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David Swan1

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  1. The Fourth World Omnibus is coming out in December. I intend to preorder it.
  2. Thanks for the recap. I love the second Swamp Thing series.
  3. It's taken me years and a bit of cash but I am finally in the top spot in Captain Marvel Adventures. My recent ascent was helped by the fact that Starman221 was going in the opposite direction. Seeing the goal within striking distance I did a sprint to the finish line and put myself fairly deep in the red based on my buying budget but that's cool because I always pull myself back out. My recent purchases may be my last for most of the rest of the year unless a must have item appears. My next goal is to try and reach the registry total that Starman211 had when he won the 2009 Golden Age set of the year. That total was 34870 while I have 29930. I have no illusions that I will suddenly win Golden Age set of the year the moment I exceed 34870 particularly since the competition has become much fiercer since 2009. The lowest registry point total in the Golden Age category was 47355 but that one was 95% complete while mine is a dainty 35%. On the other hand I have no comics with a grade less than 7.5 and I average well above 9.0. A good percentage of my collection are highest or second highest grade. I probably have a better chance of winning best presentation and I've spent a ton of time on my comic descriptions. I've read almost every comic I own using scans online. So if you want to learn more about Captain Marvel, the ORIGINAL Captain Marvel, Please check out my set and enjoy. To see old comments for this Journal entry, click here. New comments can be added below.
  4. SO I was working on acquiring a new comic for my Captain Marvel Adventure collection and was working on trying to find a price we could both agree on. This went on for awhile and I finally concluded that the seller wasn't going to budge anymore so I went to buy it. To my surprise the seller suddenly jacked up the selling price by $100. I don't know if I pissed the seller off or they figured they could squeeze me for more. I can say I will never give in to some greedy or stupid seller and it's unlikely I'll ever own this comic. I'll be damned before I deal with a seller that pulls that kind of garbage. In all the years I've been buying comics I've never seen anyone pull this kind of stunt. To see old comments for this Journal entry, click here. New comments can be added below.
  5. Maybe not tragic but unfortunate. I decided to buy a fairly inexpensive All-American Men of War off Amazon. Although it was a middling grade it was the second highest known grade and was selling for less than $100 so grabbed it up. When I received it in the mail I was surprised. Rather than send it in a box it was sent in a large envelope and bookended with two pieces of thick cardboard. There is a reason every other CGC comic I've received has been sent in a box and it became evident the moment I opened the envelope. There was a two inch crack in the upper portion of the case and a massive crack spanning the entire bottom of the case. I could literally pry apart the case and touch the comic. Luckily the seller was super cool and not only refunded me the full amount but didn't even ask for the comic back since the case was ruined. I felt bad and I would have given her some nice feedback if Ebay had allowed me but I guess they don't do that on returns. I kept the comic in the broken case and I have it in my registry but it would have to be re-slabbed. I have no doubt the seller learned a valuable lesson. To see old comments for this Journal entry, click here. New comments can be added below.
  6. I decided to create a few custom sets and naturally based them both on Captain Marvel Adventures. My first is the legendary Monster Society of Evil run which lasted 25 issues. The longest continuing comic story line of the Golden Age in any comic. The second custom set includes the 28 issues city stories. In neither of these runs do I own even half the comics but it's a fun new goal to try and complete them. Someday I might add some more custom sets. I was considering including all the comics that feature Tawky Tawny or perhaps the 5 issue Oggar, the Mightiest Immortal, story although maybe 5 issues isn't worthy of a custom set.https://comics.www.collectors-society.com/WCM/ComicCustomSetView.aspx?s=20040https://comics.www.collectors-society.com/WCM/ComicCustomSetView.aspx?s=20041To see old comments for this Journal entry, click here. New comments can be added below.
  7. I added six new comics to my Captain Marvel Adventures collecting in 2015 which was more than expected but I came across several can't miss auction items late in the year. Because of the unscheduled purchases I enter 2016 deep in the red and may not be buying my next comic until spring time. At this point I'm only scheduled to buy three comics in 2016 but that's always subject to change based on availability and the three are some big ones. Overall I've done a good job of keeping my finances in line. I will go into deficit spending (based on my budget not my actual cash) but I've always gotten back in the black. My goal to reach the top spot in Captain Marvel Adventures has gotten much closer this year. Not only have I added a significant amount of registry points but the current top set has dropped significantly. I am now less than 5400 points away which is not a lot when you're talking Golden Age sets. I've finally moved past the 1/3 mark in terms of volumes (i.e I have 51 out of 150 issues). My goal of winning Golden Age Set of the year will continued to be hampered by a lack of volume. It appears that the judges place a lot of emphasis on volume and like to see something around 90% or more of the set and I may never be able to get to that level. I could just buy a ton of lower grade issues but I don't want to go that route. Maybe the judges will start to emphasis quality over quantity someday. If I can't win Golden Age set of the year there is also Best Presentation and I've done a ton of work related to presentation. I've been going through each issue I own, reading the stories and writing up summaries. It's a somewhat laborious process but fans of Captain Marvel will hopefully enjoy the effort. Every single issue I have includes an image and summary. If you are a fan of Captain Marvel or just want to see a Golden Age set with 100% images and summaries that contains almost exclusively 1st and 2nd highest grade issues please check out my set. To see old comments for this Journal entry, click here. New comments can be added below.
  8. As I get closer to the number one spot in Captain Marvel Adventures I thought I'd look back on how it all began. It started with Superdickery. Superdickery.com is a hilarious website devoted to covers and interior frames where Superman is being a... well... a . This was common during the Silver and Bronze Age when DC enjoyed having covers where Superman is acting out of character in order to attract the attention of readers. It was inevitably the effects of Red Kryptonite or Superman acting like a jerk in order to teach his friends a lesson or as some strange scheme to entrap a thief. One cover I discovered on Superdickery.com that I really enjoyed (although in this case he wasn't being a ) was issue #54 where Superman is simply engaged as a lifeguard for no apparent reason. I bought a CGC graded 7.5 copy just because I thought it would look cool on my wall. My second CGC comic bought was another cover I particularly liked, Captain Marvel Adventures #30 with Cap as Robinson Crusoe. At this point I really wanted to get more Superman comics because quite frankly I think Superman and Action Comics had much better covers than Captain Marvel Adventures. I love the covers where Superman is doing mundane tasks like working as a lifeguard or helping an old woman with her car. The problem was that the high grade Superman comics were prohibitively expensive as in 10 times the cost of a high grade Captain Marvel Adventures. I started trying out different series including western and war comics but in the meantime I would continue to get Captain Marvel Adventure comics and increasingly aimed for higher grades. My lower grade issues were all bought early on but I've never bought anything lower than a 7.5. At some point I noticed that I had a legitimate chance at having the number one Captain Marvel Adventure collection and decided to put all my chips into that one collection. My dream collection would be Superman and Action Comics but I love my Captain Marvel Adventures and it's one Golden Age collection where I can actually afford the high grade comics. My plan is that this will be the last CGC collection I will put together but a Golden Age set like this can take a lifetime. If I had more money than I knew what to do with I might grab some of my favorite Superman and Action Comics with covers I love but that day is not today. The image below is not the comic I own. Mine is a 7.5 but I didn't capture an image. To see old comments for this Journal entry, click here. New comments can be added below.
  9. I am now within 10,000 registry points of taking the top stop in Captain Marvel Adventures. I'm proud to add a very lovely 9.0 copy of issue 82. It's not the highest grade but it's pretty darn good and the highest grade of 82 I've yet to see for sale. I've gone way into the red in my comic budget but I make exceptions for auction items that fit into my collection. It may be until late spring before I make another purchase unless another must have comes along. To see old comments for this Journal entry, click here. New comments can be added below.
  10. All my CGC collecting resources are being devoted to Captain Marvel Adventures and I've finally hit the one third mark on the way to 150 issues. I seriously doubt I will ever own all 150 issues but having 50 is a nice start. There are still enough comics available online to keep me busy for years to come. I still lag over 10,000 registry points behind the leader but I'm literally eating into his lead. The comic that got me to the 50 issue threshold was from starman211's own collection so as my registry total went up, his went down. I've believed for a long time that the top set no longer exists but that's a journal for another day. This is actually the third comic I've added since my last journal so things are proceeding along quite nicely. Based on my budget I hadn't planned on making another purchase until spring 2016 but I make exceptions for auction items. I don't love the staple placements of issue 147 but the page quality is nice and this is the second highest grade in existence. To see old comments for this Journal entry, click here. New comments can be added below.
  11. My goal is to one day win Golden Age set of the year and I thoroughly intend to meet that goal even if it takes me a decade or more but the fun is in the journey. So with the 2015 Registry Awards posted I thought I'd look through this year's winners and see if I could possibly be competitive using my Captain Marvel Adventures collection. I'll go through them on by one. 1. BarristerBaker, Golden Age Flash, Flash Comics. One of the few Golden Age winners in recent years with a registry point total I could conceivably reach. This is a set that definitely focusses on quantity. It has a fantastic 94% of the 104 issues but most of them are middling grades. There are 0 images or descriptions. My set lags behind all these winners with a measly 31% completion but besides that I could see myself being competitive with this set. 2. cheetah, Wings!, Wings Comics, A set that definitely deserves its spot. With over 145K registry points and 100% completion this is a set I could never compete with. Those stats would have been enough but cheetah went all out including images on nearly 100% of the comics including front AND backs. 3. RareHighGrade, RareHighGrade Pre-Bat Tecs, Detective Comics, Despite not featuring Batman and having a lot off middle to mid-high grades it still manages to ring up over a half million registry points. The HIGHEST registry point copy of a Captain Marvel Adventure comic that I know of is a 9.6 copy of issue #3 at 18000 registry points. Detective Comics #1 graded 6.5 is 150000 points. Not only am I constrained moneywise in approaching this sets point total I literally don't think it's possible to even come close to 500K even if I owned every single highest grade CMA in existence. This set has a very impressive 84% completion but 0 images or summary. I would have LOVED to see the comics. Every comic in this set was added on the 31st of May. I know I can never compete on registry points and likely will never reach its completion percentage. For me the best of the three was Wings Comics with easily the best presentation. Last year's GA winners were dominated by registry points in lieu of presentation and I was glad to see a set with a more reasonable registry point total. My goal is to reach about 36K registry points in the next 7 years which is still over 10K lower than the lowest set among the winners. I'm still of the belief that Best of Age winners should put in at least some effort into presentation. Last Year I wrote a separate journal on my chances at winning best presentation but I'm going to combine my two journals this year because comparing my set to the winners is apples and oranges. The winners this year are all recent comics with relatively low registry points and very high percentages. I will admit I saw some presentations that inspired me and learned some new techniques. I think it would have been neat to see more of a mixture of ages rather than all modern comics. To see old comments for this Journal entry, click here. New comments can be added below.
  12. I have continued to devote my entire monthly comic budget to Captain Marvel Adventures and the progress has been significant. Since January I've added just one new issue but it was a biggie and almost single handedly satisfied my required number of registry points to achieve my goal of taking the top spot within a decade. At this point I have 7.5 years but I'm well ahead of pace. Three years ago at this point I had purchased 11 CGC comics and bought 27 total throughout the year. Two years ago I had purchased 7 CGC comics by this date and ended the year at 13. Last year I purchased just 6 CGC comics throughout the year and this year I have bought just 1 and will likely buy just 1 or 2 for the remainder of the year. The reduction in volume is offset by an increase in quality and I've added some comics that previously I might have blanched at because of price. Having a budget has really helped me keep my expenses in line but I confess that it's a challenge to go 6 months between purchases. My ultimate goal remains to have the top golden age set. I already have my next two purchases planned out (in fact I have them planned out until 2020 believe it or not). My additions may be slow in coming but they're big ones. I've countered my lack of purchasing by focusing on presentation. Thanks to comicbookplus.com I've been able to read the Golden Age Captain Marvel Adventure stories and I've been working on writing up descriptions for every comic I own. It is a long and laborious process but I've become quite an expert on the stories and if anyone wants to know more about individual issues there are few places better than my set. On the other hand it's probably not the most thrilling thing reading through the summaries. At some point I will probably rewrite them and make them briefer. I now have 31% of the set with every single comic having an image and description. That's up 3% from this time last year. My collection has 26 highest grades with 14 being alone at the top. Compare that to the top collection which has only 9 highest grade issues and just 1 that sits alone at the top spot. Almost all the rest of my collection are second highest grade. My lowest grade is a 7.5 and I have eight 9.4's and two 9.6's. The top collection has 23 issues graded BELOW 7.5, only three 9.4's and nothing above 9.4. Starman221 has an impressive 37 pedigree issues which beats my 27 although my percentage of pedigrees is much higher. Despite being well behind the top Captain Marvel Adventure set in volume and registry points I have a much higher average grade, a higher registry point average per issue and far more top grades. There are a few more areas my set lags behind. Starman221 has issues 1 through 26 while I have nothing earlier than issue 30. Starman221 is tied for the highest grade of issue 1 which although only a 5.0 is still the best CGC grade in existence. He also has a 7.5 grade of the hard to get issue 150. These are the alpha and omega of the set and I confess that I wish I owned them. However if I were collector with unlimited funds and I wanted to create the greatest Captain Marvel Adventure set ever I'd be looking at my set not the top registry point set because I doubt there is another CMA set in the world with this many highest grade issues. To see old comments for this Journal entry, click here. New comments can be added below.
  13. This is my first CGC acquisition since early September 2014 but it's a big one. Captain Marvel Adventures #56 is my second ever 9.6 and it's an issue I've been eyeing literally for years and it's likely to be my biggest pickup for the next few years. I may actually be picking up a second, far less costly, CMA issue within the next week but after that I may have another half year break as I gather my funds. I have a very strict budget and my purchases are all plotted out for the next few years barring changes in availability. My goal remains gaining the top position in Captain Marvel Adventures and issue 56 gives me a very nice 1800 registry points. Currently I need at least 1874 registry points per year to achieve the top spot within my 10 year plan and this single issue nearly gets me all the points I need for 2015. This comic will also put me back into the top 500 registry points which I have a goal of staying within. I haven't added the issue to my registry yet because of something weird in the registry. When I go into an individual issue and modify the OWNER'S DESCRIPTION I have no problem. However, when I tried to add issue 56 by going into EDIT SET I got an error on 7 issues that I had exceeded the 6000 character limitation. I'm not sure why I can exceed 6000 in OWNER'S DESCRIPTION but not EDIT SET. The only solution I can see is to go into those 7 issues and modify the descriptions to get them under 6000 characters. To see old comments for this Journal entry, click here. New comments can be added below.
  14. I haven't purchased a CGC comic since early September and the first possible next purchase would be early March but that in no way means I have given up my dream to have the best Captain Marvel Adventures comic collection. Quite the opposite. I have big plans this year but I have a strict budget and I dug myself a big hole with a monster purchase last year and I'm just now back in the black. What I've been doing is reading a lot of Golden Age CMA stories available on ComicBookPlus.com to further acquaint myself with a character I've spent so much money on. I've also added a lot of story summaries to my issue descriptions. These probably aren't thrilling to read but it's fun to do and I've learned a lot more about Capt. Marvel. As I read through the Golden Age comics some questions come up, some I've thought about in the past and some new ones that hadn't occurred to me so I thought I'd write them into my journal. Although I haven't seen it expressly spelled out in the GA stories it's pretty clear that Capt. Marvel and Billy Batson are separate entities. This is not Billy expanding up into adult sized. So where did Capt. Marvel come from since he first arrived as an adult. He also immediately knew how and speak and integrated himself into the culture. This implies to me that Capt. Marvel and Billy share thoughts. In one story I read it seemed clear that Capt. Marvel doesn't somehow observe Billy when he's not around but when the two transform there is no moment of disorientation which means that when Marvel or Billy manifest they have the memories of their counterpart. What's interesting to me is that although Billy transforms into a separate being (I believe this is no longer true in more recent stories) he appears to be the only member of the Marvel family that does this. Freddy Freeman and Mary Batson change clothing but their physical appearance remains close enough that I always assumed they were the same when they were Captain Marvel Jr. and Mary Marvel. Same with Black Adam (Teth-Adam) and the three Marvel Lieutenants. In the case of Teth-Adam he simply remained as Black Adam once he initially transformed. So why doesn't Freddy Freeman simply remain as Captain Marvel Jr. since as Freeman he is forced to use a cane because of injuries dealt to him by Captain Nazi. I understand why Billy changes back otherwise Billy would cease to exist but for Freeman and Mary they would look essentially the same except be invulnerable. Their main weakness is their vulnerability when Freddy and Mary. Does Captain Marvel age? Billy only changes to Capt. Marvel when needed for as long as he's needed so when Billy is around does Marvel age? But the bigger question is, what is the deal with Billy? He's a twelve year boy yet he works for radio station WHIZ. And he's not an intern he actually has a daily broadcast. If Cap and Billy share a mind and Cap gets his understanding of the world from Billy it's not surprising that he doesn't act like a child because Billy doesn't act like a child. He seems entirely self-sufficient with no parents and no friends his age. About the only friend he seems to have in the GA is the past middle age Mr. Morris and later the talking tiger, Mr. Tawny. These are just some of my musings. I'd love to hear other peoples thoughts. To see old comments for this Journal entry, click here. New comments can be added below.