A 1000 comics...April overdose.

April 2011 came and went and brought a lot of nice, sunny days. I'm happy to report that at least 30% of the comics on the list this month were read lounging in the garden, enjoying a beer (or five).

You'll also probably notice that I went completely overboard and read 235 comics this month, or an average of about 8 comics a day, every day. May and June will seem like lean months compared to this. Anyway I'm at 743 comics now after 4 months, so the new total of 2011 comics even seems feasible at this point.

Here's what I read this month :


Strange Adventures #205-216 Deadman
Brave and the Bold (vol.1) #79, #86 and 104
Aquaman (vol.1) #50-52
Challengers of the Unknown (vol.1) #74
Criminal V1 #6 - 10
Criminal V1 #1 - #7
Amazing Adventures #1-6,
Amazing Adult Fantasy #7-14
Amazing Fantasy #15.
Creepy #42 - #45
Elephantmen - Man & Elephantman #1
B.P.R.D. The Dead Remembered #1
Fear Itself - The Homefront #1.
Infestation #2
Kick Ass 2 #2
King Conan The Scarlet Citadel #2
Logan's Run The Last Day #6
Marvel Zombies Supreme #2 + #3
Sir Edmund Gray Witchfinder Lost And Gone Forever #3
The Boys #53
The Mission #2
Chew #18
Captain America - Hail Hydra #4
Eerie #28 - #31
I kill giants #1 - #7
Infinite Vacation #2
Fear Itself #1
Hellboy - Buster Oakley Gets His Wish One-shot.
Ultimate Avengers vs New Ultimates #3
Love and Capes - Ever After #3
First Wave Special #1
Catwoman #1-#18, #32 & #50
Catwoman Secret Files and Origins #1
What If Karen Page had lived
What If Jessica Jones had joined the Avengers
The Pulse #1 & #2
Flinch #2
The Losers #1-#8
30 Days of Night Bloodsucker Tales #1 & #6
Dark Days #5 & #6
Black Dragon #1-#6
Lucifer, the Morningstar option #1-#3
Alias #1 - #28.
Captain America Comics #1 - #4
Wolverine Logan #1 - #3.
The Uncanny X-men #151 - #175
Tales of the Crypt #7 - #12
Captain America #43 - #50, #600/#601
Captain America Reborn #1 - #6.

Jolly Green Giant

Well after what seems like forever I managed to complete my Incredible Hulk series.. but not really. I took me over a year to get the very last issue I needed, not that it's that rare but I was never in the right place at the right time. But this week I managed to snag Incredible Hulk #180 and that was all she wrote.

Here's a little scan, the grade isn't anything to write home about, but it's good enough for now. A nice little extra bonus is that the book was signed by Herb Trimpe.



Now Hulk #180 is an odd little book, mainly because it has the very first Wolverine in it, but it's not considered to be Wolverine's first appearance. And that's why the next issue is about 10X to 15X as expensive as this book. Hulk #181 is THE bronze age key and widely accepted as the "first Wolverine".

But then there's this :


Yes, that's the very last panel of issue #180 ... still so sure that #181 is the first appearance of everyone's favorite mutant ?
Now I know I won't convince anyone as most people use these three arguments to "overlook" issue #180. Feel free to subscribe to some/all/none of them.

1) ”Wolverine’s appearance in #180 is a teaser/advertisement for the next issue. He’s not a part of the story in that issue.”
2)”You don’t see much of Wolverine in #180. #181 is the real introduction of the character where we learn what he’s about.”
3)”It’s not considered a full first appearance if it’s a one-panel cameo at the very end of the issue...those don't count”

What I am sure about is that issue #180 won't be skyrocketing in value. A lot of people who firmly believe that #180 is the key have been investing in this book with the hope that some day the world would catch up and that this book would be way up there value-wise with #181. Never going to happen, every year the gap between the two books is getting bigger and bigger.

But enough about these two books... at the very start I mentioned that I completed the Incredible Hulk series...but not really. Well there's a reason for that. The Incredible Hulk starts with issue #102 (1968) and my run continues until #586 (or Hulk V3 #112 ....stupid Marvel)... that's 485 issues + the annuals. But there's more. Before the start of the series, Hulk starred in Tales to Astonish from issue #60 (Oct. 1964) through to issue #101 (and then continued in Incredible Hulk #102... first issue of the new series). So I need to get those issues as well...someday
But wait, there's more still. Before the Tales to Astonish run there was a short-lived Incredible Hulk series in 1962 which only lasted 6 issues... So I need to get those as well...and Hulk #1 isn't exactly cheap.

But at the moment I'm glad I managed to complete this series, and with some luck I should be able to complete a few other large series this year. Stay Tuned

Cancel Christmas ?

Regular readers of this blog will know that I like to give myself presents... and I'm not ashamed to admit it. Especially at Xmas time I really like to indulge myself and buy something "really nice". Last year I bought my JIM 83 and my Batman 11. The year before that my ASM #1 and in 2005 my present of choice was Fantastic Four #1. So what's the big book I'm giving myself this year ?

Well to be honest there isn't going to be one... and no art page either. The main reason is that I haven't been able to find anything that :

A) fits in the budget.
B) Is a grail or close-to-a-grail.
C) Is of acceptable condition to me.


The budget-clause is a given, I'm looking for something around the $1250 range...which should get me a good selection. But it's clause B that's giving me the problem... there isn't really that much out there anymore. Top of the list is a nice Tales of Suspense #39 in 3.0/3.5 with at least Off-white pages, next up is a very nice looking X-men #1 in 4.0/4.5 again with the same pages...and then there's.. well to be honest that's it really.
Sure I could take the money and buy 4-5 books from my want list and complete a series...but that wouldn't be the same. My Xmas present should be one single knockout book which I normally only can afford around Xmas. So I guess it's not going to happen this year

But all is not lost, for once I did manage to get into the Xmas present thanks to a cool gift I got from my German friend and fellow collector Rudy. And here's me wearing it in all its monochrome beauty (and I'm not talking about the hat)
Just click the pic for a higher res version and Merry Xmas to all and thanks for reading my blog from time to time :)

You complete me

Well about 6 weeks I announced that I had just started collecting Daredevil and would try to finish #1 - #100 in a relative short time. As usual I went overboard and went completely Colonel Kurtz about the whole thing. After 6 weeks I can proudly (?) say that I only need 3 more issues to complete the entire run. I pestered and hounded everyone I knew to sell me the books and I'm sure it won't take that long until I get the 3 remaining books and I can read them back to back.

Here's a pic of issue #1.
I just love the old-school costume which I think was designed by Bill Everett and Jack Kirby. The red one is more dramatic and probably more iconic, but this one just plains rocks..even though his bum looks big in it (the stuff I notice when I read comic books...)

Anyway with a little luck I'll be able to complete this series before the end of the year. 2008 hasn't been my best year for completing series/runs. Of course the previous years were the salad years as was able to complete all the A-series. This year original art took most of my focus, time and not to mention money. But I've grown a little sour on art as the prices continue to soar into the stratosphere. So 2009 will hopefully see my return to the fold and will reap completed series galore.

I'm not sure, but the only series I think I completed this year was Captain America.
But I did start collecting a few other series/runs that I hoped to complete this year. Alas it was not to be, but I'm very close to some of them and maybe just maybe I can pull another rabbit out of the hat before the end of the year.

Here's a little breakdown

• Tales of Suspense - need 7 more issues to complete the series


• Incredible Hulk - need one more book to complete the series


• Journey into Mystery - need 10 more books to complete the series

And then of course there are the smaller runs I'm working on, but more about those in a later update.

Dead but not forgotten

Has it really almost been three months ? Wow this is the longest time I've dragged my heels on this here blog. No excuses, life and work always take precedence and the last few months have been busy, stressful and quite hectic so the times where I did fine myself with some free time I didn't particularly feel like working on my blog.

Another reason is that I'm not buying that many comic books anymore. After buying like a Duracell Bunny for the last 6 years, things are slowing down.
Not that I'm getting tired of the whole thing,but when I started collecting there were about 10.000 books I wanted and now there are less than 50.
As my collection is nearing completion I find myself gravitating towards original art more and more. And as OA costs a whole lot more than most comic books I need to prioritize. If I have to choose between buying 500 books or a nice piece of OA, well let's just say they OA has been winning big for the last year.

But never fear, I do plan to complete my series and this is exactly the reason for this particular blog entry. My Captain America series is now complete !
The very last issue I needed was issue #111 from 1968, a classic Steranko issue and weirdly enough it featured this panel :





Cap was apparently killed battling those evil evil Hydra minions in this issue (he wasn't really dead).
The strange thing is that I only started collecting Captain America when he was "killed" again last year...so I got in to the game very late, but at least I managed to complete #100 (first issue) to #400 in about a year. Some weird symmetry going on here...

Collecting Cap was an absolute thrill, most issues are affordable, sport excellent covers and a host of comic superstars have given their best when when working on the title.
Not all runs are entertaining, some are downright dull or stupid, I never cared for the "black-suited" Cap that turned into US agent, but I think that Captain America is Marvel's biggest iconic character next to Spider-Man. Sure Wolverine and all the X-people are a lot more popular than good ole' Cap, but the costume, the origin, the symbolism...it's all just perfect and he is the only Marvel (Timely) character from the 1940's who's still very popular and very recognisable.

So to celebrate a little, here is the intro to the Marvel 1960's Captain America cartoon. Enjoy