We noticed the batteries died while doing Amazing Spider-Man #129 so you’ll get two takes on the same book (if anything, it does show that we don’t rehash dialogue, nothing but improve from my pal Chris and I).
Please let us know what you thought of the show in the comments field below and please let’s keep it civil.
Did we get it right? Did you have more sells? More buys?
Well…with the fear of sounding redundant… this WAS another great show! I was struck with having considered myself a Golden/ Silver Age collector… I own so many of these Bronze Age books! While I am sure I probably don’t have sny if the high end conditions… I do have a few that may be close… like Hulk180, XMen 94, and ASM 129. Now to comment… I think Green Lantern is over priced( sorry Meli)…it seems to carry the weight if the entire Adams run in that one book! I would never include Moon Knight in the same grouping as The Shadow and Batman… yes, the character is in the vain if those iconic characters but simply does not have the same weight and to me this “C” level character is simply out of place. Unfortunately my Ironman 55 got sold with a box I unloaded 30 years ago… and I found Dax the Destroyer more interesting then Thanos. I am surprised at Blade being held as highly as the character is considering such a meager crossover status.
A very enjoyable show along the lines of watching Judge Napolitano on Fox or visiting a circus sideshow. I know Chris’s Uncle used to say “you’re half right, but you’re all wrong”, but you guys aren’t even half right. As Mel Brooks said about a not-for-family-show topic, “I do this in these movies so people watching them know not to do that.” I take this discussion the same way.
You sad Marvel fanboys keep playing the same tune, and I can’t argue that following that tune has paid off handsomely in the past year. But this is a forward-looking discussion, and there I think you are way off.
FIRST OF ALL – AND THIS INCLUDES YOU GERALD – GL #76 IS AND WILL ALWAYS BE THE BRONZE AGE BOOK. Your tastes are like those of the modern art nuts who bought a pill cabinet for the price of a Rembrandt. If it has a picture frame cover you are buying it, end of story. I am not arguing with Silver Age Marvel (more or less), but Bronze Age Marvel is full of lame and repetitive storylines mired in disco culture. GL/GA is pre-disco – late hippie – and that makes all the difference. Extraordinary art and strong stories that get collected and re-collected. You are right Walt – it is a “classic” – I guess you are suggesting to get rid of those dusty old Schomburgs and Batman #11s, they obviously will have no place in the future. Give me a break.
We all know the bad 2011 movie killed GL, but how about FF 2005? “Time to unload those FFs” I guess you said. GL #76 is now back at its highs since this movie, and I don’t know anybody who doesn’t view GL as a key property. I didn’t finish your Silver Age show yet, but I take it you threw shade at Showcase #22 as well. Please. “Yeah, that Blade is cool, much rather have his first appearance in a knockoff of a b/w magazine format than one of the key defining issues of the early post-Code age.” Please go to the market and get some bags to put over your heads and hide your shamed faces.
(I recently benefitted from Walt being “that guy” and giving up on GL/GA. I will laugh all the way to the bank, sukka!)
Aside from the usual picture frame nonsense I expect from you people, I mostly agreed with your thoughts, so I am not going to say much in agreement, instead mostly offer more critiques:
Ras Al Ghul is for Batman fanboys; the Riddler, the Penguin, even the Scarecrow are for the masses. Just like GL, they will never go out of style. I am with Chris on this one.
(Al Ghul is just too nasty and not entertaining. The Joker is a homicidal maniac, but his crimes are entertaining, and he is funny-looking. Al Ghul and Al Qaeda are just too close for the character to be appealing.)
I am also with Chris on Detective #880. A nice cover that I might pay $10 for raw, that’s about it.
The idea that Batman #227 is somehow less than #232 is obviously ridiculous. Of course #227 is a homage – that is the whole point – but all of the subsequent homages are essentially to #227. And there are too many of these to count. Again it is the Batman fanboy problem – #227 is the concept of Batman for the masses.
Iron Man #55 is not just Thanos – from the CGC label: “1st appearance of Thanos, Mentor, Drax the Destroyer (Arthur Douglas), Starfox, Kronos and the Blood Brothers”. This book is a linchpin of Cosmic Marvel. I am not super hot on it, but you undersold it.
The GSXM vs. X-Men #94 thing can be argued ad infinitum. My feeling is that for the average collector, GSXM is the book to have. But if you have deep pockets and want the real showpiece, the #94 9.8 white is much more impressive than a GSXM 9.8 white.
Agreed that ASM #129 is most iconic of the three three caballeros. It is clearly the best cover. It is GIL KANE – who is one of my loves after the Covered 365 exercise. You don’t need a 9.8 of this book because it still looks good in lower grades – so everybody should have this in their collection.
Of the grade C character five-figure books, I do agree that Blade beats Moon Knight, but that’s like saying canned hash is better than Spam.
And I will wrap up with price variants. Walt, you can continue wearing your tin foil hat, but that won’t stop the rest of us from treating these as what they are: a) rare, b) milestones in comic history. These are not like oddball mint errors, but rather key decision points in the decline of the cheap comic, and also like golden tickets in Wonka Bars. Nearly fifty years later they are still draws for pawing through long boxes of mid-grade junk. And as much as I like my thirty-cent Eternals #1, the thirty-five-cent variants are the gold standard. These are rare and tough in grade. I am not disputing the thirty-five cent Star Wars #1 one bit. That is like a Wonka bar handmade by Willy himself that also includes a golden ticket.
In closing, get your heads out of your picture frames and open your eyes. When Disney announces the DC acquisition, don’t come crying to me.
Hey Gerald
Blade was as much a part of that particular craze of multiracial characters that were intended to make Marvel cool as Luke Cage, Jimmy Woo, Brother Voodoo, Shang Chi and more. In film it was the “blacksploitation” films that held up the use of multiracial characters as some sort of apologia for the prevalence of white characters in media in general at the time (I’m thinking Shaft and Gasp! Choke! Blackula!). In that sense alone, Blade is a signpost in the history of the medium just as Howler Gabriel Jones, Lobo (the original, not the DC sociopath), the Black Panther, and the Spirit’s side kick, Ebony, were. And now we have…Miles Morales, the ethnic “variant” of the greatest hero ever! I think Blade fits neatly into what Walt has called a “collecting strain.” Even Miles is another cog in the “blacksploitation” machine!
And, by the way, the facsimile edition of his first appearance in Ultimate Fallout #4 is already listing on Ebay at ten to thirty dollars with shipping! It came out YESTERDAY!!!
Hehehe… I knew going at the GL 76 would get Chris M on the warpath….
Mel… I am not disputing that in the ToD cannon Blade wasn’t an important character… and as a ToD fan I have tried to get most of his appearances… but in the greater Marvel world he was underutilized and may not hold the same weight as other Marvel characters such as Luke Cage, Black Panther, and the Falcon who appeared in several titles as either principle protagonists or as important supporting characters. That could change if Marvel continues to exploit underused characters in its MCU and continues publishing it floppies.
MELI !!! Guilty of underselling Iron Man #55 – um… we were pressed for time… Batman #232 over #227 any day, character introductions still trumps covers and #232 also has a great cover. I think you are wrong on the variants but that’s old news and its obvious my thinking needs to vary…
Gerald, sounds like you have some keepers there, you really need to do an inventory.
Mel, I have a half a case of those facsimiles!!
Chris M called me (us) out and I agree he has a point… a darned good one! I think we are biased to Marvel books and indeed Green Lantern 76 was a new door opener for a new direction in comics. I don’t know what GL sales were like prior to 76 but I am betting they were heading south and DC wanted to inject something exciting into GL before thinking of canceling it. Up to that book… despite well defined Kane artwork it was a pretty typical comic… nothing to write home about. O’Neil and Adams made this series very exciting… don’t think for a minute I don’t like it… and it went in to deal with social issues like the Speedy drug problem and also introduced John Stewart! In the end it kept the book going! So I can see where Chris is coming from! My initial thoughts were that some of the following issues were more important story wise… but I now bow to Chris M’s assessment that 76 was the beginning of that change and indeed should be acknowledged!
Oh and Walt… some of those Bronze age books would be considered for possible consignment… however I would probably hold onto my ASM 101 for a bit longer hoping to be buoyed by said forthcoming movie.
great show!
So many laughs…I was sitting in the doctor’s office awaiting my vaccination when Chris received his new motto: Chris ‘start at the bottom’ Owen and burst out laughing in front of the other patients, then later again with Walt’s ‘Jamiesons: fuels arguments’ …oh brilliant copy guys!
I also love the fact that Walt couldn’t quite remember which ‘commenter’ yelled at him about GL#76- so Chris Meli listens to the podcast…and fires off some very strongly worded arguments…surely with such comments as ‘Please go to the market and get some bags to put over your heads and hide your shamed faces.’ Walter & Chris will remember Chris Meli’s opinion now!!!
As I sit here in lockdown day 500 this has been the highlight of my day, thanks for the joy gentlemen!!!
Hey Walt
I would hang on to those Miles Morales facsimiles for a bit. The sky’s the limit! The whole facsimile craze is obviously geared to people who simply want to fill in holes in their collections. The Fantastic Four #1 facsimile edition is already showing up on Ebay for $40 to $60 with shipping and probably can go even higher with the demand. The prices for 9.8s are soaring, especially on the Ultimate Fallout. People are paying stupid money for these. It’s a reprint folks! A REPRINT!!!
Mel, I am with you in spirit, but the market is just too weird. I can’t understand paying this kind of money for a modern reprint of which there are thousands of perfect copies circulating, when you could have your pick of very hard-to-find VF silver age books for that price. To put the best face on it, you have to believe that these buyers are pretty new to the game and have not thought much about the implications. I think we want as many people in the game for the long haul, so as hard-core folks we probably should try to gently sensitize them to the fact that these probably won’t be meaningful collectibles in a few years, and that a Bronze Age FF 9.6 might be a lot cooler to have with a lot more upside potential.
Forgive my ignorance… are these the facsimile books people are trying to sell on eBay for anywhere from $20 to $99… or are these officially produced reprints from the publishers themselves?
Gerald, it’s published by Marvel…the only difference in the books is the Marvel emblem on the upper left of the cover and the bar code is slightly different (even the 3.99 price is the same)…there are going to a lot of scammed buyers on ebay in the next few months!