Game On

We made the call that we won’t be setting up at Fan Expo Toronto this year; I’ll be travelling to Europe for three plus weeks and will be getting back just before the show. They moved the Montreal date on me too and I won’t be doing that show either. I shudder to think but that will make it zero shows in 2023; I know deep down that that is not a good thing. I’m going to try to make it to Toronto as a civvy and do the best I can working the aisles. Cons remain one of the bedrocks of the comic book collecting hobby: I have to get back on that horse come 2024, have to. I hope everybody reading this has plans to attend a few local shows and perhaps one road trip show. I’ll expect full reports upon your returns.

Our Canadiana auction on eBay is officially under way and my crew that worked so hard at getting everything up and active would be mad at me if I didn’t pick this week’s cover out of the mix. So many great covers available in the auction but I have to pick one, I’m going with Whiz Comics Volume 3 #6. Yeah Cap, I’d be sweating too with all that attention.

The splash page of the week comes from the incomparable Gene Colan. I mentioned on a recent podcast how relatively cheap it is to amass a good run of Daredevil, versus say Amazing Spider-Man or Fantastic Four. It’s a double win, you’re picking the issues up for a song and then you’re enjoying the immense talents of Gene Colan. These half splashes are on page 2 of Daredevil #74 and are nicely set up by the main splash one page before. I’ve always admired Colan’s use of angles, giving us the scenes in ever changing perspectives, he was a master at this.

Our ad of the week comes from Charlton’s Konga #3, October 1961. I included in an earlier post the classic World War II army figures kit; I think that was the ad that opened up the discussion on the most iconic comic book ads of all time. I’d forgotten that there was a Civil War set. I’d imagine the WWII set sold way more units; I’d also imagine it would be hard getting behind a set that highlights a war with yourself. Nazis were such easy villains to hate, providing way more great and heroic scenes to depict with the WWII set. Did they ever do a WWI set? The First World War has never had the interest the Second World War had for Americans. I don’t think there was a set for Korea either and I’m certain there was not one for Vietnam!

This week’s icecollectibles eBay auction had some interesting items on offer. It was nice seeing the Superman #311 closed for $122.50, signed by Jose Luis Garcia Lopez. One thing I’ve always admired about the Spanish culture is their willingness to string together a whole train of names thanks to their custom of including the Paternal and Maternal surnames. Superman issues from 1977 don’t usually garner much at market so this tells me there was value in Jose Luis’ signature. We discussed collecting artists, last week, Signature Series comics are a great added value for true fans of artists and creators. I remember us all rolling our eyes at how many Stan Lee signatures where were while Stan was a signing machine, look around today and Stans sig still overs great additional value for comics. Excelsior!