You are on Page 2 of the Leader's Report on The Fayetteville Comic Con 21-22 April 2023

Click here for Page 1 of the Leader's Report on The Fayetteville Comic Con 21-22 April 2023

Click here for the Main Introduction Page to see the Leader's Report on the Virginia Comic Con, the Tidewater Comic Con and the Columbus Moving Picture Show and the Heroes Convention

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Saturday 22 April 2023

Gerald Hogan This is Trilogy Comics's Gerald Hogan's booths seen from the back. Gerald has so much stuff it takes my widest angle lens to get it all in in the shot.	Gerald Hogan Here's Gerald holding down the money changing station in front of his booths shortly before the show opens to the public.	Jimmy Shirah Jimmy all set up with his big selection of posters for sale.

Jimmy Shirah Jimmy with his first customers of the day. I collected the famous monster magazine Famous Monsters of Filmland a bit in the 1960s. By 1975 I had a car but I was still living in Savannah, Georgia and New York City was to far to drive to a convention.	Jimmy Shirah Jimmy with one of his Star Trek posters. I've been a Star Trek fan since the original TV show went into syndication in the early 1970s and currently have several Star Trek posters adorning the walls of my home.	Jeff Avigliano I last saw comic book dealer Jeff Avigliano at the South Carolina Con in Greenville in 2019. For this show Jeff didn't have any comics but he had a nice display of posters and photos, many of them autographed.

Jeff Avigliano Jeff with a framed illustration autographed by Marvel Comics' legendary editor and writer Stan Lee and his most famous co-creation, Spider-Man. Lee's autograph is worth about $100 and I estimate the framing job costs about $200. So at $375 that must be a really rare illustration.	Bob Cunningham Bob wheeling and dealing with his customers. I'll see him at the October 2023 edition of this show in the same spot doing the same thing.	Bob Cunningham Bob with the DC comic Detective Comics #240, 1957 with a Batman cover by Batman's frequent cover artist in those years, Sheldon Moldoff. I've just started reading Batman The Silver Age Omnibus Volume 1 which contains all the Batman stories from July 1956 through July 1958. I only read one or two stories each night so it will take a few more weeks before I get to read this issue.

Bryan Barros Here's Bryan with the Marvel comic Journey Into Mystery #114, 1965 which is first appearance of Crusher Creel the Absorbing Man. This is the first issue of Journey Into Mystery I remember having as a kid in Savannah, Georgia. I was still flirting with becoming a Marvel collector and didn't buy another issue of this title until #124. The #115, 1965 features Doctor Don Blake revealing his true identity as the Norse Thunder God, Thor to his mortal girlfriend Jane Foster who was Blake's nurse. Thor's father, Odin, had always opposed his son Thor loving a mortal woman and it turns out father knew best. A few years later Thor realized that gods and mortals don't really mix well and he traded in Jane Foster for the Norse goddess Sif.	Wes Flanary Wes with his lovely display of original oil painting and prints.	Wes Flanary Wes with some of his 1930s Universal Studios's immortal monsters: Bela Lugosi as Dracula, Claude Rains as the Invisible Man and Elsa Lanchester as the Bride of Frankenstein. Also the 1950s Hammer Films star Christopher Lee as Dracula.

Mario Russo Mario told me he wasn't going to do this show but a problem came up with the other show he had planned on attending so he managed to substitute this show. Mario normally has a nice corner booth but due to the hasty last minute arrangements he had to settle for an inline booth which he wasn't real happy with. I expect to see Mario next at the Tidewater Comic Con in late may in my town of Virginia Beach which is a show Mario usually attends.	Mario Russo Mario with a CGC graded copy of the Marvel comic The Avengers #11, 1964. The Spider-Man who battles the Avengers in this issue isn't the real Spider-Man but a robot created by Avengers adversary Kang the Conqueror looking to redress his defeat by the Avengers in issue #8 a few months earlier. The real Spider-Man makes a brief appearance near the end of the story. I remember thinking when I read this comic in the 1960s that The Avengers regular artist Don Heck didn't draw a good Spider-Man. Only Steve Ditko do that.	Larry Hayes Larry Hayes owner of Welcome Back Kollectables with the Avon comic book Space Detective #1, 1951. 1950s science fiction and horor comics even in mid-grade like this example command big prices. Note the green price sticker on the bottom right corner of the CGC holder. This comic has a cover that appears to be drawn by famous artist Wally Wood but the Grand Comics Database (GCD) says Joe Orlando drew the cover and Wally Wood inked it. Wood obviously inked it so heavily it looks like he drew it. The GCD also notes that the three stories in the comic are drawn by Joe Orlando with inking by Wally Wood. Both Orlando and Wood were both working at EC Comics and did some moonlighting at other publishers on the side. The GCD says that pulp writer Walter Gibson wrote the three stories. Gibson is best known as the inventor and pulp magazine writer of the fictional vigilante detective the Shadow. I did manage to buy a high grade copy of Space Detective #2 from big time comic book dealer Bruce Hamilton at the San Diego Comic Con in the early 1980s. I thumbed through the comic before buying it and said to Mr. Hamilton the art didn't really look much like Wally Wood. Mr. Hamilton replied the art was probably "Wood in a hurry." The GCD doesn't list the artists for the stories in #2.

Banks Robinson Banks in his booth talking with a customer. Sitting down is Banks's protege Mac Barnes. At far right sitting down is another assistant Daniel Murphy sorting through some comics. Banks always has excellent Silver and Bronze Age comic inventory and since his main competitors at this show Gene Carpenter and Robert Griffin were absent Banks clearly had the best such inventory at the show.

Banks Robinson In the 1950s and 1960s the Western Publishing Company with their comic imprints Dell and later Gold Key was the dominant player for publishing comic books derived from motion pictures and television. Dell and Gold Key comics frequently had a photo cover or nicely painted cover instead of the usual line art covers used by Marvel, DC and other publishers. Here's Banks with some Dell and Gold Key comics all from movies and TV shows about ancient and medieval history which is one of my favorite film genres. The Castilian was from a 1964 USA-Spain co-produced movie filmed in Spain. It is a poor man's version of the far more famous and sumptuous El Cid from 1961. This movie couldn't afford Charlton Heston and Sophia Loren but The Castilian does have a few actors familiar to American audiences: Frankie Avalon, Broderick Crawford, Cesar Romero, Fernando Rey and the pretty Italian actress Alida Valli. There is a DVD on this from the Warner Archive series. Warner is good about releasing lots of old movies on Blu-Ray so maybe one day this movie will make it to Blu-Ray. The comic book story was drawn by Marvel artist Joe Sinnott remembered for being Jack Kirby's best inker on The Fantastic Four. Knights of the Roundtable is #540, 1954 from the Dell Four Color series and derived from the 1953 M-G-M movie of the same name starring Robert Taylor and Ava Gardner. That's Taylor on the cover as Sir Lancelot. Surprisingly, I've managed to live 69 years without seeing this movie and I hope that will be corrected some day. As consolation, I do have the Warner Archive Blu-Ray of Robert Taylor's 1953 excellent medieval epic Ivanhoe with wonderful picture quality. The Fall of the Roman Empire was from the 1964 movie produced by Samuel Bronston Productions and released by Paramount Pictures. This movie came very near the end of the big budget spectacular ancient history movie genre that started with The Robe in 1954. At least that genre went out on a high note with this movie having good battle scenes, lavish sets and a cast of famous actors. My only regret is Charlton Heston and Kirk Douglas both turned down the male lead which went to Stephen Boyd. I do have a Blu-Ray of this movie but it's from Germany and therefore has Region B coding instead of Region A for the American market. I haven't been able to watch it since my region free Blu-Ray player quit on me. Walt Disney Presents The Fighting Prince of Donegal was based on the 1966 Disney theatrical movie The Fighting Prince of Donegal which was televised in 1967 in three episodes of the Disney TV series. That is the reverse of what I thought was the more common practice of cobbling together the episodes from a Disney TV series and releasing them later as a theatrical movie. Surprisingly, this obscure Disney property is available on DVD as part of the Walt Disney Treasures series of DVD releases. Don't hold your breath waiting for a Blu-Ray release. The Disney company has always been lazy about releasing their old TV shows and movies on regular DVD, much less Blu-Ray.

Lewis Forro, Banks Robinson, Mac Barnes, Daniel Murphy It's late Saturday afternoon and I have all the photos I need of the important dealers I like so that wraps up the April edition of the Fayetteville Comi Con for me. I'll be back for the next show in October.

Click here for Page 1 of the Leader's Report on Fayetteville Comic Con 21-22 April 2023

Click here for the Main Introduction Page to see the Leader's Report on the Virginia Comic Con, the Tidewater Comic Con and the Columbus Moving Picture Show and the Heroes Convention