roach04

Got a survey this AM asking for opinions on this year's con. Good choice by the team ( @Kevin Boyd !) Had questions on timing (keep as is, move to fall, move to 2021) and some good asks on making masks mandatory, implementing social distancing, etc. Kevin, I know you'll share the second you know anything and I'm thinking even if the city/province/country gives the "all-clear" having guests fly in (from anywhere, really...) may be a tall ask this year. Stay well sir - and keep us posted!

Eastman - does a ton of shows (assuming shows come back post-Covid!) and even a couple of signings a year so he's one you can land for sure! Laird - is a tougher get. I don't know that he does conventions at all anymore and while I know I've seen SS with Pete's signature, I think most of them are 10+ years old. There are experts (like @seanfingh ) who can likely give you the Laird situation much better than I can.

Big time! I've couple of Giffen LoSH that could use Paul.

Super fortunate that most of the people listed so far - I've already gotten SS! (Lucky!) On my list! (1) BWS - I've got signed books - 3 or 4 - but no CGC. (2) Paul Smith - my X-Men artist. (3) And, as others have listed those no longer with us - I've got a long list - Don Newton, Jim Aparo, Curt Swan, Marshall Rogers, Tom Sutton, Dave Cockrum...yeah it'll be too long a list! Good thread folks - everyone has their favourites and that's why this hobby is so great!

Good decisions! Some of the stuff on consignment is so ludicrously priced that it falls into the "riff raff" category just based on pricing. This will get it all moving.

20% off eh? Yep

I ask this every couple of years too! Sadly...always get the same answer. I'm gonna tag @Rich_Henn - Rich, do you think Smitty would consider at home signings? I know you've done them for Moench, Perlin, and several others - just tossing it out there to see if it's within the realm of feasibility. I saw Smitty in SDCC 2002 but it was Tim Sale's table - Paul was just sorta "hanging out" and I was too stupid to even run around and buy anything for him to sign. He is and always will be "my" X-Men artist!

Dan - one double figure wrap-around. I friggin' love McDaniel!

That would be awesome.

What?? You mean neither my Prophet #4 (with Platt variant) nor Ninjak #1 will cover my kids tuition bills? Son of a... This is news I didn't need ;-)

Love these posts! @valiantman - another home run!

Man I should look at YouTube more often - that was pretty well done. I have a pile of bias - Shooter's Marvel was my Marvel and hence, the best Marvel (LOL) and while I love the works of Byrne, Claremont, Miller, etc, etc I find it stunning that they complain about a guy who enabled a model for them to make a ton of cash. To that end "Hated" - if you read Marvel during his tenure there were way more hits than misses. His Legion is awesome - this guy calls out how different it was from other DC Comics at the time and that's what made it so good. And Shooter VALIANT - was lighting in the bottle. Quality creators who couldn't get work anymore - like Bob Layton, Don Perlin, etc - he gave them jobs. Shooter VALIANT is a real high point to me. I've only met the man twice - so many great stories. I remember when Jim Galton died a few years ago there were stories published about how he'd saved Marvel Comics - very true. But for most of Galton's term Shooter was the guy running the publishing arm. I actually asked Jim about the Marvel org chart - as a fan I always assumed Editor-in-Chief was a very high level job within the firm, but nope. Jim was one of many Vice-President level guys who reported to Galton and had peers in licensing, TV/animation, etc that, as one can imagine, had constant demands on the comic side of the business where all the IP was generated.

Awesome. I wish election night graphics were this exciting! Really cool to see the shifts happen over time.

Rich rules.

This is just beautiful...ye Gods. If only Joe Maneely had lived to the Silver Age - guy would have been a rock star level comic book artist. Wish I had the scratch handy for this one...someone will snatch and get a real gem.

Also because of the situation, Bill's name was never on anything. At least for guys like say Alex Raymond, their artwork has the signature. I got Jerry Robinson to sign a Batman Archive...God...12? 13? years ago and we talked a lot about Bill Finger. When we discussed the creative credits I asked him he thought Bill was never recognized and his only answer was "...You'd have had to ask Bob that..." (Way off topic - but in that Batman and BIll documentary I always wondered how he found comic fans who didn't know Bill Finger? I only started reading comics in the early 1980s and I knew what Finger's role was for as long I can remember...every fan knew he was the guy who'd been cheated...)

Given how well run they've always been I'm sure someone will still be accepting consignment boxes (even if it's Buddy and Conan doing it!) Them closing is tough news - I buy (and do a bit of selling) with them constantly. This damn virus.

There's probably a ton of them. Two quick census searches: X-Men 94 (only missing the 9.9 and 10.0) -> https://www.cgccomics.com/census/grades_standard.asp?title=X-Men&issue=94&publisher=Marvel+Comics&year=1975&issuedate=8/75 Hulk 181 (only missing the 10.0) -> https://www.cgccomics.com/census/grades_standard.asp?title=Incredible+Hulk&issue=181&publisher=Marvel+Comics&year=1974&issuedate=11/74 If you search for any big name book, chances are good you'll hit paydirt (I only did these 2 - but I'm sure there are dozens of other popular titles who fit the criteria.

anymore Cardy's? This one's a beauty!

$60 - Wolverine #1 (Fluorescent) 15 11 Copies Available 2684

Usagi #6 (35th Anniversary Browne Exclusive) COA #70/500

What The--?! 10 "I'll be Doom For Christmas" by John Byrne, in which Santa is injured when he lands on Castle Doom and triggers the defence grid. Realizing Christmas must continue, only one man can take the place of Claus...DOOM!!!!

Awesome post. It's funny all the things that have changed since that era. From a CDN perspective, the average mortgage rate in that 1980-82 window was ~20%. (Can you imagine how the world would look today if that was still true globally?!?). If one had bought nothing but strips bonds - literally take all available funds and bought strips - you'd have been retired 20 years ago. I think we all go through those moments - selling the Hulk #181 would cover really nice trip to Europe...but if I hold on to it for 5 more years...maybe it's a really nice trip to Australia. I always bought the stuff for fun - the fact that some of it is worth money now is just a nice perk. (bc yeah, the Dow has certainly done much better over time and none of my art sends me a quarterly dividend cheque!) The other thing likely not considered at that time - how the royalty contracts from those X-Men books made insane money for the creators. I know Claremont at one point owned a plane; Byrne - who would've been in royalty gold for all X-Men, all the FF, and (even though DC's deals weren't as good) Superman - lives like Howard Hughes today - the cooky recluse in his mansion LOL. Have to assume Austin reaped some nice benefits as well. Today's comics don't sell enough copies to make it worthwhile for the big name creators of yesteryear and you know those guys did that book like a regular job - never dreaming they'd create the lightning in a bottle they did. All 3 did good work before and did, in many cases, great work after, their X-Men run. But it was the greatest synergy of 3 guys ever. It got better - every month. They got better - every month. Still beautiful to re-read from start to finish today. And I should've been clearer in my first post - I do wish Terry shared that art with IDW - I'd buy that book in a heartbeat Would love an original but I know I'll never spend the money on it - made the same choice around getting a Neal Adams cover about a decade ago - could do, but won't. Not envious of the folks that make that choice - heck, pleased they do! But I won't.

I hear you. Maybe he doesn't need the money yet!

Terry Austin - unless something has changed - still has ALL (or nearly all) his allocation of X-Men pages and covers. I met him at a con...10 or 12 years ago...and a then-recent issue of Back Issue Magazine had scans of 3 or 4 covers - really small scans mind you - all listed "from the collection of Terry Austin" so I he and I talked at length about them. His best line - was that sitting a con with Byrne in the early 1980s, John selling covers for $200, he said "Jesus John...do you really need that $200?" Austin commented that his pages would comfortably cover retirement - and at today's prices, he's not wrong. The other interesting thing - Austin has declined to submit any of his pages for IDW's Artist Editions - his view being that those high quality reproductions reduce the value of the originals. (It's his art, so his right - though at this point I'd think there's actually a better chance that it might raise the prices even more!)