Comic-Con Week

The San Diego Comic Con is this coming week, I had a look at the events and I will say that this looks like a great pop culture show. This show was such a huge pop culture influencer about a decade and a half ago, the star studded panels and mega studio announcements made this event a cultural calendar must. It looks to me that the studios and the stars are still coming out and still using the event as an important appearance and announcement venue. I think we as audiences have matured a bit though and we’re less blown away by it all, we appreciate and enjoy it, we’re just not left speechless by it anymore. I wonder how the high end back issue dealers will do at this show? Will there be a lot of buying and selling? The San Diego Con was never known as the mecca for old books, smaller shows like Baltimore and Heroes Con are stronger back issue cons from what I’ve heard. I’ve never gone to that show, came clos back in the 90s but the logistics were just too great a hurdle. Looking back I wish I’d have put the effort in to have done at least one. So lets all hope the con is a huge success, it is our hobby’s showpiece event, we need it thriving.

I dove into a juicy pile of “heading to the eBay auction” books a few days ago and came out with Terrors of the Jungle #9, with it’s fantastic L. B. Cole cover as our cover of the week. Can you imagine Frazetta, Cole and Baker doing a bunch of the Jungle and Jumbo Comics covers? Maybe even a Saunders painted cover? Anyways, great stuff from Mr. Cole.

Our Splash page of the week is really a 1/2 splash, from Journey into Mystery #108 by the king of kings Jack Kirby. We’ve all seen so much Kirby art over the years, we know some of his iconic action poses and even more iconic battle layouts but when I saw this page I felt like I discovered the secret to Kirby, its his explosion panels, his chaos from the middle outward stuff that’s absolutely nuts, there’s no pattern to the mayhem, just things flying everywhere, pure magic.

Our ad of the week comes from 1977’s X-Men #104, the one with the great yellow Magneto cover. How come I don’t remember the Adventures of Holo-Man? Was there ever a comic? I’ve never owned one to my knowledge.

Last night out latest icecollectibles weekly eBay auction ended, bidding was very heavy on our CGC 2.5 Batman #19, our copy closed at $461 USD which is in line with the recent CGC 2.0 sale in May for $430. These Golden Age Batman books are so driven by covers, give me a Joker or a Catmwoman and I’ll give you multiples of this price.