MattrixAlien

The Bronze age of comics is 1970 – 1985, so this Uncanny X-men 173 published in 1983 is on topic. I was thinking copper before I looked at the year. Picked this up while on holidays. Very cool Wolverine X-men cover. Paul Smith is a really underrated Bronze age X-men artist. I read somewhere this is the first cover to feature Wolverine in his iconic prowler pose. It's a stance Art Adams later made famous in a lot of his work and others have copied.

Well, I'm back from my Tassie holiday. Lovely scenery with great locally produced food. Despite my wife's complaints I still went to visit the store with the comics, albeit with a limited time window. Duffman_Comics & AJD you guys were spot on with your prediction of piles of of War Comics, Phantoms etc There were no big keys either. However there was a neat run of late Bronze/Copper X-men books including some minor keys missing from my PC. Found some cardboard to bring them back safely on the plane. See some covers below... The bitter sweet imagination stage ending to my little comic adventure is that after I paid for the books and turned to leave the owner said he had some more X-men books out back & would I like to look at them. Could there be a UXM266? I was already pushed for time so I had to decline This is such a cool Wolverine X-men cover which I've wanted for a while. 1st storm with new costume/mohawk. Origin Silver Samurai. 1st Nimrod 2nd appearance Mr Sinister & 1st cover. Loved the dark Inferno event arc as a kid and this is one of the few books I was missing. Sharp copy too.

To be honest when I got back into the hobby it took me a while to understand that slabbing doesn't make every book valuable, like renovating a house. The reality is quite the opposite. Unless it's already a book with some value above a certain condition you will not be adding any value to it. For example, even a key like ASM298 (1st McFarlane Spidey & Venom cameo) if it's not above a 7.5, a raw is worth just as much as a slabbed, the last time I checked. Fortunately we don't have CGC down here so I didn't get the chance to throw my money away

Still, this thread is about the imagination stage of the hunt. An ASM129 like the one shown is an absolute grail for me. (First Swamp Thing & Ghost Rider would be amazing too) I remember someone on the boards describing the incredible quiet moment when you are digging through a bin and find a dream book. The adrenaline rush would be off the charts

Please I'm trying to keep my expectations low

I'm about to take an interstate holiday to a isolated regional area over here known as Tasmania. The small city we are staying in has a shop which sells back issues. Fingers crossed I find some gold

What a bargain! Doh! It's US buyers only

50+ years ago when Neal Adams did BB93 he looked a little different to the chubby cheeked fellow we're familiar with from the last few decades As others have pointed out he drew other real life people into his comics too. I couldn't find a good photo of him with a goatee from that period unfortunately

I think the 'imagination stage' also applies when you're planning to visit an LCS or second hand store with comics you haven't visited before. You have high hopes, thinking about dream keys which could be there, only for these dreams to be dashed by reality. It's like buying a lottery ticket but with slightly better odds I heard of a second hand store on the outskirts of the city with some 90 long boxes of comics. The anticipation before I finally went there was great. I imagined discovering different books I'd love to add to my PC. But when I got there I found the boxes were picked clean of keys or even good filler books. For example there was a run of Coyote comics but all the McFarlane issues were missing. I might go back one day & pick up the run of non-key bronze age Tomb of Dracula's that were there. My brains were fried after several hours of almost fruitless searching. When I got home with a few run filling books, I found the Peter Parker Spectacular Spiderman #131 (Kraven's Last Hunt Pt 3) had a big tear in it. They'd charged me $7 for it too which is a high grade price

Thanks Beyonder, that makes it easy for people to compare. Am I seeing double or what? I seriously think Neal slipped it in there. If I was an artist I'd probably draw a one & done character which looks like myself too Does anyone have other examples of this?

Hi. I'm a McFarlane collector and I like his Hulk nearly as much as his Spiderman. So I recently bought this Incredible Hulk 344 off the Bay. Shortly after I purchased it the seller advised there was a defect on the top edge of the book which he didn't include in the description and did I want a full refund. I couldn't see anything bad in the existing photos so I replied I would go ahead with it if he gave me a discount. He gave me $10 AUD off which was good, I thought. In hindsight I probably should have asked for a close up photo of the defect. I know from reading the PGM responses that printing defects aren't suppose to reduce the grade but I can't see buyers wanting a copy with a funny white top edge if I ever sold it. Defect on front cover top edge below.

I've finally come to terms with the fact that the early 80s is part of the Bronze age Therefore Frank Miller's first Daredevil run is a Bronze age run. I read most of it in black & white Australian edition reprints back in the day and have decided to add to my collection of the originals. Daredevil #183, the first meeting/battle of Daredevil & the Punisher, arrived yesterday. Like so many comic covers it looks like it will be the heroes last

Post examples of artists adding in a 'portrait' of themselves or someone else into a comic as a character. I think Neal Adams based the appearance of a character, Aloysius Calbot, the villain in The Brave & the Bold Vol 1 93, on himself. I actually tried reaching out to Neal to confirm this a few years ago by messaging the Facebook page where he did live art presentations. I think his son is the admin on it. Anyway I didn't get a reply and now I never will. Maybe one of you gurus can confirm it for me. Maybe I'm silly but see the images below and judge for yourself. Post examples of where artists have based characters in comics on themselves or others. See the top right panel below, a drawing of "Aloysius Calbot" the villain of BB93. (I don't want to spoil it for anyone, so let's just say it's his one & only appearance ) In the same issue there is an article about DC artists who have won awards at a convention. Neal Adams won 2 awards and a drawing of him is provided. Unfortunately I couldn't get this website to display this image file the right way up. Anyway see the sketch near the top right. To me the two men drawn are almost identical. Here's the cover of the comic in question. I'm sure there will be people who disagree and say it's just a common look of the times or something

Infinity Inc was a fun, quirky read back in the day. Combine that with McFarlane art + Crisis cross overs and those are cool pick ups

Here's a cover yet to be covered by this thread. Arguably it's the 3rd best cover in the Todd father's Hulk run. If you're a fan of the hot Batman #423 cover, it's like a Hulk version of it. And it just might be the most romantic Hulk cover ever Incredible Hulk #344! It arrived today. McFarlane really finished his run on a high with this & 345. 346 is strictly speaking his last pencils on the title but Erik Larsen also pencilled it & judging by the signatures & the style I think he was the main artist on the issue. Just quietly it's not great

Maybe the buyer dissing the crappy selection of wall books triggered the fight It is disappointing when you visit a vendor and they have no attractive books of any age on their wall. I visited a regional LCS some months back ready to buy a key off their wall to support them, but they had nothing... Their best copper wall book was a minor Jim Lee X-men key which I already owned. Moderns were the same story

Batman #423 update: Raw copy sold for $315 USD Seriously??

I wonder if divad has a point. Is Detective Comics the less collected/sought after Batman series, even though it's the original? From an artistic, key etc... perspective I agree with you Batman 423 being worth way more than Detective comics #576–578 isn't justified. Particularly if it's for the McFarlane art. The Year 2 interior art is also by McFarlane. Batman #423 is cover only.

Maybe if Batman was holding a girl in one of the Tec Year 2 covers it would sell for $150+ too

Sorry to interrupt this thread with a post about copper comics selling well on eBay A raw VF Batman #423 I was watching just went for $179 USD

Loved the Excalibur team as a kid & the Alan Davis art is gorgeous. One of my favourite titles back in the day for the 1st 2 years or so. It's a series with almost no keys. Nice to see it getting a thread. If Captain Britain appears in the MCU and Excalibur follows maybe that will change one day

This is the one that saddened me when I got back into collecting. His Batman art was the first I ever read and still arguably the best. Back when I was a kid I didn't pay much attention to the name of the artists when I was reading black & white Australian edition Federal reprints of Batman DC comics. As an adult I mistakenly assumed they were Neil Adams' books but when I searched through a list of Batman covers with a plan to buy the originals I was surprised to find an artist I hadn't heard of Don Newton was responsible for them. I think his premature death is probably the reason why he's been forgotten by many. See one of his covers below...

Don't dealers pay around 0.15 a book when they buy collections? He's charging close to a $1 each. Bet he'll pull a lot of the grails if someone shows serious interest. Doesn't mention any in the ad even though it would be another selling point. "Includes AF #15 etc..." The photos look like an ocean of dreck....

Absolutely

I can think of one example where the cover artist wasn't quite as good as the interior artist. Ed Hartigan's Batman covers were solid not poor but I think Don Newton who often did the interior pencils was a better artist. I'll give an example of what I posted about originally. Here's Mike Mignola's striking cover capturing the moment Robin 'dies' in the explosion, versus some of Jim Aparo's interior art on Batman Death in the Family. Aparo's art just kills the drama of the writing so to speak. As always it's subjective but to me it ruined one of the most important Batman story arcs of the Copper age.