Albany Comic Con : The Haul

So, yesterday I went to Albany Conic Con.  This is the second year that I attended, but this time I didn’t take any pictures.  The attendance seemed to be higher this year(it actually runs twice a year, but I attend the fall one), and at times, it was a little hard to maneuver through the crowd.  Keep in mind that this is a small con held at the Holiday Inn.

It was a great time, and there were plenty of great deals.

I’ll highlight everything in a few different posts.  Today, I’ll just highlight a few of the comics that I picked up.

This one is long over due.  This has got to be one of the most iconic covers in Marvel history!  This was a big series when it came out, and this is the first time I’ve owned it since.  I couldn’t get the dollar out of my pocket fast enough!

Like Spider-Ham from Marvel, you can’t go wrong with DC’s Captain Carrot.  These are good, fun reads!

I know close to nothing about the TMNT comics from IDW.  I do know that this is a 1 in 10 variant sketch cover though.  The seller had it marked for $10, but said that everything was 50% off.  I ended up getting it for $3.50.  I’ll probably have to pick up the collected editions(if they exist), if I actually want to read the this(micro)series.

The Punisher is the first comic that I actively collected.  I’m always happy to fill the early gaps in the series.  I picked up issue #13 as well.

This is another title I collected in my first years of comic collecting, although I think the title had changed to Avengers West Coast by that time.  50 cents was too hard to resist for issue #2!

Those are just the highlights of 11 comics that came home with me.  I also got a few toys, as well as some packs of some great early 90’s trading cards.  We’ll get to that stuff in a few days.

Marvel Universe – Future Foundation Spider-Man

So, my local Wal-Mart wised up and have finally got a fairly decent toy section.  Not only do they have a plentiful stock of the new TMNT and Transformers figures, but they finally started carrying Marvel Universe figures.  And Spidey was calling out to me.

I know almost nothing about The Future Foundation, but I do know that this wardrobe choice is very appealing to the eye.  The web accessory he comes with is basically useless, as is the mini comic shot.  No more stands?!  The last Marvel Universe figure I bought before this one was Apocalypse, and he came with a stand.  That was in May of last year!  What gives?!

His posability leaves a little to be desired, but you can get him in a few decent poses.  This one was a little stiff in one of the shoulders.  Other than that, he’s a-okay.  These run close to 10 bucks, which I think is a tad too steep.  So I’m not sure if I’ll end up buying any more any time soon.  That is, as long as I don’t come across Thanos or Gray Hulk.

Reminiscing With Old Comic Book Ads #2

This past weekend, there was a little(and I do mean little), comic convention at the local SUNY college.  There were a handful of vendors, and lots of people playing Magic The Gathering.  There was a Batman coloring contest, for which they only suplied you with crayons to color him with.  I of course went with the old-school blue and gray look, that he sported in Super Friends.  I had only $5 to spend, so I had to spend it wisely.  So, I went ahead and checked out the $1 boxes, and found 5 comics that I thought were worth picking up.  Four out of the five ended up being New Mutants comics.  But were her to talk about the ads contained within.

Above is the cover for The New Mutants #100, which, as you can see, was the final issue of the series.  The characters you see in The New Mutants are the members who ended up making X-Force.  Even though the cover is done by Rob Liefeld(ugh), it’s still very memorable to me.  This issue hit stands a few months before I turned 12, so this was a time when I was heavily into comics.

On the inside cover, we have an ad for Double Dragon III for the Nintendo Entertainment System.  While I presently own all 3 Double Dragon games for the NES, I only had and played the first one when I was a kid.  This ad had me believing that this was a can’t-miss game.  It’s okay, but it’s not the blockbuster my younger self thought it would be.

Now this was a game I had and played!  In my opinion, I find this to be the second best Mega Man game on the NES(with Mega Man 2 being the best).  This was a can’t miss series in the NES’s heyday.  The comics of this era are peppered with NES ads(which is awesome), and this was one of the better ones.  Some of the other ads had insae scenes depicted, which made the games seem a lot cooler than they actually were.

This is an ad I remember seeing a lot of!  I never got into playing Dungeons and Dragons, but believe me, this was an ad that peaked my interest every time I laid eye upon it.  Looking at it now, it still has me interested.

Here’s an ad for one of the hardest Nintendo games ever!  I have never played this game, even to this very day.  I definitely wouldn’t mind adding it to my collection, but I don’t think it would get played very often.   But wait there’s more!

This Silver Surfer contest gave you a chance to win you very own “Customized Silver Surfer Jet-Ski”.  I wonder if anyone really won this, and if it still exists.  Hell, I’d like to see what the Silver Surfer watches look like.  You had to send in a photo of your high score to enter, and you could enter as many times as you wanted.  I would really like to see the high scores that won prizes.

This is another one I remember seeing a lot of!  I’m pretty sure I bought a few 3 Musketeers bars because of ads like this.  I mean, c’mon, reading comics and eating candy go perfectly together(as long as none of the said candy ends up on the comic).

Is it any surprise that the las ad in this comic is another ad for an NES game?  This is by far, my favorite ad in this comic.  Nintendo and Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles were 2 of my biggest childhood vices, and this put both together.  Yes, there was an NES Turtles game before this one, but this was the game to have!  I just love how the arcade cabinet is dripping with retromutagen ooze.  So many things to like in this one.

There were only 3 ads I did not cover(not including ads for subscriptions).  2 Were for baseball cards, and another was for a sci-fi book club.  But let’s not forget that I bought four other comics.  And I plan on covering the ads from those as well.  There will be a little variety, as the comics range from 1982-1989.

Albany Comic-Con 2011

So, about a week and a half ago, I attended the Albany Comic-Con(this was my wife’s anniversary gift to me 🙂 ).  I’m not sure if this was it’s inaugural event or if it’s an annual thing.  This year was the first time in the 8 years I’ve lived here, that I have heard about it.

I’ve been to a few conventions in NYC before, and they were a pretty decent size.  This one was smaller, but it definitely had it’s charm.  To give you an idea, it was held in a Holiday Inn, and had two dealer and guest rooms.  There were a few different panels as well.  I attended the panel discussing action figure sculpting and creating.

There was a pretty big turnout, and there were many deals to be had(every dealer I met with was friendly and reasonable).  I won’t bore you to death with all the details, so we’ll get to the pictures.  Most of them are Star Wars related, but I’m pretty sure that’s okay with most of you.

All of the Star Wars costumes were top notch, and made up 60%-70% of the cosplaying crowd.  The Tusken Raider(or Sand Person) above, was one of two who even had sound effects and music playing(concealed within their costume and accessories) that were related to their character.

Now to the loot!

But before we get to that…I just want to show a few games that came in the mail around the same time I went to the convention.

Ultima isn’t a great game, but it’s an RPG that I have fond memories of.  I already have this game in my collection, but I got a great deal on a complete copy(the box is mint).  Wario Land:Super Mario Land III, is one of my all-time favorite Game Boy games.  This was another great deal that also included the game case and instruction manual.  I only realized that it was a foreign language manual when I got it in the mail.  Game Boy games are region-free, so it works fine on my Game Boy.  And the manual is not necessary for me to play this game.

And now to the Comic-Con loot!

That Punisher comic is one of my favorite comic book covers, and it was also the very first back issue I bought when I first got into comics.  The Marvel Universe is part of a series of of pages with pre-punched holes to be put into a 3 ring binder as a sort of reference book.  Both of those were 50 cents each.  The Jason goes to Hell was a bargain at 50 cents, considering it still has the cards in the sealed bag.  I don’t mean this to sound like it’s worth much.  I’m just a huge Friday the 13th fan, and getting a comic book and trading cards of Jason for 50 cents is great!  I have no idea about the Redfox comic.  But it was 50 cents, and I thought the cover looked pretty neat, so I took a chance.

The New Warriors was one of the titles I was heavily into when I first got into comics(along with The Punisher, Avengers West Coast and Marvel Comics Presents).  I couldn’t pas up the first issue for a dollar.  In my current collection, I don’t have any other New Warriors books.  I’m hoping I’ll like it as much as I did back then.  What The..?! is a parody of Marvel characters by Marvel.  It was done by Hilary Barta, who I have mentioned before.  I love his cartoony style and at 50 cents, I promptly snatched it up.  The 2 G.I. Joe and the Transformers comics were a buck a piece.  The first one is a Marvel one from the eighties, and the second one is an Image one from 2003(this one is actually G.I. Joe vs. Transformers).  It’ll be great to read all of these.

One seller had a bunch of polybagged issues of Wizard from the early days of the now-defunct “guide to comics”.  I picked out a fairly early issue that included some pretty cool premiums.  To the right, we have a press kit for the movie The Crow.  This is my all-time favorite movie.  This is a very cool find!  It has black and white 8×10 photos, 5 film stills and a press release about the movie, the actors and various other things pertaining to the movie.  I had no problem dropping the ten dollars the seller was asking for it.  Also pictures are 3 packs of trading cards.  The seller was selling certain packs of trading cards at 3 packs for $1.00.  The 3 packs I chose were The Worst From MAD, The Valiant Era and Adventures in Toon World.  I’ll be saving these packs, and may do a post where I open them and see what they contain.

And here is the star of  my purchases.

The Reveal the Shield line of Transformers has been virtually non-existent in my area.  I’ve barely see any of this line with in an hour’s drive of me.  And this was the first time that I saw any of the “Legends Class’ figures.   The dealer I bought this from had all of the Legends Class figures from this line, and if money wasn’t an object I would’ve bought them all.  Starscream is the next on my list if I can find him at a decent price.  Megatron cost me 7 bucks(not too bad), and Starscream was the same.  I just didn’t have the disposable cash at the time.

I think the figure looks great, and is a great representation of the G1 Megatron that we all love.  But I do have a few gripes about this figure.  The first will be apparent in the next photo.

That is one hell of a paint error!  I wish I would’ve noticed this before I bought it, or else I would’ve bought the other available Megatron(as long as the paint was better).  My second gripe is the rub sign almost came off.  It’s a sticker, and it was moving when pressure was applied to it.  I may have to super glue it to the figure to make sure it’s not lost in the future.

And my final gripe…

Is the orange cap on the barrel necessary?!  The original G1 figure was made of die-cast metal and was a full size gun, so I can understand the confusion in mistaking it for a real gun.  But is there any chance that anyone would confuse this tiny, very plastic looking toy for a real gun?

Still, I’m happy to add this Megatron to the collection.  And I’d say he’s worth picking up if you can find him.

Reminiscing With Old Comic Book Ads

Hello everyone!  I’m fully relaxed and back in action!  I just needed a little break from the computer.

As you all know, I have a decent collection of comic books.  While I am no longer a hard-core comic collector, I still like to look through my collection and remember the early days when I first got into comics.  I belie I started collecting comics when I was around 12, but I started reading comics way before I started collecting them.  As a boy, my father used to take us to Phil’s Barber Shop in Pleasantville, NY.  I’m sure the place is long gone, but I can remember reading comic books as my father or brother were getting their hair cut by Phil.  Not only did he have comic books for us kids to read, but he would always my brother and I a cookie before we left(the good ones, in the big round tin).  Also, right down the street was Archie’s Corner Store.  I used to love perusing the comics and candies, and my dad would usually get a pack of Chuckles(do they still produce those?), for us to share.  Alright, now I’m getting off track.

As you can tell by my little tangent, I was reminiscing.  All brought on by looking at old comic books.  I only scanned a few ads from a few comics that I have not yet filed away into the long boxes.  Here are the comics the ads were scanned from.

 

 

I’ve acquired all 3 of these comics within the last 2 years.  The Sectaurs and Silver Hawks comics were bought at a garage sale in the summer of 2009, but I’m not sure where I got the TMNT II movie adaptation from.  The Sectaurs comic is from 1986, Silver Hawks is from 1987, and TMNT is from 1991.  The ads contained within these comics aren’t the most iconic, but they all remind me of simpler times.

We’ll start off with the only ad that I scanned from the TMNT comic.

The only other ads in this comic were for Double Dragon III and a bunch of Arcie Comics stuff.  This ad is for the most frustratingly hard TMNT game ever made.  I didn’t know a kid who had an NES who wasn’t into Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles.  That being said, almost every kid I knew had this game.  After getting through the under water bomb disarming stage(which a lot of people say is too hard), the game gets unforgivingly difficult.  I will be the first to say that this is one game I have never beaten.  I remember seeing this ad an awful lot.

Now we’ll take a look at what lies within the Sectaurs comic.

Nestle Quik.  Whenever this stuff was in our household, I used to like to eat spoonfuls of this chocolately dust.  I don’t remember this specific promotion, but how cool would it have been to win a complete set of Go-Bots?!  I was(and still am) a loyal fan of the Transformers, but what kid would balk at the chance to win a complete line of toys?  You don’t see promotions like this anymore.

This is an ad I remember clearly!  Most ads that had puzzles/games during this period stand out in my mind.  You don’t see to much advertising for these types of products these days, which is pretty sad.  Do they make other flavors of Newtons besides the fig variety these days?

If you’re a product of the eighties, there is no way you don’t remember M.A.S.K.(Mobile Armored Strike Kommand).  I loved this show, but only owned one toy from this line(my brother and I both had Jackhammer).  My favorite was Condor, while my brother’s favorite was Thunderhawk.  Looking at them now, I think they’re all pretty kick-ass!

Now we’ll see what lies within the pages of Silver Hawks #1.

I don’t really remember this ad, but I was a big fan of Disney and Oreos back in the day.  This seems like a pretty good deal.  I’m sure the just the Mickey ears set you back more than $5.95 these days(I wouldn’t know, I have never been to a Disney park).  And I’m sure I would look just as happy if Mickey mouse was eating Oreos with me.

This is the last ad we’ll be looking at today.  Cocoa and Fruity Pebbles had great advertising in the eighties and nineties.  This ad is almost like a Mad Libs.  Their commercials are memorable(who could forget the classic Christmas commercial?), and when they had free toys or prizes in the cereal, they were pretty good!  Not to mention that the Pebbles cereals taste really good.  The Flintstones seem to have all but vanished these days(what happened to all of the Hanna-Barbera cartoons?).

There were other ads in these comics, but I only went with the ones most would remember(if you read comics back in the day).  This may be a good topic to revisit, and I have plenty of material to pick through.  Would this be something you would like to see covered more?  Let me know in the comments.

Battle Damaged Wolverine

This is the best looking Wolverine that I have ever seen.

He’s been in my collection for a long time(as if you couldn’t tell from the dust on him).  I picked him up from the KB in Yonkers, NY, sometime in 2000.  He came in a two pack with a movie Wolverine from the first X-Men film.  I bought it specifically for this figure.  There’s not much in the way of articulation, but this precedes the Marvel Legends line(and was put out by Toy Biz).  He looks great, and the battle damage makes him look that much more intimidating.  Shortly after I bought the 2 pack, I gave the movie figure to my nephew(like I said, I bought this for this 1 figure).

Here’s a closer look at his wounds.

 

 

This is some serious battle damage.  He’s missing a chunk of flesh from his left forearm!  I can’t remember how much it cost me, but I believe it was marked down(KB always had the best sales).You should be able to score yourself the 2 pack for around $15.00-$20.00 + shipping.  I would love it if Hasbro were to release this same figure in the Marvel Universe line(it would end up being a little bigger than half of this one’s size.

My Favorite Comic Book Covers #3

In my last post, I said that I would leave tonight’s post up to you.  Colin was the first to respond, and he said that he wanted to see some more comic book covers.  So that’s what we’re here for.

I really wanted to put this one on my last comic cover post(The #1s).  But there are so many #1 comics out there, and only so many can be put on a single post(plus everyone’s opinion varies).  This is a now classic cover from Todd McFarlane.  Back in the early nineties, Marvel had a huge selection of the best comic talent working for them.  This cover is the reason that I think McFarlane’s representation of Spider-Man is among the best that I’ve seen.

This cover has two things going for it.  First it’s done by Sam Kieth(my favorite comic book artist), and secondly, it’s a Batman comic!  Batman is huge and looks pissed, and the Joker looks psychotic!  Not all of Kieth’s work is the same, but it all has his touch(look at Four Women for example).  Many of you will know Kieth as the creator of The Maxx.  And if you’re my age, you’ll remember that he did a slew of Marvel Comics Presents covers back in the early nineties(and these were double covered comics, with one on the front and one on the back).  This is one of favorite Sam Kieth covers ever!

How can you not like this cover?!  It works so well!  I started reading this title around issue #34, and while my interest started to wane after 10 or so issues, the covers that continued to come out, gave me a reason to buy them anyway(I still read them).

My favorite incarnation of the Turtles, will always be the original old-school comic look.  I’d say the first four issues have the best cover art, but this is my favorite “Tales” cover.  Just looking at this cover has me wanting to re-read the series and fill the holes in my collection.

Jim Lee is an amazing artist, and his run with Batman had some really nice cover art.  It’s the top 2 guys on the DC roster, but they don’t look so friendly.  It could be assumed that this scenario(Batman being human and Super-Man being a powerful alien) would be the likely one, but I’m pretty sure Batman has Kryptonite in his utility belt(I really need to start re-reading my comics).

BONUS

A short while back, Open the Toy wrote a post about Eric Draven(The Crow).  In the comments I stated that I had a hand drawn sketch from none other, than J. O’Barr himself(creator of The Crow).  LEon, who runs that site asked if I would share the sketch with everyone.  Well, I figured with tonight’s subject matter, it would be fitting.  So LEon, this one’s for you.

After Work Finds at Wal-Mart

Yesterday, I decided that I was going to return the bin of bottles and cans behind my apartment after work today.  I should have done this weeks ago!  I got 9 dollars from this and decided I would hit up Wal-Mart to check out the toy aisles.  I mean, I just got a couple of extra dollars, right?

I spent less than $4.00, and got two very nice toys.

I have been reading about people finding Back to the Future “time machines” Hot Wheels cars in their areas, so I checked out the selection, specifically for that.  No luck.  But I was able to find the ’81 Delorean DMC-12.  Ever since I saw Back to the Future back in the day, I have always thought Deloreans were some of the coolest looking cars.  If I had the money I would definitely look into buying one.  A couple of years ago, a local car dealership had one of these displayed next to the entrance with the gull-wing doors up.  While it was very nice to see in person, the pricetag was a little too rich for my taste, at $15,000.  This one set me back 98 cents!

Venturing towards the bicycle section, and past the Lego selection, I found a small assortment of Mega Bloks.  Nothing caught my eye until I looked at the Halo mini figures and there were a couple packages of these mixed in.

These are kind of like the blind bag Lego mini figures, except that these guys have a little more articulation.  They peaked my curiosity, so I grabbed one.  Looking at the package, I was hoping to get the black costume Spider-Man.  But I would have settled for the regular Spider-Man, Armored Spider-Man or Venom.

I got Venom!!  You get all of the limbs needed to make a figure, as well as a Mega Blok brick for a display stand and a little flyer showing you the figures and their rarity.  Venom is a common one.

Green Goblin is the super rare one of the series.

I guess the accessories are supposed to be webs, because the other Spider-Men have them as well.  The guys are pretty poseable, and they twist at the waist(actually the sockets the legs go on, spin 360 degrees).  Overall, they’re very nice figures for their size, and worth the $2.50 they sell for.  I hope they keep this as an ongoing line, because I’d like to see a wider variety.

It looks like they even have vehicles and mini playsets.

Very cool!  I’ll probably get a few more.  🙂

Random Quickie #1 – Bowen Designs Mini-Bust : Apocalypse

I wanted to have this post up on Friday, but I have been fighting a bad cold for the past couple of days.  For the first post in this ongoing series, I decided to go with something that is not a toy, but a work of art.

I bought this mini-bust at Midtown Comics sometime in 2000 or 2001.  I used to visit Midtown Comics every week to get my comic fix.  Well, one day I went in and checked out all the mini-busts and statues that they had in a glass case.  Apocalypse, being my all time favorite villain, caught my eye quite quickly.  Not being one to spend a large amount of money on a single item, I perused the rest of the store, to give me some time to think it over.  A short time later, I approached the counter with a few comics, and was asked, “Can I help you with anything else?”.  I replied with something like, “Yes.  I would like one of those mini-busts in the case over here.”.  Ten or so years later, I still think the $55.00 I spent on it was well worth it.

And for those wondering, this is numbered 1993 of 5000.

My Favorite Comic Book Covers #1

As I was thinking of new things to write about, I thought about what I hadn’t yet spoke about.  And immediately, I thought about the close to 1,000 comic books I had stored in long boxes in “The Vault”(aka my closet).

For many years I purchased comic books on a regular basis.  Whether I was 12 years old spending my allowance, or a twenty-something spending a nice chunk of change every week, I was a frequent customer in more than a few comic book shops for more than a decade.  As such, I have an ass-load of comics.

This will mark the first of a series of posts, that will showcase my favorite comic book covers.  The only stipulation is, that I must own the comics I feature.  So you’re not going to see any super-expensive vintage comics here.  So…let’s go!!

The Punisher Vol.2  #47

This is my favorite all-time comic book cover…with good reason.  This was the one that started it all.  I remember walking with my younger brother Jeff and my nephew Victor.  It was a warm Saturday, and my brother and I knew of a comic book store in nearby Pleasantville.  The name of the shop was Adventure Ink and it was a good three mile walk from our house.  We had just gotten our allowance and we decided to check out this comic shop.  You see, this was the first comic book I purchased that started my collection(this is not the original copy I purchased).  I’m pretty sure this cover was echoing Desert Storm.  On this day I discovered my love for comic books and also found out my favorite Marvel Super Hero was the Punisher.  My brother found out that he was a Daredevil fan.  And I found it totally awesome that The Punisher and Daredevil had a little rivalry.

Teenage Nutant Ninja Turtles Vol.1, Book 22

Shortly after I had started collecting comics, I stumbled across some of the old school TMNT books in a back issue box.  I decided to check them out, and I was totally floored!  I loved the stories, the art work, everything.  The original first volume, has amazing cover art.  Being young, I judged my first choices on their cover.  Donatello is my favorite, and yes, while this is an old school comic, and they should all be wearing red, that is clearly Donatello.  I would be hard pressed to tell you anything that happens in any of these comics because I haven’t read any of them in more than 8 years.  I got this one signed by Kevin Eastman at a comic convention at The Theater at Madison Square Garden in 2001 or 2002.  The same show I got this at.

Ghost Rider Vol.3  #15

Now in the early to mid nineties, comic book companies started rolling out all sorts of gimmick covers, to increase sales.  There were holographic covers, prismatic covers, gold embossed covers and this.  A glow-in-the-dark cover.  When your twelve years old…what could be cooler?!  Out of all the gimmick covers released to date, this is my absolute favorite!  The art work is great, and the glow-in-the-dark flames totally fit the subject matter.  This is one of two Ghost Rider comics that I own.

So, that’s the end of the first of, hopefully, a series of posts about my favorite comic book covers.  The comics that appear are in no particular order, except for The Punisher Vol.2 #47, because as stated earlier, it will always be my all-time favorite.

This was actually pretty fun, and I might be able to do posts like this on a regular basis.  What did you think?