San Diego Con Horror Story
Steven E Barnes
Scene in dealer room, with Fanboy looking at issues of
Youngblood #1:
Fanboy: "How much?"
Dealer: "$3.00 each"
Fanboy: "I'll take all of them"
Dealer: "OK, that's 33; take two more comics and I'll call it an even
$100"
-steve
Conty-kun
I have a better one for you:
Remember X-FORCE #1? The one with the "pre-bagged with
five different trading cards" gimmick? I remember this one
kid walking in and taking EVERY SINGLE COPY on the shelves and
plopping them on the counter. About 70 copies or so. While
browsing around, I found a copy that had somehow ended on the
shelf behind where the X-FORCE copies used to be. I took it,
brought it to the kid, and said: "Here's another one".
You could see the panic on his face as he saw the one copy of
X-FORCE that would be left for someone else to buy if he
didn't GRAB IT FIRST!!
I didn't have the heart to tell him about the two long boxes
of X-FORCE Jamie (the owner) had upstairs...
Anyone have more horror stories from Fanboy Hell?
--
E n r i q u e C o n t y
The Incredible Man-with-no-Life
jes...@ihlpl.att.com
Disclaimer: You're not dealing with AT&T
Rick Jones
I didn't personally see it, but the guy who ran the store where
I used to shop said some guy who doesn't read comics at all bought
all the copies of Superman #50 (where he proposes to Lois) after seeing
a mention of it on TV. I also heard from the folks at the store where
I go now (fewer fanboys, and the staff is cooler) that some kid bought
50 X-force #1 (or 10 of each, I fergit).
However, it nice to see when this older ("Dad") type asked if
Sandman was any good, he got a chorus of "yes-es" from me, the folks
behind the counter, and another guy in line. Another convert, mwah-hah-hah!
Also, Elmo has gotten me into Zot, (and Tick).
How about the reverse? Anyone else have any "save the fanboy"
stories?
--
Rick Jones Systems Support Center
alb...@bcm.tmc.edu Baylor College of Medicine
Voice: 713-798-7352 standard disclaimers apply
"Do not taunt Happy Fun Ball."-Saturday Night Live
michael kelly
*GASP*
This didn't really happen, did it? Oh the humanity....
--
+ Mike Kelly, Notre Dame Department of Physics +
+ +
+ mke...@happy.helios.nd.edu "Come, come Slygg..." +
+ mke...@undhe5.hep.nd.edu +
David Henry
Sitting in local store, waiting for shipment to come in, kibbitzing
with owner. Fan Boy approaches, holding multiple bagged copies of X-Force
#1, already wisely prebagged by shop owner at considerable mark-up (non
Fan Boys who really wanted the thing could ask him for cover price copy --
or just get it free). I point out to him, while owner is happily counting
issues, that he DID NOT have every possible card. Evil me, I convince him to
buy more prebagged issues just to meet his "Minimum Card Quota," about which I
made up some stats on the spot showing how multiple purchases of the same
card drive up local investor prices, allowing clever Fan Boys to retire early
on large profits gained thereof, and plaster walls with mucho Lobo, Cable,
etc. posters. So, he doubled his order.
The owner was appreciative enough to offer me my own copy of X-Force #1
free, which I declined. As for why I was so evil -- I really don't know. If
it had been a younger kid, I'd probably have kept my mouth shut, but it was
a long-time collector -- no, change that to investor, who had great dreams
of making much money off selling Liefeld art down the road, and who had been
in the business around my town for some while, and really should have known
better, especially considering who the advice was coming from.
And that's my thrilling Screw the Fan Boy story.
All this, admittedly, coming from a X-fan, but a wise and learned X-fan
(read: no Wolverine, no silly x-overs, no X-Force, no X-factor if it wasn't
for PAD, no ...).
"First you bag 'em, then you eat 'em."
--Harley Dorna Krispee,
on his large collection of post-expiration date
Twinkees, Richard Darwin #17
--
David R. Henry - Rogue Fan Club - CTHULHU in '92! Why vote for LESSER evils?
For Kate is a jealous God, and requires sacrifice./What was your question?--K
"All you of Earth are IDIOTS!"-P9fOS // Thanks... for the memories.--Rogue
dhe...@plains.nodak.edu * ud13...@ndsuvm1.bitnet * ud13...@vm1.nodak.edu
andrew.c.durston
Gee,
Perhaps he would like my copy as well. Or better yet, would
he like my copies of ShadowHawk 1 and Brigade 1, ecch!
:-) :-)
ACDurston,..!att!hotld!acd
Jed Bowtell
The way I see it is in ten years it will be good to look back
at these comics we bought and laugh. I didnt by Shadowhawk or
Brigade though. I only stuffed up slightly by buying
Youngblood #1. I think in a couple of years there will be a
whole new generation of fanboys just aching for some copies
of Youngblood #1. Hold onto it!
Jed
John S Sinnott
>>Gee,
>> Perhaps he would like my copy as well. Or better yet, would
>> he like my copies of ShadowHawk 1 and Brigade 1, ecch!
>> :-) :-)
>The way I see it is in ten years it will be good to look back
>at these comics we bought and laugh. I didnt by Shadowhawk or
>Brigade though. I only stuffed up slightly by buying
>Youngblood #1. I think in a couple of years there will be a
>whole new generation of fanboys just aching for some copies
>of Youngblood #1. Hold onto it!
>Jed
Yea, Youngblood #1 will be worth a fortune, like all of those other 'hot'
books from yesteryear. I bought a Shazam #1 for $0.35 and now it's worth
a whole $2.50! And it took less than 20 years to get that high. Or
remember Howard the Duck #1?? I still have one I paid $20 for at the peak
of it's popularity. Now it's worth $10! And remember when it was rumored
that part of the print run for Miricle Man #1 was damaged? Boy it's a
really hot book, guiding at cover price. Save you Youngbloods. Someday
they might make good kindling.
-John
Michael S. Schiffer
>>The way I see it is in ten years it will be good to look back
>>at these comics we bought and laugh. I didnt by Shadowhawk or
>>Brigade though. I only stuffed up slightly by buying
>>Youngblood #1. I think in a couple of years there will be a
>>whole new generation of fanboys just aching for some copies
>>of Youngblood #1. Hold onto it!
>Yea, Youngblood #1 will be worth a fortune, like all of those other 'hot'
>books from yesteryear. I bought a Shazam #1 for $0.35 and now it's worth
>a whole $2.50! And it took less than 20 years to get that high. Or
Well, personally I'm uninterested in comic book speculation, as
there's little chance that I could bring myself to sell even my
least-liked books-- and besides, it's a choice between getting paid
some fraction of market value by a dealer or taking the time and
trouble to market them oneself at cons or on the net, neither of which
interests me. I buy my comics to read them. However, I will point
out that going from $.35 to $2.50 in twenty years is a 10%/year return
on your investment. Not incredible (particularly with the interest
rates of the early eighties), but not awful either. Given that most
investments require larger minimums to participate (try buying a
T-bill, a share of stock, or a municipal bond for $.35-- or even the
$1 to $7 or so that a comic costs today), your Shazam #1 was probably
the most profitable investment of $.35 you could have made (assuming
that you can actually realize $2.50 for it, which gets back to the
points made above about selling comics). Certainly it beats putting
it in the bank-- at 5% interest (probably about average over the last
twenty years) you'd have $.92 at the end of it; adjusting for
inflation since 1972, I'm fairly certain you'd have lost money,
whereas I'd guess (not having a Consumer Price index table handy) that
$2.50 in 1992 dollars is still worth more than $.35 in 1972 dollars.
>remember Howard the Duck #1?? I still have one I paid $20 for at the peak
>of it's popularity. Now it's worth $10!
Um... buying something with a variable price at the peak of its
popularity is something one can expect to be a poor investment
decision (though it might be a perfectly reasonable decision if the
primary reason for buying it was to read the book rather than to make
a profit).
And remember when it was rumored
>that part of the print run for Miricle Man #1 was damaged? Boy it's a
>really hot book, guiding at cover price. Save you Youngbloods. Someday
>they might make good kindling.
Having said all that, I'll grant that Youngblood seems very unlikely
to become valuable, precisely because it's apparently being hoarded by
collectors. Basically, if all those Youngblood #1's are disposed of
in the immemorial fashion of so many baseball card and comic
collections of the past (i.e. by Mom) then remaining copies of
Youngblood #1 may be valuable. If they're kept and put back into the
resale market (which seems more likely, given the greater interest in
comics collecting in general these days) then they can probably be
expected to be in the $.50 cent bins (adjusted for inflation :-) ) of
2010.
Mike
--
Michael S. Schiffer, LHN, FCS "Workers of the world, forgive me.
ms...@midway.uchicago.edu You had more to lose than I thought."
mike.s...@um.cc.umich.edu -- Karl Marx (1990) as imagined by
ms...@usite-next.uchicago.edu Jim Koncz (ko...@midway.uchicago.edu)
Jed Bowtell
>>The way I see it is in ten years it will be good to look back
>>at these comics we bought and laugh. I didnt by Shadowhawk or
>>Brigade though. I only stuffed up slightly by buying
>>Youngblood #1. I think in a couple of years there will be a
>>whole new generation of fanboys just aching for some copies
>>of Youngblood #1. Hold onto it!
>Yea, Youngblood #1 will be worth a fortune, like all of those other 'hot'
>books from yesteryear. I bought a Shazam #1 for $0.35 and now it's worth
>a whole $2.50! And it took less than 20 years to get that high. Or
>remember Howard the Duck #1?? I still have one I paid $20 for at the peak
>of it's popularity. Now it's worth $10! And remember when it was rumored
>that part of the print run for Miricle Man #1 was damaged? Boy it's a
>really hot book, guiding at cover price. Save you Youngbloods. Someday
>they might make good kindling.
Well you might be ri (i've only been getting comics for
about 3 years) but I think it will be reasonable valuable.
At lease you can rip off a fanboy at a con in 10 years.
Maybe everyone has your attitude and will throw their
copies away (if you even bought one).
Jed
glenn alan carnagey jr
>>The way I see it is in ten years it will be good to look back
>>at these comics we bought and laugh. I didnt by Shadowhawk or
>Yea, Youngblood #1 will be worth a fortune, like all of those other 'hot'
>books from yesteryear. I bought a Shazam #1 for $0.35 and now it's worth
>a whole $2.50! And it took less than 20 years to get that high. Or
>remember Howard the Duck #1?? I still have one I paid $20 for at the peak
>of it's popularity. Now it's worth $10! And remember when it was rumored
>that part of the print run for Miricle Man #1 was damaged? Boy it's a
>really hot book, guiding at cover price. Save you Youngbloods. Someday
>they might make good kindling.
Well, there's a real difference here, I bought all three of these at cover
price, but only one of each with no thought to what they might be worth.
But the real difference was that I bought because I thought I would like
*readin* them and for no other reason, and I was certainly a fan-boy at the
time. I can't remember seeing anybody who wasn't a reseller buy
more than one extra copy of anything or paying $20 for anything that was less
than the same number of years in age. Hell, I still wouldn't pay $20 for a
newer serial, the only difference is it would probably have to be 25 years
or more. And I'd still have to be interested a great deal in the content,
if it's only nostalgia. But these kids are creepy junior capitalists without
a clue and their idiocy is beginning to affect titles I do care about. I'm
not going to be laughing if it this affects what's on the shelves like it
currently looks like it may. Yeah, the new Vertigo titles may keep me
interested and I already buy more indies than big two, but these kids and
their insanity may ruin what's left of the better-written non-mature DC
titles for me (with a lot of help from the children running DC). I don't
find that very funny.
Pax ex machina,
Glenn
......................................................................
"Can this world really be as sad as it seems?"
--- Nine Inch Nails
g-car...@uchicago.edu
......................................................................
Paul A. Estin
>>Dealer: "OK, that's 33; take two more comics and I'll call it an even
>> $100"
>Maybe he is going to wallpaper his apartment. Nah... he is a fanboy,
>He will cherish all 33 copies, plus the other 50 he has at home.
Actually, a wall covered with multiple copies of the same issue would
give an interesting Andy Warhol style ambiance to a room, don't you
think? :)
More seriously, I've been known to hang up on the wall various *nice*
cover art issues (all bagged-- can't figure out any other way to hang
it-- with one of them an early Question issue signed in silver ink by
Denys Cowan, so it looks like real art :). So, a couple of
questions...
1. Does anyone else use comics as wall art? Which issues?
2. Does this damage the comics at all seriously (curling, fading...)?
Actually, make that three (weapons of the Spanish Inquisition)...
3. I've never bought an original art page to hang; has anyone out
there done so? What did you get? How's it look?
-----
"I love deadlines. I like the whooshing sound they make as they
fly by." --Douglas Adams
Paul Andrew Estin, net.Snark, r.a.c Welcome Poster, HoloMuck Chancellor,
Fellow of the Clementine Society, UCSFC First Consul/ Keeper of the Slinky
HOME/ es...@csmil.umich.edu 214 Beakes St. Ann Arbor, MI 48104 313-994-3869
WORK: es...@um.cc.umich.edu 330 Packard Rd. 48104 313-747-3699 <- new! --^
FUN ACCOUNT: es...@midway.uchicago.edu
Lazlo Nibble
> More seriously, I've been known to hang up on the wall various *nice*
> cover art issues (all bagged-- can't figure out any other way to hang
> it)...
There's a company somewhere (sorry I can't be more helpful) that sells
snap-together comic frames for exactly this purpose.
> I've never bought an original art page to hang; has anyone out there
> done so? What did you get? How's it look?
My friend Scott gave me a page of one of his _Horny Biker Slut Comics_
pages for my birthday last year. It's in a 20x15" black metal frame, with
two layers of black-core matting around it (the outer one is a grayish
pink, the narrow inner one is a dark maroon), and looks absolutely
gorgeous. If you're framing original art, you really ought to go for the
black-core matteboard -- it sets off the art really well if you have a lot
of solid blacks, and draws your attention towards the page.
One place at SDCC had the originals for a two-page color _Tank Girl_
spread for sale for $300. I guess it would have been hard to mount,
but damn it looked good!
Now, does anyone have any tips for framing *cels*?
--
Lazlo (la...@triton.unm.edu)
The Shadow
What I always wondered about hanging them up on the walls like you see
in the comic shops is the light hitting them... i.e., sunlight...
doesn't seem like that would be too good, eh? What about artificial
lighting, though?
or, of course... just do like JNIEMANN and tear all the pages
apart... <CRINGE>
ahh... that just brought something else to mind... does anybody else
cringe when they walk by a stand-up display of comics in places like
the supermarket? All of those bent/ripped/mutilated books hanging out
of the racks... or maybe thats just me...
James A Berninger
>More seriously, I've been known to hang up on the wall various *nice*
>cover art issues (all bagged-- can't figure out any other way to hang
>it-- with one of them an early Question issue signed in silver ink by
>Denys Cowan, so it looks like real art :). So, a couple of
>questions...
>
>1. Does anyone else use comics as wall art? Which issues?
pretty good poses on the cover but were pretty worthless (eg.,
Action 643, Starman 1, Flash 11 to name a few). Then I got out my
trusty Exacto (tm) knife and cut out the main characters and pasted
them together to make a fairly neat (albeit small) poster. I used a
glue-stick for mounting to a sheet of posterboard, and one of those
rather cheap plastic poster frames from Target. The end result
doesn't look anything like the "History of the DC Universe" poster,
but the amount of time and effort I put into it make it look halfway
decent to me. (And it had better, when you consider the detail in
one of George Perez' Wonder Woman covers...)
>2. Does this damage the comics at all seriously (curling, fading...)?
They haven't faded or curled in about a year, but they're not in a
strongly-lit place.
>3. I've never bought an original art page to hang; has anyone out
>there done so? What did you get? How's it look?
I didn't buy it to hang (actually, I didn't buy it -- it was a gift
from my "ex", since I financed his trip to Europe), but I have the
splash page from Green Lantern 172 (Dave Gibbons) on my living room
wall. This, I had professionally done. The frame is black metallic
with UV-protective glass. The art is surrounded by a black matte,
cut to leave a thin white border around the art and indicia. Since
the art is strictly black and white, the black frame and matte look
pretty good (green may have been more appropriate, but it just
didn't look right at the store).
Jim Berninger ______ "This is no 'Whoops!' This is
B0 w- c- g k s- e r- p \ / an 'Aaaaaaaauuuuuggggghhhh!'"
bern...@cn.ecn.purdue.edu \ / - Harvey ("Arnold") Fierstein
Green Lantern Fan, Extraordinaire \/ "Torch Song Trilogy"
Conty III
>
> Now, does anyone have any tips for framing *cels*?
From what I've seen, the black frame you described is the preferred method.
You'll want to have some solid backing for your cel, probably in a dark
neutral color (medium/dark gray seems to work well).
Maybe someone in rec.arts.animation can give expert advice?
Joe Comeau
Hanging comics on walls I do a lot in my Den. When friends come over they
love to look at the covers. Especially stuff like Quantum Leap, Special
covers Old Covers etc. I used to use Mylars and punch holes in them and
then hang them on finishing nails in the wall. Now I bought these comic
wall hangers that are about $1.00 each and don't ruin your entire wall, just
the top.
Original art is great!
If you are going to hang it you should get it framed.
I have Many Mcfarlane Year Two Batman pages and a cover as well.
Air Brused Ghost Busters cover (colour) & Airbrushed Ironman page
as well. Many other pages scattered in my collection as well.
BWS cnanan pages are nice, Chaykin pages, Byrne pages, Miller page.
They are not all hanging. Not enough wall space.
Make sure what ever you hang never gets hit by direct sun light and
that you change items atleast once per year to give the item a break
from light. All light damages covers and original art unless you can
aford to get it UV protected and framed (Big bucks).
Jonathan Coxhead
I used two copies of the Bullseye vs Elektra issue of Daredevil by Frank
Miller to decorate my room in my second year at college.
I bought two extra copies, cut them all up and assembled them into a
rectangular array. The effect of being able to see the whole story at once
was curious: you noticed all kinds of things about Miller's layout technique
that you might not have otherwise. I've never been tempted to do it with
work by anyone else, but his style - large chunky figures, bold page layout
and dynamic figures - fit the presentation very well.
Am I the only one to have tried this?
/|
(_|/
/|
(_/
Leif Magnar Kj|nn|y
I did about the same thing with an extra (Swedish-language, by the way) copy of
The Dark Knight Returns (part 4). Worked great....
Leif the .sig-less
Crisper Than Thou
>>>The way I see it is in ten years it will be good to look back
>>>at these comics we bought and laugh. I didnt by Shadowhawk or
>...
>
>>Yea, Youngblood #1 will be worth a fortune, like all of those other 'hot'
>>books from yesteryear. I bought a Shazam #1 for $0.35 and now it's worth
>>a whole $2.50! And it took less than 20 years to get that high. Or
>>remember Howard the Duck #1?? I still have one I paid $20 for at the peak
>>of it's popularity. Now it's worth $10! And remember when it was rumored
>>that part of the print run for Miricle Man #1 was damaged? Boy it's a
>>really hot book, guiding at cover price. Save you Youngbloods. Someday
>>they might make good kindling.
>
The other thing I find so laughable is that value is almost always related
to availability in collectibles of ANY kind. There are, what, a few *million*
copies of Youngblood #1 running around, and a *huge* number of those are,
apparently, bagged in mylar and stored in a cool, dry place. Meaning that
in fifty years, there will *still* be a few million copies of Youngblood #1
in the world. And after everyone begins to realize how bad Image's work
is, basically (and it WILL happen-- just like it's hard to find anyone who
was highly impressed by McFarlane's writing on SPIDERMAN, for example), those
books will stop gaining value and pretty soon you'll be seeing them in
50-cent racks all over America.
--The Elder Dan
"Tank you Easter Bunny. BOK! BOK!"