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

When Tony and Steve shared a book...

Loyal readers of my blog will know that I’m all about completing series and runs.
The most joy I get out of the whole comics-hobby is when I’m able to start with a single book of a certain series and then go out and complete the entire series issue by issue. Is it the thrill of the hunt or a deep-rooted psychological quirk that makes me do this?

I honestly don’t know and I’ll be the first to admit that I often buy books I know I’ll never read just to get the series complete. But once I do complete a quest I get a nice warm feeling all over. Trouble is that it fades away fast.

So once a series is complete I move over to another series and so on. I’ve been using the same system for about six years now (when I first started collecting funny books) and at any given time I’m working on three different series which makes it easier than to just concentrate on one single title. It broadens my scope and I get to find more books at one and the same dealer thus saving on shipping.

I do cheat a little however, once I get a series down to 5 or less missing issues I’m “allowed” to start a new series. And last month I got some more Caps in and I managed to get my want list down to a single issue. So at the moment I only need Captain America #111 to complete #100 to #400 and of course I’ve already started on a new series.

I chose Tales of Suspense this time. Having already completed Iron Man #1 - #400 and the entire Cap series, it’s a logical choice as both series continued from TOS #39 - #99.
But it’s also a rather stupid choice timing-wise. With the buzz of the new Iron Man movie coming out (trailers look fantastic) interest in anything Iron Man have soared. TOS has long been a sleeper title due to the relative popularity of Iron Man, but things are changing fast and most TOS and Iron Man books have increased in value/cost the last 3 months or so...just when I decide to have a go at the run and now want Tos #39 - #99 and got off to a good start, need 22 more issues.

But I’m also still gunning for

JIM #83 – JIM #125( need 14 more issues)
Hulk #102 - #550 (need 34 more issues)
Captain America #100 - #400 (need one more issue)

I'm hoping to complete all of the above this year so I can start on Batman #1 - #400, but I'm buying to much Original Art of late to drop some serious coin on that series alas.

And for cover fans, here are a few of the TOS books I got in this week. Enjoy

One is the magic number

Short and sweet entry this time. Just wanted to share this picture with you. Last week I pulled my Silver Age number 1s for a photo op.
Why I did it I'll explain later, but at the moment I just want you to take a look at the pic and look at the number 1s...and think about when #1 isn't #1. Confused ? Read on.

I put my nine most important (Silver Age) first issues in the picture, but only 6 of them have a #1 on the cover...but I assure you they are all "first issues". So what's up .
Well Fantastic Four #1, Avengers #1 Amazing Spider-man #1, Iron Man #1, X-men #1 and Silver Surfer #1 are self explanatory, but what about Amazing Fantasy #15...why does this Marvel Uber key carry the number #15 ? Well because it was the 15th issue in the series that spotlighted various new heroes/concepts and nobody had any idea that this Spider-man character would stick. Well he did and because of this we are stuck with this strangely numbered issue as the first Spider-man issue.

And what about Hulk #102...In 1964 the Hulk became the backup feature in Tales to Astonish (sharing the book with Giant-Man) and when in 1968 Marvel finally was able to renegotiate their distribution deal they seized the opportunity to expand their monthly titles and gave the Hulk his own book.
Tales to Astonish had run tot #101, so it seemed logical to continue the numbering on the first Hulk issue and so it came to be that the first issue of Hulk V2 was issue #102

Same thing with Captain America. Tales of Suspense had run to issue #99 when in 1968 Marvel could finally give both heroes (Cap and Iron Man) their own books. Cap continued the TOS numbering and started at #100. For some reason they didn't follow this logic with Iron Man and the first Iron Man issue got a #1 on its cover. But it could have easily (and logically) been #100 as well.

But why did I pull the issues and take the pic ? Why now ? Well mainly because this is the last time these books were all in my possession Two of the books in the pic have left my collection. I no longer own Amazing Fantasy #15 or X-men #1. I didn't sell them, I didn't lose them and they didn't get stolen. Nothing like that...I traded them.
To find out why I was prepared to do away with these two super keys, and more importantly what I got in trade...tune in next week

Little Series part 1

What's next after you've completed FF ? What's next after you've completed ASM ? What's next; what's next...Well for some reason something is always just around the corner to tickle my fancy and I hope something always will be. But it has to be something I'm 100% committed to, I could never collect something I'm not passionate about. And that's what I also collect the "little" series.

Now let's get some thing straight first, "little series" isn't really the most fitting name for the following titles, but it's the best I could come up with on the fly.I don't mean it as a disparaging or pejorative title, all of these series are excellent and some are even better (in certain runs) than the "bigger" series I've collected. I chose this particular moniker because I'm not going for the complete run this time. I have no desire to own everything from the first to the final issue, I just picked a certain (long) run to collect/complete and I thought today I would give you an update on how everything is working out so far.

I've confessed my love for old greenskin before, both comic- or original art-wise. There's just something about the Hulk I really like. I started out with the intent to collect Hulk #250 - #550, but this changed to #200 - #550. At the moment I only need three more issues out of the 350 to complete the quest. So I guess I can't really count this as a "little" series any more. A few weeks ago I bought Hulk #102, first issue in the series and like always lost my self control and have now decided to go for #102 - #550 and complete the entire series. Sometimes it's just stronger than me.
Of course this means I'll have to get another copy of that horrible, horrible overrated (but most expensive of all the Bronze Books) Hulk #181. I've owned three copies over the years and was always happy to sell them and buy better books with the money, but nobody said being a completionist would be easy.


Probably the fastest series I have ever (nearly) completed. I started collecting old winghead in March 2007 and now 7 months later I've collected 297 of the 301 books I was after. Meaning for those of you that read playboy during maths class that I just need 4 more issues to complete #100 - #400. I should finish this before the end of the year. From start to finish less than 9 months, I don't know what this says about me , but I'm glad I did it. It might sound strange, but with 300 issues I still consider this to be a "little series". After all there are about 180 more books (after #400) that I don't want/need/collect. So basically this is just a run, a big-ass run, but a run just the same



Ok, this might classify as the closest to a real "little series" possible. JIM counts 125 issues, but only the last 43 issues are of interest to me because Thor "starts" in Journey into Mystery #83 and ends in #125.
When I started collecting Thor last year I started at Thor #126 (which is the first issue in that series) and continued until issue #400. Deep down inside I knew one day I would go for the first 43 issues and this year I made a modest start. Modest because these early Silver Age books aren't exactly cheap. I still need 14 out of the 43 books, and alas the four most expensive ones aren't in my possession yet, but on the bright side, I did manage to get almost 30 books this year.



Stay tuned for Little Series part two..."the DC connection" in a few days time, including rants about Batman, Weird War Tales & Brave and the Bold

There's a riot going on

The Summer was quite uneventful when it came to major purchases, in fact I hardly bought anything at all. Normally Summertime is when my spending increases because I'm home from work and get to be on-line more (yes even more) and let's not forget there are bargains to be had during this period.

Lots of people sell off their excess stuff at lower prices because they need money to go visit all the cons. And last but not least, a of of people are on holiday, away from the computer or just outside more and there are less bidders for stuff on eBay. But like I said, I didn't buy a lot of books this Summer, but what I forgot to mention is that I did spend a lot of money this Summer...just not on comics

Ever since the punch in the stomach I got from my AF15 splitting I have taken a step back from collecting, this happens to me about once a year and never seems to last, but this time it lasted three months.
I just wasn't interested in hunting down books or looking at auctions. And I certainly wasn't about to spend even more money, not knowing what my AF15's fate was. So I turned to the side-street of comic collecting and picked up where I left about four years ago. I started buying original art again.

Back in 2003 I bought a John Buscema page with Doom/Superman/Spider-man and a Dave Cockrum Cover recreation of X-men 145 (Doom holding Storm). I was planning to collect Silver and Bronze Age pages featuring the good Doctor, with the crowning piece a nice Kirby Doom-FF battle page.
But at the time I was also very busy completing the Marvel Superhero titles and you can only stretch a dollar that much. I did check eBay every week for a nice vintage Doom page, but the pickings were slim and when I did spot something I liked it was a bit too expensive for me.

The art collecting kinda drifted to the background, but has now resurfaced. The sad news is that due to the increase in price (even in the last few years) a Kirby FF/Doom page will probably be out of my league for a while....we're talking $5000 just for a starter page. The good news is that I've decided not to concentrate on Doom and only Doom any more.
I'm going for published Marvel Superhero art up till around 1985 with the emphasis on Doom, Captain America and Hulk pages.
But if I find a page from a later date which I like (a Sean Phillips Zombie Doom ) I won't turn it down.

I've bought a few pages this month to start me off, and this is the first one I'd like to share.




It's a Sal Buscema splash, majestically showing Captain America going fist-first into a full blown race-riot.
Can't get more dramatic than this.

I decided not to frame my art, but to keep it in a special portfolio, secured next to the comic page with some info attached.

Unchained !

60 days....done and gone. This is the day the shackles come off. Sixty days ago I made myself a promise, after spending way too much in a very short time, to not only cut down on spending, but also not to buy anything for the next 2 months. While I was in the middle of my "down-time", I got overexcited and proclaimed, I'd not only do the 60 days, but extend it to 80 days, to have the first day of being able to buy comics again to coincide with my birthday. Well it was a nice idea, but enough is enough. I officially declare "buying-time" is here again.

The first week was pretty hard, but it got easier along the way. Some obstacles were thrown at me, a few dealers had interesting sales, one collector friend was dumping a large amount of Silver Age on the market and there was a virtual comic con that I attended, but I held on. The last weeks were the easier, in fact apathy set in. At one point I wasn't even interested in following discussions on comic boards any more, along with the thrill of the hunt of finding/buying new books, some of my interest inthe hobby waned as well. I even started wondering if the whole thing was still that important to me.
Happily when the final date approached so did my passion and the last few days of waiting were pure hell as there were so many things I was interested in buying again.

So did I really not buy anything ? Well....no (sorry), but I did stick by the rules. During that virtual Comiccon I bought a couple of dollar books, that's all I spent, a dollar per book (and they were all from my want-list).
This was one exception that I had made to the rule, very cheap books that were on the want-list were okay. The other rule was that if I found a treasure for a really low low (stupidly low) price I could buy it. Alas no Action #1's for $100 came my way.

With less than a week to go I also bought some other stuff, but I arranged so that I didn't have to pay before today (in fact I still have a few days before I have to pay). I haven't received the books, (they haven't even been sent) and haven't paid for them...I just kinda pre-ordered them, so I don't think I cheated. Of course your mileage may vary, and if you think I did break the rules, don't hesitate in letting me know.

I pre-ordered an Absolute Edition from Amazon Germany which was heavily discounted and I should get it next week or something. The other item I pre-ordered was a CGC 9.8 of Amazing Spider-man V2 #36 (the 911 issue). It's the book that brought me back into the hobby (I bought it in a shop and the next day I decided I had to have the complete Amazing Spider-man series) and the only comic that I keep buying multiple issues

I have about 10 now,6 raw NM copies 2 CGC 9.4s, 1 CGC 9.6 and soon a CGC 9.8. It's also the only comic book I would be stupid enough to buy as a perfect "Gem Mint" CGC 10.0 one day.

So what next ? Well, I don't have any plans at all to buy expensive books for the moment, I'll try to leave my Golden Age Batman run for next year.
For now I would be content if I could complete the following runs :

Captain America #100 - #400 (need about 50 books)
Hulk #200 - #500+ (8 more books to go)
Batman #200 - #300 (9 more books)

And of course a couple of smaller series...but more on those later

They killed him, but I'm keeping him alive...

Well as most of you know Captain America is no more, he was "killed" by Crossbones/Sharon Carter whatever.I won't elaborate on Marvel's latest gimmick, plenty of other blogs for that and I also don't believe that Cap's dead for good. So why am I writing about it at all...because I just got a huge stack of Cap books in the mail.

After all my tales of woe the previous months/years about very slow shipping, I finally caught a break. This morning an 25 lbs M-bag with about 170 caps (Silver-Bronze-Copper) arrived from the US
It was put in the system on Jan 21st and I calculated (based on previous misadventures) it would arrive arrive around the first of May..well it didn't, it got here now and only took 52 days. Or half the time of the previous ones.

I have no idea now anymore how the M-bag system works, my best bet is that they have a 800-pound gorilla working there who tosses the bag and the bag that lands the furthest away from base gets shipped first.
Anyway, I don't care, all I know I have a huge lot of Caps between #106 & #400 to read.
After getting my very first Caps a few months ago, I kinda fell in love with the series and decided to put together a nice long run, initially I was going for #100 (Captain America starts with #100) through to #200...but now I guess I'm going to go up to #400.
The next week will be pretty busy, re-bagging and boarding 170 books, grading them and putting them in my database and then fyscially moving them into my comic cabinets.But let's face it, that's the fun part of collecting.

Here's how 170 Cap books look, fresh out of the M-bag, I put one of the better covers next to the pile to give you an idea of the dimensions.