Robot Man

Happy Mother’s Day!

I passed on both when they originally came out. Wasn’t into the X-Men and focused more on my Hulk, Avengers and Spider-Man addictions. Remember my friend moving one of his copies of 94 a month or so later and trading it for a stack of books. Have only ever owned one copy of GS X-Men 1 and purchased it to flip. Recently picked up a copy of issue 94 for my personal collection some  40+ years after I initially passed on it.

Game changer?  No.  Multiple copies?  No.
Familiarity was with the original X-Men team.  It took Giant Size #1 and several issues of the regular series to become familiar with the names, powers, and personalities of the new team members.  Yes, I was familiar with Wolvie from his appearances in Hulk, but he didn't strike me as a big deal from those first appearances.  It also took me time to come to enjoy the plots and scripting.
By ish 100, it was apparent this was a cool, fresh, and enjoyable team and title.  But by then, I was heading off to graduate school and starting a five year hiatus from buying and reading any comics.

Happy Mother’s Day!

Happy Mother’s Day!

Indeed. The first sucessful satire comic. Loaded with great art and social relevance. Deeply influenced so many. Including me. If not for MAD, I wouldn’t be here.

Yes, 2 separate albums. I photographed both sides..

Annother sucess story…
MANY, many, years ago, I bumped into this one at a show. Low grade and missing the centerfold. I really liked the cover though and it was just so cheap I couldn’t pass it up. Over the years, I’ve only seen just a couple for sale. I never figured I’d complete it.
But lo and behold, a rough and otherwise complete copy turned up on the Bay. I checked with the seller and he assured me the cf was there.
I figured no one would want or need it and sure enough, I was the only bidder. So much fun to complete old GA books!
I guess my instincts were good as Overstreet lists it as “Classic Giant Moth Monster cover”  

A gorgeous room setup for his collection.
 

I think many of us here agree... but we're not the ones who need to be convinced!

Definitively agree. I've had a harder time with the Star Spangled than with the main title. With the main title, though, I stop at ~ # 50 since after that, it's just too goofy of a title to hold my interest.
The covers to the Star Spangled titles are generally better than the Tomahawk's.

I have never used WhatNot so I have no opinion.
I will say it is a “mystery” to me why anyone would buy mystery boxes even more bid on them. The whole premise is for dealers to dump junk and to take advantage of those with a gambling problem. I guess someone might “win” something but the odds are very much stacked in the house’s favor.
I prefer to know exactly what I am spending my money on. I avoid sites like this and IG due to lack of information. Too many shifty situations for me. You get what you pay for…

I recently received my first pulp submission. Very happy with the process.
I did notice that although the pulp does not move side to side, it does flop a bit top to bottom due to the thickness of the case and the thickness of the pulp.
My question is, is it possible to request a comic case instead of a pulp case to midigate this problem if the pulp would fit better?
Thanks! 

Happy first day of Spring!

I watched that “cobbled together” Cap 1 sell, and thought seriously about bidding.  I agree it went low.  Although if given a choice I’d take an original book, I don’t mind “married” parts as long as they are all originals; i.e., not reprints or color reproductions.
 When I first saw the practice of pages being sold separately, I thought it was crazy.  But I have found that in the right circumstances, they can be fun to own.  I wouldn’t think there would be much enthusiasm out there for pages that aren’t from keys, but what do I know.
Having said all that, the idea of tearing books apart just to sell them by the page makes me a bit squeamish
Hey, bluechip, was that your Tec 27 page set that was recently on eBay?  I thought that was a marvelous piece of history
 

Pieces like these were undervalued for a long time and I am not sure how I feel about their values right now. 
I am not saying that the loose pages should be more or less than they are.  But I find it strange and slightly disturbing that the value of books completed by marrying parts together seems increasingly outstripped by the value of the sum of their parts sold separately.  
I have boxes of incomplete books and while I don't know everything that's in them I do recognize from time to time that something on ebay which is also incomplete would complete what I have.  But when I look at the price for the incomplete piece it is often so high that it's well above what I figure I could get if I married that piece to the incomplete book I have.  And this has been confirmed to me when I've asked people what they would pay for XYZ book with a married cf or whatever.
The Cap 1 sold recently which was cobbled together from loose bits may well have taken years, and no small bit of luck, to put together.  Not so long ago it would have been considered a rare feat and appreciated as such.
But it sold for an amount that is clearly less than the seller would have gotten if, instead of completing the book, he'd sold off the married pieces individually -- or even if he'd cut it up into still more incomplete pieces -- and sold them all separately.   
Helf, the completed Cap 1 sold for just a teensy bit less than an incomplete Cap 1 sold for just a couple months ago, which was missing massive chunks from the cover and first pages.  Is the desire for a book to be "pure" (as close as possible to its original state and not "manipulated" to be better or complete), is that desire so intense that we value an incomplete book more than a complete one, just because the completed book was made so by adding in parts from another book??
The intensity of opposition by some collectors to "married" pages has gotten out of balance with the intensity of desire for "any piece" of a key book.  

I can't judge the application because I'm not a member myself, but is this one also required?
 

Well not to break up the happy little gathering above, LOL, but I finally got the last of the trio in today.  Request admission into The Crypt Of Terror run group.

This is the one I'm waiting on. No image yet but I'm told it's a real stunner.

I agree. This and the related title pulps have some of the most awsome covers in the genre. Some of my most favorite Finlay covers. It seemed that almost every flea market I went to had these if there were pulps there. I bought up all the ones I liked and even upgraded several times. My under copies just sat in my for sale boxes even at very low prices. Not any more. They have pretty much dried up and the prices are now 10 times what I was asking even a year or so ago.
Since I have so many high grade ones, I considered grading them but the cost, dwindling storage space, and the fact I’m not selling them have held me back. 

Man overboard!!!

My attempt of a floor shot of my Planet Stories run, Much cheaper to achieve than a complete comic run!