Wonderful Cheese

Ok... too much negative lately, so I want to switch gears and focus on the fun of collecting... at least in this post.

I love the wonderfully cheesy sports covers on some of the early DCs, and World's Finest Comics features some of the cheesiest. Here is a copy of World's Finest 24 from my collection. I love it!

One More Fantastic Four To Go

With this recent purchase, I have one more Fantastic Four to go to complete the run and I will have Vol. 1 #1 to the current issue. I bought this off eBay and it was advertised as a 6.5. I agree with that grade. The small chip at the bottom left corner isn't actually a chip -- it's a small tear that can be folded down and lays flat.

The missing comic is #13. I'm seeking this issue in the 6.5 range give or take a half a grade. It's more difficult than I anticipated... all that seems to come up are VG or worse copies. It is a difficult issue to find in decent shape and it will kill me to pay the price, because even thought it is the first appearance of The Watcher, #13 is not a very good story and among the weakest of the early Fantastic Fours.

ComicsPriceGuide.com - PGA Name Thread

ComicsPriceGuide.com - Comic Grading Group changes their name to PGA

This is a fairly interesting thread -- replete with the requisite flaming -- regarding the future direction of PGA (CGG). Daniel from PGA weights in, and you can see my "expert opinion" of what their advertising should accomplish. ;-)

That said, I suspect all the armchair marketing directors will have a different opinion.

FANTASTIC FOUR 10 - Kirby Page!!!!

Kirby FANTASTIC FOUR 10---Sensational Page!!!!

Nice page with an opening bid of almost 6 grand. Seems a bit steep... wonder if anyone will bite...

My God, It's Minty Fresh

This is just staggering. This was recently passed around a message board and I don't know where it came from, but I had to share. As you can see on the label, it's a Curator Pedigree copy.

Scotty & Neil Armstrong

The James Doohan Farewell Convention

Wow. This is bizarre and strangely ironic. For those that may not know, for many years, scores of historical space dealers and show organizers that have been trying to woo Neil Armstrong - a very reclusive man and a non-signer. He finally agrees to appear, but it's at a Star Trek show... and he's not even the headliner!

By the way, I'm surprised that James Doohan is able to appear publicly. I met him at The NYC National Comic Convention in 2000 and he appeared very frail and somewhat "out of it" then.

This show does have an incredible line-up. Creation Entertainment (who handles most of the Star Trek shows and somehow missed out on this one) must be kicking themselves. There has to be some behind the curtain politics as to why Creation didn't produce this event.

Mile High gets a bad rap sometimes due to their grading and/or high prices. But, as my story will show, Mile High can be an excellent dealer in some circumstances.

I ordered 31 NM books from Chuck in his recent blowout sale. Most where $1. I checked off 31 books from my want list and filled 31 holes. The books were all 80s and early 90s including Punisher (1987), various Valiant, The Thing, Further Adventures of Indiana Jones, etc.

The results are in... of the 31 NM books...

26 were 9.4 or better (a few possible 9.6s)
4 were 9.2, and
1 was 8.0

In all, a good experience.

Rest In Peace: Fay Wray

I've never heard it mentioned before, but she had a great movie star name. It sings.

Ms. Wray was a good mail responder up until about 10 years ago.

Now she belongs to the ages.

It seems as though every comic collector has his/her own acceptable grade guidelines. As much as I would love to only have uber-high grade gems, if that was the case, I wouldn't have very many older comics.

So what are my grading guidelines?

I go for eye appeal and strive to get clean, structurally sound, well-cut books with no major ink-breaking creases or pieces missing. Even though some of my more expensive books may be "technical 4.0s" due to hidden defects or an accumulation of small flaws, the book may actually look much better than the technical grade. The minimum grades I shoot for are:

Gold - VG 4.0
Silver Keys - VG+ 4.5
Early Silver - Fine 6.0
Later Silver - F/VF 7.0
Bronze Keys - VF- 7.5
Bronze - VF/NM 9.0
Modern - NM 9.4

I try not to obsess over condition and avoid the "must upgrade" mentality. I am not always successful.

Kirby Original Art - Fantastic Four 20 Watcher Splash

What a gorgeous page. My God, I'd love to have this, but I'd have to sell off a chunk of my collection. Sometimes I wonder if I'd be better off if I sold 90% of my collection and just had a handful of really nice gems like this.

KIRBY ORIGINAL FANTASTIC FOUR PAGE

The Quintessential Hulk Artist

To me, the quintessential Hulk artist is Herb Trimpe (preferably with Marie Severin inks).  Most Trimpe Hulk art under issue 200 is very pricey, but I picked this Trimpe page from Hulk Annual 6 for a fraction of the cost of a page from a regular issue from the same time period.  It's still the classic late silver/early bronze age Hulk "look."  Go figure...  It's inked by Frank Giacoia and/or Mike Esposito.

 

And here's the cover to the issue in which this appeared...

Detecting Color Touches

One of the most common forms of restoration on comic books is color touches.  Color touches can be professional (acrylic paint), or amateur which are usually marker or a dry powder rubbed into a crease.  Many people are not aware of the dry powder type color touch.

I bought a few silver age books on ebay that I suspect had this type of color touch.  Not a great loss because they were $20 books... but, this goes to show you any book can be restored -- not just expensive keys.

The touch is some sort of fine black powder that is rubbed into small creases.  It's hard to detect because the color rub only sticks to the creased area where the original inks are broken, so the touch is actually only as wide as the crease itself.  If you look at the cover at an angle, the affected area may be a bit duller than the gloss on the rest of the cover.  Also, if you gently rub your finger over the area, a tiny amount of black may rub off.

One way to detect color touch is to look for fine creases where the ink does NOT appear to be broken.  Then look much closer.  This is where many color touches will be found.

Regarding the ebay seller that sent me the color touched book, he replaced the first book that had a certain dry rub color touch with another one that I suspect had a smaller touch.  At that point, it wasn't worth pursuing any further.  I just avoid his auctions now.