12 hours ago, ChrispyC66 said:

Batman dies! (Jim Aparo) 

friends at your funeral are really Super Friends if you think about it.

Doomed!

On 2/7/2015 at 11:15 PM, 01TheDude said:

I have been hesitant to add my experience to this thread because most people had a sense of wonderment or joy involved with that first time in an LCS. Mine was much more subdued, primarily because it was a few years after I had stopped actively collecting books.

 

It was around 1980 in the south suburbs of Chicago in Tinley Park. The shop was in my home town - I cannot recall the name of it -- perhaps it was something really basic like Comics Store. Anyway-- I only noticed it because it had a great location. Center of town next door to a long standing coffee and donuts shop that was across from the train station. What I remember first about the store was the wall of books behind the counter which were pretty decent in terms of keys of the time etc but 5 feet away from the customers. That was not an easy task to accomplish because this place was tiny -- maybe a 12 by 12 room, fairly bright from the two large windows on the corners (terrible for the wall books no doubt).

 

Anyway-- I went in the check it out. The dank smell of comics smacked you in the face and was a brisk change of pace from the wonderful smell of donuts next door. There was one guy working there-- couldn't remember a thing about him other than he was the typical comic book store guy type. I don't recall him being very welcoming-- perhaps because his store was not doing as well as he had hoped. Not sure as I think he only lasted a few years.

 

It probably didn't help that he kept some weird hours and would not be open most of the time - even if you were there at his posted "open" times. But it was a comic book store and it was intriguing because I heard and read about them -- the amazing stores in New York etc-- from the Overstreet Guide or other places-- and this was a far cry from that. Perhaps I was too old to get that excitement factor/wonderment but what I do recall clearly was how expensive his books were and that the condition was not as good as the ones I owned already. I think I brought a few in myself to see if he was a willing buyer/trader-- which he was not. I think I found one or two books that I liked and bought them for the heck of it (support a business type move). He seemed nonplussed (or was is non-pulsed, as in dead) by the whole scenario.

 

I think I tried going there a few more times but he always seemed closed. And then the store was simply gone. I think the place was at one time a new stand type of business-- something he tried to emulate as well. But it just didn't pan out.

 

Far more interesting was the first comic shop I went to when I moved to Tampa. That was Green Shift Comics and this was about 1985. The difference in atmosphere and attitude were unbelievable. Wall books on multiple walls-- racks and racks of interesting stuff everywhere and displays. There was more to it than comics as well which was helpful if you brought a friend so they had something to do. I didn't buy much if anything though-- I was a college kid with a drinking budget that replaced my comic book budget. Book money was for textbooks by then. But it was a really nice store which I believe is still there. Seems like the last time I went in there in the early 1990s or so there was a greater amount of head shop supplies/look and feel with comics being less of the focus. Or maybe that reflected my change in focus.

 

So I basically missed out on the whole LCS experience most folks here have had for the most part.

Just this morning I came across a post on Facebook that showed the tiny store that was the only used book store I recall in Tinley Park that sold comics.

The building straight ahead is the one--- On the left side was a small cafe ("Depot Donut Shop" good donuts!) that served people waiting for the Rock Island RR train that would take them into downtown Chicago. And on the right was the small LCS store on the bottom floor. The road you see is South Street--  off Oak Park Avenue with the train station to our left. Here is a google earth shot of it-- all the buildings appear to be torn down.

It is crazy how much that small area has changed and how much it is the exact same. Here is a comparable street view of the picture above:

Batman meets Manbat

one secret identity reveal to another

Find Your Place in the Vaccine Line

https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2020/12/03/opinion/covid-19-vaccine-timeline.html

my result:

Based on your risk profile, we believe you’re in line behind 23.0 million people across the United States.

And in Maricopa County, you’re behind 334,000 others.

Why not just take a stab at the contest? . Best way to learn os to try it. Use the " Buddy can you spare a grade" forum to get your feet wet also.

Understand also that the pictures you have in this contest are meant for us to guess how much a grade might be changeable with cleaning and pressing services prior to the new grading. That is the truly tough part

1 hour ago, wilbil said:

i appreciate the answer. i was not sure if it was an evaluation tool for determining the winner or not. 

it is more of a "what did so and so guess compared to me" thing.

thanks

It us set up to enter the final grades and provide scores for players. until those are known, what are you expecting to see? I honestly don't get your point. You act like this is completely a foreign concept

42 minutes ago, wilbil said:

a question, please (for a grading comics scoring learning experience);

i understand the "total all" column is the left to right total of each participant, and i understand (i think) adding all the individual totals from top to bottom yields an unstated average. i say unstated because i don't see that total anywhere. i also understand how the average guess per comic is arrived from.

what i don't understand is what is the significance and what part does the average play, if any, and what part does the unstated total play, if any, toward determining a winner? 

It has nothing to do with winning short of letting others evaluate all the guesses in a consolidated place. nothing more. 

super slabs to sloppy shield seasons greetings

Nazi fortress to Nazi tank

I'm getting a nosebleed just reading this thread

army ghost Fred to army silhouette Sgt Fury

smiling Thor -- has lost his hammer!

58 minutes ago, Off Panel said:

Hey, 01TheDude!

You and I are First Comic Buddies. 

When I was eight, I was sick in bed with one of the childhood favorites (Summer cold? Strep throat?) and my Dad ran down to the pharmacy to find the grossest-tasting medicine he could (because those work the best). He probably felt a little guilty for just how successfully he accomplished that, because he also picked up a few comic books for me, which he had never done before.

My first three comics were Amazing Spider-man 147, Daredevil 124 and The Mighty Thor 237. (Yeah, I know the Thor came out a month before the other two. I think our pharmacy was a little lax with their comics rack.)

 

 

 

By my recollection, I wasn’t a fan of the Thor book, but I was big into both the Spider-man and Daredevil stories, which sadly both ended with the heroes getting killed. Just my luck to find something cool right as it ended.

(I was super surprised a couple of months later to walk into the drug store and find both Daredevil and Spider-man still alive and having new adventures.)

So yeah, ASM 147 was a great place to start collecting comics, although I think I would have preferred your Fantastic Four or Hulk to that particular Thor.

 

 

I had the DD 124 as well and often wonder if I have substituted one of the other three for it as they all came out at the same time. It is a fuzzy memory that I try thinking back on every now and then. I was also a big fan of Thor and DD, but surprisingly less so of ASM and FF-- though I did buy every ASM I could find and would also pick up FF most of the time. Other times-- you would get to the store too late and they might out of them on the spinner rack-- which I learned to keep my eyes open for the 3 packs later on.

7 hours ago, SuperBird said:

This was the first MoKF book I read back when I was like 10 years old. For years I had a horrible beater copy, after which I ridiculously overpaid to get this 9.8, which was at the time the only one IIRC. 

show the beater if you still have it- that is more interesting in a way

more Holiday grab bag

Cool treasury

Here he is in Man Thing 20 - I don't have my MOKF copies scanned in yet.

Merry Christmas indeed

how big is that dude? Look at the size of his sword!

removed Hollywood who deleted their entry