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Your narrator, the Leader

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Sunday 20 August 2022

Michael Lantz Here's dealer Guy Rose associate Michael Lantz with the Marvel comics The Fantastic Four #23, 28 and Annual #2 all from 1964. Michael's note on the cover of #28 marks this as the first crossover of the X-Men into another Marvel title; more accurately Fantastic Four #28 is the first time all of the X-Men appeared on the cover of a Marvel title outside their own. The entire team of X-Men first appeared outside their own title in Tales Of Suspense #49 a few months earlier in October 1963 which featured a battle between Iron Man and X-Men member the Angel.	Julio Crespo Julio Crespo is another dealer who always sets up with Guy Rose. Julio has been selling off his own personal comic collection at the VA Comicon for several years. Here's Julio with three CGC graded DC comic books - Superman #94, 1955, with a cover by Win Mortimer who drew mostly covers, not stories and #107, 1956 with a cover by Superman mainstay artist Wayne Boring and #233, 1971 with a cover by artist Neal Adams. I never read Superman and Batman much as a kid in the 1960s but I've been enjoying reading their late 1940s and 1950s stories in the hardcover omnibus books that have been coming out the last several years. The next Superman omnibus (Voiume 7) is coming out this November and it will probably two years at least before the next one.	Guy Rose And here's the old comic book veteran himself Guy Rose presiding over his booth. To his right is another of his associates, Donald Jones. Check out those interesting Golden and Siver Age comics on Guy's display wall. Guy told me at this show that he thinks he's getting to old to keep setting up at comic shows and the upcoming November VA Comicon may be his last show as a dealer. I'll only believe that when I see it because I know wheeling and dealing in comics is in Guy's blood.

>	Guy Rose I am a big fan of the "Pre-Marvels" which were the comic books Marvel published in the late 1950s and early 1960s before superheroes took over their books and began the Marvel Age of Comics. Some of the The Pre-Marvel titles were Amazing Adventures (turned into Amazing Adult Fantasy ) Strange Tales, Journey Into Mystery, Tales Of Suspense, Tales To Astonish which contained science fictiona and fantasy stories. These five titles began changing over to superhero stories circa 1962 and by late 1963 the science fiction and fantasy stories were completely gone. Two other Pre-Marvel titles, Strange Worlds and World Of Fantasy never had any superhero stories and were discontinued. The first time Marvel reprinted any of these Pre-Marvel stories was in Strange Tales Annual #1, 1962 which precedes the first Marvel Annual with superheroes, Fantastic Four Annual #1, 1963. The last Strange Tales Annual was #2, 1963 which featured an original superhero story with Spider-Man battling the Human Torch but it did have lots of Pre-Marvel stories also. I hadn't seen this beloved old Strange Annual #1 for a long time so when I spotted it on Guy Rose's display wall I asked Guy to pose with it. Here's a closer look at it.	Guy Rose Guy with two CBCS graded Atomic Age comics. The DC science fiction comic Strange Adventures #9, 1951 has a cover by top DC artist Carmine Infantino and features the first appearance and origin of Captain Comet. DC's more famous Adam Strange from Mystery In Space was reprinted properly in color a few years ago in a hardcover omnibus. It's a good bet that the lesser known space adventure heroes Captain Comet and Space Ranger will never get the same treatment. The Marvel Tales #94, 1949 has a cover drawn by 1940s Timely comics and 1950s Atlas comics big name artist Bill Everett. This comic and other 1949 Timely comics sports a circular Marvel Comic logo. After about 1949 any type of Marvel cover logo wasn't seen again until about 1962 when Marvel Comics was born out of the ashes of the Atlas Implosion.

Robert Griffin, Banks Robinson, Shelton Drum Here are the three most important comic dealers from outside the state of Virginia who set up at this show about once a year.	Robert Griffin I hadn't seen Robert Griffin of Moving Picture Comics since the South Carolina Comic Con in Greenville last March 2019. Robert says he's keept buy doing shows and I look forward to crossing paths with him again.	Robert Griffin Robert with two EC comics: Weird Fantasy #6 and #8 both from 1951 and both with covers drawn by EC's top writer Al Feldstein. Robert still makes better labels than all the other dealers for his comics.

Banks Robinson I last saw veteran comic book dealer Banks Robinson of Columbia, South Carolina at the Fayetteville Comic Con in North Carolina last April 2022. Normally when Banks sets up at this show with his friend Rick Fortenberry but Rick couldn't make it this time. The Atlas comics Banks is showing here come from the two boxes at left you see labeled "Atlas" and "Lammers Collection." They are from the collection of noted Atlas comics collector Tom Lammers. For the last several years Banks has been selling Tom's Atlas comics on consignment. A long out of print fanzine of Tom's Tales Of The Implosion was recently updated and reprinted as a softcover and hardcover book. The Joker #10 at right is actually a Timely comic which ran 42 issues from 1941 - 1950 before Atlas was invented. The publisher of Timely / Atlas and Marvel comics, Martin Goodman, sometimes used the same name for his comics, regular size magazines and digest magazines. And so sometime in the 1950s Joker was reincarnated as a digest magazine belonging to the Humorama line of humor digest magazines published by Goodman. A sample of the digest magazine is shown here. In the early 1970s Joker along with other Humorama titles was upgraded to a full size magazine. The last issue of which is shown here.	Shelton Drum Here's the kingpin of Southern comic book dealers, Shelton Drum. Shelton has been paying more attention to the Virginia Comic Con lately, having set up here last November 2021 and now again at this show. I hope he makes it back for the November 2022 show.	Shelton Drum Shelton leaning on two oversize hardcover books and explaining to two attentive potential buyers why they should purchase these books. Let's take a closer look at why Shelton thinks they should buy these special books in the next photo.

Shelton Drum Taschen Books headquartered in Germany is known for publishing high quality hardcover books on subjects of popular culture. A few months ago they published Volume 1 of The Amazing Spider-Man which reprints Amazing Fantasy #15 and the first 20 issues of Spider-Man in his own title. A few weeks ago The Avengers Volume 1 was released which reprints the first 20 issues of that title. All of these Spidey and Avengers comics have been reprinted by Marvel many times before but not in this super deluxe format: the books come in a cardboard box that you see underneath the books on Shelton's table here. The stories are photographed from original comics instead of being recolored like Marvel and DC usually do. I normally prefer recolored reprint stories because the colors are more saturated and bright and you don't see the printing dots. I like to think this the way the comics would have looked if they had been printed in 1960s on quality slick paper instead of crappy newsprint. In my opinion the comic reprint books from PS Artbooks and the other little publishers shot from the comic book pages and not recolored usually have muddy or pale looking colors that don't even look as good as the original comics. Somehow, Taschen does some digital manipulation to make the art in these books look at least as good as the original comics and maybe a little better. So these Taschen books come as close as you can get to experiencing the original comics without spending the big money to buy them. The best thing about these Spidey and Avengers books however is they include every page of the comic books including all the house ads for other Marvel comics and other ads with the X-Ray glasses, Sea Monkeys and other goofy gadgets that were advertised in comic books back in the day. Marvel in its hardcover reprints does include the fan letters pages and some house ads but not all the house ads and other ads. But why is Shelton especially interested in these two volumes? Because all the comics in them were photographed from his original comics by the Taschen people who came to his house to do so. Shelton says the upcoming Taschen Fantastic Four volume was also shot from his comic books.	Lewis Forro & Craig Poole Craig Poole is a dealer and collector of original paintings used for science fiction paperback books, especially art for the Ace Publsihing companies line of "Ace Doubles." I last saw Craig set up at Pulpfest 50 just last 4-7 August 2022. When I talked to him at Pulpfest I told him about this Virginia Comic Con and asked him to drop by. Since he lives close to the Racetrack where the show is held he was able to do so. I'm wearing for the first time my new dye sublimated T-shirt with all science fiction paperback book covers from one of my favorite science fiction writers, Clifford D. Simak. I don't imagine Craig was overly impressed since who needs a T-shirt when you have original paintings decorating every wall in your house?	Lewis Forro & Miki Annamanthadoo Surprisingly, Craig Poole isn't the only big time collector of original paintings for science fiction paperback books living in Richmond, Virginia. About two years ago Miki Annamanthadoo who sometimes attends this show asked his comic dealer friend Guy Rose about who buys old adult magazines and paperback books. Guy tipped him off about me and Miki called me. I made two trips to his home in Richmond and bought lots of girlie magazines and hardcover and paperback science fiction books Miki wanted to unload. I enjoyed my tour of Miki's house where he explained which artist had done the original paintings adorning nearly ever wall in his house. I asked Miki to save his original art catalogs from Heritage Auctions and other auctioneers and drop them off ever few months at this show for me to pick up which I was glad to do last November and at this August show.

David Vollbach I had only seen David Vollbach once before at the VA Comicon last October 2019. David asked me how his Silver Age comics on his display wall ranked against the other dealers in the room. I told him Shelton Drum had the largest and best selection and then Robert Griffin and Banks Robinson. So I told David he was probably #4. He said he was satisfied to be in the Top Five.	David Vollbach David with two Silver Age Batman comics: #151, 1962 with a cover story about a well worn plot gimmick - Batman having problems keeping his secret identity. The #140, 1961 is from the period starting in the late 1950s up through the early 1960s that some fans call the "goofy Batman." In those stories Batman battled lots of space aliens and monsters and sometimes became an alien or monster himself. I like science fiction so I'm actually looking forward to reading the stories from this era of Batman's history. I have been buying the Golden Age Batman omnibus volumes for the last few years and the first Silver Age omnibus is coming out this December. That volume should be where the "goofy Batman" stories start.	Melody Smith & Ruben Santos Ruben Santos and his granddaughter Melody Smith had a nice selection of figureines including this huge example of one of the Sentinels. The Sentinels first appeared in The X-Men #14, 1965. They were a group of robots created by mutant hating scientist Bolivar Trask. Their mission was to track down and destroy all mutants, starting with the X-Men. The Sentinels appeared in many X-Men comics over the years with their most noteworthy issues in the late 1960s drawn by Neal Adams shortly before The X-Men title was cancelled. Just for the record, a Sentinel robot is about 30% smaller than the example shown here.

Linda Redmond & Tony Albert Linda Redmond always attends this show either as a collector or dealer. At this show and the VA Comicon last November she was set up as a dealer with her friend Tony Albert from Falls Church, VA. I used to see Tony set up as a dealer at the Mid-Atlantic Nostalgia Con in Hunt Valley, MD. I have missed that show the last three years but I am returning soon for that show starting 15 September where Tony told me he will be set up again as a dealer.	Linda Redmond & Tony Albert Linda with a sample of science fiction digest magazine, Thrilling Science Fiction. Some of the science fiction pulp magazines of the 1930s and 1940s converted over to the smaller digest size in the late 1940s such as the most famous sci-fi pulp Astounding Science Fiction still being published today as Analog. New titles started in the early 1950s most notably Galaxy and The Magazine Of Fantasy And Science Fiction. Linda's digest example here may be the digest version of the old pulp Thrilling Wonder Stories. Starlog is a good example of the many science fiction magazines that started in the late 1960s or 1970s devoted mostly to movie and TV shows. Starlog is a good magazine but I never had any luck selling them for much money on ebay so I don't search them out. Tony is showing here an early issue of Isaac Asimov's Science Fiction Magazine that started in the early 1970s. Asimov is the only science fiction writer to have a magazine named after him. Arthur C. Clarke, Robert A. Heinlin and Philip K. Dick may be rolling over in their graves but Asimov is just as famous as those guys. The magazine started in the early 1970s and is still being published today.	Wayne Zeno, Karl Wickert, Jamie Conner Wayne Zeno of Zeno's Books in Chesapeake, VA has been my regular comic store guy for about 23 years. I buy most of my comic book and science fiction related books and magazines from Wayne. Karl and Jamie are friends of Wayne who I sometimes see in his store or at the nearby annual Tidewater Comic Con in Virginia Beach where they set up as dealers.

Banks Robinson & Shelton Drum Late in the show these two comic book warhorses found time to chat.	Shelton Drum & David Vollbach The show is over now and the dealers are breaking down and preparing to head home. But David Vollbach still had time to come by Shelton Drum's table with some comics for a last minute possible deal.	Guy Rose & Julio Crespo The room is nearly empty now late Sunday afternoon. Guy and Julio are almost finished breaking down their tables but I look forward to seeing them at the next Virginia Comic Con here at the Richmond Racetrack in November 2022.