My box of orphans

Loyal readers of my rambunctious rambling (yes I'm channeling Stan Lee again) already know that it's all about the complete picture for me. The alfa and omega of my collection (and my collecting) is to complete series or very large runs. In fact I pride myself on doing exactly that ; starting with a single issue and then work my way up (down ?) to the very first issues. I hate stray books, books I own accidentally. Got them as freebies, got them when buying a larger collection or stupidly bought them on a whim. And even though I hardly ever look at them...I know they are there, waiting in the night and defacing my otherwise perfect collection of books that "belong"

So what I normally do is give them away as freebies myself. Lots of people I know are very happy to get a single issue of a series, as a means of introduction or simply just to own another comic. I never bother to sell these as I can't be arsed really to set up an auction for a single book...besides who would bid on it ?

It's safe to say that I've almost completely purged my collection of these misfits, put them out to pasture, sold them down the river...basically got rid of them. Except for one single box. The box of orphans I call them, books I can't really give away (honestly because some of them are worth a fair amount of coin and others because they're basically cool). So there they sit, snugly between my Avengers and Fantastic Four series.

While I was dusting my comics cabinet (yes I turn into a woman twice a year for 20 minutes) I pulled the box and took a look. Much to my delight I was able to take out another few books to put (hide !) in my "freebie" box..but at the end of the day a fair amount remained and I thought it maybe would be an interesting read to see what lurks inside my darkest of secret possessions.
So I pulled about half the books and maybe you'll see a book you've never seen before or heard of...

Ok the first batch


There are some oddball books in there like "The Impossible Man Summer Vacation Spectacular" from 1990. No idea when I bought this, but as I didn't buy comics from 1986 through to 2000 I must have picked up up somewhere probably for the cool Doom cover... From the period where Marvel did special Summer books to cash in some more, gotta love the 90's.

More interesting is the "Logan's run #6" in FINE from 1976. It's a $10.00 for the sole reason that it has a backup story featuring Thanos in his first solo story (shortly after his cameo in Iron Man #55. Loved the TV series and I picked this one and #5 at a local con about 5 years ago for about 50 cents each. Still haven't read them

The 'Marvel Triple Action #2" from 1972 is a killer book which reprints Fantastic Four #58 where Doom steals the power cosmic from the Silver Surfer (hey just like the second FF movie). Very precious book to me as one of the few Marvels that I picked up as a kid (I think in 1976 when I was living in England) and still have today. A book I'll never sell...but have no idea where to put either. And just look at that fantastic cover

While writing this I tossed the Black Panther #2099 in the freebie box as well, paid full cover for this about three years ago...I blame alcohol.

"New Mutants #87" is the only New Mutants book I own and luckily it's the only one you should own. It's a $20 - $25 book in this condition. Picked up a new mutants run years ago and this book was in there twice. Kept the best copy sold the rest.
Edit : Just saw a little blemish on the back cover...it's a NM- . . . crap.

Another book I picked up in England is "Moon Knight #1" from 1980 ...a few years ago I bought the entire series, read and sold it again. This one remained and will probably end up as a freebie as well. Cheap Batman clone

And saving the best for last... "Captain Marvel #1" from 1968 in VG+. I got this book as a freebie with a purchase a few years ago. Ashamed to say I don't remember who sent it to me and I really should as I just looked it up and it's a $30.00 book

Well this was quite fun for me, I'm off to read the Captain Marvel #1 and maybe, just maybe I'll have a stab at the Logan's run books as well.

Next time I'll dig out another batch of "orphans"

be well.

Truth or Dare

Sometimes the life of the collector is filled with obstacles, the books you are looking for aren't showing up.Or worse, they do become available but you can't afford them. Stuff gets lost in the mail and those NM comics you just bought turn out to be VGs.
But sometimes there is a nice problem to have ; where do I go next ?

In the beginning it's easy...you have nothing and you want everything. But then you come to a point where you have almost everything you want or can afford.
One avenue to take of course it to stop collecting (yeah right) and the other is to look in places previously disregarded. And this time I looked at Daredevil. It might sound strange, but before this month I had never bought a single DD comic, and the only ones I had ever read was the Frank Miller run in those Marvel trades. I'm ashamed to admit that I own the Marvel Masterwork reprinting the first ten issues, but have never taken it out of the plastic wrapper...and honestly I don't know why.

I can't be because I don't like the series as it's totally unknown to me. Even after watching the movie I had no desire whatsoever to start collecting the title at all. But about a month ago somebody sent me a bunch of comics and included a free Silver Age Daredevil comic. Now because I'm a bit weird when this happens I normally give the comic away as I only want complete series or long arcs and single comics frighten the life out of me. The other option is to actively start collecting the series. So I sat down and read the book...and liked it. I then took a look at some of the covers in the run and liked them even more. So I've now decided to start collecting Daredevil.







I'm shooting for Daredevil #1 - #100 and I'll see how long it will take me. Once I have all of them I'll read them back to back and hopefully enjoy them.
What's the worse that can happen ? If it's really not my cup of tea I'll just sell them on and hopefully make someone else happy in getting the complete Silver Age Daredevil without having to do all the work.