DerbyDude

Bought two raws, arrived safely. :thumbsup:

I'd love to have a couple celeb books.

Will he ever find his grail signers? Will he ever afford them if he finds them? Tune in next time, true believers.... I have a handful of Signature Series books. Most of them were purchased online, nearly all of those on eBay. But, one thing that I'm not likely to find online is a Doctor Who book signed by a member of the cast, or writing/production team. Many of those folks are in England, and not that many witnesses go "across the pond" to begin with. But, many of them don't do many public appearances. Perhaps I'll be able to get some of these done in the future. Another thing that I'd like to have done is a copy of the Flash TV Special signed by the main cast members and Mark Hammil. I think one of my favorite parts he ever played was of the Trickster. Of course, the first appearance of the Trickster would be great, but I'm not likely going to be able to afford it anytime soon in good enough condition to make an SS worth doing. But, I can dream. Another book that would be great would be the Dell Movie Classics of Doctor Who and The Daleks signed by surviving cast members. I think Bernard Cribbens would be great on a book too because he's been in the new series, and was in Invasion Earth : 2150 A.D. A majority of these actors don't do public appearances either, or are older and are out of "the scene", as it were. But, hopefully I'd get the chance to get a witness to secure a book or two for me.

Putting up dozens of war, mostly DC, tonight and through the week. Might have a many ad 100 total. Will include at least a dozen non-war in the Gold/Silver/Bronze thread.

I have a few SS and other goodies that I picked up from someone a while back for sale in the mixed thread: DerbyDude loves roller derby and comics sale!

Star Trek, the final collecting frontier.... These are the continuing voyages of my collecting obsession.... I have fond memories of watching Star Trek marathons with my dad. He worked a lot and I really didn't get to spend much time with him before I was in high school. Don't get me wrong, he was there, just worked a lot of hours. But, Star Trek is one of the things we always shared. Since then, I've seen nearly every episode of all the series except for Enterprise. I can honestly say the the original series (TOS) is still my fave. Next Generation and Deep Space Nine are kinda tied for me in second place. But, TOS was so far ahead of it's time that it holds a special place to me. So, over thirty years after watching my first episodes, my love of the series exploded into my collection. I have a number of the original Gold Key books, but there are over 50, which is fairly large for a Gold Key non-funny animal series. Most of the issues have beautiful painted or photo covers, and can be quite expensive. I managed to pick up one of the later issues at gem City Comic Con earlier in April, and hope to get to approximately half the run by the end of the year. I hope long term to have a nice set of all issues graded by CGC, but that is a ways off. But, it's high on the list of things to get with lottery winnings! One thing is within reach, and that is the wonderful series released by IDW in recent years. So far I only have 3 books that are graded, but my goal is to get one a month for the next couple years. I'd also love to get a few done with wonderful yellow Signature Series labels. The great thing about a series with such great history is that there are a number of wonderful actors to get in SS. I'm always looking for anything slabbed from trek, and it stands as one of my favorite series of all time. If you haven't seen any of the episodes in awhile, give them a try again. You won't be sorry. To see old comments for this Journal entry, click here. New comments can be added below.

My love of graded books and Doctor Who! I think back about 6 years now. I was new to a comic message board, and had a very excited conversation with someone about grading. I wondered if it was good for the industry, and whether it did nothing but fuel the painful speculation that nearly crippled the comic industry just a few short years prior. Now, my friends and close acquaintances know that I have opinions, often times strong ones, but I'm also very willing to listed to a contradictory position to my own. Well, in this case I think I was hoping to get the reply I received to my opinion, so that I could completely decide how I felt. I don't think I was 100% on the side against, but for some reason I didn't like the idea. Well, as you can guess, I eventually was convinced that grading was not evil. I'm glad I started the "argument" because now I have a large collection of graded books (nearly 100 at last count). However, in the beginning there was very little focus. I was mainly just picking up anything that was interesting and within my budget. This also included my growing collection of signature series books.... Now, I would one day hope to get a nice copy of the full Barry Allen Flash run. It would also be nice to have them all graded, but that is a lofty goal for someone in my tax bracket. So, I'll still look for items I can afford, but am focusing more on one of my oldest loves outside of comics, and that would be Doctor Who. Fans of the new show will no doubt recognize the line I am paraphrasing in my title, "I wear Stetsons now. Stetsons are cool.". Doctor Who is a British television series that began in 1963, and per capita has been unmatched by anything we have I the States. No, my fellow Trek-fan, not even the group of starship captains can really compete. With as many as 16 million viewers tuning into the show the percentage of the populous is akin to the viewing figures we have had for some of the highest rated single episodes in US television history. Roughly one quarter of the people in the U.K. tune in each week. This is astounding to me to think that a sci-fi series gets those kinds of numbers. Now, the good Doctor has been around in the US since the 70's when the iconic Tom Baker became so popular that he transcended the great barrier of the Atlantic to entertain us. My love of Doctor Who began in 1989. I saw new episodes at the very end of the new series. And now I get to enjoy new episodes again. Thankfully, I'm able to extend my collection past the two dozen issues of the original Marvel series as IDW has put out a number of series with wonderful variant covers mixed in for flavor. They even have reprinted some original stories from Doctor Who Magazine that has been out since the late 70's and the Tom Baker era. With signature series, we have a whole other world of items to strive for. One of my great desires is to have books done in SS from the actors and creators of the comic and TV series. Hopefully one day I'll acquire a few. I can only hope...

Doctor Who, Flash, Gold Key, Valiant, Star Trek, and assorted other oddities. I started out collecting a a very young age. I was about 8 years old when I purchased a cop of Alpha Flight #1 with Fantastic Four #257 at the 7-11 down the street from the pool we frequented. I was introduced to the earlier that summer by an uncle who was into Byrne X-Men at a time when it was really cool. We sometimes forget that there was a time before message boards, before Internet, before monthly price guides and speculating, and yes, before CGC. Comics were about the pure joy of stories and artists, and the most collectable thing about comics was, well, comics. I can also remember things like the death of Robin, the excruciating wait to find who in fact DC was going to "kill off" of one of their greatest franchises. I thought for sure it was going to be Alfred or Comissioner Gordon. We were shocked to hear it was Robin. And, then there was the eager anticipation of crossovers, new titles, and of course, independent releases. Some don't know or remember that Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles was in fact a magazine-sizes rarity at first that few shops carried, and it wasn't until the comic and movie craziness that it was in every shop, albeit by then regular comic-sized. It was many years into the hobby that I found myself immersed in the many loves I now enjoy. The Flash was around 1993, although I'd owned many Flash books growing up, a friend hooked me on the Wally West series of the 90's. Doctor Who was in my interests in 1986, but I didn't get into the comics until the mid-to-late 90's. And, the boom of Valiant Comics still echoin today ushered in an appreciation for the Gold Key series that spawned them. I'm working towards a full set of every Magnus Robot Fighter, Solar Man of the Atom, and Turok Som of Stone ever printed. Turok's 130 issues are daunting, and expensive, but it's certainly a goal. I'm also hopeful of owning the entire silver ago Flash run, and every Doctor Who comic graded CGC 9.6 or higher one day. I think it's good to set goals. Of course, the future Is full of so many wonderful possibilities. Valiant is returning. Doctor Who is running strong in the seventh series of the new show. Flash has been reborn as a significant member of the DC universe, and so many fans are coming to or returning to the hobby everywhere you look. The overproduction of the late 90's may have finally had its venom wear off enough. There are movies about comics every year. And, it's almost to the point where a blockbuster every year is a comIc-inspired movie. There are many things to look forward to, for any fan. But, we should never forget what comics represent... Stories told with pictures to entertain and delight. Here's to many more decades in the future!