Rusty staples and sunken treasure! by Hibou

[CSJournals-migration]

Or how an owl found his way underwater...

 

I think I've figured out this journal thing finally and hopefully the 2 other attemps can be deleted in time.

 

Anyways...

 

A few weeks back I met a good friend of mine for lunch and for some strange reason, he had just out of the blue purchased a really cool book for me. Why? He's just like that and an overall good guy.

 

Anyways, that generous act sort of gave me an idea to write about how my collecting focus has evolved from the time I got back into collecting and buying key books to where I am now after finding these boards. Maybe along the way I'll discover why I'm attracted to these types of books so much.

 

And with that, perhaps it will prove to be therapeutic!

 

To start this off I'll post the very book that my friend Rob purchased for me. We couldn't figure out why Pizza Hut found this book to be so important to reprint it and use it as a giveaway...

 

See more journals by Hibou

[Hibou]

Aaaah!

 

This is the part that frustrates me!

 

I have a CS account... I have a forum account but then it posts my page as a generic 'CSJournal' user with the explanation...

 

"CSJournals is an automated user that posts journal entries for anyone who does not have their own message board account yet."

 

Also, I don't have access to any edit functions on my initial post... :shrug:

 

I guess I can't figure that part out.

 

Oh well, I'll just continue on with this one.

 

 

[Silver Collector]

Hi Hibou,

You should have the option to post as yourself (your regular account). I believe it's a check box at the bottom of the form when you post as a journal entry.

 

I think your Wonder Woman book is very cool! Comics from that era are so hard to come by.

 

Mike

[Brandon Shepherd]

Hi Hibou,

 

Welcome to the journals, very creative title, I can't wait to read about your evolving collecting focus!

 

Brandon

[Hibou]

One aspect of collecting comics is something called 'focus' and it wasn't until I got here that I learned exactly what that was and how helpful that can be in this hobby. With so many publishing companies, genres and ages, it can be overwhelming... both financially and personally.

 

I grew up on late 60's and 70's comics. Mostly Marvel and DC...

 

Looking back, it was almost impossible to not be influenced by the mass marketing that was being launched on the youth of those years.

 

From bedroom sets to sleepwear. Clothing to underwear...

 

Toys.

 

Books.

 

Cartoons.

 

TV shows.

 

And comics...

 

I was mostly into Marvel as a child. My favorites were Spider Man and Captain America. I also liked DC books as well and I loved the Justice League. I think that came about from an addiction to the Super Friends!

 

My parents bought me comics off the rack and sometimes I would buy them with whatever money I saved by various means. My fondest memories though, came from the trips to the 'half-price book store'. It was there that I could find all sorts of odd comics and they would only cost a nickel or sometimes ten cents.

 

Whether they were remaindered and had the cover torn half off or coverless, it really didn't matter. That's how I found some old horror comics and science fiction comics.

 

Still, at the end of the day it was all about Spider Man, Captain America and the Justice League (Super Friends).

 

It wasn't until 1978 or 1979 that I found my way into an actual comic shop. It was sort of an enigma to me back then as I wasn't sure if it was okay to be in such a shop as a kid. The owner of this comic store looked very much like John Lennon and there was this 'back room' that I wasn't allowed in.

 

Later, I found out that this back room was where he sold Maxfield Parrish artwork as well as more adult oriented comics or underground books... Robert Crumb and such.

 

I became a regular at this shop and as the years advanced into the early 80's, this comic shop became paradise to me and the shop owner (Mike) taught me what would become my introduction to actually 'collecting comics'. He taught me about grading and values and even something called 'speculation'.

 

He also introduced me to other obscure mainstream titles that he thought might appeal to me as well as telling me stories of the earlier history of these comic books. From his favorites... 50's books to SOTI (Seduction Of The Innocent: Wertham) to the comics code.

 

His advice to me was that if I ever found books from the 50's at a garage sale, to buy them all as they were generally hard to find.

 

I was fascinated by these stories and my mother even validated this point as she told me that in the early to mid 50's (when she was a child) she loved to read Superman comics, Harvey, etc. and had a lot of them.

 

Sadly, they were all thrown into the garbage or burned up.

 

I have a feeling that the reason that happened might've been attributed to what was going on in this country courtesy of Dr. Wertham.

 

As I was learning about this, I was also discovering these Byrne/Claremont X-Men comics and then came The New Teen Titans. When TNTT came out, Mike suggested to me that I might want to buy 2 as he thought the book would sell out quickly. He said I could keep one and later sell one.

 

It wasn't too long after TNTT #1 was released that I saw his prediction come true as you now had to pay $12 for a NM copy of that book.

 

I think this is when I officially became a collector.

 

It might've been only a couple of months later but I was able to resell that extra copy of the Teen Titans back to Mike for store credit. I actually made a profit on this comic and I was 11 years old!

 

With some store credit in hand, I turned to Mike for any suggestions as to what else might be good. I didn't know this at the time but he also had an affinity to the works of Bernie Wrightson.

 

I guess most everyone did...

 

So when he showed me some Wrightson Swamp Thing books... well that was a whole new experience and I was definitely hooked! It was in these next few years, through the early 80's, that I seemed to be attracted to so many different types of comics and I was making my own money at this point through delivering newspapers.

 

Soon after, I was old enough to get a part time job at a grocery store so now I had more money which was wonderful because it was around this time that I went to my first local comic convention.

 

If the comic shop was paradise... the comic convention was something even greater! The comic convention actually had Golden Age books!

 

It was in the mid to late 80's that I fell in love with Golden Age books but had to admire them from a distance as I didn't have the kind of money to obtain most of them. If I spent $30 on a nice GA Fawcett book... that was like treating myself to a fancy steak dinner! It always seemed like the books that I was really attracted to, were always out of reach. I think I bought an early Wonder Woman comic in the mid 80's simply because it was affordable, but trying to get a hold of a GA Batman book was almost unheard of back then for a 16 year old making $40 a week!

 

That might've been how I got to collecting in such a hodge-podge manner.

 

Whatever I could afford that looked appealing to me when the opportunity arose.

 

There certainly wasn't a focus back then!

 

(Not my book pictured here, but this was the first GA book I ever bought.)

 

 

 

 

 

[Hibou]

Hi Hibou,

You should have the option to post as yourself (your regular account). I believe it's a check box at the bottom of the form when you post as a journal entry.

 

I think your Wonder Woman book is very cool! Comics from that era are so hard to come by.

 

Mike

 

I checked that box but it didn't seem to change anything... thank you for the suggestion, Mike. Those 50's books are certainly pretty cool!

 

Hi Hibou,

 

Welcome to the journals, very creative title, I can't wait to read about your evolving collecting focus!

 

Brandon

 

Thank you, Brandon!

[surfer99]

Great journal, thanks for writing! Now I really want to go hunt down some GA books at garage sales and flea markets...no! Must...stay...focused.

 

 

[Hibou]

Great journal, thanks for writing! Now I really want to go hunt down some GA books at garage sales and flea markets...no! Must...stay...focused.

 

 

(thumbs u

 

I've noticed that whenever "comic books" are listed in garage sale newspaper adds, it seems to bring out more people. I've held sales, listing comic books and some of the first customers were those asking about them. I've also gone to many sales advertising such where the books were the first things bought.

 

From my experience, flea markets are still great places to find good deals on comics!

 

 

[Hibou]

So it was around 1985/1986 that I had my first 'real' part time job that enabled me to make more money than delivering newspapers and with that came the discovery of so many different types of comics at these conventions.

 

Like I said, I fell in love with Golden Age books but it was also around that same time that I found myself very attracted to the art of Steve Ditko and most specifically on his early Spider Man books.

 

Looking back, this was my very first focus as I was able to find many Ditko Spider Man books that were affordable but in a low grade. Mostly the ones I found that I could afford were in Good condition but the later ones were nicer of course.

 

So I decided to try and complete a run of ASM #1 - #38

 

Slowly, through flea markets, comic shops and comic conventions I was able to nearly complete this run of all the Ditko Spider Man issues. The keystone of this collection came at the very end as I found a copy of ASM 1 for $100 at a local comic convention. It would be the most money that I ever spent on one comic book but I knew that this would be the pinnacle of what I was collecting back then.

 

I remember asking the dealer if he could hold the book for a few minutes so I could make a phone call. After finding a pay phone I called Mike at the comic shop to ask what he thought of that book at that price. I think he told me that if I didn't buy it, he would. So I went back to the dealer and gave him $100 and had my treasure... an actual copy of The Amazing Spider Man #1!

 

And get this... the inside of the book was signed by Stan Lee.

 

Is anyone surprised by that?!

 

Well, back then, it made this book even that more special to me.

 

Of all these books though, I have to say that my favorite issue was #6. The first appearance of the Lizard. I just thought the character / villain was brilliant. A Jekyll and Hyde type where you would sympathize with the one armed Dr. Connors but when he turned into the Lizard, he was deadly!

 

There was one panel in that book that always stood out to me and yes, it's an underwater panel.

 

Spider Man is walking along when the Lizard pops out of the water and drags him underneath...

 

 

 

 

My run of Ditko's Spider Man was nearly complete but there were three books that I just couldn't find or afford.

 

ASM 3: 1st Doctor Octopus

ASM 5: Early Doctor Doom

ASM 14: 1st Green Goblin

 

So I was very close to completing this run when my focus was turned away by tricksters...

 

...

 

Some refer to them as 'Girls'.

 

They have this ability to make you forget everything you thought was important which then causes you to sell everything you own.

 

Later, you're left questioning yourself as to just what the heck you did!

 

 

[Hibou]

One thing I failed to mention and I guess this is good spot to do so was how much comics influenced my personal time.

 

As a child, if I wasn't reading my comics, watching cartoons or playing with my Mego Superheroes... I was drawing. I loved to draw.

 

And what else would I like to draw then comicbook related characters?

 

 

This is one of my earliest drawings I still have from 1977/1978

 

[Hibou]

Another early drawing of mine... again from 1977/1978.

 

 

Drawing was something I just really enjoyed doing and I think some of that inspiration stemmed from my parents being creative themselves.

 

My mother was a part time cake decorator in the 70's along with being a keypunch operator. My father was a social worker and enjoyed drawing on the weekends.

 

I think it was when I was in first grade (1975) that my father would take one of these blank keypunch cards that my mother seemed to have laying around and do a drawing. He would then put it into my Marvel superhero lunchbox as sort of a surprise. I think it was a weekly thing or every once in while...

 

At any rate, these were great surprises for me to enjoy looking at while I ate my lunch!

 

Inside this box:

 

 

Were these treasures!

 

(These are just a few of the ones I still have.)

 

 

 

 

So this only helped to solidify my interest and excitement of comics and comic characters... along with dinosaurs and sea creatures and monsters and aliens and just about everything else!

 

As I got older and kept drawing I started to think of just how cool it must be to have a job where that's all you did.

 

Draw comics!

 

So I kept at it through the early 80's...

 

Ditko Spider-Man from 1982:

 

 

Kirby Captain America from 1982:

 

 

ROM from 1982:

 

 

And Gene Simmons (The Demon) from 1983:

 

 

Once I got to high school and was 'majoring' in art, I found it very difficult for my teachers to understand that drawing cartoons and comic characters was 'real art'... it frustrated me to no end but I tried to slip in some of that interest into the projects I was assigned to do.

 

I think I frustrated my art teacher as well!

 

For instance this zinc plate etching of clothing store mannequins from 1986:

 

 

So to loop this back around, the end of the 80's found me selling my collection of comics but interested more than ever in comic art.

 

That's where Part II comes in...

 

Getting out of comics for comics!

 

 

[Hibou]

Part II

 

"Getting out of comics for comics"

 

 

 

 

It was around my senior year in high school that I decided I really wanted to draw these comics as a career. I had heard about this art school in Dover, NJ that specialized in just that and it was run by Joe Kubert himself.

 

I thought it was the obvious choice for me and was absolutely perfect.

 

For some reason I decided that it would be a good idea to take a year studying academics and other art courses at a community college before immersing myself into the world of comics and going that route. I still maintained that the only thing I wanted to do was draw comics but my interest in actually collecting comics was quickly fading. I still certainly enjoyed them but my mind was on other things.

 

I really enjoyed my year at the community college and excelled at the courses I took. Up to then, I had no idea I really liked literature, psychology and philosophy. I majored in illustration for that single year as I thought that might be the closest to drawing comics.

 

This is where I think my first lesson in focus was taught to me...

 

[Hibou]

As much as I was focused on going to the Kubert school to learn to draw comics, I didn't expect to be attracted to other types of art... mainly fine art and art history. Learning about the High Renaissance Masters, Pre-Raphaelites and Impressionist Painters was exciting and it seemed to open up another world of interests for me.

 

And as much as I enjoyed studying all these types of art and artists, one in particular stood out.

 

Michelangelo.

 

I was so drawn to his art and life, it nearly became an obsession.

 

I would try to copy his style and technique while applying that to what I liked to do.

 

In my mind, Michelangelo was drawing and painting superheroes before anyone else.

 

 

Somewhere I heard that his Sistine Chapel ceiling was almost like the very first comic book... done in 1508-1512.

 

He was only 33 when he started it.

 

 

Instead of collecting comics... now, I was collecting old art books.

 

During this time, I was going through a personal conflict regarding fine art and comic art. To me there wasn't a difference... only the style and techniques were.

 

From my one year at a community college majoring in illustration & graphic art (I just remembered that), I don't have much in terms of artwork.

 

I was able to slip this in somehow but I forgot what the actual assignment was.

 

This sort of explains what I was feeling while trying to define what comic book art meant to me. This was done when I was 18... I cringe while reading that last paragraph I wrote about 'the defined artist' being self absorbed. I'm not sure why I took that shot. I guess I was feeling a little defensive about my comics!

 

 

 

[Hibou]

After my year at the community college, it was time to finally move on to the Kubert school. At this point I was starting to feel a little apprehensive about the move but very excited nonetheless.

 

I was placed into their version of 'student housing' which was basically a redefined frat house. 12 guys (17-19 years old) sharing one Victorian house.

 

The school itself was very cool! It was an old high school in Dover, NJ that had been converted into the art school. They had their own art store which was very well stocked and the library was a comic-geek's (term used affectionately) paradise.

 

Not only did the library have art books but they also had, what else... comics and original art that was donated by past faculty and students.

 

One of my drawing classes was instructed by Irwin Hasen. The first class of his I attended, he introduced himself and told us his credentials. He followed that up by drawing a large Golden Age Green Lantern on this large pad of paper that was on an easel.

 

I thought it was very cool that I was in a class which an actual Golden Age artist was going to teach!

 

As the weeks went by I started to feel a little frustrated at how these classes were advancing but that was only because I thought that the school would naturally (somehow) continue the fine art training I received at the community college. It was different here and now I was starting to feel out of place.

 

It didn't take me long to realize the proximity of Dover, NJ to NYC and once I braved a drive into the city, I was hooked. It seems that I was heading into NYC once or twice a week. I would go to Metropolis Comics every now and then to look around but at this point in my life, actually buying the old books again just wasn't appealing to me.

 

So mostly on these excursions, If I wasn't going to Strands bookstore to find some new (old) books on Michelangelo or Leonardo, then I was heading up to the Met to walk through the galleries and on occasion, sit and sketch the classical statues.

 

Many nights though, I found myself somewhere else...

 

I used to love to go up to the top of the World Trade Center just to sit up there and look at the intensity and frenzy of the city in complete silence and more times than not, in solitude as well.

 

Almost like a fortress.

 

I found it so relaxing and it was a place to go to sort out my thoughts.

 

 

 

I was starting to get the feeling that comics weren't going to be in my future as I had once thought.

 

I still enjoyed drawing them and had every opportunity to do so now at the Kubert school but my focus was changing and all I really wanted to do now was study and learn from Michelangelo, Leonardo and Raphael.

 

I'm surprised I didn't jump down a sewer while in NYC...

 

 

 

 

(These are some of the things done while there at the school from 1988/1989.)

 

 

 

 

 

 

I really liked this one as we had to come up with a new cartoon character.

 

This was Space Bug... the only problem was I felt I pulled the idea from somewhere but couldn't remember where.

 

 

 

[Hibou]

As fate would have it, during the fall of 1988 (from October to December), the National Gallery in Washington DC had a large exhibit of works by Michelangelo in a show called Michelangelo: Draftsman.

 

Once I found out about the show, it was a foregone conclusion that I would be attending. So early one Saturday morning in late October, I packed up my '75 Ford Torino (Rickie Lee Jones on the tape deck) and headed to DC from Jersey.

 

The exhibit was amazing... to me, it was breathtaking! Many famous conte drawings, pen and ink studies and even original Cartoons (very large drawings made to transfer an image to a fresco) were displayed. Also, there was a hand written sonnet about his labors of painting the Sistine Chapel ceiling.

 

The sonnet also featured a rather crude drawing of him painting the ceiling...

 

 

I just remember thinking to myself that I was looking at works of his that he did nearly 500 years ago and here I was trying to learn from them!

 

The entire day was spent down there and I had just enough money to buy a print, some postcards and the book that was published for the show.

 

 

I felt fortunate to have been able to see those works of art but I also felt changed.

 

This one assignment, where we had to design a new graphic image for the Kubert school, pretty much illustrates exactly how I was feeling.

 

I wanted to focus on classical studies... learn from these masters and then streamline that information into comics.

 

I think this was for Irwin Hasen's class. And if I remember correctly, I didn't get a particularly good grade on it.

 

 

 

So if my interest in comics was dwindling prior to going to that exhibit... afterwards it was very low.

 

The winter break was coming up and I would head home for a couple of weeks to spend Christmas with my family.

 

...

 

 

(I just found this picture and remember this day pretty vividly... it was very early in the morning and my mother had just made me a pot of coffee before I left to head back down to NJ. I was 19 here and not feeling too thrilled about going back.)

 

I believe it was during this break that I realized my heart just wasn't into comics any longer... or even drawing comics for that matter. Instead of returning to NJ refreshed and full of ideas and ambition, I returned reluctantly. A couple of months passed and I knew it was time to go. I didn't have a plan... I just felt burned out. I looked into a community college in Randolph while entertaining the thought of just staying in NJ, getting a job and starting some kind of life there.

 

Ultimately, I decided to go back home and about a month before the end of the school year, I did just that.

 

Packed my things, filled up the tank in my car at .89 cents a gallon and left.

 

Tail tucked between my legs, I felt defeated.

 

Those childhood dreams of drawing comics were sunk...

 

Sunken treasure.

 

[Hibou]

I returned home and decided I would go back to the community college I attended before.

 

This time I focused more on academic studies while taking some art courses during the night. I had also found a local studio that held live, nude figure drawing a couple nights a week for only $10 and did that every now and then. It was 1989/1990 and with no real direction or ambition, I had to find a job and found one at an art supply store. It was simply sales but there was a twist as you had to know the material to sell it. I knew a little bit about art materials and I guess it was just enough to get me employed.

 

The woman who hired me became a very good and dear friend as she taught me all she knew about art supplies, material, methods and techniques. She also taught me a lot about life and dealing with struggles... trials and tribulations. She was incredibly generous with her time as she would do just about anything for anyone and she would never turn a soul away who needed help. She really tried to positively affect every person she came across.

 

Her lasting advice to me was, whatever the situation, turn and face your dragons.

 

In other words- you can only run for so long. You gain strength by facing your trials head on.

 

She passed away at the young age of 50, about 6 years ago, from a brain tumor but she'll never, ever be forgotten.

 

Less than a year after she hired me at the art supply store, she was offered a big position at the University within the bookstore's art supply department as their purchaser and coordinator. It wasn't long after she took that job that I left the art supply store and found another job in a framing gallery doing custom framing. I felt stuck in the mud. A few months into the job at the framing gallery, I got a call from the woman who hired me at the art supply store and was now at the University. She informed me that there was an opening at the University and thought I would be perfect for it. Again, it was sales but it was better paying with much better benefits so I jumped. Plus, it provided me an opportunity to work with her again.

 

So I made yet another move and started working at the University in 1990.

 

This is where I met my wife.

 

We were working in the same department and became very good friends quickly. A couple of years later we started dating and then got married in 1995.

 

She had (has) two kids, a boy (now my stepson) and a girl (now my stepdaughter)... their ages at that time were 9 and 10.

 

I got along very well with both of them but the boy (who shares the same name as me: David) had an interest that I knew a little bit about.

 

We formed an immediate bond over comic books.

 

He loved The Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles and X-Men and I remember his reaction when I told him I knew who Sabretooth was.

 

This is how I wound up getting interested once again in comics and collecting them... I would take him to the comic store and we would go through all the new comics. This was around 1993 and the marketing and speculation boom of comics was about to reach a fever pitch.

 

My girlfriend (now my wife) also got into the comic thing and would buy comics that appealed to her too.

 

She's still intetested in comics and has always been supportive of my geek side. (Another term used affectionately.)

 

So I was hooked and back in but I also noticed that some things had changed in regards to collecting comics.

 

When I had last left collecting comics it was fairly simple...

 

Good

 

Fine

 

Mint

 

In this modern age of collecting that I was about to get into, there was a numerical system applied.

 

From 1-100.

 

Throughout the years from when I was a child, I have also been into coin collecting and within that hobby, there was a scale system know as the 70 point Sheldon Scale. Being familiar with that, it was fairly easy to see what the comic collecting hobby was doing but it was still very strange.

 

Overstreet also adopted a paper whiteness level scale and conveniently called it the Overstreet Whiteness Level or OWL.

 

 

It took me a little while to get used to this system and even longer to calculate a way to gauge pricing using the OSPG especially since there were still only three entrees for grades...

 

 

Good - 25

 

Fine - 65

 

Near Mint - 94

 

It took some time but I figured out some bizarre system of taking the average of two grades and adding or subtracting anywhere from 15-25%.

 

... right!

 

So with my (then) girlfriend's son, I was buying mostly new books... but it didn't take me long at all to find those old friends I left behind some years ago!

 

 

[Hibou]

Through those early to mid 90's, I thought it was sort of cool to see all these new books coming out with the so-called 'gimmick' covers.

 

Holofoil, Glow-in-the-dark, Gold, Platinum, affixed objects... it seemed like it was something different every month.

 

Despite these new advances in marketing and printing comics, I was once again looking at the older books.

 

It's always seemed that around here, where I live, Golden Age comics were very seldom seen in the comic stores and every once in a while, you'd find some nice early Silver Age.

 

As I got back into collecting comics, I was able to find some nice books that I really enjoyed. Of note was a copy of Journey Into Mystery 83 (if I remember, it was around a VG) and a very nice looking copy of Green Lantern 1 (SA). The Green Lantern 1 had a coupon cut out, which made it affordable to buy, but looked like it was a FN. I loved having these two key books in my collection. I managed to find some GA comics as well but not that many.

 

One book though was a favorite of mine as the story behind it was a classic thrill of most comic collectors. I had stopped into a local comic shop one afternoon to see what was new.

 

Upon entering the store, there was a small group of people centered around the main counter talking to the owner about this one particular book.

 

Apparently, shortly before I arrived, someone had brought in a comic that he found in the walls of a house that was been renovated. The book had a terrific front cover but a pretty dirty back cover. Also, some of the interior pages were stained as well.

 

When I saw what book it was, I started to get a bit excited...

 

It was a copy of Superman #9 from 1941.

 

As soon as I saw the book and the condition, I asked if it was for sale and if so, how much. I believe the book was being sold for $125. I bought it and was very excited to have my first early Superman book. Up until then, I had never owned a book published that early in the GA.

 

I loved owning that book while I did.

 

I was still into some of the modern titles but I really enjoyed the older books. My (now) stepson was heavily into the X-Men while my (now) wife was into Neil Gaiman, Sandman comics. It was fun back then trying to find the early issues of Sandman as they were very popular and a bit expensive. Soon, I was starting to think about my Ditko Spider-Man books that I had years before and wanted to get back into those.

 

I never got that far into reassembling that collection, however.

 

One experience in particular left me heart-broken (in terms of comic collecting) that it might've been the impetus that started yet another decline in interest of comics.

 

This might've been closer to the mid 90's now... maybe 1995... but the same store that I had bought that Superman 9, had a copy of Amazing Spider-Man 14 for sale. When I saw the book for sale, I thought of my old collection and that particular book being one that eluded me. The book was a little expensive for me at the time. I think it might've been around $200 - $250 and it was around a VG. I really, really wanted that book and asked the owner if I could set up a layaway. He agreed and he put the book under the counter. We never discussed a time frame, I just told him I would pay a little at a time. I was a regular customer there so I would be stopping in frequently.

 

As it worked out, I would make a payment for one week and then I might skip a week if money was tight and I didn't have the extra to give.

 

I would continue to put a little bit on the book at a time until one day I had an extra $75 and went in to pay it off and retrieve my treasured ASM14!

 

So I made my payment to the owner and he took a book from under the counter and placed it in a bag. All I saw was the backing board side up as he slid it in the bag, front cover side down. We chatted for a few minutes about something but I really wanted to get home to my new book! I only lived a few blocks away so I went right home, excited to have this copy and wanting to look it over and show my wife.

 

I got home and opened the bag...

 

Inside was a copy of Amazing Spider-Man 17.

 

Not number 14, the first appearance of the Green Goblin, but number 17, the second appearance of him. I called the store right away and explained what I had. The owner wasn't sure what happened but said he would look for the ASM14 I put on layaway.

 

He called me back shortly after to let me know that he must've sold it.

 

I told him I wanted to return this ASM17 for a full refund of all the money I had given while making payments. I was told that he couldn't do this... I forgot the reason he gave.

 

I was now furious and for the first (and only) time in my life, I threatened a store owner. I believe I told him I was coming right down and he was going to give me my money back one way or another.

 

Yeah.

 

Not one of my finer moments...

 

You see, I figured what he did was during the time I had the book on layaway, he came across a buyer who must've paid for it with cash in hand.

 

He called me back after I slammed the phone down and told me that he would refund all my money. I went to the store, returned the ASM17, got my $200 or $250 back and then told him that I would no longer be coming to this place.

 

I made good on my word and about a year later, the operation folded.

 

That experience left a bad taste in my mouth. I found another local comic shop a little further away but that didn't matter.

 

It was now 1995.

 

I got married and my wife and I had our honeymoon going cross-country throughout England. It was absolutely fabulous there... the last thing on my mind was comics.

 

...

 

About a year later I made a discovery that would change our lives. Not sure if it would be for the better or worse. I was still working at the University and during my lunch one afternoon, I decided to go to the computer lab instead of sitting in the dining hall eating while reading a newspaper. I approached one computer that was free and sat down to browse the internet and what was going on in sports. There was a page still open and I almost just closed it out to begin a new browsing session. At first it looked like some kind of gaming site but something caught my eye. I can't remember what that was that caught my eye, but the more I looked at this site and navigated through it, the more I couldn't believe what I was seeing.

 

And what I was seeing was everything!

 

Everything I could think of and type in... it was all there.

 

I returned from lunch and told my wife what I found, knowing that she would be just as amazed and curious as I was.

 

"You've got to see this website!"

 

"I think it's called eBay..."

 

 

 

And so it began.

 

 

 

[Hibou]

It didn't take long to for my wife and I to get lost in the world of eBay.

 

I think we actually became addicted.

 

During those early years of eBay, it seemed that almost anything that someone would put up for sale was being bought with multiple people competing for these items. It didn't occur to me until later that some of those people were the sellers as well.

 

I remember looking up these childhood favorites of mine... MEGO Superheroes and there were pages and pages of listings. Loose ones, new ones... even bulk lots! This was incredible to me. It was like a virtual shopping mall of almost anything you could think of.

 

This is the second time I mentioned these MEGO Superheroes and for those who aren't familiar with them they were manufactured from 1972-1980 (without getting into more detailed history of the company) and were these 8" plastic figures with cloth outfits and plastic accessories. These featured numerous points of articulation so they could be placed in many various poses.

 

 

 

 

 

[Hibou]

Aside from the MEGO's, other interests of mine that I found on eBay were sports related memorabilia, music, movies, old books on various subjects that I enjoyed such as Viking exploration, WW1 history and more. It was incredible the amount of 'stuff' that could be found on there.

 

My wife has always been interested in British royalty and eBay was rich with memorabilia of that nature... from dolls to chinaware to books, magazines and newspapers.

 

Before too long we realized that we needed to start selling things in order to offset these new purchases. It seemed so easy and the whole process was seamless.

 

The strange thing was, I wasn't looking at comics... in part because it seemed like I couldn't compete with the prices that a lot of these books were fetching.

 

So my other interests seemed to overshadow my comic collecting and soon I found myself making another big decision regarding my books.

 

It was time to sell them on eBay.

 

It didn't take long at all to sell off my good books but the silver lining was that I was making better money from selling these books this way than I had in the past by selling my books to dealers. Selling the books also helped to fund other interest purchases as well as some weekend jaunts to Canada with my wife. It was a fun run for a few years.

 

I was still going to local comic stores with my stepson but he was now getting into collectible trading cards and I was starting to work more hours at a new job since I had left the University in 1997.

 

I believe by 1998/1999, comics were once again fading away from me.

 

The next couple of years were more or less 'comic-free'...

 

The 'Millennium' was fast approaching and I found myself working a couple different jobs, one being at a Borders Books & Music store. While working there I would occasional spend time browsing through the graphic novels, just to see what was new and exciting. I decided at some point right before the start of the new year that I wanted to return to the University on a part time basis and saw that the bookstore had an opening for a computer consultant and sales person.

 

Somehow, with little experience but a big desire to learn something new, I got the job and worked hard to learn everything I could about computers, networking and repair. I read books, attended classes and went to a couple trade shows. In time, I was going to computer shows where I would buy components and build systems... from the motherboard to the processor to the case. I found it very rewarding and was soon building systems for family and friends as well.

 

I hadn't been thinking of comics for a while but things were about to change in 2001.

 

Actually, a lot of things were about to change.

 

In the summer of 2001, my wife and I found out that she was pregnant. We were renting at the time and looked to buy a house. Shortly after, we found a house we could afford, got the financing in place and agreed to a purchase.

 

We set a closing date on the house which also coincided with an early appointment my wife had for a follow up to a sonogram she had done.

 

That date was 9/11/01.

 

My wife and I had taken the day off from the University for the doctors appointment and closing. On the morning of 9/11, my wife and I were getting ready to go the doctors. I believe her appointment was around 10am so we had a little bit of time to spare. My wife was watching the news and I was eating breakfast when she called for me to come in and watch what was on television. When I first saw the TV and all this smoke rising from something, in my mind I thought I was looking at a volcano... and I'm not sure why that was in my head.

 

A few seconds later I saw and heard what was going on... the rest was a blur.

 

We had to leave for the doctors and all the while I couldn't stop thinking of what was going on. We had the radio on as we traveled to the appointment.

 

Once inside, we had to sit in the waiting room and I noticed that there were several other pregnant women waiting as well. The sound system was playing 'elevator music' and I was anxious as to why they didn't have the news on. I remember sitting there looking at these pregnant women and realizing that the last thing you would want to do is broadcast something terrible.

 

My wife and I were soon called in to see the doctor.

 

We were told that our daughter had a cyst or tumor on her spine and most likely would be born with a defect or possibly down syndrome. They suggested that my wife go through a gamut of tests... we declined. Prior to this date we had talked and agreed that we would accept and take responsibility for whatever would come. At this point, we felt that further testing was unnecessary and could possibly complicate things. We asked for a referral as we wanted a second opinion and a second sonogram.

 

After the appointment, we sort of felt numb. I left the radio off as we digested the news that we had just received. We returned home and I turned on the television to see that the world (that I knew) had changed.

 

Thousands of people died this day and my fortress of solitude was gone.

 

We still had to close on our house later in the afternoon and around 3:00pm we went to meet with the lawyers and agents.

 

By this time, the events of 9/11 were a part of history and as we headed in to our meeting and closing, I looked up to the sky and noticed it was so blue and it was so clear. Not a plane in sight nor lingering jet trails that so often cluttered the sky like random graffiti.

 

Our lawyers, real estate agent and others told us that they had no idea what was going to happen as a result of the days events but we went ahead anyways and completed the closing.

 

...

 

As the days and weeks following 9/11 came and went, I started thinking about what was going on in the city I had once wanted to call my home. What was going on in those offices at Marvel and DC. I guess during these darkened weeks and months, I (like many others perhaps) went looking for the heroes.

 

I had heard that there would be special comic issues devoted to the tragedy and that brought me back to the comic shops.

 

I was ready to get back into comics as it was something that I felt was needed for my state of mind.

 

I started off buying certain current issues again and then some favorite back issues but nothing of any value.

 

Months passed and my wife and I were now seeing a specialist in high-risk pregnancies and we were getting some very positive news. Everything that was told to us on that horrible day in September was inaccurate. We were encouraged as the weeks went by and these specialists kept telling us the same thing... there wasn't anything wrong.

 

That whole experience fundamentally changed a certain way of looking at things for me as it made me question a lot of things.

 

Our daughter was born as healthy as could be in April of 2002. Leonardo's birthday to be precise. When she arrived it was like nothing else I had ever been through or experienced.

 

Within a couple of hours after she was born, once her eyes were opened, she looked at me as I leaned over to see her.

 

She squeezed my finger as I said to her...

 

"Well, hello there! It's about time you showed up."

 

 

 

 

Celebrating my daughter's 1st birthday in Quebec:

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[Hibou]

Part III

 

"The third time's a charm or... what is this CGC thing?!"

 

 

 

 

Following the birth of my daughter, I started to get into drawing just for the joy of it again. The events of 9/11 from the previous year had seared it's mark in history and it seemed that following that, my interest in comics turned positive once again.

 

I was feeling motivated to draw... to create... and I was pulling inspiration from all sorts of places. I was getting into studying WW1 and WW2 once again and feeling nostalgic for a simpler time. It just felt good to be drawing once again AND collecting books. I was starting to look at some early comics again, like SA Captain America, Thor and Iron Man and buying early cheap copies.

 

These are some of the drawings I did during this time...

 

 

 

Captain America doesn't care for Nazis:

 

 

Mythological Thor:

 

 

A character design for an alien hero:

 

 

A couple figure drawings from another class I was taking:

 

 

(Nude female torso... just to be safe it's in this tag)

 

 

 

 

Some armored guy:

 

 

Scarecrow:

 

 

 

 

So as I was drawing and getting back into comics, I was also getting to know my friend Rob a little more as well. He too was into comics and was proficient in digital media... namely Photoshop. Up until then, I basically knew how to capture an area with the magic wand and dump a color in or even get crazy and use a gradient. I was very interested in learning how to use Photoshop and Rob was generous enough to show me a bit of what he knew. It was a little overwhelming as he taught me the value of layering but it's a concept I've taken and applied to many other aspects in life.

 

The importance of layering.

 

One aspect of art that always frustrated me to no end was painting. Whether it was oils or acrylics... I couldn't grasp the technique. A lot of it requires layers and when I was learning painting, I guess I wasn't understanding what they meant.

 

When my friend showed me on Photoshop just what layers do, it sort of clicked after a while. Today, it's a method I use to construct drawings in pieces rather than on one sheet of paper where I inevitably would end up redoing it numerous times.

 

So, aside from talking about art and computers, we often talked about comics and one day he told me he had a copy of the Incredible Hulk 181. He said it wasn't in that great shape but I asked him if he could bring it in to work so I could take a look at it. It was cool to see that book again as I had a copy of it back in the mid-90's that I regrettably sold. I told him what I thought the condition was and what it's value was. I think I also told him that he should hang onto it.

 

Coincidently, I just sent his book in to be graded by CGC a few months ago and now this book that he showed me about 10 years ago, is trapped encased in plastic!

 

So as we continued talking comics and art, I started to get a crazy idea.

 

We could do a comic!

 

Unfortunately, it never got off the ground but the inspiration came from a very unlikely source...

 

The battlefields of France during WW1.