alexgross.com

feels a bit deceptive regardless. just another way for someone to get clicks. plus SPOILER ALERT * SPOILER ALERT * SPOILER ALERT * isnt scarlet witch muerte?

this appears to be a photoshop image, not a real poster.

just got this copy from @Dale Roberts to replace the 8.5 copy i parted with last year. very happy with the colors on it and the white pages, which are pretty tough to find compared to #48. centering could have been a bit better but i'm still a happy camper until an 8.0WP comes along!

this will be my last post on the subject. your initial post said that the explanation for collectors getting into pulps now is misogyny. not that it was the reason many of them were created in the first place. if the latter is your assertion, you could do with a lot less words and a bit more clarity. if, in fact, that was your position rather than a misstatement, then it is as ridiculous as asserting that collectors of war covers like the ones below are racists or anti-semites. although such a person may collect books like these, most collectors who want these books want them because they are a time capsule of a unique historic moment. and the cover art is also astonishing. as it is on many pulps, regardless of what the cover features. schomburg's fantastic story is the only pulp i own and yes the woman is scantily clad. it does not make me or any of the enormous number of collectors of schomburg's work a misogynist.

or it won't. for those of us who bought plane tickets and booked hotel rooms last summer, hard to know if this is for reals this time.

i could probably try to phrase this more politely, but your assertion is ridiculous. all or most collectors of pulps today are misogynists? really?? are you an 18 year old majoring in women's studies at sarah lawrence? comics and pulps were geared 100% to a male audience back in the golden age. everyone knows that. was this area of entertainment very misogynistic and based on titillation? certainly. but to assert that this is the reason that today, people of all ages, shapes, sizes and genders, including some female collectors who are even on these boards, are getting into old pulps is insane. collectors of old comics and pulps love them for the remarkable beauty of the art, (the pulp covers were almost always oil paintings) the nostalgia for the bygone era, and for the way it makes them recall either their youth, or an idealized imaginary time before they were born, when things might have been more innocent. there are plenty of better options for the man/ person who wants to see women demeaned today than old pulps from 90 years ago. its called the internet. plus, what is this doing in this thread? see page one. it says: "are prices still climbing or have they eased up a bit?"

saw it today with my 8 year old. that always helps me enjoy then more and be a bit less picky. still, i thought this was far better than dr strange multiverse or thor love and ladies. majors' kang was awesome, one of the more compelling villains in recent marvel films after thanos. agreed that he should have been much much harder to defeat but since there are more of him on the way i guess its not that big a deal. far from perfect, but honestly i think if we keep expecting anything marvel to live up to infinity war/endgame, we will never be happy. this movie was much more entertaining for us than eternals.

at least they were respectful enough to announce the cancellation now, instead of one month before the event, like the torpedo folks did last summer.

i personally think that asm3 and asm14 are the smart buys for spidey key books. they are not cheap, but much cheaper than asm1 and are the two biggest villain first appearance books in the whole run. for 10k you could put 5k into each and get two nice copies (a 7.0 of each one) . whereas for that amount you could maybe get a 4.0 of asm1. i'm not a signature guy so i will not comment on that idea. but all spidey key books have done really well over the last 5-10 years.

truly the lamest convention hall size con i have ever seen for comics or toys. i was told it was because (A) first show in like 2 years since covid and (B) fan expo bought the former wizard world and many vendors had not come along. all i know is that going with my 8 year old made it alright with me, but i really expected at least some toy vendors with marvel legends and other character toys. and having more like 5 comics dealers would have been nice, especially considering this area has at least 5 or 6 killer comic shops. there were several good artists there like randy emberlin, michael cho, simon bisley, kevin maguire. sunday they were not very busy unfortunately and i'm sure they were questioning why they chose to attend this show.

literally only 1-2 guys with a small number of comics at the whole show. very small, very lame for comics or toys. but on the plus side, there was a llama.

picked up this michael cho golden age batman tpb cover comp today at the fan expo here in town. just loved it too much not to get it.

from the seattle times: Seattle violent crime hits 15-year high https://www.seattletimes.com/seattle-news/law-justice/seattle-violent-crime-hits-15-year-high-other-takeaways-from-new-report/ According to the report, "Overall citywide crime increased by four percent (1,834) compared to 2021," the 2022 report states. "The percentages may appear lower but reported crime for 2021 was at an all-time high. 2022 totals have now exceeded that with 49,577 reported violent and property crimes. Aggravated Assault and Motor Vehicle Theft were significantly high in 2022 when compared to a five-year weighted average." the article is behind a paywall, but you get the idea. it's easy to expose some critics as extremists, nutjobs, or whatever, but it's delusional to pretend things are just fine there. many dealers no longer participate in emerald city comic con for this reason. and i am not interested in bringing my 8 year old to that show, which is a bummer, since it's something i would have loved to attend with him in better times.

it looks like a 6.5 to me but since you seem surprised by the grade, and not in a good way, i'm guessing 5.5 was the grade they assigned.

i agree with you. after the first one, i was all in. i enjoyed the second one quite a bit too. the third one was the worst one by far, imo, but critics and fans loved it, strangely. still, i'm on board with any POTA remakes or reimaginings. it was my favorite franchise as a kid and i had all the mego toys.

@aardvark88 i'll be there because i have an 8 year old and it's fun to be able to go to a show like this with him. but it's not a good show for comics. i do recall harley being at the last one a couple years ago, but i wouldn't be surprised if he is skipping this now.

oh i think it's true to some extent. at least in the seventies it was. for example, this is NOT neal adams. in the eighties there did seem to be more diversity of art styles with byrne, miller, simonson. i felt the same way you do now once the image guys showed up. i felt that everything looked the same at the start of the nineties. perhaps this feeling is common with each generation. not saying there isn't alot of truth to it. and i think one of the reasons many artists use digital shortcuts is that it saves time and money. i don't think page rates are very good these days.

recent pickup from the cal comic con, this one from A1 comics...

congrats on a great book!

upgraded my copy to this nice 7.0 thanks to the bunky brothers yesterday at terry's cal comic con...

here's my short report- a great time today meeting some boardies and seeing a ton of great books too. so nice to have this show back after 3 years. thanks to @TerrysComics and @shortboxed for putting this together again! i met @buttock @VintageComics @greggyfor the first time, and hung with @Gamma Ray Comics and several other cool fellows. as far as the show itself, there were a lot of raw books compared to slabs. a great selection of GA stuff and silver too. not that many blue chip SA grails compared to some past shows, but still quite alot to see and buy. i saw one guy pick up a sweet xmen2 9.4 white page book from A1 comics. dealers seemed to be doing good business, it was a very well attended show. i saw plenty of buying and selling happening. some dealer pricing was a bit out of date, but those who were flexible or had great stuff seemed quite active. as for trades, i did a very reasonable deal with @Bunky Brian to upgrade my asm5 from 5.5 to 7.0. so, i think what @LDarkseid1 was mentioning just depends on the individual dealer. i had a great time here and hope more shows like it return to the schedule now that the pandemic is past.

looks like gpa did do as i had hoped and break out the badly faded books mentioned above into their own separate item lines and not in the main averages. awesome to see them be so responsive! +1

my son aksed me and i didnt knows the answer- is them makings a second eternalz movie? i havent hearded nothing bout one...

here's another one ending shortly that's going to decimate GPA averages on this book. high time they broke out faded books into their own category imo. https://comics.ha.com/itm/silver-age-1956-1969-/journey-into-mystery-83-marvel-1962-cgc-vg-45-off-white-to-white-pages/a/122305-19537.s?ic4=GalleryView-ShortDescription-071515

very excited to be there again finally after three years!