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Still Only 35c

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Journal Entries posted by Still Only 35c

  1. Still Only 35c
    A tale of Big WOW, meeting Bill Sienkiewicz and a seemingly elusive sketch of one his creations, Warlock.
    I recently attended Big WOW in San Jose which I was able tag on at the end of very gruelling two week business trip in Europe and the US. I only had a few hours at the event before I had to leave to catch my flight home to Australia via New Zealand.
    It was also the first comic convention I've attended and a rare opportunity for me to meet my favourite artists, get some comics signed and perhaps a sketch. I made sure I was as prepared as possible to make sure I made the most of meeting some of my favourite artists.
    So it was with this in mind that I made a beeline straight to Bill Sienkiewicz's table (I'm a huge fan of his work and his run on New Mutants, which got me into collecting comics when I was younger) to get some books signed and also see if I could secure a sketch.
    At his table I introduced myself and enquired whether he was sketching today and if so, I would love a colour character sketch of one of his creations, Warlock. As l was leaving for my flight back to Australia via New Zealand that afternoon, I explained that I would be unable to pick up the sketch at the end of the day. He said that wouldn't be a problem and agreed to ship the sketch to me in Australia and I would cover any additional costs - both from artwork and shipping perspective if required. That agreed, I paid him $400 cash and he gave me a card with his email. We talked for a little while about Australia and New Zealand (he had visited both and reminisced about how much he enjoyed it) whilst he very kindly signed 3 copies of New Mutants (27, 30 and 31, submitted for Signature Series with CGC - see photo).
    Upon arriving home and unpacking I couldn't seem to locate the card with Bill's contact details on it, so I reached out via his website http://www.billsienkiewiczart.com/. I asked how the sketch was progressing or if the sketch is done as well as arrange shipping to Australia and any additional payment. Unfortunately I got a response from his representative, Sal Abbinanti, who advised he couldn't give any advice or info on Bill's private commissions, but that he had passed on the email directly to Bill.
    Since then I've had no response from Bill at all (despite following up with Sal) and sadly I have no way of reaching out to Bill directly. I'm sure Bill is very busy and this is simply an oversight on his part, but if anyone could help me by either putting me in touch with him or letting him know on my behalf I would be most grateful.
    Any assistance in helping me secure my amazing sketch from Bill would be very much appreciated.
    Every Day A Story
    David Powell

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  2. Still Only 35c
    My latest key Marvel submissions for grading and what I learned from the last batch.
    Finally got around this weekend to preparing my next round of submissions to CGC for grading.
    In total, I've prepped 3 submissions; the batch detailed below, one Modern (mostly X-Men key issues) and one Magazine size (all early Captain Britain UK issues), I'll post more on both the latter soon.
    This first batch is probably the one I'm most excited about as it includes some awesome classic key Marvel comic books; early Star Wars (including #1), forthcoming Guardians Of Galaxy movie related issues (Strange Tales 180, Ms. Marvel and Hulk Annual 5) and finally some classic Nick Fury: Agent Of Shield (including Steranko keys).
    My previous submissions, I was new to the subsmission process and as such used it as a experiment to get a better feel for grading. Although I didn't get as good ratings as I expecting for some issues (mostly due to my inexperience grading) I was happy with most grades and I got some valuable insights on what to look for, submit and the grades expect.
    Also this time around, I'm going to post more info and images on the journals and forums. First off, I'll be posting some of the issues in <A HREF="http://boards.collectors-society.com/ubbthreads.php?ubb=postlist&amp;Board=50&page=1">Hey buddy, can you spare a grade?</A> for some valuable opinions. Keep an eye out and feel free to contribute.
    Anyway, back to it.
    D

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  3. Still Only 35c
    The (happy) conclusion of a tale of Big WOW, meeting Bill Sienkiewicz and a seemingly elusive (now amazing) sketch of one of his creations; Warlock.
    A few days ago, Bill Sienkiewicz called me. I'd been put in touch with him by members on this forum following my previous journal entry and we'd chatted by email.
    We talked for a little while about the original sketch commission, a colour sketch of Warlock from New Mutants, before ending the call saying that he was going to get working on it right away and promised to send a scan of the final artwork in the next few days.
    As he promised, last night I got an email back from Bill with the sketch attached. To say I'm absolutely thrilled with the result is a massive understatement, I never expected to get such a great piece of work. I'll let it speak for itself.
    As you can imagine, I'm totally stoked and I wanted to take this opportunity to thank the following people (in no particular order) for their invaluable help and assistance in putting me in touch with Bill; John at London Super Comic Con, Galactus, Bird, Speedy-D and Tnerb.
    Most importantly, despite the initial difficulties, I also wanted to thank Bill for a such an amazing sketch and who during our conversations came across as a gracious and genuine guy.
    As we say in Australia...
    ...love your work.
    D

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  4. Still Only 35c
    A Beginners Guide to Captain Britain.
    It's been a fantastic couple of weeks for me collecting and grading wise.
    For those who have been following me on the boards, you'll already know about the rare treat I had with my (now beloved) Incredible Hulk 181.
    However before this beauty dropped through my door, I was on a high already when, only a few days previously, my collection of Captain Britain comics submitted for grading were delivered. I've been a fan of Captain Britain as long as I've been aware of comics (it was one of the first comics I owned as a child) and as such, I've always had a soft spot for the character.
    Captain Britain debuted in the Marvel UK weekly comic, Captain Britain Weekly #1, back in 13th October 1976 and was created by Chris Claremont and Herb Trimpe.
    It was unique among Marvel Comics printed for the British market at the time: the Captain Britain stories were printed in colour and perhaps more importantly, it featured all-new material (albeit with reprints of Nick Fury and Fantastic Four strips as backup - previously all of Marvel's British output had been black and white reprints of American comics). Indeed, Stan Lee's himself came up with the idea and ordered a new series set in Britain, featuring a British cast and to be released solely to a British audience in an attempt to create a little bit of the old Marvel magic for English readers. Bizarrely though, it was written and drawn in America, by Americans; so to all intents and purposes this was an American comic book, reminiscent of the 1970s-era Marvel stateside black and white magazines.
    Initially a success, the title ran for 39 issues before it was combined with another Marvel UK title, Super Spiderman (becoming Super Spider-Man and Captain Britain - starting with issue #231), a weekly reprint series. The first 23 Captain Britain stories were in colour, drawn by Herb Trimpe and inked by Golden Age artist Fred Kida (of Airboy fame) before the entire comic switched to black and white with issue #24 for the remainder of its run featuring other greats such as John Buscema with inks by Tom Palmer.
    Chris Claremont wrote the first ten issues alongside Trimpe and Kida before he left the series (he has since stated this was due to differences of view regards the character and series to that of then Marvel UK editor, Neil Tennant, later of Pet Shop Boys fame). These issues introduced us to this uniquely British superhero who was initially intended to be a British equivalent of Captain America, endowed with extraordinary powers by the Merlyn and his daughter Roma to uphold the laws of Britain, introducing a number of characters and concepts that have since become Marvel universe mainstays. Perhaps the most well known was the introduction in Issue 8 of Captain Britain's twin sister, a certain Elizabeth "Betsy" Braddock, who would later join the X-Men and become Psylocke.
    The initial issues of these UK comics also had paper covers, thus were damaged and marked easily making them relatively scare in high grade; both raw and graded copies. The first two issues were also promoted with free gifts, including a cardboard Captain Britain mask and a Captain Britain boomerang respectively and generally receive Qualified Grades as CGC policy is not to include loose inserts (I've queried this on the boards previously http://boards.collectors-society.com/ubbthreads.php?ubb=showflat&amp;Board=30&Number=6791662&Searchpage=3&Main=303470&Words=everydayastory&topic=0&Search=true#Post6791662).
    These are the issues and grades I was fortunate to receive.
    Captain Britain Issue 3 - CGC Graded 9.8 White Pages (Highest graded, one of only 7 - 8 graded in total)
    Captain Britain Issue 4 - CGC Graded 9.8 White Pages (Highest graded, one of only 9 - 17 graded in total)
    Captain Britain Issue 5 - CGC Graded 9.6 Off-White To White Pages (Highest graded, one of only 3 - 6 graded in total)
    Captain Britain Issue 6 - CGC Graded 9.4 White Pages (One of only 3 - 5 graded in total inc 1x9.8)
    Captain Britain Issue 7 - CGC Graded 9.6 Off-White To White Pages (One of 2 - 8 graded in total inc 5x9.8's)
    Captain Britain Issue 8 - CGC Graded 9.4 White Pages - 1st appearance of Elisabeth ""Betsy"" Braddock (Later becomes Psylocke) (One of 13 inc 3 SS - 49 graded in total inc 9 x 9.8's & 14 x 9.6's)
    Captain Britain Issue 9 - CGC Graded 9.8 Off-White To White Pages (Highest graded, one of 12 - 17 graded in total)
    Captain Britain Issue 10 - CGC Graded 9.2 Off-White To White Pages (One of only 2 - 8 graded in total inc 4 x 9.8's & 2 x 9.6's)
    Captain Britain Issue 11 - CGC Graded 9.6 Off-White To White Pages (One of 13 - 19 graded in total inc 4 x 9.8's)
    The good news, with these grades I immediately jumped up the leader board to number 2 (http://comics.www.collectors-society.com/registry/comics/SetTypeDetail.aspx?SetTypeID=2938). I'm now working on obtaining the complete run and hopefully grabbing the top spot.

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  5. Still Only 35c
    Following the recent news item on CGC and other comic news sites about the "lost" Denys Cowan artwork (and how it was subsequently "found"), I thought I'd share my own recent tale of "loss" in the vain hope someone can help me "find" my item again.
    I recently decided to sell one of my two 9.4 copies of Captain Britain #8 on ebay from my newly graded Captain Britain collection (see my previous journal "The [Other] Good Captain"). CB8 is key issue as it features the first appearance of Elizabeth "Betsy" Braddock, who would later become known as Psylocke, now Marvel mainstay and fan favourite from the X-Men.
    The ebay sale went through without a hitch (although the purchaser took a little over a week to pay) and when they did I duly dispatched, but foolishly sent the item via airmail, not registered mail. Lo and behold, a little over a two weeks later, the purchaser queried where the item was (after they'd asked a week before if I had a tracking number for the item) and this continued for a couple more weeks until he raised an issue with PayPal for none delivery. As I had no way to dispute this, I refunded the purchaser the full amount.
    So, somewhere between the Post Office and the purchasers home this lovely slab had been "lost". To say, I'm gutted is an understatement.
    Luckily I'd registered the slab prior with CGC against my collection, so if it pops up again and someone tries to register it I'll be alerted. That said, if anyone here should come across this item on your travels or are offered it for sale, please let me know. I've pictured the item below.
    The lesson for me in all of this is you should always make sure your items are sent registered and insured.

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  6. Still Only 35c
    ...or how I learned to miss Emerald City Comicon 2014.
    As a comic collector living in Australia we already have a face a number of challenges especially when it comes to our favourite hobby as well as grading/signings.
    Increased shipping costs, insurance, extended shipping times, fluctuating currencies and... comic conventions.
    You see, in Australia, whilst we have Comic Conventions, we don't have CGC presence, so even in the extremely rare event we manage to see a celebrated writer or artist, it means that they will always be the dreaded Green Label and not Signature Series.
    So with this in mind everytime I get a chance to visit the US I try to attend a ComicCon. Last year, as some of you know, I managed to tie in a work trip with Big WOW show in San Hose.
    A couple of months back, another work trip seemed on the cards and luckily enough Emerald City Comicon was on one weekend I was planning to be there. It wasn't until this week I was able to confirm the trip flights and hotels and so visited the emeraldcitycomicon.com site to dutifully buy my tickets for the event. To my horror, with 42 days to go, I found not only ALL the 3 day passes SOLD OUT both the individual Saturday and Sunday tickets as well.
    Gutted.
    So, I'm here to use this journal entry to put out a plea; if anyone has a spare 3 day pass for sale or even just a ticket for the Saturday event I could really use your help...
    ...and I'd be forever grateful.
    P.S. As I didn't have a suitable image to share with this post I thought I'd share a great scan of a 1979 Star Wars Palitoy ad illustrated by Brian Bolland (as well as letters column) that I recently came across in UK Hulk Comic that I've recently started to collect again (more on that in a journal post soon). Enjoy.

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  7. Still Only 35c
    [Mis]adventures at Emerald City ComicCon
    Being based in Australia, it is rare I visit the US and especially rare that these trips coincide with a major comic convention. Last year I'd been lucky enough to have San Jose's Big WOW show align with business trip and this year, as luck would have it, I was going to be on business in Seattle the same weekend as Emerald City Comic Con.
    If you've read my previous journal entry you'll already know obtaining tickets turned into an adventure in itself, but in the end I managed to grab a 3 day pass from StubHub (paying well over the odds) and it arrived just days before my trip.
    Arguably this was to be my first proper Comic Convention given the scale and popularity of the event, so with that in mind when the doors opened I headed straight to the CGC stand to get the low down in preparation for the next few days of signature & sketch hunting especially as I had limited time on the first day as I had to attend a couple of business meetings later in the afternoon. Throughout the morning the Mike and team were as efficient and helpful as I remember from Big WOW show accompanying me on my quest for signatures throughout the morning. Additionally I was very pleased to make the acquaintance of board/journal regulars Tnerb and Ronnylama.
    I made the most of the morning with the first catch of the day being up with Kurtis J. Wiebe and Roc Upchurch, co-creators of Rat Queens who signed my first issue of said title.
    Shortly afterwards we headed over to the other side of the Convention Center to catch up with Nate Bellegarde, the artist on one of my favourite titles, Image Comics (much delayed and infrequent, yet still amazing) Nowhere Men. He kindly signed 5 copies (as well as adding a quick sketch of the newly transformed Kurt on one) before he kindly agreed to sketch the infamous crystal gorilla from the series as well (the final sketch pictured below - which I picked up the next day) for me.
    This was quickly followed by Art Adams, who signed my classic 1985 Longshot six issue mini series collection (I'd also planned to get Ann Nocenti sigs as well, but I didn't see her at her table that day) as well as the fantastic FF#1 Art Adams variant (http://www.comicvine.com/articles/marvel-reveals-arthur-adams-ff-1-variant-cover/1100-145462/). With this in hand, I was again accompanied to the other side of the convention center and added Mike and Laura Allred's signatures to that cover. Whilst there, I also secured a signature from G. Willow Wilson on the new Ms. Marvel #1.
    Finally, before leaving that day, I was able to get Eric Stephenson, Image Comics head honcho and writer of the aforementioned Nowhere Men to sign my newly Nate signed issues as well.
    It was a great morning, but as I left that afternoon little did I know what lay in store for me over the next couple of days...

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  8. Still Only 35c
    More [mis]adventures at Emerald City ComicCon
    I arrived at the CGC stand fresh and early on the Saturday morning after the doors had opened at ECCC. Mike came over to say hi, then looked at me strangely before exclaiming "That wasn't there yesterday, what the hell happened?!?!" There was something different about me - my right arm was now in a sling and I couldn't move it without extreme pain, so it was effectively useless.
    I explained that the day before getting out of the taxi on my way back from my meetings I'd slipped and fell very badly on my shoulder. One ambulance, 3 hours in hospital and x-rays later I was in the sling and told I had a Grade III seperated shoulder.
    Given this, the team at CGC went above and beyond on my quest to get the remaining signatures by helping me out with my comics throughout the day as I struggled with just my left arm.
    Highlights included managing to find a great copy of Hulk 350 featuring the classic Ground Zero story for Peter David to sign. I also managed to pick an amazing copy of the New Mutants Annual 2 (first appearance of Psylocke) as well as Avengers 257 (first appearance of Nebula - I had an idea I would get Karen Paige to sign it - more on that in my next post).
    I also finally managed to catch up with Ann Nocenti, who completed my signatures on my Longshot collection as well as signing my Daredevil 252 featuring the first appearance of Typhoid Mary ( http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Typhoid_Mary_(comics) ). Ann was great and we talked about Mary; how she came up with the character and how disapointed she was in the movie representation of her turned out. She was also surprised to hear how Mary's character has continued evolve (or not) within the Marvel Universe, particularly the Mutant Zero stuff. We also chatted briefly about Longshot, how cool the mini series was and if she ever wanted to return to the character. She said she'd thought about it and how cool it would be to do another story with Art Adams again. I suggested a title; Longshot Oneshot, which she seemed to like.
    The big task of the day though was making sure I got some sketches on a bunch of Blank variants I had brought with me. Early on I stopped by Davd Marquez's stand and decided to ask him if he would do a sketch commission of Nightcrawler and a Bamf on a blank variant of Amazing X-Men I had. He agreed and I handed it over. Little did I know that Ed McGuiness was in attendance, who I just happened to stumble on whilst wondering the stalls. After some quick hunting around I managed to get another copy of Amazing X-Men and asked Ed if he would do the same sketch commission of Nightcrawler and a Bamf. Unfortunately he was already pretty booked up, but after seeing my arm and chatting about what happened, he kindly agreed before also signing my Nova #1 and Amazing X-Men #1.
    Now I had a dilemma; I had two great artists, doing the same commission on the same Blank variant. For a moment I thought it would be good to compare the two, but I had another idea and so rushed back to David's stall to see if I could change the commission. Thankfully David hadn't had chance to start work yet and so we agreed on a new sketch commission; Professor Kitty Pride and Lockheed the dragon on a blank variant of All New X-Men (presented below).
    All in all, it was another great day.
    Interestingly as I write this my signature series and sketch submissions switched from Verified to Scheduled for Grading as well. Not long now...

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  9. Still Only 35c
    Yet more [mis]adventures at Emerald City ComicCon.
    The last day of ECCC.
    As per my previous journal post, I had in my head the idea of getting my newly picked up Avengers 257, which featured the first appearance of Nebula, signed by Karen Gillian. She was only going to be at the show on the Sunday, so everyone was keen to get there early and the queue was packed. I soon got talking about the signing to a group of people whilst we waited and being new to conventions, I was a little surprised when someone mentioned she was charging $70 for a signature and immediately started to re-evaluate. Whilst it would be good to get the signature of the person playing the character of Nebula in the movie, as someone in the line mentioned, it is always better to get creators signatures on a book. It also gave me a renewed appreciation for all of those comic book creators who for the most part, sign comic books for free for fans and so with that in mind, I decided to shelve the idea and enjoy the last day of the show.
    As I wondered the show, I saw a blank variant of the fantastic Image title, Black Science by Rick Remender and Matteo Scalera and instantly picked it up as a fan of the fledging series. With my new book in hand, I made my way over to Matteo Scalera's booth where back on the first day of the con, I'd put myself down on his wait list for a sketch. Initially I'd dropped off a blank variant of Rick Remender's new Captain America Marvel NOW! series and requested a half figure sketch of Cap. However over the weekend I'd revisited his stand a couple of times to see if he'd be able to fit it in and it was looking more and more unlikely as the hours ticked away.
    When I arrived Matteo was sketching, so I spoke with his rep explaining that I'd found the Black Science blank and wondered if I could change my sketch. Matteo overheard, looked over and asked what character I'd like, I responded by saying he could draw whatever he wanted as it was his baby, he knew the story and I trusted him. He gave me a little grin, nodded to his rep and went back to sketching - I was in! Elated, I handed over book and the rep told me to come back in a few hours.
    Still buzzing I wandered the show and picked up #1 of the new Silver Surfer series which I'd been convinced to try after meeting Mike and Laura Allred a couple of days beforehand. I decided to revisit them to get it signed and once again, the signing experience was ultra cool. They both take time to chat individually to each visitor and Mike shares some very cool stories, which show how deeply passionate he is about his chosen art form and comic book history, which I really appreciate.
    Shortly after I checked back with Ed McGuinness' at his booth to see if he'd been able to complete my sketch and it was ready. So I headed back with CGC witness accompanying me and picked up my newly created Nightcrawler (and Bamf) sketch that you see below. To say I was happy with the result is an understatement, but the best was yet to come...

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  10. Still Only 35c
    Final [mis]adventures at Emerald City ComicCon
    I had a couple more hours to kill before I could pick up my mysterious Black Science Blank variant sketch by Matteo Scalera, so I decided to finalize all my submissions in preparation for the end of the show. As luck would have it, I overheard someone asking about pressing and then I spotted a CCS form - I'd not realized you could also submit your signed books via CCS at the show. I chatted with the helpful CCS rep on-site who gave me an evaluation of the books that would benefit from a clean and press. We settled on 14 out of my 33 books including my newly signed Longshot mini series, Daredevil 254, Ms Marvel #1 and Ghost Projekt as well as my new pickups of the Marvel Two-In-One Annual #2, Incredible Hulk 345, New Mutants Annual #2 and the aforementioned Avengers 257. As I write this journal, these last ECCC submissions have just changed to "Scheduled for Grading".
    After which I headed back to Matteo's booth to pick up my Black Science Blank variant sketch with witness in tow. As we arrived, Matteo was still sketching when I arrived, looked up, nodded to his rep before asking for it to be scanned (which I took as a good sign - not sure if he scans all his commissions) prior to Matteo himself handing it over to me. I was floored, he'd rendered a fantastic image of Grant McKay, the lead Dimensionaut in the book. I couldnt thank him enough and he seemed pleased with my reaction. If you still haven't read Black Science, I'd urge you to get on the train especially as the TBP has just hit the shelves (https://imagecomics.com/content/view/see-forever-in-black-science-by-remender-and-scalera).
    What a way to finish the show!

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  11. Still Only 35c
    ...or Captain Britain salutes you!
    Like many of us here, I was very sad to hear about Herb Trimpe's recent passing.
    Whilst most people will remember Herb for his illustrious run on the Hulk (of which I'm also fan), I'll always be grateful for his work on Captain Britain - the character he co-created with Chris Claremont specially made for the Marvel UK.
    Whilst I never got the chance to meet him, I was recently lucky enough to pick up a piece of his original art from his Captain Britain run (below - Captain Britain Page 3 Issue 16 Vol. 1 from 1976 by Herb Trimpe featuring the first meeting of Captain Britain and Captain America; billed as the "Battle of the Century").
    Farewell Herb, thank you for all those amazing memories.

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