The Gift

[Hepgwyn]

Sometimes you just get lucky

 

My brother is 13 years older than me and was a bit of a comic-book collector in the late 60's and early 70's but by the 80's most of his books had been sold to buy text books and other less fun things. Rumor has it there was an Amazing Fantasy #15 at one time, but that was sold before I was born. Anyhow, I didn't really know what to expect when on the occasion of my Bar Mitzvah in January of '86, he offered me a gift of a stack of books that were kept un-bagged in a cardboard box stored in the basement. Sure I said, I'll take 'em. I don't really remember everything that was in it now, mostly some early 70's Amazing Spider-Mans that were in pretty good shape. So, I don't know what ASM #129 was worth in early January 1986 but I took it and read it and bagged it and put it away mostly unthought of. I don't think I even thought about it when the Punisher Mini came out later that month but I bought that and enjoyed those too. I'm not sure, when I finally realized what I had been given perhaps when the first of 3 mediocre/terrible movies came out perhaps it was during a re-bagging of the collection. Either way my ASM #129 was the best present I got for my Bar Mitzvah by far. Way better than some 50 dollar savings bond.

 

It's a little sad that my brother didn't have it bagged and standing vertically, otherwise it might have come back even better than 9.0 with white pages. There is some wrinkling of the cover at the top, some spine stress, a little under-wrap, some staple rust and a very unfortunate stamp on the back perhaps when it was received from Marvel in '74. Either way I think it's a copy and a story I can be proud of.

 

I am a little embarrassed to add this note, but at ECCC after I had dropped off my books to be graded I walked around the show for a couple of hours trying to not buy anything. I passed Gerry Conway sitting at a table completely alone and I thought to myself I wish I'd brought a book he could sign...

 

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[Tnerb]

Nice story, Gerry Conway was the reason why I traveled to that con in the first place.Great Book and great story, let's see for my Bar Mitzvah I got aggravation, or it that Jewish Gelt?.

[SW3D]

That's another beautiful key with another bubble (although not as prominent as the others). I would be very annoyed with CGC... especially with the money you spent fast tracking.

 

Great story by the way. It seems like ASM 129 is all over the boards of late. Congrats on a very nice book.

 

I would have made it a point to say hello to Gerry... even though you had nothing to sign or were looking to curtail spending... there's nothing wrong with saying hello and letting him know you're a fan. He would have appreciated it. Perhaps next time.

 

Keep posting journals. I enjoy reading what you have to say.

 

SW3D

[thehumantorch]

Thanks for sharing, great story.

[kaholo1256]

I don't know if anybody else is noticing this but I have started to see that a lot of the more legendary Artists and Writers are becoming the less busy at Conventions. The last two conventions that I attended had both Neal Adams and Len Wein and when I approached both there lines were empty. While when I went to gain signatures from newer more Modern Artists and Writers both had decent size lines.

 

In Anyways that's another solid issue for you. I'm hoping when my son gets older he to will be able to appreciate some classics as well.

 

K

[Hepgwyn]

Tnerb,

 

Wow, you came from Philly to see Gerry, yeesh now I really feel guilty for not stopping to say "Hi" to him. I always feel a little tongue-tied in those situations.

[Hepgwyn]

Kaholo,

 

I was lucky, like your son, to be the child of a collector so he was super supportive.