Next Blog >> Roulette

I often like to click the Next Blog button at the top right of Blogger blogs. I've found some interesting stuff I'd never have stumbled across otherwise.

That said, has anyone else noticed that there are an increasing number of porn and pyramid scheme type blogs? I guess that's to be expected on a free service such as this, but it used to be the worst offense you'd run across was the Oh-so-deep-and-wise 17 year old drama queen sharing every inane thought genre.

Further, almost 50% of the blogger Next Blog hits are now blogs in a foreign language. Not a problem per se, but it would be nice to be able to filter English Only or have a built-in blog translator. I would like to see what folks in other countries are writing about, but I will never know how to read any Asian or Arabic language. On a good day, I can get the gist of something written in Spanish or Italian. That's almost 3 languages... what more can be expected of me?

Superman Punches Out Japanese Zero Pilot

Mixing my interest in WWII Action Comics covers with original art, I recently won this Action Comics 63 cover recreation on eBay. Scott Kress of Catskill Comics and Art is the artist.

The logo is a paste up, but it's not accurate for this actual issue. So, I have obtained a high res image of the logo and price block from this issue and I plan on adding the more accurate reproduction to the piece.

Amazingly, I placed a lowball bid of $36 on this cover reproduction and won. Not a bad deal. If the original exists, it would certainly fetch tens of thousands of dollars.

Another Winning WWII Cover

Here's another Action war cover going into the collection.

On a message board, someone wrote that this seems like an inefficient way for Superman to fight the Japanese. Bear in mind, at this time, Superman only had super strength (and he was bullet proof.) He could also leap great distances, but that was about it.

It was later that writers endowed him with powers like heat vision... which of course, would have allowed him to wipe out the entire Japanese army fairly quickly.

From September 1944...

Another Action Off The Wantlist

The past several weeks have seen some nice -- and typically uncommon -- books surface. With these Action War covers, it seems like feast or famine. You won't see an issue for months, then you'll see several appear at once. It may strain the budget, but you have to strike quickly when they appear.

Check this one off my wantlist. Typically, I define the WWII covers as books depicting Superman fighting Nazis or Japanese soldiers or war machines. That said, many collectors consider Action 56 a war cover. I guess one could presume these are Nazi or Japanese missles he's punching out. From January 1943...

Not Enough Hours in the Day

I've been on somewhat of a buying spree lately, but I've been funding most of it with proceeds from items that I've been selling on and off eBay. The problem is that it takes a lot longer to sell than it does to buy. There just aren't enough hours in the day for the gathering, scanning, uploading, etc. One of these days I'll get a few hours to myself and get some more items on eBay.

As I may have noted around the first of the year, my goal this year was to begin trimming the fat and building lean, mean collecting mass. That is, I'd rather have one $400 item than twenty $20 items. I think it's all part of the maturation as a collector to want to focus on quality rather than quantity. It takes great discipline to avoid the quick collecting fixes and impulse buys... I've been fairly successful, but not perfect.

In keeping with the Conan original art theme, here is a Conan sketch by Cary Nord.

I'd love to have a published page, but to the best of my knowledge, he has not released any of his Conan pages.

Am I Missing Something Here?

eBay: Big Valley Lee Majors Linda Evans Peter Breck video

Here is a videotape of a 1987 local Bay Area TV special hosted by Peter Breck. The special celebrates the 22nd anniversary of The Big Valley that ran on ABC from 1965-1969.

Opening Bid: $9.99
Final Price: $222.50

Are you kidding me?

God Speed, Scott Crossfield

Legendary test pilot Scott Crossfield died yesterday in a small plane crash in Georgia. At age 84, he was still regularly flying.

Scott Crossfield was the first to fly twice the speed of sound and the first to fly the X-15... the supersonic plane that paved the way to the space race. This just scratches the surface of his long and distinguished career. He served his country with great distinction and to his last day, he was active in aviation.

Mr. Crossfield was one of those rare breed of men who was a hero as well as a down to earth, nice guy. I'd written to him many times and he always promptly responded with a signed photo as well as a few kind words of thanks. Imagine, he was thanking me for writing to him.


Chuck Yeager may have been the early focus of Tom Wolfe's book, but Scott Crossfield -- a much more modest man -- was just as important to the early days of test flight. He truly had the Right Stuff.

The Collector's Mentality

If you haven't checked out James Powell's blog, The Collector's Mentality, do so.

It's a thoughtful -- and sometimes funny -- insight into the neurosis that drives collectors.

PGX & Terence Leder: A Love Story

A website dedicated to PGX and comicbook dealer Terence Leder.

Let the viewer decide...

The Savage Pencil of Gil Kane

I had an itch for some original artwork and scratched it...

First, I am not a huge fan of Gil Kane's work. In fact, I think he drew the ugliest Superman ever. However, he is a noted Conan artist, and being a huge Conan fan, this page really appealed to me. You'll note that it's not really a battle action page, but the composition and linework is gorgeous and the bottom center panel really sold me. From The Savage Sword of Conan #85, page 12.

According to the Grand Comics Database, this page was inked by either Danny Bulanadi or Nestor Redondo. If anyone knows for sure, please leave a comment.

Upgrade Mania

Last year I finished my quest to have every regular issue of the Fantastic Four ever published. From Volume 1, #1 to the current ish, I have them all.

You'd think that would be good enough, no?

Well, after I finished the run, I started to get the itch to upgrade where I could. Granted, with most of the issues under 10 I'll have to live with the midgrade copies I already have. However, I saw some room for improvement in the 30 - 60 range. In this range I'd like to have books that are at the least very nice looking FINES and VF or better where possible.

Luckily, many of my books in this issue range already meet this criteria, but there were a handful that I wanted to upgrade. Here are a few...

FF 37 in VF-(7.5). I purchased this from a CGC Board Member for a great price. This is a tough book and is prone to color touches. I was burned with a previous eBay purchase that was color touched.


FF 51 in VF/VF+. A really nice copy of a very tough book in high grade. The day this was printed and bound something must have been out of whack at the printer because most copies of this book tend to suffer from an indented top staple. This copy does not have the indented staple and the tear that tends to accompany it. Got it for a great price on eBay and luckily did not get burned.


FF 53 VF. Won on a lowball bid from a Heritage eBay auction. Advertised as a VF and I concur. I really nice looking book, however, I suspect it's been pressed. The book has a somewhat unnatural crispness and "snap" to it... kinda like what a brand new $20 bill feels like.

I'm Not Dead, But PGX May Be

Sorry for the long delay between posts. I'm finding that fatherhood is a very time consuming business... especially when the baby has colic! I have been following some important issues as well as collecting a bit here and there -- I just haven't had time to write about it. I will try to make up for some lost ground...

It appears that the wheels have come off the wagon at PGX, the comic grading company. Apparently, a number of high grade PGX Ducks books sold by Terence Leder (under a number of different eBay names) have been trimmed. Pre-trimming images have surfaced making the allegation indisputable.

PGX's Daniel Patterson has responded with the expected boilerplate type statements... "We're looking into it and taking steps to yada, yada, yada..." Sadly, nothing substantive and to even the casual observer, PGX is beginning to look like a one man garage operation that their critics have long alleged.

You can read all the gory details on the STL Comics Message Boards. More here. And even more here.