JuliusSeizure

Be nice for me, since I don't have one yet. (Maybe I should contact this guy.)

...Another really hateful cover right there, too. Very much so, and begged comparison with the superior 139 and 171, too.

219 was the issue where I said, "I can't take it anymore!" I was actively collecting the pre-150 back issues and the contrast just got to be too much. At 219 was where I gave up on the magic ever coming back.

But they aren't "damaged" in any sense of the word that means anything, if they are in a 9.6 or 9.8 holder. Right?

I got a nice set of BA readers in the mail from Marc today, packaged as though they were high grade SA keys. Great seller, would buy from again.

'Not bad' ? I'd say it was a great price for all these hard to find books. You did well. Congrats. Yeah, no kidding, that's like $15-$16 per book. Insane price if they're as nice as they look. Congratulations and enjoy them.

I read The Road to Disunion circa 1998 and am waiting to swap for the new volume and start back from Volume 1 ... How's Volume 1 upon re-reading? I'm about halfway through it and it's starting to get to be more narrative-based, which means it's really picking up. The first 200 or so pages talk about how differently people thought in different parts of the South, how a radical minority (large slaveowners) kept (and expanded) its foothold, and how attitudes towards slavery in the South grew from apologetic to militant. It kind of gets you into the antebellum zeitgeist, for want of a better word. When I first read these chapters, they were a revelation to me. I had read a lot about the Civil War and never completely understood what made the South 'tick'. Why were they so willing to fight to protect a cruel economic system that so many of them knew was immoral? Why did poor non-slaveowning Southerners fight so hard for so long? Why did so many sensible people follow radical secessionists? The Road to Disunion (Vol 1) really helped me get into the South's collective head a lot better, to understand how trapped they were by a backward economy, and the claustrophobia that came from the ever-present threat of violent revolt. They were just permeated with this class of inscrutable people that they knew they had wronged (and were continuing to) and lived in fear of in a way that they never dared talk about. Then they started to hear people around the country talking openly about the great wrong of slavery and how something should eventually be done about it, etc., etc., never knowing how much was getting to the ears of the people living in their house, preparing their food, cleaning their weapons...and eventually they get to the point where they start screaming "For God's sake shut up already!" But the abolitionists have history on their side and they won't shut up, and the tension just builds and builds. Having read it once and absorbed the lessons, the first third of the book isn't quite as fresh on a second reading, though the prose is very good. Once it gets into the narrative and the personalities, it holds up a little better. I'm excited to finish and start the second volume.

I am a minor legend at work for having finished Cryptonomicon. I have so little time to read non-technical stuff, but I'm slowly re-reading Vol. 1 of "The Road to Disunion" by William Freehling. I waited over 10 years for Vol. 2 to come out and got it for this past Christmas, so I'm re-reading the first.

I bought a few Star Comics for my little sisters (roughly 7 and 4 y/o at the time) to try when they first came out - unfortunately they didn't catch on. I'll try again to create collectors with the next generation!

Kudos to nochips for some Action fillers I needed. Perfect transaction.

Yep. I just bought the first 10 issues of Dreadstar for 50 cents each.

Wow, a club I can join! I don't have scans or a photobucket account, though...

I just think it's awesome that you share a hobby (and such a great relationship) with your dad. I have a 2-year-old girl and pray we will always be so close; I would love to collect comics with her.

Mschmidt is just saying that it's conceivable someone out there had a good experience with ComicSupply and decided to throw that out there...he's not defending them for ripping customers off.

The kid in the upper right picture is a young David Sarnoff, who grew up to be the president of RCA and a very influential mover in the development of radio and television. One of the most talented executives of the early 20th century.