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Comic Book Marketplace articles and letters

Started by VintageComics,

127 posts in this topic

VintageComics

VintageComics

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Posted

Guys, I thought I'd start a thread regarding CBM. Through the 1990's and early 2000's I led a very sheltered life with respect to the hobby. I was unaware that CBM existed, and had I known about it I probably would never have left the hobby for over a decade the way I did.

 

Instead, I find that I have a new sparked interest in back issues to the CBM after purchasing my first few back issues.

 

What a terrific mag!

 

The issues that I received are from the year 2000 and much of the content is centered around the formation of CGC, it's acceptance and rejection by various BSD's at the time and the rebuttals offered by Steve Borock.

 

I had no idea there was such a big hurdle for CGC to cross over at the time.

 

It was also interesting and fun to see old ads, essays, commentaries and letters from various forumites (Stu, Moondog, etc).

 

One reader's letter that particularly caught my eye was a letter by Gary Colabuono, our very own Moondog.

 

He happened to be attending some meetings with publishers to get them to attend his Chicago Comic Con when he happened to have a surprise meeting with Steve Ditko, who was unexpectedly present.

 

After looking for something to get a sig on he ended up getting a dollar bill signed by him. Later that same day he bumped into John Romita at the Marvel offices who also signed the bill. That same year in San Diego he got Todd McFarlane to sign the same bill.

 

Imagine, 3 of the best known ASM artist's sigs all on the same $ bill. What did Gary do? He mistakenly put that bill in his money clip and spent it somewhere in SD.

 

doh!

 

Anyway, as I catch up on my missing decade in the hobby, does anyone else have any CBM memories of their own to share to take a walk down nostalgia lane?

 

Anything that was either published or related to your experiences with the magazine, or simply stand out in your memory would be great!

 

Thanks in advance!

 

R.

 

 

 

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seanfingh

seanfingh

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The article that completely blew me away was Jon McClure's first article on Marvel 30 and 35 cent variants. I spent weeks scouring all the bins at all the local LCS' looking for variants. My best find was Tarzan 1-4 35 cent variants. My worst move was trading 3 of them to Dan Cusimano for a stack of mid-grade Marvel squarebounds. :cry:

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Jeffro.

Jeffro.

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Posted
Anyway, as I catch up on my missing decade in the hobby, does anyone else have any CBM memories of their own to share to take a walk down nostalgia lane?

 

Anything that was either published or related to your experiences with the magazine, or simply stand out in your memory would be great!

 

 

One of my all time favorite magazines on any subject. No disrespect to Russ Cochran, but the mag was never the same after he took over.

 

Anyway, I had a couple letters published. Don't remember the issue numbers. I also won a raffle for volumes 1 and 2 of the Gerber guides that CBM was giving away.

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greggy

greggy

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The article that completely blew me away was Jon McClure's first article on Marvel 30 and 35 cent variants. I spent weeks scouring all the bins at all the local LCS' looking for variants. My best find was Tarzan 1-4 35 cent variants. My worst move was trading 3 of them to Dan Cusimano for a stack of mid-grade Marvel squarebounds. :cry:

lol
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aardvark88

aardvark88

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The newsprint CBM would take 60-90 days to reprint any interesting letters or lists. e.g. 10 best GA covers survey. Insightful info about Harvey files was released back then also to a broader market previously only available if you were a subscriber to Harvey Fun Times(?) mail order (thumbs u fanzine.

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comicparadox

comicparadox

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One reader's letter that particularly caught my eye was a letter by Gary Colabuono, our very own Moondog.

 

He happened to be attending some meetings with publishers to get them to attend his Chicago Comic Con when he happened to have a surprise meeting with Steve Ditko, who was unexpectedly present.

 

After looking for something to get a sig on he ended up getting a dollar bill signed by him. Later that same day he bumped into John Romita at the Marvel offices who also signed the bill. That same year in San Diego he got Todd McFarlane to sign the same bill.

 

Imagine, 3 of the best known ASM artist's sigs all on the same $ bill. What did Gary do? He mistakenly put that bill in his money clip and spent it somewhere in SD.

 

doh!

 

Best story I've heard in a while.

I did something similar a few years ago - had a $50 bill tucked among lots of $1 bills. Guess what I paid the taxicab driver with, thinking it was one of the singles. He didn't correct me. Oops.

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Larryw7

Larryw7

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I still read and re-read my CBM's. I'm only missing a couple of issues(#21, which is the last issue of the original run, and #23). I had a letter printed in the issue with Stan Lee on the cover. When Gary Carter left, it was never the same again. I wish Carter or someone of a like mind would bring CBM back, it was the best magazine of its kind ever produced.

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VintageComics

VintageComics

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To you veterans, when did the CBM start, how many issues are available and how hard are they to find?

 

R.

 

 

Started with issue 1 :baiting:

 

Thanks, teach'.

 

meh

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Scrooge

Scrooge

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First issue was put out March 1991 and ran to 20 (Dec. 1992) in its initial format and then switched to the new format with 21 (Jan / Feb 1993) and ran as such until issue # 83 when Russ Cochran took over for Gary Carter as editor with # 84 (July 2001) and the magazine continued under the new management up to issue 12?.

 

 

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goldust40

goldust40

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I have every issue. Started buying them in the mid-90s and picked up the early ones from Al Stoltz not too long after. Definitely the mag for vintage books at that time, along with CBG, of course.

 

The articles that had the biggest effect on me were the pre-code horror issue (yeah, what are the odds) and the Neal Adams special. The PCH ish was such an eye-opener as I knew virtually nothing about the genre, apart from E.C. The Adams Special was probably the best bit of work about him, and totally indispensible.

 

I also miss the market reports, as there really was very little else to go on back in the antideluvian '90s, apart from the annual OS reports.

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ciorac

ciorac

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I loved the magazine, and think I still have a complete set.

 

I wrote several articles, market reports, letters etc back in the early to mid 90s

 

Alter Ego was a fantastic magazine too. I think it might still be being published. If any of you haven't checked out some of those, they are certainly worth your time as well as the CBMs.

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