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dover

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Journal Entries posted by dover

  1. dover
    I found two stores well worth the visit in the area between San Fran and San Jose. Easy to stop and shop on the way to the airport.
    Heroes - 24 E Campbell Ave, Campbell, CA 95008 - Heroes
    Heroes and Champions Comics - 574 E El Camino Real, Sunnyvale, CA 94087 
    I started at the 24 E location and found a large amount of high grade Marvel horror from the 70's as well as Epic Illustrated I needed but most of all, a nice Conan 37 CGC 9.6 WP Adams book. After buying a large stack, they told me about their sister store and I headed there as well. And of course bought some more books. Both stores have a large amount of wall books with, perhaps, Heroes having more pre-70's books in raw and graded. The 574 E store had a larger selection of high grade raw from the late 70's thru 2000's. I was easily able to find books I needed (and books I did not realize I needed).
    Good stuff and great staff.













  2. dover

    Dover's Travels

    By dover,


    Travel
    11/1/2021:
    If you find yourself in Colorado Springs and decide to drive West to a town called Salida you will drive through the Rockies and be presented with spectacular views of wide open spaces. If you then take a Northern route back to Denver you will see more of the Rockies and find yourself in a snow storm at some point above 9500 feet. The drive is hard from the perspective that at least once every mile you feel as if you should stop to take a picture; it's that nice, that beautiful but after about ten stops you realize you will never make it home, but the views are worth it. The round trip was about 7 hours for 2 hours of work. But that was where the customer was so that is where I went.
    I have now driven into the Rockies from two sides: once from Portland and now from the East out of Denver. I have also driven two different passes through the Alps. Not sure which one I liked better but both were extreme visual treats that forced me to take in as much as I could in the time I had. 
    Some interesting signs and such.
    Land for sale: 120,000 acres. 
    St Elmo's store and Ghost town - 15 miles (and 15 miles of winding gravel / dirt roads.
    Falling rocks. I get that. But I also saw "Fallen Rocks"? So they fell and no one wanted to pick them up so they changed the sign instead. 
    "Purposeful fire ahead - DO NOT REPORT"
    Lots of American flags planted along the road. 






















  5. dover

    Collecting - thoughts and views - BLED & HOOH treatments

    By dover,


    Collecting thoughts and views
    If you follow any of the FB pressing threads, you will see what is going on now in the hobby and specifically in the CPR field. The new chemical treatments and light exposure "cleaning" books means that sooner or later, I will end up with one of these books. I would like to avoid this, but I am not sure that will be an option. What will it look like in 5 years? Will the paper deteriorate? It just does not seem right. Regardless of whether if CGC can detect or not, how will this chemically cleaned book react over time? 
    It just does not seem like a good thing. 
     
     
     

  6. dover

    Neal Adams - the Superboy run

    By dover,


    Adams - Superboy run
    People tend to focus on keys and main stream titles but for me, the glory of Neal Adams has always been on its finest display through the 26 issue run of Superboy covers. It is almost as if DC said here you go, tell a story of a teenager in life and keep the Super Villain's out of it. Just focus on the boy, the Superboy, in a teenage body full of angst and hormones. Even if the chemistry is from Krypton kids are still kids on any world. I am 15 issues into this run and when finished, it will be my favorite Adams run. 
     



  7. dover

    Neal Adams - Archie work

    By dover,


    Neal Adams
    I was sorting through and indexing all of my magazines and I came across the Neal Adams index from 1974. Wow, what fun. But the index does include the Archie work. It is not very defined, but titles are there. Maybe we can all find them together.
     


  8. dover

    Peanuts #1 - the one-off issue from 1953

    By dover,


    Peanuts the #1's
    Just got this book in from Bob Storms of HighGradeComics. It is a VG copy of a very rare book. Printed in 1953 it is the first comic book to be titled Peanuts. 
    I will add pictures of the interior to document the sweet Chuck Brown stories. I have owned several copies of this book over the years and ended up selling a few to people in Japan, years ago. While maybe not an iconic cover, the characters certainly are. I think the girl is a character called "Patty" but not to be confused with Peppermint Patty or the "Red-haired girl' that came later. 

  9. dover
    I first built a Peanuts collection 20 years ago. I got many graded and had a sweet registry set. For various reasons I sold them all for pennies based on current demand. When I got back to collecting I was able to score (4) of these from a boardie and one from E-bay. These are hard to find in grade, any grade. Kids read these, colored these and trashed them. I am happy to own these and while I would like better copies, I think I would like raw copies first. I have owned a 190 raw before but never the others. I still love the early Snoopy design as the best grasp on childhood puppy.  





  13. dover
    This is about my daughter, Sarah.
    Sarah was accepted to ECU, Eastern Carolina University. This will be her first acceptance. She was excited but hesitant. In her words as I remember (some added), and they are glorious:
    “I was accepted but overall it seems a bit shady. See, they accepted me but they have a long list of things I need to do in order to be really accepted. I still have to finish school, send in my transcripts, keep my grades up (do not commit a felony) and all the things I am doing now. So, accepted but……am I really accepted?”
    I had to laugh at that, even from a hotel room in Germany, that is classic destruction of the message in the wake of good news. She has a way of interpreting things in a manner that I would tend to run right by; she does not read the basic words as I see them. I am sure, to a teenager, the letter should have read, "hey, come to campus next year." Instead, she hears, "you can come to campus next year if you can complete a series of tasks laid out in front of you that do not include sitting on the couch and doing nothing for long periods of time. Literally, this is Thor, looking at Banner and saying, "is it though?".
     
  16. dover

    Countries I have seen

    By dover,


    Travel
    Not sure I have ever done this but no time like the present. I have done some traveling, seen a few things and met a few people. I am on my 4th passport and a million+ miles.
    Japan, Taiwan, South Korea, China, India
    Germany, Spain, Italy, Switzerland, Austria, Poland, Belgium (French and native), Netherlands, Sweden, UK
    Mexico, Belize, Brazil, Bahamas, Canada
    Australia
    I have seen the Taj Mahal and the Red Fort of Agra. I have walked the Forbidden City and smiled at Mt Fuji. I have walked the Tokyo fish market and driven through the Alps in two different crossings without elephants. I have found my way to countless city squares and knelt kindly on their blessings. I have ridden through a cattle drive led by a person that knows their names and I have had tea served by an ancient artisan. I have viewed the symbol of Hitler in its natural setting with no fear attached. I have strolled streets and towns at all hours of the cycle and breathed the air they make. I have eaten at bakeries of every kind and savored their sweets. I have plunged the Blue hole and swam with sharks a plenty. I have been inspected thoroughly by an innocent fish protecting their coral. I have left a perfectly good airplane and landed on my feet and I thrilled at the ground's approach to my reach. I have seen poverty so normal that I could not comprehend, and I have wept upon leaving as I could not see and end. I have found comfort in the distant steeples like an old friend waving in the far and driven at excess to get to the next. I have had coffee from all sorts of people and shared its elixir at all times of day. I've had foods I can know and many more that I don't served with laughter and cheer and many with beer while the water "mit gasse" is my fondest of all. And I have enjoyed it all.
    ...to be continued.
     
     
     
  17. dover

    In My Tribe - a tribute to a snippet in time

    By dover,


    Moments in time...
    In My Tribe
    I joined a band 10,000 strong devoted to the mirth and song
    I danced and laughed and cried along acting right and acting wrong
    Memories burned and seared branded by emotional tear
    I wondered what’s the Matter often, standing in the rain like Weather
    While I sat, no Talking from the Trees, Joshua Painted the Desert forever
    Jack spoke of Peace from a glory-Train protected by the Gun Shy
    Laying stories by the Campfire, songs to leave us high.
    And in the end the opera sang and Verdi cried a Rose
    A City cast of Angels full of song and prose.
    In My Tribe of Merchants I belong
     
  19. dover

    Waking in a moment of time....

    By dover,


    Moments in time...
    I call these episodes "waking in a moment of time". These are moments or realization, when you wake up and realize what is happening, what you are doing are tiny little glimpses into what makes you smile or feel alive but they happen in real time; not in reflection....
    Taiwan - Jason - travel life.
    "I woke up in a moment" while riding with my good friend Jason in Taiwan. I met him through work and even through a language barrier, we seem to have a connection. The people of Taiwan are bound by honor to take care of their guests, to great lengths at times, and this has been directed at me to the benefit over the years. While it may be an Asian characteristic, I find it most powerful in Taiwan. He was taking me to the airport hotel and we were in Friday night traffic, slow...stop...slow go. He had a radio station playing dance-remix music, like a Rave and I commented that I really liked it. He turned it up and we sat back and enjoyed the beat. After 10 minutes or so I realized here I am, in a car, riding around in Taiwan with a person I met on a business trip listening to Rave music with a beat shaking the windows and smiling.....just one of those moments in time.
    Look for these appreciations, they will fill your soul.
  20. dover
    November 7, 2021
    Happy Birthday dad.
    For all the good and all the bad that were the most of Us
    The smiles and sads along the path were filled with all the fuss.
    Disney joy and corvette summer, home away from home
    At times I find myself within and feeling all alone. 
    I hope you're well, aloft, on high looking down and me
    At times I glance and squint the sun if only I could see.
    Michael
  21. dover

    Moments in time..... loss

    By dover,


    Moments in time...
    When you lose someone, it is amazing where you find them. 
    The emotions form in the moment and have no guided reason.
    They can be subtle, or they can knock you to the ground.
    But each and every time is a gift of heart-treasure.
  22. dover
    I have spent a great deal of time putting this together. It has been a labor of love, tedious and still not finished. But I do think it is to the point of sharing. Perhaps I can use additional input to continue to update, correct and add to it. I have used many resources in generating this. 
    @mycomicshop Mike's Amazing World of Comics, the CGC Registry (originally generated by @mrlatko and myself) the GCD Index and more. 
    There are multiple tabs within this Excel sheet. They were all used and combined to get to the first tab that has Neal's work listed by Cover, Art and other (writer). 
    I have placed the document on a server so that you can download it and use it. If you have any comments or additions, please feel free to let me know and I will continue the work to update it. 
     
    the Neal Adams database
     
    Enjoy!!
    XXOO
    dover
  24. dover

    Collecting Thoughts and Views - packaging

    By dover,


    Collecting thoughts and views
    I am constantly amazed when a seller packages and ships raw books with the cover(s) facing out towards any protective piece of cardboard or worse to bubble wrap. Most know to use cardboard, larger than the books. Most are learning about taping, using painter's tape or leaving a tab to make pulling easy. Most know it is very helpful to use an external bag and place the comics inside so no tape goes onto the actual bag of the comic. Some think about not taping along the spine. But I cannot understand putting a comic in a bag with a backing board and then packaging on the cover side. If there are (2) or more books, place them cover-to-cover! Set the backing boards to the outside. And even more amazing, getting a group of books and the most expensive one is on top with the cover facing the protective cardboard.  
    Maybe it's just me but the most expensive books would be towards the middle of the stack, cover to cover and work out always ending with the backing board placed to face out towards the packaging. 
    Just a thought
  25. dover

    Books I want to own....... drooling on the cover....Superboy 160

    By dover,


    Books I would like to own
    This journal is nothing but my own adventure in what books I absolutely want to own. My way of tracking images I find and keeping a record. 
    I found this on Heritage. It is a book I would really like to own someday. I have a nice 9.6 but it does not have a very nice cover wrap. But I can dream about this one.