Tell us a C-R-A-Z-Y comic story 4 4

[VintageComics]

On 12/17/2023 at 6:36 PM, Phicks said:

Back in the mid to late 80s, when Frank Miller mania was in full swing thanks to Daredevil and The Dark Knight Returns, I was in a comic store in London, Ontario, and saw all 4 issues of Ronin on the wall.  I asked to examine them, they were in good shape, the price was reasonable, and I said I’ll take them.

As the middle aged woman proprietor was ringing them through and putting them in a bag, she let out a big sigh, and said “ It’s so sad.   We put together this run of all 4 issues for a local dad who knew nothing about comics, but his son who was in hospital really wanted them, so he asked us to find all 4 issues.  We just called him to say we had a complete set, and he said his son had died, so we could sell them to someone else.”

So reading every single page was haunted by the image of some teenager slowly dying in hospital.  Thanks lady, thanks.

 

Man, on the bright side the books went to someone who appreciated them. 

Edited December 18, 2023 by VintageComics

[Cat]

On 12/18/2023 at 11:13 AM, Ken Aldred said:

Looks like I’ve led a sheltered life over here in England, without any of these shotguns, attack dogs, chained sweat shop workers or martial arts assailants.

Quite mundane.

You've never bought books off @Get Marwood & I I take it? 

[Namtak]

There was crazy story about a cat who hates monday and love lasagna!

But im pretty sure you already know that one

[thehumantorch]

We had a guy come by our booth at local shows for a few years.  He bought a few nice SA books off us and I figured he was just getting into collecting or back into collecting.  He asked us to come look at his collection, not to buy it but just to tell him what we thought.  He lives an hour from us on a farm but we love to look at collections and know what's out there so we went.

Drove by his farm a few times before we found the right driveway.  Went down into his basement and he had about 30 boxes, mostly SA starting around 1965 and a smattering of BA.  His dad would take him to town and give him a quarter to buy comics while he bought supplies.  He must have been an unusual young man because all his books are mint and looked unread.  He doesn't have internet and goes to the library in a near by town for internet access but he's essentially clueless as to values.  His Silver Surfer run is glorious, the #1 and #4 are 9.6 to 9.8.  He had a odds and ends box and there's a perfect Marvel Spotlight 5 sitting there, he had no idea it was worth anything.  @Artboy99 what did you grade that book at?  It's just a beautiful original owner collection sitting in the basement of an old farm house.

[RockMyAmadeus]

On 12/17/2023 at 3:36 PM, Phicks said:

Back in the mid to late 80s, when Frank Miller mania was in full swing thanks to Daredevil and The Dark Knight Returns, I was in a comic store in London, Ontario, and saw all 4 issues of Ronin on the wall.  I asked to examine them, they were in good shape, the price was reasonable, and I said I’ll take them.

As the middle aged woman proprietor was ringing them through and putting them in a bag, she let out a big sigh, and said “ It’s so sad.   We put together this run of all 4 issues for a local dad who knew nothing about comics, but his son who was in hospital really wanted them, so he asked us to find all 4 issues.  We just called him to say we had a complete set, and he said his son had died, so we could sell them to someone else.”

So reading every single page was haunted by the image of some teenager slowly dying in hospital.  Thanks lady, thanks.

 

 

[lizards2]

On 12/17/2023 at 7:41 PM, RockMyAmadeus said:

 

I was going to say, I just mailed all 6 issues to my son in Alaska....., 

[shadroch]

It was December 1976, and the week of my 18th birthday.  I'd gone to the Creation Thanksgiving show a few weeks before and couldn't afford a FF1 like I'd been planning to buy. My friend Louie and I hit the few places on Long Island that sold back issues, looking for one.  Heroes World had just opened, and they had a nice FF1, but it was twice what it should be. Another shop had none, but the third shop had a handful of the GRR reprints for $5 each.  I bought three- FF, Avengers 4, and JIM 83.  To my surprise, Louie buys a copy of the FF one. He doesn't collect comics, but he says it reminded him of something.                                                                                                                                                             A couple of nights later, my fraternity had a big party for my birthday, and Louie gave me a copy of FF1 as a present.  He tells me that when he saw the reprint in the shop, it dawned on him that his brother had one.  I tell him it is too expensive, and he says his brother paid a nickel for it. I am proud of my FF1 and began looking for a #2, a tough book in those days.    A few weeks later, I went into Heroes World, and I noticed the FF1 was still there.  I looked at a couple of back issues, but they didn't have a #2 and were very expensive.  I glanced at the FF 1 and was surprised to see that it isn't the original but a GRR reprint.  Someone had switched out the original for a GRR and stolen the book.           I was halfway home before I put all the pieces together.                                                                                                  

Edited December 18, 2023 by shadroch

[Gaard]

On 12/17/2023 at 11:47 PM, shadroch said:

It was December 1976, and the week of my 18th birthday.  I'd gone to the Creation Thanksgiving show a few weeks before and couldn't afford a FF1 like I'd been planning to buy. My friend Louie and I hit the few places on Long Island that sold back issues.  Heroes World had just opened, and they had a nice FF1, but it was twice what it should be.  another shop had none, but the third shop had a handful of the GRR reprints for $5 each.  I bought three- FF, Avengers 4, and JIM 83.  To my surprise, Louie buys a copy of the FF one. He doesn't collect comics, but he says it reminded him of something.                                                                                                          A couple of nights later, they had a big party for my birthday, and Louie gave me a copy of FF1 as a present.  He tells me that when he saw the reprint in the shop, it dawned on him that his brother had one.  I tell him it is much too expensive, and he says his brother paid a nickel for it. I am proud of my FF1 and began looking for a #2, which was a tough book in those days.    A few weeks later, I go into the Heroes World and I notice the FF1 is still there.  I looked at a couple of back issues, but they didn't have a #2, and they were very expensive.  I glanced at the FF 1 and was surprised to see it isn't the original; it is a GRR reprint.  Someone had switched out the original for a GRR and stolen the book.    I was halfway home before I put all the pieces together.                                                                                                  

That's a good friend.

[Cat]

On 12/18/2023 at 2:47 PM, shadroch said:

It was December 1976, and the week of my 18th birthday.  I'd gone to the Creation Thanksgiving show a few weeks before and couldn't afford a FF1 like I'd been planning to buy. My friend Louie and I hit the few places on Long Island that sold back issues.  Heroes World had just opened, and they had a nice FF1, but it was twice what it should be.  another shop had none, but the third shop had a handful of the GRR reprints for $5 each.  I bought three- FF, Avengers 4, and JIM 83.  To my surprise, Louie buys a copy of the FF one. He doesn't collect comics, but he says it reminded him of something.                                                                                                          A couple of nights later, they had a big party for my birthday, and Louie gave me a copy of FF1 as a present.  He tells me that when he saw the reprint in the shop, it dawned on him that his brother had one.  I tell him it is much too expensive, and he says his brother paid a nickel for it. I am proud of my FF1 and began looking for a #2, which was a tough book in those days.    A few weeks later, I go into the Heroes World and I notice the FF1 is still there.  I looked at a couple of back issues, but they didn't have a #2, and they were very expensive.  I glanced at the FF 1 and was surprised to see it isn't the original; it is a GRR reprint.  Someone had switched out the original for a GRR and stolen the book.    I was halfway home before I put all the pieces together.                                                                                                  

If any of my boardie friends wish to gift me a FF #1 you are more than welcome to. Multiples of you, even. I promise I won't say no. 

[SeniorSurfer]

On 12/16/2023 at 2:41 PM, fmaz said:

I’ve told this story here before, so for those who’ve read it previously… my apologies.  But when someone says “crazy comics story” this is kind of like Bettejuice, it just automatically gets told.  In fact, my wife seems to encourage me to tell it to people in order to prove how crazy I am (whereas I always assume meeting me should be sufficient — go figure).

Anyhoo….

About 15 years ago I responded to a Craigslist ad about a comic collection for sale. It was a neighboring town to ours. Slightly more rural, but still mostly a suburban, affluent Massachusetts town. Connected with the seller and he seemed nice enough. He said he had like 1,000 books or so, he had no idea what he had but he just wanted to move them. Sounded pretty good so I took the address and we agreed I’d come over as soon as I could.

Well as luck would have it, the next day (I believe) I just happened to have had some meetings out of the office after lunch and didn’t have a game that night (I worked in college athletics) so I worked from home the rest of the day… so since I was home I just figured the sooner the better and headed over.

I had his directions (pre GPS) and found his street with ease. Big, beautiful homes as I expected. But I drove down the street and couldn’t find his house. So I got to the end, turned back and drove it again more slowly, and noticed that tucked among all the mini-mansions, set back on a hill was this Adams Family looking rundown “every horror movie house you’ve ever seen in your life” looking place. With no number, of course.  Which absolutely was the house.

And it then started to rain.

So I drive up this steep driveway and park at the top. The house does NOT get better looking up close, and as I sit in my car for 30 seconds deciding what to do, this man emerges FROM BEHIND THE HOUSE and comes running towards the car.

”Hi, hi!” He says. “You here for the comics?”

I nodded (still in my car)

”Great, come on!” He then waved, and disappeared BACK BEHIND THE HOUSE

So yes, I got out of the car, in the rain, and walked behind the Adams Family house…

Where, there was this beautiful veranda, and his wonderful wife and two kids. And he had 10 long boxes of high grade SA books and we sat and had tea and cookies and laughed and laughed….

Yeah, no. 

I walked behind the house to see him vanish down a storm cellar.

For those not from New England, a storm cellar is a pair of gray, creaky metal doors in the back of your home that lead down into a windowless underground bunker beneath your house.

So I walked over to the open doors, and looked down into the darkness, and heard his voice call up - “I’m down here!”

I paused, again, in the rain, for what felt like an hour and then walked down.  But before I did, I remember the EXACT thought that went through my head:

”Huh. So this is how I die.”

The guy ended up being perfectly nice, albeit kinda creepy. The books were ok - I mean they were stored in a musty New England storm cellar for years. I think I ended up buying liked $50 worth of stuff. There was a nice copy of ASM #238, that is literally the only highlight I remember - other than the fact that I made it home alive and with all my organs.

Oh and it was absolutely my final Craigslist transaction ever.

 

Reminds me of the scene in "Goodfellas" where De Niro continually beckons to Lorraine Bracco to enter this dark warehouse and she runs away, suspecting he's trying to kill her.  Clearly no comics in the warehouse too I bet.

[shadroch]

It was 1988, and I had my shop in Uniondale.  A storefront across the street from mine housed Gallo Pewter, a company that made nice pewter fantasy pieces, which are highly collected today. Some items started around $20 and some cost hundreds of dollars, but it wasn't open to the public.. I'd been trying to get him to consign some inventory, but the owner was set in his ways.  Two of his employees were brothers with a nice comic collection who became regular customers of mine.   They kept working on getting the owner to consign stuff to me, but it wasn't going well.

A big convention in Manhattan was coming up, and a friend who had a table couldn't make it asked if I wanted it.  I'd found I made out better doing the smaller shows, as NYC shows were expensive.  Somehow, the two brothers and I convinced their boss to front us a vast inventory. It was well over $5,000 and maybe double that.   It is a three-day show, and each of us works two days.   I didn't know the brothers well, and it wasn't long before I noticed that the one had a serious coke habit.  We started wearing on each other, tensions were high when the show ended, and we were back in my shop.  We split the money up and took an inventory.  We'd sold over $4,000 stuff at a cost of half, plus a couple hundred in expenses, so we each made about $300 for the two days.  Good, but not great money in 1988.    The brother is in a good mood and trying to lighten the atmosphere when B. goes ballistic over something. If not for his brother, we'd have come to blows. He says something that sets me off, and we both yell at each other, but he's on a different level.  He tells me to go F myself, how he'll never set foot in the store again, and so on.  I tell him to get out, and he's banned for life.  They leave, and I'm all amped up.  

I cleaned up the beers we'd opened and saw a bag on a chair. I opened it, and it was the owner's share of the money, some $2,000.  On my desk, I have a signed receipt from B, acknowledging that he'd received all the cash due to Gallo and the remaining merchandise. Knowing they couldn't be home yet, I called their house and left a message that they had forgotten something and they could pick it up the next afternoon.

B came in the next day, all sheepish and apologetic.  He stayed on as a customer, but our friendship never recovered.  His brother became a t-shirt designer and did most of the ECW shirts before working for the WWE for several years.

Edited December 18, 2023 by shadroch

[Ken Aldred]

On 12/18/2023 at 12:38 PM, SeniorSurfer said:

Reminds me of the scene in "Goodfellas" where De Niro continually beckons to Lorraine Bracco to enter this dark warehouse and she runs away, suspecting he's trying to kill her.  Clearly no comics in the warehouse too I bet.

Wonder how Chuck felt the first time he descended into Edgar Church’s basement?

[lostboys]

 

 

I traded a pack of  grape "Now And Laters" for a Wolverine #1 (reg series) back in 1989, when I was 12.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[SeniorSurfer]

On 12/18/2023 at 12:48 PM, Ken Aldred said:

Wonder how Chuck felt the first time he descended into Edgar Church’s basement?

To hear him tell it (and tell it he does over the span of 17 back-slapping pages) he was able to see stacks of comics even from the top of the stairs with the piles increasing as he descended.  In his words:  "... by the time I reached the bottom of the stairs, I was very, very excited."  (https://www.milehighcomics.com/tales/cbg13.html).  Of course that was probably nothing to the feeling he got when later they steered him to a walk-in closet also filled to the rafters and insisting he had to "clean it out" too.

[Artboy99]

On 12/17/2023 at 8:35 PM, thehumantorch said:

We had a guy come by our booth at local shows for a few years.  He bought a few nice SA books off us and I figured he was just getting into collecting or back into collecting.  He asked us to come look at his collection, not to buy it but just to tell him what we thought.  He lives an hour from us on a farm but we love to look at collections and know what's out there so we went.

Drove by his farm a few times before we found the right driveway.  Went down into his basement and he had about 30 boxes, mostly SA starting around 1965 and a smattering of BA.  His dad would take him to town and give him a quarter to buy comics while he bought supplies.  He must have been an unusual young man because all his books are mint and looked unread.  He doesn't have internet and goes to the library in a near by town for internet access but he's essentially clueless as to values.  His Silver Surfer run is glorious, the #1 and #4 are 9.6 to 9.8.  He had a odds and ends box and there's a perfect Marvel Spotlight 5 sitting there, he had no idea it was worth anything.  @Artboy99 what did you grade that book at?  It's just a beautiful original owner collection sitting in the basement of an old farm house.

That Marvel Spotlight was at least a 9.4

[Pitboss]

On 12/18/2023 at 12:25 PM, lostboys said:

 

 

I traded a pack of  grape "Now And Laters" for a Wolverine #1 (reg series) back in 1989, when I was 12.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Those things could pull teeth!

[KCOComics]

@VintageComics you mentioned Oregon has been a hot bed for illicit comic activity? 

Any crazy stories to share for those of us not in the know? 

[KCOComics]

 

I really don't have a story that compares to the ones we've read here.  

About ten years ago, I slept in my car outside of New England comics to get first crack at a big collection they bought. I ended up getting my copy of X-Men 1 that day. 

I also waited outside the store and chatted for several hours with Bechara Maalouf. For those not familiar with him,  he's a well known original art dealer.  

[s-man]

Alright, I'll bite with my craziest:

A few summers back, I decided to drive east from Western MA out toward Boston and hit a bunch of comic shops I had never been to.  The day was bright and warm as I started out and the trip itself uneventful.  The shops I visited ranged from fairly big with good inventory, too small and cramped.  I decided to buy at least one thing from each shop, hoping to find a real nice nugget at one of them.

About halfway through my trip I stopped at one of the too small and cramped shops and went inside.  There was one guy inside and he gave me a pleasant enough greeting.  The shop was dimly lit and held little knick knack type items more than anything else.  As I started perusing the tiny shop, the guy didn't say anything, just kind of stood in the corner near the door.  I started looking through some loose wacky package cards and could feel his eyes on me.  It was a down right creepy feeling.  I decided to purchase the cards and was walking towards him when I noticed that he had locked the door.  I calmly walked over and paid him for the cards, then walked to the door and unlocked it and left.  He never said a word.

All I could think of later was that scene from pulp fiction with the two guys ending up in Zed's basement.  Needless to say, I never back to that shop.

[Mutant Manatee]

On 12/18/2023 at 10:42 PM, KCOComics said:

 

I really don't have a story that compares to the ones we've read here.  

About ten years ago, I slept in my car outside of New England comics to get first crack at a big collection they bought. I ended up getting my copy of X-Men 1 that day. 

I also waited outside the store and chatted for several hours with Bechara Maalouf. For those not familiar with him,  he's a well known original art dealer.  

I bought my super low grade ASM #1 from him.  

 

Edited December 19, 2023 by Mutant Manatee