A 1000 comics in 2011 Indian Summer

No, I haven't fallen off the face of the earth, but I was almost buried under a mound of comics..a bit like Spidey when Kraven put him 6 feet under. That's how many comics I read the past two months.

I knew that August would be good as I had a lot of free time, away from TV and computers and just me, a deckchair, the beach and some adult beverages. You gotta love a holiday in the sun when half your luggage consists of trades and comics.
Plus I had to make up for July where I only managed 141 comics.
August made well up for that slip, in fact I have now fully accepted that I have no life to speak of as I read 311 comics in August (-insert mocking graemlin here -)

Much to my surprise I was able to continue in the same vain throughout September and clocked up another 274 comics in that month. Mainly because I started reading a really long run of Hellblazer in August (260 issues) and just continued reading in September.

So after all that I'm now less than 100 comics away from breaking my target of reading 2011 comics in 2011. October looks like the month where I reach my goal, but I've already decided to just continue until January 1st just to see how many I manage to read in one full year.

Anyway, for you librarian-types out there here's what I read the last two months :
(deep breath)


August 2011 311 comics read.

Lone Wolf & Cub Book #3 (3 comics)
Fafhrd & Gray Mouse Book #1 (2 comics)
Reload 1-3
Wolverine the JUngle Adventure (2comics)
Iron Age 2 (2 comics)
Iron Man 2.0 #6 + #7
JIM 625
Logan's run aftermath 2 + 3
Marvel zombies Supreme 5
Mighty Thor 3
Moon Knight 3
Mystery Men 2 + 3
Planet of the Apes 3 + 4
RASL 11
Red Skull 1
Red Skull 1 + 2
Red Sonja Revenge of the gods 4
SHIELD 2
Sherlock Holmes Year one 4 + 5
Supreme Power 2
That Hellbound train 2
The Mission 5 + 6
The Strange case of Mr Hyde 3 + 4
Ultimate Fallout 1-3
Batman the Dark Knight #4 (2011)
Conan, island of no return #2
Conan Road of Kings #6
Conan the Barbarian The Mask of Acheron (2 comics)
Creepy #6 (2011)
Criminal the last of the Innocent #2
Daredevil #1 (2011)
DC Comics the new 52 (2 comics)
DC retroactive Batman the 70's
Fear Itself #4
FF #5 - FF#7 (3 comics)
Formic Wars Burning Earth #7
Hellboy the Fury #2
The Boys #56 + #57
The last mortal #2 + #3
LOEG Century 02 1969 (4 comics)
The Mis-adventures of Adam West #1
The Walking Dead #86 + #87
Ultimate Avengers vs New Ultimates #5 + #6
Warlords of Mars Dejah Thoris #5
Warlords of Mars Fall of Barsoom #1
Warlords of Mars #8
Northlanders #1 - 42
Saga of the Swamp Thing 1-7
Thor Viking 1-5
Hellblazer 200 - 237
Hellblazer 1-110
Red Prophet Tales of Alvin Maker 1-6
Orson Scott Card's Goldbug
Criminal - The Last of the Innocent 3
Ultimate Fallout 4/5/6
The Walking Dead 88
The Cape 1
Ultimates V5 #1
That Hellbound train 3
Supreme Power 3
Mystery Men 4
Moon Knight 4
Kick Ass 2 #3
JIM 626
Iron Age 3 (44 pages, counts as two)
Iron Age Omega
FF 8
Fear Itself 5
Elephantmen 32
Daredevil (2011) 2
Conan Road of Kings 7
Batman the Dark Knight #5 (2011)



September 2011 274 comics read.

Criminal Bad night 1-4
Hellblazer 111-199
Hellblazer194 - 199 + 238-257
Fables 19-27 (8 comics)
Hulk (2008) 1-21
Justice League (2011) 1
The Rinse 1
Ultimate Hawkeye 1
Hulk (2008) 22 - 37 ( 16comics)
Drums #1 & #2
Iron Man 2.0 #8
Planet of the Apes #5
Red Skull #3
The Last Mortal #4
Conan (Dark Horse) #1 - #50
Catwoman #1 (2011)
Chew #20
Conan Road of Kings #8
Daredevil #3 + #4 (2011)
Fear itself #6
Hellboy The fury #3
Moon Knight #5 (2011)
Mystery Men #5
Northlanders #43
Planet of the Apes #6
Proof Endagered #4 + #5
The Boys #58
The Vault #1
Ultimate Hawkeye #2
Warlords of Mars Dejah Thoris #6
Warlords of Mars Fall of Barsoom #2
Warlords of Mars #9
The Umbrella Academy Apocalypse Suite #1 - #6
House of Mystery #1 - #41 + annual #1 + #2

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.

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)

Journey Into Mystery...and beyond

Thor has always been somewhat of an odd duck in the Marvel stable...great art, great stories, possibly the strongest hero in the Marvel Universe, but virtually unknown to the general public.

Up to a few months ago, only comic book fans would have known that the Norse god of thunder is also a regular Marvel character...and that he tends to speak in Shakespearean English. I guess it was just a step too far, people could suspend their disbelief and accept an angry guy turning green and hulking up, a rich inventor and AA-club member making a 21st century armor and even a guy getting bitten by a radioactive spider...but a 1000 year old mythical Asgardian god that comes to Earth and sounds like Macbeth or even Hamlet...nah that just wouldn't fly.

So for nearly 50 years, The Mighty Thor, to use his full name has been a b-player at best. Which is a shame because there are some very nice books in the series. Most of the top artists and writers loved to work on Thor as there were almost no boundaries. Space adventures, magic, mythical legends, down to earth rough and tumble with the Avengers...it's all happening for Goldilocks. Jack Kirby has even gone on record to say that Journey into Mystery was his favorite series to work on. You can't really get higher praise than that.

So anyway, as most of you know Marvel will be releasing the Thor movie in 2011 and this could very well propel Thor into the limelight and the public eye.
Even if the movie flops, the ad campaigns will reach into every household and hopefully people will finally understand what it really means when it's Hammer Time.

For me it will be a welcome relief as I have tried to get people to start reading Thor (any time period) but almost nobody does...so to get the ball rolling so to speak I've made a little video of the very first Thor covers/comics, when the series was still called Journey into Mystery.I managed to complete Journey into Mystery #83 up to Thor #400 a few years ago and still haven't read them all..but I just might start on them in the coming weeks.

The video on this page is only the TRAILER, if you want to view the full video (and you know you want to) just go to my Youtube channel : ---> Thor's Journey into Mystery full video. Oh and watch it in 480p for more details.

Trailer :

Time Capsule

Sometimes it's not all about being busy or not having enough time...and often it isn't even about just being too bone-idle...No the reason I've been away so long again is plain and simple that I had zero inspiration and had no idea what to write about. And I rather not write anything than ramble on without rhyme or reason.


Previous entries were almost always about my new purchases. Series I was completing, runs I was putting together or sweet sweet keys.
But after collecting for 7 years now I'm almost done...and I don't buy that many books anymore. What I now mostly buy are upgrades, but does the world really want to read that I've upgrade my Fantastic Four #5 from CGC 4.0 in OW pages to a CGC 4.5 with W/OW pages ? I don't think so.I did complete a very large series recently that I've been working on for almost 3 years, but I don't have the final book in hand yet and when I do I'll probably make a video of it all..yes my Youtube channel is getting all the love (and the hits) these days. So look out for that in the near future.

While I haven't been buying the great quantities I used to, I have been selling quite a large number of books. At one point I had nearly 12.000 books which I managed to whittle down to around 10.000 but that was still way too many. So I decided to get rid of all my books after the 1985 cut-off date. Why 1985 ? Well I've always been of the opinion that something was lost after Marvel released "Secret Wars" in 1985... it was like the Marvel universe expanded ten-fold and the quality got lost among the claptrap. It was also the time I stopped reading comics as a kid (Secret Wars #1 was the last comic I bought for almost 20 years)...my own Time Capsule as it were.

So in brief I should be able to get the collection down to about 6000 books, almost all from 1961 to 1985 every Superhero book From Fantastic Four #1 to Secret Wars #1.
I've been trying to re-read all the books that I'm selling.. but it's not easy. I recently sold Amazing Spider-man #301 - #441 and before I put that huge pile in a box to ship out I sat down and started reading the books again...I didn't last long.
I didn't care for the stories and the art did nothing for me. I understand people growing up with these book might have a soft spot for them...but I knew if I didn't sell them right there and now, I would never read them again...so why keep them.

Amazing Fantasy #15 ...part 2

One of the questions I get asked most of all is if I have a copy of Amazing Fantasy #15. Now matter how many thousands of books I show, no matter how many keys I lay out,it always comes down to the KING of Marvel Silver Age books...AF #15 the very first Spider-man.

It's hasn't been an easy question...sure the answer was easy (a firm "no !") but there was so much baggage associated with this question that I could never just answer with a one-syllable reply. You see I USED to own a copy...which was my pride and joy and which cost me an arm and a leg...but something happened to that book... I accidentally tore it apart while reading.
I'm not going over the entire story again, armchair critics, rubberneckers and people who identify with "Nelson" of the Simpsons can read it here : My own personal AF 15 horror story.
The story did have a somewhat happy ending... I had the book professionally restored and I traded it with a friend for a page of original art. We were both very happy with the deal...but I didn't have a copy of Amazing Fantasy #15 anymore.

So why am I revisiting old ghosts ? Well for the next 2 1/2 years I kept looking at the AF #15s for sale, I saw the prices rise and rise each year and saw the chances of me getting another shrink with each passing Heritage or Comiclink auction. And still the question kept coming, both here and on my Youtube comics channel "Do you have an Amazing Fantasy #15"..stinging every time.

When 2009 rolled around I made a decision, come hell or high water I would get a copy this year. I tried to get at least 10 copies that year, but all went for far too much money or just weren't the "right" copy for me. But just when I thought it was all for the birds, I "found" the perfect book just after Xmas. It was about $500 more than my absolute max I wanted to pay, but sticking to my very rigid maximum price had gotten me nearly three years of frustration and empty hands..so I went for it.

Cutting it very close, but by some small miracle I managed to get myself a new copy of the biggest Marvel key, days before the end of the year. In hindsight I don't think I overpaid, book looks fantastic in hand and is by far the best looking book (in grade) that I have seen over the past years (and believe me I saw a LOT of them).
That the book is completely without Marvel Chipping and has OW/White pages is another big bonus.

Nothing left for me to say now, just let the picture do the talking.





And if you are in the mood for a Marvel Silver Age Keys smorgasbord, then take a look at my latest video, featuring, among other illustrious company, the above book.
And before people start mailing me again that the videos are way too small, I agree ...I agree, that's why if you click on the video or just Click here and put it up at 720p (HD picture)

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)

The New World

As some of you know I've spent the last few weeks gallivanting all over the US of A and had a splendid time.Met up with some old and dear friends, a lot I'd never met in person before and geeked out over a lot of comic books.

I also got to visit a lot of US comic shops and got to rifle through Superworld's warehouse and pick out some nice books.

I flew into Boston on July 2nd and spent the next few days at a friend's Summer house in New Hampshire, enjoying watersports, BBQ's, campfires and a lot of drinking. I celebrated my birthday and Independence Day and had a real relaxing time...but the best was yet to come.
After a few days I went back to Boston and met up with some of my New England friends and co-collectors. There were also two Southern boys that flew in to join us and geek out for a while.

We spent the first day eating and drinking and playing with all the high grade funny books from one of my friend's collection.
This fella, let's call him Nik, also acted as our local tour guy and drove us to the local comic book hotspots. I had also planned to pick some of those massive Treasury editions as these are way too large to send through the mail and picking them up in person was the only viable solution.
Alas NONE of the comic book stores I visited during this trip had any in stock, but Nik did and he graciously gave me a bunch of them from his personal collection.

First Comic book store I visited was Bedrock Comics and I must say that I was very impressed, as my first visit to a LCS I could have done much worse (which I later did) as this was a very nicely laid out store with a lot of back issues. Most people are under the impression that most US comic book stores are a veritable treasure trove for Golden and Silver Age books, truth is that most stores have a whole bunch of trades, a nice selection of moderns and almost no or few older back issues. But this store did but we really didn't have the time to go digging through the boxes. Still I bought my son a nice Flash action figure (the kid's a DC fan....go figure *sigh*)

Next on the tour was Ted Van Liew's warehouse. Ted is the owner/operator of Superworld comics (http://www.superworldcomics.com), one of the East Coast's bigger dealers and probably one of the nicest and coolest dealers I have ever met.He was nice enough to open up his warehouse for us and In fact I'm pretty sure despite his years of dealing and his massive inventory Ted is still more fan/collector than dealer. I spent more time yapping with him about books, original art and the hobby itself than I did going through all the boxes. Still I managed to find some SA and GA Batman books, including a Golden Age Joker cover that was one my want-list. The rest of the day was spent eating and drinking (again) and I got to spend some time with Paul who is the man responsible for bringing those cool Superhero glasses to the market (http://www.toontumblers.com)

Our tour guide had to get back to the real world the next day but my friend Andrew from Golden Age Collectibles (http://www.golden-age-collectibles.com) stepped us to the plate and true to the previous metaphor took us to Fenway Park, the oldest Major League Baseball stadium in the US where We had a blast.
After dropping of the two Southern boys at the airport Andrew and I went to one of hos favorite comic book stores, Webhead Enterprises in Wakefield MA.
Again a very nice store, massive inventory of back issues and I was happy to find three books that were on my want-list. Score ! I also picked up a few more action figures for my kids (yeah...DC again).

Andy also gave me the addresses of another few comic stores, as I was still looking for more Treasuries and wanted to find a Supergirl action figure for my daughter.So the next day I took the train into Boston center and proceeded to walk a little over 4 miles visiting all the shops that were on my list.

First went down to Cambridge, went to The Million Year Picnic , nothing from my list, no treasuries, no Supergirl figure.
Then WALKED to Kenmore and the Comicopia store...They didn't have a single book older than 6 months and no Supergirl action figure...but the owner was super nice, I didn't spend a dime and told him I was looking for that figure for my little girl and he gave me a free Supergirl sticker and a free Supergirl comic he had left from FCBD, he also called two other shops to find out if they had any Supergirl AFs...but nothing.
Really sweet guy, I wished he had anything I wanted so I could spend some cash with him.

As I had walked that far, I walked a little longer to Newbury comics and bought one of Paul's Captain America Toon Tumblers there for my buddy and again no backissues and no Supergirl, but I did get sweet Poison Ivy action figure which she will like as well.

I was so hot from the 3 hours of walking in the sun I walked into a nice cool Apple store and enjoyed the AC for 15 minutes and tried one of the new Mac books to read my mail.

You may have noticed that there are no scans of the books, what I did this time was make a quick movie featuring all the comics I brought back from the US and put it up on my youtube channel. Here it is, of course if you click on it you will be take to the channel where you can watch it in HD, which as always is the best way to see more detail.






I had a blast during the Boston part of my trip and would like to thank my friends from the bottom of my heart for making it possible.

Nik : I want to thank you for opening up your lovely house for us,letting us hang in your basement and playing with your toys.Also thanks for the Treasuries and driving me all over the Boston area, I really appreciated it, plus you taught me a whole new batch of cuss-words which I can use in traffic when I get home.

Dick Pontoon : thanks for getting me 38 lbs of supplies and driving me all over the place, giving me the revelation that life is short (after said drives) and I need to fully enjoy while I can. Give my regards to your car ; "Christine"

GACollectibles : Andy I was a pleasure to meet you and a blast to hang out.
I enjoyed your stories and am looking forward to hearing the point to most of them some day. Thanks not only for taking us to Fenway Park and driving me to those comic book stores, but mostly because you volunteered to ride in Pontoon's car so I didn't have to anymore. Sorry she ate your keys

Silverandbronze : Paul good yapping to you about all things important and fun, we only met up the one day but had a cool time.

And then last by not means least... my buddies from down South.
Arex after all those years of mails and PMs I was great to finally meet and be on the receiving end of one of those bear-hugs. Happy to say my ribs are only sprained and not cracked as we first feared. I was good to finally thank you for taking care of my books all those years. Keep on rocking coach.

DrWatson : Thanks for the doughnuts
It was a pleasure hanging out with you Jim, picking up the little nuggets of "Ancient Tennessee Wisdom". You were smaller than I expected but your sense of smell makes up for that...just work on your sense of fashion (think green, think shoes) and I'm sure you'll be alright.

Strange Days

Most people I know who start collection series or long runs almost always go for the "big" titles, Spider-man, X-men, Fantastic Four etc...Typically the very last titles to be collected are series like Tales To Astonish and Strange Tales.

I have to plead guilty as well as both are the very last Marvel Superhero titles I still need to collect/complete. Although I should say "needed" as I just completed the Super-hero run of Strange Tales.

A nice benefit of collecting these titles is that they are cheap compared to the flagship titles. You can buy books that were on the stand at the same time as Spider-man #1 for a fraction of the price and most of the Silver Age books have very cool retro covers. Stories and art may not always be of a high quality, but let's be honest, a lot of "bigger" Silver Age books aren't exactly works of art either.

The reason why I never really got into collecting Strange Tales before was mainly because I didn't really know the series, and like all things, unknown is unloved. Sure I knew that it was fabled for the first Dr Strange stories where Ditko did amazing work and that Steranko did some wonderful things with Nick Fury and SHIELD, but still it remained on the back burner and I only starting collecting them because there was almost nothing else left to collect. But let's make it loud and clear...I was wrong. This is a wonderful series and I should have started on it much, much earlier.

Strange Tales ran 168 issues, from June 1951 to May 1968. It began as a horror anthology in the vain of the very popular EC line of comics, but with the 1954 imposition of the Comics Code, which prohibited graphic horror, it became a more sci-fi oriented comic seemingly featuring a different monster every month.

The anthology switched to superheroes in the very early 60's, retaining the sci-fi, suspense and monsters as backup features for a time. Strange Tales' first superhero, in 12- to 14-page stories, was the Fantastic Four's Human Torch, Johnny Storm, beginning in #101 (Oct. 1962).

But the real magic started with #110...with the introduction of sorcerer Doctor Strange, by Stan Lee Steve Ditko. So this means that Strange Tales #110 is one of the major Marvel key books...first Dr Strange, maybe the only key book where the most important character doesn't even appear on the cover. Very humble beginnings for the Sorcerer Supreme. For many people these issues were Ditko's best work.

Here's Marvel's most understated KEY book ...Strange Tales #110 First Dr Strange.


But there's more...Another giant of comicdom would use Strange Tales as a launching pad, The Human Torch had already been replaced in #135 (Aug. 1965) by Nick Fury, agent of SHIELD.The 12-page feature was initially by Lee and Kirby but soon was taken over writer-penciler-colorist Jim Steranko, under whom it became one of the
ultimate works of the Silver Age. Steranko introduced or popularized in comics such art movements of the day as psychedelia and pop art.





Issue #168 was the last issue in the then series,Dr Strange got his own mag, continuing the numbering (Dr Strange #169) and Steranko took Nick Fury to dizzy heights in the self-named series.

This was the fastest series I ever put together,took me only a few months,but I was pretty lucky. Got all the Fury books from the same seller and most of the #101 - 152 books I got from an original owner collection.
Still needed 9 books missing, the #101 & #102 I won on eBay and the others I managed to snag at Heritage. Alas I don't have all of them in hand at the moment, but I'll pick them up next month when I'm in the US.

Downsizing

Downsizing, thinning the herd, retrenchment... call it what you like it's never any fun when you have to cut back. But that's exactly what I've been doing for the past 6 months. Now I'm not talking about buying less funny books...oh no, I'm glad it hasn't come to that, I'm talking about getting rid of a large part of my collection as it was literally growing over my head.

When the collection went over 10.000 books I knew I had to do something. My main aim was to get it down to 7500 which I did. Most went without remorse, but some were harder to say goodbye to.

First of all I started selling most of my books that weren't Marvel or DC (or written by Alan Moore). This wasn't hard to do as I have absolutely no love for Image, Malibu, Top Cow,Dark Horse, Avatar, Bongo, IDW, Wildstorm and what have you.
I did keep about half my Vertigo books though.

The second time I went through the collection I got rid of all my post 1985 DCs and most of the Marvels from 1990 through to 2000. Of course I kept the books that were part of a complete series, but series that started or appeared only in this era were gone, gone, gone. This was even easier to do that getting rid of all the indies as most Marvel books from the 90's really sucked. Some might disagree, but then some people think Rob Liefeld,Whilce Portacio,Michael Turner and Tod McFarlane are great artists....which I don't.
No, the biggest problem getting rid of these books was not the emotional value, but to get people to actually buy them, even at the stupidly-low prices I was selling them for.


And then I got stuck at about 8000 books, still 500 over my target.
So I dug in and went through the collection a third time. This time I pulled series which I did enjoy but knew I would probably never re-read and weren't part of a larger series. These were in fact a little harder to part with, but I know that the people who bought them will enjoy them as well.

Series like : Silver Surfer (80s-90's), The New Mutants, Xmen Hidden years, Batman Brave and Bold (70's), The Flash (70's-80's) and West Coast Avengers. Selling these put me well under 7500 books and a much trimmer collection.

What can I say...I'm a Silver and Bronze-age fan who thinks comics stopped in 1985 with Secret Wars.

And to celebrate how spiffy my collection now looks I made this video. No more crowded shelves, no more stray books and boxes, all sorted, graded and taken care of.
Enjoy.



I know it's pretty small, but by clicking on the rectangle next to the HD button you can watch it in full screen mode and make out the details.

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.