Brian48

Don't have a pic handy 'cause I'm still looking for that "perfect" book, but I absolutely love Kaluta's cover for Unknown Worlds of Science Fiction #2.

That is a good one. Neal Adams, right? My hand would be a little lower with this one.

I'd like to get the best condition Vampirella #1 I can get.

Dune will never work as a single movie. You'd have split it up in 3 chapters to do it any justice.

Too many choices for me, but I happened to have been reminded of this one today.

I guess from a technical standpoint, this is still SA, but I was still hesitant to post this here instead of the BA forum. I tend to lump Batman related books like this as early BA.

In meantime, I'll keep to an older era. I had already had very nice raw Tongie Farm copy (est. 9.0+), but this was relatively cheap so I went ahead and picked it up. My last book to close out 2016.

One of the top books on my [very] short list of Moderns I'd consider chasing.

Maybe this one too. Saw a little bit more attention since Gotham premiered, but that was short lived.

1st Issue Special #8. Back in the day, I thought this book was a can't miss. The whole genre has taken a dose dive in the last couple of decades.

Man. Molly Parker was such hottie a decade back. Still very attractive, mind you, but she was complete fapping material if you ever saw "The Center of the World".

I finally saw this movie last night. Picked up the Blu-Ray and put in the extended version. Didn't bother with the Theatrical cut. In all honesty, I thought BvS was "OK". Wasn't great, but I didn't hate it, and the extended cut was a tab better. With SS, I just didn't like this movie at all. To me, it was an even more jumbled mess that BvS. If indeed it was all the Joker scenes that they took out, then I can't imagine how worse the theatrical cut was as I thought all the Jay Leto scenes were the best parts of the movie. Really disappointed and have no faith in Justice League and Wonder Woman right now. Aquaman? Maybe a sliver a hope. At least James Wan has a pretty strong pedigree as a good film maker.

Swampy's definitely the more significant of the two. HOS 92 is on my short bucket list. Will eventually get a copy, but haven't seen the right one yet. Very hard to find with good page quality for some reason. Too bad no one has taken advantage of Man-Thing though. Great potential with the right writer. Would love to see that first appearance take off.

Isn't the whole "A muck-encrusted mockery" thingie supposed to be for Man-Thing?

Conan #1.

Some very cheap additions to my 100pager collection.

Bats 251 is extremely popular these days so I'm not surprised very few people are letting their copies go. It's definitely a key, but I view this more as a Joker Key and not so much a Batman one (or even an O'Neil/Adams one). Having Adams involved certainly helps though. This book is a very clear and (realistically attainable) starting point for most Joker fans. I view Bats 251 like I do Spidey 129.

I don't think you can ever compare the O'Neil/Adams Bat run with the one from GL/GA. Unlike GL/GA, the shift was not so abrupt with Batman. With Bats, it was very gradual, pre-dated O'Niel, and over a long period of time whereas GL/GA literally hit you in the face on day one with issue #76. There is no doubt with GL/GA when the new era started where as it's not so clear with Batman. The Adams "look" started with various early covers and didn't really carry over into the stories until he started working on the B&B title with Bob Haney. The work he did on WF 175/176 can be somewhat ignored since Adams himself stated he took a very conservative approach to drawing those stories (and it shows) as he was eager for the work and wanted to move off titles like Jerry Lewis. It was with B&B that he started drawing a little differently and taking a couple of small steps to bring Bats back to the darker side. In the same interview with Kevin Smith, when he was first asked to take on the B&B title full time, he had requested two simple things which Bob Haney and Julie Schwartz agreed too, 1) All stories take place at night and 2) Batman only enters a room through a window and not a door. These simple rules went a LONG way. After doing B&B for a few issues, Adams recounted a very good story where Schwartz grabbed him in a hallway one morning with a bunch of fan letters in his fist. To paraphrase what came next, Schwartz had asked why fans are saying the "true" Batman only appears in Brave & Bold? That eventually got Adams the nod to move over to the main Bat titles starting with Detective Comics. When O'Neil finally started collaborating with him, it went even further. All this means is that fans have a lot choices for starting points if you're collecting or investing. I don't think there'll ever be a full agreement where, despite DC's decision to include 'Tec 395 in it's Millenium series. B&B 79 has been reprinted probably just as much if not more so than 'Tec 395. B&B 85 is all about the new Green Arrow. Batman just happens to be along for the ride for that one. By the way, B&B 79 is an excellent, award winning story. It still holds up in my opinion and feels very modern considering the time in which it was published. This is my personal favorite "starting point" for the Adams era Bats.

Adams was interviewed on Kevin Smith's podcast a couple of years ago. On the topic of Ras, Adams said he was something completely new. They wanted to do something different at the time and never tried before. I don't get the sense that any of the character traits were borrowed from the Muertos character in 'Tec 395.

Damn. I remember buying that book off the stands. What memories.

Had no idea this book existed. Found it in the bargain bin at the local Five & Below for $5. Leave it to Stan to write his memoirs in comic book form. Awesome.

Many years ago, 395 was a key...for ME. The story had been reprinted a lot, and was given a lot of attention for what a radical departure it was. And the cover WAS/IS iconic! A great, underrated book. Could pop again as people continue to distinguish between specific Adams keys... I'm not sure why, but Overstreet does not view 'Tec 395 as a key. It's not listed or priced any differently than the other Adams non-key issues in the 'Tec run (i.e. 397, 402, 407, etc..). Even 'Tec 404 gets more notice as OSPG mentions it for being an Enemy Ace tribute. It's also a much tougher to find book in high grade. I haven't seen too many slabbed copies 9.0+ over the last few years.

That Supes vs Ali is absolutely beautiful. Congrats.

Carried over from the BA section.