Brandon Shepherd Posted January 21, 2016 Share Posted January 21, 2016 My first Swamp Thing slab. From the American Gothic saga. I hope to add more cool Swamp covers to my slabbed and raw collection! Did you grab that one off eBay? I was eyeing that one for SS. I did, the price dropped and I couldn't resist. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
RockMyAmadeus Posted January 21, 2016 Share Posted January 21, 2016 My first Swamp Thing slab. From the American Gothic saga. I hope to add more cool Swamp covers to my slabbed and raw collection! Did you grab that one off eBay? I was eyeing that one for SS. I did, the price dropped and I couldn't resist. That's what I get for not paying attention. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jimjum12 Posted January 23, 2016 Share Posted January 23, 2016 (edited) 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) Edited January 23, 2016 by jimjum12 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bronty Posted January 23, 2016 Share Posted January 23, 2016 Way cool Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Brandon Shepherd Posted January 23, 2016 Share Posted January 23, 2016 Jimbo, great story! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bosco685 Posted January 23, 2016 Share Posted January 23, 2016 Thanks for sharing such a cool experience. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Brandon Shepherd Posted January 23, 2016 Share Posted January 23, 2016 This thread is now one of my favorite stops, just saying! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jimjum12 Posted January 23, 2016 Share Posted January 23, 2016 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) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jayman Posted January 23, 2016 Share Posted January 23, 2016 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! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Phantalien Posted January 25, 2016 Share Posted January 25, 2016 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) Do we get to see any of the art you were trying to show off? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jimjum12 Posted January 25, 2016 Share Posted January 25, 2016 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) 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 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) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
RockMyAmadeus Posted January 25, 2016 Share Posted January 25, 2016 So, I decided to post these... Can't find my 16, but it's also a 9.6 SS signed by Yeates and Tot, I think. Didn't get a single 9.8 on the "pre-Moore" issues. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
RockMyAmadeus Posted January 25, 2016 Share Posted January 25, 2016 The only pre-Moore I'm missing is #10 which, oddly enough, I didn't even know John inked until this year! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
RockMyAmadeus Posted January 25, 2016 Share Posted January 25, 2016 Here's....Moore! This is the only SS 9.8 I've gotten, out of ELEVEN TRIES (and one of those was a cracked 9.8 blue that I re-subbed TWICE after adding sigs. Sigh.) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jimjum12 Posted January 25, 2016 Share Posted January 25, 2016 ....nothing can touch the Moore run, but those first 19 are some of the best bargains in comics..... GOD BLESS... -jimbo(a friend of jesus) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
IntoAnother Posted January 25, 2016 Share Posted January 25, 2016 Absolute beauties RMA Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Brandon Shepherd Posted January 25, 2016 Share Posted January 25, 2016 Nice books, RMA! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
RockMyAmadeus Posted January 25, 2016 Share Posted January 25, 2016 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
RockMyAmadeus Posted January 26, 2016 Share Posted January 26, 2016 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? 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... 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. 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. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jessebrook1 Posted January 30, 2016 Share Posted January 30, 2016 My small but growing Swamp collection Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
