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| Jim Frost and Gene Carpenter |
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| Jim made a preliminary stop at Gene Carpenter’s booth. Jim does most of his business with Gene at the Virginia Comic Con. Notice the Famous Monsters #1, 1958 magazine on the bottom display shelf in the foreground. Gene always has great stuff like that.
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| Bob Lewis, Guy Rose, Donald Jones, Jim Frost |
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| After touching base with Gene, Jim made his way to Guy Rose’s booth. At left is Bob Lewis, long time owner of the Richmond Book Shop. Bob is thumbing through some pre-Marvel monster/fantasy comics like Amazing Adventures from 1961. Bob ended up getting the stack of Devil Dinosaur comics seen here.
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| Bob Lewis, Guy Rose, Donald Jones, Jim Frost |
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| Four veteran comic fans hobnobbing and trading comics.
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| Donald Jones and Jim Frost |
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| Donald Jones is Guy Rose’s partner and always sets up with Guy at this show. Here he is intently evaluating some comics from Jim Frost’s box of comics he brought for sale and trade. I don’t know if Don and Jim made a deal here or not.
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| Julio Crespo, Guy Rose, Jim Frost |
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| All comic book fans love an eye-catching comic cover. Here’s Juliio, Guy and Jim admiring the seductive allure of a CGC graded 3.5 copy of Terrifying Tales #11, 1953 with the usual outrageous L.B. Cole cover. The low CGC grade means you can buy this comic for only $100. |
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| Julio is also Guy Rose’s partner and always sets up with him as this show. Here he is with two DC comics, Superman #107, 1956 and Batman #46, 1948. |
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| Virginia Beach area comic collector Keith Mitchell and I frequent the same local comic book store, Zeno’s Books in Chesapeake, VA. We’ve both been reading comic books for over 50 years. Keith spent some time perusing the comic boxes in Guy Rose’s booth and found this clean, shiny copy of Fantastic Four #73, 1968 with guest stars Spider-Man, Daredevil and Thor. |
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| Harry Hopkins long time owner of Fandata always sets up at this show. I’ve known Harry since we were stationed together at Norton Air Force Base in San Bernardino, CA in the 1980s. That’s his wife Marion at far right. |
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| Here’s Donald Gehl of Ducky’s Comics with two limited edition prints in tribute to the recently deceased Marvel artist Herb Trimpe. Trimpe was best known for his long 1970s run on The Incredible Hulk and for co-creating the Wolverine character. |
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| Here’s Philip of Richmond Comix with a VG ($300) copy of the Marvel b&w magazine Savage Tales #1, 1971. This hard-to-find magazine was cancelled after this first issue and the second issue wasn’t published until over two years later when Marvel started up in earnest its b&w magazine line. It features a Conan the Barbarian story and also the first appearance of Marvel’s popular swamp monster - the Man-Thing. I’ve got one of these tucked away in a box somewhere and I haven’t seen many of them over the years. |
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| Veteran North Carolina comic collector Rick Fortenberry promotes a comic show in Charlotte, North Carolina and sets up as a dealer at lots of shows. That’s his assistant Danny on his left. I last saw Rick and Danny at the Tidewater Comicon in Virginia Beach last May. After that show we had dinner together and they paid a visit to the Leader’s Lair. |
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| Keith Mitchell and Rick Fortenberry |
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| Keith Mitchell looking through some of Rick’s interesting Silver Age comic inventory. |
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| Rick showed me a small group of rare and esoteric Atlas comics he had recently acquired: some of the Young Men issues which featured the return Captain America, the Human Torch and the Sub-Mariner. These superheroes had been the major characters in the 1940s Timely comics but had all vanished by 1949. They were brought back briefly in 1953 but they didn’t stick. If they had stayed in publication then the Silver Age would have started in 1953 instead of having to wait until 1956 with the revival of the DC character the Flash in Showcase #4. Included in Rick’s little group was the first and most desirable of these Young Men comics, #24, 1953 seen here. I asked him what the price was and he said it didn’t have a price since he was keeping it for himself. |
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| Rick Fortenberry, Gene Carpenter, Jim Frost |
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| After finishing with Guy Rose, Jim Frost spent most of his time trading with Gene Carpenter as usual. Here’s Jim carefully pondering some of Gene’s comics. Pondering, always pondering! Meanwhile, Rick Fortenberry stopped by to chat with Gene. |
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| Gene has a lot of Silver and Golden Age comics, but Jim takes his time and searches carefully for what he needs. Searching, always searching! |
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| Jim Frost and Gene Carpenter |
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| When Gene suggests an interesting comic, Jim can turn on a dime and check it out! I hope Jim doesn’t get whiplash doing that. |
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| ”Creepy” Carpenter showing off a rare Charlton comic with a Steve Ditko voodoo theme cover, This Magazine Is Haunted #21, 1954. Also notice the rare and expensive Atlas and pre-Marvel horror and science fiction comics on his display board behind him. |
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| Marion Hopkins, Harry Hopkins, Rick Fortenberry, Guy Rose, Gene Carpenter, Jim Frost, Lewis Forro |
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| Near the end of the show I rounded up as many old timer collectors as I could find. Each of these folks have been reading comic books for at least 50 years! That’s about 350 years which is a longer time period than the Persian Empire, the Mongol Empire, the British Empire, the Romanov Dynasty and the United States of America. (Separately, not collectively). Someday I will assemble enough Methuselahs to surpass the duration of the Roman Empire! |
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| Jim Frost and Gene Carpenter |
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| The dealers’ room closed at 6:00 p.m and in less than 30 minutes most of the dealers were broken down and on the way home. But not these two diehards! Amidst the nearly empty room Gene is making the final tally of what he and Jim traded for that day. |
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| Before leaving for the day and making our usual run to Sal's Restaurnat, I asked Jim to show me his best book he got from Gene. He produced this very expensive All New Comics #8, 1944. The Alex Schomburg cover has all the typical World War II motifs: noble American superheroes crashing in to rescue the captive babe from the evil Nazis. But this cover has a more diverse selection of Nazis than usual. In addition to the usual uniformed Storm Trooper type, there are some Hooded Menace types, a fat shirtless type and even an Arabic type. |
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