The lips

I’m a big fan of Alex Ross and eagerly collected his hero / villain covers. He captures these fictional characters as though they’re actually living, breathing entities. Kirby though is a genius.

2.5 My personal grail this one and that’s exactly the type of condition that’s in my price range. Boy I wish I owned this one !

Saturday morning tends to be my comic time. Not specifically planned, just that’s how it tends to be. Im fortunate my 7 year old boy is at the age where he is obsessed with superhero’s so it’s something we do together. We get the comics out and play games such as ‘name the character’ of I’ll pull out 20 books and he attempts to put in order of value. Then we’ll read a few, education purposes of course !! If time allows we’ll head out to a LCS also so I can buy him stuff he likes outside of that it’s mostly me looking for deals on internet when I get random spare time.

Haha, yes I unashamedly do. in fact I’ve took it to an extreme and every time I open an old book, me and my 7 year old boy both sniff it at the same time, before saying in unison.. ”I get high of that s**t” weird but fun !!

I’m focussing on a run of ASM 1-375 of which I’ve 292 issues completed, I’m 78% done and that’s took me just under 2.5 years, although I still had a few issues from when I was a kid. As it stands I’ve 61 issues of the first 100 but none below issue 17, so thats where the time is going to take I imagine as my pockets aren’t that deep ! I’m 1 issue short (195) of completing 150-375 which hasn’t been too bad. as much as I’m desperate to complete, I keep telling myself it’s a marathon not a sprint ! If I was a gambling man I’d bet I probs won’t complete due to money reasons but you never know. I’m having s lot of fun trying !!

Great looking for .5. Particularly the ASM 1

Thanks, thought so. Likewise I’ve a couple of raws and didnt think they were automatically incomplete and .5. Cheers.

Is a detached cover classed as incomplete ??

Same, I enjoy a well positioned date stamp. Adds to the history for me.

My wallet is ultimately the deciding factor. it’s my major collecting goal to complete an ASM run of 1-375 of which I’m around three quarters done. I’ve sort of worked in stages. 300-375 I mostly bought on release so are all at least a 9.0. Buying back issues I set myself a rough target of issue.. 200 to 300 - 8 or above. 150 - 200 - 7 or above. 100- 150 - 6 or above but gladly go lower on likes of 121,122,129. 50-100 - 5 or above ( my issue 50 is more a 4 ) sub 50 and moving into the big keys it’s just about actually owning them. To me these are pieces of history so I don’t work on grade just a criteria. Firstly has to be complete and no loose pages ( though I don’t mind a cut out advert if it didn’t spoil story ). Mostly I’d gladly take anything on the big first appearances in single figures and 14.

A lot of that will be very achievable. I’m similar to yourself that I’m collecting 1-375, raw and at lower to mid grades ( certainly on the early issues ) I found collecting in stages easiest way to do it. I first completed 200-375. im now at same time doing 150-200 and only need 5 left to do so. im also doing 50-100 and need 11 issues. 1-50 is of course the most expensive and I’ve nothing yet below issue 17. issues 100-150 I’ve not properly started but do have keys such as 121 and 122 so couple of big ones ticked off. for a bit of fun I laid out my sub #100 just to ogle and admire. I love them but tinged with sadness at what I’m missing !!

Hate going first on these threads, but to my untrained eye it looks a decent copy ( better than mine anyway ) id say a 5.

An amazing achievement. Something I’d love to do myself. I’m currently doing asm 1-375 and I’ve 280 issues ticked off ( yep it’s the single issues I’m missing ) I’ll keep chipping away but I can only dream of your achievement. once I think I’ve took it as far as I can I’m going to collect FF Lee / Kirby run and Silver Surfer 1968 as I have issue 1 so rest doable. good luck with your choice

Delighted to have finally picked this up

Just landed my ASM 23 to give with every other Goblin other than the elusive 14. I’ll win it one day soon though !!

7.5. what I’d give to even own this book never mind one in this condition

9.2 or even 9.4. It’s a beautiful copy and definitely better than mine.

9.2. beautiful.

I predominantly collect ASM and working on a run of 1-375 of which I’m 3/4 there. I do now though feel like selling bit off and swaying towards other runs. I definitely want to finish the original Silver Surfer run and make a start on Lee and Kirby’s FF run.

Been after this for a while and delighted to have picked up at a very good price.

Many thanks. My mother is no longer with us unfortunately so it an indeed a very nice memory. My mother bought it and Stan signed it and both now now no longer here. Delighted to hear you made it here to Newcastle and had a great time. Mon the very slim you chance to bust again, don’t hesitate to let me know if you need a tour guide !

Posted this on another thread but very apt here also. These 3 delivered today and I’m delighted to get.

Really really happy with todays mail call. Been after these 3 for a while do great to get them all in one go.

Only ever met one, and thankfully it was Stan Lee here in the UK. I was 13 years old and he was friendly, charming and charismatic. I’d never met an American before never mind the co-creator of all my favourite characters. He signed my Silver Surfer #1 and the 30 years of Marvel book by Les Daniels. an experience I’ll never forget.

I started collecting back in 1990 at the age of 13. Here in Newcastle in the north east of England used to be a great little comic shop called Timeslip. I remember vividly the first time I went in and saw all the wall books, back issues, new issues and could sense also the community of the customers. I was hooked. it was here where I fell in love with the Silver Surfer ( how could you not ! ) and bought a new release for the princely sum of 60p. I loved it Around a month or two later I called in again and there in the back issue section was a Silver Surfer 1 from 1968. I couldn’t believe it. It was a bit beat up and had a price tag of £5 which was too much for this young teenager but my mother bless her dug deep and saved the day. I couldn’t believe it being the proud owner. Fast forward a few months and Timeslip has now been bought out by the multi chain Forbidden Planet and on a visit there they had a sign in the window telling me Stan Lee was going to be there signing copies of his new book. Now this I couldn’t get my head around. Where I’m from, people didnt go to America, it was way too far and way too expensive, but more so than that, Americans certainly didn’t come to Newcastle and even if they did, it wasn’t my hero and creator of all these super hero’s. Stan to me was a super hero and here he was visiting my home town. Unbelievable So naturally I go and take of course my SS1. I was straight there from school so was one of the first in what developed into the biggest que I’ve seen. When it was my turn I approached him and presented him my book. I’ll never forget our small exchange of words. “geez kid, the first Silver Surfer. You be sure to look after her for me” Not only was this the first time I’d heard an American accent that wasn’t on TV, it was Stan Lee..talking and smiling to me…about my Silver Surfer 1. I can’t begin to articulate how surreal and wonderful this was. Its easily my most treasured possession and something that will stay with me always.