Discussing the minutiae of comic book collecting.
Discussing the minutiae of comic book collecting.
This time there were 66 books on offer and most were of lower or very low grade. Would the auction for these books support the strong results of the last ComicLink Whites auction in February, or would the results fall flat because of the lower grades and not many really key books?
Comic Link April Focused Auction The Silver Age and Bronze Age comic book portion of ComicLink’s April Focused Auction ended Wednesday April 26th and I thought we’d chat about it a bit. No big blockbuster books in this auction, as…
Power Man #48, Marvel Comics, December 1977 Reading Dennis de Pues’ great post on the John Byrne FF run got me a bit nostalgic. I was consuming a lot of comics in the late 70s and early 80s and there was…
The last ComicLink featuring a collection of Canadian “Whites” was this past February and, in the end, commanded some eye-opening prices for these scarce books. There we had about three dozen books, most in mid-grade to better. In my opinion even 6.5 and up should be considered “high grade” for these scarce Canadian wartime comics, given that so few are found in this condition.
This month’s auction, even though it has almost double the amount of books (61), has them in mostly in lower grades. Almost a dozen of them are incompletes (0.5) because of a centerfold missing or a rectangular coupon cut out of the front cover. I’ve done a summary of the books on offer in a chart form anchored on condition, going from the lowest to the highest.
Almost 4 years ago I posted Undervalued Spotlight #44 featuring Lobo #1 published by Dell Comics in December 1965. Spotlight #44 has always been one of my favorite posts, the weight and importance of that comic had not yet translated into value…
I recently came across a copy of a newsprint comic put out in April of 1941 called Canadian Rocket. I’m sure that some of you have already seen it. This has no glossy or cardboard type cover and is simply a newsprint publication that is a little larger than a regular comic book. Perhaps this was also the format of Robin Hood Comics No. 1 by Anglo American Publications which appeared on the stands a month earlier along with Better Comics No. 1 from Maple Leaf Publications. The indicia attribute it to Victory Publishing Co. in Toronto.
This week I am turning the Undervalued Spotlight reigns over to guest writer Nelson da Rocha. Nelson is arguing that Amazing Spider-Man #96 deserves better than it is currently getting and I agree. Nelson gets to the heart of something I’ve briefly…
Celebrating Hellboy’s twentieth anniversary, Hellboy: The First 20 Years brings a wide selection of images in a handsome oversized hardcover. Mignola has expanded Hellboy into the most exciting group of books since the early Marvel universe, and his style has influenced art…
As a lot of you may know, I am working on putting together a coffee table-sized book that would feature the main artists of these WECA comics, that is, the Canadian Whites. I've got about 10 sections finished and I have submitted a package with the first three sections to Dundurn Publishing in Toronto. I really don’t hold much hope for seeing my cache of fairly arcane information being picked up by a publisher over the next few months, but I will try a couple more (such as Drawn and Quarterly and Fantagraphics). Most likely, my project will only be able to see fruition as a self-published e-book or a book for which a good deal of publishing funding could be raised through an online funding scheme such as Kickstarter.
Love Diary #36, Charlton Comics, January 1965 This is a bit of a coup for the Undervalued Spotlight. I believe I’ve found a yet undiscovered prototype. I’m not sure you could even call it a prototype, to me it looks…
“Thunderfist,” what a great name for a superhero. E. T. Leagault came up with this early in 1942 after having being the sole writer and artist for Cy Bell and his one title at that time, Wow Comics which featured two other Legault creations, Dart Daring and Whiz Wallace. The first issue of Wow Comics was cover dated September, 1941 and came out on the stands after half-dozen issues of Better Comics and a couple of issues of Lucky Comics issued by Maple Leaf Publications out of Vancouver had already been in the hands of lucky kids across the country.
Avengers #223, Marvel Comics, September 1982 I was pricing up a stack of Avengers recently and like always I basically stopped at issue #200. Anything over #201 in the Avengers run has always gone straight to the bargain bins. Now…
A new ongoing collection of Frank King's Gasoline Alley colour Sundays, collecting the first two years of Walt and Skeezix in an excellent introductory volume.
It’s that time of year again when Canadian golden age creators are considered for inclusion in the Joe Shuster Awards Canadian Comic Book Hall of Fame. Certainly an august constellation of creators but who are the two additions that should be inducted this year?
Journey into Mystery #85, Marvel Comics, October 1962. Last Saturday evening my kid decides we should all watch Thor 2; I wanted to watch the Habs/Senators game. So Thor 2 starts and I kind of like it, I actually thought it was better than the first one. Near the end of the movie my kid mumbles something like “I really like Loki, he’s smart and crafty”. Woah!
SelfMadeHero's third H.P. Lovecraft adaptation by I.N.J. Culbard, The Shadow Out Of Time is another smashing success.
The Wing was the creation of John G. Hilkert and first appeared in Joke Comics No. 4 (Sept./Oct. 1942) as the Wing, but if we look closely we can find an appearance of a character (not costumed or super powerful) named Trixie Rogers in a text story written by Hilkert and art by Murray Karn in Dime Comics 5 called “Death Casts a Vote” a couple of months before she put on the costume in Joke Comics.
Amazing Spider-Man #37, Marvel Comics, June 1966. Recently I've been receiving some strong Spotlight suggestions from Juan from Rochester N.Y. These are good solid picks he’s sending in, I’m lucky he doesn't want to start up a website.
Overall the documentary was a slick and informative effort. It reminded me a little of the recent PBS Superheroes three-parter because it made heavy use of talking heads in front of green screen projections. This allowed the film itself to take on a sense of comic book levity and healthy self-deprecation. A comic book doc has to be heavy on graphics from the books themselves and this one didn’t let us down in that respect.
Dazzler #1, Marvel Comics, March 1981. I’m pricing up books for the upcoming Toronto Comic Con and ran into a nice batch of X-Men. There was a sweet copy of issue #130 in there and I had to pick it up and thumb through it. I remember this book coming out and me being a bad boy rock and roller at the time I remember I hated the character.