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Post by MRPs_Missives on Mar 1, 2024 17:29:57 GMT -5
Welcome to Top Shelf Friday. This is a way to feature comics you love innovated by a fellow collector I interact with over on bluesky-Vinsonlovescomics and I have enjoyed participating in it and seeing lots of wonderful comics. Each Friday I'll ask you to post a comic that you own that you believe belongs on the "Top Shelf" whether it's a key, just a beautiful comic, or just a comic that you love for whatever reason. In a sea of negativity, it's a chance to share something comic-related that you love with the community. For my initial offering I will post one of the favorite pieces of my collection...Son of Sinbad #1 from 1950 featuring the work of a young Joe Kubert.  Hopefully folks will choose to participate and share some of the comics they own that bring them joy. Any comic from any era, any comic collected edition, any comic related book, is fair game. I'll start a new thread each Friday as long as there is enough interest and participation to keep this going. If you can't post on Friday, do it some time during the week (or even later if you see the thread beyond the week of it's "shelf-life" for the first time. All I ask is that you limit it to 1 book per thread. -M |
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Post by Prince Hal on Mar 1, 2024 17:40:30 GMT -5
I bet that looks beautiful on the inside, too, MRPs_Missives. Great idea for a thread. I'll be back with something soon! |
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Post by Icctrombone on Mar 1, 2024 18:51:03 GMT -5
My entry this Friday is this book  Not only is this a great read with top notch art by the King Kirby, but it's maybe the book that is most responsible for shaping the Marvel Universe. Subtract Captain America from the Marvel universe and maybe it doesn't survive. He is the ultimate leader of men and heroes, a person that all the other heroes look to for leadership, even Thor. This is probably the single comic that I've read the most. |
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Post by Deleted on Mar 1, 2024 19:28:51 GMT -5
I was going to post this in the purchases thread but it can work here too, a lovely Hardcover collection called Archie's Firsts, which collects the first appearances of every major Archie character. If you don't think you'll own the original comics anytime soon, this will do just fine.
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Post by MRPs_Missives on Mar 1, 2024 23:00:17 GMT -5
My entry this Friday is this book Not only is this a great read with top notch art by the King Kirby, but it's maybe the book that is most responsible for shaping the Marvel Universe. Subtract Captain America from the Marvel universe and maybe it doesn't survive. He is the ultimate leader of men and heroes, a person that all the other heroes look to for leadership, even Thor. This is probably the single comic that I've read the most. Is that a picture of the copy you own? It's a great comics, and reprints/facsimile editions/trades are fine, but the point is to post a pic of the comic you own as I said in the OP. Love the choice, but want to see the copy you're actually reading. -M |
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Post by codystarbuck on Mar 1, 2024 23:12:27 GMT -5
I only own a very small number of book collections, these days, as everything else is digital, for the space. However, this is a true favorite.....  Grease Monkey, by Tim Eldred. I had one of the issues of the series; but it wasn't until Tim Eldred had completed the work and published it as a book that I got to see the whole story, thanks to it coming into my store, one day. The series is really overlooked, as was the book. In a just world, Grease Monkey would have been a kid favorite, alongside Bone, not to mention a darling of the comics world. Eldred put together a great story, with characters who live and breathe, and also make you take a different look at the world around you, by giving you a different perspective on it. It's good old fashioned space opera, it's a fun workplace comedy, it's a great character study. Mostly, it's a dman good read, with some wonderfully expressive art and well staged action. |
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Post by EdoBosnar on Mar 2, 2024 4:59:27 GMT -5
Good idea for a thread. I'll start off with a little book that I really love at several levels, Gil Kane's (and Archie Goodwin's) Blackmark:  ( and yes, that's a scan of the cover to the actual book I have) First and foremost, I like it as a sort of historical artifact of the late 1960s/1970s, when a number of comics creators were trying to come up with new ways to tell stories and try to find new audiences. And in 1971, this little gem in pocketbook format was published by Bantam. (The story is told in a combined form, in both blocks of text like any novel as well as illustrations, sometimes containing world balloons.) I also like it because it's a solid post-apocalyptic sword & science story. Otherwise, I also have the complete edition published by Fantagraphics which collects the whole story, but I prefer paging through this original edition. |
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Post by Icctrombone on Mar 2, 2024 7:26:15 GMT -5
My entry this Friday is this book Not only is this a great read with top notch art by the King Kirby, but it's maybe the book that is most responsible for shaping the Marvel Universe. Subtract Captain America from the Marvel universe and maybe it doesn't survive. He is the ultimate leader of men and heroes, a person that all the other heroes look to for leadership, even Thor. This is probably the single comic that I've read the most. Is that a picture of the copy you own? It's a great comics, and reprints/facsimile editions/trades are fine, but the point is to post a pic of the comic you own as I said in the OP. Love the choice, but want to see the copy you're actually reading. -M Sorry, I didn't understand that part. Here are the actual copies I own. I originally read it in Avengers Annual # 3.  And This is the reprint on the flip side of Captain America # 400 that I read these days.  |
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Post by MRPs_Missives on Mar 2, 2024 10:19:07 GMT -5
Sorry, I didn't understand that part. Here are the actual copies I own. I originally read it in Avengers Annual # 3. And This is the reprint on the flip side of Captain America # 400 that I read these days. Awesome! And thank you for taking the time to post those! -M |
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Post by MRPs_Missives on Mar 2, 2024 10:21:13 GMT -5
Good idea for a thread. I'll start off with a little book that I really love at several levels, Gil Kane's (and Archie Goodwin's) Blackmark: ( and yes, that's a scan of the cover to the actual book I have) First and foremost, I like it as a sort of historical artifact of the late 1960s/1970s, when a number of comics creators were trying to come up with new ways to tell stories and try to find new audiences. And in 1971, this little gem in pocketbook format was published by Bantam. (The story is told in a combined form, in both blocks of text like any novel as well as illustrations, sometimes containing world balloons.) I also like it because it's a solid post-apocalyptic sword & science story. Otherwise, I also have the complete edition published by Fantagraphics which collects the whole story, but I prefer paging through this original edition. I have that paperback as well, though I am never sure if I should shelve it with my vintage paperbacks or with my trades & OGNs. Right now it splits the difference and sits with my comic related vintage paperbacks! I think I did a review for it back when I was doing the From the Sorcerer's Scroll thread several years back, but I cannot remember. Great pick! -M |
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Post by driver1980 on Mar 4, 2024 15:29:22 GMT -5
Here’s mine:   Eaglemoss were a company who put out various collections, both scale models and trade paperbacks. That’s one of their volumes above. I wasn’t keen on some of Byrne’s “photocopy heroes” in the 90s, and he certainly didn’t hit the right notes for me with Spider-Man: Chapter One. However, he hit the right notes for me with Generations, which I believe was a near-perfect story that reminded me of why I’d become a fan of the Man of Steel and the Dark Knight. I’ve had to downsize my collection at times due to living in studio flats, but I can’t part with the above! |
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Post by Roquefort Raider on Mar 4, 2024 15:48:14 GMT -5
In the mid-70s, access to Barry Smith's Conan was very restricted in my neck of the woods, as back issues of Conan were not even a thing. Still, I have fallen in love with Barry's art, especially after Conan #19 (Haws from the Sea). Imagine my febrility when I entered the Garneau Bookshop (now long gone) in a local shopping centre (also long gone) in my hometown and found this on the shelf:  There was only on copy in the store (and in fact I never saw another copy anywhere else), and it cost a staggering TEN BUCKS while most of the European comics I usually bought (all hardcovers) went for less than four dollars... but I had to have it! And sure enough, it was a life-changing experience. That book had a deep and lasting impact on my cartonning. It's a translation of the Red Nails adaptation found in Marvel's first Treasury Edition. Same size, but with a perfect-bound stiffer cover. The original colouring was also used.
Here it is among its brethren... not quite the top shelf, but almost.
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Post by Prince Hal on Mar 4, 2024 16:06:35 GMT -5
In the mid-70s, access to Barry Smith's Conan was very restricted in my neck of the woods, as back issues of Conan were not even a thing. Still, I have fallen in love with Barry's art, especially after Conan #19 (Haws from the Sea). Imagine my febrility when I entered the Garneau Bookshop (now long gone) in a local shopping centre (also long gone) in my hometown and found this on the shelf: There was only on copy in the store (and in fact I never saw another copy anywhere else), and it cost a staggering TEN BUCKS while most of the European comics I usually bought (all hardcovers) went for less than four dollars... but I had to have it! And sure enough, it was a life-changing experience. That book had a deep and lasting impact on my cartonning. It's a translation of the Red Nails adaptation found in Marvel's first Treasury Edition. Same size, but with a perfect-bound stiffer cover. The original colouring was also used. Believe this or else, but I drove all over the county to at least a dozen stores looking for a copy of this exquisite comic went it on sale (49 years ago last month), and I finally found it in a store I never usually went into. It was the only copy I've ever seen in the pulpy flesh. Surely one of the top echelon Conan stories, whether you're ranking the Howard prose originals or the Thomas-Smith collaborations. |
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Post by EdoBosnar on Mar 4, 2024 16:38:40 GMT -5
Eaglemoss were a company who put out various collections, both scale models and trade paperbacks. That’s one of their volumes above. I wasn’t keen on some of Byrne’s “photocopy heroes” in the 90s, and he certainly didn’t hit the right notes for me with Spider-Man: Chapter One. However, he hit the right notes for me with Generations, which I believe was a near-perfect story that reminded me of why I’d become a fan of the Man of Steel and the Dark Knight. I’ve had to downsize my collection at times due to living in studio flats, but I can’t part with the above! I love Generations - I have the tpbs of I and II myself. |
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Post by Deleted on Mar 5, 2024 18:27:55 GMT -5
I was very excited some time back to get this copy of Showcase #27, the first appearance of the Sea Devils. I've always enjoyed Russ Heath's underwater visuals, but I had only accessed them by way of my B&W Showcase collection since the Devils had never gotten a color collected edition. Normally I enjoy B&W reprints just fine, but the underwater setting really made me curious to read them in their original color glory. I started collecting some original issues of the main series, and finally decided to take the plunge on their first appearance, so a special issue for me indeed.  |
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