Turnando

I'm interested in getting a job at a comic shop. Recently retired and want to pursue a passion outside of the corporate hussle. I have gaps my comic knowledge because I've never been very interested in superheros. I have always loved comics but as a kid my pile of books was like The Shadow, Mandrake the Magician, Weird War Tales, Richie Rich, ... As I grew older I continued to stay away from super heros. I'm assuming that knowledge of the superhero genre is essential for anyone who stands behind the counter. For the past few years I've been reading a mountain of GA/SA and some modern superheros to figure out their allure. Enjoying it and I find the history of the business and the people behind it to be fascinating... But I feel that I'll struggle working in comics because so many comic fans are focused on superheros and I'll never be as interested in them as I am in R. Crumb or Wallace Wood... Any suggestions for me? Essential reading/knowledge? Get a different job and enjoy comics for myself? Thanks!

Cool. I like magazines. There is a Comic Magazines sub-forum on here. I think they have a sales thread. https://www.cgccomics.com/boards/forum/35-comic-magazines/

The person who wrote that is tired of their job. I'd find out who supervises them and show them that message. That's a firing offense, IMO. If the person who wrote that is the boss I'd not use that auction house again. Also, I would have outed them by name in the first post. There's no excuse for them to treat you like that.

I spent a few weeks finding and reading the top ten comics from each of the four eras in the list. Mostly read reprints, some Comixology, etc. It was a fun project, I looked up the writers and artists who were unfamiliar to me and took my time. I realize the list is the most frequently traded books and it's weird to use that as a reading list. The list really only speaks to the speculative side of the hobby (IMO) but that was most of the fun for me because I don't like the speculative side of the hobby . I normally wouldn't look at some of these books. I hoped to stumble upon some cool stuff that I would never find normally and learn some history. The quality of the Golden Age EC books stands head and shoulders above the rest of the books of any era, IMO. I am an EC fan and I expected that. I only wish that Al Feldstein et al didn't overuse narration so much in the writing. It can kill the flow of the visual story and without that one flaw I think the ECs would be perfect books. No surprises in the Silver Age. The top 10 were all Marvel. I'm not a superhero fan but I am interested in what Marvel has done for the comics industry so I've read a lot of those before. I re-read everything to get it fresh in my head. Fun stuff, occasionally brilliant art. From the Bronze Age I enjoyed the 1982 Chris Claremont/Frank Miller Wolverine ninja mini-series. It was new to me and made going through the list worth the time to find it. Loved the concept, the art, and the visual story telling but I struggled through a bit of awkward writing around time lapses in the storyline. From the Modern age none of the books stood out for me. Mostly serviceable, I suppose, but a few were borderline unreadable. I did think it was fun to see an old Donald Trump reference buried in The Amazing Spider-Man 361 (1992, 1st full Carnage app.) ---------- Ture Hoefner

This is what I'd do. I've been reading through the list of the top 100 most actively traded comic books from each epoch that someone recently posted in the General forum. There are some good Spider-Man books along with some bad Spider-Man books on the lists (IMO). I'd start with a list of the ones I want and re-read them with an adult eye. Then go for the ones that stand out from the others.

Maybe "overpriced" in this context really means "not sustainable". In the long term will 1st appearances of minor characters hold their prices? Maybe not if the character is still minor in a decade or two and the DVD from the movie is in a dollar box at flea markets. I don't believe that many people will care too much, in the long term, about some S.A. or newer book whose only interesting feature is the 1st appearance of a minor character. If the cover is great, the art/writing is great, and the book becomes a classic in that way then that is what will make it sustainable, IMO.

my impression (when I got that notice and only quickly skimmed it) was that this is a response to banking and consumer protection regulations that will make it harder for PayPal to cheat, not that they were cheating. More oversight of positive balances held by PayPal during that time between when you get the money and you transfer out out of PayPal to a "real" account. The government is making PayPal be more "real" with the money they are holding, I believe.

I'm starting to suspect the charcoaled photocopy was done to make a deadline, not with any artistic intent. There are many Gonzalez panels that I think started as photos and I'm finding blogs like this one about swiping that says the studio/agency the Spanish artists worked for had a photo studio that produced photos for reference by the artists: http://averycreepyblog.blogspot.com/2013/08/warren-swipes-part-2.html?m=1 I'm going to guess that the odd layouts are Gonzalez going fast, not really thought out. All of the Gonzalez automobiles and some of the planes are inked-over photos (IMO). Some of his panels look like they are mostly photo with some drawing/inking, like this splash from Vampirella 34:

Or the re-glossing, right? It's a restoration technique that I think a lot of collectors would avoid, probably a technique that would drag down a grade. Is re-glossing generally despised? That's my impression.

I have been enjoying Jose Gonzalez's art as I make my way through his Vampirella stories from the Warren issues. One thing I've noticed is that he mixes all-pencil panels, inked panels, and water color washes in page layouts that sometimes work but sometimes feel odd and incongruous to me. I love his panels taken individually. This thing with the layouts happens often enough for me with Gonzalez that I have begun to wonder if I'm misunderstanding him or not. Here are the last 4 panels on a page from issue 33 (Vampirella and the Sultana's Revenge!). Three of them inked drawings and one that looks like a charcoaled photocopy of a photograph. Why? There is not another panel like it in the story. Do you think Gonzalez was having fun with it or is it a serious design decision?

I know it's not exactly what you asked for but if I were in Seattle looking for a comics fix I'd go check out the Fantagraphics store http://fantagraphics.com/flog/bookstore/

On a bookshelf is not too bad. At least they are off the floor. I keep most of mine in cardboard boxes made for storing comics (OFF THE FLOOR). I keep some on a shelf because I love their covers and like to look at them without digging through a box. The only problem I've had with the ones on the shelf is people taking them off the shelf to look at them. People who see a book on a shelf that interests them will instinctively touch it or pick it up. I'd get those ones of yours off the shelf and into a comic box. A college apartment is a scary place to have any property you care about... it will get vomited on, stolen, or lit on fire unless things have changed since I was in college. Put the comic boxes in a place that is off the floor. You almost certainly will encounter wet floors in some house that you will live in in the future. Never store anything of value on a floor. Use shelves or pallets to keep your stuff high and dry.

Met a surfer from Vancouver while on a tropical surf trip. All the surfers from Vancouver surf Vancouver Island because there is no surf in Vancouver. He went into my luggage, without asking, to borrow a cord to attach his surf leash and we kicked him out of the surf hostel where we were staying. He cried tears. So this American knows the map for Vancouver... and Vancouver Island. Someplace on that island... and in that city across the water... is a crybaby surf rat.

Give them to some kid. If you don't have any friends with kids then drop them at the Goodwill and be done with it. Some kid will end up with them. When I was in the 4th grade someone gave me a pile of comic books that they didn't want anymore. Those were the first comic books I ever touched.

Hey Phish, The 10 Cent Plague (David Hajdu) and Men of Tomorrow (Gerard Jones) are must reads. Also don't miss The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier & Clay (Michael Chabon). It won the Pulitzer Prize for Fiction in 2001, for good reason. Fiction but there's real Golden Age history behind it. Other stuff I've read recently that enlightened me w.r.t. comic history: Best of Witzend (Bill Pearson), Stan Lee and the Rise and Fall of the American Comic Book (Jordan Raphael), Fire and Water Bill Everett the Submariner and the birth of Marvel Comics (Blake Bell), The Silver Age of Comic Book Art (Arlen Schumer... Watch his lecture on YouTube too), Breakdowns (Art Spiegleman), YouTube episodes of Cartoonist Kayfabe (Ed Piskor and Jim Rugg) Oh... and Alter Ego: The Best of the Legendary Comics Fanzine (Roy Thomas) -------------- Ture Hoefner

I think Ed Piskor's X-Men Grand Design is going to bring a different species of comic lovers to the Marvel Universe and the X-men in particular. It's another ingredient that adds to a sustainable fan base. Maybe not a huge addition like a movie but Piskor's fans are seriously into comics and I think that makes what he is doing very significant. I have been having fun watching his Cartoonist Kayfabe on YouTube with Jim Rugg.

IMO, that homemade dialog is so funny that it adds value to that particular copy. Treasure it!

Hey Todd, you want the "hey buddy, can you spare a grade?" Forum. It has a sticky thread with guidelines, hints, and etiquette to be followed when you are asking for the favor of a free grade from your peers. Give that thread a read.

Hey shadroch if you'd be interested in putting together about $50 worth of readers from any era I'd be interested. Some 'you gotta read this' books. Any readable condition. If that's too small of a deal to mess with I understand. I'm a comic history buff who is mostly focused on the artwork. I devour reprints but I enjoy reader copies too. Shipping in the USA. PayPal. Would never complain about a grab bag of readers. PM me if interested.

IMO it would not be jerky to request a refund. The seller put you in a bad spot. Unless that damage happened in transit the seller graded that comic without considering the back.

Skateman. This baby is from the dollar bin. Not For Sale, find your own. Roller skaters are not skaters, they are oddities to be marvelled at... like this book.

Ha! Sounds like my life. I love finding something new to fall in love with and take on as a hobby or life passion or whatever. skateboarding, action figures, surfing, sci-fi, comic books... I love skateboarding but that doesn't really explain the 20 or 30 skateboard decks hanging on the walls in the basement and garage (and the two I tacked to the wall in the living room without wife's permission)... That's the collector gene in action.

I'd sell because the movie association doesn't mean anything to me in terms of what makes a book special. The book would actually loose some if its luster for me because it had become an object of desire for the masses. For me, the importance of a book lies in other factors.