"My Thursday Off Ramblings"

One good thing about tomorrow is that you don't have to worry about it after it's over for another 4 years. (Sort'a just like a presidential election.)

According to the silver-age history of Superman, it's also his birthday. So let's see...using 1938 as the starting point of his "birth", that'd make me something like 17 -1/2 years old. I think in the comics he's actually supposed to be a perpetual 28.

I got to wondering what I was doing on February 29th., 2004, or what I had written on this blog site, and then I remembered that I hadn't even started it yet. In fact, that 4th. year anniversary won't be until May.

But looking over some of my earliest posts I was waining over the passing of Kate Worley, and thinking about the passing of former President Reagan. In comics I had mentioned that I wasn't buying much in the way of modern titles due to their price and difficulty in locating, but was buying more TPB collections instead. Well....things change.

Since I've located such outlets as Waldenbooks and a Houchens Market which carry current titles, I do indeed purchase several of these again whenever the opportunity arises for me to stop by such places.

Let's see...got in copies of Supergirl #75 (1996 series), and the DC-Vertigo Shade the Changing Man #62 in yesterday's mail. Two years ago I first started to seriously try to complete that '96 Supergirl series but #75 was a pretty "hot" comic due to its reintroduction of the original "Kara Jor-El". EBay auction listings had it going as much as $35. a pop, and with issues #'s 77 thru 80 in the $10-$15 range. Once again...things change, and what once was hot, now is not. Much like THOR #337 where Walt Simonson started on the series and introduced "Beta Ray Bill" back in the 1980's. A comic book store owner was offering me twice what I'd paid for any newstand issues in trade (which I believe back then was .75 each, so I got in trade $1.50 per copy). Seems like it was in low distribution where he had his store, but I had little difficulty finding copies anywhere alse. I probably got him at least 20 copies.

And I had another dealer giving me twice cover price for the first issue of the bagged/sealed Spider-man #1 (the McFarlane series) in the early 1990's. Both of these books can be had fairly dirt cheap anymore. That's what happened with the Supergirl 75, and I knew that if I waited long enough I'd find more reasonably priced copies, so I just bought a copy of the TPB which reprinted the 75-80 storyline to read.

So I paid a whoppin' $2.30 for a copy using the BIN on eBay, and have found the others either for cover price now, or less. In fact, when my won copy of #77 arrives, you'll finally not have to listen to me harping over trying to finally complete that set...'cause it WILL be complete!

The copy of Shade #62 also completed that partcicular set of 70 issues. Strange crap written by Peter Milligan, which brings up yet another title about to be completed which he wrote, when I get in a copy of Marvel's X-Statix #25, illustrated by an equally strange artist, Mike Allred. In fact, I think I'll have all of the Milligan/Allread X-Statix appearances, those being in their own title, X-Force and Deadgirl (unless someone tells me otherwise) save for a copy of Deadgirl #3.

Completing several sets as such gets me to wondering what I'll try to concentrate on now. Of course, I'd like to have a full run of Transmetropolitan, but there's some older stuff as well. I still need a #2 of ACG's title, "John Force Magic Agent", plus 5 or so app.'s of that character in Unknown Worlds. And I need to complete up to date such titles as the current Supergirl series, Supergirl and The LOSHs, and The Spirit. I'd love to have a full run of all of the Bongo app.'s of "Radioactive Man", too. Just too many damn comics....

One comic I'm looking forward to getting in is a Fantastic Four 16 (1963), which features an "Antman" x-over as well as ol' Doc Doom, and even though I don't actively seek out very many silver-age Marvels these days due to having most of the "Essential" reprints of such, the occasional original is a nice addition to "the collection". The one I'm getting is just a reading copy and I got it cheap. It hurts too much to think of all of the silver-age Marvel and DCs I've had over the years that I no longer possess due to needing the cash for other things (like paying bills!)


Well, today the temperatures are a bit milder. In the 40's, I think, which is a mite better than the norm for the past week, what with us having an ice storm earlier, then rain, then back to some snow. In the shaded areas I still see some ice hanging on. I'm really "antsy" for Spring to finally arrive. I have several outdoor projects that need to be done. One of which is cleaning the outside of my house which has gotten much dirt and mud splashed up against the siding. I also want to haul in some new top soil for the low-lined areas around this place, plant grass seed and the like. I've got an old stump my wife wants removed in the midst of her flower garden, and too, I need to get out into the shed and look around for some things.

And just because I'm sick of staying indoors these days, I ventured out today down town to a new consignment shop and looked around a while. Didn't really mean to purchase anything, but still bought $9. worth of "stuff". For one thing, they had an unopened MIB Marvel Legends "She-Hulk" (from 2005) action figure which was pretty nice. And I found a couple of different ones of those 2007 packages which has a comic book, temp' tattoo and a little action figure that grows larger in water in one sealed package. The comics in them were of Spider-man, one having a copy of Marvel Adventures #21, and the other having Untold Tales of Spider-man #3.

While there I got to talking with the store owner about maybe bringing some comics down to try to sell on consignment. I need to go through all of those books I've pulled first and I think I'll bring a couple of long boxes of stuff that I know for certain are duplication, "just to see how they go". If they sell well, I'll bring more later on. Might mean a few extra bucks for some books that I just have gathering dust and taking up space.

And today, just to kill some time and relax, I popped in one of my favorite flicks, "3000 Miles to Graceland" (2001), which is one of Kurt Russell's best and one of the few flicks in which I actually liked both Kevin Cosner and Courney Cox.