Wondercon, Post your Reports, AND LETS MAKE THEM GOOD!

[FFB]

My con report:

 

Friday: Went to lunch with JBud at a Hunan restaurant. The third time Jason mentioned that he didn't get to eat Thai food that often, I realized that he thought that "Hunan" meant "Thai." I explained to him that it was Chinese food.

 

Took a cab to the Con to pick up a badge and look around. Went to John Dolmayan's booth (he's the drummer for System of a Down) and checked out his awesome display. He had some killer stuff and Matt Nelson and Vinny Z. were buying books there. I chatted with Matt Nelson for a bit and looked at John's Marvel Comics #1 CGC 9.0 Extensive (P). A gorgeous book with some nicely done work. It was priced very aggressively at $90K, but was definitely a sweet book to look at. I also checked out the aforementioned (maybe in another thread) Flash Comics #1 CGC 9.0 Slight (P) and the other two Flash Comics #1s that he had there. His golden age selection was like looking at Metro's booth. Just plain killer. He had a lot of other sweet silver and bronze age stuff that he sells at a discount. Nice guy too.

 

Walked by the CGC table where I said hi to Kevin Boyd, Shawn Caffery, Harshen, Steve Borock, Chris Moore, Jim M., Jeff Li, and David D. We hung out and chatted for a bit about various things like Frank Miller sig series and other stuff.

 

Went around to some other booths, said hi to Harley, Ron Murry, Chris W., and Brent Moeshlin. Stopped by Marc Newman's booth at houseofcomics.com and shot the breeze for a bit. Listened to a lot of dealer complaints about the setup this year, which took forever because of poor ingress and organization by the con officials. Con sales seemed slow except for dealer-to-dealer sales. I went over to Sergio Aragones' booth and bought a TPB and had him do a sign and sketch, like I usually do. I love Sergio, because after all these years he still has a ton of enthusiasm and is just plain funny and loves to please his fans. He did a great Groo sketch on a T shirt that another woman brought up for him and it just made her day. I headed back to work in the early evening and got a call from Jim M. who told me that a dealer had a nice selection of early silver age DCs (10 and 12 cent covers ) in high grade (9.0 to 9.6) with beautiful pages. Alas, Vinny Z. and Matt Nelson were buying them up. By the time I got there the next day, the good stuff was gone.

 

I made plans with Ron Murry, Jason, Jim M., Jeff Li, a CGC lurker named Patrick, and another collector Jeff G. to have dinner at a local German restaurant. Had a jaegerschnitzel that was some of the best German food I've had in my life (and I had two German grandmothers). We ate and drank beer until we were stuffed. No room for dessert and no one missed it. We had great conversations about collecting and non-collecting topics. Suffering from massive food coma, I went home and hung out with Liz, who was sick all week.

 

Went to the con the next day and spent most of the day at Ron Murry's booth hanging out and chatting. Ron Murry is one of the friendliest guys in comics. Lunch time was approaching and Ron had the idea to go to Whole Foods (gourmet supermarket nearby) to get some cheese, bread, crackers, salami, and wine and have a picnic lunch at his booth (which he shared with Mike Manyak, one of the original finders of the Tom Reilly/San Francisco pedigree collection). Just before lunch, I went to the booth of the guys who had the high grade DC silver age stuff to see how picked over it was. (Pretty picked over, but still some nice stuff in the 8.0-9.0 range.) I stopped by Redbeard's booth, looked at some Lost Valley copies and spent about a half hour talking to him and his wife about scuba diving. While there, I ran into the local collector who had purchased my FF#22 and FF#3 Winnipeg last year and we talked for a bit.

 

After that, Jeff G., Jeff Li, Jim M. and I went to Whole Foods and bought enough cheese, crackers, salami, beer, and wine for a royal feast. We went back to Ron Murry's and Mike M's booth and laid out a feast for all. We were having a great time eating, drinking, and talking comics. Several dealers came by to share in the food and drink and everyone was smiling and having a good time. This was the high point of the con for me. I spent most of the rest of the day hanging out with Ron and the others at the booth, did some looking around, and then it was time to get ready for the forum dinner.

 

The forum dinner was fun, although I have to admit that Buca di Beppo was not ideal. The restaurant bar was crowded and our table was far away from the bar so it was tough to get a drink. The food was kind of "eh" but we all managed to have a good time anyway. My wife was still sick and couldn't make it, which was a real bummer for both of us because she really enjoys attending the forum dinners and didn't get to see all of the friends she wanted to see this weekend, and because I spent most of the evening worried about how she was doing. The nice part was that we managed to go all in (food, wine, tax, and tip) for $40 per person, which is about half of what it has cost in years past at Bob's Steak and Chop House. But the environment was not ideal for getting up and talking to various people (we were all sitting along a long table so you could only talk to the people near you and couldn't get up easily) so next year I'll probably shoot to have the event in the upstairs private room at Thirsty Bear or something similar where people can get up and mill around and get a drink without having to wait for a server.

 

After dinner, the remaining die hards met up at the Marriott and after unsuccessfully trying to get a drink at the Marriott bar (which closed at 11 p.m. ), we walked down the street to Thirsty Bear for a nightcap. At around midnight I had to head home to take care of Liz so I called it a relatively early night.

 

Sunday morning and early afternoon I spent hanging out with Liz because I hadn't really seen her all weekend and because there wasn't a lot of stuff at the Con that I hadn't checked out yet. By late afternoon, Liz was feeling well enough to go outside and there was still a little time left in the con so off we went. We went by a few tables so she could visit with people and I showed her around the rest of the floor. I stopped to buy a couple of Fables TPBs and chatted a bit with Brent M. and Vinny Z. I ran into Mike Carbonaro who had been looking at a low grade Amazing Fantasy #15 that I had displayed at Marc N.'s booth and made a deal with Mike to sell him the book. Then we went back to Ron Murry's table and planned dinner. Steve B. was off doing some work but wanted to meet up for dinner later that night. We wound up going to dinner with Steve B. and Brent Moeshlin at Ana Mandara, which is Don Johnson's restaurant in Ghirardelli Square. It's a really beautiful place and the food is not bad either. We had a great time catching up and talking about comic and non-comic stuff. It was really nice to hang out with and spend some quality (pun intended ) time getting to know Brent a little better. A nicer guy you will not meet. After dinner, we dropped off Brent and went back to the Marriott to have a final drink with Steve. We closed down the bar and then it was time to head home.

[Foolkiller]

nice report Scott.

[CW]

Yikes I am still recovering.

Thurs: I arrived at about 2pm to pick up my dealer packet and get in line to off load the car. This year they weren't moving the cars and trucks in like last year. Some people got into the loading docks but most of the guys I know ended up in a line around the block. The union boys could only unpack like 3 cars at a time so everyone had to wait. Fortunately I noticed my buddy Steve M. of Colossus Comics was in front of me in line so everytime we stopped for the 15 min. intervals between movement, Steve, his dealer friend, and I would talk shop. We spent the next 3 hours doing this until it was our turn in line. After I had set up and said hello to my neighbor Ron Murry (Great Guy and one of the first people I met as a collector), and all of the other familiar faces nearby; it was time to drive back to my hometown of Burlingame about 20 miles south of the show.

Fri: The show started off with a shudder rather than a roar as far as business goes. On the bright side when the show is slow I get to sneak out to artists alley and leave my booth in the hands of my helper. I found Mike Mayhew sitting by himself finishing a sketch for another fan and managed to talk him into a 3 day commission piece on 11x17 Bristol. He is one of the nicest guys I have ever met. We talked for a while and upon getting him started I returned to my booth with instructions to come by Sunday. Jbud was the first board member to come by the booth. It is always good to talk to J. He is a heck of a good guy and he has great taste in comics and related.

As sales slowly started to pick up Ron Murry and I continued to exchange witty banter with one another. Can't remember much more about the day so I'll move on to Sat.

Sat: I can't remember if it was Fri or Sat that the rest of the board gang showed up. Jim, Jeff,and Scott(FFB) came by and very nicely let me ramble(not for the 1st or last time that day) for a while and shared with me some of the very cool stuff they got including Jim's Kirby page (WOW) and Scott's Scuba covered Frank Miller book from way back when his art looked like every other artist I loved it. At some point the fire marshal closed the doors but I was having such a good time I didn't notice until the very end of the lock down. Saw Wormboy and Marc of HOC both looked to be having a blast. Marc's booth was busy everytime I walked by. I met THE BRAIN, always fun to meet a board member, we walked and talked for about 15 mins and I have to say I enjoyed every minute of it. You may be wondering how much time I spent in my booth and the answer is not enough. Steve B. and the rest of the CGC crew were right behind my booth and Steve came by several times. I would like to publicly thank Steve for spending much of his time answering my newbie dealer questions and giving a young punk like myself the time of day. He is just about the most enthusiastic collector I have ever met and one of the nicest too. Keep it up Steve!!!

Sun: same old stuff. Talked, Laughed and had a great time. At about 1pm after talking to one of my heroes Russ Heath and returning to my booth I was surprised to see Mike Mayhew. He and ,I assume, his wife (both very nice) were leaving and he had come to give me my piece. It is beautiful, I will try to get a pic up later. He even came behind the booth and posed for a pic with me and the art. He is a real class act. I got my first print first issue Cherry Poptart from Jim1968 another great guy and had a blast talking to my LCS owner Lee Hester ( A guy I am proud to have as a friend and an LCS owner).

 

Again: thanks to all the board members, sorry I missed the dinner, thanks to CGC, thanks to the great dealers, and I will be there next year for sure.

 

-CW

[jbud73]

Short Version = I bought a lot of comic books

 

Long Version = See below. (I have way too many pics and scans to post them all here - the page would never load. Just hit the links as you go along to view pics)

 

Opening kudos to Marc from House of Comics for getting me an Exhibitor Pass and letting me call HOC home base throughout the Con - thanks Marc and Beth. Ditto, Kudos to Jeffreykli and his wife Melissa for putting out the welcome mat in San Fran.

 

I drove up Thursday for Monterey and checked in to Casa del Li talked about the Con and did some last minute research and got some rest, it was gonna be a busy weekend.

 

FRIDAY: Hit the Con Floor around 9:30 dealers were still setting up - as others have commented, they were a bit peeved with the delay getting in on Thursday and many were still far from being ready by the time I got there. Initial impressions - seemed like the venue was smaller by a tad than Moscone South last year, I think this would be apparent Saturday when the Fire Marshal slowed up the people moving into the Con.

 

Went on my Initial sweep to see what dealers were there and who had what. Others have already mentioned Torpedo comics and the Amazing set up of books at their booth. Even more to the point is owner John Dolmayan's extremely professional service and just all around good vibe. Was great to meet him and chit chat about books, ended up buying quite a few things from John including this beauty Strange Adventures 207. Next stop were a few of my fav dealers from the NorCal area, Heroes and Comic Collector Shop. Both had some high quality new stuff in and I nabbed a few High Grade Bronze Marvels from both.

 

By this time Marc from House of Comics was getting to his booth to start setting up. Gave him a hand with the Wall set up and then he showed me a book that he had brought to the show for me to check out. My Jaw dropped when I saw the copy of Marvel Spotlight 2 and we settled on a price. Great book definitely one of the nicest copies I've seen - a keeper.

 

By this time the rush was on - 2 hours until the general public got in and I still had some shopping to do. Along the way I got introduced to Flying Donut - it was nice to finally meet Dan, by this time he was almost done shopping, having picked up some killer GA books. I cannot stress enough how much of an advantage it is to get in Thursday, or early Friday. Tom Brulato, Vinny for Metro, Matt Nelson, etc etc were all pounding the pavement scooping up great books. It may be unfortunate, but this is the nature of the beast and a lot of killer books are never ever seen by the public by the time the doors open.

 

Popped into CW (Chris') booth, he was just finalizing his wall books and I took a funny pick of him clowning around before the doors opening. CW Slab Worthy?? Just down the road was my another one of my favorite CA dealers Mr. Ron Murray. Again I know others have touched on this but Ron is a great guy and great for the hobby. He's got great books from all ages and genre's and is often more worried about where everyone's going for dinner and drinks then selling you a comic book haha. Lucky for me he is known to sell books on occasion, including the Monterey copy of Superman 233 - great book, I always like to bring the Monterey Books back to their original resting place Monterey Supes 233 Scan As Scott has said Ron's booth was the place to be for joking around, chit chat and an impromptu wine and cheese .

 

On to Red Beard's books. Mr. Pussell always has some great books and this time was no exception. Got a nice bunch of 20 cent Thors from him - I've never failed to buy a book from Red Beard at any show he's set up at. I hit a few more dealers that usually have great stock and are a pleasure to deal with including: Terry's Comics, Steve Wyatt, Koops and Harley Yee. Stopped by the CGC booth and got intro's to Kevin Boyd and the collector. Also ran into WormBoy a few times, who has without a doubt the world's smallest comic list. Its like 300 books on a 2" square piece of paper.

 

After the general public got in I kinda chilled out and met up with FFB for lunch at a great Thai food place

 

Dinner festivities for friday were arranged by Ron Murray and 7? of us went to a great German Restaurant close by. The group included: Me, FFB, Jimm94, Ron Murray, Jeff (the collector who sold Ian the Adventure Comics issue to finish his run - we all thanked him, I even put in an absentee thank you from Deathlock ) and Patrick who had some killer books and was set up at Ron and Mike's booth.

 

Links to Friday Dinner Pics.

Group Pic

 

jimm94 and Ron Murray

 

FFB Sporting the Power Tie - thats right he bashed me and I complement his Tie

 

I then proceeded to drop Jimm94 off at his car just as Supapimp rang. Went out with Supa to a few trendy bars in SF, got smashed, went back to Jeff's and passed out.

 

SATURDAY.

 

A little worse for wear I strolled into the Con around Noonish. IT WAS PACKED. Really didnt have any desire to rifle through boxes with the masses. Got a call from Garthgantu who had just hit the show floor. We usually go out for luch every year with Erik Larsen, however Erik was on a panel so Garth and I grabbed a bite and chit chatted about books for a while. Got back later in the day and it was still PACKED. Forumites were everywhere by this time, I spent the day shooting the with dealers and checking out what might be available for Sunday deals. Hit artists alley which was PACKED. By that time it was almost time for the CGC dinner and I got together with everyone and hit the restaurant.

 

The restaurant was PACKED. All in all it was ok, I thought the food was fine though I know Steve didnt share that opinion. I got to sit across from Flying and Mrs. Donut which was great, they are both very charming and I enjoyed the dinner a lot.

 

Forum Dinner Pics

 

Table pic

 

HOC, FFB and ME

 

Jeff Li and Paris Fred

 

Jeff, Jim and Steve

 

Steve

 

WormBoy and Steve

 

Steve was definitely in fine form as always - this years gathering was a bit smaller than last year, but always new faces and a good time is had by all. As Scott has said a few of us went out for more drinks after dinner.

 

After Dinner Drink picks.

 

Steve and Ron

 

Group Photo

 

SUNDAY

 

I usually try to chill out on Sunday and get a sketch or two. I came in with the mind set that I was done buying - I should have known better. I pretty much blame CW for it as in the course of a conversation he said lets go check out artists alley. mark Texeria was there and I had said that I wanted to get a sketch but it had slipped my mind. Well Tex was packed and there was no way that was going to happen. However he was set up next to Garza. CW starts flipping through some pages and sure enough I lock onto some Batgirl pages featuring Deathstroke. Chris takes off saying he needs to get back in his booth - sure enough I come away with a few pages . Garza Deathstroke Pages By the time I got back CW had his own Commission with him and I took a shot - killer stuff. Mayhew Sketch

 

Ah I knew I had forgotten something.... Late Saturday I had come across Quality Comics booth, not sure how I missed Brent's booth as he had some killer stuff with him. After bugging him about the rarity of the 7-10 ASM 129's he had in his possession I spied a SSWS 151 and 154 -the only 2 high grade copies on the floor to my knowledge. By Sunday I was ready to make an offer, we agreed on a price and I was the proud new owner of some Killer DC War Books with awesome Kubert Covers. SSWS 151 and 154 Just like all the other dealers I bought from, Brent was a class act all the way - I wonder if that's a coincidence

 

The rest of Sunday was spent saying goodbye to new and old friends and loading up all the books I bought at the con. The vibe from some dealers was that the show had been dissapointing in terms of sales. My own vibe was a bit of disappointment over the general books available, it seemed to be for the most part stuff I's seen before. But at the end of the con I spent more money than at the previous 2 WonderCons and I had some killer books. So WonderCon 2006 really was a Contradiction for me.

 

OT: Got a call from Shin (sckao) and decided to stop by his place in Walnut Creek on the Way home. Got a chance to visit with Shin and his wife Lisa - Shin hadn't set up this year and even though he was at dinner and breifly attended the Con I hadn't really chatted with his all that much. Had a fun time going through his huge stock of books 100,000 plus. Got some great books from Shin including some THOR Green Rivers

 

Finally made it home to Monterey at close to Midnight. What a weekend.

[rampart6-migration]

Nice comprehensive reports. I actually had one of the most enjoyable cons in years due to the fact that I was able to meet several outsatnding board members through introductions from Ron Murry and his 5 star Wondercon cafe. After meeting such great folks (FFB, jbud, Jimm94, CW) I'm tempted to stop lurking and try to contribute to the community here. And, as stated above, the German food was indeed spectacular.

 

-rampart6

[SignatureSelect]

Excellent con lots of signature series lots of sketches and I got a few sketches for the 3 minute sketch book also. I will post my full report later but it is 2 in the morning and I am tired for now.

[Red Hook]

Great report jbud!

[burntboy]

Jason - excellent con report and thanks for all the great pics......... Red's gonna be jealous of those Thor's..............

[Jeffreykli]

Overall, Wondercon was great for socializing, not so great for books. Maybe it’s because I helped Shin (Sckao) set up at Wondercon last year, so I didn’t walk around that much, but the Con felt smaller to me than last year. Also, I went to San Diego last year, so saw many of the same great GA books.

 

Friday

 

Anyway, Jbud stayed with me for the weekend, and he was a kid in a candy store. He woke up early on Friday, raring to go to the Con. He couldn’t wait…it was Christmas morning for him. With the dealer pass, he got in early and was out of my hair around 9am. I worked from home until about 1pm, then Jimm94 picked me up and we were off to the Con.

 

First item of business: Drop off a CGC submission of moderns, economies, and my 3 collector society submissions. I subbed the Green River Superboy #125, so we’ll see what it comes back as.

 

Second item of business: Find Paris_Fred on the floor to give him more books from his wantlist. Fred has a wantlist of at least 20 pages long, and I love helping him knock off books for his customers. Luckily, Fred was at Harley’s table looking at great atomic age DC westerns, so I was able to shift the books to his backpack.

 

We then cruised around the floor saying hi to people, including Steve B, Supapimp, Felix (Nexus), wormboy, Ron Murray, Marc (House of comics), and thecollector. Felix set up in a corner booth, and wormboy saw Mark Waid walk by. Wormboy was too shy to call him over to sign a book, so Felix yelled “Mr. Waid!!” Mark was extremely nice, and gladly signed wormboy’s book.

 

After a brief tour, Jim and I went to get some lunch. Once fortified with food, we were ready to hit the floor and start digging through books. Friday was really nice because it wasn’t that crowded, and you had enough elbow room to look through stuff.

 

Marc and Beth of House of Comics brought a recently bought collection, which they hadn’t even had a chance to price. But, there were 3 killer books from that collection; Jbud’s Marvel Spotlight #2, a Nick Fury #1 (which Jimm94 ended up buying), and a beautiful Strange Tales #94 (Thing prototype), which I nabbed. We weren’t sure what to price it, but the consensus (of Garthgantu, FFB, Jbud73, Jimm94, and I) was that the book was a Very Fine Plus.

 

 

I also spent time with FFB/Jimm94/Flying Donut at various times around Artist Alley that day, got a couple of things signed by Sergio Aragones, watched Art Adams and others do 3 minute sketches, etc. Very fun and entertaining, watching artists or inkers struggle with what to sketch and the timing. Art Adams didn’t like the first sketch and insisted that he do another one.

 

Saturday

 

Pretty much, the rest of my Con buying was done at the half-off boxes, or the $1 bins. Some decent buys there, mostly with House of Comics, which let me rifle through unprocessed books.

 

Got these from House of Comics:

 

 

 

Got this for $11 from a guy with a lot of $1 books:

 

 

And, my big purchase of the Con, was having Paris_Fred deliver this page to me: Kirby Large Art!!

 

 

CGC Dinner :

 

As Scott said, Buca was cheap but decent. We had an extremely long table, which made talking difficult. Also, it’s naturally a loud restaurant, so it was difficult to talk to people who weren’t right near you. But, as always, I had a great time socializing. It was especially great to meet Flying Donut and his wife, who are fabulous and interesting people.

 

Donut, Diane, Jimm94, and Povertyrow :

 

Beth and Marc (house of comics) with Brent (qualitycomix):

 

Steve B, Marc, and thecollector :

 

Marc, Jbud, and FFB :

 

 

After dinner drinks at the Thirsty Bear:

 

Sunday, I was too worn out to go back to the Con, and instead spent the day cleaning up the house and spending time with Melissa. There wasn’t much that I didn’t see, so I didn’t feel the need to go back. All in all, a great comics weekend.

[greaterfool]

guys - Great Reports! love the pics.

[Foolkiller]

y'know Scott, I just realized you look like a slightly thinner, slightly taller version of BronzeBruce.

 

Brothers from a different mother?

[Nexus]

Great reports! Thanks for sharing pics, sorry I missed the dinner. I can't wait for Super Con in May, I'll join you guys then.

 

I was pretty much anchored to my booth the whole show, but it was good to chat with Jeff, Jimm, Wormboy, JBud, et al. Reading the reports, I didn't realize so many board members made the show!

 

Also nice to see my old SUPERMAN 233 find a good home. I sold that copy to Ron at SacCon in December. Real sharp raw copy, congrats!

 

See you guys at SuperCon!

 

Felix

[FFB]

y'know Scott, I just realized you look like a slightly thinner, slightly taller version of BronzeBruce.

 

Brothers from a different mother?

 

I don't know, I've never met Bruce in person. How tall is he? I'm 5'10".

[drbanner]

Great reports, and nice pickups jbud!

[jimm94]

My overall con report would be pretty much the same as FFB, Jbud, and Jeff's, except for a few hours where I went wandering on my own. Please indulge me as I share some specifics of my adventures...

 

As Jeff mentioned, I picked up a Nick Fury, Agent of SHIELD # 1 from Marc at House of Comics. The book is incredibly common, but it is a very pretty copy at a nice price. It's fairly well centered with blazing white pages. It's not a book I was expecting to buy at the show, but it was a nice upgrade from my raw cream page VF-.

 

My main goal for the show was to finish my Strange Tales 135-168 run. Preferring upper mid-grade copies, it's a relatively inexpensive run that isn't too difficult to acquire. As I got closer to finding the remaining issues I needed though, I became more and more selective about condition, choosing to stick closer to a strict VF-/VF. As a result, I do want to go back and upgrade a few issues I had previously purchased so that my run is more consistently at that level. That last book I ended up needing was 137. Kudos to Brent from Quality Comix for knowing his own inventory so well that when I ran into him on the show floor and mentioned what I was looking for, he knew that he had a copy available! It was a nice VF with a dab of unnecessary color touch that I was able to purchase for less than what I would have probably spent on a VG/FN or FN- from most other dealers.

 

This is one of my favorite SA runs. Not only do you get a ton of great Kirby and Steranko art, but the Nick Fury and Doctor Strange stories are excellent. Just really terrific stuff overall! I won't bore you guys with scans of any of them.

 

By early Saturday afternoon, I had finished shopping for Strange Tales and was ready to browse the toy dealers. I don't buy too many toys these days, but I like them and try to keep up on what's new and hot. The apartment my wife and I have is really starting to bulge at the seams with our collective “stuff” (ok, it’s mostly my stuff), so I have to be very selective about what space consuming collectibles I purchase. I had just started looking at toys when I passed by Albert Moy’s booth. I decided to switch gears and check out some OA. That’s when I found IT. IT meaning the one piece of Kirby art on the market right now I could actually afford! At first, I didn’t pay much attention to what the page looked like. I just saw that it was Kirby and that the price wouldn’t make my wallet explode. The page wasn’t marked with a title or issue number. Giddy at the prospect of fulfilling my dream of owning OA from The King, I sought out my buddy Jeff Li to tell him about it. I showed it to him, but wasn’t quite ready to pull the trigger. We sat down and rested for a bit. We saw Paris_Fred in the aisle near where we were sitting and waved him over to chat about how our respective hunts were going. I told him about the page, and we all went to have another look at it. I think Jeff was the first to point out that the page was depicting a woman’s premonition of the assassination of JFK. Once I understood what the page was, I could better appreciate its’ beauty. Albert said it was a page from a magazine called “In the days of the Mob”. Fred agreed that it was a nice page, and helped me negotiate a slight cash discount. SOLD.

 

That’s where the thrill of the hunt begins! Jeff and I head to Ron Murry’s table to find a copy, as he is a true connoisseur of all comic obscura. Ron’s friend Patrick happened to have a copy of the mag at the show (a high grade copy signed by Jack Kirby, no less!), which he had previously purchased from Ron. He graciously allowed me to look inside. It wasn’t in there. D’oh! As it turns out, it’s not from that magazine, but rather another one produced around the same time called “Spirit World”. Thanks to Ron’s knowledge, we were now on track to find the right book.

 

Operation: Find Spirit World!

 

The next stop was Steve Wyatt’s booth. They had a low grade copy of “In the Days of the Mob”, but no Spirit World. Damn. The next purveyor of oddities was Bob Beerbohm’s booth. Bob had stepped away, but his assistant confirmed that Bob did have a copy of the book. Unfortunately, he was unable to locate it at the show. So then Jeff and I tried the always dependable Phil Schlaefer, owner of Comic Collector Shop. Knowing that Phil usually has a good selection of magazines (and is a fellow Kirby nut), I figured he’d be certain to have a copy. He did, but it was at his store. Foiled again! However, he referred me to Al, the owner of Heroes, since he had recently sold a copy to him. Heroes delivered the goods big time! I was able to purchase a gorgeous NM/NM+ copy at an awesome price.

 

For any of you Kirby fans out there, you have absolutely got to find a copy of “Spirit World”. This book is amazing. It has beautiful blue tone art, and some very trippy photo collage and fumetti style story telling.

 

You can read an article about the 1971 magazine that was written for The Jack Kirby Collector here:

 

http://www.twomorrows.com/kirby/articles/13spiritworld.html

 

On Sunday, I went back to the con to meander the show floor. After all, one can never soak up too much comic and pop culture goodness! I went to the Heroes booth again and bought a nearly perfect copy of “In the Days of the Mob”. Other than that, I just hung out, looked around, and said my goodbyes to my friends and new acquaintances in the hobby.

 

It’s ironic that comic reading and collecting is primarily considered a solitary pursuit, yet I derive most of my enjoyment of the hobby through fellowship with other collectors. Yeah, the books themselves are great, but for me it’s really all about the people who share my enthusiasm for comics. I have met people from all walks of life, from all around the world that I never would have known if not for comics. I have learned things completely non-comic related I never would have known if not for the common bond of collecting comics.

 

I have made lifelong friends through comics. Not just friends that I only talk about comics with, but true friends that I know I could count on for anything. I’ve been feeling pretty depressed lately about a variety of things, but the time I spent at WonderCon was a tremendous affirmation of the joy there is to be shared in the world.

 

I love you all (in a manly, Viking way)!

 

-Jim

[Foolkiller]

I think he's like 5' 6" or so.

 

y'know Scott, I just realized you look like a slightly thinner, slightly taller version of BronzeBruce.

 

Brothers from a different mother?

 

I don't know, I've never met Bruce in person. How tall is he? I'm 5'10".

[FFB]

I think he's like 5' 6" or so.

 

y'know Scott, I just realized you look like a slightly thinner, slightly taller version of BronzeBruce.

 

Brothers from a different mother?

 

I don't know, I've never met Bruce in person. How tall is he? I'm 5'10".

 

Then I'm a bit more than "slightly taller" than Bruce.

[chrisco37]

Good reports everyone. Sounds like it was alot of fun.

 

And Scott is much taller than Bruce.

[FFB]

Good reports everyone. Sounds like it was alot of fun.

 

And Scott is much taller than Bruce.

 

Looks like I need to spend less time posing for pictures with beanstalks like Jason and Ron Murry.

[OldGuy]

....I derive most of my enjoyment of the hobby through fellowship with other collectors. Yeah, the books themselves are great, but for me it’s really all about the people who share my enthusiasm for comics. I have met people from all walks of life, from all around the world that I never would have known if not for comics. I have learned things completely non-comic related I never would have known if not for the common bond of collecting comics.

 

Well said!