Off Panel

Definitely an interesting theory, if a little on the dark side...

The "Bad Love" sign in the background is a little on the nose, don't you think?

My wife and I decided we needed a few days off last week and headed up to DC. While we were there, I spent a couple of hours at Victory Comics going through the back issue boxes and checking out the slabbed books. Almost every customer who came in referenced the robbery and asked about the disposition of the case. I heard the update a few times, and as shared here previously, the crooks were insufficiently_thoughtful_persons who had no idea what they were doing and tried to sell the books to nearby stores, all of whom were on the lookout for these chuckleheads. At this point Jeff has gotten all but about seven of his books back. His staff said that the community has been incredibly supportive, with many people coming in to buy books and support the store after hearing about the theft. I also bought a slab and twelve raw books, but not because I was trying to be charitable. Victory has some of the most gorgeous Bronze Age books I've ever seen in an LCS's back issue boxes. I will now be looking for any excuse to make my way back to the DC area.

This morning I was reading an old Bronze Age Marvel book cover dated July 1975. (That sounds cooler than admitting I was reading Arrgh! #4, so I'm going with that.) When I got to the Bullpen Bulletins page, there was a short anecdote in Stan's Soapbox about going to Penn State and seeing the word "blexcroid" everywhere, but they wouldn't tell Stan what it meant. That was a new one on me -- I was in elementary school in '75 -- and I was curious. Luckily I've got the Internet, the sum of all mankind's knowledge to date, at my fingertips, so I figured I'd just look it up. Well, the Internet definitely seems to confirm it was a thing. In fact, it was this dude's senior quote in the 1978 Ursinus College yearbook: I also see all sorts of people out there with "Blexcroid" screen names or winking references to the term. What I don't see, however, is any sort of definition. So, if you are Robert Jamie Brancatelli, Class of '78, or just someone who is cooler than me (which is not a small group of people), spill the tea. What does "blexcroid" mean? (Apologies in advance if it is something unspeakable that will get both me and all of you kicked off the boards and put on government watch lists.)

I'm not familiar with the story, but I'm wondering if this would be a tale from one of the old Gold Key anthology series like Boris Karloff Tales of Mystery, Grimm's Ghost Stories, Ripley's Believe It or Not, or The Twilight Zone. I don't believe this is your book, but this is what I was reminded of....

I've been on a 'key spree' this year, but I ended my buying season with just enough gas in the tank to add one more (non-key) picture frame Spidey. For me, this book actually IS a bit of a key though. ASM 111 was the first Spider-man issue by Gerry Conway, the precocious 19-year old who went on to bring us The Night Gwen Stacey Died, The Goblin's Last Stand, the original (non-sucky) Clone Saga, and the Punisher. When I started upgrading my childhood comics, there was a reason I started with ASM issues 121-129 -- those books were the first back issues I tracked down as a kid, and those stories made a huge impression on me. Admittedly, not all of Conway's stories were nuggets, even in that 120's run (did we really need a second appearance by the Kangaroo?), but I think he did an amazing job of expanding the Spidey mythos in a way that opened story possibilities for generations of writers to follow.

HulksDaddy1, I was just looking at your GS X-men 1 in another thread. You are having a pretty awesome month!

I think there may be something off with Marvel Spotlight #32 (first appearance of Spider-woman). A copy in 9.8 condition is listed at 220 points, while a copy in 9.6 condition is worth 611 points. Right now, a 9.8 issue is worth less than a 7.0 copy, which comes in at 246 points. I suspect it's a simple typo, but thanks for looking into this! Score adjusted per Overstreet Access 9.2

Take.

Take.

But he’s keeping Aquaman so you know his priorities are… Hold up, did he say he’s only keeping Aquaman?

But did you like it?

Thank you, Prince Namur, for a fantastic thread! I read every word and enjoyed this for days. I need to be careful though; I can’t afford to get bitten by the Golden Age bug on top of all my other comic interests!

Awesome book, Barton! I’m hoping those same factors help me upgrade my ASM 101 next year…

I’m a huge comic book booster and always get a laugh from all the doomsayers who predict the bottom is going to fall out. Having said that — and just between us chickens — the one question that might keep me awake at night is this: What happens when DC/Image/Marvel/etc finally stop printing new monthly books? What happens when some bean counter finally passes down the edict that all titles must go digital, with maybe a trade paperback every six months? I think the success of the MCU has done a lot to stave this off, but it still feels a little inevitable. Kids seem to prefer their content online, and even here, in a group that likes comics so much that we spend our time typing about them in Internet forums — how many of you guys are actually buying new comics to keep the format alive? What happened to collectible record prices when compact disc delivered its smackdown? (That’s not a rhetorical question; I really don’t know. Keep meaning to do the research, but the days are just packed.)

I lost all my D&D modules in the Great Basement Flood of 2000, with the exception of this 2nd print G2 which had gotten separated from the herd. Luckily, my Dragon magazines never made their way to the basement!

So funny. That book jumped out of the stack at me IMMEDIATELY!

My daughter sent me this:

I tend to think about it the same way you do, but the dictionary makes no such distinction. I guess any brief appearance is technically a cameo, but we only talk about the ones that are meaningful to us. No one ever says, “Hey, that bit player actor that I don’t know or care about had a cameo in Morbius!

Cameo - cam·eo | \ ˈka-mē-ˌō \ plural cameos : a brief appearance or role (From merriam-webster.com. Definition 4.)

I've said it before, but... Someone asks you, "What did Wolverine do in his first appearance?" If you reflexively answer, "He fought the Hulk!" then deep down you see 181 as his first appearance. If you reflexively answer, "He yelled his own name!" then deep down you see 180 as his first appearance. As many of you have said, comics have their own quirks and conventions that force us to speak intentionally on matters like this. I'm very comfortable with the distinction between "first cameo appearance" (180) and "first full appearance" (181). I will even accept jcjames' nomenclature of "first brief appearance" for 180. In my personal opinion, Hulk 181 is not Wolverine's unqualified first appearance, just as 180 isn't his first full appearance.

Sorry. “Her” who? Kitty? Emma? Somebody else?

That IS painful to think about. People say that restoration used to be more accepted ‘back in the day,’ but I’ve been collecting since the 70s and I don’t ever remember a time when the bulk of collectors were okay with it. (Maybe sellers were.)

First cover appearance of Moon Knight throwing a pie? edit: Ooooooooooooooh. First appearance of MOON PIE!