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pmadreenter Posts: 33
2/25/2025
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Hi, all --
I was a member of the ould forum for quite awhile, fond memories; but then one day about 12 years ago I realized I wasn't really interested in comics the way I had been; I stopped buying, stopped thinking about them... and I shamelessly ghosted the forums. My apologies. Around the turn of the year, the bug bit me again and I've started thinking about purchasing the odd thing here and there, so I thought I'd look in here and see what was what.
Things have changed a lot; I see people asking and answering questions and that's about it, not much feeling of tthe warmth and pursuing friendships that used to be the order of the day. Thatjerk and Defiant1 (two names I remember from the old days) seem to be keeping that spirit alive, and I guess I'll throw my hat in the ring and try to contribute to rebuilding that sense of community.
So... here I am. What's my collecting profile like? Heavily into Golden age and Silver age, superheroes and esoterica (do people still use that word?) -- not really interested in anything after 1975 or '80. That'll change at some point, I want to catch up on Marvel Universe history, but I don't want to amass thousands and thousands of comics like I did last time around, and sooner or later I have to start thinking about pruning away some of the dead wood... dead wood-pulp... that no longer holds much interest for me.
Here's a copy of my collecting goals for 2025. Yeah, it's practically March already, but I'm just getting started, so it's meaningful to me at least.
1) Continue beefing up my Silver-age/Bronze age Marvel runs, do as much as possible.
2) Atlas horror! Pre-code, post-code and monster books. As many as I can get my hands on.
3) Atlas westerns, ditto. Hey, I *like* westerns. And, really, I just like anything Atlas..
4) Pre-code horror. If I can knock down four or five good examples during the year, I'll be happy. A long-standing interest, since I was a teenager, but they're kinda priced out of my league at this point. (Oh, the good old days, when you could buy a ratty G/VG issue of The Unseen for three bucks...)
4) Jingle Jangle Comics, working on that run is a big priority. George Carlson might be my favorite comic artist of all time.
5) At least one (each) GA superhero book from Timely, DC, Fawcett, and Quality. I might dabble in other publishers, but discovering an interest in something new seems like the last thing I should do. It gives me a sad when I realize I still don't have any Timely superhero books in my crypt, so I guess that's the number one priority.
6) Work on these (mostly) GA runs, in descending order of importance: Venus, Air Fighters/Airboy, Big Shot, Sparky Watts, Real Clue Crime Comics, Sugar And Spike, Supersnipe, Scribbly, Real Screen/Fox And Crow, Dell Four Color, Daredevil, Boy, 4Most, Blue Bolt.
7) Do what I can to start runs on some titles I don't yet have: Prize Comics, Frankenstein Comics and Pedro (a humor title from Fox that lasted about four issues. Just found out about it and I WANT!)
8) My grail book for the year: Mad 11. I've decided that cover is absolutely one of the great works of art of the 20th century. There are a couple of other books that hold grail status for me, but I'll be happy with one for now. Won't fuss none if either of the other two turn up, though.
9) Any and all miscellaneous books by favorite artists. It's a long list, but Wolverton and Kinstler are the two guys at the top.
10) Stay within budget and work scrupulously to follow the buying strategy that allows me to play without having lots of money. (Which mostly means flipping about 2/3 of the books I buy, so I can keep the ones I really want for free.)
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That's my introduction, now you know all about me. Heh. Once the welcomes and introductions are out of the way, maybe I'll post a list of the top 25 books in my collection, or maybe I'll just wait until the first purchases I've gone and pulled the trigger on start rolling in.
edited by pmadreenter on 2/25/2025
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Ronbatman Administrator Posts: 2530
2/27/2025
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As I read through your list of books that you wanted, I kept thinking, that's an expensive book, and that one is too.
We have been going through the site and updating thousands of scans, especially in the Golden Age. Most of the things you mentioned have new, bigger scans.
ron
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glorkar Posts: 689
2/28/2025
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I don't know if I really have a collecting strategy or goal right now. For the most part I'm buying current / new release books that catch my interest.
I pick up ASM and Batman, but I also go for newer titles like Something Is Killing The Children and Strange (Doom) Academy.
I might try to complete my Gen 13 collection this year. They've got everything I need at mycomicshop. Just a matter of if I want to spend the money.
For older books, I don't hunt for them, but if I see any silver age book I scoop it up. Prefer those books with the under a quarter cover price.
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pmadreenter Posts: 33
2/28/2025
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Ronbatman wrote:
expensive
ron
Yeah, Ron, that's a real struggle, having no money and wanting the moon. I get outbid a lot. On the other hand, the thrill of the chase is a big factor, and it makes it that much more rewarding when I knock down an expensive book for a fraction of its value (like the GA Blackhawk I'll be posting soon). Realistically, I may not *get* any of those Venuses or Frankensteins that I want, but ya never know. If nothing else, casting my net widely gives me more opportunities to luck out.
Good work on those updated scans.
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pmadreenter Posts: 33
2/28/2025
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glorkar wrote:
Something Is Killing The Children
They hype around that book for sure has caught my attention; it's neat when indie books come out of nowhere like that and gain a big audience. (Back when I was last active in the scene, that was Morning Glories and... I don't know, Thief Of Thieves maybe, but those books seem to have fizzled.) And the idea of Dr Strange running a school is something I want to look into. Of course, you can't go wrong with The Bat or The Spider...
edited by pmadreenter on 2/28/2025
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pmadreenter Posts: 33
2/28/2025
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As long as I'm here, let me go ahead and post that Top 25 I teased in my first post, show just how far I am from being one of those guys on youtube that sits in front of a wall of 10,000 dollar books. (Chip on my shoulder? Who, me?) Using Overstreet values, it looks like this, starting with #25.
Airboy V7#3 8.5
Plastic Man 8 vg/f
Durango Kid 2 f/vf
Amazing Spider-man 51 f
Strange Tales 33 vg-
Jungle Tales 2 f/vf
Strange Tales 23 vg-
Pat Boone 2 vf-
Congo Bill 4 vg-
Four Color 189 (Pogo) vg
Animated Comics 1 vg+
Amazing Spider-Man 29 f/vf
Batman 39 g+
Powerhouse Pepper 5 vg-
Journey into Unknown Worlds 6 f
Extra 1 vf
Fantastic Four Annual 6 vg/f
Showcase 79 vf
Strange Tales 115 vg
Silver Surfer 3 vg/f
Flash Comics 11 g+
Batman Adventures 12 vf-
Venus 10 f
Fantastic Four 3 f/g
Ultimate Fallout 4 nm
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edited by pmadreenter on 2/28/2025
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glorkar Posts: 689
2/28/2025
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pmadreenter wrote:
glorkar wrote:
Something Is Killing The Children
the idea of Dr Strange running a school is something I want to look into.
Funny thing is, he really isn't the star of the books. He's hardly in them at all. There are a few teachers, namely Magik and Brother Voodoo and the librarian, but other than that, it does a real nice job of focusing on the children. And unlike other school / academy books that have come out, each of the kids is fairly unique. They're all different variants of magic users (vs sidekicks or mini-me characters)
edited by glorkar on 2/28/2025
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pmadreenter Posts: 33
3/4/2025
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Package arrived in the mail yesterday. Got this; no-one particularly cares about westerns, but I've always liked whoever it is that handled the colors on Hillman Company books. That airbrushy quality to the color gradations really appeals to me. And there's a story by Bernie Krigstein inside, but he's not doing the fancy layout/storyboard/design work that you see in his EC classics. Actually, I didn't even recognize his work, had to look it up at comics.org to see which of the six stories was his'n.
And then... Blackhawk down! The big-boy book of the week. Having it in hand, there's some tanning to the white parts of the cover that you don't see in the seller's photo... but the spine and the corners are just immaculate, so crisp! I'm very happy with it, even if it isn't quite the 8.0-8.5-9.0 I expected.
Plus two other lesser packages that go straight into the "flip me!" box.
edited by pmadreenter on 3/4/2025
edited by pmadreenter on 3/4/2025
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pmadreenter Posts: 33
3/6/2025
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glorkar wrote:
He's hardly in them at all.
edited by glorkar on 2/28/2025
Oh, so it's like X-Men, then... Professor Xavi's around there someplace, but he's rarely abig part of the story.
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pmadreenter Posts: 33
3/11/2025
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Grr... a ding-dang package gone astray in the tracking system. What would life be without hassles? (A lot more pleasant, that's what.) At least it was only one book, and a fairly middling one that I didn't care a lot about.
Meanwhile, some minor Marvels.
Next week's deliveries look a lot more exciting.
edited by pmadreenter on 3/11/2025
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pmadreenter Posts: 33
3/19/2025
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This right here, that's what I'm talkin' about. Right here. This. Are you ready to party? Let's rock!
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pmadreenter Posts: 33
3/19/2025
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Icing on the cake is that I brought all those home to the crypt for 30% of Overstreet value. And that was with a big mistake , a copy of Four Color 147, Donald Duck in Volcano Value, (not pictured) that was nowhere near the condition I imagined; I'm-a-hafta flip that one.
edited by pmadreenter on 3/19/2025
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collectibleshop Posts: 3088
3/19/2025
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Any chance you need NF #3, 10, or 15? I have #3 in just VG/F 5.0. #10 VF 8.0, and #15 F/VF 7.0. You in the US I assume?
pmadreenter wrote:
Grr... a ding-dang package gone astray in the tracking system. What would life be without hassles? (A lot more pleasant, that's what.) At least it was only one book, and a fairly middling one that I didn't care a lot about.
Meanwhile, some minor Marvels.
Next week's deliveries look a lot more exciting.
edited by pmadreenter on 3/11/2025
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pmadreenter Posts: 33
4/11/2025
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New stuff!
I'm getting down toward the end of my budget, only 400 dollars left to play with; the nice man at the LCS is going to help me with that problem next weekend, but meanwhile I can show a few things. I'll hold back for now on the ones I'm not sure I'll be able to keep...
Let's see, let's see, whadda we got?
I never really understood why Carl Barks was considered such a great worldclass great great comics artist -- I'm more of a Walt Kelly guy myself -- but I recently figured out that his rep. was based on the book-length adventure stories he put the ducks in and not so much the 8-page sitcoms in WDC&S. So I'm gonna try a couple of those and maybe I'll see the light. I have this one to read someday soon and another one on the way...
And then... what else is new and exciting? (I also have a new category that I'll be debuting at the end of the message, called "Dumb stuff that nobody's really interested in looking at.") Oh, yeah... New! Exciting! A big-boy book! I got one of the rare early pressings of Zap Comix #1, from Back when Robert Crumb's thing was still a cottage industry and he was walking around Haight-Ashbury with a baby-carriage full of comics, selling them on the street. An authentic, gosh-be-walla "Don Donahue" 2nd printing.
See down there on the lower left, where it says... While I was on that dealer's page, I went ahead and knocked down Zap 2, 4, 5 and 6, not pictured... #2 and #4 seem to be early printings that hold some value, so that's nice... and I also bought a copy of... um... how strict are the family-friendly guidelines here? Do I have to call it Big Butt Comics #2? (Not pictured.)
And then there's these, which are just such inexpensive books that I wouldn't benefit much from flipping them...
But wait there's more! Another Big Shot, and my Quality superhero book for the year (until I find that I can do better).
(Heritage Auctions has a copy of this in their archives, and the auction description began"OH NO! Not the pepper!")
And now it's time for the DSTNRIILA books, two of em:
Looks like a whole bunch of nothing, even to me, but the first story is about Jackie Robinson, drawn by man Everett Raymond Kinstler exclamation point, so I look forward to reading it... and
Yeah, bite me. I think Mutt And Jeff are funny, I'm a fan of 1920s newspaper comics. And it's an early issue. Can't hardly scoff at a 1943 DC...
edited by pmadreenter on 4/11/2025
edited by pmadreenter on 4/11/2025
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pmadreenter Posts: 33
5/1/2025
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After scoring that exciting! rare! Zap #1, I was on an underground-comics kick for a week or so; I got this:
Along with a couple of others (Projunior looks interesting, I haven't read it yet...), and I also got this:
It wasn't the pricey first-printing (I wasn't paying careful attention) but I'm not too disappointed, because
I think that's the only signed comic in my collection at this point. No, there's one other, but I have no idea what it is.
Oh yeah, here's the other Carl Barks book I was waiting on:
Aaaand I got a SUPER-clean copy of Mutt And Jeff 21, really proud of this book. Check it out, not bad for 1946, eh? Too bad it's a DSTNRIILA ...
edited by pmadreenter on 5/1/2025
edited by pmadreenter on 5/1/2025
edited by pmadreenter on 5/1/2025
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pmadreenter Posts: 33
5/11/2025
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I was kinda grumped out when I picked up last week's deliveries; the two SA Marvels were severely overgraded and I took no joy in them. This one brightened my mood, though; the book-long JP versus Nazis story was a lot funner than I expected.
And I love the film-noir feel of this Atlas cover; it's a title I never thought about before...
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pmadreenter Posts: 33
5/16/2025
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Man, there are four LCS in town, and not one of them seemed to know what I was talking about when I said "50% of Overstreet." Them guys ain't no help at all... so I'm going to have to tighten my game up pretty fiercely. Where I'm at right is that I need to buy 5 books in the 200.00 range that I don't want, to finish up a submission to Heritage Auctions. More if possible, and that will help me hang on to a couple of books I was hoping to keep. That means no more SA Marvel filler and NO MORE IMPULSE BUYS for the time being. It's gonna take some discipline, and I may slip a time or two...
So this week's haul of... stuff... may be the last comics I show y'all for awhile; we'll see. Meanwhile, um, "whaddaya got? Whaddaya got? What are those on the table there?"
Dell ran a Tom Corbett series for 8 or 10 issues, based on a TV show, I guess, and those are about the most common, least desired GA sci-fi books that exist... but when they let go of the franchise, Prize Comics scooped it up and published a couple of issues. I didn't even know that till I saw one on ebay, and I was intrigued. Art by Mort Meskin, who reminds me of Kirby in some ways only he's boring, and the writing is pretty cluihed, stories that could be westerns if you swapped out the genre details. (To be fair, I've only read the first story so far; maybe the others kick it up a notch.)
And these fellas...
And finally, something underground-related; it doesn't sell for huge amounts, but it's said to be seriously hard to find. I've always liked Skip Williamson, he's one of the funniest guys around in the old UG scene.
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