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Swamp Thing Rulz the Copper Age!
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317 posts in this topic

My first Swamp Thing slab. :D From the American Gothic saga.

 

I hope to add more cool Swamp covers to my slabbed and raw collection!

 

Swamp%20Thing%2042_zpsxlezu2tu.jpg

 

Did you grab that one off eBay? I was eyeing that one for SS.

 

:D

 

I did, the price dropped and I couldn't resist. :eek:

 

That's what I get for not paying attention.

 

;)

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This was a long time ago...... but I had gone to NYC with a suitcase full of my art to get a critique from professionals..... I was pretty good I thought. There was a convention that weekend and while walking the room I saw this table with three very interesting looking fellows with a D.C. logo behind them. One was furiously drawing away on an actual page. Turned out he was Steve Bissette. The other two were John Totleben and a chap with hair down to his arse named Alan Moore. They must've been in some sort of deadline crunch, as there was a D.C. employee from the Production Department in the wings. Totleben looked at my stuff and said I had promise..... suggested the Kubert School where he had gone. The Production guy then sat down on the Floor with me and looked at every page I had and critiqued every one. His suggestions all made a lot of sense and he offered encouragement, although he felt I wasn't quite ready yet. Oddly enough, I hadn't heard of the guys on Swamp Thing yet, even though they'd been on it for a year by then. It was a few months later when I had returned home before I thought to try out an issue. Back then I was a Wrightson snob who felt anyone other than Bernie was an insult. Boy was I wrong. In a serendipitous sort of way, the first issue I tried had the very full page splash in it that Bissette had been madly working on at the show. I spent months tracking down all the issues I had missed..... been a true fan of those guys ever since. GOD BLESS...

 

-jimbo(a friend of jesus) (thumbs u

Edited by jimjum12
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I remember watching Bissette pencil that page and noticing how dark the pencils were..... they could almost have shot the stats from the pencils. He's a real interesting fellow.... for some reason, he accepted my "friend" request on Facebook and the once a month or so that I actually go there I always look forward to what he's got to say. I'm not sure about exactly when it was that I met him at that Con, but sometime around then he had taken a lengthy working vacation down to the Louisiana Bayou, and his work really really evolved after that. There are a lot of well done books from that period, the Byrne FFs, Simonson Thor, Newton and Colan Batman books, Perez Titans..... so competition was stiff.... but those three guys recognized the opportunity to take the title to the boundaries of Fine Art..... such beautiful compelling stuff. I eventually took Totleben's advice and enrolled in the Kubert School where I learned a lot. I wasn't fortunate enough to get Kubert as an instructor but saw him every day. I was lucky enough to get quarters at "The Mansion"..... which was this old three story Victorian home that used to be the Kubert family residence.... turned into the Men's Dorm. In the basement was a pentagram painted on the floor that supposedly turned up mysteriously a couple years before I got there.... Joe thought it was funny and left it there. GOD BLESS...

 

-jimbo(a friend of jesus) (thumbs u

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I hear ya Jimbo, a lot of great material got put out around that time. I remember after taking a break from comics during high school till I started art school, I wandered into a comic shop to see what was new in the comic world and stumbled onto these. The Swamp Thing with King Arthur's castle on his back especially had me intrigued. I was hooked back in rather quickly! :)

 

Second.jpg

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This was a long time ago...... but I had gone to NYC with a suitcase full of my art to get a critique from professionals..... I was pretty good I thought. There was a convention that weekend and while walking the room I saw this table with three very interesting looking fellows with a D.C. logo behind them. One was furiously drawing away on an actual page. Turned out he was Steve Bissette. The other two were John Totleben and a chap with hair down to his arse named Alan Moore. They must've been in some sort of deadline crunch, as there was a D.C. employee from the Production Department in the wings. Totleben looked at my stuff and said I had promise..... suggested the Kubert School where he had gone. The Production guy then sat down on the Floor with me and looked at every page I had and critiqued every one. His suggestions all made a lot of sense and he offered encouragement, although he felt I wasn't quite ready yet. Oddly enough, I hadn't heard of the guys on Swamp Thing yet, even though they'd been on it for a year by then. It was a few months later when I had returned home before I thought to try out an issue. Back then I was a Wrightson snob who felt anyone other than Bernie was an insult. Boy was I wrong. In a serendipitous sort of way, the first issue I tried had the very full page splash in it that Bissette had been madly working on at the show. I spent months tracking down all the issues I had missed..... been a true fan of those guys ever since. GOD BLESS...

 

-jimbo(a friend of jesus) (thumbs u

 

Do we get to see any of the art you were trying to show off?

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This was a long time ago...... but I had gone to NYC with a suitcase full of my art to get a critique from professionals..... I was pretty good I thought. There was a convention that weekend and while walking the room I saw this table with three very interesting looking fellows with a D.C. logo behind them. One was furiously drawing away on an actual page. Turned out he was Steve Bissette. The other two were John Totleben and a chap with hair down to his arse named Alan Moore. They must've been in some sort of deadline crunch, as there was a D.C. employee from the Production Department in the wings. Totleben looked at my stuff and said I had promise..... suggested the Kubert School where he had gone. The Production guy then sat down on the Floor with me and looked at every page I had and critiqued every one. His suggestions all made a lot of sense and he offered encouragement, although he felt I wasn't quite ready yet. Oddly enough, I hadn't heard of the guys on Swamp Thing yet, even though they'd been on it for a year by then. It was a few months later when I had returned home before I thought to try out an issue. Back then I was a Wrightson snob who felt anyone other than Bernie was an insult. Boy was I wrong. In a serendipitous sort of way, the first issue I tried had the very full page splash in it that Bissette had been madly working on at the show. I spent months tracking down all the issues I had missed..... been a true fan of those guys ever since. GOD BLESS...

 

-jimbo(a friend of jesus) (thumbs u

 

Do we get to see any of the art you were trying to show off?

 

I lost most of it in a house fire, along with my first comic collection :flamed: The piece I miss the most was a huge pen and ink rendering of a Tibetan monastery with a winding foot path leading to it with a supplicant heading that way. I actually had one comic published with my art and lettering...... it was painfully mediocre and made me realize that the best I'd ever be was a hack..... I could do excellent work, just not fast enough. GOD BLESS...

 

-jimbo(a friend of jesus) (thumbs u

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I'm 14 books away from a complete run of #16 (the first of the Bissette/Totleben run, though Totleben also worked on #10)through #64 in 9.8 SS.

 

I'm missing #40, #42, #51, #52, #58, and #61 from the run entirely, but that's because I haven't been able to hand 9.8 quality copies to Mr. T or the others yet.

 

http://comics.www.collectors-society.com/registry/comics/PeopleSetDetail.aspx?PeopleSetID=92145

 

 

 

I'm 14 books away from a complete run of #16 (the first of the Bissette/Totleben run, though Totleben also worked on #10)through #64 in 9.8 SS.

 

I'm missing #40, #42, #51, #52, #58, and #61 from the run entirely, but that's because I haven't been able to hand 9.8 quality copies to Mr. T or the others yet.

 

http://comics.www.collectors-society.com/registry/comics/PeopleSetDetail.aspx?PeopleSetID=92145

 

 

So should I pull my copies of #40, #42, #51, #52, #58, and #61? hm

 

I have them somewhere. The #40 is tough, because the printer roller smeared a great deal of the run on the center of the spine. I don't know when/if Totleben is going to be around next, and I kinda don't want to get just his sig, if I can't get Bissette's and Veitch's as well.

 

I have a #58 and a #51, I just didn't have them in hand...the #61 I may not have, and all my #52s have a tiny CB spine tic on them.

 

If you think they're reasonable 9.8s, or 9.8s with a press, sure, why not?

 

I should post my run here.

 

PS...I posted last year that I was looking for 9.8 copies in the WTB section...

 

:D

 

I need:

 

#24

#26

#31

#33

#40

#42

#44 (Joel Elad had TWO copies, but both got 9.6. Cry.)

#51

#52

#58

#61

 

Oh, and my #16-19 are all 9.6. Not a single 9.8 did I get.

 

:whee:

 

It has come to my attention that these posts, particularly the last one, have been construed as requests to BUY these books.

 

They are not.

 

They were in the context of the discussion about my run in 9.8, and what I was missing.

 

They were not, in any way, requests to anyone to buy these. Nor were they "secret" requests, hidden in the context of a broader discussion.

 

But, upon further review, I can see how they would be seen as WTB requests by some...so I have edited them.

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