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SDCC Fandom Reunion 2011 web site, stolen fanzines

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Passing this along from an email from Aaron Caplan. Thanks Aaron for putting the web site together, and hope you're able to recover your stolen fanzines!

 

Bill Schelly has done it again! He coordinated this year's "Fandom Reunion" at the 2011 Comic-Con in San Diego, and turned it into a spectacular gathering of comic professionals, BNF's from fandom's past, and ol' farts (like me). There were many fandom-oriented panels to choose from, well attended and highly interesting. It was a blast! I have set up a web site that gives a pictorial report on the “Fandom Reunion” events that occurred a little over a week ago. If you couldn’t make it to the Reunion, now’s your chance to see what it was all about. If you attended, see if your photo was captured!

 

Go to:

 

http://www.fantucchio.com/fandom_reunion_comic-con_2011/comic-con_2011_fandom_reunion.html

 

This is a very large, long scrolling page, with tons of photos and images, so give it some time to load.

 

You’ll find the following on the web page:

 

- Reports on the fandom-related Panels, including links where you can listen to certain panels, and actual view a video of one of them.

 

- A report on the Con itself.

 

- Report of the actual Fandom Reunion party, with plenty of photos of the participants (over 140 attended)!

 

- A report on the theft of historically important fanzines (I left my bags on the side of a booth for 10 seconds) – these included Alter Ego’s 1, 2, and 3; The Collector 1, Xero 1, Fantastic Fanzine #1, Comic Buyer's Guide #1, The Comic Reader #8 (first actual issue under the name "The Comic Reader"), The Comic Fan #1, Champion #1, Comicology #1 and Comic Comments #2.

 

- Since I’m a major comic fanzine fanatic, there are a plenty of fanzine images that you can click to find more info on that particular zine.

 

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Just a follow up on this post; These fanzines made their way into Southern California Comics this weekend. Jamie Newbold, owner of Southern California Comics, found out that these were stolen property and has contacted the owner. They are now on their way back home to the original owner.

 

Good job Jamie. ^^

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Aaron Caplan here ...

 

I'm the guy who stupidly set my packages down at a booth at this year's SD Comic-Con, and immediately had them stolen!

 

But now, three months later, because of an honest dealer, they have been recovered! I thought all was lost, as most thieves would have no idea as to the value of these zines, as well as their historical significance - I thought for sure they would simply be trashed.

 

But I was lucky. Thanks to an observant Jamie Newbold, owner of Southern California Comics (http://www.socalcomics.com) in San Diego, he knew something was suspicious about the young dude trying to sell these. Apparently, Jamie had previously seen this post (thanks mycomicshop!!) and paid only $50 to recover the fanzines. He immediately contacted me to tell me the news. I was in shock! Only one zine was missing (The Buyer's Guide #1), and I already have several copies of that widely distributed adzine.

 

The stolen books in question were extremely high value comic book fanzines from the 60's and included Alter Ego #1, Alter Ego #2, Alter Ego #3, Fantastic Fanzine #1, Comic Buyer's Guide #1, Xero #1, The Comic Reader #8 (first actual issue under the name "The Comic Reader"), The Comic Fan #1 (Edited by Buddy Saunders), The Collector #1 (mint condition), Champion #1, Comicology #1 The Buyer's Guide #1 (only one not recovered) and Comic Comments #2. I never realized this until they were shipped back last week, but another zine, Fandom Calling #3, was also in the batch.

 

Just to give you an idea of the actual value, I sold my duplicate copies of Alter Ego 1 and 3 in 2009 for $3000 and they were nice books, but not in what I would consider near mint condition! The Comic Comments #2 was irreplaceable and probably the last surviving copy, as it was hand typed by editor Wayne DeWald and only 4 or 5 copies ever produced!!! Gary Groth's Fantastic Fanzine 1 and Bill G. Wilson's The Collector 1 are impossible to find in any condition, so I would estimate the value of this collection at over $4000, and possibly closer to $5K.

 

So again, I have to thank Jamie at Southern CA Comics for being an honest comics dealer with integrity. Thank you, Thank you, thank you!! If you want to buy comics from a reputable guy, contact Jamie at socalcom@aol.com and tell him I sent you!

 

And thanks to MYCOMICSHOP for helping to put the word out. You guys are the greatest!!!

 

Bestest,

 

Aaron Caplan

www.fantucchio.com

aaron AT fantucchio DOT com

 

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Hi Aaron,

 

Thanks for giving us the conclusion to the story. Glad everything turned out well and that Jamie was able to get your books back for you!

 

FYI, my username here is mycomicshop. The Collectosaurus Rex is something the message board system adds underneath the username based on the number of posts a user has made. I'm Conan Saunders, Buddy's son. I went to the fandom reunion and a couple of the fandom panels with Buddy at SDCC last summer.

 

-Conan

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Here's a photo array of the fanzines stolen from me. It's not really a scan, but it's all I've got at the moment:

 

Comic%20book%20fanzines%20stolen%20at%20SD%20Comic-Con%202011%20are%20returned%20by%20Southern%20California%20Comics.png

 

Top Row: Comic Reader 8, Champion 1, Xero 1, Comic Comments 2, The Collector 1 and Comicology 1.

 

Bottom Row: Alter Ego 1, Alter Ego 2, Alter Ego 3, The Comic Fan 1 and Fantastic Fanzine 1!

 

Not shown: Fandom Calling 3 and The Buyer's Guide for Comic Fandom (TBG) 1 . Note: TBG #1 was not recovered, but not to worry ... I have 3 other copies of this heavily distributed adzine!

 

Bestest,

 

Aaron Caplan

 

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Not to sound snarky (I'm not trying to be) but is it usual for someone to cart $4000 worth of high value books to a comic con? Or were you trying to sell them? I've only been to one Con and that was as a buyer, so the only books I had on me were ones I wanted autographed.

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This is a good story :applause:

 

Happy to hear you got you're "zines" back. Thats a whole section of history right there it is. Self policing ...... :luhv:

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