Rhino's SUPERLATE Chicago Report

[Sharkey]

My apologies -- this report is so late it's almost in time for next year....

 

 

My Chicago experience was limited this year due to the fact that I could only attend preview night. My wife and I were leaving the next day for a 2-week dive trip to some islands off Costa Rica and Colombia. But I had to get my comic fix!!!

 

I headed down to the con on Thursday prior to opening for preview night -- had arranged to get a dealer badge from another forumite around 3:00 but it turns out he was delayed (as were many people) due to weather. By 4:00 I had wrangled an alternative badge (thanks Bechara) and entered the floor.

 

My first impression was that there were very few people around for preview night. I liked this -- no jostling for position at dealer tables, and pleny of room to walk through the aisles. The downside was that a lot of dealers were not completely setup yet and that many of the forumite faithful had not yet come to the show.

 

My first stop was to see Bob Storms (Blazing Bob) at HighGradeComics to drop off a few things. Didn't get much chance to talk, but he had an AMAZING selection of killer books as always.

 

Then I went to find Alan (Pedigreeman) and Gary (Moondog) and say hello. Alan was sharing a booth with klozd24_7. Didn't take long to locate them and they had some nice stuff for sale. October was there also so it was good to see a bunch of familar faces!

 

Faces only a mother could love:

 

We confirmed drinks and dinner after preview night was over, going to the Fabled "Ram" microbrewery about 3/4 mile from the convention center.

 

Moondog had a nice Strange Tales 85 (Return of Gargantus!) that I picked up (scan to come). Thanks again, Gary!

 

Steve (143ksk) stopped by and showed off some acquisitions:

 

At some point I also ran into Flying Donut and also Rob_React on one of my many passes through the hall, and Donut was also in for the Ram, with his son as was Rob.

 

I cruised by a number of booths and found silverandbronze selling his cool tumblers. Had to buy a Spider-Man tumbler. I was tempted to get more, but wanted to keep things under control spending-wise and keep my budget for comics.

 

I stopped by Mastronet to see their impressive display for their upcoming auction (held August 16) which featured the original art to the ENTIRE 20-PAGE INTERIOR BOOK of Amazing Spider-Man 31 by Steve Ditko. No cover, but an amazing lot of art -- the only full issue to sell since issue 10 a number of years ago.

 

Here's a shot of the ASM 31 splash, which incidentally sold on August 16 for about $54,000+ (about$65,000 with the buyers commission).

 

After wiping the drool from my face (sorry to the Mastronet guys for that big stain on the splash page now), I stopped by Ted VanLiew's SuperWorld Comics booth. Ted is always one of the bright spots of the convention because he loves comic books and art every bit as much as we all do. Ted said he'd join us for the Ram festivities once things closed up. While talking to Ted a guy walked up and overheard me talking to Ted, and we realized it was Angelo (TheWatcher) who had recently picked up a book from me in the Marketplace. He was on for a drink after the preview night too, and it was great to meet another local forumite, especially somebody who shows some love to those sweet, sweet Pre-Hero books!

 

Ted and company at the booth:

 

I picked up a few pre-hero books from Ted and I'll post the scans as soon as I have a minute. From there I checked out a few other tables and stopped to see Albert Moy (he was giving out very cool "Got Art?" T-Shirts which was a nice idea, so I picked up one of those) and talked to Chris (comix4fun) about the latest art hullabaloo.

 

Then I swung by to see klozd and Pedigreeman and who walks up but our own Centaurman (Win) with an amazing pickup -- the All American featuring the first Solomon Grundy, and probably the nicest copy I've ever seen, not that I've seen many.... But of course that wasn't good enough, and Win had to pull out his Action 1. Needless to say we were all gushing over Win's comics. I love it. Here's a guy walking around with comics worth more than my car, maybe my house, in a plastic grocery bag!!!!

Win, next year I'm loaning you a couple of my i-book boxes for your precious killer books!!!!

 

The proud papa:

 

Soon it was time to go, so we packed up and a bunch of us met over at Gibson's for a drink at the bar, then we went to the Ram. Good beer, good food, and excellent excellent company. I think Klozd or SilverandBronze already wrote up some info on the dinner (yes, the burgers WERE great!!!), and it was mucho mucho fun. Thanks again to everybody, and if I missed anything important or forgot some names, I'm terribly sorry, it's been 2 weeks and my brain is full of nitrogen from my dive trip,

I do regret missing the Forum Dinner, but I'll see everybody next year!

 

Here's the dinner gang:

 

 

 

The next day, it was off bright and early for me and Mrs. Rhino to Costa Rica. Here's a few pics from the trip. PM me if you want details!!

 

Me and Beth:

 

Hammer Time!!

 

Beth in front of a HUGE school of jacks

 

Getting up close and personal with a whitetip shark

 

Chocolate Chip starfish (mmm, chocolate.....)

 

Eagle ray

 

 

Over and out,

Rhino

[adamstrange]

A superlative report, Rhino!

 

I wonder how many of the divers you had to throw to the sharks to keep the pack off of you.

[Sharkey]

A superlative report, Rhino!

 

I wonder how many of the divers you had to throw to the sharks to keep the pack off of you.

 

Thanks Adam -- hope to meet you at a con one of these years!!

 

As for the sharks, well, it's like I always tell the other divers: "I don't have to be able to swim fast, I just have to be able to swim faster than YOU...."

 

Just kidding, actually. I've never encountered aggressive behavior by a shark directed toward me or my fellow divers. They're really just like any other fish in the ocean, except that they're huge, muscular, and have a mouth full of teeth. But seriously, they are impressive, somewhat curious animals and they don't swim around biting at everything they see like they do on the Discovery Channel during Shark Week. Those sharks are basically driven into a frenzy by the film-makers chumming the water with fish blood and guts and getting them all worked up, then they film them biting stuff and go "wow, look at those vicious sharks!!".

 

Oops, I'm getting on my pro-shark soapbox. Stop me before I rant again!!!!!

[tth2]

Great report and thanks for the dive pics too! I'm very envious!

[Sharkey]

Here's my purchases. Thanks to Moondog and Ted!

 

 

 

 

[comicartfan]

Steve,

Where's the art ?!

 

 

 

Mike

[Sharkey]

Steve,

Where's the art ?!

Mike

 

I'm workin' on it!

[Moondog]

Thanks for the biz, Steve. Too bad I couldn't join you guys that evening. Next year for sure.

 

--Gary

[Jeffreykli]

Great report Steve. Always nice to see your diving photos as well!

 

Jeff

[Red Hook]

Yeah, thanks for both the report and the pix. Great!!!

 

Red

[Sharkey]

Moondog, I'll hold you to that next year!

 

Jeff, I hope to get out to Wondercon one of these years, really!

 

Red, my pleasure -- one of these days we'll meet up!

 

And Tim, I don't have any travel to Hong Kong (have to trips to Shanghai in the next 3 months, but no stops in HK) If I manage to sneak in any Asia-based diving, I'll be sure to give you a shout!

 

 

What I did not mention in my report, and it's so true every year, is how much I look forward to and enjoy the face-to-face interaction with other board members (and of course many of the dealers, fans, and non-board participants).

 

This online community is so full of good-hearted, knowledgeable, and interesting people, in spite of what we see online with the flame wars, personal attacks, and general anti-social behavior. Everybody should make the effort to attend the Forum Dinners and get to know the others here because the dinners are an experience that has to be participated in to appreciate. I went to my first one as a lurker and was blown away by the experience.

 

Can't wait til next year!!!

[FFB]

Awesome pics, Steve! That one with the hammerheads is

[TheWatcher]

Here's my purchases. Thanks to Moondog and Ted!

 

 

 

 

 

 

Beautiful comics, Steve. They looked even nicer in person. That shot of the hammerheads is AMAZING.

[Ze-man]

Great to hear another Chicago report! I love that AAF #8, and TOS #35, was the latter from Teds? It is an asweome copy.

 

Congrats, and next year if you dont want to come to the dinner, just say so.. you dont have to go to some outta the way dive to get away..

 

Sorry We did not hook up... always next year.

 

Ze-

[Dad&Son-migration]

Looks like both the con and the trip were incredible. Nice pick ups on those books. That shot of the hammerheads is incredible. You are a braver man then I.

[Sharkey]

Thanks Scott, let's get you and Liz in on the next trip!

 

Angelo, I appreciate the kind words.

 

Paul also -- and to be honest, those hammerheads are harmless to people. They are fish eaters and quite shy actually. They come in huge schools (hundreds at a time) to Cocos Island to get cleaned by cleaner wrasses, butterfly fish, and angelfish that inhabit certain points around the island. It's amazing to see. Getting close for a pic is actually tough due to their shyness, but my wife and I dive on rebreathers that don't give off bubbles like regular scuba, so it's better for photos and video.

[Sharkey]

Ze -- next year for sure!