Holy Grail

Last week I finally managed to buy my holy grail; Fantastic Four #1...and by getting the book I have wanted for years I also completed my Fantastic Four run. I'm now the proud owner of FF #1 - #520

I intended to stop at #500....but I so enjoyed the Waid issues, I continued buying until #520...but have stopped since then.

When I completed my Avengers collection (#1-#500) last year in December my New Year's resolution was to try and complete my Fantastic Four series and managed to just do it with a week to spare.

I don't have FF#1 in hand yet, as I don't want it crossing the drink during the Xmas period when horrible things happen at the post office, but I should get it some time in January.

As I've had some luck the past years completing my runs, I'm going to ad one to the list..

2003 Iron Man #1 -#400
2004 Avengers #1-#500
2005 Fantastic Four #1-520
2006....Amazing Spider-man #1 - #500

Yes, next year I'm going to shoot for the mother of all Marvel runs....so when I have some money again I'll be pestering a lot of you for cheap low to mid-grade Ditko Spideys


Here's a scan to see what FF #1 through #500 looks like.
Quality is not great, but I had to keep it manageable size-wise.

Click here for a all the Fantastic Four covers

Before I retire and start reading 520 FFissues back to back I want to wish all of you a Gelukkig Nieuwjaar en het allerbeste voor 2006.

Merry X-mas - Happy Holidays

I've been accused of being a grouch around Christmas time and well...I'm not saying that I'm innocent. But some people have tried to turn me around this year. I'm still not the type you want to take along to Christmas mass to have a nice sing-a-long, but I've mellowed out a bit this year, so instead of the usual f*ck Xmas picture, I would like to say Happy Holidays to all you 'Nuff Said readers with this rather nice Avengers scan..

Friends…

Before everybody breaks out in a chorus of “I’ll be there for you…” let me just say, it isn’t about that kind of “Friends” this entry is about a friend of mine which I have never met and honestly don’t know if I ever will…but I do consider him a friend and a good one at that.

I buy all my backissues in the US, and having them actually delivered to Belgium is not always an easy task. A lot of US sellers just won’t send to Europe, and if you find one who will, it’s a crapshoot…will the package make it safely across the big pond, will customs get their greedy hands on it and make me pay tons of $$$ to get it back…will it actually be sent at all ? Enough to give you sleepless nights, especially when you regularly get $400 - $500 packages in the mail.

Thankfully I got lucky the day I met Chrisco37 (the 37 refers to his IQ prior to the “operation”). Like me Chrisco37 is a comic-fan, a Dr Doom fan and an original art fan. But during our many conversations we discovered we were much alike (of course, I’m better looking and more mature than him). So comics just became the common background when we discussed all kinds of topics or just blow off steam.

For the last 2 years I’ve had 90% of my purchases sent to Chrisco37’s house, where he prepares the packages for their transcontinental journey. He inspects every comic book that I’ve bought and then packs them in a bulletproof box, stands in line at the PO and makes sure I get my wares in perfect condition and he does this several times a week…Over the course of the last few years he’s sent over 3000 comic books my way.
did I mention we’ve never met ?

We became really close friends when he went through his ‘dark period’. You see Chris used to run a hotdog stand in the trailer park where he used to live, but he got into a spot of trouble with the local law enforcement and the department of Health when it was discovered he used deer meat. This wouldn’t have been that bad, had it not been for the fact that he used his AMC Pacer to kill all kinds of animal life and serve them in a crusty bun with some chow chow.



Chrisco decided he needed a change of life and asked me to become his agent
as he wanted to take Europe by storm with his “Puppetry of the penis”..

but after many (many !!) painful training sessions, Chrisco37 decided this wasn’t the life for him and decided to stay in the US after all.

So why do I suddenly feel the need to bring this unsung hero in the spotlight after all these years ? Well today my mailman delivered a package.. an unexpected package. AN early Xmas present from Chriso37….good old Bambi-killer sent me a piece of original art featuring my hero “Dr Doom”.
Check out the cool Salvatore Larocca page below….
Thanks Chris…what a friend