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Your narrator, the Leader
The Leader attended the Tidewater Comicon in the Virginia Beach Convention Center in Virginia Beach, Virginia 18 May 2019. The Leader did not attend this show last year because almost no out of town dealers came to it unlike earlier years when more such dealers were present. The lack of out of town dealers will probably remain a problem for the Leader with this show but going every other year at least is ok since the show is nearby in the Leader’s town of Virginia Beach. The Leader did enjoy seeing the only three significant out of town dealers who were there: Harry Hopkins, Mario Russo and Donald Gehl.

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Saturday 18 May 2019
Timothy Hogan
I last saw Timothy Hogan at the North Carolina Comicon in Raleigh on 15 March. He is the son of Gerald Hogan who is the longtime owner of the Trilogy Comics store in Virginia Beach, Virginia. This large display area is only part of the Trilogy merchandise at this show. There are a few more booths behind this one.
Timothy Hogan
Timothy with two Marvel Tales Of Suspense comics, #47, 1963 featuring the first appearance of the Melter and #49, 1964 with a cross-over appearance of the Angel of the X-Men. Both of these comics have art by Steve Ditko who worked on Iron Man stories only briefly, but long enough to design Iron Man’s new armor in #48.
Atomic Comics
I don’t know much about Atomic Comics and I haven’t done any business with them. All I know is there have been Atomic Comics stores in the Hampton Roads, Virginia area for many years. The fellow in the dark shirt is owner Scott Destrup. I did like this giant Spider-Man statue guarding their booth.
Atomic Comics
Charlie Ripperger with a CGC graded copy of The Amazing Spider-Man #14, 1964 featuring the first appearance of Spidey’s most famous villain, the Green Goblin. This comic book is so popular that even low grade copies like this one fetch a big asking price as the price sticker shows here.
Stan Lee print
Here’s a dealer named Craig I’ve never seen before who had lots of nice comic related prints for sale. He’s asking $100 for this huge print of the legendary Marvel comics writer and editor Stan Lee. Mr. Lee died only a few months ago. He was a cottage industry for comic con merchandise when he was still alive. Famous people frequently benefit from sentimentality and nostalgia after they die so expect the hagiographic mercantilism of the Stan Lee cult to continue flourishing with the passage of time.
Zeno’s Books
Billy Dean, Bill Smith, Wayne Zeno
I had never met this Vikingesque character, Billy Dean, of Billy’s Mildly Amusing Antiques before until he was setup with Wayne Zeno at this show. All the toys you see behind Wayne belong to Billy. At right are collector Bill Smith and Zeno’s Books owner Wayne Zeno conferring on a matter of cosmic importance no doubt. I’ve been buying most of my comic related hardcover books and magazines from Wayne for about the last 24 years.
Bill Smith
Bill is a longtime associate of Wayne Zeno and I see him in Wayne’s Chesepeake, Virginia store quiet frequently. Bill has a huge collection of Silver Age comic books and some pulps stashed away but he keeps a low profile. He only goes to few shows a year to help Wayne and he never sells anything on the internet. Bill is probably the most devoted collector of Edgar Rice Burroughs related material in Virginia Beach. Here he is with some rare pulps with Burroughs stories featured on the covers. I suspect Bill has higher grade copies stashed away. The hardcover books are inexpensive reprints by the publishing company Grosset & Dunlap which specialized in reprints. Bill tells me many collectors don’t know that and unknowingly try to sell Grosset & Dunlap books as Burroughs first editions.
Matthew Staples, Weseley Lambert, Jacob Smith, Jason Baker
Here is a group of comic collectors in the Hampton Roads area who I was told were setting up as dealers for the first time at a comic book convention. I’m a bit confused as to their corporate identity since their sign says “Collectibles By Baker” but they were all wearing T-shirts that said “Issues.” Let’s take a closer look at that interesting big yellow book on their display rack that says “DC Comics.”
Matthew Staples, Jason Baker
75 Years Of DC Comics is a huge hardcover book in a box published by the noted German company Taschen. This oversize edition has been available for several years and a smaller version came out a few years ago. Taschen also published a similar huge hardcover book for Marvel Comics a few years ago that I bought three copies of. I bought one copy each of the DC Comics editions when they first came out and I’m a bit disappointed they haven’t gone up much in price. I’m sure they will when the’ve been out of print long enough. They really are one-of-a-kind sumptuously produced books.
Donald Gehl
I used to see Donald Gehl of Ducky’s Comics at the Virginia Comicon in Richmond once or twice a year until he moved to Florida. Now I only see him maybe at the South Carolina Con in Greenville and at this Tidewater Comicon.
Donald Gehl
Donald with three rare and desirable comics all graded by CGC: Action Comics #252, 1959 featuring the first appearance of Supergirl; Batman #171, 1965; Strange Tales Annual #2, 1963 with the first team-up of Spider-Man and the Human Torch in a story drawn by Jack Kirby. The rest of the comic is reprints of pre-superhero fantasy and science fiction short stories.
Donald Gehl
One of my favorite group of Marvel comics is Tales To Astonish from issue #60 up through #73. The stories were mostly concerned with the Hulk’s chief villain, the Leader, trying to capture the Hulk to make him an ally. This run of stories started out with several issue drawn by Steve Ditko, then Jack Kirby, then other competent artists like Bob Powell. Here’s Donald with two examples, Tales To Astonish #61, 1964 and #64, 1965.
Mario Russo
Mario Russo of Mario’s Comics is based in Atlanta, Georgia. I’ve been seeing him on the comic show circuit quite a bit lately. That’s not surprising, since he sets up at around 40 shows a year. I’ll probably see him next at HeroesCon in Charlotte, North Carolina in June. For this show Mario was tucked in the back of the room far away from the other comic dealers but he still seemed to be doing well with lots of customers around his table whenever I walked by.
Mario Russo
Mario brandishing a CGC graded 3.0 The Amazing Spider-Man #1, 1963 that he told me he just recently acquired. He will probably have it sold by the next time I see him.
Mario Russo
Mario with Spidey #28, 1965 featuring the first appearance of the Molten Man and Peter Parker’s high school graduation. This issue also sports a rare and visually striking black cover. There wasn’t another Spidey comic with any significant amount of black on the cover until #51.
Mike Barlow
Jason Hamlin’s associate Mike Barlow with some eye-catching horror comics: The Fawcett comics Strange Stories From Another World #3, 1952 with a cover by famous pulp magazine artist Norman Saunders. Strange Stories From Another World #2, 1952 also with a Norman Saunders cover. Mike’s holding a copy of Charlton’s short lived comic The Thing #7, 1953. The later issues of this comic starting with issue #12 had lots of stories drawn by Steve Ditko.
Mike Barlow
Mike with two early 1970s editions of an oversize fanzine with art by famous EC and Marvel artist Wally Wood. These Wood “Cannon” stories have been reprinted in several different editions over the years but I think these are the first editions.
Harry Hopkins
Veteran dealer Harry Hopkins presiding over his vast empire of low priced comics. I’ve known Harry since the early 1980s when we were both in the U.S. Air Force and stationed at Norton Air Force Base in San Bernardino, California. I’m still waiting for him to sell me that Marvelmania fan club “Make Mine Marvel” button he always wears on his lapel.
Harry Hopkins
Although he specializes in low priced comics Harry always has a few nice expensive comics on his display wall. Here he is with two examples of one of my favorite genre of comics, Atlas. Atlas is what Marvel Comics called itself in the 1950s before it became Marvel. The Atlas line had many types of comics but the best ones are the horror and science fiction titles like these: Marvel Tales #113, 1953 and Adventures Into Weird Worlds #26, 1954 with cover art by Atlas’s top artist Joe Maneely. Marvel canceled a few years ago to my chagrin its “Atlas Era Masterworks” line of hardcover reprint books. I’ve been patiently waiting to see if Marvel is ever going to resume that line of books or at least license out the rights to a smaller publisher like Dark Horse, IDW or PS Artbooks who would be glad to reprint all the great Atlas stories Marvel never got to.
Dave Buckley
Dave Buckley told me at this convention in 2016 that he was going to start liquidating his comic collection and he’s still at it. Like most 1960s Spider-Man fans I consider the “Master Planner Triology” in The Amazing Spider-Man #s 31, 32, 33 to be the best of the Steve Ditko drawn Spidey stories if not the best Spider-Man stories of all time. But, my second favorite Ditko drawn Spidey stories are the two Dave is showing here #26 and #27. The story is an unusual mystery type with Spidey trying to figure out if Daily Bugle reporter Frederick Foswell is the Crime Master or the Green Goblin.
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