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N.I.C.E. #33-34 Feb-March 1989

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Aweandlorder

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So today lets look at 2 months worth of speculation from the Wizard of Mile High. All which were full of blank specs with the exception of one which took off for a few months.. But before doing so, try thinking of what comic books looked like back then, Indie's were still pushing hard, and remember, this is before Image or Valiant, also there were no marketing gimmicks at the same level as there were just a few years later. No crazy #1 reboots, no variants, it was still pretty flat compared to the 90s-today. But still, Chuck was adamant about honing his craft

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Wow! Elementals!! I mean, at that time I think that even I didnt like Elementals anymore. And Comico, who was solicited by DC at the time, was putting out such crappy books, I just couldn't believe anyone in their right mind would plug such fluff.

He did make a valid point about TMNT though, although that particular book, nor series, ever took off, TMNT was definitely gaining momentum and remained to be a safe long term investment. Oh and the part about "Every toy manufacturer reading obscure comics for their next animation project" is just b:insane:nkers 

Lets dial up the following month here:

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So admittedly it was a very slow month, and Chuck probably felt compelled to give Bill Black a boost with a title that had no shot at ever making it to a top 100 list. OK

Uncensored Mouse was definitely a book that made a lot of sense to me. And it actually did experience a bump in price after the title was cancelled on the 3rd issue. Good call there!

I wonder if other speculators saw it coming or was Chuck really ordering heavily on it and beat the competition to it. This was a $20 book by the Fall.

But even more surprising was that Chuck missed this bad boy

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He sure did write extensively about it in his May newsletter

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And by 1990, Rock n Roll history was made and the indie market has found a new gimmick to market to us

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So you see? When speculating, you really really have no way of telling which new book, series, or trend will grow popular and become the next big thing. Even when you're in the business for so many years

 

To be continued....

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Thoughts on this:
a) Funny that he missed RnR comics, but Uncensored Mouse was a great call. That book got national media attention and was, IIRC, a $20 book almost instantly (which would be like a $100 book by today's standards). 
b) Gotta like his unabashed cynicism towards some of these books. He's not just a cheerleader trying to get you to buy in on everything (considering he is the vendor, not just an online blogger looking for attention). N-Man, Lex Luthor Bio, Hawk & Dove, he's really down on these and openly critical. Odd to hear his thoughts on Innovation, but they definitely turned out some high-quality stuff in the early-90's, so maybe they were still evolving.
c) Death in the Fam selling at $110 a set. Think it's around that now for a NM set, maybe even a little lower. I sold my original copies for about $60 along with the TPB back about mid-2000's and I was happy as a clam. Wish I'd kept them, but there was a time when that arc seemed dead in the water, so I took the money and ran.
d) I got in on that Fist of the North Star when it came out. American Ent. billed it as an ultra-violent, super-graphic series so I was all over it. And I hated it.

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Love him or hate him (and I think that everyone hates him lol) he supports the hobby, by supporting his business. No harm in doing that unless you're scamming others. Well it's kind of a sensitive topic I suppose.. but as chuck illustrated, there were many who did just that by sitting on near complete inventories and hiking prices till they cashed out. That is a trade which goes on till this very day by the pump n dump blog warriors. 

Yes uncensored mouse was a big deal. To borrow from your analogy, if that happened today, the after market prices would've been insane. The presentation of this book contributed a lot to the buzz; a sealed book with a black cover about an American cultural phenomenon.. so taboo! Great call indeed. 

A bit surprising about his Innovation write up as I didnt recall hearing about them until then. The 1st two titles I remember seeing from them were Stargazers & and a fantasy title by the name Group Larue. Those were the two solicitations from them that month. I picked legends of the stargazers of course but not because of chuck. Mainly because of that Hughes cover. I was big into Frazetta inspired artists back then and Stevens & Schultz weren't enough for me lol that cover really got me into his stuff and I became a fan since (I think he only did maze agency & death hawk prior to that)

I still have all the books I bought from chuck. They're all located in a separate section of my collection :cloud9:

I think I bought only one copy of Fist of North Star because I was already burnt from all the manga/martial arts/Asian books that came prior to that (remember Jademan comics which came out earlier that year? I bought ALL the #1 issues on those titles ??). Btw the Master Editions of Northstar which came out in early '00 are very rare and going for crazy prices. Particularly volume 6 & 8 are $150 books if you can find them

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