EwanUK

More... BLAAM!, 1988, UK, newsprint mag Free give-away with early Neil Gaiman, Shane Oakley and John McCrea work. 500 copies. Comics Focus no.1, 1992, UK, mag Actually a fanzine and from the early 90s but included for the stunning and unreprinted Sandman content. Less than 300 copies made. Chain Reaction no.3, 1983, UK, mag Another fanzine but the hardest Miracleman related one to find. (I now have them all). Velocity no.1, 1987, UK, comic size Warren & Gary Pleece's debut stripzine. Comican 1982, UK, A5 And just because I love it, this convention program featured only 1 of 2 Warrior-contemporary V for Vendetta illustrations....

Here's some pictures of VERY RARE 80s books! Food For Thought, UK 1985, comic size One of my fanzine/ comic grails and took me years to find this. Features the obscure Alan Moore and Bryan Talbot "Cold Snap" strip plus unique art by Alan Davis, Dave Gibbons, Kevin O'Neill and all the best UK talent. Print run must have been in low hundreds only. I found this in a UK dealers pound box at a comic mart!!!! By chance! A copy went on ebay for £50 last year. Mad Dog 10, UK 1985, mag size The other Alan Moore super-rarity featuring the only other known appearance of the Marvel Universe inhabiting "Captain Airstrip One"... Meanwhile, UK 1983, mag size Recognise the artist? This is Dave McKean's earliest strip-zine featuring a character called "Josef". 4 issues were published. Copies have sold on ebay for £50. Totally Alien, UK 1985, A5 Rare UK comic with art by Steve Yeowell who went on to draw Zenith for 2000AD. The strip is called "Hawker" Will Eisner's Quarterly, US 1983, mag Now i'm not sure if this is common - or in fact what it is? I believe it's a promo? Anyone know?

Hi all After 10 years researching Miracleman I have absoloutely no doubt the 2D 3D is stunningly rare and is easily the rarest mainstream Copper Age comic ever published - (other than perhaps some of the other obscurer 2Ds that have even fewer copies??? - I can't believe they were picked up for $10 each!) Facts 100 copies produced; signed and numbered by Cat Yronwode Purchased only by mail order. Just 5 known copies - 1 owned by a UK collector, no.92 /100 1 owned by Michagan State University (but not verfied as being a 2D, may have been indexed incorrectly); NOW BELIEVED TO BE NORMAL 3D 1 sold on eBay US in 2002 for around $150 (from memory, verified in 2009 by RockMyAmadeus on the CGC boards); 1 owned by Al Stoltz (reported in the article "MiracleMan 2-D Copy Discovered!" published in "Scoop" 15th February 2008); 1 owned by "ladines" on CGC boards "I've got one of the MM 3D 2d's and I can tell you that mine is signed by Cat but on a special page in the interior of the comic, not inside the cover which would explain why the MSU copy doesn't have it either. The page explains that cat has a condition that doesn't allow her to see the 3D version and since she was the publisher decided to print 100 copies in 2D. I believe mine is number 82 but don't have it on hand to confirm."; 1 owned by Michael Schmidt, a US collector, no 19/100 (photo's published on CGC boards - "I can't go into the specifics of how I aquired this, but it came from the original owner who purchased it directly from Eclipse - this wasn't a dollar-box find by any means, but I paid a price I was perfectly happy with. It's not for sale (really) - as this thread perfectly illustrates, it's one of those (few) true comic book rarities that are pretty much impossible to replace." Michael's copy was (and is I assume) very high grade too. I kind of gave up looking on seeing it. Michael could of course bought Al's copy leaving just 4 known. BTW, agree about Gold & Blue. While desirable, they're not real variants and shouldn't be listed as table-toppers in OS. They are at least 6 variants of the Gold certificate though....

Judge Dredd by Ron Smith - a "Classic Judge Dredd" painted cover

UK version of no.1 from 1962

Here's my 4th submission to CGC from the UK - and the first time I've been dissapointed. My past submissions have all resulted in multiple 9.8s - not one this time! I'm not having 'off-graders-sulk' but kinda takes the winds from one's sails! Starting with Swamp Thing no.30 I got this graded because of the double-cover (and it's a cool book). Thought the out-cover was a soft but inner at least 9.4. Came back a lowly 9.0. Next Miracleman TPBs These were actually "to see how they'd do" as I'd previously submitted a factory shrink-wrapped Apocrypha which came back a 9.8. So not expecting super high grades but none below 9.2. I'm particularly concerned about the Book 2 and Book 4 as both now have rear spine white marks as if the inner holder supporter has sheared paper-off because the books are so thick. I'm sure they weren't like this before. I know I should call for grader's notes. There's also a little sliver of spine in Book 3 which lends itself to my shearing theory. Anyone else had this? Next the Miracleman covered (still not on the label!) rare A1 Sketchbook. I have had 3 9.8s of this in the past. Thought these would be a 9.6 and a 9.8 (but the other way round!) Miracleman 17 Gold edition. This was previously a 9.4 so I guess it took its time to rest and has now become higer grade! Finally and by far the most surprising off all is my Preacher Preview which I've previously shown on the board. Found inside it's original DC promo mag, untouched by human hands, just perfect in every way.... ONLY came back a 9.6. I genuinely thought it'd be 9.9 or 10.0. Certainly now lower than 9.8. So not sure what to do with these now.... Hasn't put me off CGC just a bit of a bummer!

Which needs to be in a Green Label, but what the heck... What a co-incidence, I've sent a no.17 Gold in just recently. Maybe a 9.6? Michael, what other 9.8s did you get - hoping for a 9.9 I presume?

Eagle Awards 1978 - X-Men very popular! No sign of Mr. Moore yet.. Want to participate in Comics Fandom? Dark They Were And Golden Eyed - I'm too young to have seen it but I understand this was the pre-runner for the original Forbidden Planet? Comicon 1977 - Bolland Batman Titan list

Odyssey 7 in Manchester - one of the very first comic shops I went to as a 13 year old (before the Leeds store opened). Exeter Comic Mart - note rare Tharg appearance! Lou's Stall Forever People

Here's some more pics recalling the Golden Age of UK comic shops.... 1985 "Twilight Zone" advert with a few bargains! DC 50th with Moore & Gibbons Stan Lee Rock's Off - this was a little known, but fantastic shop outside Bradford. Their stock was really obscure - anyone else remember?

the seminal Comic Showcase in London circa 1985 Can you make out the books for sale?

I've mentioned this before, exactly the same thing happened with my original collection - which included OA - I sold to him for peanuts... but I guess I was consenting. Real regret though. I have ordered from him since, sometimes ok but once sent the wrong comic and said something like "sorry you didn't like the deal" as if I'd somehow agreed to it. That still irritates me. Here's a pic... You'll note he's found a novel way of pressing his comics. p.s. can one of the wiz's change the headline of this article?

More Ditko fun

UK fanzine

Do you think this signature is genuine?

Did I say permananently...? And I'm not even drunk More importantly, why aren't Hellblazer back issues more highly valued than Sandman? 1) Started years before Sandman 2) Still running today! 3) Most of the series remains un-reprinted 4) Has had a movie starring Keanu (much as we wish it hadn't) Also, why the 2nd Swamp Thing series isn't more highly valued / regarded? Of course we all know the Moore run is coveted but like Sandman it is very heavily reprinted - but no.20, which wasn't until recently, should be a Copper key. No.37 (and no.25), the 1st Constantine is also very cheaply available. I would recommend everyone also read the Rick Veitch run - it's as least as good as the later Moore issues - and no.84 see Matt Cable become Matthew The Raven (later in Sandman) - also the Grant Morisson then Mark Millar final run from no.140-171 is mostly fantastic.

Reading a pile of Swamp Things on Christmas Day as you do.... I found my first double cover - what a thrill! Abby & Swamp Thing look appropriately shocked!

I've noticed that Warrior copies get very little attention. Despite the lack of demand, I would not write them off. There are some important stories in Warrior and they are selling for so little right now, that you'd be crazy not to pick them up if you get the chance. Agree Warrior is very important and as such under-rated - after all, it had the 1st appearances of Miracleman and V... but it's actually very common still - and the editor / publisher Dez Skinn still sells as new copies from his stock pile. What's definitely hard to get is a) copies above VF b) some of the later issues c) the Comics International fanzine flip-book issue d) full-runs - go for $200 Anyone with any copies to show off?

I grew up with 2000AD too - bought it as a child from 1979 to 1983, then collected from 1985 to about 1994! Don't really read it now - but was blessed to be 8-10 years old during its classic period 1980-1982. I have a high grade collection of issues from Prog 50 to 300. Here's my Prog 61

Huh? After you posted here, I could have emailed the seller and offered him $250 for the book. He sells to me outside of Ebay and tells you the listing was in error. Seems very likely to me. Agreed - you've definitely been gazumped - neg the seller immediately. In fact, this kind of thing really riles me as it's happened to me before. The guy should sell to you!

A Miracleman submission... my grade / CGC grade No.6 - 9.6 / 9.0 No.6 - 9.4 / 9.2 No.8 - 9.6 / 9.6 top census No.8 - 9.8 / 9.6 ish, still top census 3x no.9 - 9.6 or 9.8 / got back 1 9.4, 1 9.6, 1 9.8 No.18 - 9.6 / 9.8 1 of 2 in 9.8, black cover No.19 - 9.6 / 9.8 No.21 - 9.6 / 9.8 black cover So.... explain all that. I reckon the grader just took time to warm-up, had a little indecision on the no.9, then went for an all 9.8 finale! Hoorah!

Ian, Found some old Direct Currents and promo stuff - have you got all these? June 85, July 85, Sep 87 1-7, 14, 17, 20, 22, 28-31, 37, 38, 42 Hawkworld promo Black Orchid promo Legion promo Batman The Cult card

Sorry but I don't believe a word of that article. The editor of the fanzine is Dez Skinn.

Hope this is of interest, found this story in an old UK fanzine from the early 1970s Shows there was original-owner DC keys in the UK even then. Alan Austin (the dealer Ian mentioned) is reported to offer 1pence for Action no.1 amongst others!!!! I wonder what happened to this collection?

Welcome back Ian The return of the King!