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| I’ve seen Derek Woywood around the comic book show circuit ever since I used to set up at the Tyson’s Corner show in Northern Virginia in the late 1990s. Derek told me that his Philadelphia Comic Con is the longest running still active comic show on the East Coast. These two Famous Monsters of Filmland are part of a collection of monster magazines Derek recently acquired. |
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| Here’s Mark Overby of Black Dog Collectables with two popular The Amazing Spider-Man comics from the mid 1960s. The #33 at left is the most famous issue in the run of 38 Steve Ditko issues. The #28 is the only Ditko issue with a black cover. |
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| Ryan Lusk of Burke Street Comics promotes a comic show in Winston-Salem, North Carolina. He hasn’t set up as a dealer at the Virginia Comic Con in many years he told me. The EC comic Crime Suspense Stories #22, 1954 is sought by collectors because it was one of the books discussed by the 1950s Congressional committee when it interrogated EC publisher William Gaines about his horror comics being a bad influence on children. The committee asked Gaines if the book’s cover of a decapitated woman was in bad taste. Gaines said it was in good taste for a horror comic. The committee then asked Gaines what it would take to make the cover in bad taste. Gaines replied that the book would be in bad taste if it showed blood dripping from the woman’s neck. |
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| Ryan with a nice copy of Detective Comics #208, 1954. |
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| Guy Rose used to co-promote this show and always has nice Golden and Silver Age comics for sale. The Avengers #4, 1964 and #16, 1965 both have historically important Captain America covers. |
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| Here’s Guy and his assistant Julio with four single digit early 1960s The Amazing Spider-Man comics: #2, 4, 8, 7. |
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| I’ve known Harry Hopkins of Fandata ever since the early 1980s when we were both in the Air Force and stationed at Norton Air Force Base in San Bernardino, California. Here’s Harry presiding over his large empire of inexpensive comics. |
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| Not all of Harry’s comics are inexpensive. For $600 you can buy this Fine- copy of Detective Comics #233, 1956 featuring the first appearance of Bat-Woman. |
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| Brett Carreras & Harry Hopkins |
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| Brett Carreras is the promoter of the Virginia Comic Con. He always talks with his vendors to see how they are doing and keep them up to date on upcoming shows. Harry looks a little worried here. I hope Brett isn’t telling him his table fees are going up. |
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| Gene Carpenter & Jim Frost |
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| Jim Frost does much of his business with the Leader’s favorite comic book dealer, Gene Carpenter of All American Comics from Northern Virginia. Check out all those juicy vintage comics on Gene’s display wall. |
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| Gene Carpenter & Jim Frost |
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| Jim closely examining one of Gene’s comic books. The thrill of the hunt never dies. |
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| Gene Carpenter & Donald Jones |
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| While Jim was perusing Gene’s comics Donald stopped by for a chat. Don, along with Julio, always assist Guy Rose at this show. |
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| Gene with two expensive comics with Frank Frazetta covers. Buster Crabbe #5, 1951 and Famous Funnies #212, 1954. I first saw this Buster Crabbe comic at the first comic convention I ever attended, the Atlanta Fantasy Fair in the late 1970s. It was on dealer Larry Bigman’s display wall and he was asking a big price for it. |
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| After he was done with Gene Carpenter, Jim paid his usual visit to Guy Rose with whom Jim also does lots of business. Most of the books that Jim got from Gene or Guy will be offered for sale on the CGC chat boards. |
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| Derek Woywood & Jim Frost |
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| Near the close of the show Jim still had some money left so he paid a visit to Derek to check on his new monster magazine collection. Jim bought several of Derek’s 1960s Castle Of Frankenstein. I’ve sold every issue of that magazine at shows or on ebay over the years and I advised Jim on what the best issues were to buy. Luckily, the most famous issue, the #11 with the green Mr. Spock cover was there and Jim got it. |
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| Jason Hamlin, Brett Carreras, Jim Frost |
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| After finishing with Derek, like a hungry shark always searching for the next kill, Jim then moved on to check out Jason Hamlin’s inventory. Jason always sets up at this show. While checking out Jason, the show’s promoter Brett Carreras stopped by. |
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| Kyle Cook of Richmond, Virginia had one of the best Doctor Doom costumes I’ve ever seen. Kyle also has an Electro costume and we both have a mutual friend who sometimes attends this show in his Yellow Jacket costume, Chris Krieg. Click here for a photo of Kyle and Chris wearing their costumes at a previous show |
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| The Leader at the mercy of Doctor Doom. Doom’s raygun is a titanium alloy electro-cosmic disintegrator; it only looks like a plastic water pistol. |
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| Jim Frost & Gene Carpenter |
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| Near the end of the show at 7:00 p.m., Jim stopped by Gene’s booth to pose with some of the rare and exotic comics he had gotten from him earlier. The pick of the litter was The United States Marines #3, 1943 depicting the Japanese Prime Minister Hideki Tojo as an octopus and being blasted by a flamethrower. I’ll next see Gene at the Williamsburg Film Festival in March. |
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