Readcomix

I’ll take the under.

Fair point; we see that a lot. I probably didn’t word it exactly. I mean there’s a subset who throws dollars at the perceived best of best. (The new record highs come from somewhere). But on a percentage basis, the whale chasers may well have the effect of lifting others proportionally further along.

Hmm…

Thought-provoking thread; thank you. I’m very much of two minds on Miller: the case for his impact is easy. It’s almost impossible to overstate his impact. But I didn’t get a lot of enjoyment out of much of it. But that’s me as an individual. while he reignited Batman with DKR, I found the art hard to look at. The story of a dystopian Batman was fascinating like a train wreck. I always thought the big miss was to dismiss Superman as a caricature, a mere metaphor for Big, Bad Establishment, rather than reinvigorate him as well in the conflict of archetypes. I found Year One a lot more entertaining. He certainly (along with Claremont) fleshed out Wolverine and helped create the persona that moved the character to center stage, taking the X-Men from an ensemble cast to one that rode on his back. I’m not a huge fan personally of the brooding, angry anti-hero that constantly has to tell you he’s a bad@ss but I cannot deny he’s widely popular. With Daredevil, he took a 20-plus years established character and completely rebuilt his mythos quite systematically: he borrowed and amplified Kingpin, brought back and repositioned Bullseye, retconned in two major characters into DD’s history (Elektra and Stick), turned Gladiator into a sympathetic, full character… I read it because it was new and different, but it was still fifth read in my stack each issue, behind Avengers, Iron Man, X-Men, Defenders. Again, not squarely my taste, but massively impactful on the medium. Ronin? I still want the time back from reading that. But a lot of people liked it. I prefer reading the bright, sunny worlds of Shooter/Perez/Marcos Avengers (or Byrne/Green), or the Michelinie/JRJR/Layton Iron Man, but Miller’s dark and gritty penchant had huge impact.

It’s an N of 1, but I had that exact conversation with an Action 1 owner earlier this week. You nailed it.

Master to mister

Me too. I’ve been hearing it a while, but it clearly goes back before my time. (Bought bronze off the racks as a grade-schooler in the 1970s; I think my first back issue for more than cover price, bagged and boarded by a dealer, was somewhere around 8th grade.)

Thank you @adamstrange for these historic reads! While the old cliche “The more things change, the more they stay the same” sums up the articles, it’s sad that the one theme that did NOT pull through to the same extent over the 50-ish years since those articles came out is the notion of top storylines with strong art being enough reason to consider a book a key. ”Key” has been narrowed so much that many now equate only first appearances with key status. A narrow scope undermines a rich history. We’ve got numerous threads on these boards in which boardies lament the future of comics as collectibles. Lots of young people read comics; casual readers become collectors when learning about the history of the medium we enjoy hooks us. Curiosity creates run collectors and drives back issue sales.

That would be a fun read!

I’m just happy I got to hold one recently without having to pay a vig to @Professor K! Seriously, while these moments underscore the fact that the top items in our hobby are reachable by fewer and fewer among serious collectors (NOT to say the ultimate buyer isn’t one as well), it’s also a nice confirmation of the hobby’s place in pop culture history. As @shadroch said, a rising tide lifts all boats. But the very best boats do get lifted disproportionately to all others. What always strikes me when we read about another seven-figure book at auction is how many collectors out there who have a seven-figure collection (not necessarily one book) could amass it today — only a subset of that old guard, I’d guess. But there’s buyers. Don’t be sad that the old guard is changing, be thankful there’s a new guard on the buy side. I’m always glad there’s future stewards.

No offense intended. Its one of the most fun threads on the boards; thank you. I've posted OA before too. I figured over the many years since you started it it had taken on a life of its own. I think we all largely keep to covers most of the time. I thought a peek inside Batman #4 would be an OK brief departure.

Sailors thrown overboard in a familiar port of call to soldiers thrown off bridge deck into a port.

@Paul © ® ⚽️💙™ left page, fifth panel

Flatfoot to foot in the gut

That is exactly the subtle distinction/subtext that defines the kinds of items one must amass to offer in a sales thread labeled “Rochester Garbage Plate!” You nailed it!

They can vary, as I understand it. Here’s a couple:

Oh, I caught that! Funny thing is I’m nowhere near that part of NY (Rochester, western NY) but the name, the concept and the mythology around it led me to borrow the name for a certain style of catch-all sales thread of cheap, fun books. Every once in a while I dust it off when I think the books I’m ready to let go of fit the description.

I’m not even sure what would lead one to select these two for such a discussion. Ross paints pretty renditions of famous comics scenes. He’s really good at it. I like a lot of his work, a lot. But I probably prefer Earl Norem, definitely Frank Brunner.

Shout-out in thanks to @Unstoppablejaydand @wombat for the insights along the way to obtaining this Frazetta sketch.

Hulk 377 3rd cgc 9.4 goes to Bueller! Thank you!

Shot in the dark, but…someone stockpiling for the day the rights go to public domain? It’s a licensed property, not a Marvel original. Now, what the underlying Star would be, I have no clue. I doubt a reprinting would be worth the cost of assembling.

Any Timely parts coming? PS - Also seeking CF for Wonder Comics #5, and covers and center wrap/single leaf (6 Doc Strange pages) for America's Best #7. (Tall order, I know...) And maybe world peace and a NM Gutenberg Bible while you're at it....

Yeah 2017 Valiant, but they can’t all be twice-up Kirby Marvel hero pages from 1962….Harbinger Renegade #5 pg 18, Darick Robertson blue pencils, Richard Clark inks. I like the pre-code horror vibe.

Thank you again! I guess the strips are a little light considering some sketches of his have gone for more than that, but I think the Kirby numbers were pretty strong, no?