13: A teen who shoots webs and walks on walls, an intellectual gorilla who speaks English, and a little boy with antlers. It's been about a week and a half since my last post, and I have plenty to
	catch you up on. I went through a real rough patch with my lungs in
	the middle of this month, but over this past week things have started
	to improve somewhat; some days I've felt strong enough to get out of
	the house and get down to some comic shops. I had to use a walker or
	a wheelchair, but I did get out of the house and it was great to be
	back in the shops again scouring through the boxes to piece together
	my Ultimate Spider-Man collection. This is a diagram of my activity
	for this month recorded by my Nike+ Fuelband (a product everyone
	recovering from serious illness should have): As you can tell I have good and bad days.  I'll post another one of these next time so you can see if things have gotten better.
	Before I tell you about my latest adventures let me share something about
	overcoming an illness. Your family and friends become more important
	than you ever knew. I rely on them for essentially every aspect of
	my life, and one of the many things I rely on them for happens to be
	my comic books. This being my blog about a comic book hunt, I feel
	like I should give credit to everyone who has made comic book hunting
	a possibility for a guy who can barely walk, and can't drive. I
	haven't forgotten the many things that have been done for me. My
	brothers have both taken me on multiple trips to comic book stores in
	all different places, and living in different cities, they've both
	made trips to stores to pick up issues I needed. Any time I've been
	sick, my mom has picked up my pull list on her way home from work.
	My dad's done the same, and he's also taken me to a few stores. My
	Dad is incredibly patient when it comes to waiting for me while I
	browse through bins. My friend Kenny has done the same. Yeah, he
	picks up comics too, but that doesn't diminish the value of his deed.
	He also introduced me to New England Comics, the store where I found
	my Ultimate Spider-Man #1, Peter Panzerfaust #1, and Daredevil #7.
	My friend Mike was the guy who drove me to the store when he was
	tired so I could grab the Peter Panzerfaust I needed. Meg picked up
	a few Skottie Young covers that I was missing, and offered to pick
	others up on other occasions if I hadn't been able to get them.
	Kyle, Mike, and Kenny brought my Daredevil #10 to Boston Super Mega
	Fest to get it signed by Paolo Rivera, one of my favorite artists.
	You get the idea. Since my last post, I've taken three comic
	hunting trips, one with my older brother, one with my dad, and one
	with my little brother. I was successful in finding plenty of comics
	needed for my collection on each of these three trips, but I'm not
	going to bother posting them all. I'll adjust the checklist on the
	right accordingly though.  What I really want to post is the
	hilarious classic issue my brother Tom found. While I was busy
	digging for Ultimate Spider-Mans at the Cranston location of Time
	Capsule, Tom was browsing through whatever oddball bin he could find.
	Through some kind of beginner's luck (in the sport of bin diving) he
	came up with a 1958 issue of Strange Adventures. We bought the issue, but in any photo I take, the text doesn't show well because of my shaky hands..  I still want to show it to you, so here's a stock photo I found online.
	Make sure you take it all in! I know seeing this image will undoubtedly leave you wanting to read the issue,  if only to find out what led these men to subject the gorilla to a lie detector test, but don't worry.  The issue is safely in my hands and visitors to my house can read it any time they want.
	I have one more thing to talk about. It's a 40 issue epic called "Sweet
	Tooth" and it's written and pencilled by Jeff Lemire.
	I don't know why it took me so long to discover this series, but it's
	quickly become one of my favorites. I got the first trade from Amazon and
	finished it the next day. I had to go out and buy the next volume
	because Amazon wouldn't be quick enough. While I was reading that, I
	realized that the entire series isn't out in trade form yet, so I did
	what any over zealous comic book junky would do, I searched online
	until I found every single remaining issue.  Now I read at my own rate.
	Should I have done that? Probably not, but when it comes to comics, nothing
	beats reading them in their original single issue form.  The
	story is about a nine year old kid named Gus who has been raised by
	his father in a forest, in complete isolation, for his entire life.
	His father has told him never to leave the woods. The reasons for
	this are mysterious at first, but you can assume that it has
	something to do with the fact that he has a set of deer antlers on
	his head. Soon, his father passes away, and Gus is forced to choose
	between staying in the woods alone and fending for himself, or
	disobeying his dead father, and leaving with a man named Mr. Jepperd,
	who has offered to take him to a place called "the preserve."
	This is expert storytelling that carries the reader through a wide
	range of emotions. In addition to that, Lemire's art has an eerie
	power to it that leaves thoughts and images from this story lingering
	in your head. I highly recommend this book.(or comic, or graphic
	novel, or series of books, whatever) Edited: I just realized the checklist on the right malfunctioned, possibly a PEBKAC scenario.  I'm gonna do my best to make a new one that works properly soon.

12.1

12.1     

Brief visit to Midtown Grand Central

glad I got this one out of the way

I've been to midtown in Times Square, and now i've been to midtown grand central. The idea i left with is that most of the great Reputation this store has comes from Times Square. Don't get me wrong. This is still an above average comic shop.. But it doesn't come close to it's Times Square big brother, and so I can't see a reason to go back. Even though the store wasn't quite what I was hoping, I only had about 20 minutes to shop, so it felt just about right. I quickly checked through the trades to see if they had a few trades I've been hunting for, the most elusive of which is The Goon Vol. 2. I was unsuccessful with trades so I checked the boxes for a few series that I'd be able to sort through quickly. Ianaged to get 6 issues of "Wolverine and the X-Men" that I didn't have(Kenny put me onto this title and it's weird, but pretty good, especially considering it's an x-men book. Not normally my cup-o-soup). Then I went over to my friendly neighborhood Ultimate Spider-Man bin where I can usually find enough well cared for issues to drop about $40.00 on. The selection here was a little lacking, and I found one issue that met my standards, and I paid the inflated NYC price of $3.50 for Ultimate Spider-Man # 112.

UPDATE 3/10: Went to quite a few NYC comic shops, but was largely unsuccessful because of the chair.  Lots of stairs, very little space, not easy to breathe, and really crowded.  I hope to try NYC again when I'm walking, but I feel pretty bad for anyone who's stuck in a wheelchair for life.  If I ever open my own shop, the aisles are gonna be big enough for anyone.. even if the shop is tiny.  I'd rather have just one aisle than have to give the handicapped another raw deal.

12     

GOING ON A TRIP

(train, plane, or taxi cab... all the choices hip)

I'll be heading up(down) to NYC with my parents to visit my little brother.  We'll e spending a couple days checking out the city.  Lucky for me, my little brother likes comics a little bit, so I'll have an ally when I attempt to devise the entire itinerary.

Unfortunately, the trip contains two challenges that I must meet and they are:
a) The open road.  I have to be alone with my parents for at least 3 hours each way.
b) My lungs.  They're still ineffective at best.  I'll be getting around in a wheelchair, wearing a mask and gloves and an oxygen supply, but if anything goes wrong or my body just decides to have a crappy day, I'll be stuck in the hotel.

Fortunately, I have a plan.  I'm bringing a good selection of mostly unread comics(see the distorted panorama below) and a few trades, and hopefully buying some in the city.  Buying them in the city will be extremely important if I finish my other ones on the way there.  I'll have trade paperbacks for backup, but we all know man cannot survive on TPB alone!

The comic books in the photo, from left to right, are:
Invincible presents Atom Eve & Rex Splode #1 & 2, Brit(2nd series) #1, Science Dog #1 & 2, Five Weapons #1, Guarding the Globe(1st series) #1 & 2, Superman: Secret Identity #1, Ultimate Six #1, Amazing Spider-Man #400(worst idea for a cover in spider-man history), and Batman and Robin (2nd series) #1.

11     

Celebrating 600 page views

...and a word on selling comics

This has been a great week not just for buying comics, but for selling them.  Ask anyone if there's any money to be made in the comic book hobby, and you have about a 99.99% chance of getting an incorrect answer.  I know this because I've spent considerable amounts of time pondering the question, I've sold comics, I've heard lots of advice on selling comics, I've seen people fail miserably at selling comics, and I still couldn't give a straight answer.  Before I sold my first comic, I made a promise to myself that I would never buy a comic book with the sole intention of reselling it.  Buying a comic I want, realizing I don't like it, and then selling it?  That's fine.  What I don't want to do is get myself tangled in the complexities of buying to sell.  I don't want my hobby to ever start feeling like a job.  Unless you're planning on opening a comic book shop of your own, it's just not a logical.  Comics are unpredictable.  Since then I've decided to keep track of a number that represents my Net gain/loss in comic sales.  When I buy a new comic at regular price with the intention of reading it and enjoying it, I don't count that against my net gain.  The same goes for trade paperbacks.  However, if I buy a big fancy collected edition, or a rare back issue from the '60s that costs way more than it's oriinal cover price, that's a luxury purpose and it counts against my net gain, wich I can only gain back by selling items I don't need

My first experience with comic book selling was just a few years ago.  I'm going to tell a story.  I'm leaving out the identity of the subject of my tale, but trust me.. the story is true.  A friend of mine was down and out with no cash, in need of a 6-pack of 'Gansetts.  His frustration with his financial situation must have been significant, because it was then that he realized how angry he was that his older brother had left his family years ago, leaving his stuff behind, but no longer contributing to the famil financially.  My friend felt that the only way to make things right would be to sell the big box of old comics his brother left behind and use the money he made to buy himself a 30 rack and buy his mom a car.  He spent the afternoon on my computer looking at comic websites and writing down the book value of each comic, paying no attention to condition and how that effects the value.  As far as he was concerned, he was owed the maximum retail mint condition value of every single issue he had.

He invited me to go along with him, and I did because I had never been to my local Comic shop at that point.  This was before Comics and I had had our glorious reunion.  He spoke proudly about how pleased his mother would be with him when he brought home her new car.   He spoke with contempt about how his brother had abandoned the family, along with his responsibility to provide support in times of need.  This was how he justified making a fortune off of his old comic collection.  I listened, and I knew he wouldn't get that kind of money for his comics, but how could I be the one to tell a gu who's so excited about something that he's wrong?  I had heard several times that there was no money to be made selling old comics unless you had some really special stuff.  In my own defense, I was assuming (with my limited knowledge) that he would probably at least make $100.

When the moment of truth came I started to worry about what his reaction would be.  Guys like him don't react well to embarrassment, or to being wrong about things.  I'll do you the favor of cutting through the tension straight to the end.  He marched into the store proudly lugging his cardboard box that may as well have been a treasure chest full of gold in his mind.  He plopped it on the counter and stood back, because obviously the nerds behind the counter were about to swarm that thing.  How could they resist getting their hands on his moldy old beat up 1980s comics?

Apparently, very easily.  One of the employees walked up to the box and quickly flipped through, saying nothing as he looked at each issue.  This took about 30 seconds.  When he finished, he said "nothing".  Hiding his shock, my friend explained to him that some of the issues in that box were worth up to $10 and that they were all very old.  The gentleman behind the counter told him he was sorry, and with that, we left.  There was a lot of complaining on the way home.  After that, I assumed there was just no money in comics.  I quickly learned that only comics from before 1970 were worth any decent money, but every once in a while, a modern comic comes out that, either due to a small first print run, or extreme unexpected popularity for a series, goes up in value and becomes an exception to the rule.  One of these comics was Ultimate Spider-Man #1, the comic that I acquired for about $300 less that it's value that lead me to start this blog.  

I'm telling this story because this week I managed to sell a few very recent comics for a huge profit.  When Amazing Spider-Man #700 came out, followed by Superior Sider-Man #1, I decided to pre order all of the variant covers(variant covers are just alternate covers wit different art or different colors to offer more variety to fans.  They're usually just a gimmick to sell more books to fans who obsess over completion, which I do sometimes) for each one.  Two of the covers by artist J. Scott Campbell were designed to link together to form a single image:

Buying these two covers at once cost me about $15.  When I noticed the set was selling consistently for over $120 on eBay I decided I could part with them, and I made out with $130.00.  Having recently sold a knife on eBay for $100, I decided to spend my earnings on something special for myself.  My favorite comic book covers are those that my two favorite super heroes, Daredevil and Spider-Man, appear on.  My favorite time frame for comic book covers is the silver age of comics, the 1960s.  On eBay I was able to find a very nice 4.5 condition copy of Amazing Spider-Man #16 from 1964.  This was the first meeting of Spidey and DD, the first occurance of what would be my favorite character combo, the crossover to end all crossovers.

Notice Daredevil's yellow costume?  He stopped wearing that and switched to red in Daredevil #7.  This Amazing Spider-Man issue came out in September 1964, between Daredevil #3 and #4.

Ultimate Spider-Man
This past weekend my little brother came home, and despite the disgusting weather, he took me out, helped me rent a wheel chair, and went along with me on a comic hunting journey.  I picked up a solid chunk of the USM issues I needed for my collection.  I honestly can't say exactly which issues I got this time because it's been a few days and I needed to put them in the box with the rest of the collection to keep them safe, but I did get about 30 new issues all for around $3.25, all in excellent condition, and strangely enough, all from the first store we went to.  Also, I've finally managed to put a list of all the issues I've collected in the right pane of this blog.  Check out the list, now you can see what's missing! The two stores were polar opposites.  One was kind of dark, run down, messy with boxes everywhere, narrow spaces to get through, and some really creepy mannequins.


This was Wild Time Comics and Stories.
Wild Time Comics and Stories


So the place didn't look nice, but it had a great selection of back issues.. and the one guy working there was really friendly and helped us move boxes out of the way so I could get my wheelchair through.  Still, it was inconvenient, and at times I needed to stand up from the chair and lean on things, which got tiring and I needed to leave without fully checking out what they had to offer.  I bought what I had and it was on to the next store.

The next store we hit was Friendly Neighborhood Comics in Bellingham, MA.
Friendly Neighborhood Comics

This store I had been to before with a group of friends in the past, but that time I wasn't in a wheelchair.  Now that I've experienced this store in a wheelchair, I can't say enough good things about it.  Wide open areas, plenty of room between racks.  Long walls of comics that I can explore by riding slowly past, and never feeling like I'm in anyone's way.  I recommend this comic book store to any handicapped person looking to get their comic fix.  They had a very complete new release wall, and another very complete recent but not brand new release wall.  The only thing lacking was their back issues.  They only had Marvel and DC back issues, no Indy comics, and what they did have was very small.  There was an assortment of old silver age comics, and an assortment of comics from 2000 until now, but not really anything in between.  Worse, there were NO Ultimate Spider-Man issues, and that's what my current comic hunt is for.  80s comics and indy comics are the comics I usually spend a lot of time browsing when I'm at the comic store and this place just didn't have it.  I still have to say they more than made up for it with their really nice hardwood floors, great lighting, friendly staff, and of course, great accessiblity for the handicapped.
I do want to mention before closing yet another way too long post, that they did have a copy of Ultimate Comics Spider-Man #160, in a variant cover that I had been looking for for a while.  UCSM was the first series that I collected in it's entirety, but there are still some good variant covers from the collection that I don't have.  And now I have this one, known as the "Spoiler Cover" because it shows Mary Jane cradling her dead boyfriend, Peter Parker, after he died saving her life.

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 g
ood 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!

9.1   

HYRULE HISTORIA

Dark Horse released Hyrule Historia yesterday.  I hadn't heard about it until I saw it on the diamond release list, which made me look it up on Amazon.  It was already getting some insane reviews from Zelda fans.  Apparently American fans have been waiting for an English translation from the original Japanese for a while. It's not a comic book.  It's essentially a guide to everything Zelda including chronology, which is pretty cool for anyone who has played more than one Zelda game.  I was pleasantly surprised when I found a comic in the back of the book, and I decided this page was too awesome not to share.
from: The Legend Of Zelda: Hyrule Historia

Enjoy it because this is most likely the last time you'll see me posting anything that has anything to do with Manga.

9     

FIRST OFFICIAL STOP A SUCCESS

   

Yesterday, despite my difficulty breathing, I was able to get out of the house with the help of an Oxygen tank, a wheel chair, and my pal Kenny.  I only fell on my ass once. If you don't know what it is I'm hunting for, which would be understandable because I've posted about so many other things since I explained the purpose for this, just check out the first post.

The destination on yesterday's journey was "Comicazi".  Slightly offensive name, great comic shop. 

Comicazi
407 Highland Avenue
Somerville, MA 02144
(617) 666-2664

Show on Google Maps

I called in advance to ask  one question: "Do you have long boxes with back issues?"  The answer was yes, so in my opinion, the risk of coming up empty handed was minimal.  My main mission was to find some Ultimate Spider-Man issues as well as a couple random comic books I had written down in my notes.  When I got there, I was pleasantly surprised to find a really nice place that didn't suffer from any of the problems that have plagued a number of the comic shops I've been to recently.  It was clean, not musty.  The shelves were well organized.  I could tell where the Image TPBs were and where the DC ones were.  The new release wall was organized in simple alphabetical order.  The inventory was great, too.  There were tons of TPBs and plenty of new releases and back issues.  One more plus that I never would have noticed if I hadn't been in a wheel chair that day was that this place wasn't cramped.  There was plenty of room for two people to walk past each other between walls and shelves.  This made my life a lot easier when it came time to go diving into the bins.

For my Ultimate Spider-Man collection, I found 14 issues.  There are 15 in the picture below because yesterday I received a package in the mail from midtown comics and I included Ultimate Spider-Man #15 in that order.  That way I would know for future reference what I was getting if I ordered any future books from midtown in "NM" condition.

Anyway, here's what I came up with.  As usual, please excuse the poorly taken photos, the meds make my hands really shaky so it's tough to take professional photos with iPhone.


I know the picture is horribly blurry, so let me name the issues for you, left to right:
-Ultimate Spider-Man #12 BATTLE ROYAL
-Ultimate Spider-Man #13 CONFESSIONS
-Ultimate Spider-Man #15 CONFRONTATIONS
-Ultimate Spider-Man #20 LIVE
-Ultimate Spider-Man #23 RESPONSIBLE-Ultimate Spider-Man #25 PLASMIDS
2ND Row:-Ultimate Spider-Man #27 ILLEGAL
-Ultimate Spider-Man #28 SIDETRACKED
-Ultimate Spider-Man #29 STOLEN IDENTITY
-Ultimate Spider-Man #31 BLACK VAN
-Ultimate Spider-Man #50 BLACK CAT
-Ultimate Spider-Man #56 HOLLYWOOD PART III
3RD:
-Ultimate Spider-Man #59 HOLLYWOOD PART VI
-Ultimate Spider-Man #60 CARNAGE PART I
-Ultimate Spider-Man #61 CARNAGE PART III should peak briefly about the process that went into purchasing each one of these.  I mentioned in one of my first posts that I had been advised that a better way to do this would be to buy a full run from someone selling it online as one complete set.  My initial response was that that takes all the fun out of collecting them, and that the cost of doing it also seemed a little high when compared to what I could get it for by scouring comic store boxes and getting them one by one.  I realized yesterday that one more benefit to my way of collecting these is condition.  The store I went to had bags with massive chunks of the USM run all bagged up together, and given the prices of the bags, I'd be spending a dollar an issue, as opposed to the $2 an issue I was paying to search the long boxes.  Why am I willing to pay that extra dollar?  Because I get to choose which copy I take.  I looked in the bags, and while some of the comics in them were in pretty good condition, some of them had bent corners or bends in the covers.  That type of condition would be fine if all I wanted was to read them to get the story and then get rid of them, but I'm collecting these to keep.  I love the series.  I love the covers.  I love the art inside.  I have the luxury of patience.  It doesn't matter to me how long it takes to collect every issue, so why should I take any shortcuts?  The store had more mint(NM grade in comic book terms) condition issues than I could afford, so why would I ever leave there with something flawed?

So I ignored the bags containing massive chunks of the collection for $1 an issue and went to the everything for $2 bins and picked through carefully, keeping only the nicest issues.  Rest assured every one of the issues I picked had sharp corners, no scratches or bends on the cover, and no little paint chips or dents.So I now have 24/138 if you count Annuals and the Ultimatum issues.

I found a few other gems in the $2 bins, each of which got me very excited.




On the left is Daredevil(Vol. 2) #15.  This one is important because it is in this issue that Kingpin, probably Daredevil's most formidable adversary, is stricken blind(a trait he and Daredevil would now share).

In the center I have Amazing Spider-Man #349.  I found this issue by chance.  While flipping through the ASMs I noticed a really lame super villain, "The Black Fox", who I had previously only known because he was the burglar who stole Eric O'Grady(The Irredeemable Ant-Man)'s Nintendo Wii after the two had briefly befriended one another.  I had no idea that he had ever tangled with A-listers, never mind appeared on a cover with Spider-Man.

BLACK FOX!

On the right is Amazing Spider-Man  #400.  It's hard to tell in the cover but the grey part is a cardboard flap with spider-man art and the title and number embossed on it.  Recently when #700 came out I read in a lot of places that #400 had the most moving story of the milestone 100th issue stories.  Here's the cover underneath the odd grey cardboard flap:

Thanks for checking in.  Thanks to popular suggestion, I'm planning on adding a checklist somewhere on this page where viewers will be able to look at a complete list of issue names and numbers with check marks next to the issues I've found.. and maybe a little spot for a comment on condition.