lordbyroncomics

I believe Bowie was the first person to cover the Velvet Underground and went a long way in establishing them as an influential group.

Completely agree. There's a part of me that thinks he's a bit pretentious and ridiculous sometimes but I can't deny his great body of work as a publisher and an advocate where the good outweighs the bad. I think the whole issue with Don Heck was if unintended, but Gary Groth himself has never tried to dilute himself or acted phony so you've got to give him that. I hope he's around for many more years to come.

Oh, I agree completely. I only mean to convey that the 1980s' TCJs (I am familiar with the modern TCJs) were an often pleasant surprise as was the younger Groth's outlook (which understandably evolved as he got older and more experienced as a publisher who was sometimes sued, etc.).

I actually was reading some early 80s' TCJs I got as part of a bulk sale and they were very interesting to me. For one thing, then-Groth routinely vents about why comics can't be accepted by the "mainstream" and taken seriously and it really reminded me of several things whiny Joe Quesada often said in the early 2000s' along the same line and I thought "see? they really aren't that far apart" :P

"I get the feeling he downplayed his contribution a lot, not only because he didn't want to offend Steve, but also because he saw how much of the work Ditko actually did on the book. He probably felt, and mostly, rightly so, that he didn't deserve any kind of CREDIT for what he'd done - he was just doing what the two of them had always done and chipped in with some ideas and inking." Very valid, you're probably correct.

I have always believed that Ditko was subconsciously influenced by the Ben Cooper costume and it would have been against his Objectivist principles to consciously "borrow" anything. The work he assisted Stanton with is really interesting but I think we read too much into it that specific characters or stories from the bondage work outwardly influenced things about Spider-Man. In regards to what alexgross asked above, I believe I remember Stanton's children talking about it in an interview a few years back vaguely. I do know of an interview with Stanton from the 1980s' where he downplayed anything, gave Ditko the credit, but did say that he suggested that the wrist shooters be able to project restrictive webbing on criminals or enemies and not just create webs to swing from. I can't place what year it's from but I'm sure it's cited in that book (which has been on my wishlist for a while).

I admit I hadn't considered that!

All kidding aside, I really am flabbergasted at the lengths of something like this. I've seen multiple CGC'd single pages from Marvel Comics #1 or Action Comics #1 and I actually get that- it's a page, it's a part of something historic, but just page shavings (and a staple!) is ridiculous. Of course it's all subjective and if someone finds value in it, okay then (and it's currently up to $205 as of the time of this post) but really, if someone removed the three staples from Detective #27 and tried to sell them to me I'd be completely bewildered as to why I'd want them.

This is how I feel as well. I have no children (yet) and am in good health and intend to be here for another 40-50 years or so and that's a lot of time to savor and appreciate all the things I like; it's only an investment after the fact, for me it's the sheer joy of collecting. Who knows what will happen in the next few years that might influence whatever happens to all of our collections, right? BTW 'F For Fake' is fantastic; I was watching the Criterion copy of it just yesterday with all of it's bonus features.

I'd like to get all of the 1966 Golden Record reprint editions. I had a couple and sold them last year and now I want them all at once! Besides that, yeah I'd like to attend Baltimore Comic Con and the Big Apple Con (but understand and support why I wasn't able to this year) and basically build up my lower-level Silver Age and a lot of Bronze Age stuff. Personally, I'd like to get the majority of everything put out in 1986-1987 for purely sentimental reasons. But the Golden Record reprints are my primary goal and I'm going to start, one by one, in January.

I'm not interesting in rekindling any further Lee/Kirby/Artist-Plot credit debates but I will add this: on an episode of Cartoonist Kayfabe (I cannot remember which), I was kind of surprised to hear Ed Piskor state that he found out Stan Lee didn't write any of the Marvel Masterworks introductions/forwards he was credited for; apparently Roy Thomas would do all of Stan's necessary obligatory introductions and short quickie comic stories for anniversary issues or whatever, and Stan might add an extra "Hang Loose" or something. This gained more validity when it was publicly revealed that Roy was also ghost-writing the Spider-Man newspaper strip for the past twenty years or so.

wait, it includes a *staple*?! savings be damned, I want a piece of comics history!

If you could get your buyers to choose priority you can get the priority mailers for free from the post office (as I'm sure you know). 45s' can fit into those priority envelopes well if you insulate them with cardboard. Whenever I'm sending someone a record or a comic and am concerned about package thieves or something I actually write something like "Fragile: Child's Graduation Photo Enclosed" and 10 out of 10 times, they always get the package

I feel you as I mail a lot of record orders out which is slightly more gratifying when it's your *own* band but yes, records can be damaged and record buyers are understandably rather nitpicky about it.

Ah, as for what I got this week, all in FN + since that's what I can afford:

I don't know for sure about gen X but apparently vinyl prices are exceedingly still strong and especially online. My own band has a few good relationships with certain shops who tell me good things and people are also getting into lathe cuts. I think getting $7-15 for pre-owned records isn't bad actually!

MGsimba77, you've always been like an Uncle (or Aunt) to me

You're correct in the sense that Elvis's gold lame suit (for example) or 68' Comeback Special leather jacket will ALWAYS be worth money. However, my point is more that the amount of people interested in SPENDING that money is declining. It's the same thing many have been discussing about the future of collecting: Journey Into Mystery #83 won't decrease in value ever, but twenty years from now, there might be a few dozen less people who feel it's worth shelling out for.

How dare you Sir

That's not what I'm saying whatsoever. Everyone knows or has an idea of who Elvis is. My point- which was simply me learning this organically- is that the cultural relation to Elvis has declined among younger people. I have an educated opinion. I'm a Rockabilly musician and my relentless touring around the world doing it (it's not a hobby) is what's contributed to paying for my Golden Age collection. I have actual friends who are ETAs' including Doug Church "The Voice of Elvis". I've hung out with Charlie Hodge, met Scotty Moore and Priscilla and played Memphis and Nashville several times. I don't need anyone to challenge me to see if Elvis is still known, even on a surface level. You are correct- most everybody knows OF Elvis. That wasn't the point. I could be wrong. I'd like to be wrong, wilbil. I just remember reading a bunch of articles about it and then I talk to various guys I know in the music field. Because of the nature of your contest challenge, I went and quickly looked up such articles and found them- and I admit, an article can be wrong. But here's a quote from one of them: "The simplest theory for the seeming decline in Elvis interest is the aging of the fan base. According to a 2012 Las Vegas Redevelopment Agency report, more than 40% of Las Vegas tourists are 50 or under—and likely too young to have strong memories (or any memories) of Presley when he was alive." Now if we can go back to comic book talk I'm happy! Unless I'm the guy you want to challenge about Rock & Roll

I was reading a few years ago about how things like Elvis impersonators/tribute artists and trips to Graceland were beginning a decline due to a growing lack of cultural connection to Elvis. I was a child of the Eighties and I vividly remember Elvis everywhere- there were commercials for hotlines about Elvis being alive, television movies about Elvis, Bill Bixby hosted tv specials about if he was alive, Weekly World News covers, even corner stands on the road selling those velvet Elvis paintings. I swear, there was so much of it! What I didn't realize about it until much later was just the cultural impact Elvis had and when I was, say, 6 or 7 (I was born in 1979), Elvis had only been dead almost a decade. However, as time has moved on, less and less young people are exposed to him in the same capacity- partly that's because of his estate mishandling his work, partly that's because of a public narrative that Elvis was a thief from African-American culture, partly it's because of the Elvis impersonator's comedic mannerisms infiltrating the subconscious perception of Elvis. So I have to respectfully argue that the value of Elvis collecting *has* gone down and the decline of Elvis conventions and such bear this out. We can equate this to another topic about comics and the lack of new, younger collectors interested in building collections being created.

Second that!

I intend to keep collecting for the next 20 years. Twice now I've sold a great and massive collection of Golden and Silver Age- and I was reluctant both times- and guess what? I just started a new collection eventually and now that's where I'm at. And as I don't anticipate any need to sell, I would like to keep building it for the sheer joy of comic books. I don't have children yet and am certainly not gonna enforce them to be into stuff that I like but it's still possible they might get into comics and have an appreciation for them? So that's basically my plan: keep building and enjoying it each step of the way as long as I can. We'll see what the future brings eventually, right?

And that co-worker wasn't wrong. It's all subjective. I'm sure people would be flabbergasted to know what I've spent on Golden Age books. To me, it was worth it. By comparison, if I saw someone spending a grand on (for example), an original Mama's Family set prop or something I'd be totally bewildered. It all depends on the individual and what value they imbue something with in their own lives.

Exactly! I'm not trying to enforce a view on all of my peers here but shadroch nailed this on the head: live in the present, enjoy what you have, it's just like anything else. We can't take it with us! But we're here NOW, and we've got one life to live. Fill it with the things that bring you joy and fulfillment. And shadroch, you'll be alive in ten years! We need ya!