I could feel my checkbook quivering in fear as I pulled out all those X-Men.

§ December 9th, 2024 § Filed under collecting, retailing § 3 Comments

There’s a half-joking observation I’ve made, in-store and later shared on Xwitter (R.I.P.) and repeated on Bluesky, in which I said that someone bringing in Grandpa’s collection used to mean Golden Age books when I started in this business, but now it usually means the same twelve or thirteen issues of Spawn everyone seems to have.

The dichotomy is not always quite that drastic. There were times at the previous place of employment in the ’90s when we’d be told on the phone “oh, I have a bunch of really old comics my grandpa used to own!” and they’d come in with, like, post-Liefeld X-Force.

And at my current (and hopefully final) shop, I’ve seen my share of older books, but more on that in a moment.

For years there was an opinion, one I believed first voiced to me by pal Dorian and that I shared, that there would soon be a huge influx of Golden Age books into the general funnybook population as their older owners…uh, went to that great quarter box in the sky.

And…I never saw it. At least not around here, not locally. I’ve had Golden Age books come in dribs and drabs, usually Disney books. But by and large if there was a sudden injection of these books into the secondary market, they all probably got snapped up from estate auctions or otherwise dumped out of the inheritors’ lives and went straight to gradin’ and slabbin’.

So I don’t see a lot of Golden Age books come through. Even 1960s Silver Age comics seemed like they were in short supply, though I’ve had some really good collections come through the door over the last couple of years. One collection held 1960s first issues on up through the 1970s of many major Marvel series (including an Amazing Fantasy #15 and an Amazing Spider-Man #1), a good handful of which were in beautiful VF to NM condition.

But that’s the exception. Most collections for sale that come in that have any age to them at all are generally 1970s-1980s. (I do see a lot of books more recent than that, too, of course.) “Bronze” and “Copper” Age books, as the Comics-noscenti would dub them…all those issues of Ka-Zar and Human Fly and Tarzan and sometimes even comics people would want, like X-Men and Spider-Man and Batman.

In other words, it was beginning to look like it was the Bronze Age collections who were now…um, divesting themselves of their own collection and not all having gone to live on a farm upstate to leave their relatives to do it.

I mean, I’m extrapolating a lot from my singular data collection point of “guy who once managed one comic shop and now owns another comic shop.” But it’s the trend I’ve been seeing over the past few decades, that as older collectors sell off their books, there is a general movement forward in time of the general age of their comics. Just, y’know, overall, when dealing with original owners buying books new off shelves and restricting back issue purchasing to the “more recent stuff” of their time.

I was thinking about this because yet another large collection made it into my hands over the weekend. A nice lady with eight longboxes that belonged to a recently passed family member brought them in for me to peruse and this is what I acquired:


That works out to about three longboxes’ worth of stuff, by the way. It was primarily 1970s through mid-1980s books (the most recent I believe being some issues of Crisis on Infinite Earths), with a smattering of 1960s books (a handful of Daredevil, some of DC’s space comics).

What was interesting was that this also appeared to be someone’s Investment Opportunity. To wit:


…that John Byrne Silver Surfer oneshot from 1982…


…this issue of Wonder Woman guest-starring the New Teen Titans…


…and shockingly, a whole bunch of part two of that “Days of Future Past” story from Uncanny X-Men. And believe it not, there were more copies of this comic than pictured here.

I realize those photos may be slightly reminiscent of this ancient post, but hoo boy, just look at those. It wasn’t all duplicates, but there was a whole lot of obvious speculation goin’ on. I didn’t buy the 1/3rds of a longbox full of New Teen Titans #16, featuring the Captain Carrot insert. And that issue of Wonder Woman pictured above? That’s only 10 copies out of the 30 or so I could have bought.

This is on top of another collection I bought not too long ago, which was another investment accumulation, filled with ’90s books like the X-Men #1 with the gatefold cover, of which there were about 20 copies.

Once again, I’m just one guy with one small comic shop, so I’m working with a small dataset here. But these collections, both owned by folks no longer with us, could be an indicator of a possible trend. As blogging brother Andrew put it on Bluesky:


Is there a burgeoning influx of investment books about to enter the market? In a way, we’ve already seen it with the dumping of heavily-speculated ’90s books that are basically just landfill waiting to happen, like Brigade or, well, most short-run and forgotten Image and Image-a-like titles. But that sort of thing isn’t going to affect the price of books that already hold no value in the seconday market.

But what’s going to happen when, say, collections with three dozen F to NM copies of Uncanny X-Men #142 start getting dumped on the market? A comic that traditionally is a pricey book suddenly theoretically facing an increase in supply.

Likely, I’m worrying about nothing…now. It’s possible even as speculation stocks from private collections show up in the back issue market, it may increase local supplies here and there, but no single book is going to be hit hard enough to affect value industry-wide. Especially since most comics collections are preserved poorly and NM copies can remain harder to acquire. Even this newest collection, where most of the duplicated investment books are nice, very few grade at a NM.

What I’m saying is that we’re not likely to have a repeat of the Heroes, Inc. situation, where an enormous warehouse find in the 1970s of uncirculated copies drove the price down to essentially nothing. But your local retailer may soon find himself with, say, four dozen copies of Moon Knight #1 (1980), or 50 copies of 2001: A Space Odyssey #8, and more similar acquisitions.

Maybe in the long run we’ll experience a repeat of the Shazam! Effect, where a heavily speculated book (DC’s Shazam! #1 from the 1970s) is dumped into bargain bins, where it primariy stayed for years. Then suddenly it was realized “hey wait, nice copies of this book are hard to find now!” and they were pulled out of the bins and if they could find any mint copies, those were slapped with premium prices.

Not that anyone’s going to dump Uncanny X-Men #142 into a dollar bin…I’m certainly not, and even as many copies as I’ve acquired I don’t expect them to last long. But maybe the day will come when even, say, Brigade #2 is a rare find in NM and my 152-year-old self will price it up at 50 space-credits and put in my case.

The best way to start off Year 22 of Progressive Ruin.

§ December 6th, 2024 § Filed under swamp thing § 6 Comments

Some of you folks may remember my old pal Batfatty, the most enigmatic member of the Associated Comics and Pop Culture Webloggers of Ventura County, CA and Outlying Environs (which is, as always, ACAPCWOVCCAOE for short). Well, he’s appeared out of the shadows to gift me with this swell item:


Look more closely, and you will see:


Yes, he got this signed for me by the legendary Len Wein some time ago, but the plan was to also get it signed by Bernie Wrightson, and, well, you know. Various things got in the way of getting it shipped out to me, but Batfatty perseveres, as he always does, and got it into my hands. It arrived yesterday, on the 21st anniversary of this very website, as is fitting.

Batfatty also told me that he chatted with Mr. Wein a while, informing him of my site and my love of Swamp Thing. So, there’s a very good chance my site was visited by the cocreator of my favorite character! A nice thought to have in these trying times. A big thanks to Batfatty for this wonderful gift!

“Suddenly, twenty-one years later….”

§ December 5th, 2024 § Filed under suddenly... § 21 Comments

Somehow I’ve made it to 21 years of comics blogging, with some of it even worth reading! A big thanks to everyone still hangin’ in there and dealing with my excessive typing, unnatural ideas, and questionable morality. I know actually reading a thing is mostly passé, when it’s easier just to endlessly scroll through TikTok or, if you have the patience of a thousand saints, sit through a four minute video on YouTube, so it’s heartening to know that there are still folks out there who are willing to plow through all my nonsense.

Before we get started on the “me me ME” portion of this post, let me at least thank my family and my girlfriend for supporting this weird endeavor, or at least not shaming me out of it. I also thank all of you reading this, plus Comics Blogger #1 Neilalien, the Longbox Heroes podcast pals, and of course I thank all my customers who may or may not know about this blog but they support the store and believe you me, I appreciate that.

And speaking of my store, Sterling Silver Comics, in beautiful Camarillo, CA, had its 10th anniversary in November. In addition, I had my 36th anniversary of working in comics retail in September. Either way you slice it, that’s a good chunk o’time, for varying definitions of “good.”

And so…this past year. Well, I did finish up the Final ’80s Countdown, in which I discussed 1980s comics that you voted for. The top spot should be no surprise to anybody, and was my personal choice, but boy oh boy the first runner up almost got my vote, too. (And just to be clear, if you ask me on any other given day, I’ll probably say Groo or Grimjack are my favorite books, I mean, I don’t know, I like ’em all.

Plus, let’s not forget podcasts, where you can hear me on Vintage video talking about the 1982 Swamp Thing film, and, at long last, I watched Blade Runner to chat about it on Cinema Shame.

Another thing I did this year was move my microblogging needs away from Xwitter for good, and moved on over to Bluesky, a much happier and easier-going place! And here’s some dumb stuff I said there over the last year…well, six months, anyway, it was taking a long time to scroll that far back:

First, I’m reminded of the high esteem in which my chosen career is held:


I’ve been doing this long enough to not fall for this sort of thing:


I’m going to have to wait for everyone else involved to be dead and/or in jail before I do this:


Gotta get my shots in at Cybertrucks now while it’s still legal to do so:


C’MON DC:


I find myself asking this of kids buying these books all the time now, trying to break into the conspiracy:


Honestly, this makes me think I know what I’m doing:


Seriously, the backlog I’ve got:


Yes, this really happened and I really said this [EDIT: fixed the image]:


It’s not l like I don’t get calls for this comic literally daily:


Some people inexplicably want to know every tiny detail about my business, especially bits that aren’t any of their business, and invariably they don’t spend a dime:


Occasionally I’ll hit you with a bit of my in-depth film commentary:


Once in a while I’m a bit salty about not being your first choice:


Now I can’t remember which film this was:


This is an old Xwitter joke from the 140-character limit days that I expanded for Bluesky:


Still getting customers from the old shop discovering my store now and again:


Another reunion with a long-lost customer:


Yes, someone really asked me about this once, in ye olden tymes when the X-Men, the most popular superhero comic, was completely unknown outside of fandom:


Another reminder that I’m old and am likely to stay that way:


By the power invested in me by having seen the original film in a theater in 1977, I am the final arbiter upon all things Star Warsian, also The Acolyte was good:


This is the real reason why no one will give me a job writing comics:


I wrote this after having sorted out the multiple series with this same name in the back issue bins, and the actual editor of Uncanny X-Men replied “Are there?” and augh:


And finally, here’s, well, this:


Okay, enough social media, here’s some antisocial media where I point out some Entries of Note over the past year from this very website. I didn’t include links to the recent “Question Time” posts where I’m answering, or at least discussing, your inquiries, but you can find them at that link.

DECEMBER 2023

In which I promise to tell you when I’m quitting, the Watchmen parody covers will continue until morale improves, more sins of the 1990s, Beach Blanket Bazongas (I apologize).

JANUARY 2024

Pretty proud of the “fold-out” joke in the title of this 1990s Sins post, the very disappointing normalman Omnibus, hoo boy things very likely have changed quite a bit in regards to Miracleman haven’t they, wamp Thing pins and stickers and podcasts oh my,

FEBRUARY 2024

Where oh where has my Comic Shop News gone, apparently I was right about the non-Red Band versions not selling as Marvel stopped doing them, grocery store comic shenanigans parts one and two, in which I discuss the impending Marvel/DC crossover omnibuses, yes the DC treasury reprints are nice but seriously Marvel get on reprinting yours, the new ECs and some of the older new ECs.

MARCH 2024

Surprise “Venom” appearance, some background on said “Venom” appearance, what counts as an actual “first appearance,” zero memory of ever giving my dad this bottle of Valiant beer, no one introduced a character quite like Kirby, the nigh-forgotten Archie TV pilot, the long history of scratch-and-sniff bananas, Carmine Infantino’s infamous list of cover elements that sell comics, comic book adaptations of other media vs. original stories based on said media, Dick & Bill & Ted (with a post title I’m particularly proud of).

APRIL 2024

That period piece 2001: A Space Odyssey as per Jack Kirby, the various strata of back issues, a trio of Marvel movie comics, The Truth Is in this post about X-Files comics, I notice the Labyrinth reprints removed the old cover price right away, take a look at this old Nancy book, oh right Cerebus is an aardvark (plus discussion of Art Vs. Artist, sorry), more Cerebus talk, and even more in this wildly wordy post, Crisis and the Superman reboot and the Kents, Lex Luthor pre-and-post-reboot, could’a had Alan Moore on a Super-book, an autographed Bill Griffith mini-comic.

MAY 2024

Superman and Batman – best pals…or are they, my most successful Free Comic Book Day yet, Luthor’s fancy armor suit, the dreaded Luthor/Brainiac/Ambush Bug/Cheeks team, Archie’s facsimiles and Atari Force‘s Dart in doll form, superheroes who kill — or do they, Steve Lombard gets his act together just in time for the universe to end, more about superhero killin’ and just-before-pre-Crisis-Superman, another Peanuts comic book rack.

JUNE 2024

The probably-should-have-been-untold tale of Supergirl’s husband, the Superman Crisis tie-in issue — hoo boy, Dr. Mikehatten, the post-Byrne-reboot status of Superman’s secret identity, the revealing of same to Lois, and then there’s the whole Jimmy thing, comic collecting in 1970, the power duo of Little Lulu and Kleenex, Jor-El and Lara just before — and after — the reboot.

JULY 2024

The Superman/Blue Devil team-up you demanded, the art on this last World’s Finest was far better than it needed to be, signed by the real Spawn, I liked this Dark Knight mini-comic, I now own original Zippy the Pinhead art by Bill Griffith, so long Bob (same as the previous link, but wanted to single it out), the last Peepshow, maybe someday we’ll get an actual Crisis adaptation, I briefly had a full run of I Dream of Jeannie comics.

AUGUST 2024

Original Angelo Torres art(!), does Gordon know Batman’s ID (parts one and two), retailer ordering tips from March 1986 (parts one and one and a half, and two and two-and-a-half), yet more ‘zines for the org.

SEPTEMBER 2024

The Comic Reader #76/#77 conundrum solved at long last, hey it’s Don Newton’s signature, so long Bernie, more retailer ordering suggestions this time from late ’84/early ’85 (parts one and two and three), so long John (same as the previous “three” link but again, wanted to single out the obituary), back on my “pronounce ‘Constantine’ properly” b.s., check out these nice racks, only the hottest Dazzler news, Marvel ads of the distant past.

OCTOBER 2024

Hey Dr. Fate comics, a brief look at Marvel’s equally brief dip into video games journalism, I absolutely read this Batman comic, Lobo parodies and the real thing, comic book paper stocks, the Questprobe games and comics.

NOVEMBER 2024

Byrne’s pulse-pounding prose in living audio, back on my Metron B.S., look I’m sorry GRIPS is terrible, Ron Randall’s behind-the-scenes on this issue of Swamp Thing and why that story’s important, I’m pretty set on Silver Surfer #50 2nd prints, does Swamp Thing now have to carry around a JLA ID card?

DECEMBER 2024

Whoops, just more “Question Time” posts for the early part of this month, here’s the link.

For any normal human, that seems like plenty, but not for me! I’ve got more comics talk to throw your way, more dumb jokes to crank out on Bluesky, and I’m sure more retailing adventures ahead of me. Thank you for sticking around, whether you were here from the beginning or you’re just starting with this post, God help you.

And, as always, for reading all that, here’s a picture of a giant tortoise I took the last time I was at a zoo. (I mean, I took the picture, I didn’t take the tortoise, though I was temppted.)


Thanks, pals, and I’ll see you again soon.

Just wait ’til Ultimate Slapstick hits the stands.

§ December 4th, 2024 § Filed under question time § 9 Comments

Am I answering more questions? Sure, I’m answering more questions! (And don’t forget to check back in on this site tomorrow!)

King of the Moon shines down on me with

“Is anyone under college age interested in the new Ultimate titles?”

Marvel’s relaunch of the Ultimate line has been very successful so far, bringing us yet more new interpretations of their classic franchises:


Ultimate Spider-Man remains the top seller for me, with Ultimates close behind. Ultimate X-Men and Ultimate Black Panther have okay numbers, selling about 1/2 to 2/3 of the Spider title. The forthcoming Ultimate Wolverine feels like it may outsell them all, at least at first.

But, Your Moonjesty, that’s not what you asked. You asked if any kids are interested. And the answer is…yes, I do have some high school and younger children seeking out these books. Well, mostly just Ultimate Spider-Man, but Spider-Man just has kinda universal appeal and I have a pretty sizable kid clientele, so that helps. Plus, it’s been getting new customers through my doors, which is always welcome.

• • •

John wonders

“The Eternal Query: Who would win in a fight – Dennis Dunphy, or Bibbo Bibbowski?”

Dennis Dunphy is, of course, better known as the Marvel character Demolition Man, who always looks like an off-model Wolverine to me:


And Bibbo is a pal and admirer of Superman, and also owns a bar in Metropolis:


Now, Demolition Man has actual super powers, in that he’super-strong. Bibbo is a normal human, though likely stronger and more imposing than most, but his strength is within norms. By all rights, the winner in such a conflict should be D-Man, but I think Bibbo would win by inviting D-Man to his Ace O’Clubs to hang out and have some milk or something. Bibbo’s a good guy who patterns himself after Superman and would probably find a way to resolve any conflict that would make “his fav’rit” proud.

• • •

LouReedRichards stretches in with following

“s there a property that you once wanted to see adapted into another media that you now hope is never touched, so it remains in its ‘purest’ form?”

I’m going to say the George R.R. Martin-edited Wild Cards novels, which, in short, comprise an all-prose multi-author series of novels that have been going on, with occasional breaks, since the late 1980s.

Now these have had comic books based on the characters, with the most recent mini from Marvel adapting the initial story from the first book. The comics have been…interesting, usually okay, but the thought that keeps coming to mind is a comment in Amazing Heroes #185 (November 1990) by Adam-Troy Castro in his column “Infernal Gall.”


He goes on to say that the comic itself is fine, but just..redundant.

So that colors the comics for me, though I’m sure I’ll keep reading them if they keep doing them.

What I don’t want to see is a live-action adaptation of the books. Well, okay, I’d see it anyway because I’d be wondering how they’d do it (see also me with anything Watchmen not my Moore and Gibbons). But, really, I’d be okay if they never attempted to make the translation. It’s been threatened once or twice over the decades, but hasn’t yet made the jump. The Great Superhero Movie Scare of the 2000s I thought for sure would have unleashed a Wild Cards movie on us, though none is impending, I think. I haven’t Googled to check, and I’m not going to. I shall live in ignorance.

Anyway, the stories are so much a “prose” thing, thick with detail, that are part and parcel of the Wild Cards experience. Paring it all down to fit into a film feels like cutting away too much of what makes the books appealling. I imagine something at least entertaining could be made this way, but I don’t think I’d be missing anything if a Wild Cards movie never happened.

• • •

Okay, that’s enough typing for today. Hopefully you’ll all come back tomorrow for a rare Thursday post!

Yes, yes, and Ask Jeeves, I know.

§ December 2nd, 2024 § Filed under question time § 7 Comments

Hi pals…I have another early morning medical thing again, so as I write this the night before, I’m gonna keep it short. Sorry, that’s been happening a bit too often lately, but this should be the last one for about a month or so. Thanks for your patience.

So, I’m going to try to tackle another question, such as this one from Rob S. who asks

I’ll piggyback onto Daniel T’s question by asking another. Assuming the ‘every comic is someone’s first comic’ maxim is true — do readers want the same thing in their first comic today than they did 40 years ago? Does clarity of action & characters in an ongoing storyline matter to new readers now? Did it, in actuality, matter then? Or was/is the dazzling incomprehensibilty of it part of the attraction?

Of course I get to a question that has no really easy answer.

It almost doesn’t matter what readers want as comics storytelling has changed significantly in the last few decades. I touched on this a bit in my response to Daniel T linked above, but I feel like most comics (by which I mean the Marvel/DC/Image/etc. superhero comics that dominate the direct market) today are not necessarily written to be completely accessible for a new reader. If it’s part four of six parts and that’s where you’re jumping in, well, hang on and figure it out as you go, effendi.

But the flipside of that is…most regular comic book readers don’t really need their first issue of whatever comic to be new reader friendly. If you’ve read enough comics, you know how things go, you can figure out what’s going on. If you’re really confused about a point or two, there’s always Google or Bing or, I don’t know, Alta Vista, I guess? Is that still a thing?

I think it’s just as likely a person trying out a comic for the first time is more sampling the creative teams involved, rather than trying to get in at a good starting position with the ongoing plot. Modern readers probably work under the assumption that getting in on the ground floor of something isn’t as easy as it used to be, unless there’s a “#1” on the cover…and maybe not even then.

As long as an issue demonstrates what the series is generally like, with the regular creative teams involved, with the storytelling on display, a reader can decide if this is the book for them without knowing all the character’s names and motivations and whatnot. I think. Given pagecounts and prices spending less time on exposition and more time on moving the story forward seems to be the priority, and I’m pretty sure most readers get that.

I realize that’s all about folks who already read comics. For people brand new to comics, it’s not too much different. By and large anyone coming to comics now are familiar with the characters from TV and movies…I don’t know that they expect to know exactly everything that’s going on with whatever comic they pick up. It’s an interest in seeing a character in its original medium, which may not be in an entirely self-explanatory story but will hopefully demonstrate Comics In Action in a sufficiently entertaining way.

And if it’s a little kid…ah, they’ll be fine. They can figure it out.

• • •

Okay, thanks for reading, and hopefully I’ll have more of a post on Wednesday. And, maybe, juuuuuust maybe…a special post on Thursday? You’ll just have to wait and see!

A mark, a yen, a buck or a pound.

§ November 29th, 2024 § Filed under question time § 3 Comments

There was a bit of garbled HTML in Wednesday’s post which is fixed now, so Wayne’s question is now properly credited to him. Sorry about that!

But let me attempt one more question here, since I’ve working off a large Thanksgiving dinner as I write this and I ain’t up to typing much.

MisterJayEm wants to know

“What’s something (the biggest thing?) about the comics business that comic book buyers/fans don’t understand?

“Make me smarter about my ignorance, Mike!”

Believe it or not, this is a hard question for me to answer. Sometimes on social media someone will post the discussion prompt “what’s something about your industry that people don’t know?” and I always want to add my one cent (I can’t afford two cents, I am working in comics after all).

I think the problem is that the business is so small and so many elements of the industry are so transparent and “out there” for people to examine and discuss, I don’t know what’s left for people to not know.

Actually, my off-the-cuff one/two cents gag above may be a clue. I think most buyers/fans aren’t aware of the economic realities of comic books. I mean, I’m not even certain of all the behind the scenes stuff involved in getting comics into your hands. A lot of creators can’t make a living just working in comics. Variant covers help bump up sales and bring in much needed extra income. Other little financial decisions that affect prices and print runs and lengths of series and relaunches and so on. Pretty much the answer to every question about “why did they do [x] with that comic?” is $$$.

Sigh. Depressing, I know. I’ll try to be funnier with the next answer to a question.

Thanks for reading, pals, and I’ll see you Monday!

Swamp Thing versus Despero, coming soon.

§ November 27th, 2024 § Filed under popeye, question time, swamp thing § 7 Comments

Okay, you Swampheads…keep an eye out for Justice League Unlimited #1, the new series debuting today at a good comic shop near you, or even mine. Specifically, I’m talking about variant cover “D” with art by Howard Porter:


…where our favorite muck-encrusted mockery of a man is hanging out:

You can also find our floral friend on variant cover “E” by Ed Benes, off to the side there apparently making room for less-important characters:


A closer look:


So, can we expect a Swamp Thing-focused Justice League adventure in this book in the near future? One can hope!

• • •

And let’s take a look at one more of your questions:

Wayne sez

“Mike. What are the odds tthat this was the original concept for THE THREE JOKERS?”

Wayne is referring to the pic I used as the header for the initial questions post, which I’ll reproduce here at slightly smaller size:


…and Three Jokers, for those who haven’t heard, was an intended out-of-contintuity story resolving an in-continuity mystery that was later Chip Zdarsky tried to make part of regular continuity in a one-off panel but I’m pretty sure everyone’s just trying to move past the whole thing. Anyway, it proposed that there literally three different people as The Joker, which is dumb and by extension makes Batman seem dumb as well.

Wayne was just being silly, which is fine, but it reminded me of some entries from the Bobby London’s 1986-1992 run on the Popeye comic strip. Specifically, instances where there were multiple versions of the same character.

Well, this one doesn’t really count, I guess, as we see Popeye being reverted into versions of himself from previous years, which I thought was a nice image:


But the storyline I specifically wanted to note was the one where Bluto returns to bedevil Popeye, this time with an army of multiple versions of Brutus:


Okay, I’m gonna let Mark Evanier explain why Brutus replaced Bluto for a time in the comics an’ such. But here you go, Wayne, Bobby London’s dozen-ish Brutuses laugh mockingly at the stinginess of only Three Jokers.

I’m probably just going to recycle the pile of Wonder Man #1s that was in here.

§ November 25th, 2024 § Filed under collecting § 11 Comments


So what you see above is some of my well-gotten gains from the week, retrieved from a good-sized plastic storage box similar to this:


That jumble of comics you see above (Uncanny X-Men #281, the wraparound cover version of the 1991 X-Men #1, and the second printing of the foil-embossed Silver Surfer #50 weren’t the only books inside…there were multiple copies of Infinity Gauntlet (every issue represented, but only single copies of a couple so not multiple runs), Wolverine #41 and #42 (Wolvie Vs. Sabertooth battle, briefly a hot book), a whole lotta Darkhawk, various other variants of the 1991 X-Men #1, and other similar items.

When I mentioned the collection on Bluesky, I called it a collection of “investment comics” and that’s clearly what it was. Some of these comics do have value (despite being printing literally in the millions, I have no trouble moving theseX-Men #1s), their method of preservation could have been better.

When I started pulling these comics out of the container, the plastic bags started splintering into tiny little fragments that I’ve mostly cleaned up but darn if I don’t keep finding more of them on the counter or floor. Anyway, as I noticed this I asked the seller if this box had been kept in a warm garage, and no surprise when the answer was “yes.”

Surprisingly, the comics were mostly still intact and in reasonable shape. I say “surprisingly” because this sort of plastic storage box isn’t meant for keeping your comics, especially if, like this collector, you had the comics standing and not laying flat, meaning lots of shifting and falling over an’ such. A few comics did come out straight up bent in half (thankfully, mostly just New Warriors), and at least two super sun-faded Ghost Riders (maybe stored by a window?).

I was asked by another Bluesky user how much I paid for these, in that surely this paid for someone’s college education. Alas, I paid them enough to buy maybe a college textbook…one of those big too-expensive-for-what-you’re-getting volumes. Others on Bluesky commented on how none of these pictured books are worth anything, “like five bucks” being a common refrain.

Well, that’s not my experience with the X-Men #1 or the Silver Surfer #50 (any printing), at least. Despite the improper long-term storage of these books, they remain in nice condition…lots of Near Mint copies, though the X-Men #1s will have to be graded down due to most of them having dinged corners. And they’ll sell for pretty good money, all things considered.

Despite being relatively common, there is still huge demand for X-Men back issues, both of the 1991 series and the original Uncanny run. (Not so much for later relaunches for Uncanny, but I’ve got a whole ‘nother post about that in the near future.) Plus, that Silver Surfer embossed cover remains a popular novelty item. Gimmick cover burnout was a thing long ago, but enough people buying comics now weren’t there when everything was foil or die-cut, so it’s all new and fresh and appealing to them.

Even decades after the fact, there are still collections like this, in varying degrees of condition, sitting untouched in garages and attics and basements and deep in closets. Sitting unmoved for years, or perhaps hauled from place to place with each subsequent changing of residences, there are boxes filled with perceived fortunes. The one I just acquired at least had comics that I could sell, but it still feels a little weird dismantling someone’s comic investment-collecting dream.

“Wedding? I didn’t see no swamp priest there.”

§ November 22nd, 2024 § Filed under swamp thing § 9 Comments


So comics artist Ron Randall spoke a bit about working with Alan Moore on Saga of Swamp Thing #33 from the mid-1980s. So if you click on the pic above, or on this link right here, you’ll be whisked away to a thread of posts on Bluesky where Mr. Randall has nothing but good things to say about the experience.

Issue #33 is, of course, this one:


…in which they reprint the very first Swamp Thing story from House of Secrets #92, the cover for which inspired the Saga cover above. Said reprint was incorporated into that new story by Moore and Randall.

Now, as I recall, this was a bit of a last second fill-in, as the story originally intended for issue #33 was the so-called “wedding of Swamp Thing and Abby,” as seen in this coming comics listing from Amazing Heroes #58:


However, the story was pushed back to #34, and the new story for #33 was announced here in Amazing Heroes #59:

And just so it’s clear, the “wedding” story is the one that is probably better known as the “Swampy and Abby Have Sex” issue, the one with this cover:

But anyway, for being a “fill-in” story, what ended up being in #33 had a huge impact on the Swamp Thing milieu, as it introduced the idea that was an ongoing chain of Swamp Things through Earth’s history. The Alex Olsen Swamp Thing in the House of Secrets story was just one of the many that had preceded. This establishes the groundwork for Swamp Thing’s status as an Earth Elemental (though he was called an elemental in the earlier Swamp Thing Annual #2, hinting at what was to come) and the eventual creation of the Parliament of Trees.

So, for a reprint issue, quite a lot got accomplished. Was Moore heading in this direction anyway, or was having to churn out a fill-in story worked around the original introductory tale of the character the inspiration for this major addition to the mythos? Honestly, I don’t know…I bet he said in an interview somewhere. I’ll have to keep an eye out.

Hopefully a Planet of Vampires movie is as misleading as the comic.

§ November 20th, 2024 § Filed under question time § 10 Comments

I’m going to take a break from answering your questions to…answer your questions, specifically a couple of queries that popped up in response to some of my recent posts. I just wanted to touch on them before they disappeared down the memory hole.

First off here’s Matthew with

“I’ve seen that groundhog cover a few times before, but don’t think I’ve ever noticed the $1.11 price before. I know I’ve seen at least one title with a price of $6.66 (the original printings of Jay Stephen’s Dwellings), but what’s your opinion on ‘non-standard’ prices like this? Annoying or something else?”

The $1.11 price he’s talking about from was the nigh-legendary Shadow of the Groundhog, the cover of which I’m reprinting here again because why not.


Now, my feeling about this specific gimmick cover price was that it was a plot to get more “1s” on the front cover, to emphasize that this was a BIG FIRST ISSUE and that you should buy an entire longbox-worth of them, like that sad bastard I saw at a con trying to unload them.

But in general weird prices like this don’t bother me too much, especially nowadays when it feels like there are so many different price points already, what’s one more? Just so long as they actually put the price somewhere on the cover, they can price it whatever they want.

One early example of this was the Lobo Paramilitary Christmas Special, which had a cover price of $2.39, playing off the fact that the first issue of the popular Lobo mini had the unusual 99 cents price point. I can’t remember if other Lobo comics had “funny” prices, and I think that one Harley Quinn special with the scratch ‘n’ sniff pot smell missed a bet by not being $4.20.

• • •

Customer Sean asks

“…What is your opinion, Mike–and other folks–about the recent news that Atlas-Seaboard is trying to make a comeback through licensing toys based on its characters and also trying to have an Atlas-Seaboard Cinematic Universe? I believe Devilina, Phoenix, and Grim Ghost have been optioned for films. I would love to see David Cronenbourg direct a Tarantula film.”

Any excuse to reprint a Grim Ghost cover:


This very short-lived comic publisher from the mid-1970s cranked out a slew of comics of varying but mostly good quality, with solid art and interesting ideas. And also the odd twist of the premises of some of the books shifting dramatically even within the very short three to four issue runs more of these had.

Anyhoo, I think this is the second pass through the news cycle of Seaboard/Atlas getting optioned for films/etc. (I mentioned it on the blog back in 2019.) It’s real “all the other licenses were already snapped up” energy, but I wouldn’t mind seeing a live action version of the Grim Ghost pictured above, as long as they’re prepared for moviegoers who don’t know any better calling it a Spawn rip-off.

I honestly don’t know what’s there otherwise that required putting out ther scratch to get the rights, since not a lot there is particularly so unique that you couldn’t do similar knock-offs. I mean, Scorpion, maybe? Or you could do your own super spy thing. Iron Jaw? You could do your own barbarian thing (though, okay, if you needed him to have, well, an iron jam….). That could apply to most superhero things, so that what a studio is really buying is the known name, but most of these Atlas books don’t even have that.

Ah, well, I’m sounding more down on it that I actually am. I do like these Atlas books and wouldn’t mind seeing what’s done with them. Even if what’s done is not anything I’ll end up recognizing. It may turn out to be no more than a footnote in that superhero movie gold rush, bought up by a studio during that brief window when anything based on a comic book did gangbusters business, but wasn’t exploited until that post-period when it’s less of a sure thing.

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