RockMyAmadeus

On 2/8/2020 at 5:35 PM, BmoGreen said:

Very cool collection! Hope my run ends up half as nice.

Why, thank you!

We're in limbo......

Strawberry Shortcake, 15 years later.

Well.

2 hours ago, the blob said:

RMA, are there other, unannounced, second prints out there? Did it really go all the way from Superman 1 to SW 1/Micronauts 1/Shogun Warriors 1 (am I wrong about the last 2? I feel like I've seen "reprint" on them?)

There are no Micronauts #1 and Shogun Warriors #1 second prints. There are, however, Direct market versions of both of those books, which were improperly referred to as "reprints" for many, many years...even by Overstreet. Because there wasn't the speed of information, and printing was expensive, there simply wasn't anything written on the Direct market cover marking program at Marvel...and because of the unfortunate confluence of events with Star Wars, most people associate "fat diamond" with "reprint"....but that's been proven to not be the case. 

As far as I can tell, there were no identified later printings of any comic from the Golden Age all the way to Star Wars...though that certainly wouldn't have prevented a publisher from doing that. We know there are unidentified reprints that have occurred throughout the years (GI Joe #4, for example, which was reprinted as nearly a perfect replica of the first print, a year+ later, and which can only be identified by looking at the ads or minute font differences in the price box.)

(first print)

(reprint)

And we know there are modern books which publishers have gone back and printed more of a day, a few days, or even a week after the initial run, but didn't mark them as second printings...on purpose? By accident? Hard to say. After all...it's up to the publisher to decide how they're going to label their publications, not the printer.

So are there more? Probably. Will they be indentifiable? Only if there's a difference. Had the "Oct" not been blacked out and replaced with "Nov.", we might never have known that there were two separate press runs for Marvel Comics #1....2 weeks apart. Is there a second print for Batman #1? Or Captain America #1? Or Whiz #2? Probably not, but you never know. We can be reasonably assured, however, due to the nature of the magazine distribution system from the 30s to the 70s, that these would be exceptionally rare, if they exist at all. 

5 hours ago, Casablanca said:

Sandman 75 2nd printing. I hear this is also a strange , tough comic to get a hold of. Any thoughts, writings on that?

It's actually not so strange...Sandman #75 was ordered in enough numbers, as the end of the series, that DC decided to offer a second print. Unfortunately, hardly anyone ordered it, and you didn't see them very much except in big city shops in LA, SF, and NYC. They quietly slipped under the radar, and that's where they sat for two decades. People knew they existed at one point...they're mentioned in Wizard or Overstreet's FAN at the time...but everyone collectively forgot, and assumed that mention was a mistake.

No, what's really strange is how DC managed to turn a Direct only title into a newsstand also title in its last 10 or so issues....the answer to that is that probably book stores like Barnes & Noble, Waldenbooks, Borders and the like were selling the trades like hotcakes, and DC said "heck....why not?", printed up some UPC copies, and that's how it happened.

3 minutes ago, Vfactor1 said:

Well, I guess you could list the polybagged version of 500 separately...

There's no functional difference between the actual comic inside, and they look the same in a slab, because the polybag can't be slabbed. I count that not as a variant, but a marketing tool...if there's some printed difference I've missed, let me know, but I'm pretty sure there's not.

I don't even have half of the possible 9.8 issues. For fun, the entire set goes like this:

Batman #488

#489

#490

#490 2nd

#491

#491 2nd

#491 3rd

#492

#492 2nd

#492 3rd

#492 Platinum

#493 

#493 2nd

#494

#495

#496

#497

#497 2nd

#497 2rd

#498

#499

#500

#500 2nd (which is really hilarious, considering how many they printed of both versions of the 1st)

Detective Comics #657

#658

#658 2nd

#659

#659 2nd

#659 3rd

#660

#660 2nd

#660 3rd (funny, there's no corresponding 3rd for #493)

#661

#662

#663

#664

#664 2nd (also an oddball)

#665

#666

Plus, if you REALLY want to get technical, Vengeance of Bane #1 and Sword of Azrael #1-4. And all the above have newsstand versions, too, if you REALLY wanted to get insane.

Did I miss any?

I have almost all of these SSd, but many of the did not end up in a 9.8 label for now. We'll see.

I HAVE #663 and #665 in SS 9.8...it's just that the grader at CGC didn't agree. They'll have to go back in, whether through review (which I'm hoping, but not too hopeful for), or straight resub (which annoys me to no end, for obvious reasons.)

As for the #666...yeah, it's a...er..."beast" in 9.8. It was shoddily made, and the heavy ink on the cover made it very susceptible to cracking, leading to color breaking spine stress and "bigger than average" splitting along the spine, revealing more white than 9.8 can tolerate. I think I went through 15 copies (don't ask me why I have 15 copies) and managed to find just TWO candidates...and one got 9.8, the other 9.6. For some books, the ink simply isn't as pliant, and can't bounce back from a bend...some books, the ink won't crack and flake, but for many books, there's just so much it can take, and the heavier the application, as with this book, the more prone to color breaks.

Couple of things worth pointing out:

1. Isn't that Croc sketch by Balent just amazing on Tec #660...? Just amazing. Someday, I'd like to get someone to ink it...maybe Hanna.

2. I'm so very, very thankful that comic collecting had matured by that point, because if people were still collecting comics in the 90s the way they were in the 60s, there wouldn't be a single copy above 9.0, with all those dark covers AND back cover ads.

3. Tec #666 is a tough book, but I managed to get at least one copy in 9.8...and none of the others (#661, 663-665.) Go figure.

12 hours ago, Alf Pogs said:

Your 114 is amazing!  

It might have been you when I first walked into that shop in SV. There was a guy arguing with the owner over the 94. He was saying you are ruining it in the sun and the owner said it is not for sale just for show.

 

That would be very coincidental if that was me in the shop when you happened to come in, 20+ years ago! But I do remember having some form of that conversation with the guy. Cue Twilight Zone theme.

Do you remember the store further along the coast...maybe, I want to say, in Capitola or Soquel....that was a comic store/pet store? Very nice guy, but he was apparently getting out of comics around 1996...and I thought I was scoring big when I bought several long boxes of new-ish comics, mostly Image, for "half price" (meaning $1.25-$1.50 each.)

This would have included stellars like pre-Ellis Stormwatch, Brigade, Cyber Force, Youngblood. If only I had waited...the heyday of eBay was just around the corner...

Oh well, he was a nice guy, and he treated me with respect, so hopefully the money helped him out.

Hey, waddaya know, I just checked the census, and apparently, that Wetworks #2 is the only 9.8 SS that exists so far. 

Sweet!

(Of course, the 3 9.6s are also mine. Sigh.  )

Next up: the Quesada 1996 Puzzle Panel! 

Unfortunately, that one is going to be exceptionally more difficult to assemble, because they are 1. much, much scarcer, especially in high grade, than this set, and 2. Quesada charges a $30 per book CGC punishment tax, and there's no way in hell these books are worth that much. They are, unfortunately, dollar books, and to spend $60-$70 per book to get the complete 9 piece set...and stand a good chance of not getting 9.8s....makes it very, very much not at all worth it. 

We'll see, I guess. That set may remain a dream forever. Too bad, too.

#127, #130, and #140 added.

Just 20 more to go...

Sure, but nobody wanted Godzilla in 1995.

4 hours ago, Alf Pogs said:

    

I remember that 94 in SV. It was eventually bleached pure white by the time they went out of business.   

You DO remember that one! I didn't mention that it was sitting in the afternoon sun, day after day after day, getting bleachier and bleachier and bleachier.

Made me sad.

True story: guy kicked me out of the store for "hiding" some back issues.  I did that a lot in my early 20s...didn't want it to sell, but didn't have the money, so I'd hide the books I wanted in a run of Godzilla or something and come back and buy them when I finally had some money.

While I certainly understand why you wouldn't want your back stock out of order, his reaction was a bit extreme, in my view. I certainly wasn't shoplifting, and I would have eventually bought them. And, as the X-Men #94 story shows, they were terrible businessmen...

8 hours ago, BlowUpTheMoon said:

Good luck on completing this run. 

Why no #137? 

#137 is a strange beast. I'm not willing to risk cracking a 9.8 and having it grade "something else", and I'm not at all confident that I could get a 9.4 or 9.6 and have it grade 9.8.

I have never been able to grade glued spine books the way CGC grades them. I don't know what they hit, and I don't know what they overlook, beyond broad strokes.

That's one I'll probably end up buying already signed: no risk.

6 hours ago, dfx1 said:

the cake is a lie

Good. 

Pie is where it's at anyways...

3 hours ago, steveinthecity said:

5 hours ago, RockMyAmadeus said:

The only thing I like about it is that you can moderate your own journal. I've already deleted a comment, and it was refreshing. Not having to deal with the firestarters is a super plus.

 

Was it someone who criticized your retaining wall instructions?  

Possibly. Although, credit where credit is due, I copied and pasted them.

On 8/31/2018 at 7:26 AM, BlowUpTheMoon said:

This format is silly.

The only thing I like about it is that you can moderate your own journal. I've already deleted a comment, and it was refreshing. Not having to deal with the firestarters is a super plus.

14 minutes ago, porcupine48 said:

Just now, RockMyAmadeus said:

A poor retaining wall design wall can lean, separate, even topple—and it’s out there in plain sight where all your neighbors can point and snicker. You don’t want that!

That is my favorite text.

Pointing and snickering neighbors are the WORST.

5 hours ago, jsilverjanet said:

I'm disappointed. I was expecting a wall of text

That's odd. I was expecting text of walls.

Oh, wait...here's some!

When you contemplate how to build a retaining wall, you may imagine how firm and solid it’ll appear from the front, or how great the new garden will look above it. But unless you give serious thought to what goes on behind and below the wall, the retaining wall design may not look good for long. A poor retaining wall design wall can lean, separate, even topple—and it’s out there in plain sight where all your neighbors can point and snicker. You don’t want that!

Lots of people think a retaining wall needs to hold back all 6 gazillion tons of soil in the yard behind it. It doesn’t. It only needs to retain a wedge of soil, or elongated wedge of soil, similar to that shown in Fig. A. In simple terms (our apologies to all you soil engineers out there): Undisturbed soil—soil that has lain untouched and naturally compacted for thousands of years—has a maximum slope beyond which it won’t ‘hang together’ on its own. This slope is called the failure plane. If left alone, the soil behind the failure plane will stay put on its own. But the soil in front of the failure plane—the natural soil or the fill you’re going to add—wants to slide down the failure plane.

Gravity, along with the slope, directs most of the weight and pressure of the fill toward the lower part of the retaining wall. Since soil weighs a beefy 100-plus lbs. per cu. ft., you need some pretty heavy material—large retaining wall blocks, boulders, timbers or poured concrete—to counteract the pressure. Just as important, it needs to be installed the right way. Here are three key principles in building any solid retaining wall:

• Bury the bottom course, or courses, of the retaining wall one tenth the height of the wall to prevent the soil behind from pushing the bottom out (Fig. B).
• Step back the blocks, rocks or timbers to get gravity working in your favor (Fig. B). This lets the walls lean and push against the fill. Walls built perfectly vertical (Fig. C) get gravity working against them the second they start leaning outward even just a bit. Most concrete retaining wall block systems have some kind of built-in lip (Fig. D) or pin system (Fig. F) that automatically creates the step back as you build.
• Install a base of solidly compacted material (Fig. B) so your wall stays flat. A level wall provides modular blocks, stone and timbers with more surface contact with the courses above and below them. They fit together more tightly. The more contact, the more friction and the stronger the wall. Apply these three rules, and you’ll create a strong wall. But even a well built wall won’t survive unless you take care of two troublemakers: water and uncompacted soil.

Apparently, you have to let people follow you...? I don't want people following me...stalkers!

Yeah, it seems very detached.