Random Afternoon Thoughts"

Looks like I've finally completed my bronze age New Gods collection by winning a copy of DC's Adventure Comics 459 (1978).

New Gods, as originally done by Kirby, of course, and it ran 11 issues, then went into hiatus until the characters were revived in First Issue Special #13, after which the title was continued with the original numbering up until #19 (witten by Gerry Conway and drawn by Don Newton).

However, when the title ceased, the story wasn't complete so an additional chapter was run in the before-mentioned issue of Adventure Comics.

The Kirby conclussion was published in the 1984 DC New Gods reprint limited series in issue #6 (which I also won recently won a full set of), so the only New Gods book it looks like I'll need will be The Hunger Dogs graphic novel (of which I'll eventually find a reasonably priced copy).


Into other things...let me tell you why it's good to pay the .65 and put a confirmation code on any package you mail of items you've sold, say, on eBay. The last lot of comics that I sold was paid for about three days later via Paypal, and I mailed it the next day. However, in my auctions I list that I'm not responcible for lost or damaged merchandise which is NOT insured. So's...I mail this package to Virginia on the 14th., the day after I received the payment. The seller hadn't paid for either insurance or even confirmation, but at my own cost and peace of mind, I went ahead and paid that .65 out of my own pocket just to "keep track" of the item if it got misplaced in the mail.

Yesterday, the 19th., I still hadn't received any word from the buyer that he'd received his books, so I emailed him just to see if he had. Today I get a reply that nothing had arrived. THAT'S where the confirmation code saves you. I went and typed that in to the locater for postal packages and it showed that it had indeed been delivered on the 16th. (4 days ago).

Even though I had no liability due to his not paying for insurance, this is the extra failsafe for a buyer since it did indeed show he had received the comics. In fact, putting confirmation on a package is really more important than insurance because if the code shows the merchandise has arrived, then insurance isn't much good (unless for some reason the items were damged in the mail, which, these being low-grade comics that'd been hard to convince the postal service for a refund on their worth).

Showing that the books arrived this also puts an end to any responcibility to the buyer (unless, maybe, he sends the wrong merchandice or not all of it). In fact, if a negative feedback is given to me, I could use this very heavily in my favor to have such removed. So if you sell something and they won't pay for the insurance, pay for the confirmation yourself as you may be very happy (like I was) that you did!


And in today's mail I got in those copies of CHARLTON PREMIERE (Charlton Comics) #'s 1 (1967) & 3 (1968). Re-reading those old silver-age issues leads me to think I probably liked the "Spookman" story the best in issue #1 with the Pat Boyette artwork, but it's a close tie with "Grass" Green's "The Shape". Steve Skeates' "Tyro Team" didn't do much for me. I found the Montes and Bache artwork on the story better suited for their other works such as later issues of Konga and Gorgo.

"Sinestro Boy Fiend" in issue #3 was...alright. I saw no credits attributed to the writer of this issue, but the artwork was by Henry Scarpelli, whose work I always enjoyed on the Charlton humor title, "Abbott & Costello". The most interestinmg aspect of this book is that it's a silver-age appearance of both the Ditko version of "The Blue Beetle", as well as "The Peacemaker" (and neither of which are drawn by their original artists). The ad page was also of interest as it reproduced the cover to Blue Beetle (V2) #6 with Ditko artwork, which was never published in comic book form (shown above, and I must apologize for the lousey scan but it's from the original newsprint page). And, in the letter's page, there's an loc from (I'm sure) a young Steven Gillespie (well-known, at least at that time, on the fan circuit).

#2 is still my favorite of this series with that great "Children of Doom" story. #3 was the last regularly published issue as it was 4 months (rather than 2) for the final and forth issue to appear.