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| Here is your humble narrator, the Leader wearing his City shirt at the Maryland Live Casino on the southern periphery of Baltimore on Thursday night before the start of the Con on Friday. The Leader is a man of rarefied and sophisticated pursuits, but he also indulges some of the more primitive and earthy pleasures enjoyed by lesser men, liking shooting craps. The Leader won enough at the craps tables on his two nightly visits to more than pay for his trip to Baltimore. |
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| David Wulf is a veteran collector comic book collector and dealer that I've known since the late 1990s. I used to set up at the monthly Tyson's Corner comic show in Northern Virginia in those days and Dave was usually there wheeling and dealing. Here he is with an extremely rare item that I have been seeking for many years - The Adventures of Pussycat. Dave's asking price of $400.00 was too much of an impediment for me, but I did take a picture of it as a consolation prize. |
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| The Adventures of Pussycat, 1968 |
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| The Adventures of Pussycat was a 1968 magazine by Martin Goodman who published Marvel Comics and numerous "Men's Adventure" magazines like Male, Stag, For Men Only etc... I have sold many of these type of magazines over the years and came across several of the illustrated Pussycat stories in some of them. The most desirable stories were drawn by famous pinup artist Bill Ward. Marvel comic artists Jim Mooney, Al Hartley and other Marvel regulars did the other stories. I knew that many of these stories were reprinted in a one-shot magazine The Adventures of Pussycat but I had never seen the magazine itself until Dave Wulf had it on his display wall at this year's Baltimore Con. Dave let me thumb through it. There are a few Bill Ward stories and at least one Wally Wood story. The cover is by legendary Marvel Golden And Silver Age artist Bill Everett! |
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| George Mihalik with Rose Blodgett |
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George Mihalik is another veteran comic book collector I've known since meeting him at the Tyson's Corner comic show in the late 1990s. We cross paths occasionally at various comic and collector shows now days and I expect to see him next at the Mid-Atlantic Nostalgia Con in late September. |
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| At far right (black shirt) is original comic book art dealer Anthony Snyder whom I first met at last year's Baltimore show. He's talking to Metropolis Collectibles co-owner Vincent Zurzolo (red shirt). After I took this picture I spoke with Vincent for a few minutes. I hadn't seen him since my trip to his Manhattan headquarters to photograph his original art in 2012. Vincent told me Metropolis will be moving next year to a much larger location in mid-town Manhattan.
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| Here's Anthony Synder posing with the original art to the complete five page Marvel comic story "I Was The Prisoner Of The Living Statues" from Tales To Astonish #6, 1959. The splash page does not include the lettered title of the story. The brown glue where the title should be possibly indicates a piece of cardboard with the title was there originally but fell off when the glue dried out. The relatively low price of $4,500 reflects the art wasn't done by one of Marvel's top artists who worked on these type of stories, Steve Ditko or Jack Kirby.
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| Closeup of the splash page to "I Was A Prisoner Of The Living Statues." |
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| Anthony Snyder buying some 1970s superhero glasses from New York popular culture impresario Mike Carbonaro.
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| The Mad World Of William M. Gaines |
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| Rober Quiano from Texas set-up at this show for the first time to sell a large collection of comic book related hardcover and softcover books. I was glad to buy for only $20.00 this hardcover edition of The Mad World Of William M. Gaines from 1972. I first saw a paperback copy of this book at a bookstore in my hometown of Savannah, Georgia in the early 1970s. I was an EC comic fan even then but I passed on buying this book. Over the years I decided I wanted it but I only wanted to buy a hardcover copy. All the hardcovers for sale on ebay, Amazon.com and so on have the usual heavily worn dustjackets or are way too expensive. The dustjacket on this copy has some minor wear but it will do until I can find a higher grade copy.
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| Playboy's Little Annie Fanny |
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| I also bought from Rober the 1966 oversize softcover book with the white cover Playboy's Little Annie Fanny. The white cover usually shows dirt and nice clean copies are hard to find. The later edition with the green cover is much easier to find. Rober had the even rarer hardcover version of the white cover 1966 book but the dustjacket was torn up. I was glad to get these nice books from Rober, but sadly I had to stand by in silent frustration and watch Rober sell a rare 1970s fanzine about Wally Wood to John Knight who saw it before I did.
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| Vincent Zurzolo co-owner of Manhattan's Metropolis Collectibles reading something important no doubt. The Metropolis folks set-up at the Baltimore Con for the first time in the show's history last year, but Vincent didn't attend last year.
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| Rob Reynolds, Vincent Zurzolo and Frank Cwiklik - all 6' 9" of him.
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| Vincent Zurzolo with a CGC graded 5.5 copy of the famous Phantom Lady #17, 1948 with the bondage cover. |
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| Beschara Maalouf (center) enjoying a moment of levity with Mike Carbonaro (left). Beschara always has the biggest and best collection of Silver Age Marvel and DC original art at this show.
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| Beschara Maalouf with a page from the Marvel comic Journey Into Mystery #125, 1966. It shows a cool, large panel of Thor's nemesis Hercules having a good time in a restaurant surrounded by babes. I didn't ask Beschara the price; like the old proverb says "If you have to ask, you can't afford it."
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| Close-up of the Journey Into Mystery #125 Hercules page. Art by Jack Kirby. |
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| Beschara Maalouf with the splash page to "The Isle Of No Return" with art by Jack Kirby and Wally Wood. From the DC comic book Challenges Of The Unknown #7, 1959. |
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| Here's the complete five page story "The Star Raiders" with art by the Leader's favorite comic book artist, Steve Ditko. It's from the Marvel comic Tales To Astonish #37, 1962. I went into deja vu shock when I saw this at Beschara's table. I bought another complete Ditko story from dealer Albert Moy at the San Diego Con in the mid 1980s. Albert telephoned several days later with two more Ditko complete stories for sale, one of which was this one. The price was about $600 in those days. I couldn't afford it and so had to pass on it, after which Albert quit calling me. I'm surprised but happy that the story has remained intact all these years. Of course the mid 1980s price hasn't remained the same. |
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