How did I get here?

[scooter99]

Finally got a chance to upload my first video on Youtube. Santa got me a nice camcorder so I am taping a few things just for fun. I watched so much youtube related comic books videos for a long time and finally decide to jump into the fray. I personally think UHG raw books are often nicer in hand/person that a scan can ever convey. Is it better with a video? no idea....urghhh...turn the volume down if you don't want to hear my babbles.

 

 

 

I wanted to get a camcorder to start taping my son and the family going forward. Pics are great but I think the videos will provide great sentimental pieces for us for years to come. I regret not getting one years ago but better late than never.

 

Speaking of regrets, i saw a thread in CG about what if we can start over again, what would we buy or collect?

 

for sure, save my money and buy what I really wanted instead of settling for lesser conditions. Forget about buying the best money can buy, save and buy what I really wanted would be better so I don't get stuck with multiple copies of low or mid grade books. I have always been that way with many other things I bought. I tend to not have the item at all and save for the want I wanted...from cars to clothes or houses...every time I settled for less, I ended up with something I am not happy with and ultimately spending more money to buy what I wanted in the first place.

 

I am much better today with not buying what I don't really want...keep the impulse at bay....avoid Ebay and less regrets later

 

Awesome video and books, Nick. Just looking at a 35+ year old book in such great condition is truly one of my favorite parts of collecting. That Sinister House 1 is so hard to find in that condition and centered to boot. The TOD and Hulk 181 are gorgeous, too.

 

You're supposed to sell me your "extra" copies of Bats 227 9.2's, get with it!

[etanick]

Thanks...indeed it is a big part of the "fun" for me also to flip thru a 40+ years old NM condition book and appreciate it. Hard to believe that many of 20 cents and 25 cents cover books are now 40+ years.

 

I loaded a few other videos on youtube. I figured there isn't a need to post them here. Who knows what kind of stuff I will loaded next Making the videos so far has been fun. I pulled out some forgotten stuff that I can chuckle today.

 

Looking back, the one book that I could have speculate was TMNT #1 but I was really never a speculator back in the early days. I never even thought about the potential value of anything when I bought them. I certainly didn't think of comic book as an "investment". I did always like nice minty books so I kept them as nice as possible, not really ever thought they might be worth more later in high condition...at least not when I was 14 years old.

 

I did stumble across 2 books in my collection that can be categorized as books I bought to speculate. These two and I probably could have sold them much higher years ago but today, they are just reminders of how many books that were "hot" once is more or less bird cage liners these days.

 

 

 

I am looking for a nice 227 for you still

 

 

 

[etanick]

I was watching the SAG awards last night and so happy to see Argo won the best picture. I really enjoyed that movie, more than many other movies in the past year or so. I am a big fan of caper, rescue, escape, and covert mission kind of movies. If they are based on real events, even better. Thirty Dark Zero was good and I liked that movie too.

 

My wife on the other hand didn’t really find either movie that interesting but she does get it why I like those movies so much.

 

The only thing I wished to see more in Argo was more of the King, Kirby.

 

Speaking of Kirby, I will write more about the speculation craze with Darkseid and the King in another post.

 

I was never a big fan of movie awards. But I watched them (mostly SAG not the Oscar) to get ideas of movies I should see. Often, many of the movies that won many of the awards didn’t interest me. Perhaps Shawshank Redemption is one that peaked my interest after all the awards. Prior to winning any of the awards, I couldn’t careless about seeing that movie. I didn’t like Tim Robbins so the thought of seeing any of his movies rarely crossed my mind…back then and today…other than Shawshank, he is not my cup of tea. Shawshank has many of the elements I like in a movie with message of despair, perseverance, added a little ingenuity, and hope…..and I can watch that movie over and over again.

 

Bottom line, for me, I feel the reason I love those types of movies so much more because I can relate to those emotions on a deep personal level.

 

If you care to read my own little “adventure”, continue…otherwise, skip the wall of text.

 

 

 

 

By no means is this story that unique for most Vietnamese that left the country between 1975 to 1980. It might be unique simply because it was 3 teenagers between the age of 12 and 14.

 

Well, we know the Viet Nam war ended in 1975. I was almost 9 when this happened. Unlike many of his friends that rushed their family to the embassy and scrambled to get on a helicopter to get the hell out of the country, my dad decided to keep all of us behind.

 

Fast forward 3 years later living under the Communist regime, my dad decided that the status quo is no longer a feasible option. It took him a while to come to this conclusion but since 1975, many Vietnamese began to escape/sneak out of the country every means possible. Many began a long march to Thailand thru the jungles but far many more decided the best option is get on a boat and sailed to “wherever”…most common destination is Malaysia and Indonesia.

 

For more reading about the “boat people”. go here

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vietnamese_boat_people

 

 

Even more history, Vietnam was a Chinese colony for centuries so the predominant wealthy upper classes are Chinese descendants. When the Vietnam War ended for the US in 1975, it wasn’t long before the Chinese decided to settle an old score. They may have helped the North up until 1975 but now they want to take over Vietnam. So by 1978, Viet Nam now faced a 2 fronts war, to the West, you have crazy Pol Pot and his genocide campaign and the Chinese from the North. The Vietnamese government realized there have been a “wealth fleeing” and “brain drain” effects with the refugees fleeing the country ILLEGALLY so they came up with a brilliant plan. If you are Chinese descendants, you no longer have to sneak out and risk getting caught and thrown in jails…now you can pay us to leave legally. Hell, if you want to leave one way or another, pay us then.

 

Here is the only catch, you must prove that you are Chinese by descant….basically a lot of paperwork to prove your family tree, etc..

 

We are not Chinese so here is the start of my “adventure”.

 

Life was pretty much the same for me in 1978 until that one faithful afternoon after school that my Dad called me, my older brother (1 year older, and my sister (2 years older) in meeting/lecture. He started the discussion of what we used to have in living standards and what we have today and what we might ended up in a few years if we do nothing.

 

He then proceeded to tell us he found a “safer” way to escape for the 3 of us….by changing/falsifying our records to be Chinese descendants. We can all escape as a family (cheaper) if we try to sneak out illegally or we can go the “legal” route but only 3 can go since the cost to pay the government is twice the rate. The cost was something around 14 to 17 ounces of gold per person. Even at the price of gold back then at $300 per ounce or so, that is an annual wage for the average Vietnamese so to pay 14 to 17 times what you can earn in a year is a steep price by any standards.

 

For the next 9 months, it was a lot of survival training. We went to the pool daily to improve our water skills and endless survival lessons….but the core of the lessons for my older sister was “take care of your brothers and stay together” and for my older brother, and me it was “protect your sister and stay together”. There are so many life lesson even when to get marry and when to have kids, etc…no stone left unturned and my father treated this as a once in a lifetime trip that we may never reunite so everything that needed to be said, must be said. In the mean time, there was a lot of work behind the scene to get the paperwork done. Looking back, if anything ever went wrong with the boat and we are in the middle of the ocean, we would be dead but I think my father was pounding in the message of “hope” to get us far away from “fear” as possible. “If the boat goes down, just grab anything that floated and hang on….helps will come”…sounded reassuring back then for a 12 years old.

 

In the mean time, there was a lot of work behind the scene to get the paperwork done. Now in this time, I had shoulder length hair and still wearing bell-bottoms pants. I guess the disco age was still thriving in Vietnam still. Most Chinese kids tend to have much shorter hairs so we started but shaving off my head of hairs and then Chinese lessons so we can at least converse in Chinese if needed.

 

Fast forward to 1979, here 9 months later and we are still prepping for the faithful trip. By now my parents have prepped the travel bags for the 3 of us. They are strategically sowed in money and gold and other jewelries into just about every piece of clothing we have in those bags. Those valuables are to be use in case of emergencies…”trade it if you must, for your life, for foods, for survival, do what you must but they are the last resorts”. I had a $5 in the collar lining of one shirt, a $10 in the sleeve lining of another shirt, etc..but basically, every piece of clothing had something hidden in it. That was the only option to carry things of value for the 3 of us. We can be rob blind otherwise so whatever that is worth anything, they found a way to hid it very well in all of our clothing.

 

My brother and I were avid stamp collectors for quite a few years and we sold our entire collection and gave our Dad the entire proceed going toward this trip. I remembered vividly that he was disappointed it was a lot less than what we “invested” in the collection over the past 4 years. I also remembered vividly that I was pizzed off that he didn’t appreciate the gesture, regardless of how little contribution it was back then.

 

The cloak and dagger game for the 9 months was “fun” for me. It was like living in a real spy movie. Telling lies to friends and teachers about the changes in our appearances and such. I don’t think “fear” was ever part of my thinking…not yet. My parents kept all the intricate details away from us so the less we knew, the less chance of getting caught. All we were told was when it happens, be ready to go…that was it.

 

….and then one night in June 1979, my dad woke the 3 of us up in the middle of night and “it is time, get your bags”…we didn’t ask or talk at all..just grab the bags that we knew are for the trip and follow my dad to the back door where all 4 of us piled to his Honda motorcycle, hand on for dear life and he sped thru the back alley. Not a word was spoken for that 20 minutes ride. He finally stopped at a corner of a bus stop and told us to get off. He told us there will be a bus coming in the next 30 minutes, get on it and go to the last stop and someone will be there to meet us there…bye. No hugs and no tears, very few words, no well wishes for the long journey, off he rode away and that was the last time I see him until 1991.

 

At that moment, I was more relieved than anything else to be away from him so I couldn’t wait for him to ride off. It was a long 9 months dealing with his daily life lessons, lectures, nagging and preparations that I felt free at last. I do look back in hindsight and glad it went the way it did because it was easier to say “good bye” that way at that moment. Perhaps he planned it that way so it would be easy to part instead of an agonizing long emotional good bye.

 

…Ah if you made it this far, thanks for reading…hell I am tired of writing so the next chapter will have to wait.

 

 

[scooter99]

 

 

Reading your adventure was quite compelling. Kudos to you for making the most out of your parents sacrifices. I'll bet the reunion was quite emotional in 1991.

 

 

[vaillant]

This is great, I have to read it in full, Nick (as well as all the stories you reported in the first part of the thread). (thumbs u

[etanick]

thanks guys...I will continue the adventure next week. Glad you like reading it.

 

 

OK, back of Darkseid and the speculative nature of the hobby. As mentioned, I have certainly bought a few comic books in my early days trying to capitalize on the speculative fevers. After missing out on TMNT, I certainly bought a few books for no other reasons than speculation. I already posted the Tick and Harbinger, both of those were mailed away exclusive I believe. It has been a while but I am sure I had to mail coupons in to get those 2 books. There are a few other books that would fall into the category of speculation and most of them are #1 issues. Even then, I never bought more than 1 issue. The thought of buying multiple copies of any books never really crossed my mind. Outside of Thor 337, I can’t recall buying more than copy of any books off the rack. Of course I ended up with multiple of many books over years as I upgrade back issues.

 

These days, I see rampant price run up on many books that are related to movies, anywhere from Iron Man 55 to Rocket Raccoon’s first appearance, Guardian of the Galaxy, etc….and of course Darkseid….and now Dr. Strange.

 

Dang it…I have long admire Silver Age Dr. Strange, bid on many books in many auctions in the past 3 years but never won one thing and now I am going to have to man up even more if I really want them.

 

As far as Darkseid. My first exposure to him was the X-men/Teen Titans cross over….It was interest at first sight and since that issue, I have always thought he was one of the best DC villain ever…yet under utilized. I need to dig that book out of the long box and reread it when I have time. Naturally I started to look for his first introduction and my luck has it, it was Jimmy Olsen 134 with Neal Adams cover…what luck heh? And Jack Kirby inside…even more fantastic. I managed to grab a low grade reader back in the late 80’s. I have upgraded that copy multiple times since. I even picked up a big run of Jimmy Olsen along with many of Kirby’s 4th world titles like New Gods, Forever People, etc..from the same collector that I bought most of my DC war, western and horror books. I bought that all those books at the same time a few years back and eventually picked up the Hulk 181 and 180 from him later.

 

Those Kirby’s 4th world books sat in the box for years and I never really spent much time with them. I never cared to sell them because they really weren’t worth much and since I kind of dig Kirby, I figured why not keep them and read them one of these days. They were forgotten for the most part tuck away deep in my closet.

 

Even 2 years ago, I remembered emailing Scooter that 134 was one of my favorite Adams cover and that book is so underappreciated for the intro of Darkseid. Even before the Avengers and Thanos, I always felt that if Superman or any super DC team were to fight a worthy opponent, it should be Darkseid. I don’t follow DC enough to know all the villains but just enough to know Bizarro ain’t it . I am glad Scott got himself a few nice 134 before the movie hypes.

 

So during Christmas break, I finally got a chance to dig out those 4th World books to read. The stories were ok, the arts are fantastic especially with Forever People, New Gods, and Mr. Miracle. Kamandi is my least favorite of the bunch, cover arts as well as interior arts. I thought Kirby’s covers for the other 3 titles were fantastic. Perhaps my biggest surprise is Vince Colletta’s inking on many of the earlier books. Regardless of how poor his inking/erasing skills were on Kirby’s works in the past, I felt his works on the 4th world titles were very good. Mike Royer took over the duty of inking on many of these books and quite frankly, I didn’t think he was any better. Maybe he as new starting out because many of his early inking on Kirby looks similar to Coletta’s inking. If I compared his works on these books to his works on Captain Victory for example, you can see the improvement.

 

here is a group shot of my Darkseid's intro and earliest appearance. I think all of the books are in the 9.0 range. I don't think I will be upgrading them any times soon. They are not crazy expensive to upgrade but I am content with what I have.

 

and a few other random books from that collection. As with his DC war, horror and western books, most books were well kept, many are in 8.5 range but there are some 9.4 beauties.

 

As you can see, the Kamandi covers are blah ...I will scan the New Gods and Mr. Miracle books one of these days...I love those covers.

 

 

 

 

 

lastly, here is a page from Thor 127...no one can argue that Colletta's inking is "not good" here.

 

now take a look at a random page from Forever People #1...I like it.

 

[vaillant]

The Fourth World has been my fixation since I started to collect comics in english. I put together most of the runs some 20 years ago, when we were doing a fanzine, and slightly afterwards I went to meet the King.

 

I must admit that I’m surprised to hear you don’t like Kamandi covers. It’s not just because I have read most of Kamandi as a boy (and loved it), but I consider most of them really outstanding (i.e. #2 "Year of the Rat" or the one with the bats). They are composed in a different fashion than the Fourth World books, and I think this was intentional: you could recognize Kamandi from the Fourth World books at a glance, covers are simpler, and often very effective.

 

I am really surprised also to hear that you don’t have an high opinion of Mike Royer’s inking on the Fourth World. It is true that in the first issues of Captain Victory he is at the top, but on the New Gods, and especially Demon, he is breath-taking.

I love Demon, I have a pretty high grade run, while I still miss some issues from the Fourth World, mostly of Jimmy Olsen, I think.

But I do have Jimmy Olsen #134… whew.

 

EDIT: Never mind, I’ve seen: "Justice League Movie"…

[etanick]

I agree that Kamadi's stories are on par with the other titles but those covers just didn't grab me.

 

I think you misunderstood what I wrote about Mike Royer's inking. I meant to say his earlier works there were not MUCH better than Colletta for those 4th World books because Colletta improved significantly in my opinion. I wished he inked like that a decade earlier. No doubt I will take Royer over Colletta any days of the week but the little works on the earliest issues of these titles by Colletta surprised me in a good way.

 

I have no Demons and that is on my wish list for sure. That was one title for some reasons was left out of that collection and I didn't have a chance to buy them.

 

I loaded a bunch of videos on youtube...nothing exciting but this one might have one book that you will like....for the rest. I shot a bunch of short videos and will load them from time to time when I have a chance...it take forever to load one so I am in hurry.

http://www.youtube.com/results?search_query=etanick1&oq=etanick1&gs_l=youtube.3..35i39.94285.102706.0.103202.8.7.0.0.0.0.198.273.1j1.2.0...0.0...1ac.1.-BC6zOQGcxY

 

[vaillant]

Thanks Nick, I understand better now.

Colletta is a good artist and inker, but he is suited to certain styles, not Kirby's.

 

The Demons: I think they were among the first I bought, as Demon remained unpublished in Italy. There was an ad in the italian Kamandi, when they run out of New Gods material – New Gods was a backup feature on the italian Kamandi –, announcing a new series featuring "Il Demonio" (which in italian sounds precisely as "the Devil") but was never published.

Mister Miracle was also almost unpublished, only the first issue appeared on the last issue of an antologic series called "Il Super Eroe", which also published Shade:

 

 

[vaillant]

P.S. Those are pocket sized comic books of 48 pages, very unusual for italian superhero editions. They would have published the second Spidey series in this format as well (that’s the series I fully bought at the newsstands, so I am very attached to it).

[etanick]

I did get a chance to see those pocket size books before you took them down....very cool books. I like the color scheme of the Mr. Mircacle. I always have been a big fan of green as the predominant color on a cover. Black, and Red are my top 2 for sure but Green and Yellow are next on the top favorite colors.

 

I shot a bunch of videos since I got the camcorder. It has been fun. Since I bought it more to tape my son and family, I guess I can throw one up.

 

my little man in action. My wife shot this one.

 

and to throw one more in for the sake of the slab/Pedigree lovers out there.

[vaillant]

I did not take them down, I just renamed some folders on Photobucket.

Fixed now.

 

Great, I must stop loosing time doodling around here & watch your videos later. Can’t wait to see your son, he’s just great!

 

Comparing the two videos I wondered once again what your son must have thought when you told him to handle the Scarpa Uncle Scrooge with care, as it was a high grade book…

 

We are definitely threading in a dangerous territory…

[etanick]

thanks...My wife and I are truly blessed with a fantastic child. His behaviors often surprised all of us, friends and strangers. My son has access to everything valuable and I have never once feared he will damage any books or slabs. Even when he was a baby, he had incredible self control. We didn't child proof the house or keep him out of the kitchen or other harmful places. All I had to do was tell him not to do something and he would stick to it...shocking really if you understands 2 years old.

 

We can take him into a toy store and he wouldn't touch anything. He takes instructions extremely well.

 

I used to lock my office where I keep my comics when his friends are over and play because they are kids and would run all over the house...not Anthony. If he goes to someone else house, he would ask for permissions to go anywhere. He respected things that are not his...i can't help but be so proud of him.

 

Now, when his friends come over to play, he knows to keep them out of my office so I don't have to lock it anymore.

 

ok, enough of this mushy daddy and son talk

 

I saw a thread the other day about when the X-men jumped the shark. Tough one to answer for me since there are quite a few up and down periods with that title from 150 to 300. Unlike other titles, I really wanted to drop the book even when the arts and/or stories were not up to par.

 

Now for other titles, it was so much easier. I was going the boxes to get ready for another one of my big sale thread and I ran across the one Iron Man book that killed that title for me.

 

I started my collecting hobby with Iron Man 150 and it wasn't long before I said "no way, no more". A big part of the reason was money back then. I didn't have much so even wasting 60 cents on anything didn't make sense.

 

here it is. When I pulled it out of the short box last weekend, i had to flip thru it again to see how bad it was and it has been decades since I laid eyes on this book to see the artist for the book

 

for those not familiar with this book, here are 2 sample pages, I will list the artist name below...see if you can guess it first

 

 

 

I don't know if you disagree with me that the art is bad but back in 1982 when I bought this book, I was fairly green to Marvel and knew very little about Silver Age and the history of Marvel so I didn't recognize or remember the name....it is STEVE DITKO. No doubt a big surprise for me to find out last weekend.

 

 

For those interested in continuing on my little adventure, read below....or avoid the wall of text.

 

 

The bus ride was about 3 hours or so. I didn’t remember much of it since I fell asleep. When I woke up, we have reached the end of the ride. My siblings woke me up and we exited the bus. Awaited was a man we never met but he asked if we were the “Zeng” kids and we confirmed and followed him. Zeng was the Chinese surname/last name that was on all of our fake documents. On the way to his house, he told us that my parents paid him to house us until the boat is ready to leave. This is a fishing village and our boat is being prep for the trip and whenever it is ready, we will go. We just have to stay at his house and stay out of site and wait. Everything was paid for so there is nothing to worry about.

 

We hung out there for 2 days and we got a surprise visitor, my step mom. Yes, my mother passed away when I was three and my dad remarried a few years later. For the most part, us 3 tolerated her but it was not an easy relationship between us and the step mom from day one so we really were happy to leave her also…no biggie but it was a surprise that she showed up and spent the remaining 2 days with us. I think we all got along great, better than the past 4 years for sure. She was also 6 months pregnant at the time so we appreciated the gesture. She didn’t have to here but there she was to make sure we have at least a “proper” good bye. She also brought a little surprise for us that made us feel “better” on the trip. With the money my brother and I got for selling our entire stamps collection, my dad was able to track down and bought some motion sickness pills and she told us he was very thankful that that we donated the money and allowed him to buy this last thing to take on the trip. She knew the stamps collection was a big deal for us and she told us Dad appreciated the gesture much more than we can imagine.

 

Lets back track a little. After the war ended in 1975, everyone that worked/served for the US or French in any capacities were supposed to be sent to “education” camps….basically jails and many never returned. My uncles who served as tank commander and paratroopers under the U.S. went and never to heard off again. We were told they were shot trying to escape. My dad served with the French as mentioned in the earlier part of my journals, was spared of this indignity. Lucky for him, he was deemed one of the higher intellects of the country and well respected. There is actually a street in Ho Chi Minh City (Saigon as it was back then) with his name. I don’t know anyone with a name on a street that is still alive but he was well respected enough to earn that. So instead of throwing him in jail, they gave him government job in trying to set up educational system/curriculums to improve the literacy/education rate of the country.

 

Because of his job at that time, the government officials closely watched him. On top of the constant “brain drain” that has been occurring all over the country. Our entire family is under watch because just about everyone we know left in 1975 and the remaining upper class, higher educated friends escaped between 1976 and 1978. We were on the list as the next “big” family to try to run so there was heightens attention with all of us. In school, I was asked quite a few times “when are you going…don’t lie, we know you have money” but we all managed the secret.

 

 

Because of all of the watchful eyes, now you see why everything had to be what they were. On the 4th day at the fishing village, my mom told us the boat is ready and we can go check it out if we wish because we are leaving tomorrow night. Naturally, we said “Yes”,… lets check it out.

 

So after lunch, we all walk to the dock to see the “boat” and it is a moment I will never forget.

 

For the past 9 months, fear was never really part of my thinking. I really didn’t have time to fear because there was so much information pounded into my head that I never once think I could die but everything changed when I saw the boat for the first time.

 

While we were on the way to check out the boat, my mom told us there will be 302 people total on this trip so there will be a lot of people in case we need help or assistances, just ask someone older so don’t be shy.

 

The boat weren’t very far from where we stayed. I don’t think the walk was more than 20 minutes. I really can’t recall what my brother or sister did when we arrived at the boat because I freaked out and not much else around me at that moment registered in my memory.

 

The sight of the boat brought immediate reaction of fear and terror in my mind. I can recall balling out crying and inconsolable as my mom dragged me away as fast as possible.

 

I might have been only 12 but the second I laid eyes on the boat, fear overcame me because I know 30 meters is way too small for 302 people. Whatever that was in my head for the past 9 months (freedom, adventure, etc..) is replaced with death and terror.

 

 

 

.....thanks for reading….the journey will continue in another time.

Thanks for reading.

 

 

 

 

 

[vaillant]

I’ll read your story in full later on; I still have to read the first part. Mea culpa!

 

Seriously Nick, your son is a blessing. I figured out what you said before your explanation. In the video he looks not only serious and focused, but obedient (the etimology of the term means "thoroughly listening", that’s what obedience means in religious orders and in a theologic sense as well).

After watching the video, with my mother we have been recalling how cute Antony is for a thousand times since yesterday…

 

I recognized Ditko at the first panel. It seems to me the problem here is, as with many other work he did in the 1980s, that he did not do it with much affection, and also the inker: I don’t know who‘s the inker. If you compare this with Speedball, you’ll see Speedball is better, although it’s a later work.

This book, however, sucks because of the Serpent Squad, lousy villains…

 

Nick, I see that you are listing late 1970s and 1980s books. There are some books which I still miss simply because they are cheap and I used to give precedence to late-silver and early bronze.

I know it’s unlikely but if it happens you have Thor #244-245 or Avengers #178 and #185-186-187, I "need" them.

[etanick]

Indeed, Serpent Squad is lousy. I can't believe they made it into the new Avenger cartoon recently. That appearance made about as much sense as taking Rocket Raccoon to the big screen to me.

 

Wow, I am so glad to be wrapping up my sale thread but that was crazy. For those followed my sale threads over the past few years, I tend to do different things with the discounts. I originally set aside about 600 books/slabs to sell over the span of this entire month. As in previous sale threads, it takes weeks and multiple rounds of discount to sell out the thread and even then sometimes I still have plenty left. Not this time, I went thru 400 books/slabs in a week. I decided quickly that I need to stop listing the rest to invoice/pack/ship those books. I spent the entire weekend packing and shipping...yowsa. As fun as selling is and putting some nice books into boardies' hands, I am reminded quickly how much work it is to run a sale thread.

 

For those selling regularly, I don't know how you can do it, especially if this is not your day job and selling comic books are just a part time hobby. Now if you are a dealer, that is a different story.

 

Speaking of that sale thread, that was a lot of "dreks" in there and I have plenty of those "dreks" as keepers too. I have no idea who the artist for these books are but they are great. They are reprint of the old Atlas Ringo Kid with some newer stories but the old reprints are great. These books aren't worth much but fun as hell to look thru them.

 

 

well centered high grade white pagers dreks

 

 

urghh...not so much for the #1 as far as well centered

 

 

 

As far as quality of materials used to print comic books, I think the late Silver age and early Bronze are my favorite. I have compared many raw books from the 60's thru the 80's from both DC and Marvel and I feel the late 60's and early 70's have the best paper quality. The cover stock was thicker, heavier, and the gloss are nicer...urghhhh or I am just crazy thinking that there is such a difference.

 

[vaillant]

Love the Ringo Kids. I think some of those may be John and also Marie Severin, although I have never had an Atlas western book.

 

You are absolutely right about selling: it takes a lot of time and energy to do it properly: even just for having sold to two or three people I have some time difficulties as I am not so accustomed to packing different formats, and also if you are sick or have problems it may be a pain to go to the Post Office.

 

You are absolutely right about paper and/or printing quality as well: the late 1960s and early 1970s were absolutely the best, while the worst peak had been the late 1970s, which is very unfortunate, as some breathtaking Doctor Strange or other late bronze stories are printed in an awful way. It makes me laugh when I see people looking for a perfectly flawless cover while the interiors on that copy may be totally lousy…

[etanick]

Here is a video for those that bought my dreks last week...a big thank you in case you do read my jib jabs here.

 

I shot all my videos in HD so if you want to fully enjoy the books, you will have to adjust the quality upward, and mute my babbling.

 

 

 

for those that want to continue reading my personal journey, continue below ....

 

 

I have a fairly good brain and photographic memory but the one thing I can’t remember was what happened between the breakdown at the sight of the boat and the next few hours. I was told later that I was hysterical and really needed to calm down by my mother. My siblings did better, not much but at least from all the stories that have been told, they didn’t need as much attention as I did. I may have been only 12 but in hindsight, knowing how many people will get on that boat was enough to scare the daylight out of me. For whatever reasons, all the fears that didn’t surface in the past 9 months rushed to the forefront and all of us were very thankful that mom was there to hold us together. The next thing I can remember is lining up late at night to get on the boat. We packed very light. Each of us had one bag with some clothes and foods, not much because there weren’t much room on the boat. Guards were yelling at people to discard as much “unnecessary stuff” as possible because the boat will be full and non essential stuff has no room on the boat. All available spaces must be use for food, water and fuel.

There were lot of light shining on the boat and it was fairly organized but loud as love one and family were now being separated from the 302…lot of tears and cryings. I was crying, been doing that for hours and I really couldn’t remember what my brother or sister were doing at that time in all honesty. In hindsight, with the last name “Zeng”, it was a blessing because we were last to board the boat. It was a fishing boat so the order of boarding was to load up the boat below first and then above. All the preparations to disguise our true identity weren’t necessary because everyone want to get on with the journey asap so names were called, heads were counted and onward to the boat. There weren’t any checking or verifying of any ids or documents. I think if my dad was there, he or mom could have easily do a switch with one of us because all that matter was 3 under the Zeng names, they didn’t care sex or age of the three that were on the list. Being the last to board, we had one spot for the 3 of us, the bow of the boat. There were standing room only. The 3 of us were the last to board the boat. There were barely enough room to sit down or stand up so it was packed tight like sardine.

I combed the internet for a while to find a pic that resembled our boat and I think this one is about as close as it could be. Just visualize 302 people on a 30 meters fishing boat that really wasn’t designed for open sea. There were one bathroom at the end of the boat but it is basically a closet with a hole on the floor where you can see the ocean and the rutter of the boat. I think everyone on the boat may have tried to use that bathroom once and decided it wasn’t worth the hassle to get there for the rest of the trip. Now, the difference between “legal” and “illegal” boat refugees can easily been seen by the size of the boat. Most boat people that snuck out illegal tend to me a lot smaller, and a lot less people so if you see pics of small boat with a small group of people, they left illegally. When you see pics like the one above, you bet that is a sponsored government “expedition”. The top of our boat cabin was filled with water and gasoline containers. Seriously, the boat looked ridiculous and top heavy. Hell it was heavy and low, I could easily scoop a cup of ocean water by reaching over the bow where I am standing with little effort. I was really exhausted by the time we got on the boat and it wasn’t long before they pushed the boat away from the doc and off we go. I fell asleep sitting down and woke up with the scorching sun on my face. I can see we are in the middle of ocean and things are not so rocky. Everyone seem to be in good spirit. I can see a Navy boat close by. Since we left legally, a small Vietnamese navy boat escorted us a few miles away from shore. I have no idea how far we are from the coastline but I can still see land in the horizon.

 

We were ordered to stop by the navy boat and a few government “officials” boarded our boat for one last piece of paperwork. At this point, we were told “whatever Vietmasese money you still have in your pocket is no longer good, might as well give them to us” so the few people that did have some money “donated” to the officials and they bid us farewell and have a safe journey.

 

Onward we go. The Captain of the boat told us we are aiming for Malaysia and it will take 3 days or so to get there…”hopefully”

 

The journey will continue another time….

 

Thanks for reading

 

 

[etanick]

I don't think I mentioned yet the "catalyst" that got me to refocus on raw books in 2010. Once I returned to the hobby in early 2009, I was on a slab frenzy mode. I still bought raw books here and there but for the most part, I was bidding and buying slabs and I certainly wasn't reading anything.

 

Early 2010, I was selling my 9.8 slabs on Ebay and one of my buyers asked "you have a lot of high grade bronze Marvel, by any chances you have high grade raw Treasury?"

 

huh? Treasury? what the heck are those? I have never hearded of them....but a quick search revealed what they are and I was intrigued. I happened to see a seller on Ebay with a listing for a big lot of 30 of them. The description said from Good to NM and the pics weren't all that helpful but what the heck, I can return them so why not. I think it was $150 for the entire lot so I felt the gamble was worth it. When books arrived...wow, was I surprised.

 

For sure 1/3 of them were water damaged, stained with mildew and foxing with tanned interiors but the rest was quite nice..about 10 of them were indeed NM.

 

wow did I like them. They were sturdy and heavy. I flipped thru them when I received them and it was love at first sight. For sure, that was the first time I started to read the interiors again and that was the catalyst that changed my path of slab collecting to where I am now. So for the next 2 years, I did buy a ton of treasury books hoping to complete my set. It was a fun chase for sure since they were inexpensive for the most part. Some were real hard to find like but it took over 2 years to complete the run from 1 to 28.

 

I rarely complete anything but it is nice for once to complete "something", albeit "dreks" for most other collectors. Marvel treasury books are more than 28 issues since there are many one shot books like the 2001 Space Odyssey issue or the Smurfs or G.I. Joe but at the least, 1 to 28 were numbered and in sequence so I can say I have a complete set there. in NM or better of course...nothing less was good enough

 

Here are the 1 to 28. One of these days I will take pics of the rest of the Marvel Treasury books like the Star Wars, Battlestar Galatica, Smurfs, 2001 Space Odyssey, etc...The only missing book is Close Encounter of the Third Kind. That one book has eluded me for the past 2 years.

 

 

 

 

 

p.s. hard to pick my favorite but the Conan #4 is stunning inside with Barry Windsor Smith arts.

 

[Logan510]

How do you store your treasuries...are they bagged and boarded? Just curious.

[etanick]

I bought bags and boards from mycomicshop that fit them. I also bought a few top loaders but some of these are too thick for top loaders.