Flambit

Was this the 1981 San Diego Comic Con? (Did the No X-Men sign also say "except Kitty?")

I've always been moderately grateful they don't have a bunch of - for me - must-have stuff. I'm a huge Byrne fan and they managed to lock in a lot of that Byrne post X-Men stuff that's really taking off now; I can't even imagine what they are asking for all those Alpha Flight covers at this point. But there's this weird "Coollines phenomena" that sets in with me when I see something they have: just knowing they have a piece I might want strips away any desire I have to own it. In a way, they are almost like a parody of the hobby itself, with it's outrageous, totally random, ever-increasing prices.

I was the underbidder on a terrific Byrne Power Man/Iron Fist cover on Clink a couple of years ago. Then I saw it on their site. I didn't even have the heart to "inquire" as to the "revised" price. Lost at sea or burned in a fire as far as I'm concerned now.

Thanks, I will hit him up.

Speaking of these editions - does anyone have contact info for Scott Dunbier? I spoke to him at SDCC two years ago, and I have some art for an edition he said he was planning (that I would LOVE to see happen just to see all of a certain book collected!), but I've tried contacting him though IDW and his account here, and no responce from either... Thanks!

Seconded on wanting to know where 12 is! Probably never be able to afford it, but I'd love to see the OA!

To chime in on Alex Ross: I won his ABC Best Comics cover on clink a year or two back, got it for about 5k and change. I flipped it over when it arrived, and someone had written 9500 in pencil on back.

Thank you!

I swear I did see it one time over the years, but that's going back. If memory serves, that was only the second published appearance of the black suit (first being ASM 252 of course)! I still vividly remember seeing that as it was put on the racks on new comic day and we were all still shocked by the new costume! Still have my copy somewhere. And, if I'm not mistaken, Transformers #3 was the third published appearance. Edit: Sorry, sorry - it was the cover to 140 I saw! Didn't mean to get your hopes up! They are both kind of similar and feature the same characters - my bad.

My guess would be Ron Wilson. I have one of the British Spider-Man covers from this vintage (I can never remember the issue number, it has no trade dress, but it shows Spider-Man, Ice Man and Robbie Robertson tied to a chair), and it was by Ron Wilson. I know that isn't conclusive proof, but I know he did a number of them.

Mean, but funny. https://www.progressiveboink.com/2012/4/21/2960508/worst-rob-liefeld-drawings

I've always placed pencil only pages above digital pencils/physical inks. I feel like I'd rather have the penciler's DNA on the page rather than the inker (because in most cases, I'm looking for the penciler's contribution - Mike Wieringo, for example). It's kind of an existential consideration, I guess. At the end of the day, if you own a Kirby cover, most likely there are zero Kirby pencils left on the piece if the inker has done his job correctly.

My comment was out of line, I realize now. I'm sure I was subconsciously lumping in IF 14 & 15 with his UXM stuff. But I had totally forgotten all that MTU stuff with Austin he did and the Avengers stuff with all those top tier characters (I don't know why - I'm a huge Byrne nut!). I even remember that recent MTU page that sold recently. I think I was totally fixating on his FF pages for some reason.

I thought that price was insane. IF and the Wrecker in every panel and great last panel, but I can't think of another, single Byrne panel page anywhere - outside of his UXM work, obviously - that has sold this high.

MOS definitely more nostalgic, but that #4 had such an incredible image of Superman. There was just something "off" about the MOS image and I couldn't put my finger on it. But the #4 was perfect, Byrne at the height of his powers. I agonized whether I'd pull the trigger when it was at 5k. But at 10k, the decision wasn't nearly as difficult haha Congrats to the winner, amazing piece!

Really wanted that Byrne Superman #4 splash. Went way higher than I expected, but not surprised - it's a nicer Superman image than even some of the covers had!

I think "first comic" can be interpreted in any way you feel it is valid, i.e., FF 236/1981 is clearly entry into the collecting realm. I just find everyone's answer fascinating as to what it was that tipped them into the hobby, because it seems like a lot of people were actually exposed to comics they don't recall, and then - boom - one special book or year ignited that spark. For me, I'm in the other category: I recall almost everything like it was yesterday about the first comics I was ever exposed to and the effect they had (I was probably six, when a friend showed me a copy of Flash 251 in my front yard - I was dumbstruck as I had never even seen a comic book before - and my next memory is being in my living room, pouring over Flash 252 and Captain America 212 with my mother. My interest in Kirby started that day, tho I would not have known his name, of course). Got out of comics for a bit, and then, around late 1981 or so, I happened to move into a housing track behind a mall that actually had a comic book store! At 11 or 12, I could actually walk to my LCS - so I was in for good.

Not only would that cover be expensive in general, but many years ago (2005 maybe) I swear I saw it on the Donnelly's website as a trade only. They didn't even respond to my inquiry so I can only imagine what they were asking.

I have not one of my first comics - like your children, I shredded all of my first ones, and eventually the remains vanished or were thrown out. But those first several issues made such a tremendous impact on my life. I stared at the covers as a kid and memorized every line. My first ever comic was by Kirby and his style imprinted itself so strongly on me that even at 7 or 8, while I seriously doubt I knew his name, I would immediately recognize his work and be drawn to anything he did. Eventually in my teens I found a lot of replacement copies for those early books I had destroyed or defaced. I definitely remember that four issue Teen Titans series - I had the Raven issue. Unfortunately, I know Steve Oliff did color the OA for that cover, because he had a table at SDCC in the 80s and he was offering various hand colored OA for sale, and I vividly remember seeing that one on his table (the Raven one, not the Cyborg one)! Incidentally, this is a great site that you can spend an entire evening getting lost in, and it reminded me of a few books I had long forgotten I'd owned at one point or another: Mike's Amazing World http://www.dcindexes.com/features/newsstand.php

Very cool! The Amazing Adventures reprints were some of the comics from my "golden age" of collecting, so I have fond memories of those early Kirby X-Men books.

In another thread, people were talking about remembering their very first comic/comics and I was surprised how many people actually didn't! I think I can probably remember what the first ten or fifteen comics I ever owned were, and probably in the sequence I got them, so that nostalgic aspect has really influenced my collecting decisions. I was just wondering what everyone's first comic was, and are you actively looking for a page or cover to it - or does it not really matter to you in the scope of your collection?

Damn it! I didn't know there was a Wieringo Tellos cover on the block last month! My only problem with Wieringo art, though, is I never know if I'm getting original pencils since he always did blue line scans (I always prefer pencils in his case, because I want the page he touched. Don't know if that sounds creepy...)... I think Tellos was early enough he may have been inking directly over his own pencils, though...

I had forgotten he had done a recreation, as I'm so used to his reimaginings of old covers. My bad. t

Huh. Did not realized they owned the X-Men 141 cover. Unless that's a repro - which I doubt, looking at the other stuff on those walls. I had heard Terry Austin had managed to hang on to a lot of those later, legendary X-Men covers.

I don't know whether this thread will have legs or not, but in Grail threads I've seen - such as Your 1 Grail - I notice that people generally will go for the kind of obvious (cover) picks: AF 15, Action 1, GSXM 1, Hulk 181, etc. And why not? Those certainly are grails - who would turn down the cover to Hulk 181 (or Batman Adventures 13)? But I'm curious to hear people's A+ pieces - pieces that mean almost as much as a grail, but something that might be semi-possibly-maybe-quasi-obtainable. Either a grail that is, say, under 100k, or an A+ piece that you've always wanted almost as bad as that X-Men 137 cover but maybe a bit more obscure (and a bit less money). And if you have some A+ pieces in mind, post a couple if you want! Me: not my all time grail, but since I'm very much a nostalgia based collector, I always circle back to the Flash #251 and #253 covers. Gun to head -- I'd go with #251. In 1977, my friend told me about The Flash - I thought he was some kind of heroic dog like Lassie! But no, it was a comic book! I'd never seen one before. And like any good 6 or 7 year old, I badgered my parents into taking me to the neighborhood Circle K where they bought me my first two comics, Captain America #212 and Flash #252, and the addition was born.