10
COMIC HUNTING AND FATHER-SON BONDING
My
looooooooongest post yet!
Note:
this post was written a few days ago by now, at which point I was
already late with it. Now I'm waiting for my power to come back so I
can get it online. I'm sure this won't effect anyone in any way. Is
anyone even reading this?
"If
we used money to buy things, instead of love and kindness, we'd be no
better than the rest of the world. Fortunately money isn't
known in Oz. We have no rich and no poor- what one wishes the
others try to give him to make him happy. No one in Oz cares to
have more than he can use" - Nick Chopper, The Tin Man
I'm
hoping someone reading this will take the Tin Man's words to heart
and help me obtain the issues I want. I should also mention that that
quote is from "Road to Oz", the comic adaptation of which
is currently being released as a six part series by Marvel with great
art by Skottie Young. Now, I have other comics to discuss. My latest
comic hunting trip was on Saturday, and it was a success, but I
decided not to make a post about it until now because I knew I had a
lot coming in the mail and a pretty big pull list on Wednesday(2/6),
followed by a lot of reading. Now I can get my thoughts all out there
on my latest acquisitions in whatever order they pop into my head.
After I have all of that out, I'll fill you in on my Ultimate
Spider-man progress. I've got some really interesting stuff to show
you so please, read on.
First
of all let me apologize for such a lengthy post. I'm long winded in
this post because I have a lot of comic book stuff in my head right
now, and because my power's out and offline work is my only option
right now. And don't say “get up and exercise”. My lung capacity
is extremely low right now, so even walking to the bathroom leaves me
out of breath, and without electricity to power my oxygen machine,
all I have is what's in a few tanks, so if I start having trouble
breathing, I'm out of luck.
Let's
start with a comic that just arrived all by itself because I bought
it the old fashioned way: eBay. 2012 was Spider-Man's 50th
anniversary. With that came a lot of special issues and a lot of
attention from comic websites. One of my favorite things done to
celebrate the anniversary was comic book resources' list “50
Greatest Spider-Man Stories Ever Told”. Some read the list to
remember all their favorite stories. I read the list to find good
stories to read. I'm a life long Spider-Man lover, but my Spider-Man
knowledge has plenty of gaps. Often times I come across a piece of
Spider-Man trivia that eludes my knowledge and I always choose not to
look it up on Wikipedia. I know eventually I'll be reading a classic
Spider-Man story and I'll come across the answer.
On
the “50 Greatest” list, I found a story that jumped out at me. I
couldn't find a trade that reprinted it, which tends to be a problem
with a lot of great classic Spider-Man stories.
The
Kid Who Collects Spider-Man
Anyway,
the story I wanted was called “The Kid Who Collects Spider-Man”,
which appeared in Amazing Spider-Man #248. After failing to find it
in a trade, I went on eBay and found a Fine condition copy for $5.00.
This
was an instance where the effort put into finding the issue was more
than worth it. The kid-who-collects-Spider-man's name was Tim so I
was already pleased to be reading about a fellow Tim who collected
Spider-Man. The story was short, but moving. It was about a kid who
ignored Spider-Man's bad press every day and collected newspaper
clippings and tv footage, and kept a scrap book of Spider-Man
pictures and news. He even had a jar of bullets that he pried from a
wall after Spider-Man had dodged them in a fight.
Spider-Man
first surprised the kid by showing up in his room, and then stayed a
while, listening to Tim's stories, looking at his collection, lifting
his bed in the air, and making a web swing for him. I strongly
encourage anyone reading this to read the story, so I'm not gonna
give away the ending without a spoiler
alert.
Most people reading this have access to my comic collection anyway so
it should be easy enough. But if you don't want to read it, here it
is spoilers n' all: After Tim asks Spider-Man who he really is, and
Spider-Man explains why he can't tell, he leaves, and even though Tim
is disappointed, he seems really happy because his dream of meeting
Spider-Man has come true. On his way out, Spider-Man has a shift in
emotions and turns back. He unmasks and tells Tim his real name. Tim
promises never to tell anyone what he's learned, and as a reader you
trust him, though you're still wondering what inspired Peter's change
of heart. Then Spidey leaves again and he passes a sign that reveals
that he was visiting Tim at a cancer clinic; a newspaper clipping
tells us Tim only has a few more weeks to live. Fictional or not, I
can't tell you how cool it is to see a character
I've loved all my life giving this kid who got a raw deal in life a
chance to meet his hero. I hope stories like this inspire real people
to make great things happen for people like Tim, the kid who collects
Spider-Man
Mudman
Now
that I've discussed something really awesome having to do with
Spider-Man, let me tell you something that's pretty lame and not
Spider-Man related at all. This week brought the long awaited (by me
and probably 5 or 6 other people) arrival of Image's Mudman #6. There
hasn't been an issue of Mudman since August 29th, when I bought the
first 5 issues. It seemed like some good, corny comic book
entertainment with a simpliistic oldschool feel. I realize now that I
should wait until I'm a little more experienced
with this stuff before I make that kind of determination on my own.
To begin with, the first 5 issues were bland. At the time I thought
they were just partially bland, because there were some parts that
seemed to be part of the set up to some kind of mystery. As time
passes, you realize that these mysterious moments aren't setups,
they're just examples of lazy writing.The comic frequently has
totally random events occur, like mud man being in the middle of an
action scene and suddenly waking up in bed, where you the reader
think some interesting things are coming together, but the events are
then pretty much forgotten. To further confuse things, he's no longer
limited to just waking up in bed in the middle of scenes where he's
using his powers. This most recent issue(the one I waited 6 months
for) starts with him waking up in his bed after having that dream
where you realize you've shown up to class in your pajamas.
We're
on issue #6 and so far all that's happened is he's gone to an
abandoned mansion a few times. At one point he was chased by crooks,
whom he easily evaded because he was able to run across a mud puddle
(this is how we know that he just acquired mud powers). He also
sprayed mud on a car, met a pirate who wants to train him (for what
we don't know; he has no non-academic problems), and learned about a
few new powers he has, such as mud ball throwing, sliding on mud, and
so on. In this issue, during his training, he jumped off of a low
bridge for no reason and splattered, becoming a puddle of mud. He
woke up in bed, of course, but later revealed that it took him two
hours to reform his body. So wait, are we just seeing him wake up in
bed when the writer would rather just skip past visual story telling
and just sum up events that occurred in a quick speech bubble? Either
way, he gets back to training and this time we see a few more
abilities that are basically no different from Marvel's villain
Sandman. The only real difference between Mudman and Sandman is that
Sandman seems to know how to use his powers to do a lot more things,
they work a lot faster, and he doesn't leave trails of mud
everwhere.
Recently
I've dropped several titles from my pull list and kept only the ones
that I really really wanted. This one I didn't drop because I wasn't
spending any money on it anway, but I promised I would if the next
issue didn't start turning some of the random loose ends into an
interesting story. It failed to deliver. If
anyone wants to buy my thus far complete Mud Man run(Mud Man #1-6 all
1st print) e-mail me and we'll talk prices. Looooow prices.
Hulk
in the '60s
Ever
since a few months ago when I started wanting to collect classic key
issues, the Hulk has been right at the top of my list only below
Spider-Man and Daredevil. Of course any fan would like to have
Incredible Hulk #1, the first issue of his comic and also his first
appearance, but a book of that caliber wouldn't be a very good
financial decision right now, but I still wanted a very early
appearance of the Hulk with a cover that showed him in a dynamic pose
that would look good when I hung it on a wall. I decided on Tales to
Astonish #59. The Hulk appears on the cover flying through the air
after one of his signature long jumps, winding up for a knockout
punch to giant man's head.
This was
exactly the type of cover I was looking for. He first appeared in
this issue of Tales to Astonish after he had already appeared in the
first 6 issues of his own book(which was then cancelled) and also
appeared in Fantastic Four several times along with an Avengers
appearance and a Spider-Man appearance. Clearly Hulk was and always
has been much better as a supporting character. After this appearance
in Tales to Astonish, the book became a double feature, devoting half
of every issue to the Hulk, and later on down the line Tales to
Astonish became The Incredible Hulk, and the Hulk had his own book
again. Getting the issue was just a matter of waiting for one to show
up at a good
price. I make occasional orders from midtown comics, so every time I
made an order I would check their inventory for the back issues I had
been looking for, and last week I got lucky. The issue is in pretty
decent condition and I'll be very pleased with it when it's on my
wall.
Ultimate
Comics Spider-Man
The
Ultimate Universe is essentially a new beginning for Marvel's
characters. All bets are off, and characters range from almost
identical to their original counterparts, or only similar by a few
minor details. Venom falls somewhere in the middle of that range.
There's
a big chunk of Ultimate Spider-Man that I haven't read, so I still
have a lot of Venom material to read, but from what I've taken in I
can still tell you a good deal. Venom's origin is very different in
the Ultimate Universe. Instead of an alien from another planet in
another dimension, the symbiote suit that turns it's wearer into an
aggressive monstrous version of themselves was originally intended as
a cure for Cancer, but the project was abandoned when it's makers,
Peter Parker and Eddie Brock's parents, supposedly died in a plane
crash. Peter attempted to complete his father's work, and unwittingly
he ultimately unleashed the monster on the world. I should mention
that he had managed to contain it, but Eddie Brock's anger at Peter's
actions seemed to cause him to re unleash the monster. Once in the
costume, Eddie Brock/Venom immediately went after Peter, who in plane
clothes defeated the monster with some downed electrical wires. The
costume seemed to disintegrate, and Peter didn't have time to stick
around and find out what happened to Eddie.
As
far as I know, Eddie died that day, but I'm fairly sure Venom comes
back in some of the issues I haven't read. Anyone could wear the
symbiote, and I assume the symbiote tends to take different forms
depending on who it's living on, so there's plenty of mystery there.
Anyway,
this week saw the arrival of Ultimate Comics Spider-Man #20. Venom's
latest form is by far his most horrifying and monstrous yet. It's
hard to imagine where and how there's a human under this symbiote, so
I'm theorizing that Venom's latest host wasn't completely normal
prior to taking on the symbiote. My theories are usually wrong, so
don't put much stock in that. It could be that the length of time a
host spends with the symbiote, or how much the host allows the
symbiote to effect them changes the level of physical change. It
could also be that Sarah Pichelli just wanted to show us a more
horrifying Venom than any that had been drawn before.. and If that's
the case I'd say she was successful.
The
Day Trip and finally, Ultimate Spider-Man
Now
for the story I put this blog here for: my quest to collect every
single issue of Ultimate Spider-Man. Me and my Dad decided to take a
trip together on Saturday just for the hell of it. We constantly have
to go on trips to Boston together to visit the doctor so I figured a
relaxing trip with no important destination might make a for a
relaxing day. Deciding what to do with my Dad is pretty easy because
he's always been the type of guy who is happy as long as everyone
he's with is having a good time. He never puts himself first, and I'm
pretty sure he genuinely likes it that way. I wanted to hit a comic
book store, so I decided to go to one I had already been to with my
friends. I had started this tradition with my friends, so I wouldn't
have felt right leaving them behind if I was going to a place they
hadn't been to yet. I chose “Comically Speaking” in Reading, MA.
Of course when I told my Dad that we'd be driving an hour and a half
to go to a comic store I'd already been to he immediately agreed.
Having parents who are willing to cart me around like mine do has
made the past couple years(haven't been able to drive for a number of
medical reasons all stemming from the Leukemia) a lot better than
they could have been.
I
knew it was a huge store with plenty of back issues, and the last
time I was there was long before I started my USM hunt, so I would
have plenty of stuff I hadn't seen to scour through. I was originally
brought there by my good friend Meg(I almost wrote “my buddy's
girlfriend Meg”, but then I realized I've probably been hanging out
with her long enough that I should just be referring to her as “my
friend”, because that's what she is and I don't like to label and
classify my friends). It'sreally large, has a huge wall for new
releases, which means more space for semi-new releases that would
just be pushed to the back of the rack in a smaller shop. It has a
ton of long boxes(big white boxes with old comic books in them) for
browsing, and it's because of this that I haven't even seen half of
the store. I'm told they have a good selection of books, action
figures, and video games over there. I did see a few display cases
filled with awesome statues. I was lucky I had a low bank balance and
a specific target because otherwise I would have blown a few hundred
dollars on statues.
I
shouldn't go on before I mention one negative thing about the store.
I was in a wheel chair that day, and there were a few places in the
store that required a lot of maneuvering and bumping into walls,
drawing a lot of attention to myself, and sometimes just frustrating
me. There were a few instances where my Dad had to come bail me out.
I don't have to be in a wheel chair all the time, but some people do,
and that means life is already more difficult for them, so I think
it's pretty lame when a store or some other place intended for the
public provides limited handicapped access. I was able to get around
to everything I wanted to see, but I definitely won't be returning to
this one until I'm done with the wheelchair. That's saying a lot too
because otherwise this is probably the best comic store I've been to
in MA. Also, please don't think that means this place isn't wheel
chair accessable. The staff was helpful in getting a few things out
of my way, and even though it's a squeeze in some places, wheelchairs
can get through.
Now
getting off of my handicapped soap box, I'll say I was once again
impressed with the selection in this store. The only difference
between my two trips was that now my hunt was focused on Ultimate
Spider-Man rather than Daredevil Volume 3. I have a checklist app on
my phone that I keep up to date with everything I want to check for
when I'm comic hunting, so before I go to the Ultimate Spider-Man bin
and start pulling those, I take a spin around and check for other
back issues on my list, which are scattered throughout the many bins.
My hunting list is constantly changing. Whenever I'm reading trades
or other books that reprint comics, I find certain single issues that
I really like, and that's pretty much all it takes. Some of the
comics on my list are there just because of their cover. There are
several books that ended up on my list just because they had an
awesome cover by some awesome artist.
This
week at the top of my list was Daredevil #22. It's the one I
mentioned a few posts back because it had an awesome cover that
featured Daredevil, Superior Spider-Man, and Stilt Man. It came out
on January 16th and I got my copy, but I liked it so much I wanted to
frame it. Since the jury is still out on whether my amateur method of
comic framing is safe(for the comic book) or not, I wanted a second
copy and couldnt find one anywhere unless I was willing to pay higher
than cover price on eBay, which is not my style.
When
I arrived at the store I rolled straight down to the Daredevil books
and grabbed the very last copy of DD #22. I had just gotten there and
now I was feeling pretty confident from that find. After that I
checked around, found a few more issues on my list, but I still had
USM to look at. I set a loose guideline of not spending more than $50
on that day.. so after I had a handful of issues from my list I went
straight to the Ultimate Spider-Man bin.
The
last time I bought a stack of Ultimate Spider-Man comics, I made a
few comments on desirable condition, but I think I should be more
thorough and set a rule.
Rule
#1: To be added to my USM collection an issue must meet my
standard(see below) which I call “excellent condition”. If the
issue isn't excellent, it doesn't count.
I'm
using “excellent” for a few reasons. First of all, I'm not a CGC
grader and I don't know anyone who is. I don't like saying I have a
“Near Mint” copy because that translates into a specific
number(9,4) to a comic book collector. If I say “near mint” or
“mint condition”, just because they're words in my vocabulary, I
may mislead someone into thinking I've gone through the motions and
confirmed that this copy is a specific grade.. so it's much easier to
tell you about the condition of my comics with words that aren't used
in official grading. “Excellent” is a word that's not used, and
I've always been fond if it since Bill and Ted used it so well. From
here on out this blog will only grade comics in that manner. It's not
easy to describe what Excellent translates to, so here's a
description of the condition I find desirable for Ultimate
Spider-Man: -Flat cover without bends or folds. These covers, for
those who have never held one, aren't just paper. They feel like some
kinda thin cardboard, so it's not hard to notice if one is bent and
the don't really get wrinkles.
-Sharp
Corners: All four corners look perfect.
-Minimal
blemishes: I don't mind seeing one or two tiny scratches that are
only visible under certain light conditions. To me, they don't take
away from the look of the issue and they're acceptable. I've framed
comics in the past that showed these signs and those marks were never
noticeable when I hung them up. On the other hand, I'm not gonna want
an issue with a blemish that's small enough not to be noticed right
away, but easily noticeable when inspected. I also won't accept
issues that have way too many tiny “acceptable” blemishes. So
essentially Im allowing myself to buy blemished books but the
blemishes need to very few and practically invisible.
-Reasonable
white on the spine. The first thing to show wear on a comic book is
usually the spine. It's the natural result of the book being opened
and read. Because actually reading the comic is more important to me
than the collecting aspect, I'm willing to accept a little bit of
spine wear, but definitely not a lot. It shouldn't be more than a few
inches of white.
-Interior pages must all be as close to perfect
as possible. These books are built really solid. The firm cover and
the quality paper used for the pages should make it a lot easier to
keep the inside nice.
-I'm
just gonna group the rest together because I think they really go
without saying: no gunk stuck on it, no tape, no writing, etc.
I
don't plan on making a lot of rules, so the #1 is arbitrary unless I
end up needing another rule. You may be asking “Tim, didn't you say
you don't care about the condition of back issues and you just love
them for their content?” and the question is valid. My main reason
for wanting them all in excellent condition is the challenge. I'm
having fun collecting all of these issues on my own. If I decided I
didn't care about their condition, there would really be nothing
special about owning them because the low grade issues aren't very
much cheaper than the high, they're just more common. Furthermore, I
can own the whole story tomorrow if I want to buy all the paperbacks.
This is about going out and doing something because it's a challenge.
Therefore my reward for completing the challenge will be a complete
set of Ultimate Spider-Man #0.5 – 160(including UCSM) plus annuals,
all in nice enough condition to impress anyone interested in seeing
them. There's no deadline on getting this done, so I have all the
time in the world to nitpick. Another reason I've chosen to get all
of these issues in excellent condition is that they're really nice
issues. Each one of these things has an awesome shiny piece of art on
its cover. The story itself has a timeless quality that I feel should
be extended to the presentation.
A
few weeks ago while making an order from Midtown, a huge online comic
book store, I decided to ue it as an opportunity to see what their
standards are with their grading. The issues they sell aren't
officially CGC graded, but Midtown unofficially assigns them a grade
to help the buyer get a better idea of what they'll be getting. I
ordered two Ultimate Spider-Man issues, one of them graded NM(Near
Mint) and the other graded VF(Very Fine). After looking at these,
along with a few other comics that I had ordered with VF grades, this
is what I determined. A Near Mint issue from Midtown Comics fits my
standard for excellent condition. A Very Fine issue from Midtown
comics is occasionally excellent, but more often than not it's got
something noticeably wrong at first glance.
So
after that order I decided that any Near Mint from midtown would be
worth ordering so I'll be occasionally grabbing those. I managed to
get a few and they actually came in on the day of my father-son
trip.. so they're in with the ones shown below.
At
the store I was successful at first, but my lungs started to tell me
they needed to go. I got a little rushed at that point, and when I
got home I saw that after I had started rushing, I had picked out four issues that were not excellent. Next time I'll just stop as
soon as I get tired. Those issues look decent on first glance, so I
put them in with my collection, but I didn't check them off. They're marked below. I want
to find an excellent copy.
Anyway,
here are the issues I picked up:
Ultimate Spider-Man # 0.5
Ultimate Spider-Man # 14: DOCTOR OCTOPUS
Ultimate Spider-Man # 16 KRAVEN THE HUNTER
Ultimate Spider-Man # 17 TAKING ADVANTAGE
Ultimate Spider-Man # 18 THE CYCLE
Ultimate Spider-Man # 30 EMERGENCY
Ultimate Spider-Man # 34 INHERITANCE
Ultimate Spider-Man # 45 GUILT
Ultimate Spider-Man # 49 HERO
Ultimate Spider-Man # 62 CARNAGE: PART 3
Ultimate Spider-Man # 66 EVEN WE DON'T BELIEVE THIS
Ultimate Spider-Man # 67 JUMP THE SHARK
Ultimate Spider-Man # 79 WARRIORS: PART 1
Ultimate Spider-Man # 80 WARRIORS: PART 2
Ultimate Spider-Man # 81 WARRIORS: PART 3(SEARCH WILL CONTINUE FOR EXCELLENT COPY)
Ultimate Spider-Man # 82 WARRIORS: PART 4(SEARCH WILL CONTINUE FOR EXCELLENT COPY)
Ultimate Spider-Man # 83 WARRIORS: PART 5
Ultimate Spider-Man # 84 WARRIORS: PART 6(SEARCH WILL CONTINUE FOR EXCELLENT COPY)
Ultimate Spider-Man # 85 WARRIORS: PART 7(SEARCH WILL CONTINUE FOR EXCELLENT COPY)
Okay
thanks for reading all of that if you did, and if you didn't thanks
for checking out my blog. If this blog is missing something or could
be improved let me know and I'll very slowly get on it. Please don't tell me about the errors with font sizes and some of the pictures moving around. The blog layout seems to have a mind of its own. It's furstrating to change one thing and have a bunch of other things, so I just left it like this. I promised
someone a while ago that I'd have a complete checklist of the series
so people could watch it fill up.. I'm working on that and will have
it up soon. Maybe I'll even have it ready by the time the power comes
back on!
