The Joke's on you Batman !

I once heard somebody say that Batman is so good he could be a Marvel character... which as a Marvel zombie myself, struck a chord. Now I must admit I have nothing against DC, it's just that I chose a side and am sticking with it.

But there is no denying that Batman is one of the all-time great comic book characters, maybe the most iconic one of all. So even I couldn't help but start collecting Batman. My initial target was to get #1 though to #500 ... But that's a very tall order. I still haven't broken the top ten issues yet, but I do have a nice #11.

I still need about 40 issues to get them all, but I went for the Joker covers first.
Everybody loves the Joker and he really knows how to jazz up a cover.
In this video I'm showcasing my complete set of Joker covers from the Batman series from the Golden and Silver Age, from Batman #1 to Batman #200.

I didn't bother with the Joker covers from #200 onwards as it would have made the video too big and most of you have probably seen them all. But who knows there might be a few GA or SA covers here you've never seen. Enjoy !

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)

FACTS of life

This weekend (23rd + 24th of October) I'll be attending the FACTS convention again. if my math is right it will be my 9th time. Now for all you non-Belgians, you should realize there are NO Comic book conventions at all over here, in fact I don't think there are more than a handful throughout Europe.

Sure we have comic strip cons nearly every month, but the American comic book isn't exactly a staple here.
In essence Facts isn't really a comic book convention, it's a popular culture convention, much along the line of the big San Diego Comicon.
When I started to attend there were maybe 10 comic book dealers and no books older than say ten years. Slowly the comic book part was dying and I remember one glum year where there were just 5 comic book dealers and there was nothing at all that interested me.
But the next year some new people joined the organization (yes Boom, I'm talking about you) and the comics part started to blossom again.
FACTS was able to book more and better artists, which in turn led to more fans turning up which lead to more dealers coming which lead to even more fans coming etc...

Last year the 15.000-attendance (or 15,000 if you don't like the metric system) figure was breached, which is incredible for such a small country and this year everybody fully expects that figure to be reached and even overtaken again.
But alas some things haven't changed, there still is almost nothing at the entire con that I'm looking for. There are almost no Silver Age or Bronze Age books for sale. Can't really blame the dealers as the brave ones who do bring them, don't sell a single issue. There is just no interest in vintage (and expensive back issues). Most collectors, no strike that I should actually call them "readers", are interested in trades, hardcovers and cheap singles from the last 10 - 15 years. Why buy a €300 Silver Age Spider-man book when you can buy the hardcover for €20.00 and have enough money left to buy hundreds of cheap one-euro comics.

Some readers do become collectors over time, but it's a slow progress and doesn't really happen the first 5 years when somebody comes into the hobby.
And to be honest, the rare vintage stuff that is for sale at FACTS can be found cheaper online most of the time. At the con you pay more for the convenience of being able to look through the book, don't have to pay shipping and be secure in the knowledge that the comic doesn't have to be shipped thousands of miles.


So why am I still going ? Well mostly because it's a lot of fun. I know a lot of people there among the staff, exhibitors and visitors and it's always a treat to meet up with them every year. I also tend to go toy-shopping for my kids (this year my son wants a Joker action figure and my daughter wants a Power Girl or Hawkgirl).
And then there are the artists...all credit to FACTS, they manage to get top-shelf artists every year, but as I'm not a modern comic book fan, most of them don't toot my horn...but now and then they get one that even I in my curmudgeonly way like.

I'll be lining up this year to do a meet and greet with Dave Gibbons and have him sign my Watchmen page...that should be nice.
But mostly I will be selling trades and hardcovers at the cheapcomics.com booth, like each year I'll be assisting my friend Chris to bring wonder and joy to the masses in the shape of luxury (and cheap) reprints.
It's always a lot of fun to meet other readers/collectors, to try and answer their questions and generally talk "comics" with them. Maybe steer them in the direction of a new series they didn't know or help them complete a storyline.
I'll probably be dead tired at the end of it all, will have spent too much money on toys, won't be able to go box-diving to find some bargains and will undoubtedly forget to eat again this year....but I can't wait. Bring it on, it's FACTS time again.
Oh and if you are looking for me, I'll be the one wearing the green suede Puma's.

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)

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

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.

Think outside the box

Getting comics halfway across the globe is both an exciting and a maddening experience. Sure you enjoy the anticipation of waiting and hoping this will be the day your little box of treasures arrive. But at the same time you get disappointed if it doesn't arrive on the expected date and you hope and pray it arrives at all...preferably intact.

But as I'm geographically challenged there is no way around, this and my gargantuan yearly shipping bill are the darker sides of collection, but once the box arrives, everything is right in the world again and I temporarily forget all the woes and focus instead on the wonders.

The last 2 weeks I was on pins and needles as I was expecting a rather important package and because of all the non-working days due to Easter, it was stuck in transit somewhere. To make matters worse, it got stuck in customs as well. My friendly neighborhood customs official opened the box, even though the value was below the import-duty threshold. Once he opened and inspected the box he came to the conclusion I didn't have to pay duty or tax and all forms were filled in correctly. But I still had to pay $15 to get my box back, because he had inspected it and all inspected packages carry a $15.00 cost... I have given up trying to understand the logic in all of this.

But once the package was finally delivered I focused on the contents and got that stupid grin again. This time the box wasn't as filled as previous boxes, but it did hold some key books.

I made yet another video showing all the goodies, let me know if you get tired of all these vids and want me to post pics again. I filmed it this time as I seem to get a lot more reaction to vids than to pics, I guess that's Youtube for you.

Here goes...



If you really don't care for videos and want to see which keys I'm talking about (yeah go ahead and spoil the surprise) you can click HERE to see a pic of the two keys (but the vid is cooler)

Oh and as always you can check out the videos in higher resolution directly through my Youtube page Chromiumcomics Youtube page

Annual Report

As a kid I used to love comic annuals, they were often double-sized (at least) and were chock full of "extra" material that the monthly series lacked the space to publish. All this for just a little more money, too bad they only came once a year.

Originally they were nothing more than reprint vehicles, a good way to sell the same stories to a new public (or to the same public who were fooled or just had to get everything Marvel/DC published). What also was very profitable to the publishers is that they have to pay the artists as under the work-for-hire regime all the art and all the rights belonged to the company to reprint ad infinitum.

But after a while common sense prevailed and most annuals got new longer single stories and multiple stories in a single annual. There still was the odd reprint, but at least for much of the 60's and 70's the balance was perfect between new stories, epilogues to stories published in the regular comics and reprints of older stories now unavailable (or too expensive) for the everyday comic reader. Also popular among the extras were biographical information on featured characters, full-page pin-ups of characters and "back-up" stories.

Later annuals often featured stories with greater importance to the characters featured than in the monthly publication, reflecting the "special" status of their once-yearly publication. Annuals also sometimes featured the finale of a multi-issue storyline running in the monthly series and became unmissable.





The publishers started seeing dollar signs when they realized that if a regular story concluded in the annual, everybody was forded to buy the annual.
But the publishers smelled even more money and they wanted Joe Collector to buy ALL annuals. Now annual were usually released in the summer of the year,and became more and more unified and thus the much maligned crossover storyline came to be. Marvel and DC thought it a good idea in bringing many of the characters in continuities together for a single overall event.Sounds like a good idea on paper right ? Well not quite, this meant that writers and artists were very restricted in what they could do as everything had to "gel" and each issue had to end on a cliffhanger so the public was forced to buy all of them. A lot of the stories in the annuals of the mid 80's through to the 90's seem very convoluted and are oft riddled with inconsistencies. Artists had to draw characters they were uncomfortable with or unaccustomed too so the art was lacking too.

Annuals started to die out in the late 90's due to the near-collapse of the comic book industry in the wake of the speculator boom. After the recession, they were reinstated but sparingly but by no means as regularly as before the "bust", when numbered series of annuals had reached the teens or twenties, indicating over a decade of regular publication. But the good news is that if and when an annual hits the stands (ok, the comic book shop) it's never a bunch of reprints anymore or part of a crossover...it's a proper annual again.




I bought the pictured annuals a few weeks ago, all from the early 60's and all cross-over free (but some do have the odd reprint)

FF Annual #2 from 1964 has that iconic Dr Doom cover and is a key book because Doom's origins were finally revealed here, more than two years after his first appearance.
Annual #4 & #5 started using the wording "King Size Special" instead of Annual, but #6 uses both "Kings Size Special" and "Annual"... Marvel was always experimenting during the Silver Age. But don't you just love those (Kirby) covers ?

I still need #1 & #3...but I'm working on it.

The ones that get away...

The old adage "lose some, win some" seems to have been invented for online auctions. It's the nature of the best, nobody expects to win all the stuff they bid on (thank god) but now and then you can get lucky. I'll ramble on a bit today about the other side of the coin, the stuff I didn't win and which in hindsight should have turned out differently.

Like a lot of online-buyers I'm guilty on lowballing a lot of auctions. You see an item for sale that you wouldn't mind owning and you bid (or snipe) a really low amount. Very well knowing you have 99,9% of losing, but hey you might get lucky, everybody else might forget about it, some freak electrical storm might render all PCs (except yours) inoperative and you end up winning a $500 for $62.86 (the 0,01% at work). Ok, I know this never happens...I know people that bid on 100s of auctions each week using this method and I've never heard of somebody getting a super deal this way, sure you might get books way below market value if you are tenacious enough, but that's about it.

No, what I would like to talk about is missing something you really wanted (you really, really wanted) by a few dollars and not being able to put it out of your mind for weeks. (if I only had bid more, if I only had...). I work with "want-lists". One for my comic collection and one for my original art collection and try not to buy anything that isn't on one of those lists and I have a set rule, I only offer/bid/pay a certain percentage of guide and always stick to it. If I don't get it then the only reason is that it went for more than I was willing to part with, and I'm fine with that.
But I also have a few "grail" pieces, books or art that I just NEED to have (just like air, water and Cadbury Cream Eggs) or my life will have been a wasted one. Once I have a chance to go for one of these pieces, I throw all caution to the wind, lock all my common sense in a little velvet box and let emotion take over and bid, bid, bid.

But sometimes there are higher forces at work and you still don't get what need.

Probably at the top of my comics grail list is a nice low-grade Amazing Fantasy #15. I traded my copy last year and the wound just won't stop bleeding and then only thing that will make me healthy again is a new copy. Alas prices have shot up at 15% for low grade copies (even higher for mid graders), which means the $2500 copy will now almost cost you $3000. So finding the perfect book at the right price is getting harder and harder.

All my key books have been bought under the same circumstance, I go for lower graded CGC'ed books that look better than the technical grade. What I mean by this is that I go for books that have defects that don't jump out at you. Books where the main damage is on the back cover and not the front cover, books that take minutes of studying before you catch the blemishes. I'd rather have a 2.5 book with a bigger piece missing from the back (or from the first page) than a 3.0 book with three little pieces missing from the front cover.

These are not easy to find books, especially since I'm after off-white to white pages. So check all the major dealers and auctions sites every day. Two weeks ago I thought my quest for the grail had come to an end (sound of clapping coconut shells slowly fading) as I saw a 2.5 Amazing Fantasy with OW/W pages up for sale. Front cover looked a lot better than the grade, almost no Marvel chipping and a little moisture damage on the back cover, my ideal book.
The seller wanted $3000 which was a bit steep, so I took a chance and offered a lowball offer of $2200 (yes, I am a cheap bastard sometimes). Less than an hour later he countered with an asking price of $2800..I went to sleep thinking about the offer and when I woke up the seller had sent me a second offer of $2600. Now in hindsight I should have taken it, it was a decent price for a rare book, but I was thinking that the seller probably wanted to sell it fast judging by the speed of his counteroffers so I re-counteroffered (is that even a word ?) with $2400...Now I was pretty sure the seller would split the difference and come back to me with $2500...well he doesn't and counters with $2550. So my turn again and this time I offer $2500, now I was sure he would go for this price, if you follow the back-and-forth on this you see it leading to this price. Trouble is that it was getting later, so I went to bed, expecting an acceptance of my offer when I woke up. No such luck, sometime during the night the seller got back to me with $2525...read it again $2525 ??? What a weird price. So I wake up and see I have a few emails, the first one is his $2525 offer, I said to myself, "ok, I'll accept it, don't want to fight over $25" and then I saw a second mail, sent three hours after the first one...retracting his offer of $2525...and then a third mail saying the item was sold for $2600...WTF ?
Looks like while he was waiting for my reaction to the $2525 (I was sleeping !) somebody else offered him $2600 and he took it...Aaaaaaargh.
Now if he had accepted the $2500 the auction would have ended and we would have set up the deal...or if I had decided not to sleep that night I would have been mine for a lousy $25 more.

Moral of the story, don't try and squeeze the lemon until there is no juice left anymore...oh and don't go to bed...ever

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

Torn Apart

Sometimes as a collector you have some bad luck, books gets lost in the mail, you just a miss a super bargain by seconds, someone overcharges you for a book that turns out to be lower grade than you paid for...or you just do something stupid or have bad judgment.

A lot of people bag and board books, comic on board, then insert in bag and then tape the bag shut..safe and sound. Trouble is after a while you need to take the book out and you experience "tape pull" The tape which seems to have a mind of its own gets stuck to the comic while your halfway taking it out and it it won't come off..only way is to pry it loose and take a piece of the cover with it. Your VF+ $350 book is now a $150 FINE book or worse.

I've always been careful and don't even use tape to close my bags, I read the expensive books flat on a table and always use Mylar for the good books...and yet it seems I'm not immune to bad luck.
My most expensive book, the pride an joy of my collection has taken a big knock. My Amazing Fantasy #15 has separated from the cover :(
After only a few months in my possession, I've managed to lower the value by about $1000 and to be honest I didn't really do anything.
I got the book and HAD to read it, most people say I'm crazy to read 45 year old expensive books when I have the reprint, but nothing beats the feeling of opening up a comic some boy bought off the stands all those
years ago and I won't stop doing it.

Anyway, I carefully took the book out of the mylar/fullboard, put it flat on the table and very carefully read it. Now at the time the book had a three inch spine tear, but both staples were still secured and it graded out at 3.0. Once I finished reading (I only read the 8-page Spider-man story, not the two other stories) I put it back in the collection.
Fast forward three months later, I open the book again and to my shock the cover has split in two and has separated from the book itself...I felt sick in my stomach. I talked to some people and then explained that by reading and opening the book I had put some minimal stress on the fibers that still were holding the book together, chances were that the book hadn't been opened in decades and that the paper fibers were nothing more than hardened dust by now. This sudden stress caused them to break down and make the cover separate from the book.

A nice and logical explanation, but I was still screwed. I did the math and found out the book was now a 1.8/2.0 which a better change of getting a 1.8...meaning a $1000 loss in value
So I'm getting the book restored, I got some advice from my buddy Kenny who is training to be a comic restorer with Matt Nelson, arguably the best restoration expert out there.
I sent my book to Kenny and he took it with him to work on while visiting Matt in Texas. Both had a long and hard look at my book and told me some good news, with the proper work the book would again be whole and grade out at 4.5 to 5.5...

I'm going for moderate restoration including solvent and wet wash the cover, wash all interior wraps.and repair all the bent interior corners. and then repair spine, fix tears and other minor things.
If I get lucky the book will get a 5.0 and I should break even (purchase price + resto price = selling price), a 4.5 will mean a small loss, a 5.5 a small profit.
But you never know, the book might look so good that I decide to keep it after all. When he accident happened, I was so sick of the book I couldn't even look at it any more and it my love for collecting took a large blow.

Just like the book my heart got torn apart haven't bought any keys or expensive books since it happened, but Kenny's enthusiasm and his firm belief he'll make the book pretty and presentable again has given me a positive outlook again.
I should have more news in a month or so when the book is finished. Once all work is done, I'm sending it in to CGC and then wait anxiously until I know the grade.

Slated for cancellation

When I finished collecting the Amazing Spider-man series a few months ago, the most asked question I got (apart from "how much did it cost") was "Will you be getting Amazing Fantasy #15". At that time I couldn't really answer it because well, in my mind I had completed the task and more importantly AF15 was and is the most expensive Marvel book.

But after a few months I decided to see if I could swing it, I knew it was going to be expensive, but I planned on not buying too many books this year and maybe, just maybe I would then be able to get an AF15 at Christmas, just like the Christmases before when I got Avengers #1, FF#1 and finally ASM #1 respectively.

Next to the price, availability was a problem too, not too many of these books around, Spider-man #1 isn't that common, but there are at least 3x the amount of that book floating around compared to Amazing Fantasy #15.

A third problem was the condition of the book. I've always tried to buy expensive books that look better than the given grade. Maybe hard to understand, but let me give you an example. A book can look like a VG (4.0) but has a water stain on the back cover that takes the book down to a GOOD (2.0). The water stain is there, it lowers the grade, but it's a defect that isn't too bad aesthetically and it's on the back cover. Trouble is that a lot of low and mid-grade copies of AF#15 have Marvel chipping ("A bindery (trimming/cutting) defect that causes a series of chips and tears at the top, bottom, and right edge of the cover. This is caused where the cutting blade of an industrial paper trimmer becomes dull. Dubbed "Marvel chipping" because it can occur quite often with that company's comics from the late 50s and early 60s")
And as Marvel chipping is considered a factory defect it doesn't factor in to the grade of mid-grade books. Thus you can buy a 4.0 book that looks like a 2.0...quite the opposite of what I want.

Take a look at this AF with the very common Marvel chipping...


So things didn't look to good, but I had originally planned to start looking for a nice one around Winter 2007 with the intent of getting one as a Xmas present to myself...but an opportunity arose and I couldn't turn it down.



I got this copy from a fellow collector by accident really (no seriously, read on). He never put the AF15 on sale, but I was close to buying his Hulk #1...we went back and forth for a while and I told him I didn't really want to buy it as it would mean taking money out of my AF15 kitty...2 minutes later he told me he had an AF15 as well and if I was interested he would sell it to me.
Ten minutes later I had bought it...It was exactly the book I wanted, a 3.0 that looked better than the grade, almost no Marvel chipping and a fair price. Granted it was more money than I had ever spent on a comic book,and it was half a year too early but this is THE Marvel key after all. For me it's still FF#1...but for most comic collectors the first appearance of Spider-man is the holy grail

And to think the Amazing Fantasy series was slated for cancellation and issue #15 was the final one. Because it was the final issue, nobody really cared what was going to be in it. With nothing to lose, publisher Martin Goodman allowed Stan Lee to experiment with a new kind of superhero — one who would be a teenager, but not a sidekick, and who would have everyman doubts, neuroses and money problems...
This "far-out" idea proved to be golden and gave birth to Marvel's flagship title...Amazing Spider-man...which only started a long (especially for the fans who had a taste of Spidey in AF15 and wanted to read more) 6 months after Amazing Fantasy #15 was issued, sold a boatload of copies and got the most letters from readers in years.
Now let's just hope the success of the the third Spider-man movie that came out this week will make my copy of AF#15 even more valuable

Amazing Amassed

My goal for 2006 was to complete Amazing Spider-man #1 - #500... but I got a little sidetracked and was about 4 books short around Xmas, I opted not to go out and buy any old copy just to make it, but to throw in the towel and admit that 2006 was going to be the first year since I started collecting where I didn't manage to complete a large series. I completed Thor #126 - #300 in 2006 (starting from scratch) but it really wasn't that hard.
But now, two months later, I'm proud to announce that I finally did it and have ASM complete up to #500. I completed the series around Valentine's day last month, but wanted to wait until #20 arrived safely as not to jump the gun. It arrived today so I'm very happy.

Unlike Avengers and Fantastic Four which I completed the two previous years I don't have the time/energy to make a scan of all 500 covers like I did Avengers HERE and FF HERE
Instead here are the covers to the first 9 issues..





I feel like I've come full circle now. ASM V2 #36 (the 911 issue) was the comic that got me into collecting, I bought it, read it and then decided to start collecting Marvel and haven't looked back since. Initial plan was to collect ASM #100 - #500 but then I went to see the second Spiderman movie and just had to buy a copy of #50. Suffering from completionist disorder I then HAD to fill in all the issues between #50 and #100. Second plan was to collect #50 - #500 and get #1 - #49 as Marvel Masterworks. But once that was done I knew I was kidding myself and decided to get all the issues.

Plan for 2007 is to complete JIM #83 - #125, complete Batman #200 - #400 and just maybe get a copy of Amazing Fantasy #15