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.

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.

A Look into One of My Non-Sports Trading Card Albums

I’ve shown you some of my favorite non-sports trading cards before.  Tonight I’m going to keep the theme, but add a little twist to it.  Instead of showing some single cards in top loaders, we’ll see full 9 card pages from one of my albums.  I’ll cover a good range, but have tons more for future follow ups.

I’m pretty sure that I started collecting trading card before I started to get into collecting comics.  It started with getting some albums full of baseball cards from my older brother and step brother.  The eighties and early nineties were a great time for non-sports trading cards.  This was before companies started adding chaser cards with their various gimmicks.  Most non-sports cards were a regular set of cards and a set of stickers.  Topps had tons of licenses for all the popular properties.  And if you bought a pack of cards manufactured by Topps during this time, you also got the requisite stick of their famous now stale gum.  When the cards were new, the gum was a nice bonus.  But now the gum would be old and stale(trust me, this stuff went bad years ago.Do not eat it).  You can see a picture of this gum from one of my other card related posts here and here.

Here is the album we’ll be peaking into today.

There’s not a single Pokemon card in here!  That’s not to say that I don’t like Pokemon, because I actually do.  They remind me of Battle Beasts in a round about way.  I got into them when the craze started, and got this binder pretty cheap(and it’s officially licensed).  The Gameboy games were what really got me into the lore.  It’s not too bad, give it a chance!  But we’re not here to talk about Pokemon, I just wanted to explain the album choice.

First up…

We have a sampling of my Punisher cards.  The Punisher has been my favorite Marvel character ever since I started collecting comics.  I especially like the old school prismatic sticker(I’ve had this for a long time).  Some of these were found in packs, while others were found in binders in card shops and conventions.

Here we have some stickers from Topps’ Nintendo Game Packs from 1990.  I’ve talked about the cards in a previous post, and briefly mentioned the stickers.  Some of these stickers are pretty ridiculous, but they’re fitting of the time period.  While I’m missing 4 cards from the set, I do have the complete set of stickers.  On the reverse side, they have “Top Secret Tips”.  And I stand by my assessment that they’re bullshit!  Not only did every kid know the tips, but a lot of them were the lamest ones!  I’ll even give you proof with a scan from the backs of the above stickers.

While the tips suck, I love the design!  Any time I think of a spy, that’s exactly what I would imagine.

Aaaaaahhhhhhhh!!!!  One of my favorite shows and toy lines of all time!  These are Pee-Wee’s Playhouse trading cards.  They have 1988 Herman Toys printed on them, and I would guess that’s when they were released.  I never saw these when they originally came out, and I don’t feel like finding the wrapper to find out, so we’ll assume that they were released in ’88.  These were something special.  Topps went a different route with this set than they did with any of their other licenses.  These were sold in “Fun Packs”.  Fun Packs we’re more like a trading card goodie bag.  You get cards, temporary tattoos, stickers and a lenticular card in every pack!  You can usually find loose packs on Ebay for as low as $1.50 a pack(although most will overcharge for them, so shop around).

These are some of the cards for the custom comic art from Mallrats(I guess these would be considered a sub-set).  If you’ve seen the movie, these were shown during the end credits.  When I worked at Tower Video, we got all types of cool stuff.  As soon as these hit the shelf, I bought the whole box(with a very nice employee discount)!  I thought that I made a complete set, and gave away all of my doubles.  But, I made a mistake, and my set is one card short of being complete.  😦

These are the first series of trading cards based on The Simpsons.  Released in 1990 by, you guessed it…Topps.  These were released around the time Simpsons-mania started.  The animation is rough compared to the polished look of The Simpsons today.  And that’s part of the charm!  The earlier episodes had a bit of a different feel to them compared to a bulk of the series.

I just have one last card to show you tonight.  This is just an awesome card from one of the most memorable scenes from any movie, period!  I’m thinking of using it for my banner.  What do you think?

I think this would work great for an anti-meth poster.  Dontcha think?  🙂

My Favorite Comic Book Covers #2 (The #1s)

Okay.  I had fun doing the last comic book cover entry, so I will continue to write posts about them.  The title of this post refers to the first issue of a comic.  This installment will feature six comics!  It was hard to narrow it down, but I could always write a part 2.  Let’s get to it!

X-Men Vol.2 #1

This was a huge deal when it hit shops in 1991.  Jim Lee was just starting to get huge, and with 3 or 4 variant covers, this was a hot item.  Of all of the covers for this issue, this is the only one I own.  This one folds out to reveal a larger picture(maybe I’ll dig it out at a later date and show you).  This cover stands out, because it takes up the whole canvas.  There’s no borders, or pricing, or artists and writers names on the cover, just a small Marvel Comics logo.  I love the logo and Jim Lee was definitely at the top of his game when he drew this!  I got this(along with a handful of other comics with covers done by Jim Lee), signed at one of he few Big Apple Comic-Con’s I attended around 2001-2002.  There was no limit set,and I waited behind people with stacks of books.  I also ended up getting him to sketch Logan for me(eventually you’ll get to see that too).  A really awesome cover from a really awesome guy!

The Maxx #1

That first shot is the glow-in-the-dark cover of the first issue for The Maxx.  The one below it is the more common one(I also have the 3-D version but the cover isn’t all that different and it’s not in 3-D).  Sam Kieth is my all-time favorite artist.  He has done some pretty weird stuff, and this is no exception.  I own all 35 1/2 issues, and the story combined with Kieth’s artwork is mind blowing.  And while the show on Mtv was pretty good, just as with books, the comics are better.  I was pretty bummed out that he had to cancel his appearance at a convention that I went to, but Sergio Aragones was there, so it wasn’t a total loss(more on that at another time).  In the future we’ll see his renditions of Batman, Wolverine, Ghost Rider, The Hulk and many more, all in his trademark style.

The Punisher #1 (mini-series)

When I started collecting comics, The Punisher quickly became my favorite.  This is the first issue of the 4 part(really 5 part) mini-series.  While Mike Zeck was the penciler for the interior art (issues 1-4), he and Phil Zimelman painted the covers.  These books have a certain style that’s just incredible.  I remember looking at the price guides and seeing these issues going for like 40-50 dollars.  This was years before graded comics were even heard of, so prices for ungraded copies are now considerably lower.  I had always wanted this mini-series, and I effectively hunted every issue down during my early twenties.  To this day, they remain some of the most unique renditions of The Punisher that I have ever seen.

The Savage Dragon #1

When Image Comics formed in 1992, they had a lot of hype going for them.  Here was a company that was formed by some of the top artists in comics.  The Savage Dragon here, is the creation of Erik Larsen.  You could guarantee that everyone in my age group at the time was buying up every issue of every new comic they released.  Back in those days, I was a sucker for the first issue of any comic.  I guess I was thinking if it was a number 1, it would be worth big bucks in the future.  While these books aren’t rare or expensive, I have great memories of the times they were first released, and that means more to me than the value of a comic.  The guy is a human dragon hybrid with a fin on his head…what’s not to like?

Beetlejuice #1

Now while this isn’t the copy I had then, I can still remember where I picked up this issue first.  I believe we were visiting my step mom’s mother in the hospital, and my brother and I were allowed to get an item from the gift shop(probably just to shut us up and keep us occupied).  Obviously, the comic above was my choice.  This is based on the Beetlejuice animated series, and like others before it, the quirky style called to me.  I can remember pouring over this series trying to draw what I was seeing.  Please give it a read before you turn your nose up at me.  🙂

Stupid #1

This was supposed to be a series that actually made fun of Image properties.  Sadly, there were no further issues after this initial release.  Hilary Barta was the artist for this series, and I love his style.  Barta worked as an inker( a tracer[that was a joke, sorry Hilary]), and penciler for quite a few titles in the 80s.  Here we see how he exaggerated Spawn’s cape.  A few pages in, his cape is actually stapled to the page, it’s quite funny.  Barta’s style compliments the comedy contained within.  Here is the “Where’s Aldo” work he did at the end of this comic.

I absolutely love it!  There is so much going on, and again his style is intriguing.  I wish they went along with further issues, because look at what would have been next.