Never delete your Spam again

As most of you know, google now has an online mailservice, called Gmail which is fast becoming the new Hotmail.
With Gmail you get 1 Gig of storage, so you never have to delete messages again, you can index them in subfolders...all with a very easy and pretty interface. The weird thing is that you can't just go to Gmail.com and open an account, oh no, that would be way to easy.You have to be invited (yes,I know, I sighed as well when I read that)

Rational behind this is that the Gmail users now decide who is worthy of getting an account, and who is not. I hate this kind of reasoning, so I'm offering an account to ANYONE who wants one.
If you want a free Gmail account, just email me or leave a comment on this thread and I'll set it up...

How soon is Now ?

Finally some news from the Avengers front.
Canadian dealer Doug Sulipa sent me 4 of the last missing Avengers. Issues #6, #11, #14 and that elusive #110...This means I now only need issues #4 & #5 to get the complete set. The good news is that I've already bought them.
The bad news is that they're still in the US.
My agent in Maryland, Chrisco37 will try his best (fighting off bouts of alcoholic frenzy) to get them to me before the end of the year, which was my initial plan. Hard to imagine that at the start of 2004 I still needed over 150 Avengers issues.

Sing, sing a song...

As 2004 is slowly winding down, I thought it a good idea to share with you which were my favorite albums of the year. The albums that have the most chance of still being played in 2005.
No particular order, but #1 is #1....

1) U2 - How to dismantle an atomic bomb
2) Franz Ferdinand - Franz Ferdinand
3) The Streets - A grand don't come for free
4) Therion - Lemuria
5) Beastie Boys - To the 5 Burroughs
6) Johnny Cash - Unearthed Box set
7) The Black Keys - Rubber Factory
8) Loretta Lynn - Van Lear Rose
9) Morrissey - You are the Quarry
10) William Shatner - Has been

As I'm getting to be an old man, access to new music isn't as easy as it once was, plus with age I'm getting really set in my ways, my love for 70's rock grows and grows so any new material has a tough time getting some ear-time, as I'm constantly replaying Stairway to Heaven and Crosstown Traffic...
But these 10 managed just that...

Just call me angel of the morning

Yes, I am one of those people that's partly guilty of the sorry state the comic world is in today...you see I just don't buy enough new titles any more...and I'll buy even less in 2005.. I've decided to stop buying Vertigo's Lucifer, still the best Sandman spin-off and for my money still the best comic Vertigo is putting out these days. So why am I packing it in ? Well because the series just doesn't surprise me anymore. I've loved every 55 issues, hardly a dud among them, great stories and breathtaking covers, the inside art isn't bad either...but for the last year I've been getting a really strong feeling of deja-vu. It seems like every storyline is about some ancient god that's trying to wrestle some power from Lucifer. Someone close to him betrays him, he looks beaten and defeated, both using his cunning and ruthlessness he beats all odds and triumphs at the end....it was a nice 5 years Vertigo, but I feel Lucifer isn't that "hot" anymore these days... Hell, maybe I've just found religion...who knows

The Wheels are in motion

Ok I have to be careful here as I don't want to jinx it....but I think/hope/believe I just bough the last four issues I needed to have Avengers #1 - #503 complete.
I bought #4 & #5 from a dealer on eBay last week, but he still hasn't shipped them and yesterday I bought the last four issues I needed from Canadian dealer Doug Sulipa. It's fingers crossed that all 6 books make it safely to me, and with luck I should have all of them before the end of the year...
I love it when a plan comes together...
Of course no fireworks or hyperbole right now, I'm saving the emotions for the moment I really have the books in my hands and can say....Mission Accomplished

Papa's got a brand new bag

Two of them actually, M-bags, the cheapest way in the world to have large volumes of comics shipped over vast distances...Click here for more info.
IF all goes well....IF....If.....if
Now, I've had over 30 M-bags sent to me over the years and all arrive in perfect shape and all take between 6 & 9 weeks...but some of them have trouble at customs. You see importing comics in my country should be duty-free as they are basically used books, but due to some reason, comics are not considered books and I end up paying 30% duty on the value + shipping.
A friendly customs official told me that I just had to have the seller write "gift" on the customs label and make the value lower than $25.00 and everything would be perfect...Well the 2 M-bags that reached me this week ended up costing me over $20.00 each in duty. You see the first one had the customs slip filled in perfectly, but the sender's local post office dimwit told him to fix the customs slip on the box INSIDE the M-bag and not on the M-bag. Big mistake, customs want to see the label in under 5 seconds or they pull the item (you're still my boy Chrisco...hehe)
The other M-bag was sent to me by Mile High comics and for some strange reason they refuse to put customs slips on their M-bags, result, bag got pulled and I got charged another $25.00...
This is the third time in five Mile High have pulled this stunt...and I'm pretty fed up with them. Tomorrow I'm going-a-searching for a new TPB dealer that can give me good prices and knows how to ship items properly

Busted !

Remember that #&@$!! dealer that wouldn't sell me those Avengers I needed because he didn't have them anymore ? Well he lied and I busted him wide open on one of the bigger comics messagboards
Read it here

T'is the season to be grumpy

They're back.... the websites that once a year use that most dreaded of Photoshop plug-ins, the one that puts "snow" on top of the usual logos...
Some of them even add "Jingle Bells" as a background midi and feel the need to go all Chrismassy....well not here, not now, no way José.....
I solemnly promise that "Nuff Said" will have none of that, no inkling of the so-called Christmas Spirit, no Season of Good Will, no Merry merry merry and certainly no ho fucking ho.
I hate Christmas almost as much as my birthday and let me tell you this... the last time I got a warm and fuzzy feeling around Xmas time was when I ate Stewed Reindeer in a red wine sauce and finished the bottle and then passed out on the couch

Phoenix Rising

Ok, well I've bored you all for weeks on end with my quest for my missing Avengers issues, and most of you know I'm also completing a full Fantastic Four and Amazing Spider-man run. But here & there I've been buying Uncanny X-men issues as well
I did sell off my entire collection from #150 through to #400, but I kept #100 to #150...and for some strange reason I decided to get #94 through to #99 as well. Now as most of you know, these are not cheap...but I bought an issue here, and an issue there and was slowly chipping away until my attention was drawn to the third X-men movie. Granted it's still 18 months away, but it's going to be based on Uncanny X-men #101. Jean Gray turning into Phoenix.
This means of course that the more the word gets out the less obtainable this book will become.
It's not only a classic story it's a GREAT cover. And I wouldn't be surprised if will be used as a powerful shot in the film. Hell I wouldn't even be surprised if the final movie poster will be based on this cover (then watch the price soar)

Now I checked out prices and nearly fell off my chair when I discovered 9.4 NM copies sell for anywhere between $350 and $400...
But for once I lucked out and found a very nice VF+ copy at a more affordable price.

Now you see it, now you don't

After careful consideration I've decided not to go with pop-up windows anymore and use embedded images instead.
My friend Richard Boom told me the pop-up were better, but just like in that Seinfeld episode, I've found out that doing the opposite what Richard suggests works out best for me

But before you all start complaining that the image are too small, once you click on a link, the image will show up to the right of the text, replacing the Gallery picture.
Once you see the picture, you can easily drag and drop the picture to the address bar (http://chromiumcomics.blogspot.com/) in this case....try it with the above X-men pic, it really works.

So you get a small picture on the right to illustrate my ramblings, and for people who want a closer look the possibility (by dragging and dropping) to see it full scale.
Don't say I never do things for you people...

Our Pekar year...

Harvey ! Harvey ! Harvey !!!
Yes I'm that excited, I just watched American splendor on DVD today and I loved it even more than 6 months ago when I saw it at the theatres. American splendor is one of those little movies that gets zero attention and even less box-office, but it remains a small jewel. This is a comic-movie, no Superhero or mutant in sight, but a comic movie nonetheless. In fact I'm going out on a limb here and am stating for the record American splendor is probably THE comic movie of comic movies.
Why is it so great, well mainly because it's about a guy who loves comics and movies (sounds familiar) but has a lot of trouble dealing with life and stupidity in general... But he pulls through, every day is hell for him, but he stays through to form doesn't compromise and uses his brain and sense of humour to pull him through.

the film documents Pekar's decidedly anti-heroic life - by day a not so mild-mannered hospital filing clerk, by night an obsessive-compulsive self-chronicler, regular guest on David Letterman and, latterly, survivor of testicular cancer. No battles between good and evil, no superhuman exploits, just the everyday thoughts and experiences of an ordinary Joe trying to leave a mark and choosing comic books to do so

War...what is it good for...

...well for providing a backdrop for weird DC comics for one...
Today I received a BIG package of 70's & 80's DC Weird War Tales comics from Flying Donut, one of my comic acquaintances. I LOVE this series even though it's not Superhero Spandex and it's not Marvel.
I mean how can you not with covers like these :

I've loved this series since I was a boy, but never got round to reading more than a few issues, now I have over 50 of them to get through during these cold Winter nights...

The longest-running of the three "weird tales" series , this title was hosted by Death himself! Appearing in a different military uniform each issue, Death expostulated on the virtues of war: death, famine, etc.

In later issues recurring characters included the Creature Commandos (created by J.M. DeMatteis, featured from #93 onwards) and G.I.Robot (by Robert Kanigher, #101 onwards). The famous sixties series "The War That Time Forgot" was also pulled out of Limbo.

Hercules had it easy

Man why are some trivial tasks so difficult to accomplish..it's just comic collecting not trying to clean out the Augean stables in a single day....
I've been trying to buy my last 5 missing Avengers issues in low to mid-grade for about 50% - 60% guide...Well it has been a nightmare...Some people, whom I've had pleasant dealing with in the past, thought that I would be so desperate to get these last books that I would gladly pay nosebleed prices, so just these 5 books went up 20% in price the last week...
And then there's the dealer that had every issue I needed at a price I could live with, we set everything up, some noise comes back from his end,he offered them too cheaply, he's losing money by selling to an international dealer (paypal fees would have been $2.21 higher than with a domestic buyer P-lease). But I was confident all would go my way, then no communicado for 4 days. I cave in, contact him and get the news that he bought the books from a kid and that his father is now demanding the books backs and the he can't sell them to me...
For once I'll show some restraint and end with my Blog's name....'Nuff Said