Sorry about that, folks. Life happened again for a minute. I’ve been sick for most of this calendar year, but I seem to finally be getting better, knock wood. I did some things other than play Skyrim for 260 hours this winter (I’m horrified and amused by this number), while I was convalescing. I’ve even managed to leave the house a few times this month, and of course got into plenty of trouble when I did, so let’s examine the trouble I found both from my house and out in the world!
I bought one more single pack of ’18 Topps on one of my Target runs. Anyone need either of these two inserts?
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This may not look like a Holy Grail comic book to some, but this issue of Adventure Comics completed a run of issues 425-490 for me that I’ve been working on since childhood. In that run is every issue of the original Adventure Comics that happened post-Legion of Super-Heroes and post-Supergirl, but pre-the last 13 issues, which were done as reprint digests. There’s all kinds of great stuff in this run: among others, you’ve got Black Orchid, The Spectre, The Creeper, Deadman, Justice Society of America, The New Gods, Dial “H” For Hero, and all three of the gentlemen featured on this cover.
I got it in the damnedest way, too. I’ve been looking very pointedly for this book for a few years (since I realized it was the last one I needed), trying to get it for a price I felt reasonable (some of the bigger online comics dealers wanted a bit too much for it), especially in bins that flea market and comic show dealers had out, and whiffing on that. So, I’m reading a post on a Facebook comic group I’m in where a guy found a pretty early issue of Adventure (in the 30s numbers-wise), and some wise guy chimes in with “I’ve got #476 if anyone wants that”, totally figuring no one cared. I was instant messaging him so fast, it made his head spin. Because he didn’t want to gouge me too much on shipping, and because he had some other comics to unload, I grabbed a couple more from him…
Mmmmm, first Paul Smith X-Men. I don’t hear this from other people too often, but Paul’s probably my favorite X-Men artist. I’m giving thought to trying, very slowly, to put together a run of Uncanny X-Men from as close to #94 and Giant-Size #1 as I can get (my earliest right now is #107, but I’ve got a run from #128-143, and I’ve also got #109 and #121), through to maybe #200, because that would cover the first year I read it as new issues, during which I found that I didn’t enjoy the current book as much as I did issues #175-back. (I’m of the mind that X-Men started to lose its footing right around where most current fans started to love it, which would be post-#200, so I’m kind of an X-Men hipster. If any of you have ever read Uncanny X-Men #177, I would’ve ended the series right before Mystique gets to Nightcrawler.)
I also got this. In another collecting project (and to let y’all know in advance my comics projects usually go way, way more slowly than my card ones have over the past decade) I’m working on all 4 “team-up” books (The Brave And The Bold, DC Comics Presents, Marvel Team-Up and Marvel Two-In-One), because they were really fun comics that I was always drawn to as a kid. Let’s see how Batman ends up hanging out with Black Lightning, before he ended up hanging out with him a lot! Superman and Sgt. Rock? How’s that work? Aunt May and Franklin Richards hanging out with Galactus? Sign me up! The Thing and The Sandman drinking in a bar? SOLD.
2 more games for if I ever finish Skyrim and don’t just decide to start over to beat the game “the right way”. I’ve been hearing about both Ico and Shadow Of The Colossus for close to 2 decades, so I snagged the first reasonably priced used copy of this collection that I could find. I don’t have a PS4 yet, so I can’t play the latest remaster of Shadow of The Colossus yet.
With Syndicate? I played the hell out of the Atari Jaguar version (an idea that probably horrifies people who played it on PC, but I think the 3DO version was probably even more of a nightmare to navigate), and while the reviews haven’t been great for this update, I’ve been curious, and it was $5 new.
From there, I hit a comic and card show, and while I passed on getting a pic and autograph from Ricky “The Dragon” Steamboat (who still looks great, and seemed to be a nice guy, especially to the kids he met), I did scour a bunch of cheapie bins for fun stuff.
These two finished my Top 10 run!
Can you tell that I’m an anthology book junkie?
I’m about two-thirds of the way through a complete All-Star Squadron run now. Earth-2 is also kind of a thing for me.
Onto the cards…
I liked everything I saw from this kid in the postseason. I always hesitate a little to add young, current players to my player collections, but I think he might end up sticking.
Another Dontrelle relic. Cool color scheme. Not the greatest condition, but it was a buck.
#puigyourfriend
If only we’d all known, 5 years ago, that you’d be able to get Puig relics for $2! This is a fun one, too, from those winter cards.
I didn’t get Ricky Steamboat’s auto for $20 (or the $30 pic and auto package combo), but I got a friggin’ Homer Bush autograph for a buck!
Finally gettin’ on the Vladimir Guerrero Jr. board. (Yeah, I know what I said about Bregman, but he’s not second-generation from one of my favorite players of all time.) By most accounts, the kid has a very bright future ahead of him. Let’s hope it works out that way!
From a 5 for a dollar bin? Sure, why not.
Also from the 5 for a dollar bin. Can you believe these monsters vandalized what’s otherwise a pretty decent condition ’71 Topps card? Of course you can. This is available for trade. No, I’m not replacing the Ron Fairly in my set with this one.
Needed this for my ’70 set. To paraphrase Springsteen, it ain’t a beauty, but ‘ey, it’s alright…
I don’t know if I had any Inception baseball before this. Happy to start with a Scherzer.
I am such a sucker for these 2000s legends sets that were really just filler cardboard for autograph chances, but looked pretty nice while doing that. These got me over a third of the way through this one. Especially like Raines, Cey, Santo and Staub in this batch.
And, finally, I got the complete set of these (1991 Comic Images Silver Surfer cards) at my local comic book store. Scanning does absolutely no justice to how insane, psychedelic and 1990s-tastic these cards look, but I’ll show you 3 of my favorites, anyway.
First issue cover!
I still have a very run-down t-shirt with a version of this image on it.
You have to love psychedelic extreme close-ups of Thanos with shiny, shiny teeth.
That’s been my February so far. How’ve you all been?
Cool Homer Bush auto!
I know, right? I’m going through all this stuff, mostly last-two-years inserts/premium cards, and then out of nowhere, totally unrelated to the cards around it, and with no other cards from that that Best set in any of the boxes, a signed card of one of my favorite baseball names (and not a bad player, to boot). Nice consolation prize for someone who couldn’t really plunk down blaster money for another auto that day.
I loooooved All-Star Squadron! I dug that era of Adventure, too…the JSA stuff was great, and Deadman was not the kind of comic I usually sought out but it was really good. Congrats on completing the run.
Thanks! It was a weird one to get ahold of (the Superboy issues in that run, I did have to order, because those are sneaky hard to find, moreso than the earlier parts of the run), but I’m glad I worked on it until it was done.
All-Star Squadron’s probably the next series I’m putting focus on finishing, because I really want to re-read it in order as an adult to see how it’s aged, see what Roy Thomas gets right/wrong in it, and so forth.
Before going any further, I would very much be interested in trading for that Ron Fairly buyback. Congratulations on finishing that run, especially after having worked on it for so long. I like that all your books show some wear, like someone has or is actually going to read them. It seems like lately (at least for me) people seem to be getting into that 90’s mindset again, where everything’s gotta be in perfect condition to be relevant, cause you know… it might be worth something someday!
I was one of the few people who wasn’t a big fan of Ico, but I played the heck out of Shadow of the Colossus went it came out, I think you’ll enjoy it, especially if you’re not already familiar with all the ways to defeat the Colossi.
You’ve got dibs on Fairly. Look over my way-too-big want list, email me, and we’ll figure out the particulars.
As far as reading copies of comics go, when I get to it, I’ll scan my Adventure #466, which is still part of that run. I like my comics a little cleaner than that, but I’m not generally uptight about condition, and I’m not a slab guy. The group I got those 3 books in is a lower-condition comics group, and so much of that stuff up for sale there is in slabs which, to each their own, but it’s not for me. I can see using something like archival slabs that can be reopened (and skipping the pro grading) to store rare/fragile/old books, but I just can’t see putting a comic book in a thing that makes it functionally useless without a damn good reason to do it (and “more money” ain’t it). Same goes for people who have sealed figures/video games/etc. in slabs. I have some sealed video games still (nothing I can’t already play without opening it, or couldn’t play if I were inspired to open it) and a bunch of carded/boxed figures (with those, I always have the option of opening them), but nope, I haven’t paid someone good money to make it harder for me to open any of this stuff. Only thing I’ve ever had graded is my Michael Jordan rookie, and that was just to keep naysayers from telling me it was counterfeit when it pretty clearly isn’t. It also doesn’t limit my ability to appreciate the card much. Late stage capitalism, ugh.
Tell me no more about Shadow Of The Colossus, though! So hard to avoid spoilers there, and I’m trying to go into it with as little knowledge of the game as possible (I only really know it as a game people have raved about for close to 2 decades).