After The FACTS.

Looking back at my very hectic but fun day at FACTS 2010 this year, a few things come to mind, but I would like to start straight out of the gate, with the feeling I had all day. This is a great hobby we have and sometimes we tend to forget it. Sitting at home behind a PC screen, scrutinizing every single detail of every single comic or storyline, getting into online flame-fests and being sarcastic slash negative because it looks right the cool thing to do.

But when it comes down to brass tacks, this hobby is all about the people.. I met an army of nice people today, from A-class artists, to very young fan-boys, from indie publishers to volunteers who go without sleep to make sure everyone is entertained. From retailers who actually care more about pleasing the customer by selling them a fantastic hardcover than by just the sale.

I'm guilty of being too jaded myself, telling everyone in earshot (and beyond) that cons really aren't that great, that there are better deals to be found online, that they are loud, expensive and crowded, that the food is bad and the service is worse etc etc...Well I was wrong, cons are the lifeblood of our hobby and you are really missing out if you don't attend one near you.

By now if you are guessing that I had a great time then you deserve a gold star. I hardly bought anything (one comic !) worked my ass off and already left the house at the crack of dawn, but it was all worth it. Here are some highlights. I forgot a lot of things and will undoubtedly have left some people out, sorry for that, but I still love you.
The very first and probably the biggest highlight was getting to meet Dave Gibbons.
After we had build up our booth, I walked over to the next hall and the Artist's village. There were already people queuing for Frank Cho and Greg Cappullo, the line for Dave Gibbons was still empty which kinda surprised me. Mind you this was about 1 1/2 hours before the artists were due to arrive and the general public was admitted.

At 9.00 AM the early-bird ticket holders were admitted (one hour before the rest) and at 9.15 I walked over the artist section again. The line for Cappulo had grown to maybe 20 people, about 10 for Cho and three fans were eagerly waiting for Dave Gibbons.
As I didn't expect a lot of sales before 10.30 AM and my partner was manning the booth, I decided to get in line as well.Dave showed up at about 10.05 AM and was eager to go. Frank Cho and Brandon Peterson showed up each over an hour late...All the artists had sampled some Belgian beer the night before and only Dave Gibbons was able to to fight the hangover and be there on time. Separating the men from the boys and showing he is the consummate professional.
The first person in line wanted a Rorschach head-shot, which Dave drew in about 10 minutes and looked really nice. Oh, prices were €50 for head-sketches and €75 for full figure. Quickie sketches and sigs were free. Second guy just wanted his Watchmen trade signed, so that went quickly and the third guy, whom I regularly talk to online, wanted a Comedian sketch..which I think looks fantastic, so I included Philippe's commission here as it is truly breathtaking seeing Dave draw this in a matter of minutes, first blue-line then ink...he was like a machine. (Yes Phille I was looking over your shoulder when Dave drew it)

And then it was my turn, I had brought my Watchmen page along and asked Dave to sign it, he looked it over for a while and told me "it's always nice to see an old friend", referring to the page of course :)

We chatted a bit,he asked where I got it and told the story of how he sold the art (per complete issue !) to London's Comic Showcase store. I don't know if Dave wants it out there how much he got for each issue + cover, but I was shocked to find out how low it was. But seeing Comic Showcase then sold the pages for between £70 and £150 each, you can figure it out.

Mister Gibbons and I also discovered we had a mutual friend, Paris_Fred...now there's a guy who gets around. I didn't want to take up too much time as the line behind me had now grown to over 25 people (and it didn't seem to get any smaller throughout the entire day) so in parting I asked him who his favorite artist was and after some thinking he said "Wally Wood"...Dave Gibbons was really a very nice man to meet, an excellent artists and he has excellent taste in other artists as well :).

I also saw a lot of old friend who it's always a delight to bump in to (you know who you are !) and finally met some people I know from various chat-boards face-to-face...which is always nice.
I sold a lot of trades and hardcovers at the cheapcomics booth, but most of all tried to talk to people about which series they liked and suggested other titles they might also be interested in (Anything Walking Dead flew of the shelves).

I'm always in awe of all the people that spend months making their own costume and then proceed to walk around it it, sweating like a pig and not being able to buy anything as they can't stoop down to look in the boxes, and even if they did....where would they put it as they have no pockets. There were a LOT of cos-players at FACTS, but the guy walking around in the home-made Iron Man suit deserves deep deep Kudos ! I wonder how many batteries it took ?
I was also impressed by my friend Malkavian of Brainfreeze who was immaculately dressed as a pony.


But what really got to me were the independent publishers, the small-time companies who still publish comic books, against all odds, for the simple reason of the love for the medium. I'm pretty sure most of them don't break even and still they persevere. My deepest respect goes out to the people at Dropcomics and especially to my friends at Windmill Comics This Dutch team of writers, editors and artists are keeping the spirit of early comic fandom alive. They are the lifeblood of the hobby and I consider them today's Jerry Bails, Don Thomson, Biljo White or Roy Thomas. Thanks guys, may fame and fortune find you some day

The best series you've never read

OK, we all agree that Alan Moore is a fantastic comic-book writer, I won't use the word "genius" as I personally think geniuses are few and far between, but it's hard to read any article about the "bearded-man-of-Northampton" where the word isn't (over)used. Having said all that, he is my favorite comic writer, narrowly beating Neil Gaiman and Stan Lee...so it's a shame that one of his best series hasn't been available for over 15 years.

Marvelman was a British knock-off of Fawcett's Captain Marvel and was devised by writer Mick Anglo to take Cap's place when Fawcett discontinued the title after a lawsuit from DC Comics. So to be frank, the only reason that Marvelman was created was an economical one. The UK publisher wanted to continue publishing comic books and they had just lost their major star...so why not make one up.


Marvelman was very similar to Captain Marvel: a young reporter named Micky Moran encounters an astrophysicist (instead of a wizard) who gives him his superpowers based on atomic energy. To transform into Marvelman, he has to speak the word "Kimota" (phonetically, "atomic" backwards; rather than "Shazam"). Readers didn't seem to mind and this humdrum title sold fairly well in the UK in the mid-fifties.

Fast-forward to March 1982, "Warrior"a new British monthly black-and-white anthology comic is launched.The first 21 issues feature a new Marvelman story written by Alan Moore, predating Watchmen by a few years, Moore touches on many themes of his later work, including the superhero as a source of terror, the sympathetic villain, and exploring the mythology of an established fictional character.The result is fantastic. The new Marvelman is a fabulous comic-book series, very complex, very layered and quite disturbing.

In August 1985, US comic book publisher Eclipse begins reprinting the Marvelman stories from Warrior, colorized and re-sized. However, they were renamed and re-lettered throughout as Miracleman, due to pressure from Marvel Comics. Issues 1-6 reprinted all the Warrior content, after which Eclipse began publishing all-new Miracleman stories from Moore and new artist Chuck Austen, soon replaced by Rick Veitch and then John Totleben.
Alan Moore continues to write the series up to #16 and ends with a bang, the fight scene is #15 is highly disturbing, featuring a degree of violence not previously seen in superhero battles and let's not forget the even more disturbing beating and rape of Kid Miracleman. In fact Miracleman #15 can be seen as the very first "grim and gritty" comic that led to a real avalanche of the genre during the 90's and the subsequent comic-boom.


Neil Gaiman picked up the series at #17, and developed it further in the 1990s, working with artist Mark Buckingham. He planned three books, consisting of six issues each; they would be titled "The Golden Age", "The Silver Age" and "The Dark Age".
Two issues of "The Silver Age" appeared, but issue #24 was the last to see print. Issue 25 was completed (apart from colouring) but due to the collapse of Eclipse it has never seen light.

So now you think, well some other publisher will continue where Eclipse left off and finish the run...well no such luck. Marvelman/Miracleman has been tied up in courts for over a decade. The legal ownership of Miracleman is a complicated story and until it's resolved there will be no more issues...worse still no reprints. And that's why I chose the title of this little blog-entry, it's a crime that so many comic-fans have been deprived of the chance to read one of the best comic series that has ever been made. Both Moore and Gaiman turned out some of their best work here and it should be enjoyed by all comic fans.

I know that a lot of comic fans are a lot smarter than I am and don't go around spending tons of cash of cash on back issues, but instead opt to buy a new TPB or hardcover which reprints the story...well even that is impossible. The few TPBs that were released before all the litigation started have become even rarer than the original issues and some command prices between $100 and $350 on eBay...for what are essentially reprints.
The first few issues aren't that hard to find or that expensive, but expect to pay about $350 - $500 for a decent complete run (1-24)
So let's hope one day the whole mess gets cleared up and the epic story that is Miracleman can be reprinted and discovered and enjoyed by everyone.

Meanwhile here are some of the covers. I finally managed to complete the series, it took me a few years and two years ago I was just short of issues #20 and #24 and for some reason I just couldn't get them...Mission accomplished and now for the first time ever I'll be able to read the story from beginning till the end. I was lucky to find two of the TPBs here in Belgium about 5 years ago but I've never read the story in true comic book form.

Keys leaving Home

First of all my apologies to The Beatles for the that terrible pun on one of their finer songs..but I've been sick and lost a lot of braincells and basically it's a miracle I could come up with that one. And with that you know the reason why it took so long for me to write the end to the previous blog...flue, the human kind. But I'm back now and I hope you are too.

Anyway as stated previously I traded my Amazing Fantasy #15 + my X-men #1 for something else, now what's worth about the same as these two keys ? (And probably worth more to me or I wouldn't have traded) ? Tough one ! Not a lot actually. Sure there are more valuable books, but these (Detective Comics #27, Action #1) are worth about 20 to 50 times as much...and nobody is going to give me that.
I couldn't think of any other Silver Age book (or a combo) either..so don't feel bad. But I never said I traded it for a book right ?
Both books went to a good friend and fellow collector who gave me this in return :

Yes, an original Watchmen page. I feel very privileged and lucky to get my hands on this as they are impossible to get. Not a lot of pages about and those who have them usually hang on to them.
Always wanted a Watchmen page with both Ozymandias and Rorschach, and not a lot of those around. Happy I was able to pick up this page which features 3 of the main protagonists (Ozy, Rorschach and Nite-Owl ). Now this might sound strange and even a bit pretentious, but a Watchmen page is not my grail piece like the AF #15 was. But too much had happened with my copy and it would always bring back some unpleasant memories and obtaining a Watchmen page was a once in a lifetime chance especially for one living so far from the rest of the collecting community.

When I got home with my page the first thing I did was go to my HC shelve and slide out my Absolute Edition of Watchmen. I bought this when it first came out and it had remained unread and still shrink wrapped (hey they go up in value and these command a premium don't you know) as I used my TPB copy to read the story.
I removed the shrinkwrap and opened the oversized HC. I flipped to the page I now owned and a warm sense of joy (or maybe capitalism ?) came over me as I now fully realized that I was the only one in the world who owned of this particular page of this masterwork. I then started reading the series again, probably for the 8th time in the last decade and fell in love with it all over again. Damn fine book, damn fine page.