Davenport

I started a thread about the best free video tutorial site I've ever come across. CLICK

Posted this in another thread, but worth repeating. "Ctrl+Paint" has excellent videos, traditional drawing through digital painting. Ctrl+Paint video library Practically a free art education's worth of high quality lessons and tutorials.

More symbiotic than "same person". The demon is "bound" to Jason Blood. This is cool: Jack Kirby did a 'direct lift ' of Prince Valiant's demon mask for Etrigan's look. CBR Article So Etrigan's weird "ears", if you've ever wondered, were originally drawn to be goose-feet.

Finishing up Napoleon's Pyramids and The Rosetta Key by William Dietrich. Ethan Gage is such a fun, interesting and entertaining character. Mentored by Ben Franklin, armed with tomahawk and his Pennsylvania longrifle, a gambler that evokes both Indiana Jones and Bret Maverick. High adventure, ancient mysteries, and pulp historical fiction at it's finest, set in the 1798 Napoleonic wars.

Why does this devise make me think of this thread? Don't have a geekgasm... Pianocade

There was a tv-series I found surprisingly entertaining called "The Seeker". Watched both seasons and really enjoyed the characters of Richard, Kahlan and Zeddicus, thought I'd check out the source material... Reading "Wizards First Rule" by Terry Goodkind. Weighs in at a whopping 700+ pages, but 100 pages in and it's smooth enough. I fall right in to the story, just what I wanted.

Finished... Half Way Home by Hugh Howey The Rho Agenda trilogy (The Second Ship, Immune, and Wormhole) by Richard Phillips Wired for Story by Lisa Cron Starting... The Dead Sea Deception by Adam Blake

Another good one...

Povertyrow produced an excellent overview: Some General Thoughts On Restoration and its Detection

Right. I was just thinking of Balck Canary's metahuman yell. So they'll restrict her to fighting prowess (already explained as "cop's daughter") and have to come up with a clever reason for the "Canary" tag. Or not. I don't think anyone in the show has referred to Oliver as "Arrow" or "Green Arrow" yet. It's always "the hood" or "the vigilante" or "we found arrows at the scene". Even the show's title, "Arrow", doesn't use "The", so it may not be a proper name, only a theme. Like they're going way out of their way to avoid using any of DC's superhero monikers. (although they did use "Deadshot")

Interesting. Agree they're very loose and subtle, so spotting them is part of the fun. And so far there's no supernatural or metahuman story elements. Looks like they're going to play it straight, 'real world'.

Just caught up with this show. I thought his love interest, Laurel, was Black Canary. She has the comic-characters name, Dinah Laurel Lance. And one episode had them remebering a halloween , joking about how she looked great in fishnets. The show seems to be taking an Elseworlds approach with fresh takes on the comic characters. That gangster's daughter/assassin seems to be Huntress, introduced as Helena and wearing a cross.

Cool mask. There's "The Halloween Mask Association" message board, probably get answers and interest there. www.thehma.net

Added two to your list. (thumbs u Happy Thanksgiving to all !

This. Amen. I have nothing against any professional treatment, proactively disclosed. They all serve a purpose and the skills involved are amazing. The game, however, is an insult to basic 'common sense'. A system that concerns itself with nano-ridges and paper-curls on one hand, but then exempts completely disassembling, refurbishing, and reassembling seems INSANE.

BOOM. Reality check, point blank. Serious question: How many years was CGC's rollout? Before everything was fully and officially confirmed? (off the top of my head it seems like 6 or 7 years, maybe longer. But I may be prone to sensationalism, or so I'm told. )

Hidden conspiracy? Seriously? It's a successful business model imported from coins. Paper is just easier to manipulate than metal, and here we are. There's nothing mysterious about it.

Fact. It might be a fact as an abstract model but Borock already came on here and admitted that pressing and resubmission was a) not built into the original CGC model b) was not shared with only a select group of people So your model doesn't really apply. So it is therefore just sensationalism and sound bite. The model was imported over from coins.

Sound bite. Fact.

CGC 'guarantees' nothing other than your book was viewed by three people. They don't even guarantee that a book in a Universal label is unrestored. Just that it was viewed by three people. Semantics. They provide a risk mitigating service, whether by guaranty or inspection by professionals the effect is the same, increased disclosure/certainty/knowledge. And I would counter that an honest, ethical, knowledgeable dealer can give just as good a service. In fact, with certain honest, ethical, knowledgeable dealers, you might well get increased disclosure. That illusion of "increased disclosure/certainty/knowledge" is THE cornerstone of the Crack-Out-Game. It's the required "confidence" ingredient. The Game only works if workbench beauties and truly rare gems become indiscernible.

Take a look at what you wrote and really think about it. The Senior Consignment Director at Heritage developed the methodology CGC uses. And their (newly acquired) Restoration Expert knows Heritage intimately, having worked for and with them for years. You see no advantages for a consignment to reach its top possible CGC grade, getting the most bang for Heritage, and have that final hammer amount fed to dataminers for mass consumption? Take a moment and just let it percolate a bit. A potential "conflict of interest" may present itself. Step back from it, tilt your head, squint your eyes, and look again. Did Steve develop the methodology or help develop it? My understanding is that a lot of people were involved in it including most major dealers. I don't understand how Matt's professional relationship with Heritage affects CGC graders. I might be missing something obvious. There are plenty of people that know how to grade well and detect resto well (plenty relatively speaking, within the hobby). I think I am one of them, after learning about it for years through conversations, the chat forum, etc. Does that mean that the system is slanted in my favour? I suppose if you're good at what you do they would be. I'm going to need you to spell it out for me, Dav. Read this (emphasis mine): Got it? Think of it as a Game you want to import and compete in. You design the playing field, you invest in the refs, develop an unpublished book of rules, own your own stadium and team. See any advantage to that scenario?

Take a look at what you wrote and really think about it. The Senior Consignment Director at Heritage developed the methodology CGC uses. And their (newly acquired) Restoration Expert knows Heritage intimately, having worked for and with them for years. You see no advantages for a consignment to reach its top possible CGC grade, getting the most bang for Heritage, and have that final hammer amount fed to dataminers for mass consumption? Take a moment and just let it percolate a bit. A potential "conflict of interest" may present itself. Step back from it, tilt your head, squint your eyes, and look again.

Dang. I didn't mean it clear the room. Hello?

"CGC's Head Grader"??? You forgot Steve Borock's name or are you shooting for a National Enquirer vibe? My question to you, Davenport, is: What did "CGC's Head Grader" do that compromised CGC or Heritage or created a "conflict of interest?" Please detail what you know, since you brought this up under the "conflict of interest" umbrella.. Thanks! Fair question. I didn't put Steve's name because it doesn't matter "who". The position at CGC was the point, and where that position advanced to. I went out of my way to not make it personal, because it's not. Glance up a few posts and you'll see someone accusing me of spewing "sensationalism". Look at your own defensive reaction. Making it about beloved personalities is a conversation-killer. So I purposely avoided it. Maybe I should've only posted the links. Let them speak for themselves. If you knew none of the personalities, none of the company names, would you consider: ...an auction house owner with a past involving grading conflicts ...a comic book grading company who accepts the action house owner's investment capital. ...a comic book restoration expert who has worked with and for the auction house ...a head grader and spokesperson for the comic book grading company creates a "conflict of interest" if the head grader promotes to the auction house and the restoration expert sells his company to the recipient of the auction house owner's capital investment, the grading company? That was the point, no more no less. And it just seemed ridiculous that people were debating whether the restoration expert might have insight to the grading company's methodology. Like they're not all marketing partners, interacting with one another, all working the same system. .

Reading this stuff gets to be a bit much. Okay, conflict of interest... Heritage/ Jim Halperin ever have troubles involving collectibles-grading shenanigans? The answer's not hard to find:.FTC and Forbes article Is he an investor in a comic book grading company? Apparently. Who was used for the Heritage/Parrino 2002 Nic Cage auction? google books link When PCS was nixed, who stepped in as CGC's marketing partner, filling the void? Scoop What became of CGC's head grader? Senior Consignment Director at Heritage And who's moving to Sarasota? Wall Street Journal Individually every news article and press release can be spun away. But it takes some serious mental-gymnastics not to see a potential conflict of interest when they're taken as a whole. Fantastic post! I like the part about halperin having to pay back 100k in scammed money at the age of 13. Hobbies are sweet. And that's just the obvious surface realities. Not even getting into ewert, disbarred lawyers, pedigree drops, manufactured gold, slow revelations, etc., ad nauseum. This far in, people either know what they're getting, refuse to know, or are new to the playing field.