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.

What to collect.

I’ve never collected for financial gain, never considered myself a “comic-investor” or bought multiple copies of a hot new book with the intent of selling them. But realistically almost every GA/SA/BA collector does a little speculating and is hoping his collection will go up in value. Of course what a lot of people seem to forget is that if your collection goes up in value so do the books you still want, and you end up paying more for the books on your want list.

But it’s a lot of fun (and for most also part of the attraction) that if you collect carefully and make informed decisions, you stand a good chance of at least not losing money. In fact a lot of comic collectors use this as an excuse when a wife/girlfriend/friend keeps hammering on how much money they spend on “funny books”. The de facto reply is almost always “yes but this book will be worth x-amount in y-amount of time” or “If I go down the pub every night the money is gone as well and now at least I have something to show for it”

So it’s not surprising that most questions and queries I get, both here and on my Youtube video channel is what books to buy and how much I paid for a certain book. Now as a rule I never divulge how much I paid for a certain book…that’s my prerogative and it’s nobody else’s business. If I get a book way below market value and I post the price, it almost seems like bragging and laughing in the face of the guy that sold it to me…which I think is very uncouth. Also if I paid a significant amount of money I don’t want to be avalanched by mails and messages telling me I could have gotten a small car or end world famine for that price.
Again, it’s my money and mine to play with.

But I’m always very happy to help people that start collecting or are narrowing their focus on what books to get. The general rule is and will always be “collect what you like”. Get the comics you love, the ones that ring your bell or transport you back to Nostalgia Road and don’t put possible future appreciation as your number one goal. Sure it’s sweet when your comic increases in value but if you buy it to never look at it and just keep it in a safe somewhere for 5 years and then proceed to sell it off…then think about investing in gold.
It’s the same low-thrill hobby and you’ll probably do better in the long run.

So, OK you LOVE Silver Age comics and want to start buying and will love the comics for ever…so where do you go from here ?
Well there are two trains of thought here. A lot of people will tell you to always buy the highest grade possible as these will appreciate the quickest and the most. Well these people are 100% correct, but most comic fans I know would rather have 3 nice mid-grade books for the price of one high-grade book. So if you are only interested in high grade books the following advice is not for you.

Congratulations, you’ve made it this far, this means you are ready to buy low to mid-grade books that are fun to own/collect and have a chance of making you some money.
Well for starters you can not go wrong with very early Marvel Silver Age, especially the “Big Two”…Amazing Spider-man and Fantastic Four. Most collectors will always be interested in the first 20 issues (at least) of these wonderful series. They are the cornerstone of the Marvel Universe and are riddled with keys. If you do not overpay then you will make a profit down the road as these keep going up year after year.
Some do it slowly but surely, others take huge jumps at a time (Amazing Fantasy #15).


In fact it will be much easier to unload three or four books in the 2.0 range than one book in the 5.0 range. There are still a lot of collectors out there who want to own a certain book and don’t really care about grade. So low grade books are perfect for 90% of the collectors that just want to build a collection and don’t want to mortgage the house to buy certain issues.

Stay tuned for part 2 next week.

Goodie Bag

Well for those who thought I'd fallen of the face of the earth, no such luck. I've still been buying and even selling a bit, but all my purchases of the last 3 months have been safely stored in the good old US of A.


But not anymore as I received another of those glorious Priority boxes with all my stuff...alas no video this time, but I did make a group picture and will discuss some of the books in more detail.

Here's a group-shot of the 15 books, just click on it for a larger view.



Now, from the pic you can see that it's all Silver Age or keys and yes some of those books are duplicates. I find that now when my collection is near completion, there are a number of books I like buy in multiple copies. Don't ask me why, I just do. On the one had I buy them to trade or to resell, but to be honest I hardly ever take the effort of listing stuff anymore...if someone wants a book I have multiple copies of, sure I'll sell them, but "push" them on an auction site or large market ? Naah, maybe tomorrow.

First bunch are the JIMs. Thor has always been of the less popular Marvel Heroes, but I've always like him, especially the Kirby issues. Once I finished my Thor series, I decided to go for the older Journey into Mystery books. First Thor of course was in JIM #83 and the series went on till issue #125. With these three issues I'm getting close in completing the series as well. Bought a very nice copy of #83 last year and with these three in the bank I now only need issues #84,#91,#92 & #93 ... which I should get this year.
Again click on the thumbnails for a bigger pic






The three Fantastic Four books are upgrades, I completed the entire series from #1 - #525 about two years ago (or is it 3 already ?) and wanted to get higher graded copies of some of the issues when all was finished. And you can't go wrong with those classic 48/49 issues...first Silver Surfer, first Galactus..what's not to miss. Plus I've always loved the cover to #49...very hard to get a decent looking copy due to the black inks.





More to come later.

Read all about it

You know we internet aficionados have it easy in this day and age when we want to talk about our comic books. It doesn't matter where you live or how socially inept you are, you will easily find someone who shares your viewpoint on a certain book, character or storyline.

Finding someone to argue with about those particular subjects is even easier. We have chat-room, internet forums, newsgroups and the really weird can even start their own blog to ram their views down the world's throat.

Back in the day the only medium available to fans was the letters column in the back of the comics. Most of the comics had one or two pages of "letters of comments". In the beginning these were just your standard "I hate" or "I love" letters but slowly reader participation increased and it became a valid means for creators to get feedback from their adoring (or not so adoring) fans. And let's not forget it was THE place for comic fans to "meet" likeminded people. You have to remember that at the time, they were publishing full addresses and fans started writing each other.

When people ask me why I stubbornly read my Silver Age comics (and not keep them slabbed) instead of the reprints that I also own, I point them to the letters pages, the ads, the editorials..for me they are an integral part of the whole comic book experience and they give me a very cool wormhole into the past and into the mindset of your average comic reader of the 60's.
But what really gets my rocks off is when I stumble onto an old fan-letter written by a fan/kid who later turned into a Marvel/DC mainstay. A lot of famous artists, editors and writers got their first taste of comic publishing when their letter was printed in "Avengers Assemble!" (Avengers), "Letters to the Living Legend," (Captain America), "Spider's Web" (Amazing Spider-Man), or "X-Mail," (Uncanny X-Men).

This week I was reading the first 20 or so issues of Fantastic Four and I was pleasantly surprised how many "names" were scattered all over the letters pages and I thought I'd share a few with you.

Uncanny X-men and Legion of Super-heroes legend, the late great Dave Cockrum was a very avid comic fan and letterhack back at the very beginning of the Marvel Age.
Dave was a young sailor in the US navy and wrote a lot of letters to Amazing Spider-man, Avengers and Fantastic Four.

In fact Dave met and married his first wife through the letter page of Fantastic Four #34. She read the letter and became interested because he was a sailor and a comic fan. Dave and her exchanged letters, met up and got married !

Anyway here's a scan of an earlier letter Dave Cockrum sent in to Fantastic Four #22 from January 1964. Don't you just love it how Dave criticizes the inking on the X-men books.
Enjoy !

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 :)

The postman always rings twice

It's been a while since I made and posted a video. But seeing as my previous one just broke the 5000 unique views barrier (I can't believe 5000 people actually watched it) and it's almost Xmas I thought I'd give it another go. it's a bit silly and a lot geeky, but you comic fans know the great feeling when books you bought finally arrive.

As I'm geographically challenged it sometimes takes months before I get my hands on the books I bought as I tend to have a bunch of them shipped together to keep the postage in check. Yesterday two boxes arrived at once and...well watch the vid and let me know what you think. Couldn't find the trademark white surgical gloves this time, so I'm doing it all ,gulp... barehanded




If you want to watch the video in a higher resolution, which I thoroughly recommend, you can click on THIS LINK. Makes it easier to make out all the details.

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.

Spending Jumps

Who truly tells the people close to him how much you've spent on your collection ? If you don't then chances are you are feeling guilty about spending too much, or just know that nobody will understand why you just have to pay Xamount of money for a bunch of smelly old books printed on recycled newsprint paper originally aimed at a 10-year old.
And spend is wat the collector does, and I'm certainly am guilty of overindulging myself on a regular basis.

But what I've learned from conversations with other collectors is that almost nobody goes out and spends a large chunck of change out of the blue.
You gradually build up to it...making little spending jumps as it were.

The psychology of this is that you set bounderies for yourself, lines in the sand that you will not, never ever, no siree Bob, cross. Until you do just that and draw another line in the sand, this time just a little further.
I remember when I started collecting around 2002 and I was spending on average about $3.00 per book and was completing the Wolverine series.
Somebody offered me issue #1 of the series for $12.00 and I bought it and felt a little uneasy at spending this amount of money on a book.


My next step was when I bought my copy of Amazing Spider-man #300 for the princely sum of $30.00. I emailed the seller and told him I would take it and went to sleep. I woke up in the middle of the night, wondering if I could still get out of the deal. My first case of buyer's remorse.
Once that target was shattered I felt comfortable buying books up to $40.00- $50.00, of course I hadn't yet ventured into that domain called "The Silver Age".




A few months later I bought a copy of Amazing Spider-man #122, one of the uber Bronze-Age keys and I had to cross the $100 line and again it felt uncomfortable and stupid, but again I got over it and drew a new line in the sand. $100 books were now a regular occurrence and for the longest time I stuck to the plan..until Doctor Doom came around messed things up.

I still had no intention of collecting Silver Age (we're talking Spring 2003) but I was and still am a Dr Doom nut and I was offered the opportunity to purchase Fantastic Four #5, first Doc Doom for a little under $300.
It took me all of 5 minutes to decide make another spending jump, but this was a big one, it had now evolved into more than just a hobby. I was deliriously happy with the book (and still am, one of my top-5 favorite books) and oddly enough didn't get the nauseating sensation in my stomach when I woke up the next day. Was I getting immune ?

Sure looked that way,as for the next 6 months or so I was buying sub $500 books left and right (well I was completing the Fantastic Four series and there are some seriously expensive books in there) but I never went over the magical $500 mark. Deep inside I knew that one day I would have to if I wanted to get all the comics that were on my want list, but I kept postponing it until the day where I had complete the entire FF series, save one issue...yes #1 the first Marvel Silver Age book that was ever published.
$500 wasn't going to cut it, and alas neither was $1000, so as a Xmas present to myself I got a nice copy of this holy grail and paid over $1000 for it. The nausea came back and stayed with me for a few days, but this also passed as I was happy as a lark, not only because of getting the book, but also because I had just completed FF #1 - #500.

The next year I completed Amazing Spider-man and again I gave myself a Xmas present, Spider-man #1 and this time the line was crossed at $1500+. This hobby thing was getting out of hand, but the good thing was that there was only one more book that would cause me to raise the bar again and that of course was the key of all keys, Amazing Fantasy #15.

The plan was to purchase this as my 2007 Xmas present, but in the Spring of this year I was offered a copy that fit the bill perfectly and bought it, months ahead of time and not CGC encapsulated/graded like I had always done with my major purchases.
I crossed the $2000 threshold and lived to regret it, what happened to my AF #15 is well documented in an earlier blog entry.

But let's not end on a sad note, on the one hand the line should now never be crossed again, I've jumped as far as possible as AF#15 is the most expensive book to get. Sure I could upgrade some of my books or get a real high grade expensive copy of another book, but that's not the way it works for me. I've reached the end of the line and I don't see myself crossing the $2500 mark for a comic book any time soon.
But then again a few years ago I would have never imagined I could pay more than $30.00 for any book. Live and learn