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.

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.