underthebigw

Dig this cover. Eerie monster work by J Severin. Reminds me of the Night Gallery for some reason. Book is particularly elusive in high-grade. Not too many survived the ravages of time unscathed. Yours is a looker. Here's the best I have. Plucked from the Suscha News backroom... Now that's white. Wow. The MOTP is pretty amazing too.

He hangs out with me all the time at SDCC. Only cuz you bring me Reubens.

Two things strike me as I look through these boxes. One, there's a certain satisfaction to having hunted these down the old-fashioned way, rumaging through 1000's of long-boxes during my variant hunt. The other is just how ridicuously difficult it is to find them in truly HG. I thought I had done pretty well for myself, but there are very few books I've posted that I'm not somewhat disappointed in. Once again, the late SA and later BA books I picked up at the same time are all much nicer, and while these might have great eye appeal, all have one or two issues.

Found another one of these, I'm guessing from a Wizard Chicago show And these two came from the aforementioned self-proclaimed Beanie Baby magnate who banned me from his store for buying too many books.

It is pretty interesting to hear Evanier's take on using Gil Kane. In my mind, his glory days at DC had been long over, and only the most die-hard of long-term fans buying books would have remembered his SA DC work. Great post. I just found two more boxes with pf's in them. I know where the Fury came from (Great store, if you're ever in the Boston area), but no idea where I picked up the MTAs

GCD says: Pencils: Gil Kane Inks: John Romita Jean Grey's hands definitely looks very Kane-esque to me. And the figures breaking out of the picture frame is very Kane-like too. Most probably is Kane, then, but it sure looks like a rush job with the crude shading lines and lack of detail. I always assumed this was Kane. Same wacky perspective as MGC 34, and Kane was always able to look sketchy, with very thin lines, esp if he inked himself. Also, he's pretty much the only one to violate the pf to this degree.

Your "readers" are ridiculous. Seriously. I found this in a stack of Archies bought at Megacon 6 or 7 years ago. Bob-quality reader.

I've seen the books since then, but yeah. Life kind of gets in the way of enjoying things sometime. I was in grad school in DC in the early 1990s, and after living in Boston and NY my whole life, it was refreshing to be able to buy HG books at less than guide. The economy wasn't doing great, and there were a lot of dealers from just outside the DC area who didn't charge premiums. I would go to shows (esp. the Tyson's Corner show), and essentially try to buy the nicest, most undervalued books I could find. I didn't care if they were a Richie Rich, a SA Brave and Bold, or some grossly undervalued BA books no one cared about. At the time, all of the money was gravitating toward Valiants, so it was easy to pick up deals (if memory serves, the Spidey 114 was from a $3 box, and the Conan was a dollar book, I'm sure the Warlock was a dollar book also). To Barton's point--I think you are correct, and this box bears this out. In this box, I have Cardy Aquaman's that range from 9.0-9.6, 9.2-9.6 SA Brave and Bolds, and some absolutely killer late SA Marvel King Size Specials that are 9.4s to 9.6s, yet all of my early BA Marvels are probably in the 9.0-9.2 range. The difference is striking, and does not appear to apply to DCs from this period. I'm convinced Marvel books from 71-73 are made on crappy stock, and then add in the solid blocks of color on the pf's, and it's much harder to find truly HG copies.

Those are beautiful. I'm outta my league here.

So, I just opened a box of books I bought in the early 1990s. I came to two conclusions. First, I had a much better eye then, than I do now. I'm amazed at how nice some of the books I picked then are. Second, the pf books must be harder to come across in HG even when talking about mainstream titles, because most of the pf's I had in the box were no where near as nice as the other books. We'll see if that holds up as I go through boxes. Here's a few:

I am truly saddened. I just spent time with Darren at the show in NJ last week. He's been a customer for a decade or so, and just one of the greatest guys I've done business with. Always nice and good-natured. I feel heart-broken for his family.

Show us the slabbed copy, please! You have a 9.8, right? Yep. Still have the 9.8. My scanner can't handle slabs, though.. I can post the same crappy pic? There's no such thing as crappy pic of a 9.8 Picture Frame. Especially when it's one of the tougher titles. I have no 9.8 picture frames The 9.8 square bound Ringo Kid that Barton owns used to be mine. And it's a beauty. Unreal. How is that even possible. And what the hell were you thinking, Greggy?

Show us the slabbed copy, please! You have a 9.8, right? Yep. Still have the 9.8. My scanner can't handle slabs, though.. I can post the same crappy pic? There's no such thing as crappy pic of a 9.8 Picture Frame. Especially when it's one of the tougher titles. I have no 9.8 picture frames Wow. I think that makes me feel happy.

Show us the slabbed copy, please! You have a 9.8, right? Yep. Still have the 9.8. My scanner can't handle slabs, though.. I can post the same crappy pic?

That is an amazing batch of books. Esp. the IM.

Send me a PM if you really need a copy (I have a slabbed copy, as well).

I'd guess because it's a number 1. Chamber of Chills #1, Combat Kelly #1, Hero for Hire #1, Marvel Premiere #1, Marvel Triple Action #1 are all pretty well represented in the census. Even Night Nurse has 15 copies in 9.6 or better. By that time in 1972, there were a fair number of people buying multiple copies of first issues, especially any Superhero or Kirby book. Yeah, I'm just surprised so many survived in such high grade. It's not as if this book got much respect for the last 40 yrs (ugh, just typing that number makes me wanna puke).

Went to a store today having a huge sale. They had just received a collection of the brightest, whitest, glossiest BA marvel romance and Millie books I had ever seen. Structurally, many approached 9.8s. Big foxing issues, as well as staining on some of the must stunning copies. I was able to salvage these.

Part of a batch of books I picked up at a store sale today. Super-glossy.

So, this time of year I have the fortune of making deliveries to several nearby comic shops. I made two such trips this weekend, and both were having sales. One sale was pretty sweet, and the other fantastic. All of the below came from these two shops, some for only a couple of buck. Just looked at the census--does anyone know why numbers on Doc Savage are so high? I can't imagine it's the print-run, and the dark blue inks should make it somewhat tough. Was there a warehouse find?

It is pretty cool that I think of Nik every time I open this thread. It's one of two or three things that make me think of him (the others are when I remind my kids not to stick their hands in things they shouldn't and tell them about how this truly smart mechanic friend who stuck his hand in his snow blower, and also when I tell the story of when he and I were walking in NYC and I knocked over Mel Brooks) The thread's a great comic-book tribute to him.

You're holding out. We know those are your undercopies

Another great copy. Thanks. It's actually an ebay tragedy. I had been buying easy 9.6 and 9.8 Marvel BA westerns from an ebay seller. They were absolutely mind-boggling. Finally, he threw up a PF. I jumped all over it, along with 4 other books. Of course, he didn't pack this shipment well, and they suffered a pretty severe corner ding. This book survived the best, and I don't think anything will show after a press, but I was pretty angst-ridden about it. I'm pretty sure it would have been a 9.8.

That is one sweet looking reader.

Found this going through some other old ebay purchases: The white on the bottom edge of this is light regracting on the mylar