AndyFish

I've been to both-- I think there are more vintage vendors at FanExpo, but I don't care about crafty art, modern comics, pops all that kind of stuff. I find more of that at C2E2 which is also at a worse time of year and IMO. FanExpo is actually in Rosemont, it's like eight minutes from O'Hare and much more family friendly than Chicago proper can be.

I picked up some great golden age books at this show last year-- a BATMAN #7, a couple of EXCITING COMICS with Black Terror, the machine gun cover from AMERICA'S GREATEST COMICS and a few other really rare books. I highly recommend the show-- if I weren't away I'd be there all three days.

Even the Batman and Me illustrated edition is questionable-- do any of you think an elderly Bob Kane, who used ghosts for years, sat and drew 1000 Batman and Joker sketches? That said, Kane often had his ghosts blue pencil in lines for him and he would finish them. The ones that look nearly identical were the ones he was comfortable doing. One of the key things to look for are confidence in the signature and a distinct way of using a single line-- i.e. in the third Heritage Sketch above look at Robin's cheek it's not a single line, its a built up line, or its done with a brush to give it that thin to thick to thin look. Kane wasn't known to do that on the fly. I've watched him draw many times over, and he does a very simple set of lines. When I worked at Unicef he came in for an event and did a bunch of sketches. When I was in the room I saw the faint pencil lines that were already on the paper. I ended up buying one of his pieces dirt cheap (I think I paid like $50 for it) and even then I'm not sure he did it. Bottom line, I think what you have looks legit, at least as legit as any Bob Kane sketch can be. Hopefully you didn't overpay for it and if you bought it for investment I think you might be in trouble. If you got it to give to your grandkids in forty years in a frame as drawn by the guy who co-created Batman, or, more accurately curated the Batman character then you're in the front row. PS And if you're looking for a possible answer to the stamp-- when Bob was at Unicef--- this was very early 90s- he pulled out a stack of just regular paper and there was either a stamp or an address on the back-- I remember thinking how cheap he was to use such bad paper. So he could have simply 'borrowed' the paper from the Whitney and they never stamped the original.

It's got a real charm to it.

Take the WHIZ #43

Superworld Comics, Harley Yee, Dale Roberts, High Grade Comics (Bob Storms) and Reece's Rare Comics are the ones I know of, this has always been a tremendous buying show for me and one I always look forward to.

Not completely on point, but I'd love the see the categories broken down a bit further-- GOLD-SILVER-BRONZE-COPPER-MODERN or if that's too much GOLD/SILVER - BRONZE/COPPER - MODERN/MISC As a golden age collector I'd rather not scroll through pages of silver I have no interest in. My

That was a great run and a lot of fun-- I'm with the rest - no amateur restoration here-- just printing errors which I think sometimes improve the book.

Not a spokesman for Zettle by any means, but I'm open to discussions, I just want to emphasize that before I switched to it there were many times at shows I would actually groan because someone wanted to pay with a card-- at our last show in South Carolina, we had 90% paying with cards and the transactions were night and day over all the other services I used. So fast I thought sometimes it can't have gone through. To me, that's worth the money I'm paying them, and I live by the old proverb you get what you pay for.

Fees are reasonable, 2.29% plus $0.09 for in-person sales and 3.49% plus $0.09 for keyed-in sales, you definitely want a reader, I don't think they give them away but it was beyond worth it. This was my fourth or fifth time with a card reader service and they were all terrible, I would groan when someone would pull out a card-- not anymore-- I sound like a commercial but it's honestly that good. Never had a connection issue. I can't speak for Canada or overseas, I'm in the USA. Payout is within 72 hours and I think it's even faster than that. Love the service.

I'll Take it!

PayPal now has something called Zettle-- they have a reader you can get to go with it or you can just manually enter stuff in your smart phone. The reader is a million times better than Square or any other processor I've used, it connects quickly and reads every card (although I'm sure it requires your phone to have good service). I've used it at about a dozen shows-- and 90% of customers use a card and it's lightning fast.

Picked up some fun books at the show. Great selection as always. I did that Shortboxed live show and that one had some incredible Golden Age books too. Looking forward to Rosemont!

TAKE IT

Jetpens.com -- they carry everything except Bristol, which can be ordered through DickBlick.com, Michaels.com or pretty much any online art retailer. JetPens has titanium nibs and comic specific ink. I once left a bottle of the Deleter brand ink in the DC Freelancer room by mistake and it soon became THE ink by many of the creators-- it's that good. So the artist might be telling the truth if he's someone that doesn't like to order online. He definitely took offense (IMO) when there was no need to, but by the same token just show some class and decline the commission. I say no far more than I say yes.

Unfortunately John is not in the condition to sign anything and it's best left at that.

From 1980 to 1988 I collected pre Robin and early Robin DETECTIVE COMICS, I amassed a pretty good amount of them, some of the highlights were a #34 in high grade for $90, a #35 I paid the "ungodly" sum of $300 for in what was probably 6.0 and a whole bunch more, I had most of them with the exception of a #27 and a #28 (I never wanted them because I'd read the #27 in reprints and the #28 had such a lousy cover). I probably paid in total about $1k for them and at the time that was a LOT of money to a kid who worked a part time job up until 1986-- 1988 I got engaged and sold most of them to buy the ring for $3k. I thought it was a pretty good deal at the time. Got 3x my money for them. How's that stack up today? That wife is long gone (and good riddance) and now I'm buying back the Detectives at 100x and more the price I initially paid. If I'd gone to the bank in 1988 to buy that ring I would have paid back probably $4.3k with my then lousy credit. How much would those same Detectives be worth now? I see comics like stocks, long term investments and not tradable commodities. I'm a lot smarter now than I was then. I'll never sell a Golden Age Batman Comic again.

I think it really depends on what you're looking for, I'm primarily a Golden age and original art collector, so I don't care about moderns, dollar bins toys especially walls of Pops, cosplay and shirts. I like organization, books that aren't so packed in a box I can actually flip through them, a staff who acknowledges that I'm there and I don't have to interrupt their intense conversation to get some help. Rosemont has always been a better show for me buying wise, by far, but with Chicago seeing an uptick in crime I know of several dealers who are cutting it from their lineup. I'm surprised at Baltimore's reputation because I've been twice and that was a bust both times for me. That said, Heroes is truly comics only (at Baltimore this year a dealer was saying to me he loves Baltimore so much because it's only comics oriented, and then we were interrupted by the Disney Princess parade that marched down the aisle-- what comics are they in?), although there are a lot of toys and modern books at Heroes too. Price wise I see a lot of books priced aggressively and that seems to turn a lot of buyers off. I've found that if you have cash and you don't mind negotiating like you're buying a new rug in a Moroccan street bazaar you'll do ok. Bundles bring value.

Some great books-- I love the early Actions!

Had a great time, picked up a whole pile of Golden Age including some Captain Marvel's, Early Batman's some great LB Cole Covers, pre-code horror and more-- really top notch books. Got some great deals from @TerrysComics and Bunky Bros. Really enjoyed this show.

Always great books!

Picked up this classic KIRBY KAMANDI page over the weekend, I really love this era of the King!

100% with the above comments. Just buy another copy without the flaw, it'll be cheaper than having someone try to fuss with it and you won't have a restored copy. For the record, you'd need a colorist not an inker, and even more to the point you'd want a pro restorer like Susan Cicconi-- and she's not cheap.

It would have been around 1981-- my local comic shop had opened a year earlier-- it was a small shop-- no bigger than 800 square feet, and I had become friends with the owner-- so much so that he offered me a job there. I was a kid working as a photographer's assistant at 14-- I knew if I took the job in the comic shop I would spend my whole paycheck and more every week, so I declined. One day I'm checking out at the register and behind him is a Batman book with a bright yellow cover-- it was more square than modern comics and I asked him if it was a coloring book, he takes it down and shows it to me-- it's a BATMAN #14 from 1942-- I was blown away. As he flipped through it I saw it had one of the stories that had been reprinted in that bright red Batman Tabloid book from 1974ish which was a cherished item of mine. I had to have it-- $50 and it was in VG/F condition. A few months later he has a DETECTIVE COMICS #34 for $90 in F condition-- I discover that on his day off and as I go to buy it his assistant tries to talk me out of it telling me that a kid shouldn't be spending $90 on an old comic book. That started my collection of Golden Age books and I've never stopped.

I don't think it's a valid comparison between the AF15's-- two 7.5's, sure, but one with restoration removal and a kind of a gift grade. We'd need to see another comparable 7.5 or better yet the SAME 7.5 sell to determine if prices are stalling, falling or plummeting. I think during the nonsense of the Pandemic prices went wacko and we'll see an adjustment, but compare everything bought in 2020 to what is sold in 2026 and I think it will have leveled off and even seen an increase. Prices have shot up like crazy, I bought a BATMAN #2 about seven years ago in 4.0 condition for $800 try finding that now. If they should fall back to those levels I'd be happy because I'll buy some more.