The final bricks in the wall.

Pop quiz hotshot, what do Incredible Hulk #92, X-men #63 and Sandman Mystery Theater #66, #69 & #70 all have in common ? Give up ? I thought you would, well I got them all in a single package this week and they each were the final issues I needed to complete those three series.

It's a nice coincidence that I managed to complete three series all at once, especially considering, the X-men series took me five years, the Hulk four and the Sandman MT books have been on my want list since 2007 !!
So how come it took me this long to get them and was it pure serendipity that I managed to get them all in the same month ?

Now none of them are particularity expensive, the Overstreet Price guide has the Hulk #92 (in NM) at $5, The X-men #63 guides F/VF at $60 and the Sandman Mystery Theater are at best worth a few bucks each. The trouble was finding them in the first place and getting a decent deal in the process.

X-men #63 was easy to find, it's plentiful in any grade and never sells over guide. It's one of the better issues of the first X-men series, Neal Adams goodness and a cool Magneto cover. But for some reason it ended up the last issue I still needed to get. I really don't like paying $14.00 in shipping for a $50 book...so each time I saw one for sale I was hoping to bundle it with something else to save on shipping, but I struck out every time and passed.

By sheer chance a collector was selling a bunch of Silver Age X-men books, including this one AND some modern books..including the elusive Incredible Hulk #92.



Now Hulk #92 is the very first Planet Hulk issue, which is the best Hulk storyline of the last 20 years, so collectors have been scrambling for this book which starts it all. Last year I was able to purchase the entire Planet Hulk run...with #92 missing. Every comic book store I've been to in the last 3 years had this issue missing...Sure they were on eBay, but at 2X to 3X the guide price (and then I would have to break my rule of paying shipping for a single book as well). But like I said I finally found a seller who was selling it a reasonable price and had another book I wanted.

And then there were the Sandman Mystery Theater books. A lesser known Vertigo title, but one of the very best from the 1990's (not to be confused with Neil Gaiman's Sandman series). Sandman MT lasted for 6 years and never disappointed, if you go back to this post from May 2007 you'll see I was already raving about the series...and I was also boasting that I had completed it. Well I wasn't lying, I was only being stupid...I thought the series stopped at #65 and later found out it went on another 5 issues. Which of course,I didn't have.

So I started hunting them down which turned out very difficult. The final five issues didn't have a large print run as the series was slated for cancellation and a lot of comic book stores didn't even bother to order the final two issues.
Issues #69 and #70 were particularly difficult to find. Remember these are basic $3 books which will never appreciate or become valuable..and still Mile High comics is selling #69 for nearly $15 (5X guide) and doesn't even have a single copy of #70 for sale. The only people buying these are the idiots like me who complete series and just have to had every single issue.

But getting all of them was more than worth it, nothing beats the feeling of getting a series complete, and when you manage to do more than one in a year, not to mention a week, it's a real red letter day on my calendar.

With X-men #63 I now have X-men #1 to #250 complete, I used to have #251 - #450 as well, but I sold those in the big purge of 2010.

With Incredible Hulk #92 I now have amassed my longest and completest run ever.
* Incredible Hulk V1 #1 - #6
* Tales to Astonish #59 - #101
* Incredible Hulk V2 #102 - #474
* Incredible Hulk V3 #1 - #112

That's 544 consecutive Hulk issues from 1962 tot 2007 (when the series ended and I did as well)

And with those Sandman issues, I can finally proclaim Sandman Mystery Theater #1 - #70 complete (and yes, this time I've checked to see that #70 is really the last issue)

Grey day

Why is it that most of of my rants and raves seem to center about that most lovable of Green Giants, your friendly neighborhood Hulk. I've already bored you how I completed Hulk #102 - #570 and how I'm very close in completing the Hulk run of Tales to Astonish...but the real mother-lode are of course the first 6 Silver Age Issues.

I bought issue #3 about two months ago from my good friend Andy Nutella at Golden Age Collectibles and that sparked me on to get the other 5. Being early Silver Age they are alas not that easy to find or really affordable, so I had to move some things around. Especially issue #1 was a pain in the neck. It's by far the hardest Silver Age key to track down. I'm in the middle of trading one of my original art pages and soon the deal should be done.
It's not as expensive yet as Amazing Fantasy #15 or Fantastic Four #1 but it's far far rarer. The reason for this is of course that it didn't sell so well when Hulk #1 was released in May 1962.

In the first issue, the Hulk was gray because Stan Lee wanted a color that did not suggest any particular ethnic group. Stan Goldberg the colorist had problems with the grey (or gray) coloring, resulting in different shades of gray, and even green. After seeing the first published issue, Lee chose to change the skin color to green.

The original series was canceled with issue #6 (March 1963) due to low sales.A bit surprising as Marvel had put the top team on the book. Stan Lee had written each story, with Jack Kirby penciling the first five issues and Steve Ditko penciling and inking the sixth. Still the character didn't appeal to kids and the book was no more.

Stan Lee, never one to doubt himself, was convinced the Hulk was a viable character and the character immediately guest-starred in most of the more popular comics and months later became a founding member of the Avengers.

A year and a half after the series was canceled, the Hulk became one of two features in Tales to Astonish in issue #60 (Oct. 1964).Kirby and Lee realized their character had found an audience in college-age readers. Stan has always stated he wrote the Hulk for a more mature reader and not for the kiddies that wanted a monster-mash-up.
In fact the real "star" of the book has more often than not been Bruce Banner and not the Hulk.

Would that the original series had simply continued, for those first six issues represent some of the most amazing comics to come out of the Silver Age. During the initial run, the Hulk played as more of a Mr. Hyde to Bruce Banner's Dr. Jekyll, and Banner's noble struggle to control his darker side drove a powerful tale of regret and redemption, gorgeously illustrated by Jack Kirby and Steve Ditko. As with Mr. Hyde, the Hulk possessed much of his alter ego's intellect, and actively schemed against his better half to ensure his survival.

It was only later that the Hulk was "dumbed down" a sad predicament that took almost 25 years and Peter David to rectify. Peter David also turned the Hulk back to his original grey colour during his 12-year tenure on the book.So there you have it, a nice little grey-to-green and back again history lesson. Only thing that remains now are the scans of the 6 books I just picked up.
If you want more info (and visuals !!) on the Hulk books and Tales to Astonish in particular then feel free to visit my Youtube channel as I have a new video up on this very subject (and watch it in HD). Chromiumcomics Youtube Channel

Is print doomed ?

Lately I've been toying more and more with this question, is the written word becoming a dinosaur ? Newspapers and magazines are folding left and right, people prefer to use the internet to get their news and info...even when they have to pay for it.

And this kindle thingy is getting more and more popular, we can expect cheap Chinese knockoffs in a few years time and this could be the turning point for a lot of people. Reading books, magazines and yes comics in digital (and portable form) with only a select few "connoisseurs" still going after the paper version.

You might think I'm exaggerating but it's a fact that more and more people are turning to digital comics. It used to be mainly because of the price, people didn't want to pay for the issues so they turned to the warez sits and trackers to get their weekly dose, but what's happened the last few months is that people are in fact now paying for the privilege and in fact prefer the digital version to the printed one. I even know somebody who uses his Iphone to read his comics... I call him Hawkeye because that screen is T-I-N-y ...but then again I'm getting old.

But still, even when we're talking digital instead of print, it's still reading...which is fast becoming a dying art.

I didn't start this topic just to go on a tirade, being a print lover, but because I've noticed that my Youtube channel is getting more hits than my blog...a LOT more hits.
I've never really did a lot of advertising for 'nuff said, because I feel it's more like a person diary of my collecting habits and would only interest a small number of people... it's not exactly earth-shattering now is it. So I get on average about 750 hits per month..which is a lot more than I ever expected... I don't even know 75 people in total.

Now about a year ago I started posting a few videos about my collection on Youtube, first as a bit of a laugh, but then for some reason I started getting something called "subscribers". Subbies are people that actually go to the trouble of registering with your channel so they get notified every time I post a new video. At first I had two subscribers, both were long-time friends, but then I got more of them, followed by at least 50 mails a week about my collection and my videos.
As I'm writing this, I have over 60 subscribers now and the pressure is killing me.
Because I now feel I just have to post at least a video per month because all those nice people actually took the time to put my dinky little channel on their menu...

In short, my Youtube channel is getting a lot more hits and visitors than my blog...which I don't really mind, but it does pose the question is it mainly because of the medium or something else ? It's a lot easier to just follow some nice pictures on a screen than it is to actually read the words to a story/opinion and comics are of course a visual medium, so it makes sense.
But on the other hand, if everybody stops reading where does that leave comic books ?

Anyway, using the "if you can't beat them..." credo I just posted a new video on my channel. After completing my Strange Tales collection a few weeks ago I decided to yet again start a new series. Trouble is that I'm almost done...but then I remembered that even though I completed the Hulk series I always glanced over the first 6 issues that were ever published. In 1962 (before Spider-man !!) Marvel tried to launch an Incredible Hulk series, alas it wasn't popular and the series was canceled after #6... but those 6 comics remain the first 6 Hulk books ever and are very collectible. So in short I decided to go after these as well. Meanwhile here are some of my favorite (and key) issues of everyone's favorite Mean Green Machine.

Enjoy the video (but do keep reading)

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.

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

Silvio !

Even when I was a kid, I always was more interested in story rather than art, and there were only a handful of artists I would recognise by their style alone...Sal Buscema was always one of those. Don't like everything he did, but when I saw this action page with the typical "Sal Buscema Hulk face" I just had to go for it

Sal Buscema is, of course, the younger brother of John Buscema. He started his career in the mid 1960s, inking his brother's work but pretty much came into his own a few years later.As a successful penciller at Marvel he was one of the fastest pencillers and inkers working there and was one of their top artists for the next 35 years.

Now even though I seem to keep buying Sal Buscema pages, I'm not a googly-eyed fan boy, some of his work I'm really can't get in to. He is one of the very few Silver Age artists who's style evolved to meet the grittier, sharper-edged look of the 90's and not for the better.
Because of his speed, unfortunately he was often overworked and overused and some of his work shows this.
But when Sal loved a project or a character like The Hulk or Captain America he really aced it.



I picked up this latest piece on eBay and like it very much, lots of action, lots of Sal Hulk-love going on and do I really have to rant and rave about the villain in this page ?
I need to check the time lines on this, but isn't the Brood warrior a dead ringer for the famous Aliens from the same-titles movie franchise ? I wonder which came first ?



Oh and the weird title of this entry ? Sal's real name is Silvio

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