SW3D's Journal

A journal by SW3D

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Yarva Etrigan Deamonicus! I summon the Demon Etrigan!

"Change! Change, O' form of Man! Release the Might from fleshy mire! Boil the Blood in Heart of Fire! Gone! Gone!... the form of Man! Rise, The Demon Etrigan!!"I was first introduced to this yellow-skinned netherworld denizen with twin ruby pupil-less orbs, through Alan Moore's revisionist and ground breaking work on Saga of the Swamp Thing. The Demon Etrigan, came to assist Swamp Thing on several occasions, most notably as a guide in Hell to free the elemental's soul mate, Abigail Arcane,
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World of Witchblade and Darkness Part 4: A Birthday Celebration!

AKA: Which Witch is the Witch? My apologies to 109... for I believe I may have inadvertently lifted the name of my last few journals from your award winning collection of Witchblade. I honestly thought I was pirating the name from World of Warcraft, Blizzard's famous RPG, but this morning I paroused through your set and discovered your collection was aptly named World of Witchblade. BTW, your set is very, verY cool. I tip my hat to you for the fine collection you have put together. Speaking
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World of Witchblade and Darkness Part 3: Total Darkness!

Yep, more of the same... Darkness early issues: 1 through 3, all yellow labels featuring Marc Silvestri and Matt "Batt" Banning signatures. I was fortunate to acquire the signatures at NYComicCon this past October. The first slab features the Variant black cover of Darkness #1 (1st Appearance of Jackie Estacado as the Darkness) graded 9.6. That one features a striking Marc Silvestri signature written vertically and parallel to Estacado's darkness enshrouded countenance. The second slab is
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World of Witchblade and Darkness Part 1a: The Threesome!

AKA: Witchy Woman! These five yellow labels just arrived today... my triple signature copies of Sara Pezzini's first appearance in the pages of Cyblade/Shi: The Battle for Independents #1, cover art by Billy Tucci. Featuring the debut of Sara Pezzini and the Witchblade artifact, Cyblade/Shi tells the rather convoluted story of Samurai Assassin Shi (Billy Tucci's gorgeous half-Italian, half-Japanese swordswoman creation), cast under the hypnotic spell of a league of Ninja assassins, while Cy
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Will the Real Phantom Stranger's First Silver Age Appearance Please Stand Up?

...Showcase 80 Vs. Phantom Stranger Volume 2, Number 4...   ...OR...   ...Phantom Stranger in the Silver Age: The Lost Years...Int. - Theatre - Night:It's opening night in a packed house bristling with the energy of excitement and anticipation. As the theatre lights dim, a lofty backlit trail of white light pierces the ebony darkness, spotlighting an empty stage. The audience falls silent as a lone figure whose face is impossibly cloaked in obsidian, graces the stage. He stands before closed
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Who has Green Hair, wears Yellow Skin Tights with Green Striped Underwear, Red Boots and Gloves, and tops it all

Who has Green Hair, wears Yellow Skin Tights with Green Striped Underwear, Red Boots and Gloves, and tops it all off with a Furry Red Cape? The Creeper... a trippy Steve Ditko creation from 1968, is arguably the most bizarre character to emerge from DC Comic's Silver Age, next to Brother Power the Geek! The Creeper first appeared in the pages of Showcase No. 73. With one of the oddest and most improbable origin stories of any comic book superhero, the Creeper is not your atypical DC costumed
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Where were you when you first read Marvelman?

Where were you when you first read Marvelman? Hey you! Yeah, you know who you are! You love Alan Moore's take on the one-time rip-off of the Big Red Cheese, who became a god and ruled a utopia after the near destruction of London. Where were you when Micky Moran uttered the word Kimota? I know where I was... it was 1985 and I was in a dingy and cramped comic book store called Bishop Comics in Kew Gardens, Queens, NY, which smelled ferociously of paper oxidation. I was an aimless 16-year old bo
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When Music Makes the Scene... It's Seldom a Gold Record!

Why Music Comic Book tie-ins generally suck! I'm a big fan of music... you name it... Rock, Rap, Popular, Club, Classical, Disco, Jazz, Easy Listening, R&B, Country, Soul... if it sounds good to my ears... I'm into it. And I love reading comic books, which also includes a wide range of genres: Superhero, Adventure, Fantasy, Horror, Sci-Fi, Western, Funny Comics, Underground, and, on some rare occasions, even Romance Comics. However, when these two diverse examples of popular cultures
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Whatever Happened to Simon Garth?

The Walking Dead, Marvel Zombies, Rise of the Black Lanterns, Night of the Living Dead, World War Z... Zombies are everywhere! They're an undeniable cultural phenomenon... almost on the verge of being a pandemic ...and quite frankly it's making me sick! Enough already! But for all you animated-corpse fans, let's tip our hats to one of the earliest zombie's ever to grace a four-color page... Stan Lee's and Bill Everett's creation: Simon Garth. Simon Garth... the long departed cyanotic former
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What If? Warlock and Angela...

O' Heavenly Creatures!   Have I witnessed a divine vision and gleaned a possible future?Or are these the bold portents of a madman... the rants and ravings of a lunatic and a fool?For I've seen in the stars a Holy Trinity... a Cosmic Alliance not seen in a millennia......Of Eternal Hope... the Son of Man... the Gold Skinned Immortal who has returned to his Cocoon and will ultimately return a God... the one they call Adam... the Warlock.And of Heaven's Champion... the Huntress... the Bounty Hu
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Welcome to the World of Self-Publishing: An Interview with Bradley Potts, Owner of Gateway Comics and Writer and

We all read and collect comic books, but how many of us dare to live the dream? What dream you ask...?... Creating and publishing your very own comic book. Think of the thrill to see a comic book you've written or illustrated, in the hands of a child, teen or adult? Imagine the rush when you discover a fellow collector submitting your comic book on a CGC invoice? And what delirious heights of euphoria will you reach when your comic book is encapsulated and immortalized in a brand spanking new CG
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Variant Covers... Just Another Gimmick!

...When Too Much of a Good Thing is a Bad Thing... What's with all the variant covers? Is this really helping the industry grow? Is there a genuine reason why a comic, with a listed cover price of $2.99, needs to be marked-up to $10 or $25 bucks by your local specialty shop, solely because it contains a variant cover? And just because these covers are considered rarer than they're standard cover brethren, does it really deserve a higher price valuation? BFD! It's a gimmick... a commer
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Uncanny X-Men 142: Days of Future Past Part II: Innocence Lost...

Perhaps one of the best storylines ever written by Chris Claremont for Uncanny X-Men. Vintage newsstand purchased comics are not easy to obtain in high grade, and rarely do they receive Mint or Gem Mint designations. Unlike their comic speciality shop brethen, newsstand distributed comics are notoriously abused by the handlers at newsstands who are oblivious to the snot nosed kids (that is me) who treat comics like a precious ring (think LOTR). I remember back in the day, before I had the p
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Two of a Perfect Pair: The Silver Surfer and Adam Warlock

Whilst rummaging through my collection this evening, in search of a particular comic, I came across a 32 year old blast from the past... the pairing of two of Comicdom's most iconic cosmic heroes: The Silver Surfer and Adam Warlock. Marvel Comics was generous in reprinting one of the greatest comic runs in its rich history: The Silver Surfer, Volume 1, No.'s 1 - 14. This was gifted to us all in Fantasy Masterpieces Volume 2, No.'s 1 - 14. On top of that, beginning with issue 8, Adam Warlock wa
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To Sell or Not to Sell? And at What Price?

I'm new to the selling game. And I've elected to use Ebay as my first distribution channel to sell my graded childhood collection.   So far, it has been a painful process (not because of eBay)... to actually accept letting go of things I so truly cherish.But I've taken a deep breath and reminded myself, "Remember the goal: to downsize your collection and make room for only comics you so truly desire, and the proceeds from the sales of these comics will go towards buying those holy grail comic
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To Err is Human, To Forgive is...

From time to time, we all make mistakes... I know I do. But mistakes are lessons and reminders of our imperfections and fragile humanity. We are not machines... we are not perfect... nor were we meant to be. And that is true of any and all government, group, organization, individuals, and even professional third party grading companies. What am I babbling about? Take a look at my latest acquisition. It is a glorious 9.8 example of Warlock Volume 1, Number 9. The cover illustration is what
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Those Comics in Your Basement? Probably Worthless

I caught this article on Yahoo tonight, written by Eric Spitznagel of BusinessWeek. See the link: http://finance.yahoo.com/news/those-comics-basement-probably-worthless-095537403.html   I really disagree with it... and I think it's a bit unfair. What are your thoughts? SW3DBarry T. Smith, 44, spent most of his life collecting comic books. And he always considered them an investment. "These books would someday be college tuition, or a house down payment," Smith remembers thinking. "I would lay
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This has been another thrilling adventure of Superman!

I may not be the biggest Man of Steel fan or collector (I give that nod to Brandon Shepherd and others), and I definitely haven't read every adventure of the Caped Wonder, but I am a big fan nonetheless. When I was a child, Superman was the one superhero I wanted to be. What Superman stands for: purity, morality, strength, and order, which symbolically stands defiant in our often troubled, turbulent, and chaotic world. Superman never bends to the will of evil, nor does he sacrifice his m
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The World of Witchblade and Darkness Part 2: Three Key Moments in Darkness History!

AKA: Jackie... Turn Off The Dark! First came the Darkness Power, probably best described as a "Living Energy"... composed of the negative Spiritual Aspect of the Universe. See Medieval Spawn/Witchblade #1 (the photo features my original owner copy graded 9.6/White Pages). Then came Jackie Estacado, that lovable rapscallion Mafioso Prince and vendetta-driven homicidal assassin in the pages of Witchblade #10. This 9.8 beauty came by way of one of my favorite troll points: Lone Star Comics/MyCo
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The World of Witchblade and Darkness Part 1b: The Threesome Redux!

Get your mind out of the gutter! These are four yellow labeled copies of Cyblade/Shi: The Battle for Independents #1, featuring Marc Silvestri's very seductive cover. Shi's green eyes in contrast to her "Death Mask" just mesmerize me. I absolutely love the way Silvestri parts Shi's hair. The full lips on both heroines are another avenue of seduction and drooling. These beauties are pin-ups for sure! The 9.4 and two 9.2's in the pic have triple signatures (Silvestri, Tucci, and Batt), whil
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The Strange Adventures of Animal Man!

It finally arrived! A key that has been on my "must have" wish list for a couple of years now: Strange Adventures 190: the third appearance of Buddy Baker, but more significantly... the 1st Appearance of Baker as Animal Man in Costume... thus officially a Superhero! I grew up buying comics in the late Bronze Age into the Copper Age: from 1979 - 1987. The very first time I came to know of Buddy Baker aka Animal Man, was in Action Comics 552 and 553 (February and March 1985 respectively). He, al
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The Power and the Fury!

My Favorite Iron Man Cover: Iron Man 96 I don't know what it is about this particular cover, but it captured my imagination as a child. Back in the mid-70's, my oldest brother, Carlos, introduced me to the world of comics. He was mostly into Marvel, and he bought a ton of them: The Avengers, Fantastic Four, 2nd Generation X-Men, Captain America, Incredible Hulk, Daredevil, and Iron Man. One day I saw this issue, Iron Man 96, on top of a pile of comics. I remember being captivated by the ima
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The Origin of Him: "What Lurks Behind the Beehive?"

I love writing. And one of my favorite exercises to keep my skills honed is writing a detailed plot summary of some of my favorite comics. In some odd way, I almost feel like the actual author of the original -script, retracing their thought processes and plotting to achieve a truncated version of their orginal -script.   This morning I went to the post office to pick up my copy of Fantastic Four 66, which I bought a few years ago from Midtown Comics Grand Central. I bought it at fair market
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The Merry Marvel Mutant Welcoming Committee!

AKA: Don't Come Knockin' 'Round Here No More! Conflicted, confused, and terrified of her own siphoning powers, Rogue finds herself at a crossroads in her life, realizing her uncontrolled mutant abilities and villainy have had catastrophic consequences. Rogue makes the toughest decision in her life, turning to help from her mortal enemies: the X-Men. But Charles Xavier's gang of mutie hoodlums and bullies ain't gonna have none of that! How dare they chase down such a luscious piece of ! Am I
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The Magical Kingdom of the Spawn 9 Newsstand Variant

Okay... so I've developed an obsession of sorts. And I realize this obsession will ultimately see me the loser and not the victor. What exactly is that obsession? I have this insane desire to corner the market on a CGC comic book. Why? I don't know. Maybe I am the descendant of some wayward despot... and all these long years... I've been suppressing the urges of my tyrannical ancestry. My heart and soul constantly beckon me to "RULE THE WORLD!" But, conversly, the genetic sh*t that is also f
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