Lee K's Journal

A journal by Lee K

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Seattle

Or, my annual trip to Golden Age Collectables Once, when I was a teen it was the only local shop that carried old comics, and in my pea-brained teen mind that had to be good, they had a full page advertisement in the the Comic Book Price Guide, which I believed to be cannon back then... I purchased many books from them over the years as a late teen and into my early twenties. Many of which I read once and put away. A reveiew of these cherished treasures revealed a number of books that I wo
Lee K

Lee K

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Thankful

Every day Today, and every day, I am thankful for the obvious things: my family, friends, health, and home; and the less obvious things: our long-distance association, art, and community. Happy Thanksgiving & Happy Chanukah Lee K To see old comments for this Journal entry, click here. New comments can be added below.
Lee K

Lee K

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Two years later

Ever feel like your story wasn't all wrapped up? July 1961, August 1963. So when you feel like you have some more story to tell, and the book your stories see print in is episodic in nature, you get to wrap up your loose ends. Although these two frog-people look totally different, they are meant to be the same race of undersea dwellers, bent on a disagreement with the air breathers of the surface world. What do I love? The same pink sky tying it together on the cover, and the same pro
Lee K

Lee K

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Speaking of RAW

26 days in, and I'm running dry on ideas to journal about But, I do have these nice books to send in and add to my two primary sets, the go-gos and Strange Adventures. I just don't think anything is going to happen until after Christmas. But once again, I am back to "I don't have any invoices at CGC" which at least means I am not continuously disappointed in my turn around times, or my grades...but, when I log in each day, they all say 'shipped safe'. Even if I still can't add them to my
Lee K

Lee K

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The genre gone

Or whatever happened to a bunch of guys with no powers at all, going out and challenging the world? No, really, an entire genre. Well, if you can call three books a genre. Blackhawk, Challengers of the Unknown, and Seadevils - all DC, or at least all DC eventually as Blackhawk was a Quality series for its first 107 issues, until Quality went under in 1956/7 and DC picked up the rights. Special powers: none Skilled: Blackhawks are skilled pilots, Seadevils are scuba men, Challengers, not
Lee K

Lee K

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Value invoice

Yep, my grades finally came in... Fifteen books. Three go-go checks One Strange Adventures One Weird War Stories Ten shark covers for my buddy's Christmas, some of those being books I bought for him. And some being books Ronnylama bought for him... The go-go checks are ok, An 8.5, a 9.2, and a 9.4 - they'll be added to my sets eventually. Right now they are all being rejected as not available for their slots. I do have to say I'm a disappointed with the 8.5, I must have really miss
Lee K

Lee K

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Thor, Dark World

Finally took time to ho to the theatre today And I was pleased. And my wife enjoyed the movie too, although I think she spent half of it watching Sif & critiquing her armor in her mind. (My wife fights too) I was pleased with the story and surprised with the first epilogue. For some reason, when I was young, I never got into Thor. Now that I am very much older, I am saddened by that. Because behind the facade of mutant mayhem and spidey stories there is a series I missed with beaut
Lee K

Lee K

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After it was a tryout book

And before it was Batman team-up It was possible to have team-ups of two DC heroes not named Batman. Now, most of the go-go check era Brave & the Bold issues are Batman team-ups, simply due to the fact that Batman was everywhere while the 1966 TV shows was playing. The Brave & the Bold is a favorite of my childhood, because I often didn't have a quarter every month for a book, but here I didn't need to know what had gone on the month before to understand what was happening in the is
Lee K

Lee K

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Sixty nine

.? That's right, it's business day sixty nine, and I woke to find my value submission has finally advanced to quality control. YAY! With the addition of Don Rosa to the guest list at ECCC, maybe my friend can take the Don Rosa pedigree book that he's getting as a Christmas gift and crack & have is personalized & signed...something like; from my collection to yours, Don Rosa. At least now I anticipate having the books in hand before Christmas so I can wrap his gifts. Happy Hunti
Lee K

Lee K

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Corporate life

I have to live it... Not the terrible, wear a suit & tie every day and retire to a monotonous cubical kind of corporation, although I will wear a tie today as my fifteenth anniversary with the company will be recognized. But still the plan a year in advance, so people with seniority actually get first choice at the good vacation slots, kind of corporate joy. What does this have to do with comics? Well, it's time to plan to meet some more of you great people, and to see a couple of you
Lee K

Lee K

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This means WAR!

Rock, Storm, Gunner, Sarge.. Starting in 1956 with the first grey tone or wash tone cover (All American Men at War #35), and continuing in 1959 with the first repeating characters in a war comic (Gunner & Sarge, and later Pooch in All American Men at War, and late moving to Our Fighting Forces), DC made a name for itself in war comics. Sgt. Rock and Easy Company, the Haunted Tank, the Losers, Enemy Ace, Suicide Squad, the Unknown Soldier, Navajo Ace, a Balloon Buster, Lt. Liss' Hellcats,
Lee K

Lee K

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Giving 110%

Or getting 110% from CGC O, so I'm off on a turn around time rant again. My books have now been at CGC for sixty six days for a fifty nine day current turn around time submission. One day I won't have to pay an extra $10 per book in order to get them back within the quoted time periods. And that'll probably be the one day that I don't have any pending submissions... Ah well... It still looks possible that I'll have them back in time for Christmas. Happy Hunting! Lee K To see ol
Lee K

Lee K

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What a strange decision

... One of the reasons given for the dislike of the go-go check banner was that it "used up" valuable space on the cover with no measurable gain. A review of go-go check examples makes me question this explanation. As can be seen below, it was typical for paste ups and cover blurbs off all kinds to encroach into the go-go check area, even the masthead is sometimes overlayed in such a way as to obscure the checked pattern. Today I consider the go-go checks an excellent thematic element tha
Lee K

Lee K

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25%

5 of 20 Or 130 of 520There are days and even months that the go-go check collection expands by leaps and bounds, and other months where if doesn't do anything at all..it jus sits there, mocking me. But the years have produced some successes in the set. Earlier in 2013 I finally surpassed the 1/4 mark. That's right, I now own one in four of the go-go checks, slabbed, and excluding those copies that are less than an 8.5, or restored (not every purchase has been a winner)...I have tracked down
Lee K

Lee K

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Add or Edit Journal Entry:

Use the Journal feature to: Well, to journal. Right? To share some deep thoughts about our shared love of colored pictograms? To form bonds over hundreds or thousands of miles. Occassionally to complain a wee bit about service times... To meet people that I would never have met otherwise - except Ronnylama, who shops at the same LCS that I do. WEIRD - That's what that is. But then again - we'd been shopping at the same LCS for years and hadn't met already - so maybe not. Anyway - I
Lee K

Lee K

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My new pastime

Or game... Is to time travel. With so many of making a post per day, the posts are scrolling off my feed pretty fast and I'm missing some great writing and some insightful responses to my posts on the fist go round. So now, I like to travel back in time, look at my journals for the past week, and catch up on any late responses...I'm glad I did, there was more good reading there. Now, I look forward to all you & your daily journals to flesh out my day's reading. Happy a Hunting Le
Lee K

Lee K

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My 'other' set

Or, at least the other set that I pursue currently As if 530+ books in the go-go check set were not enough to keep a man occupied, those books also reminded me of some of the other books I really loved as a child. Three things I loved more than anything else: Sci-fi reprints, Justice League of America, and Weird War Tales... As I started working on the go-go check collection, I purchased a number of raw books to submit myself as well as acquiring slabs. Of course, I read them. Send in r
Lee K

Lee K

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Go-go advertising

There are many options But I found this one first To see old comments for this Journal entry, click here. New comments can be added below.
Lee K

Lee K

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In 1966

DC editor Irwin Donenfeld Was in the unenviable position of trying to find something to stall or reverse the current sales trends, DC was losing readers and Marvel was gaining them at nearly the same rate. Go-go checks were thought up. A strong, visual banner at the top of every DC title, so you could identify your DC books easily on a spinner rack or a magazine shelf, where only the top was visible. They ran for 18 months, which coincided with DC's best sales of the sixties. But those s
Lee K

Lee K

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Brian Bolland

And Brandon Shepherd Because. I also really enjoy Brian Bolland's work - enough so I picked this up. It has some handwriting at the bottom in Bolland's block -script where he writes how he isn't happy with the anatomy. I don't think this was used for a cover - but it does look familiar, as if maybe he re-imagined it and used it for something later...or maybe I've just seen so many Bolland WW covers that it looks familiar. Happy Hunting! Lee K To see old comments for this Journ
Lee K

Lee K

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What go-go checks?

Because. So more than once I've been asked, "why this set?" My decision making process was fairly easy, I love SA DC, but I'm unable to compete financially for key books from the early silver age, I just don't have that kind of money to spend on my second hobby. But, I wanted to have clear guidelines to keep myself from buying books all willy nilly and not having anything at the end of the period that I was proud of. I also didn't want my focus to be so narrow that I was unable to find an
Lee K

Lee K

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Signing my life away

Or how I choose books for Signature Series Since my main collecting focus doesn't intersect a whole lot of live, con attending creators, I have exactly zero signature series go-go check books - although there are TWO books that I do not own, that Neal Adams did artwork on that are part of the collection. (PM me if you have either in VF+ or better and are willing to sell) So instead of doing like Fleas & Ts, and trying to get every possible signature on my primary focus(es), I work in re
Lee K

Lee K

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CGC's improving turn around times: where'd they go?

Or: my 59 day current turn around time submission is at business day 60 today, and hasn't been advanced to QC yet... So. Graded. As of twelve days ago...and just sitting there, hanging out with the other books, but now that we have exceeded the current turn around time posted on the website for this level of submission, I haven't any clue how much longer I have to wait, 2 days? 12 days? 20 days? Or will they magically be done today? I know Tnerb journalled about adding clearer, more concis
Lee K

Lee K

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Firsts

Or to understand what came first - you have to understand what never left... The go-go check marketing period of DC comics abounds with firsts, as do the couple of issues that pre-date the go-go checks by one or two months. A handful of new, long-term characters were introduced, some of whom have carried their own titles, while others have appeared in animation, and some of which (thankfully) passed into the sunset of comic life. Additionally, DC started going through its golden age characte
Lee K

Lee K

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It's the little things,

Like Georgia... Most of us spend hundreds if not thousands of dollars of comic books, and then on CGC to have those very same books scrutinized under a magnifying glass, a black light, an MRI, and quite probably a CAT scan...all so that they can disclose their valued opinion on defects, even those not visible to the naked eye, and the dreaded prospect of undisclosed restoration. We appreciate and acknowledge that the people doing this are human, that they are not infallible, and that at the
Lee K

Lee K

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