Can't Wait for Sunday...

[Deleted]

Man I am stoked for this coming Sunday. First this weekend is Gem City Con over in Dayton (about 25 minutes away), and this will be the first comic oriented con I have gone to in about 10 years as a fan (I had a booth at a small con here in town last autumn but it's a different experience when you are a dealer). I used to attend Gen Con and Origins regularly when I was writing for the rpg industry, but aside form people in costumes, game conventions and comic conventions are very different.

One of the guests of honor at the con will be Mark Waid, so i am pretty stoked to meet the author of some of my favorite runs on Flash, Captain America, and the current Daredevil run.

So meet some comic folks, browse through back issue bins, etc.

The con is down the street from our friends where we play D&D every Sunday, so after I get my comic geek on, I go play for a few hours and then go home and get ready for the peak of the day...the season premiere of Game of Thrones Season 2 on HBO!

Winter is Coming!

It's been hectic few weeks and I am so looking forward to having a day just to geek out the whole day with my wife and have a good time reveling in the things I enjoy.

-M

[C_Miller]

Nice. I went to a comic con when I was like 14/15 and had a lot of fun. My best friend's Dad whose really spontaneous drove us to Chicago on pretty much a whim. It was great and really the first time I was ever able to meet other fans of things that I'm into. My friends always read comics if I gave some to them and they even showed some interest, but it wasn't the same.

I spent way too much money and it was great. I got to meet Chris Claremont and Ethan Van Sciver. I waited in line for the former and just ran into the latter. Both brilliant people. Claremont actually stayed and signed for an hour after he was supposed to and signing more comics than he was supposed to. It was supposed to be like two per person, but he signed full stacks.

I kind of want to go to another one. C2E2 is coming up again and it's during a five day weekend I have, but I don't especially want to drive to Chicago, even though I'm sure I could talk my friends into it. Mark Waid, Scott Snyder, Jason Aaron, Gail Simone, Len Wein, Neal Adams. Great line-up.

I'm sure I'll end up at another one some day though. But, I'd really love to meet Mark Waid.

Have fun, man!

[Deleted]

Whew….what a Sunday.

So convention...arrive with $45 in pocket, 5 bronze age Marvels to trade, copies of Daredevil #1 and Kingdom Come #1 for Mark Waid to sign, and a want list big enough to shake a stick at.

#1 book I am looking for-a low to mid grade copy of Batman #250, which I recently identified as the first Batman comics I ever read and owned (it's from 1973). My copy of the book had lost its cover and first page with the indicia, so for years I had no idea what issue this was, and the last I saw of it was when my family moved to Maine in 1980. The kind folks on the classic comics board at CBR helped me identify this book and it was my goal for the day.

So, get my ticket, $10 gone off the bat. Walk in and first table is Mark Waid, only 3 people in line, so I jump on line and get out my books. He signs Kingdom Come for my wife, and Daredevil to me, and I thank him for all the hours of reading enjoyment he has given me over the years. Very nice, very patient with the kid behind me who brought a stack of like 30-40 books for him to sign, laughed and joked with people in line, etc. Very positive take away of the man for me.

So I run into a few dealers I know from the last show I did as a dealer, chat with them a bit, and the dealer at the booth next to them points me to a guy who has lots of Bronze Age Batman, so the hunt begins. Find a copy of Batman 250 there in VG/F for $7.50 but Sunday special all books 50% off, so snag it for $3.75. Mission accomplished.

The dealer next to him is another I vaguely knew form doing a show late last year, and he looks at the bronze books I want to trade (A Doc Strange #1 and a few other Doc appearances), offers me $100 in trade-I was looking for $150 in trade, but all wall books are 25% off and all bronze & silver in longboxes is 50% off, so I am getting about what I wanted and agree to the trade-especially since there were 2 wall books he had I wanted that were not in the range I would pay cash for-Master of Kung Fu #17 (1st issue of MoKF) and Conan the Barbarian 275 (last issue ahd had a very low print run).

I load up on a bunch of Silver and Bronze cheap, and a bunch or recent books from the last 2-3 years at $1 each as part of the trade, spending about an hour going through his stuff before I reach my credit max, and walk away happy.

I walk around the rest of the hall, browse a few boxes, wander through artist's alley and talk with a few people (mostly dealers I know).

I stop by the table of the guy who pointed me to the other dealer who had Batman 250, to thank him and pick up a few books form him in appreciation, but find he has 3 long boxes of Bronze age books all $1 each and set to hunting picking up around 30 books and blowing the rest of my cash budget.

So with $2 left in my pocket I go to look for the other target book on my list-Power Man and Iron Fist #116-the last issue I need to complete the run, but alas, after striking out at 3 different tables and getting dirty looks for not buying anything (hey I only had $2 left), I looked at the time and realized it was close to the time I agreed to meet my wife so we could head to D&D. Make my way out of the hall, run into a few more people I know form the lcs, chat for a bit, show off my Batman 250 ;D and hop in the car.

Go to D&D, cool session, one of the players brought homemade fried rice and chicken terryaki for everyone and out host had leftover birthday cake from his son's birthday, so we were well fed while killing things and taking their stuff, and we got to rescue a tribe of kobolds and win their eternal gratitude (and more importantly their loyalty!).

Head home, kick back in my favorite recliner in time for the season debut of A Game of Thrones...damn that's good TV, even if I have read the books and know what's coming.

Show over, grab some dinner and sort through the day's haul of comics...and here we are...a good day indeed!

-M

[Deleted]

The convention haul.....i.e. oodles of comic loot


Dealer #1
-Batman 250 ($3.75)

Dealer #2 (traded 5 Bronze Age books, mid to high grade mostly Doc Strange appearances) for:

DC
-Batman: 328 ($0.50), 330 ($1.50), 344 ($0.50)
-Brave & the Bold 80 (12 cent cover, Batman & Creeper, $0.25), 83 (12 cent cover, Batman & Teen Titans, $0.50), 97 (Batman & Wildcat, also origin of Deadman; $0.25)
-Deadman 7 ($0.50)
-Detective Comics 428 ($0.50)
-Doorway to Nightmare (Madame Xandu): 2 ($0.25), 3 ($1), 4 ($1), 5 ($0.50)
-Richard Dragon: Kung Fu Fighter 2 ($0.25), 3 ($0.25), 4 ($0.25), 5 ($0.25), 7 ($0.50),
14 ($1)
-Sword of Sorcery 2 ($1), 3 ($0.50), 4 ($0.50)
-Warlord 2 ($1), 3 ($0.25), 4 ($1), 5 ($0.25), 8 ($0.50), 14 ($0.25), 22 ($0.25), 23 ($0.25), 24 ($0.25), 25 ($0.25) 30 ($0.25), 32 ($0.25), 34 ($0.25), 35 ($0.50)

Marvel
-Conan the Barbarian 53 ($0.25), 83 ($0.25), 275 (last issue $7.50)
-Giant Size Maser of Kung Fu 1 ($0.50),
-John Carter, Warlord of Mars: 14 ($0.25), 16 ($0.25)
-Kull V.1: 17 ($0.25), 21 ($0.25)
-Marvel Feature V.2: (Red Sonja) 6 ($0.25), 7 ($0.25)
-Marvel Premiere 19 (Iron Fist, $0.50)
-Master of Kung Fu 17 (1st issue, $15), 18 ($0.50), 51 ($0.25), 72 ($0.25) 73 ($0.25), 89 ($0.50), 90 ($0.25)

Indies
Wulf the Barbarian (Atlas Comics): 2 ($0.50)

Dollar Comics recent stuff at bargain prices
DC
-American Vampire: 7, Survival of the Fittest 3
-Batman & Robin: 14, 15 17, 19
-Batman Odyssey: 1, 2, 4, 5
-Brave & Bold (2007): 3, 8
-Brightest Day: The Search for Swamp Thing 2
-Bruce Wayne: The Road Home: Oracle 1
-Bruce Wayne: The Road Home: Outsiders 1
-DC Universe Presents: Challengers of the Unknown (DCnU): 6, 7
-Doc Savage 7
-First Wave 1
-Freedom Fighters 2
-Legacies: 7
-Resurrection Man (DCnU): 4
-Warlord (2009) 6
-Wednesday Comics: 1-3, 5, 8-11
-World’s Finest (2009): 1-4

Marvel
-Doctor Voodoo: the Origin of Jericho Drumm: 1
-Doctor Voodoo: Avenger of the Supernatural 1-4
-Fear Itself Prologue: Book of the Skull
-Fear Itself 5

Indies
-Elric: the Balance Lost: 8, 9
-Red Sonja 56
-Valen the Outcast: 3
-Warlord of Mars: 1, 2, 5, 6, 8
-Warlord of Mars: Fall of Barsoom: 1

Dealer #3 (all $1 each)

Marvel
-Giant Size Master of Kung Fu 3
-Master of Kung Fu 19, 26, 35, 40, 41, 42, 45, Annual 1

DC
-Brave & the Bold 132 (Batman & Richard Dragon), 143 (Batman & Creeper), 159 (Batman & Ra’s Al Ghul), 163 (Batman & Black Lightning)
-Crisis on Infinite Earth: 6, 9, 12
-DC Comics Presents 18 (Superman & Zatanna)
-Detective Comics: 456, 458, 462, 465, 466, 501, 502, 508, 521, 522, 523
-First Issue Special 7 (Creeper)
-Flash 234 (1st Flash I ever read as a kid)
-Superman 279 (Batgirl appearance), 284 (100 page giant)

All in all a very satisfying haul...

-M

[C_Miller]

Flash #234? The one with the wax statues? That one's a classic. The one thing I love about DC is that they stayed in the Silver Age a lot longer than Marvel did. And I think The Flash stuck around there a lot longer than anyone else.