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| Your narrator, the Leader |
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The Leader and his traveling companion Jim Frost attended the Collectibles Expo & Toy Show on 25 November 2017 in Chesterfield, Virginia. This show is promoted by Brett Carreras who promotes the quarterly VA Comicon in Richmond, Virginia that the Leader and Jim always attend. This is only the second time this Expo show has been held and is still a small show that normally would not attract the Leader’s attention. But, when the Leader had it confirmed that his friends Rick Fortenberry and Gene Carpenter were setting up as dealers he decided to go. Of course the Leader and Jim made their customary stop at Sal’s Italian Restaurant in Williamsburg on their way home. |
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| Guy Rose is a veteran comic book collector in the Richmond, Virginia area who always sets up at this show. He used to co-promote it with Brett Carreras until Brett took it over entirely several years ago. |
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| Guy always has a nice selection of Golden and Silver Age comics. Here he is with a CGC graded 3.0 Action Comics #36, 1941 and Captain America #23, 1943. |
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| Donald Jones is Guy’s partner and always has some of his comics for sale in Guy’s booths at the shows they do together. Here’s Donald with two examples of cheesecake girlie art. On top is a piece of original comic strip art and below that is a print of Miss Buxley, Beetle Baily and Sergeant Snorkel from the Beetle Baily comic strip. Asking price for each is $100.00. |
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| Julio Crespo is another partner of Guy Rose who usually sets up in Guy’s booth but at this show he had his own booth full of interesting toys and some CGC graded Silver Age comic books. Here’s two DC comics with covers depicting Superman meeting Superboy: C.B.C.S graded 5.5 Superboy #47, 1956 and C.G.C. graded 8.5 Adventure Comics #304, 1963. Price for each is $200.00. |
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| Julio with the C.G.C. graded 8.0 The Amazing Spider-Man #28, 1965. This is the only Silver Age Spider-Man comic with a black cover which makes it more desirable. The C.B.C.S. graded 6.0 Marvel Tales Annual #1, 1964 marks the first time that Marvel reprinted some of the origin stories of their characters. |
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| This is the first time I had met Mike Fonseca. He had some interesting Star Trek items including this hardcover book These Are The Voyages covering Season 1 of the original Star Trek series from the 1960s. This book was one of those “crowd-funding” projects where the buyers had to pay in advance and wait for the book to be published. This book was published in 2013 and later that year was reprinted with a photo on the cover and a black spine and covers. Over the next two years books for Season 2 and Season 3 were published with the same design. Mike’s copy with the orange spine and no photo on the cover is the earlier and rarer edition. |
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| These two ladies have a company that sells hand-made bags decorated with Silver Age Marvel and DC comic art reprints. The example shown here has art from The Amazing Spider-Man #5, 1963 when Spidey fought Doctor Doom. The comic book cover at far right is a reprinted version of Spider-Man #5 with different cover art from the 1963 original. |
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| Along with Dave Hinson and Shelton Drum, Rick Fortenberry is one of the big time comic book dealers that I know and enjoy seeing at shows. Rick for the last three years has been setting up at the Tidewater Comic Con in my town of Virginia Beach, VA but he told me that next year in 2018 he won’t be at the Tidewater show. He wants to do the Savannah Comic Con instead on that same May weekend. I’m from Savannah myself and have family there to stay with but I’m still going to the Tidewater show anyway since it’s practically in my back yard. Here’s Rick with a $300 copy of the DC comic Green Lantern #8, 1961 with a Gil Kane art cover. I like science fiction comics and just finished reading The Silver Age Adam Strange Omnibus with all the Adam Strange stories from Mystery In Space. Green Lantern is another science fiction character so maybe one day when time and money permit I’ll tackle his Silver Age omnibus recently published. |
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| Rick bought from Donald Jones a stack of those 1970s oversize Treasury editions that DC and Marvel were experimenting with in those days. Rick bought the famous DC Treasury comic where Superman fights Muhammed Ali drawn by Neal Adams but I had him pose with two others you don’t see as often. The Bat-Man one does have a Neal Adams cover. |
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| Rick Fortenberry, Jim Frost |
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| Rick and the Leader’s traveling companion Jim Frost looking over a possible purchase for Jim. Jim does a lot of buying and trading with Rick Fortenberry, Guy Rose, Donald Jones and Gene Carpenter at the shows and sells the comics he gets on the CGC chatboards and other internet venues. |
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| Rick Fortenberry, Gene Carpenter, Jim Frost |
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| Three comic book heavy-hitters enjoying a moment together in Rick’s booth. Jim is holding a copy of the Ziff-Davis comic Famous Stars #3, 1950 with a photo cover of Ann Blyth and Farley Granger. This title only lasted six issues all in 1950 and all with movie star covers. The Grand Comic Book Database and other internet sources only mention a Farley Granger photo cover and not Ann Blyth. I’m a movie fan however and I know who Ann Blyth was. |
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| Jim Frost, Rick Fortenberry, Lewis Forro, Guy Rose, Gene Carpenter |
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| The Leader defines a Methuselah as someone who has been reading comic books for at least 50 years. So you see here in Rick Fortenberry’s booth a group of men with a cumulative total of least 250 years of reading comic books. Methuselah group photos are fairly rare. The last one taken by the Leader was at the Tidewater Comic Con in May 2017 with a partly different cast of characters and who knows when the next one will be. |
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| Jim Frost, Gene Carpenter |
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| It’s late Saturday now and the show is closed but to keep with tradition Jim and Gene are still doing last minute deals after the hall is nearly empty. I never get enough of savoring the delicious Golden and Silver Age comics on Gene’s display walls. |
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| Jim Frost, Gene Carpenter |
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| It’s even later Saturday afternoon and Jim is still pillaging through Gene’s comics, now with an assist from Guy Rose. A few minutes later show promoter Brett Carreras turned out the lights. |
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