And these came from a Half Price Books run this summer when we did a day trip into Columbus while Mrs, MRP was on vacation.













-M

Also during the late summer, Lonestar stepped up their $1 book game and added lots of new stuff, including a large bunch of issues of Usagi and Barbie that I ended up snagging, plus more for their auctions. Here's a sampling of the rest of the stuff I got from Lonestar over the summer...








(this is a Lovecraft focused 'zine formt he 70s, but this was a Clark Ashton Smith focused issue spotlighting his poetry that came up in the Lonestar auction and nobody but me seemed to care, as I got it for under $5







































and I managed to get the last 2 NBM volumes of Terry & the Pirates I needed to have a full run of the Canniff years of the strip



I also picked up the original art for a pair of Buz Sawyer strips form the 80s. there were listed separately in the Lonestar auction, but I got both strips for under $25.



-M

One more short post tonight, here's a few trades new * old with a classic focus I've picked up...

the new softcover edition of Toth Genius Animated form IDW (I got the previous 2 as well before I had left)



the new deluxe HC edition of Darwyn's New Frontier and Terry Moore's latest art book After Dark (which I got through my lcs as I missed the KS)



I also managed to get the PS Artbooks facsimile edition of Punch Comics #12-one of my favorite comic covers of all time but not a book I was ever going to be able to afford otherwise...


(I borrowed the image for this one a sI didn't snap a pic of the facsimile ed when I got it and it's in my boxes now)

All I have to say about this comic after reading the fax ed, is that the cover is the only redeeming feature about it.



-M

The most recent show I did was Champion City Comic Con on Halloween weekend.

Everything I got, with a few exceptions was $1 or less.








these three issues of Catwoman completed the Brubaker run for me.


this 1984 Conan calendar was randomly in one vendors $1 magazine sized books, and I snagged it.


snagged a bunch of Darwyn for $1 each


I had a copy of the Superman annual by Toth and the 2 Titans issues by Perez already, but for a buck I couldn't resist.









These were the only things I paid more than $1 for, the pair of LODK were $5 and were the ones I needed to complete the 1-50 run, the Duck albums were $4, the GR $3 and Planet of the Vampires #1 was $5.

-M

My last store visit of note was in September. My wife had an awards luncheon for work down in the Dayton area and did not want to drive down alone, but since I couldn't attend the luncheon, I needed to occupy my time. A mile down the road form the country club where the luncheon was being held was a plaza with a 2nd & Charles in it, so she dropped me off there to nose around while she went tot he luncheon.

It was one of those rare occasions that I hit a major underpriced score. I found a copy of Ghost Rider (90s series) #93-the final issue of the series in the bin for $1.95. FMV and sold ebay listings typically average $75+ for this book. It was one of 4 I needed to complete that series, all at the tail end of the series and all much pricier than you would expect because of "low print runs" (I put that in parenthesis because while it is often used to justify high prices for late run issues, the print runs for the tail end of books in the 90s is not significantly lower than average print runs for super-hero books in the 2010s and later, and those aren't being jacked up for low print runs). Some books are legitimately scarce, most form the 30s-50s where comics were disposable. Books with print runs under 50K are more the norm than the exception in the modern market, so I am skeptical about 80s and later books using lo print run to justify inflated prices. Compared to other books of their period, sure, compared to modern print runs, I have my doubts.




I also picked up a few other things while there...








last issue I needed to complete the Legends of the DCU series.

-M

Alrighty, last of these posts, there were the books I had bought just before I went into the hospital and arrived at ChezMRP while I was in the hospital.

While I was at Champion City, I was talking Toth with Dan Taylor, who runs the quarterly Jim & Dan Comic Shows up at Wright State that I attend often. The week after, this book walked into his shop, and he messaged me to see if it was one I had or if I was interested, and I snagged it form him...



speaking of Toth, I also snagged this issue of Young Love from Lonestar that has a Toth story in it.



In that order, I also grabbed these 3 issues of Sgt. Rock that completes my run of Sgt. Rock form the time the title changed from Our Army at War to Sgt. Rock (#302-422 plus annuals).



So that's what I got while I was gone. I managed to complete a handful of runs, get close to finishing a few more, and added a bunch of books I dig tot he collection.

I'm looking to slow down and be a bit more hyper-focused on a handful of interests to work on in the coming year, but we'll see what happens.

-M