Bird

I was a premium member for years but stopped with the move to $75. I had slowed down my participation in the hobby so I didn't really go to CAF much. I rarely go there nowadays! Bill kept the star near my name for quite a while after my premium membership expired.

Keif Fromm is a notorious individual in the OA crowd. He is juuust before my time but I know enough to steer clear. @Redbeard, thank you for spending some time and telling us some of the history that you are aware of.

The art on that last one reminds me of Amy Reeder on Rocket Girl, the first arc of which I really enjoyed.

And yet she calls you baby

I do not have a direct answer but when I went to Poland last month the google translate app (free) and a search on yelp for comic books went pretty well for me.

No mention of the show on scott eder's website but bechara/nostalgic investments is listed as going as is cool lines. @fmaz you can see actual prices on cool lines art! Anthony snyder's website says he is going to terrificon So maybe not the full gang of usual suspects but you will have a good time just looking stuff over. I would encourage you to send the ladies somewhere else as you may want to really look around. It becomes sensory overload after a while. I just checked and Albert Moy will be there, so you should have a good time! I haven't gone to one of these in a few years myself.

I look forward to reading as many as I can of these. I am going to go through my Marvel Team Up box this weekend!

well, X-Men was infamously such a poor seller that they were running reprints for 25 or so issues until the new team debut in issue 94.

You should consider the possibility that both of these things are true.

This is a wise man. Y'all should listen to him.

I was just going through some shortboxes and saw some comics that I know that I love more than most of you. I was hoping that maybe others could share some of their favorite comics that are generally unrecognized. I can start obviously. One of my favorite comics of all time is written by Alan Moore but is one most people have not read or are unaware of. I have posted about this comic before. It has early (the first?) art by Carlos D'Anda, who laughed and told me all about the assignment when I told him how much I loved the comic. The official name is Wildstorm Spotlight #1. It incorporates a bunch of characters from the Wildstorm Universe in a one-and-done comic that tells the story of the end of time and the birth of the universe. Yeah, good stuff. Another one of my favorite comics ever is Gotham Central 24. I have talked about this one before as well. Michael Lark really kills it on that series. He was a bit shocked I think at my intensity for this issue when I talked to him about it in person once. Ed Brubaker and Greg Rucka worked on the series together, I think that they co-plotted and then traded story arcs. Issue 24 reads well enough as a stand alone issue but really packs a powerful punch as the culmination of the series to that point. It is a pivotal issue for Renee Montoya in the book, before everything changed dramatically for that character! Anyway, these are some good comics that are greatly overlooked in my opinion. Check them out if you have the time and inclination!

spectacular spiderman lot issues 2-20, 22-63, 65-244 I just listed a huge lot of Spectacular Spider-Man on ebay, link above. Issues 1 and 64 are going to be slabbed and issue 21 is MIA. A really nice lot. If a boardie wants them for $300 shipped media mail in the US I will add Annuals 1-14 but you have to PM me here for that deal. That is Spectacular Spider-Man issues 2-220, 22-63 & 65-244 and Annuals 1-14. That is 255 comics total.

Sometimes I think we have forgotten who we are. (Not directed at the OP or anyone in particular, just feeling a rant.) You do not get into OA the same way that you get into comics or most other hobbies. Maybe my experience is rare, but I was the odd one who went from comics to OA in my group. At college and after no one was interested in OA despite there being a bunch of guys who were into comics. Comic guys are individualists to some extent and OA guys are distilled even further. We got into OA because we liked it, and eff anyone who didn't understand. It wasn't like Deadheads or guys who like Rush or Indigo Girls girls or Pat Benatar chicks, you couldn't just look around and find others like you but you did kept going anyway. But once you DO find the other people in the hobby suddenly the need to justify arises. Forget that. Continue being true to yourself and following what YOU think is cool. There is no need to question yourself, trust me on that. I was the guy collecting 150 Starman pages at one time. I would have done far better financially to have bought other stuff but I was in love with that book and Tony Harris' art on it so I would never have had the enjoyment of those experiences if I had not gone down that road. Now I have 40-50 Harris pieces, love them to death and no plans to part with the vast majority of them, and have moved onto other things. Including comic books! I am thinking of buying more GA comics! I have a pretty penny (in my world at least) in comics now. I find I enjoy them and am parsing my OA purchases accordingly. If I had bought things on my current OA want list 20 years ago I never would have appreciated them as I will should I manage to land them all. But I loved that stuff that I was buying at the time and am glad I went that route. I remember Scott Eder asking me why I didn't have a Ditko or wasn't targeting one and I told him that I was much more a PMS or Brunner fan and bought accordingly!

This guy is on the ball! Smart. He's right too. I shoulda thoughtta this.

always be fluid, never be rigid in your collecting goals. I usually don't get too directive but am confident in this. Do what feels good within the parameters you have set for collecting. Think long and hard about what you want unless you don't want to think about it because it is a hobby dammit. But think and then act accordingly so that the result feels good. If you find yourself worrying if something fits or belongs, stop and come back to it later and by the time you come back to it you will know the answer. I have found myself in a few distinct periods over the years. Some things are linear progressions and some things then have steps that move beyond the previous line of thought. I used to think collecting was linear but it is not, it is a series of steps. I enjoy taking new steps; my latest was focusing on The Fifty and culling the herd while buying select pieces (mostly Mignolas while I wait for big fish)! thinking is important because money is involved. But feeling good about your stuff is the key.