Fall Guy

I’m a summer guy, love the heat, but this year I’ve decided to embrace Fall, I’ll enjoy the changing colors of the leaves then revel at them falling off the trees during those cold rainy November days, then I’ll absolutely rejoice at those early December bitterly cold snow falls, yep, I’m going to love every minute.

The Hamilton Comic Con ended this past weekend and by all reports it was poorly attended, the two dealers I talked to reported weak sales. I think that Cons are like Tennis tournaments and Film festivals, in tennis you have your Wimbledon, your Roland Garros, in Films you have your Cannes, your TIFF, and in comic books you have your San Diego Con, your NY Comic Con. Hamilton would be one of those little ATP 250 tennis tournaments that happen a few weeks after one of the Majors, anticlimactic. Hamilton is I believe the last in a long line of well attended Canadian cons, a week after London, two weeks after Ottawa and a month after the Major – Fan Expo. I’m recommending the boys move the con to the Spring. Spring time is fresh, perhaps they can luck in and hold their inaugural con on that first sunny warm weekend of the year, wouldn’t that be something to look forward to?

Our “going to the icecollectibles eBay auction” pile was just as fun as ever to sift through this past week. Its always nice diving into a pile of Spideys, for me it is the most fun title to go through, all those old familiar friends that, the older they get they still never seem to get old. There was a nice ASM #3 sitting in that pile, the collection actually consisted of #2 up but something about this #3 cover told me it should be our Cover of the Week. Amazing Spider-Man #3 features the 1st appearance of Doc Octopus, art by the great Steve Ditko.

Most of us can’t imagine a romance comic doing well in today’s market but back in the 1960s they were a very popular genre, just look at DC’s inhouse ad from the back cover of Girls Romances #81. I’ve found the old Romance comics to be the most elusive high grade comics, its as if girls thought very little of “collecting” and “preserving” these things, they read the comics and then moved on, proving they are indeed the smarter half.

Again, apologies if I’ve used this image in the past, I really need some sort of checklist of published issues… Our Splash Page of the Week comes from Fantasy Masterpieces #1 which reprinted it from the original Amazing Fantasy #10. I swear most times its a toss up as to who’s splash page I like better from these old pre hero Marvels. You always got a dose of some Kirby Chaos and a serving of some Ditko minimalism.

This past Sunday night saw our latest weekly icecollectibles eBay auction produce some great results. I was very impressed with how well the run of Star Wars #20 to 27 did. These were tight, crisp high grade copies but from a part of the run that didn’t get much love. Our lot closed at $137.50 which I see as a healthy result.

gkgk