David Swan1

Part 1 of The Question The comic I'm discussing in this journal is The Blue Beetle but the character I'm interested in is The Question created by Steve Ditko for the first issue of the 1967 Blue Beetle series. The blank faced, trenchcoat wearing crime fighter was the inspiration for Rorschach from Alan Moore's Watchmen. In truth Rorschach was actually a combination of The Question and another Ditko creation called Mr. A who was essentially The Question taken to the nth degree. The Question was written as an Objectivist hero, the FIRST Objectivist hero and Steve Ditko being an Objectivist would clearly make this character a labor of love. The Question is the alter ego of television journalist Vic Sage whose broadcasts are so provocative that they inspire protests and even his own broadcasters want him gone but advertisers love him so much that he remains on the air. Allow me to regale you with some of Vic Sage's broadcast brilliance... "Rights can only belong to individuals! Groups BY themselves have no rights! The rights belong to the individual within the group! And no man nor group has the right to forcibly violate another man's rights! He may do so -- just as he may kill -- but by no stretch of the imagination has he the RIGHT to do so!" -- Vic Sage This quote is taken from the story in issue 4 "Kill Vic Sage" written by Warren Savin which was the pen name for the co-creator of Hawk and Dove, Steve Skeates. However the quote is clearly Ditko speaking with the voice of Ayn Rand. Ayn Rand was a product of Soviet communism so it's not surprising that she would hold a grudge against collectivism and government overreach but most readers were probably like, 'huh, wha?' It seems hard to believe advertisers or viewers would drool over this hollow rant. I don't want to get into the merits or flaws of Objectivism other than to say than in Rand's zeal to stab at Communism she took a position that was every bit as extreme. Ditko truly believed that good and evil were black and white. The Question was only a prelude. He was created as a character meant to pass the comic code. Mr. A would be the main event and just wait until I get to him. There is an interesting story around issue four that's sort of revealing about the character of Steve Ditko. Steve Skeates tells how in the original -script The Question, speaking to the villain of the story says, "Now listen, my friend -- " prompting Ditko to write a 6 page letter to Skeates lecturing him on why The Question would never call a criminal "friend" even sarcastically. Skeates found the letter "daunting" and "scary". For the whole story check this out.... http://goodcomics.comicbookresources.com/2006/10/26/comic-book-urban-legends-revealed-74/ Tomorrow I will continue with issue 5 of Blue Beetle.... To see old comments for this Journal entry, click here. New comments can be added below.

This week will be Steve Ditko week. I will start with the tame stuff and work my way up. If creating interesting characters that endure is a sign of success for a series than the 1968 Hawk and Dove series was a success. However as far as creating a long term comic run it was a failure and probably didn't need to be so. So what happened to cause it to last just 6 issues? Hawk and Dove were created by Steve Ditko and Steve Skeates for Showcase #75 with a premise that a writer could really run with. Teenagers Hank and Don Hall were granted powers by a voice to transform into the "heroes" Hawk and Dove who appeared to have the proportion strength of an average man. Seriously, look at the cover of issue #1. Those fancy dressed gentleman beating down Hawk and not super powered or even highly trained fighters. They're a group of thugs called the Drop-Outs. In fairness Hawk and Dove do seem to be SLIGHTLY tougher than most men but seriously, the voice didn't exactly go all out in granting them powers. Hank was Hawk, an aggressive punch first ask questions later type while Don as Dove was much more hesitant to act and believed in non violence. The writers could have approached the series as a philosophic debate on aggression vs passivism or conservativism vs liberalism or even chaos vs order (I mean the country was in the midst of the Vietnam war for God's sake) but this being a DC comic book and the 60's, nah. Problems manifested themselves pretty much immediately with issue #1. One thing I will mention is that Ditko is a staunch follower of Ayn Rand and an Objectivist and in future journals I'll mention how this plays out further but suffice to say Ditko is the kind of guy who would see Dirty Harry or Death Wish's Paul Kersey as positive roll models for fighting crime. Ditko stands to the right of Frank Miller and as such would much more easily identify with Hawk. Skeates on the other hand felt more aligned with Dove and the friction between the two Steve's quickly boiled over. This dynamic could have worked brilliantly. Ditko could be the voice of Hawk arguing the position of aggression while Skeates could voice Don with his own counter arguments. Instead each of the Steve's accused the other of sabotaging their favored character. If I had to take a side I'd probably go with Skeates. For one thing Ditko along with Giordano would change the -script Skeates would submit emasculate Dove. As Skeates said, "They seemed to be equating Dove with wimp, wuss, coward or whatever. And I don't really think it was because they were more hawkish. I just don't think that they knew what a dove was". Meanwhile, Ditko complained that Skeates made Dove the only reasonable one of the two and maybe that was true before Ditko had his way with the -script but what was published was a toothless and useless Dove. Hawk may have been in serious need of anger management but at least he did something. The characters Hawk and Dove never tried to even present an argument for their beliefs we just had one angry character and one timid character. Just look at the angst of Dove on the cover of issue #1. That's pretty much him through the entire issue. Rather than use their differences in a positive way Ditko stopped plotting after the first issue and quit the series entirely after issue #2. I liked issue two better than one because Dove's tentativeness had a reason and he actually did something useful. I liked the way he would grapple with the villains without actually striking them. In one funny part Dove tries to reason with an escaped convict who is in the midst of attacking him which goes over about as well as it would in real life. Steve Skeates left the series after four issues leaving Gil Kane as both writer and artist for the final two issues. Hawk and Dove had two things going for it, the premise and the art. I may vehemently disagree with Ditko's politics but the covers for Showcase #75 and issues #1 and #2 were WAY better than the later four issues. Issue #1 has one of my favorite covers ever and I would consider getting a high grade CGC copy just for the cover. I know a lot of people will likely disagree with me on the 1968 Hawk and Dove series but for me it was potential wasted. To see old comments for this Journal entry, click here. New comments can be added below.

I'm going to be staying on Joe Simon for one more day. Yesterday I said that I really enjoyed the awesome weirdness of Brother Power the Geek but I can't say the same about Prez. You would expect a comic like Brother Power to be surreal but I wasn't expecting Prez to be even stranger. Prez Rickard ends up benefiting from a new Constitutional Amendment that dramatically lowers the age of presidential eligibility by becoming the first teenage president of the United States. There is a whole lot you can do with that concept. Maybe it will turn out that Prez's youthful enthusiasm is effective and just what the country needs. Or maybe his inexperience and naivety will come back to bite him. Or maybe he gets attacked by the upper torso of a vampire rolling around on a piece of wood with wheels. Wait, hold on.... What??? Yeah, look at the cover of issue 4. That really happens. And that was the problem with the series. Simon doesn't capitalize on the concept. There is no political message in a comic about a 19 year old president. He just puts Prez in increasingly bizarre peril. People occasionally joke that comic writers and animators in 60's and 70's were all on drugs. I would never suggest that the 60 year old (at the time) Joe Simon was on something but it would explain a lot. This series is WEIRD. Jack Kirby, who was working at DC at the time, also had a different perspective on the world and his writing could be a bit uique but Kirby was able to channel his creativity, and keep it together. Prez is just off the charts and it's cancellation after four issues is likely the result of its out of control writing rather than some conspiracy on the part of editors. I can't say I recommend this one. It's more disappointing than bad. I like comics that are different but there should be at least some rules even in a alternate comic universe. To see old comments for this Journal entry, click here. New comments can be added below.

A lot of people have heard of Brother Power the Geek if only because once you've heard the name it's darn near impossible to forget but how many people have actually read the original comics. Brother Power was created by Joe Simon in 1968 and survived a whopping two issues. I can't say whether it was cancelled because of low sales but it was definitely running with the wind in its face. According to Carmen Infantino the series was hated by legendary DC editor Mort Weisinger who disliked the 60's hippie subculture and lobbied for the cancellation of the series. DC comics has rarely taken strong or even mild political or sociological stances. Joe Simon was no young counterculture thumbing his nose at society's conventions. He was 55 when he wrote Brother Power, at least a generation removed from the hippie movement. It's similar to Jack Kirby who was 54 when he created the New God flower children, the Forever People, back in 1971. They were middle aged men trying to tap into the younger generation. In fact Joe Simon was several years older than Weisinger. The only argument I can see that the comic was sympathetic towards hippies is that they weren't cast as the villains. On the other hand comics had been beaten up pretty hard by congress and sometimes the self censoring becomes so engrained that it becomes part of your being. The original name Joe Simon came up with was Brother Power the Freak which made a lot more sense but was nixed because editors felt Freak would cause people to think it was a drug reference. I'm not going to praise all the comics I'll be discussing in my journals but I really enjoyed Brother Power and I think it's a real shame the series wasn't given more of a chance. It is an incredibly weird pair of comics but the 60's and early 70's were an incredibly weird period and most of the comics I'll be discussing come from that era. My copies are both reader copies and I'd love to upgrade because I enjoyed them that much. Apparently Brother Power has shown a small resurgence and high grade issues can fetch more than a couple of bucks To see old comments for this Journal entry, click here. New comments can be added below.

I plan on writing some journals spotlighting some really interesting comic series that people may be unaware exist. Today I start with Big Numbers. To those who have never heard of Big Numbers this was a self published series by Alan Moore that was poised to be his "magnum opus". What, you've never heard of Alan Moore's greatest comic ever? There's a reason why. Published in 1990 the series teamed up comic's greatest writer with one of comic's greatest artists, Bill Sienkiewicz. I haven't loved everything Sienkiewicz has produced but when he's on his A game there are very few better and despite being in black and white this is the best work I've ever seen from him. The comic is absolutely stunning. The story is about the effects of a US-backed shopping mall on an English town (much of what I'm writing here is cribbed from Wikipedia). Moore would analyze the effects through fractal geometry, chaos theory and the mathematical ideas of Benoit Mandelbrot. Sounds cool? It is. So what happened? Apparently the strain of producing the magnificent photo realistic art was too much for Sienkiewicz and he bailed out of the project after just two published issues. Years later ten pages of art for issue #3 were published in the magazine Submedia. The task of finishing the series was passed to Sienkiewicz's 19 year old assistant, Al Columbia. For those unfamiliar with Columbia let me just say he may be the most enigmatic comic artist of all time and I will speak of him more in future journals. Columbia also bailed out and supposedly destroyed or absconded with all the art he produced. A complete lettered art for issue #3 was found and posted online. It's a shame because if you read the first two issues it's clear this series had monster potential but alas maybe it was more than the world could handle. To see old comments for this Journal entry, click here. New comments can be added below.

Issues 86 and 87 I am pleased to have added a lovely pair of 9.2's to my growing Captain Marvel Adventures collection. I am very slowly working my way towards the number one spot. In fact issue 87 moved me towards number one at double registry point speed since it had been registered (until today) to the current number one position holder. Not only are my new comics nice high grades but they also are both Crowley pedigree comics. It my take 5 or 10 years but I will get that top spot. As with all the comics in my CMA registry they have both images and issue descriptions so if you like Captain Marvel or just like to look at Golden Age comics please stop by and enjoy. To see old comments for this Journal entry, click here. New comments can be added below.

How did I let these slip by??? I have to try and avoid looking at comics on ComicLink without filtering out 'Sale Pending'. A Captain Marvel Adventures #137 graded 9.2 sold for 50 bucks??? A double cover 9.4 of issue 89 sold last June. As if that weren't bad enough two highest grade 9.2's were listed on January 28th of this year and sold at amazing prices and I missed them. I keep fairly close track of the inventory so I assume they sold fast. I can't look anymore. It breaks my heart. To see old comments for this Journal entry, click here. New comments can be added below.

Help My assumption had been that if you are trying to switch a registry number from one member to yourself that CGC will send that user an email and if there is no response within a couple of days the comic will automatically be transferred. I've been waiting about a week for Captain Marvel Adventures #127 to transfer with no response as yet. How long does CGC wait if no response comes back? Does CGC send a message if the member denies that transfer? I could certainly prove that I own the comic. I could, for instance, post a video on YouTube showing me with the comic. Any advice is much appreciated. To see old comments for this Journal entry, click here. New comments can be added below.

A Proud New Addition to my Collection I was thrilled to see a beautiful Crippen "D" copy of Captain Marvel Adventures #127 CGC graded 9.4 up for auction on Ebay and was determined to try and make it mine. As most anyone knows who has bid in an online auction it's a week of waiting culminating in about 5 seconds of frantic activity. As a buyer the hope is always that you might luck onto an item that no other serious buyer is looking at and I was prepared to put up what I considered to be a bid high enough to scare off most competition. So the day and the hour of the auctions end arrived and the comic was still under $100 so I decided to feel out the top bid and start increasing by $1. I was surprised to find that I quickly took over the top bid still under $100. This, of course, can be dicey because now I've made it known that someone is actively watching the bid. I was soon overtaken by another bidder and with 5 minutes to go I bid my way up to take the top spot again. Then I put in my max bid. All that was left to do was wait. Second by second ticked by and the price was doing nothing but with less than a few seconds to go it jumped up and in the last second leaped by almost $100. However, when the dust settled my winning bid was well under half guide price and much less than I anticipated I would pay. It was a very satisfying feeling and I basked in the glow as I went to sleep for the evening. I've now gotten the comic in the mail and proudly placed it with all its CMA brethren. Unfortunately I have not managed to add it to my registry. #127 is one of many comics strewn about internet auctions that are part of starman221's registry. I have written journals in the past questioning the authenticity of this collection but it's hard come up with more evidence than actually owning one of the comics (the person selling was not starman221). I have written starman221 in the past asking him to remove comics he does not own but got no response or action. I wrote asking him to remove #127 with no response. I tried entering the registry number earlier this week with no success. Hopefully at some point it will be removed but this is the longest I've ever waited to try and get a registry number switched over. To see old comments for this Journal entry, click here. New comments can be added below.

Is the first step.... I counted up the number of comics added to my registry last year and it added up to 27 and given that generally the CGC comics I buy are several hundred dollars or more apiece that's a bit of money. I also bought a fair amount of raw comics to the point where my Ebay history was 3 pages long at one point for two months of history. Moneywise I am able to handle the spending although there are perhaps better ways for me to allocate my funds. My concern is my motivation for my purchases regardless of whether or not I can afford it. Have I crossed the line from collecting to feeding an addiction? Do I purchase to build a set or to satisfy a compulsion to buy? This year I intend to dramatically slow my purchasing. My goal is to keep myself between 8 and 12 additions to my collections. I have created the foundations for some very nice sets and from here forward I need to be tweaking not rampantly buying. I need to be very selective and not add any new sets to my registry. I am pleased to say that I have not made a CGC graded comic purchase since early December and my Ebay history is down to two items with a total cost of about $18 dollars. On the upside my buying last year showed that I have a nice amount of disposable income. Now I need to start using that income in smarter ways while occasionally tweaking my sets. I will say that based on journals I've read there are more than a few people who are probably in my same boat and perhaps worse off. I'm not going cold turkey but I'm confident I can meet my goal of adding less. To see old comments for this Journal entry, click here. New comments can be added below.

Maybe I'm the only one who finds this amusing I recently bid on a copy of Captain Marvel Adventures #66 graded 9.2. This is the highest graded CGC copy in existence so it would have fit perfectly in my collection but the price with shipping and consignment fee reached just about guide price so I let it go. Oh well. Now less than a month later I see the exact same comic relisted on Comic Connect for about $150 more than what the person paid and about $110 more than guide price. If this person is trying to flip the comic and make a quick buck they will be sitting on it a long time. As a collector of CMA comics I can tell you that CMA comics at guide price do not sell. If I find a comic that I want near or below guide price I know I can wait an indefinite amount of time and still pick it up when I feel like it. I recently saw an issue of CMA #11 CGC graded 7.5 guide listed at over $800 sell on a winning bid of less than $300. I would go so far as to say I am probably the only person in the world actively building a Captain Marvel Adventure collection. I base this on the fact that, again, I can wait as long as I want to get the comics I want from a half dozen well known sites and never worry about them getting bought away before I act. This person probably just beat out the only person that would pay near guide price for CMA #66 but there is not a chance I would pay a ridiculous $650. If you want to flip a comic you need to luck on a bargain not get into a bidding war and then think you can find some sucker to pay well over guide price for an ice cold series. To see old comments for this Journal entry, click here. New comments can be added below.

Are they stored in the CGC case? I'd always assumed that many if not most Pedigree sets actually had physical certificates of authenticity, otherwise how would CGC verify them. I also noticed that a lot of my Pedigree comics in CGC cases appeared to have some kind of paper slipped inside, just barely peeking out and I assumed this might well be the certificate. The other day I received issue number 2 of Western Comics and it came with a certificate of authenticity as a pedigree comic from the Davis Crippen collection. My question is, does CGC generally put the certificate of authenticity inside in comic within the case? Is it rare to receive the certificate external of the case (this is a first for me)? Thank You To see old comments for this Journal entry, click here. New comments can be added below.

... If a comic is listed as "9.0 Qualified - MK", what does that mean? To see old comments for this Journal entry, click here. New comments can be added below.

Going into 2013 will be a lot different than going into 2012 as far as my CGC collection is concerned. In 2012 there were a whole pile of comics that I intended on purchasing throughout the year and I pretty much did. This year the list is much smaller so the biggest challenge will be resisting buying what I don't need. My goal is to avoid the accumulation for accumulations sake bug. There are four problems with this collecting method. 1. It's expensive 2. It creates a watered down unfocussed collection 3. It's a pain to store 4. It's expensive 2013 will be about waiting for opportunities and the more my sets grow the harder it will be to find something I need. My goal is to create sets that when visited will be an experience for the visitor. I think of the CGC website as more of a virtual museum than just a listing of comics and their owners. My Captain Marvel Adventures collection isn't the top set but I guarantee it's the most informative and hopefully the most entertaining. There are a lot of second and third best copies out there but the goal will be to resist these and wait for the next highest grade copy as they appear for sale. One thing I've learned is that every time I think I've exhausted what's available something new pops up. It's likely (and hopeful) that I'll spend a lot less money this year as opportunities become rarer but that's a good thing. I may end up working on buying a few comics that are currently priced a bit higher than I feel is appropriate for the issue but this may take some haggling. It's nice to be number one in All American Men of War but I'd love to try and fill in some of the gaps in my Western Comics set and continue to improve my crown jewel set, Captain Marvel Adventures. It's really amazing to own part of history including the highest graded copy of Tawky Tawny's first appearance and a whole slew comics actually owned by William Crowley, the publisher of Fawcett comics. The growth of my sets my be slower this year but hopefully when people visit my sets they will learn something new about some sets they may not know much or anything about. To see old comments for this Journal entry, click here. New comments can be added below.

Looks Very Familiar I was looking on ComicLink today for any new Western Comics for sale and came across a nice 9.0 copy of issue #15 for just $180. The listing was posted on November 30th of this year (a little over 2 weeks ago). If I didn't already own the comic I would definitely pick it up. And when I say I OWN it I don't mean I own AN issue #15 of Western Comics. I mean I OWN this precise issue and have owned it since September of 2011. It is the same Davis Crippen pedigree issue with the same certification number. Even the image is the same. I even pulled out the comic to confirm it. I wonder what I get if I purchase it. To see old comments for this Journal entry, click here. New comments can be added below.

I set out certain goals for my CGC sets so I wanted to see how they match up with my results. 1.My goal was to move into second place in All American Men of War. I wrote that first place was "completely out of the question" but I was helped by a few tops sets being dismantled and managed to reach the top spot. This is the first set I've ever reached number one in. It's not a particularly competitive set but it's also not an obscure one so I'm proud to be at the top. We'll see if I can maintain my position. 2.Write up an essay on All-American Men of War. Done. 3.Move up to fourth spot in Captain Marvel Adventures. Again, I was helped by some barricades removing themselves so I now find myself surprisingly in second place. This was definitely the set I invested most heavily in. 4.Maintain my second place position in Western Comics. I actually was bumped down to third place for awhile based on a competitors single high grade 9.8 issue which was more valuable than my combined collection. I have since reclaimed my second place position although I lead by only 11 points. 5.Get one more nice Golden Age World's Finest comic. I have my eye on one but never ended up getting a single issue in 2012. There was just too much other stuff attracting my attention. 6. Improve the images and description of my comics. The descriptions are much better but I discovered that most home scanners cannot scan a CGC case so I still continue to use images I pulled off the web when I bought the comics. All in all it was a darn successful year for my collections. To see old comments for this Journal entry, click here. New comments can be added below.

If you don't like HarveyFanatic's journals you can just ignore them. Just go to his profile and press ignore *poof* all his past and future journals are gone. I would prefer that HarveyFanatic put a message that relates to the image but I suppose you can argue that since the journals do contain unique images that they technically are not spam. I do have a soft spot for people who have such an eagerness to share their passion. To see old comments for this Journal entry, click here. New comments can be added below.

Is aptly named... I was getting a bit irritated with the journal vomiting but in HarveyFanatic's defense CGC does call is a "journal" which implies something for ones self. Let me also say that after perusing HarveyFanatic's collection I have to say it's darn impressive. This is the kind of focused obsession that's very enjoyable to witness. Not only has HarveyFanatic put together an amazing collection but he (or she???) has spent considerable time adding cover scans and issue descriptions. HarveyFanatic appears to be the real deal even if his expression of joy is a bit unorthodox. To see old comments for this Journal entry, click here. New comments can be added below.

I was wondering if anyone knows what Pedigree's are recognized by CGC. I have a comic from the Cookeville collection but it doesn't say anything on the CGC case. Also, has anyone heard of the "Golden Locker Collection"? Is this a recently discovered Pedigree set? To see old comments for this Journal entry, click here. New comments can be added below.

I've finally reached the number one spot on one of my sets, All-American Men of War. I will admit my success is mostly due to a lack of serious competition. Even a nitch set like Western Comics is more competitive. My goal now is to keep the top position. It's amazing the volume of highest and second highest graded issues there are that remain available for sale particularly on Comic Link. Actually that's not the amazing part. What's amazing is how delusional the sellers are. All American Men of War is not what I would consider a "Hot" set but they're priced as if interest were off the charts. Issue 71 CGC graded 8.5 is listed at $750, guide priced at $162. Issue 16 CGC graded 8.5 is listed at $1000, guide priced at $495. Issue 17 CGC graded 7.5 listed at $800, guide priced at $374. I happen to own a 7.5 copy of issue 17 and I didn't even pay close to guide price much less a ridiculous $800. Issue 34 CGC graded 9.0 listed at $1900, guide priced at $476. There's a copy of issue 81 CGC graded 8.0 for $300. I just bought an 8.5 copy on Ebay for less than ¼ of that price. My favorite is probably issue 18 CGC graded 8.5 listed at $2400, guide priced at $487. There must be 3 dozen or so of these outrageously priced issues. People aren't even putting in ANY bids on these issues because even the minimum bids are way over guide. I cannot imagine what these sellers are thinking but I can guarantee these will never sell. Even most on Ebay, which are more reasonably priced, are still too high and sit there endlessly. To see old comments for this Journal entry, click here. New comments can be added below.

Trying to fill in the final piece My goal with Captain Marvel Adventures is to create a collection of highest grade issues which is a bit of a lofty goal but has been somewhat easier than I would have ever expected. A sub goal has been to collect all the "city stories" related to cities in Ohio (my home state). I wrote a journal awhile back that C.C. Beck wrote a series of popular stories where Cap would visit actual U.S. cities and it turned out Ohio was the most visited state in the U.S. with appearances in Cincinnati, Dayton and Columbus. I managed to collect the HIGHEST grade copies of the Cincinnati and Dayton issues. My copies of Cinci and Dayton are both tied for the highest grade but the Columbus one stands alone. Getting this issue would be possibly an impossible challenge since there currently is precisely one in the world. So last Sunday I saw issue 55 of Captain Marvel Adventures for sale at a very good price and it was in fact the highest grade in existence for that issue so I grabbed it up. Cool, another highest grade for my collection. As I went through and added the information for the issue I noticed. My God, it was the Columbus issue and I didn't even know it when I bought it. I managed to buy the one and only 9.2 graded copy currently in existence. Will it remain forever the highest grade? Probably not but for now I own all three Ohio city stories in highest grade condition. To see old comments for this Journal entry, click here. New comments can be added below.

Can CGC grading reduce a comics value? I'm a big fan of ComicsPriceGuide.com as a pretty good guide for comics prices. It's not perfect but it is a big help. I've noticed in the past that lower grade comics have no effect on a comics value but I noticed something today I've never seen before. For issues graded 8.5 and lower of the 1968 The Hawk and the Dove CGC grading actually LOWERS the price. That's actually makes some sense to me and I'd like to see this more often (sorry CGC). It's actually not a heavily graded series but for me I was interested in buying a reader copy. If I wanted an investment copy I would have gotten a high grade CGC version so I specifically wanted to avoid CGC slabbed comics. Has anyone else seen CGC grading REDUCE the value of a comic? To see old comments for this Journal entry, click here. New comments can be added below.

Better than I had expected I've been a HUGE E.C. Segar/Popeye fan for years and it was with great *ahem* trepidation that I approached the new Popeye comic from IDW particularly since they were trying to closely emulate Segar's writing and artistic style. The art is a pretty good imitation and is actually just about dead on in issue 2 (ignore the weak cover art). Roger Langridge writes very SegarLIKE stories but has not yet shown Segar's ability to be outragious. Segar also had better comedic timing but as with the art issue 2 was better than 1 and the O.G. Watasnozzle backup story was actually really good. If you like Popeye and you want to support some people who are trying to continue Segar's legacy there are probably worse things you could spend your money on. I'm a pretty harsh critic of those who try to step into the shoes of a brilliant artist and writer like Segar so if I gave my thumbs up it's probably at least a decent effort. I was impressed enough that I plunked down a bit more money to get the Tony Millionaire variant cover for issue 2 and might see if I can get the variant cover for issue 1. To see old comments for this Journal entry, click here. New comments can be added below.

His Favorite Location Starting in issue #24 of Captain Marvel Adventures C.C. Beck began his successful series of 'City Stories' in which cap would visit actual cities around the U.S. The first story was called 'The Minneapolis Mystery' followed by 'Doom in Detroit', 'Sabotage in Seattle', 'Captain Marvel Makes a Movie Hit' (Los Angeles) and so on. As far as I can tell there are a total of 28 city stories. So which state is the most well represented? Turns out it's my home state of Ohio with Cincinnati, Columbus and Dayton. Dayton wins out over Akron? Dayton wins out of my home city of Cleveland? Seriously? But still it's awesome to have Ohio as cap's favorite destination. One of my mini goals in my collection was to collect all three of the Ohio city stories. I have issues 37 (Cincinnati) and 41 (Dayton) but still need Columbus but not only do I have Cincy and Dayton but I have the single highest graded copies of each. One more and I have the full set. Here are the list of all cities visited as far as I saw.... Minneapolis, MN Detroit, MI Seattle, WA LA, CA San Francisco, CA Portland, OR Denver, CO Buffalo, NY Dallas, TX Omaha, NE Oklahoma City, OK Indianapolis, IN St. Louis, MO Cincinnati, OH Chattanooga, TENN Pittsburgh, PA Boston, MA Dayton, OH St. Paul, MN Chicago, IL Washington DC Kansas City, MO Columbus, OH Mobile, AL Rochester, NY Hartford, CONN Baltimore, MD Ft. Worth, TX To see old comments for this Journal entry, click here. New comments can be added below.

...or am I? After a flurry of purchases and DailyStar apparently bowing out of collecting Captain Marvel Adventures I have shocked myself by moving into second place. I honestly thought I would do no better than fourth by the end of the year and yet here it is end of May and I sit in the number two spot. Only problem is I'm over 30000 registry points behind starman221. Actually that's not the only problem. I know the argument is that until CGC starts handing out cash prizes as awards a little graphic next to your name is fairly meaningless but gosh darn it if I'm number one I'd like to be recognized as such. If you're going to hand out awards even just bragging rights awards do it right. I cannot say whether or not starman221 actually has more legit registry points than I do but I can just about guarantee that this collector does not have 41510 CMA registry points and probably not even close to that amount based on the number of issues in his or her collection available on auctions. That alone isn't proof that starman221 doesn't still physically have them but some auctions also show sold items and I've seen some from starman221's collection that were listed as sold AFTER they were added to his or her registry. I asked starman221 to update his or her registry but received no reply and noticed that he or she hasn't made a registry change since late last year. So am I just a big whiner? Probably but I do believe that CGC owes it to collectors to make the awards somewhat legit. I've always felt that the awards were slanted towards brute force collecting rather than any elegance of set or presentation. Images and descriptions have no value in year end awards except for the Best Presentation awards which are far more competitive. I understand that sifting through all the sets and making a subjective choice would be an excessively daunting task. Even if you limited yourself to major sets you'd still probably anger people who felt their presentation was superior. Here is my suggestion for a fix. Ask collectors to actively submit their sets asking them to vouch for the authenticity of the collection. I don't believe starman221 is somehow trying to steal the award (and he or she may legitimately still be beating me in points) but if a collector has simply moved away from collecting and sold their collection without removing the items from their registry they could end up sitting at the top like the Rock of Gibraltar, immovable until collectors pick away at their collection by adding the comics to their own registry and the fact of the matter is that a vast majority of CGC comics do not get registered. It is highly unlikely that I will ever get close to 40000 CMA registry points so the best I can do may be maintaining my number two spot.