n2wdw's Tales of the Comic Book Room 15 15

[n2wdw]

[Robot Man]

On 12/21/2019 at 8:37 AM, Robot Man said:

A couple others...

 

[n2wdw]

I love the 1st and 3rd ones, but Dark Mysteries 8 doesn't fit the theme as she's not in a white gown.  But Mysterious Adventures 17 and Fantastic Fears are perfect!

Edited January 4, 2020 by n2wdw

[n2wdw]

Pulps for Lady In White Collection

Got a few pulps from @kazoo in his recent sale.  These are the first pulps I've gotten for the Lady in White collection.  The Fantastic Story Mag (the last one) is a little weak on the gothic theme and white gown, but I'll ease the criteria for this one since it's from 1953.

Also if you're into pulps and vintage paperbacks, you should read this thread if you haven't already: 

 

 

[Robot Man]

3 hours ago, n2wdw said:

I love the 1st and 3rd ones, but Dark Mysteries 8 doesn't fit the theme as she's not in a white gown.  But Mysterious Adventures 17 and Fantastic Fears are perfect!

These were all 3 directed at the forced marriage post. I just ran across the Fantastic Fears in one of my horror boxes.

[Robot Man]

Does this one work for either forced marriage or lady in white?

[Sackolantern]

Okay guys, not to hijack the thread, but earlier someone was asking about, and wondering about the possibility / authenticity of a Bettie Page signature on a Dave Stevens art card. Here's a *fantastic* article detailing some of their relationship, in a specific context. I picked this article up from Geof Darrow's FB page, where he mentioned actually being in this car with Dave Stevens, and the actress Yvette Vickers. It's a fun read, even if you're not into cars and hot rods - it's a glimpse back to that era!

https://www.autocar.co.nz/classic-reviews-app/1940-ford-deluxe-opera-coupe-review?fbclid=IwAR2b78Xdn_N5056Sg8smb7iKPXKTI49vVOt_RPDBHpFPy0eEa_gzby4LBBU

[n2wdw]

On 1/5/2020 at 11:06 AM, Sackolantern said:

Okay guys, not to hijack the thread, but earlier someone was asking about, and wondering about the possibility / authenticity of a Bettie Page signature on a Dave Stevens art card. Here's a *fantastic* article detailing some of their relationship, in a specific context. I picked this article up from Geof Darrow's FB page, where he mentioned actually being in this car with Dave Stevens, and the actress Yvette Vickers. It's a fun read, even if you're not into cars and hot rods - it's a glimpse back to that era!

https://www.autocar.co.nz/classic-reviews-app/1940-ford-deluxe-opera-coupe-review?fbclid=IwAR2b78Xdn_N5056Sg8smb7iKPXKTI49vVOt_RPDBHpFPy0eEa_gzby4LBBU

Thanks for posting this.  Very interesting!

[n2wdw]

On 1/4/2020 at 9:02 PM, Robot Man said:

Does this one work for either forced marriage or lady in white?

Bob, you're always making me add to my want list. 

[n2wdw]

The Evolution of My Collecting and Building New Shelves in the Comic Room

For the first 50 years of my collecting life, I was all about runs and completing titles.  I focused on Marvel silver and, for decades, worked to complete the original Silver Marvel titles:  ASM, Avengers, Cap, DD, FF, Incredible Hulk, Iron Man and Thor.  It probably took me 20 years to complete those titles.  Mostly I got them from 50 cent and dollar boxes cons (mostly local Northern Virginia cons).  I saved getting the really expensive issues to the end, and used mostly eBay and other auctions.  The last one I got -- for some reason, it was harder than the others -- was FF #1.

I eventually completed those tiles, and along the way completed bunches of others.  Some I have complete runs of; others I decided on a specific issue to start or end. 

Something I found out about myself during this process -- I love lists!  I love the process of making lists.  And I love checking them off as I get issues.  I'm also a big fan of indexes.  I have many in my collection.  I especially like fan produced indexes (as opposed to ones made by Marvel and DC, for example).

I was never a big DC collector as a kid.  I was a fan, but not a collector.  But my brother collected DC, and eventually he sold his collection to me.  It was probably 4 and 5 long boxes.  With that as a start, I started collecting the major titles like Superman, Batman, Detective, Action, Wonder Woman, etc.  Early on, I thought I could complete those titles, like I'd done with Marvel.  I eventually realized that wasn't possible (obviously.  So instead I picked an issue to start, and collected the titles from that issue to the end.  For example, for Action my starting point is #300.  Then, the issues before 300 in my collection are keys or issues with interesting stories.

I've always loved the Legion of Super-Heroes.  I still can't look at #369 with Mordru's hands pushing out of the safe and not get a chill.  So I focused on collecting the Legion.  I have every issue from their first appearance in Adventure 247 through their 5th series that end in 2009.  I also collected on the Teen Titans when the New Teen Titans became my favorite title for a few years.

I've collected other runs.  For some companies, I collected every one of their issues.  Like ABC, Atlas/Seaboard, Defiant, Continuity, the original Valiant titles, etc. (I sometimes wonder if I'm the only person in the world who searches for rare Continuity comics.)  And I've collected more than a few independents, like Cerebus, Strangers in Paradise, Jon Sable, Dreadstar, etc.

One part of my collection I'm particularly proud of is my Dennis to Menace collection.  This is special to me, because whenever I was sick as a kid and had to stay home from school, my mom would get me 2 McDs filet of fish sandwiches (to this day, still my fav fast food), fries, a milk shake and 2 Dennis comics.  Because of that, one of my collecting goals has been to get every Dennis comic ever published.  I haven't finished that collection yet.  Part of the challenge is identifying them all.  But, at least based on my current want list, I'm about a dozen comics for being done.

At some point, though, you come to realization that you can't get every comic every published.  That's why I stopped collecting the Legion after their 5th series.  After a while it stops being fun. 

So about when I turned 50 (I'm 58 now), I decided to stop collecting titles.  I kept what I had -- I'll never sell them.  But I decided to stop collecting titles/runs.  And, I purged about 20,000 comics from my collection.  Things that I wasn't really interested in.  At this moment, my collection stands at 26,131 comics.

I'm still collecting.  But I focused my collecting on keys (of all ages) and GGA, particularly golden age GGA.  I'm having more fun collecting now than ever.

I have found though, you can't collect all GGA.  There's just too much, even among GA GGA.  I've found if your net is too wide, your collection gets unfocused and isn't nearly as fun.

So I've created categories within GGA.  I've talked about some of those categories here before.  When I'm thinking about buying a comic, I think to myself which category does it fit in.  If none, then I don't buy it. 

One of my major focuses is Matt Baker.  I'm trying to get a copy of every comic where he did the cover.  I've also talked about the Lady and White collection I'm putting together.  I also search for anything Dave Stevens.

My focus on cover collecting, rather than title collecting, has made me change how I display my collection.  With titles, I just had to have space for long boxes.  With covers, I want to be able to store the books so I can see the covers.  This is especially true as I've gotten more and more into CGC books.

So what I've done, is store long boxes on the floor.  Then, above and around the boxes, I make shelves to display comics (and other things that I collect, like statues and toys). 

In my old comic room, the shelves were only 1 comic deep.  Now though, I made the shelves as deep as possible, so I can store rows of books (both graded and ungraded).  Then I'll periodically rearrange the books at the front for display purposes.

 

Lately I've been building more shelves in my comic room.  My comic room is small (about half the size of my old comic room), so this has caused me to rearrange things.  I like doing this, though.  It's fun.

Here's something I just did.  In the picture below, there are some DC Super Friends and Star Wars action figures to the left of the leggy Alice.  I took all those action figures and moved them to other places in the comic room.

 

Below is a picture of what the space looks like after removing the action figures.

 

Then, it was just a simple matter of getting some wood at Lowes, and building new shelves.  You'll see I used an Air Boy CGC comic to make sure the shelves were tall enough to hold graded books.

 

With these shelves, now I have a lot more storage space to store books in an organized manner.  This next picture shows how the new shelves look at this very moment. Thanks for reading.

[n2wdw]

CGC Crossover Program

I really like this program.  If you haven't used it, CGC allows you to send in non-CGC graded books.  CGC will grade them and send them back as CGC books.  The price is reasonable, and if the grade goes down, CGC reduces the price by 50%. 

I've sent in all my non-CGC books -- dozens -- so now all my graded books are CGC.  I like this, because I'm anal and I like everything to be the same (the same way I like all the forks, spoons and knives to be aligned the same way in the drawer).  And, I place a higher value on CGC versus other companies.  If CGC ever goes out of business, I'm screwed, but I think many of us will be in the same boat.

The only non-CGC book I have is this one.  Apparently, EGS is a German grading company.  When I sent this in, CGC told me it would not come back as 9.9.  I decided not to CGC-it because I liked the 9.9 grade, and the slab is cool (it has square sides as opposed to CGC's rounded sides).   I've never seen another EGS graded comic.  (And this is an example of how subjective things get when you're talking about 9.8 versus 9.9 versus 10.0).

 

 

Usually with the crossover program, CGC comes back with the same grade, plus or minus a half point.  The biggest difference was actually in my favor, with Nellie the Nurse 3 going from CBCS 5.0 to CGC 7.5.  A 2.5 point jump!  I was obviously more than happy to pay CGC's full fee on this one.  (And what a great GGA cover, one of my all time favorites!)

 

 

[n2wdw]

Rediscovering Things In Your Own Collection

As I mentioned, lately I've been building new shelves to better display stuff.  This has caused me to move things around, and in doing so, I'm coming across things I haven't seen in a while.

It's always fun to rediscover stuff in your own collection.  I didn't forget about them, I knew I had them, I even knew where they were.  But, because of the way things were stored, I hadn't seen them in a while.  So it was fun to see them again, like seeing a good friend from high school or college.

One thing was this Mademoiselle Marie set.  I bought it new from my LCS back when I was pre-ordering via Previews.  This had to be at least 15 years ago. 

 

There was also a Miss Fear set from Blackhawk.  And a Mlle. Marie showgirl outfit -- "Recon at Moulin Rouge."  I mean, how great is that!

Was anything else released in this DC/GI Joe crossover?  I stopped buying from Previews soon after.  I've kept my eyes open at cons, but haven't seen anything.

 

Something else I've "rediscovered" are these Frank Miller books.  The first is Maxim with the Sin City variant cover by Miller.  The second is one of Miller's Sin City TPBs.  I didn't like the movie, but I love these books.

Anyway, thanks for reading.  Now I have to get back to reorganizing my comic book room.

 

[thunsicker]

Hey, if you're interested I have one of the original 'Lady in White' comics with cert.  I think it was Dracula Lives 3 in 8.0 so I don't know if it makes your grade.  But if you have any interest I'd be happy to send it along to you.  I also still have the certificate that @miraclemet put in it.  If you're interested just pm me your address and I'll send it off.

Edited February 12, 2020 by thunsicker

[n2wdw]

When You Can't Find Comics
Mike Grell is one of my favorite writers/artists, and I love this cover.  I got this comic years ago, as soon as I saw it on eBay.

 

Then I searched for the regular, non-sketch version.  They're easy to find, but not CGC 9.8 graded.  Finally I found one on eBay and won it. 

I then looked in my comic room for the sketch version, so I could display them next to each other.  And I couldn't find the sketch version!

That was about a year ago, and I still haven't been able to find the comic.  It's driving me crazy.  The room isn't big.  Where could it be?  I feel like I'm going senile or something. 

[piper]

Did you pick up a Gwen Stacy 1?

[n2wdw]

42 minutes ago, piper said:

Did you pick up a Gwen Stacy 1?

I haven't been keeping up, although there seems like there's been a bunch of Gwen covers published lately.  I try to avoid sending in modern for grading.  Because, only 9.8 is acceptable for modern (IMHO).  So I'm waiting for these new Gwens to be graded by others, then I'll try to buy them then.

[n2wdw]

I wanted to thank @thunsicker for sending this comic to me, Dracula Lives #3 in CGC 8.0.  These mags are so tough to get in grade, and this is an upgrade for me.  And, @thunsicker gave this comic to me for free!  He saw my Lady in White collection here, and the comic didn't fit in his collection, so he sent it to me. 

How great is our comic community?  Especially in these times when our leaders can't even agree on the facts and there's so much negativity in the news, I find it's a comfort to spend some time each day with my collection and on these boards, for some relief from the craziness of the real world.  Thanks again @thunsicker!

 

 

What makes this comic extra special to me, is this comic was from the original Lady In White collection that was put together by @miraclemet from 2011-2013.  I know this because the comic came with this COA.  @miraclemet included this COA when he decided to sell the collection in July 2013.

 

[miraclemet]

On 2/22/2020 at 10:57 AM, n2wdw said:

 

What makes this comic extra special to me, is this comic was from the original Lady In White collection that was put together by @miraclemet from 2011-2013.  I know this because the comic came with this COA.  @miraclemet included this COA when he decided to sell the collection in July 2013.

 

Thanks to @thunsicker for keeping the COA! That was such fun collecting, glad to see when any of my old LiWs pop up here on the board....

[n2wdw]

I haven't posted in a while as I've been busy (like everyone else) with the Coronavirus.  Transitioning to working from home, doing all we can for our young adult kids who are scattered around the country, stocking up on necessities, etc.  Here where we live, I haven't seen toilet paper in stores in over 2 weeks.  And I'm worried about Trump calling this the "Chinese Virus."  I'm Chinese, and I've heard about multiple instances of violence against Chinese Americans.  And we're only into this by a couple of weeks.  What will the country look like 2 months from now? 

Anyway, the Heritage magazine auction (which closed last night) was a welcome distraction.  The past 2-3 years, I've gotten more interested in graded magazines.  Finding high grade mags is so tough, harder on a relative basis than comics of the same age. 

I picked up a couple of books for the Lady In White collection.  I had an internal debate with myself over whether the Famous Monsters qualified, because the girl's gown is pinkish.  But I decided that the girl's gown was in fact white, and the pink tones were from the lighting in the room since the walls and floor are pinkish too.

 

 

My big purchase of the night was Playboy V2#2.  Lately I've been getting more into Bettie Page collectibles.  This magazine has a Bettie Page centerfold.  Here's Heritage's full description:  "The Bettie Page centerfold makes this one of the most valuable issues in the entire run. Fiction by Ray Bradbury, Erskine Caldwell, and John Steinbeck, and a pictorial of Eartha are highlights. Not listed in Overstreet. CGC census 1/20: 8 in 7.5, 42 higher. From the Wayne A. McDonald Collection."

The information about the person who put the collection together was also interesting:  "Playboy enthusiast Wayne McDonald begin putting his impressive magazine collection together some nearly 45 years ago. He joined the Playboy Club in Boston in 1971, and shortly thereafter began the ambitious  quest to meet as many Playmates as possible, and more importantly, to meet the Head Playboy himself, Hugh Hefner. Over the years, with the associated issues of Playboy in hand, Wayne not only met dozens of Playmates, he chronicled the meetings with photos and signatures of Playmates on their centerfolds.  Wayne's presence at the events did not go unnoticed by Hef and his Playboy associates. As a result, he was interviewed on multiple occasions, including for a 2008 German documentary "Let's Play, Boy" commemorating Hefner's 80th birthday and for "Las Vegas Round the Clock.""

 

 

Below is the Bettie centerfold.  It's one of her most famous photos with the Christmas tree.  Apparently, in 2002, Playboy issued a porcelain statue of this photo.  It's on my want list, although it's rare (only 5000 numbered pieces). I've never actually seen it.  Thanks for reading.

 

Spoiler

 

[n2wdw]

ComicLink Auction March/April 2020

I haven't bid in any CL auctions in a while, but again since I'm bored at home, I'm looking for any distractions (especially comic related).  I got a couple of wins last night.  First is this Marilyn Monroe cover.  Lately I'm been buying a few Marilyn paper collectibles.  I'll be sending this CBCS to CGC for their trade-in program.

 

And I also won Young Romance 22.  I like this photo cover.

 

Also, speaking of Young Romance, a couple of months ago, I picked up one of my grails on eBay, Young Romance 1.  This is the classic Kirby cover.  Thanks for reading.