How did I get here?

[etanick]

Lets see if I can get this off the ground.

 

I will go way back to the beginning.

 

See more journals by nicholasvu

[surfer99]

Are you going to share your story with us? Hope so, you have a great collection. Would love to see some pics!

 

 

[scooter99]

show us some 9.4+ raws!

[etanick]

HMM.....I might post pics of everthing

[etanick]

thanks. It will be a slow process but hopefully you will follow (thumbs u

 

[etanick]

This story will start way back in the early 70's, way before I even moved to this country.

 

Back in Vietnam when I was born and raised, my dad was a big fan of European "comic" books. He studied in France in his college years in the mid 50's and returned to the country with a fairly large collection of Obelix & Asterix, TinTin, and Smurf books. They were all hard bounded and in French. The conditions for most of them were very nice. My dad was very strict on how his children can read them and we all got yelled at enough time if we were rough with his "treasures". We spent many times reading the books together (me, my older sister and brother along with my dad) to learn French. I was born in 1966 so I think I started to enjoy them them in the early 70's when I was old enough to start learning and reading French. Heck, it didn't matter about the French back then for me, I loved looking at the great drawings with those books.

 

My one and only exposure to "American" comic was going to a movie and saw the Batman movie with Adam West. I couldn't understand a thing since it was shown in English but I didn't care for it enough to ask about Batman and Robin after seeing the movie. It was one and done as far as I can recollected.

 

Fast forward to 1980 when I arrived in the US and stumbled across some comic books for the first time about a year later. Instead of rewriting it...I posted about it here a few years back when I joined this forum.

 

http://boards.collectors-society.com/ubbthreads.php?ubb=showflat&Main=173217&Number=3507287#Post3507287

 

found the book so here it is...

[etanick]

Even though my first book was Iron Man 150, I shortly discovered the X-men a few months later. What was it that drawn me X-men 155? Up until that point, I read FF, Avengers, Thor and of course Iron Man but when I saw X-men 155, the cover drew me in.

 

here is the my very first copy of X-men I bought off the rack at the LCS...nice heh? after all these years...after I read it a dozen times. Right away, I was drawn to the X-men. The entire outcast and misfit thing captured me and I was instantly addicted to the X-men. I dropped Iron Man very shortly after I started collecting the X-men. I think the 14 years old in me can related to being an outcast and misfit at the time. I was new to this country and really didn't fit in and it was easy to fall in love with the X-men.

[/img]

 

Noticed how sharp the edges and corners are. I stored and packed these books very tight.

 

a) this book was never pressed

b) the overhang and corners are razor sharp so it is a myth that a book with corners this sharp must have been pressed

c) Another myth is the plumbness (is that even a word) of the spine is a tell tail sign that a book is not pressed. Wrong again, this book is flat like a pan cake because the way I stored it for decades.

 

I was fanatical fairly early on about keeping my books in great shape. Not because I thought about value or worth later, more so because the way my dad taught me on how to handle books...all books in general.

[surfer99]

Great back story, thanks for sharing! Always happy to meet another X-men fan!

 

 

[etanick]

I think early on Colossus was my favorite X-men but by X-men 162, it was no doubt Wolverine. Wow, did I love this issue.

 

 

here is one of my favorite Cockrum's late run. For whatever reasons even back then, I was focused on picking books with the nicest wrap I can find. There was only one LCS within walking distance so I have no choice but buy the nicest copy I can find even if the wrap was not good or the books were all dinged up.

 

 

 

The LCS was Fantaco in Albany NY. For those that know Fred Hembeck's work, that was the place.

 

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/FantaCo_Enterprises

 

I loved that store. I stopped by that store daily. It was on the way back from school. There was a Ms Pacman game in there and I spent countless hours looking over the shoulders of others watching them play. Heck, I was saving my money for comic books...although I did treat myself to a game or 2 every Friday.

[etanick]

naturally I gravitated shortly to look for earlier issue of X-men and that is when I discovered John Byrne.

 

Wow, I loved the X-men before but when I saw John Byrne's earlier works with the X-men, I went from being a big X-men fan to a crazed X-men fan. Right then, I learned he is doing FF so I dropped Iron Man. By then Bob Layton has left the book and 160 was my last Iron Man issue. I must say, as much as I loved Iron Man, the villains were lamed and 160 was so lamed, I didn't think twice of not buying any more after that and switched over to FF. So now I am buying 2 issues per month. FF and the X-men.

 

Trying to pick up older issues of X-men with John Byrne's works weren't cheap even back then and the LCS had very few back issues. I bought one for cheap that was warped (I didn't know why back then), but it was nice enough and cheap enough. My very first X-men with Byrne is the 126 below. Not until I joined this board a few years back to learn that it has water damaged that caused the entire book to be "warped"...looks much nicer in the scan heh? That issue was so awesome when I first got it. For the first time, I can gawk at JB and Austin masterpiece. I must have read that issue 20 times. Still love it today and I just read it again just now as I scanned the book.

 

[scooter99]

I started buying X-men off the rack with issue 121. I remember buying multiple copies as prices seemed to triple and quadruple just a few months after they came out. I stopped my off the rack purchases at issue 150. It was cutting into my party and car fund money back then in high school.

 

 

 

 

[etanick]

wrong priority

 

haha....heck I would stop buying comic books too if I wasn't so damn shy back then.

 

I hung out with the "losers" back then. Funny enough I befriended 2 kids that collected comic books also and we all went to the store on the daily basis together. They collected DC and we had our share of debates that Green Lantern can kick the shaaat out of Wolverine or Wonder Woman can beat up Phoenix, etc..

 

Thru this friendship, we did attempt to put a comic book together. I was the artist and they would be writers. I came up with the concept of SOLAR MAN (at least my own Solar Man at the time and I had no idea about any other Solar man before)...basically an astronaut in space doing maintenance on his spaceship at the time and a big solar flare engulfed him and gave me the power of intense sun flares...duh...but that was what a 15 years old was thinking.

 

But around this time, I attended my first convention. The annual convention organized by Fantaco, my LCS....I think they sponsored and promoted it.

 

I don't think I knew who the guests were or paid much attention on that list since it didn't matter at the time and it is a small convention at the Howard Johnson or something like that. I brought $20 with me. Lord behold, John Byrne was one of the guest. I was so giddy when I sold him sitting there with the name plate. There was no one in front of him. He was just sitting there chatting with another guy. There was no line.

 

Right away, I knew what I wanted to do, get his signature..but on what? I decided to find the nicest X-men book of some significance that i can afford and get a sig.

 

The convention was quite dead and there wasn't that many people there. I spent a lot of time looking for that perfect book and decided on a nice affordable x-men 109, first appearance of Weapon Alpha...so perfect.

 

I rushed over to see Mr. Byrne and mumbled "Hi, I am a big fan, can you sign this book please"

 

He looked at me and said "where do you want it?"

 

I mumbled "I don't know"

 

and he said "well, I think the best place is inside on the splash page" and signed it.

 

I must have replayed that moment a hundred times and I am so mad, I didn't ask for a sketch or anything else...WTF, the icon is there doing NOTHING. I am sure he can whip up a sketch in 5 minutes. damn the shy kid back then.

 

any how, I subbed the book a few years with my first batch to CGC before I understand or know how to grade...I would not sub this book today. I think i will crack it out tomorrow because there is no reason to keep it in a slab...it is more enjoyable raw so I can flip thru it and look at the sig.

 

 

 

[scooter99]

That is a very cool story, Nick. And a huge (thumbs u to Byrne for having the decency to sign his name on the first page instead of ruining the book by signing on the cover. Yea, I'm sure I'll get a few thumbs down from the SS folks, but that's ok.

 

For sure crack that baby out. You can relive that time of your life by looking at the signature.

 

I'm going to go look at some of my books right now after this story.

 

 

[etanick]

Thanks Scott..glad you like the backstories (thumbs u

 

yes, sig on the front cover is a tough issue and personal for many and it is not for me. I debated about this for years now and I have prepped a few books, ready to be send to get Stan's sig and each time I changed my mind. Even if the purpose was to flip the books later, I couldn't do it. Many love the sig series, fine with me, just not for me.

 

I did crack out the X-men 109 and pulled out my other sig treasure. I have a water damaged rusted out staple FF 59 that I was able to obtain Stan's sig to accompany the King's sig. Many thanks to boardie Drewincanada for getting this for me in Toronto. Drew was very gracious after I have gotten a few hard to find 9.8 slabs for him and in return he just asked one day "what can I do for you?". Drew has asked me a few times when he attended conventions that whatever I am looking for, just let him know and he will keep a lookout for things for me. He is a good man.

 

so I said, if you don't mind standing in long line for Stan's sig, please have this book signed for me and he did. Here is a pic of that book along with Byrne's sig.

 

[etanick]

discovering X-men ---> John Byrne ---> FF

discovering X-men ---> Neal Adams ---> DC

 

1983 was a big year because I finally moved up from being a paperboy to a 30 hours a week job at grocery store as a bag boy. I worked 30 to 32 hours a week, the max allowed by the law back then for $4 per hour. I was swimming in money and started to buy the best Byrne's X-men book I can afford. I quickly decided that I can't stand low grade and I want QUALITY, not quantity so spending $20 on a nice NM book is more important that buying 10 readers. From 1983 to 1985 when I graduated from high school, I started to accumulate an almost complete run of X-men from 109 to 143 in mostly high grade.

 

I started to look at X-men silver age books at the time and discovered Neal Adams with his short X-men run. Wow, I thought Byrne was incredible but Neal was out of this world. I quickly started to look for Adams' works and started buying Continuity stuff and whatever i can find. It was also helpful that in 1993 DC reprinted his Green lantern/green arrow run and I bought those books right away and loved them. I can't recall how often I reread that series..wow, still love it today.

 

1983 also marked my all time favorite book/series that I bought off the rack at the LCS. The moment I saw Thor 337, I was wowed by the cover. I never even heard of Walt Simonson but wow, do I love his style. He was so different from Byrne and Adams but wow, I love it. I liked it so much that I return to the shop the next day and bought a second copy....because I was so worry that I would ruin the first one eventually by reading it too many times.

 

Now, Iron Man 150 was special being the first book I bought...then X-men 155 was special because it was my first X-men. However, Iron man stories were nothing special between 150 and 162. X-men 155 and the Brood story line was fantastic but the Beta Ray Bill story line at the time was outstanding. I counted the days/minutes until I can get the next issue...just fantastic. Luckily I still kept both copies and both are still in the 9.6 range.

[etanick]

Between 1983 and 1985, I bought quite a few bronze X-men between 109 to 143. I had duplicates of every issue. It was hard to resist not buying each time I see a nice copy on the wall at the LCS. I also got a ton of ultra high grade Byrne's X-men books later, but that is another story later.

 

I have since sold or slabbed most of them but I still keep a few of the books raw. Hard to believe that these books are 30 years old. They are pristine as they were on the rack yesterday. More reason to never slab them as long as I own them. When I first joined this site, I too couldn't wait to slab my books but it didn't take long for me to realize WHY? yes, easier to slab books to sell because I don't have to convince the buyers on any grades but I see no reason any longer to slab books I have no immediate plan to sell. That goes with the registry also. I started to enter the data and quickly realized WHY? Just like Sig, I am the kind of person that don't like to waste time and money buying or doing things I have little interest in. If it is not for me, why follow the crowd?

 

Here is the only issue left that I had this many copies...

 

 

Here are some more raw beauties....116 is my favorite Byrne's cover of the X-men.

 

 

One of Cockrum's finest cover

 

What an awesome ending to an epic saga

 

how many times have this cover been swiped? does anyone know if Byrne swiped it from an earlier cover?

[bane]

Great read mate, really enjoying this

[etanick]

Thanks mate...glad you enjoy the journey (thumbs u

 

I did sub many of the X-men books I bought back in 1983 to 1985 in my first batch to CGC. The highlights of that first batch is many as well as the disappointments (I will talk about the disappointments later ) but I am trilled to get some high grades on books that weren't pressed...didn't need to and I have no idea how I preserved them all those years because I read them many times and I certain didn't store them in "ideal" conditions. I will talk more about ideal storing conditions later and what I think about those "myths".

 

I have 2 scanners, one for raw and one for slab and the one for slab is dead after I scanned that 109 so going forward, I am likely to take pics of slabs. Crappy pics but that is the best I can do. since the scanner I have for raw books sucked worse for slabs.

 

some well centered beauties that I bought raw almost 30 years ago.

 

 

 

 

[etanick]

By 1984, I was collecting quite a few titles...X-men and all the related Mutant titles along with FF, Thor, and one lone DC Teen Titans. I love George Perez...the man can draw details and put so much stuff in any pages.

 

But the biggest discovery for me in 1984 was Bill Sienkiewicz..wow, like Walt Simonson was in 1983, Bill intro in New Mutant 18 was magical to me. My exposure to his style was a new thing and I began to search out other styles and stumbled across Frank Miller. I enjoyed Frank's work as well but it all started with Bill S. that branched me out to other styles. It is ironic that Bill's old style was more similar to Neal Adams as I bought up his Moon Knight old issues...how he changed from one to another was fun to see and I preferred the new Bill. I know many preferred his Neal Adams clone style but I prefer the new Bill.

 

I was very happy with the help of a boardie to obtain a sketch from Bill a while back. I love this sketch and I can't wait to frame it and hang it up in my man cave. I have had it for 2 years now so blame my procrastination on the man cave not getting done.

 

I love to get more sketches from Bill down the road.

 

 

[Kevin.J]

Hi Etanick , loving the story so far and seeing the great pictures of your books and sketches. More please.