do a good job of keeping the Crimson Chronicles as an ever present threat.

Everything made sense and was the best story in this issue for me.
2. Quavering Shadows
A very moody and atmospheric tale. I thought that the shadowy and under-lit lighting art worked well together with the script.

3. A House Is Not A Home
We get a very basic horror tale here. Not much character or story background to pull you in. Good use of zipatone throughout though!

4. Welcome To The Witches’ Coven
I remember this story from reading it as a kid, most likely because of the womanly parts! The art is quite nice (shot from pencils, maybe?). 

The Woman’s lib. theme certainly feels dated reading this now but I understand that was relevant when this issue was new. Still the story seemed a little confusing why they chose the husband’s coworker as the sacrifice. Nice art, not my favorite story.
All in all, this issue stands out for the excellent Vampi story with some decent back up stories. House is not a Home and Witches Coven were the weakest links to this one.

Official word from CGC is that they don't recognize the stamp with the misspelling as a Bethlehem Pedigree. Not enough evidence to corroborate a bad stamp at the store or a fake stamp. So can't call it a pedigree. 
So we just have a very nice high grade Haunt of Fear #17!

My father, long since passed, was born in 1922. He told me once that he saw Frankenstein in the theater when it was originally released. He remembered the scene where the monster walked out and you get to see him for the first time, people were literally screaming and covering their eyes! He did too. Modern society has become very jaded as to what we deem scary anymore.

I tend to believe it is a misspelling. If one was going to forge this stamp, you’d think they would do it right! Either way it is a gorgeous book nonetheless. 

Possibly THE hardest Skywald to find in 8.5 or higher. Nightmare #15 would be a close second.

Take 

Yea, but after ebay fees he didn't make anything either.  I'm not going to go as far to say $6-7k for that book is a deal, but I want to think it should / could have gone for more both times in that grade.  But like @Darwination mentioned, anatomy issues and I have always been torn on this cover.  It was actually the last issue I tracked down because I'm not a huge fan of the whale shark and Toni is kinda twisted.  I do like how the shark is eyeing her tho!  And Cole did push her over the boundary of that annoying border.  I ended up with a nice copy in the end:

 

Not too bad of a copy. Psycho 14 tough in VF or better.

Karloff, Lorre and Price. The Raven!

Went into the theater to see this with high expectations and was pleasantly surprised. I’m a lifelong fan of the original movies. While liking some of the new franchise movies more than others, I’m more interested in the future storylines where the apes are already established as the ruling class. So this movie was right up my alley.
The good:
The scenery and settings of the old city ruins were spectacular. 
Liked how they reinforced that the orangutans are more scholarly and the gorillas are more militant.
Some decent nods to the original movies with the soundtrack, scarecrows and the baby doll.
The bad:
Very CGI heavy. Like Avatar, I realized this going in and not necessarily bad, but at times was thinking there’s like only 2 real actors we see in this movie.
The movie did not close on a big “Oh, that’s cool!” moment for me. Nova turns out to be more than what she seems but the payoff was not that spectacular for me.
All seven of us that went enjoyed the movie. We did all agreed on some of the shortcomings and ridiculous moments though. Overall it was decently entertaining and a good steppingstone in the franchise.

Another white paged recent pickup.
 

Karloff, Lorre and Price. The Raven!

20 yrs for me too on April 15. Does that make me Golden Age or Platinum? 

T’wasn’t Silver killed the wolf, t’was Steel! 

Some All Star Westerns...