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Post by The Captain on Jun 6, 2022 19:15:20 GMT -5
This past Saturday, I had the opportunity to attend the 3 Rivers Comicon, being held at the David L. Lawrence Convention Center in lovely downtown Pittsburgh, PA. New Dimension Comics, our largest local comic shop chain, started this one out, and after one or two shows in the now-shuttered Century 3 Mall (look this up on the internet if you want to see the transformation from the biggest mall in the area to a ghost mall), then one in an old Macy's store (which is now a school of some sort), and then a stripped-down version they held outdoors last summer. This show replaced the old Pittsburgh Comicon, which had been an independent show until Wizard World took it over and allowed it to die a quick death. First, my $1/$2 bin books from the visit. Nothing exciting, but some holes were filled and gaps bridged: Some Sub-Mariner issues. #27 and #55 each regularly sell on eBay for at least $15 or more, so getting the two of them for $14 combined (from a guy I've bought from for years at other shows) was awesome. Some older Batman and Detective issues: Couple Flash issues, couple of SSoSV issues: Whole bunch of higher-grade Kull issues, for $5 each: Picked up a copy of Showcase Presents...Batman, volume 2 for $8 from one of the other local shops that I haunt on occasion, as they had about 12 long boxes full of discount, pre-owned TPBs and collected editions. Also got a couple of prints from local artists. One is a Evil Dead 2 print styled like a movie poster, the other is a really cool Scarecrow poster that I initially thought was from Batman, but is actually from a horror-styled version of Wizard of Oz. Last thing I bought was a Funko POP that I have been looking for and unable to find anywhere, and while I may have overpaid for it a little bit, it was worth it to have the set of "The Big Three". It was Thor from Endgame with Stormbreaker, to go along with Cap with Mjolnir and the Iron Man armor from that movie. HOWEVER, nothing I brought home from the show was worth the time I spent with my daughters. It was the first con the three of us attended together, and they had a blast. The only comics they bought were three Doctor Who TPBs that my older daughter picked up, as they were more focused on some of the crafts, prints, Lego mini-figures, and other things that were being offered. My older daughter cosplayed as Karolina Dean, from Runaways. As a costume, it looks pretty much like normal teen girl clothing, so it made her day when one person actually came up to her and said "You're doing Karolina, right?" My younger daughter went a bit further and showed up as Yelena Belova. Her aunt (my sister) got her a replica of the "vest, with so many pockets" from the Black Widow movie, and she figured out the rest of the costume from things she had on hand, as well as doing her own hair in the same braids as Yelena. At least a dozen people complimented her on her costume, and she got her picture taken with a guy cosplaying as Winter Soldier (one of her favorite MCU characters). There was a whole family there cosplaying as Red Guardian, Melina, Natasha, and Yelena, and the girl playing Nat, who was about my daughter's age, saw her and said "Mom, she has...THE VEST!!", which made my daughter smile wider than I think I've ever seen. They both asked me in the car on the way home if we could find another one to go to, and while the rest of our summer is pretty packed, I'm going to try to find one between now and September before HS swim season starts. It was a fantastic day with my girls, something to bond over and remember for years to come.
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Post by tonebone on Jun 7, 2022 9:09:06 GMT -5
Went on a tear this weekend, bought a large number of books, but haven't had a chance to snap pics yet, so that will come in a later post.
In the meantime, this arrived today -- an eBay purchase from about a week ago.
I've been looking for this book for my kilt/Scottish collecting subset (@mrp , you collect the red dresses, and I'll stick with plaid) ever since Farrar posted it in my cover contest (Kilts!) back in 2019.
This copy came from Germany, although it is a US edition-- Tip Top Comics #136 from November 1947. It's well-read and well-loved, but it's solid and it's all there.
Very, very pleased in even finding a copy of this book. Besides, what's not to love about an Ernie Bushmiller cover?
I hate to bring this up, but it says do not remove this from the library. EDIT: I should have read further... I see someone has already beaten me to the joke.
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Post by Ozymandias on Jun 7, 2022 9:31:19 GMT -5
Bought on the 20th, shipped on the 23rd, received on the 25th via Royal Mail 2nd Class (to UK address). UK eBay seller: This is the Hobgoblin? Someone should've told Byrne.
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Post by Ozymandias on Jun 7, 2022 9:32:49 GMT -5
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Post by Icctrombone on Jun 8, 2022 6:25:23 GMT -5
Ozymandias, nice bunch of books. I have one of those Baxter X-Men books and didn't have the other parts so I bought the tpb a few years ago.
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Post by tonebone on Jun 8, 2022 10:05:08 GMT -5
That X-Men/Alpha Flight Miniseries was thrilling! Bad printing quality, but awesome Paul Smith art and a great story.
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Post by Ozymandias on Jun 8, 2022 10:28:35 GMT -5
Who doesn't love good old bad printing?
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Post by Professor Echo on Jun 9, 2022 7:32:01 GMT -5
Do trade collections/compilations count as "classic comics" purchased lately? I hope so as I don't collect individual comics anymore due to various reasons. I picked up the volume below used at a pretty good price and I discovered that many of these Showcase Presents line of reprints are heading out of town by sundown. When they were first released I wasn't thrilled with them due to the inferior paper quality, printing/binding variations and the reproductions being in black and white. I've become used to all that and really enjoy reading them now. Some of the material doesn't seem to be available elsewhere besides the original release comics (though I'm no expert on such things). I'm picking some of these up here and there if I can't readily find the stories in other places, stuff like the 1950's MARTIAN MANHUNTER collection and the grab bag of goodness in the volume below, which having always been an eclectic reader, I've particularly loved reading. Anyone else enjoy these volumes and can recommend some must haves in this line for old comic reprints not found elsewhere? Thanks.
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Post by Deleted on Jun 9, 2022 7:57:10 GMT -5
Do trade collections/compilations count as "classic comics" purchased lately? I hope so as I don't collect individual comics anymore due to various reasons. I picked up the volume below used at a pretty good price and I discovered that many of these Showcase Presents line of reprints are heading out of town by sundown. When they were first released I wasn't thrilled with them due to the inferior paper quality, printing/binding variations and the reproductions being in black and white. I've become used to all that and really enjoy reading them now. Some of the material doesn't seem to be available elsewhere besides the original release comics (though I'm no expert on such things). I'm picking some of these up here and there if I can't readily find the stories in other places, stuff like the 1950's MARTIAN MANHUNTER collection and the grab bag of goodness in the volume below, which having always been an eclectic reader, I've particularly loved reading. Anyone else enjoy these volumes and can recommend some must haves in this line for old comic reprints not found elsewhere? Thanks. They definitely count, and I love them. Sometimes, it's due to what you mentioned on content not being available elsewhere. I feel like the Sea Devils collection may be the only thing we ever get, I've lost hope of getting a color reprint (I think the 50's stories of the Blackhawk volume are in this category as well). Sometimes it's like the Martian Manhunter collection you mentioned, and it gives the specific stories of a character that was a backup feature in another title. I like the Elongated Man collection for this. Sometimes I actually also enjoy the B&W line art, for some reason I always grab my Showcase Supergirl editions versus the color Archive versions. Same with the Superman Family ones that contain the Jimmy and Lois issues. The Aquaman ones are fantastic as well, I love having 3 volumes of that, so much great art. Other times there are titles I'm more casual with and I just liked the value (at the time, being able to buy new) of some titles like Strange Adventures and Rip Hunter. On the Bronze Age side, I think they are still the only substanial continuous run reprints of All-Star Squdaron and DC Comics Presents (2 volumes in the latter case which is very nice). Warlord as well I think.
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Post by Professor Echo on Jun 9, 2022 8:29:41 GMT -5
They definitely count, and I love them. Sometimes, it's due to what you mentioned on content not being available elsewhere. I feel like the Sea Devils collection may be the only thing we ever get, I've lost hope of getting a color reprint (I think the 50's stories of the Blackhawk volume are in this category as well). Sometimes it's like the Martian Manhunter collection you mentioned, and it gives the specific stories of a character that was a backup feature in another title. I like the Elongated Man collection for this. Sometimes I actually also enjoy the B&W line art, for some reason I always grab my Showcase Supergirl editions versus the color Archive versions. Same with the Superman Family ones that contain the Jimmy and Lois issues. The Aquaman ones are fantastic as well, I love having 3 volumes of that, so much great art. Other times there are titles I'm more casual with and I just liked the value (at the time, being able to buy new) of some titles like Strange Adventures and Rip Hunter. On the Bronze Age side, I think they are still the only substanial continuous run reprints of All-Star Squdaron and DC Comics Presents (2 volumes in the latter case which is very nice). Warlord as well I think. SC, thank you so much for the great and resourceful response. I could kick myself as I had many of the volumes you mentioned years ago, but wound up selling them all during a period where I was feeling suffocating by having so much "stuff" in my life. I still feel that way these days, but now as you say the reality of never being able to read some of this material has been sinking in. So I'll definitely take your suggestions to heart and start scoping out the used bins. I recently picked up the OOP SHOWCASE PRESENTS: MODERN LOVE volume, which is likely not anyone on this site's idea of compelling comics, but the rarity of it really intrigued me. So far the stories have been little slices of what almost seems like ancient history nowadays. I'm not sure I'll ever make it through the whole volume, but I have found it much more interesting than I ever would have expected and some of the art carries the load for the histrionics of the stories, haha.
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Post by tartanphantom on Jun 9, 2022 8:52:36 GMT -5
They definitely count, and I love them. Sometimes, it's due to what you mentioned on content not being available elsewhere. I feel like the Sea Devils collection may be the only thing we ever get, I've lost hope of getting a color reprint (I think the 50's stories of the Blackhawk volume are in this category as well). Sometimes it's like the Martian Manhunter collection you mentioned, and it gives the specific stories of a character that was a backup feature in another title. I like the Elongated Man collection for this. Sometimes I actually also enjoy the B&W line art, for some reason I always grab my Showcase Supergirl editions versus the color Archive versions. Same with the Superman Family ones that contain the Jimmy and Lois issues. The Aquaman ones are fantastic as well, I love having 3 volumes of that, so much great art. Other times there are titles I'm more casual with and I just liked the value (at the time, being able to buy new) of some titles like Strange Adventures and Rip Hunter. On the Bronze Age side, I think they are still the only substanial continuous run reprints of All-Star Squdaron and DC Comics Presents (2 volumes in the latter case which is very nice). Warlord as well I think. SC, thank you so much for the great and resourceful response. I could kick myself as I had many of the volumes you mentioned years ago, but wound up selling them all during a period where I was feeling suffocating by having so much "stuff" in my life. I still feel that way these days, but now as you say the reality of never being able to read some of this material has been sinking in. So I'll definitely take your suggestions to heart and start scoping out the used bins. I recently picked up the OOP SHOWCASE PRESENTS: MODERN LOVE volume, which is likely not anyone on this site's idea of compelling comics, but the rarity of it really intrigued me. So far the stories have been little slices of what almost seems like ancient history nowadays. I'm not sure I'll ever make it through the whole volume, but I have found it much more interesting than I ever would have expected and some of the art carries the load for the histrionics of the stories, haha.
Fortunately, you're wrong about this. There are many of us here who are devotees of, or at least mildly interested in romance comics. Crimebuster , Icctrombone , @mrp and myself among several others. Personally, I buy them pretty much whenever I find them. Same goes for western comics. I find that the tropes in these stories are no more repetitive than in super-hero titles. Plus, many romance books have some really nice artwork.
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Post by Deleted on Jun 9, 2022 9:21:26 GMT -5
SC, thank you so much for the great and resourceful response. I could kick myself as I had many of the volumes you mentioned years ago, but wound up selling them all during a period where I was feeling suffocating by having so much "stuff" in my life. I still feel that way these days, but now as you say the reality of never being able to read some of this material has been sinking in. So I'll definitely take your suggestions to heart and start scoping out the used bins. I recently picked up the OOP SHOWCASE PRESENTS: MODERN LOVE volume, which is likely not anyone on this site's idea of compelling comics, but the rarity of it really intrigued me. So far the stories have been little slices of what almost seems like ancient history nowadays. I'm not sure I'll ever make it through the whole volume, but I have found it much more interesting than I ever would have expected and some of the art carries the load for the histrionics of the stories, haha. Fortunately, you're wrong about this. There are many of us here who are devotees of, or at least mildly interested in romance comics. Crimebuster , Icctrombone , @mrp and myself among several others. Personally, I buy them pretty much whenever I find them. Same goes for western comics. I find that the tropes in these stories are no more repetitive than in super-hero titles. Plus, many romance books have some really nice artwork. Aside from those of us Tartanphantom mentioned, romance comics are a pretty hot commodity right now. About a year back I was talking to the owner of one of the shops near hear the specializes in buying back issue collections, and we were talking other genres, and he mentioned romance comics as a whole have the quickest turnaround of anything he brings in. He can't keep them in stock. He has about a half dozen buyers, several who are not local, who will simply buy any and every romance comic he has in stock when they come in, and between them he gets at least 1 or 2 of them coming in every month. Finding copies in higher grades is difficult, for while every super-hero comic ever published had collectors salting away multiple copies in bags and boards unread and in pristine condition for posterity, romance comics seemed to have every copy being read multiple times and then passed on to other readers who read them multiple times and so one until winding up in a box in somebody's garage or attic never seeing the inside of a bag or board after being retired form active duty, so are much harder to find in general and in high grade especially. The Venn diagram crossover between super-hero collectors and romance collectors may be small, but there's also a large contingent of buyers of romance out there who aren't in the super-hero collector circle at all. But yeah, any chance I get to snap up some Matt Baker romance material I can afford, I'm taking it, but there's a ton of other artists whose work I adore who did a lot of romance comics, not to mention an inordinate number of romance comics that feature women in red dresses... I sit in that small crossover of the Venn diagram. I like super-heroes quite a bit, but they are not the be all and end all of comics for me (my main focus collections have very few super-heroes among them any more (red dress covers, Conan, D&D related comics, Kubert war books or really anything Kubert, anything Toth, anything Frazetta, anything Moebius, Usagi Yojimbo, Groo, Uncle Scrooge, Scooby Doo, and the lone super-heroes in the focus bunch Hawkman and Ghost Rider). -M
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Post by Professor Echo on Jun 9, 2022 9:56:47 GMT -5
They definitely count, and I love them. Sometimes, it's due to what you mentioned on content not being available elsewhere. I feel like the Sea Devils collection may be the only thing we ever get, I've lost hope of getting a color reprint (I think the 50's stories of the Blackhawk volume are in this category as well). Sometimes it's like the Martian Manhunter collection you mentioned, and it gives the specific stories of a character that was a backup feature in another title. I like the Elongated Man collection for this. Sometimes I actually also enjoy the B&W line art, for some reason I always grab my Showcase Supergirl editions versus the color Archive versions. Same with the Superman Family ones that contain the Jimmy and Lois issues. The Aquaman ones are fantastic as well, I love having 3 volumes of that, so much great art. Other times there are titles I'm more casual with and I just liked the value (at the time, being able to buy new) of some titles like Strange Adventures and Rip Hunter. I agree with you about the black and white, though I admit it took me awhile to get used to it. Now I do think many of the stories actually benefit from the monotone appearance and like you at times I too seek them out in favor of the color versions. Titles that thrive on color though, like the underwater worlds of SEA DEVILS and AQUAMAN don't translate as well for me, but you're probably right that we won't see much, if any of these in nice color reprints. Speaking of SEA DEVILS and AQUAMAN, how do you feel about the stories in those comics? I absolutely love anything in pop culture that deals with underwater settings, but I wound up being pretty disappointed by both those titles. I had wanted to read SEA DEVILS for years and I thought the first two tryouts in Showcase were excellent, but once the series proper started I got weary of the monster of the week formula. With my love of diving ever since I was very young, AQUAMAN and SUB-MARINER were always favorites for me as a kid, but reading the early AQUAMAN stories now I had a hard time getting past the childishness of them. Normally I can suspend that aspect and apply context, but that particular title from the era tested my patience. I would be interested to hear your take or anyone else's views on that.
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Post by Deleted on Jun 9, 2022 10:17:06 GMT -5
They definitely count, and I love them. Sometimes, it's due to what you mentioned on content not being available elsewhere. I feel like the Sea Devils collection may be the only thing we ever get, I've lost hope of getting a color reprint (I think the 50's stories of the Blackhawk volume are in this category as well). Sometimes it's like the Martian Manhunter collection you mentioned, and it gives the specific stories of a character that was a backup feature in another title. I like the Elongated Man collection for this. Sometimes I actually also enjoy the B&W line art, for some reason I always grab my Showcase Supergirl editions versus the color Archive versions. Same with the Superman Family ones that contain the Jimmy and Lois issues. The Aquaman ones are fantastic as well, I love having 3 volumes of that, so much great art. Other times there are titles I'm more casual with and I just liked the value (at the time, being able to buy new) of some titles like Strange Adventures and Rip Hunter. I agree with you about the black and white, though I admit it took me awhile to get used to it. Now I do think many of the stories actually benefit from the monotone appearance and like you at times I too seek them out in favor of the color versions. Titles that thrive on color though, like the underwater worlds of SEA DEVILS and AQUAMAN don't translate as well for me, but you're probably right that we won't see much, if any of these in nice color reprints. Speaking of SEA DEVILS and AQUAMAN, how do you feel about the stories in those comics? I absolutely love anything in pop culture that deals with underwater settings, but I wound up being pretty disappointed by both those titles. I had wanted to read SEA DEVILS for years and I thought the first two tryouts in Showcase were excellent, but once the series proper started I got weary of the monster of the week formula. With my love of diving ever since I was very young, AQUAMAN and SUB-MARINER were always favorites for me as a kid, but reading the early AQUAMAN stories now I had a hard time getting past the childishness of them. Normally I can suspend that aspect and apply context, but that particular title from the era tested my patience. I would be interested to hear your take or anyone else's views on that. Sea Devils and Aquaman absolutely benefit from the color, I agree with you, the underwater settings don't work as well for me in B&W. Plus those Russ Heath washed color covers in particular? It would be such a treat just for those alone (though I would be remiss if I didn't include with that some of those particularly snazzy Nick Cardy Aquaman covers). This is a bit of an aside, but my favorite part of the 1967 Aquaman animated series was the coloring of the underwater backgrounds, visually it just felt so compelling even though the stories were very light-hearted cartoon fare. In terms of the stories, I have to answer in two parts, but also wanted to mention I'm the same, I love underwater settings in general. On one side, just being candid, I do agree they tend to be pretty bland and repetitive. On the other hand, and this is more a Sea Devils comment, I just really have a soft spot for those "non-powered" teams back then (Challengers of the Unknown another favorite), so my "tolerance threshold" is fairly high for some of that repetition. Very "light fare" at best for people maybe like me, which translates to "bad Silver Age storytelling" for other folks, and I can see that.
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Post by tonebone on Jun 9, 2022 15:13:18 GMT -5
Do trade collections/compilations count as "classic comics" purchased lately? I hope so as I don't collect individual comics anymore due to various reasons. I picked up the volume below used at a pretty good price and I discovered that many of these Showcase Presents line of reprints are heading out of town by sundown. When they were first released I wasn't thrilled with them due to the inferior paper quality, printing/binding variations and the reproductions being in black and white. I've become used to all that and really enjoy reading them now. Some of the material doesn't seem to be available elsewhere besides the original release comics (though I'm no expert on such things). I'm picking some of these up here and there if I can't readily find the stories in other places, stuff like the 1950's MARTIAN MANHUNTER collection and the grab bag of goodness in the volume below, which having always been an eclectic reader, I've particularly loved reading. Anyone else enjoy these volumes and can recommend some must haves in this line for old comic reprints not found elsewhere? Thanks. They definitely count, and I love them. Sometimes, it's due to what you mentioned on content not being available elsewhere. I feel like the Sea Devils collection may be the only thing we ever get, I've lost hope of getting a color reprint (I think the 50's stories of the Blackhawk volume are in this category as well). Sometimes it's like the Martian Manhunter collection you mentioned, and it gives the specific stories of a character that was a backup feature in another title. I like the Elongated Man collection for this. Sometimes I actually also enjoy the B&W line art, for some reason I always grab my Showcase Supergirl editions versus the color Archive versions. Same with the Superman Family ones that contain the Jimmy and Lois issues. The Aquaman ones are fantastic as well, I love having 3 volumes of that, so much great art. Other times there are titles I'm more casual with and I just liked the value (at the time, being able to buy new) of some titles like Strange Adventures and Rip Hunter. On the Bronze Age side, I think they are still the only substanial continuous run reprints of All-Star Squdaron and DC Comics Presents (2 volumes in the latter case which is very nice). Warlord as well I think. Also, Amethyst, Captain Carrot, and Blue Beetle... I really hoped once they were printed in a Showcase, they would then do color... nope. A color volume of Captain Carrot was listed, at one time, but it vaporized.
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