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Your narrator, the Leader
I attended the Savannah Mega Con in my old hometown of Savannah, Georgia 8 and 9 June 2019. I traveled first from my current home in Virginia Beach, Virginia to Anderson, South Carolina to pick up my brother David and his son Daniel to travel with them to the show in Savannah. I haven’t been back to Savannah often since I’ve been living in Virginia Beach since 1993, maybe three or four times in those 26 years. This trip was a sentimental journey for me largely because I was looking forward to meeting Billy Barrett who was one of my best friends in my old neighborhood in Savannah in the early 1960s. I hadn’t seen Billy since 1969 but a few months ago we made contact on Facebook and I told him I would come see him as soon as I could travel to Savannah. In Savanah as a kid I was already obsessed with collecting comic books and Billy was an early target for me in my quest to acquire more comics. My early comic collecting days in Savannah and how Billy figured into them are chronicled here.

After the first day of the show on Saturday David and Daniel dropped me off at Billy’s house on Wilmington Island and I spent an exciting three hours talking with Billy about the old days in Savannah. I can’t describe how strange and wonderful it feels to meet an old friend face to face after 50 years. I left the show early on Sunday and before driving back to Anderson David, Daniel and I stopped by the family house that David and I lived in when we were kids. It was in that house that I kept my Marvel comic collection all through the 1960s and 1970s when I was collecting. The comics remained in the house in storage from 1977 when I joined the U.S. Air Force until about 1994 when I brought the comic collection from Savannah to Virginia Beach.

In the 1940s the novelist Thomas Wolfe wrote a famous book named You Can’t Go Home Again but on this trip to Savannah to go to the comic show, see Billy and visit the old homestead, I did my best to prove Mr. Wolfe mistaken.

Click here to return the Main Introduction Page for the Leader’s Report on the Tidewater Comic Con 2019 and HeroesCon 2019
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Saturday 8 June 2019
James Ryals
James Ryals had some nice condition science fiction hardcover books for sale. I looked them over but they were all too new for me. I only like to buy those type of books if they are pre 1980. James also had some 1960s comic books including these two issues of Fantastic Four #59 and #58, 1967. These comics were part of a continuing storyline where Doctor Doom stole the Silver Surfer’s cosmic power and used to almost conquer the world.
Jimmy
I lost the card with this dealer’s last name but I remember his first name was Jimmy. He had the biggest and best selection of movie and popular culture posters at the show, including these two nice John Wayne posters.
Jimmy
Jimmy saw me wearing my City by Clifford D. Simak custom made T-shirt and told me he had brought to this show some science fiction related posters that had been stashed away in his warehouse for many years. It turns out they were Warren Publishing related posters from the early 1970s most of which I had never seen before. Warren Publishing did the b&w magazines Famous Monsters Of Filmland, Creepy, Eerie, Vampirella. I was impressed with the pristine, unused condition of these posters and bought the one shown here plus a Creepy #11 with the Frank Frazetta Beast-Man cover and a poster advertising an early Famous Monsters Of Filmland convention.
Josh Almond
I first met Josh Almond at the South Carolina Con in Greenville in 2018 and I’ve been seeing a lot of him and his partner Chris Rigo since then at different comic book shows in North Carolina and Virginia. Here’s Josh with Marvel Super-Heroes #18, 1967. There was nothing special about this comic until a few years ago when Marvel’s big budget movie Guardians Of The Galaxy came out. Although the movie cast of characters was different than this original comic book group of characters, the price of the comic book went up dramatically and will continue to climb as long as Marvel keeps releasing more movie sequels. The Fantasy Masterpieces #1, 1966 at right is one of my favorite comics. Leaving out Strange Tales Annual #1, 1962, this Fantasy Masterpieces comic was the first comic to reprint the science fiction and fantasy stories Marvel did in the late 1950s and early 1960s before Marvel switched over to super-heroes. A lot of people don’t know the inside front cover of this comic has a full page photo of Marvel editor Stan Lee with word balloons describing the artists who have stories in this issue.
Chris Rigo
Josh’s partner Chris Rigo with the DC comic Star Spangled War Stories #125, 1966. From #90 to #137 this comic featured a series of stories called “The War That Time Forgot” where American soldiers and sailors on an unknown Pacific island battled dinosaurs. Maybe someday DC will reprint all these dinosaur stories in a hardcover omnibus book. I’ll next see Chris and Josh at HeroesCon in July.
John Tischler
John Tischler is a dealer I’ve seen many times in South Carolina and Virginia shows but I never expected him to turn up in Savannah, Georgia. John is holding the Marvel comic Tales To Astonish #13, 1960 featuring the first appearance of the alien wood monster Groot. This monster was just another of dozens of Marvel big monsters with funny sounding names from the early 1960s; but he and another obscure trivial character, Rocky Raccoon, were both catapulted to fame with the release of the Marvel movie Guardians Of The Galaxy which featured them both. It’s a bit ironic that the most famous Marvel monster, Fin Fang Foom, hasn’t become a movie star yet.
Chris Foss
Chris Foss from Columbia, South Carolina is one of the more substantial Southern comic book dealers with an impressive inventory of Golden Age and Silver Age comics. I last saw him in February at the Captain’s Comic Expo in Mt. Pleasant, South Carolina and I’m sure I’ll see him again.
Chris Foss
Chris with three examples of one of my favorite comic book genres, the “Monster books” aka the “Pre-Marvels.” These were published by Marvel Comics in the late 1950s and early 1960s before Marvel switched over to featuring super-heroes in all their comic books. These three comics have the usual cover drawn by Jack Kirby who drew almost all of the covers and the lead stories.
Wayne Brown
Wayne Brown with a low grade affordable copy of Fantastic Four #25, 1964 featuring the first of the two-part battle between the Thing and the Hulk. Heaven help you if you want to buy a high grade copy of this comic.
Lewis Forro
Your humble narrator at the mercy of two Roman soldiers. I’ve always liked the Roman Empire but until now I’ve never seen any cosplayers at the comic shows dressed as Roman soldiers. The cosplayer at left is wearing the correct version of a centurion’s helmet with the transverse red plumage. In most movies and TV shows about ancient Rome the helmet plumage is shown incorrectly running front to back. The only TV show I’ve seen with the correct transverse plumage is the 1984 mini-series The Last Days Of Pompeii. I talked with these two knowledgeable young men about movies and TV shows on the Roman Empire and they were intrigued when I told them that the Star Trek and X-Men actor Patrick Stewart played as the emperor Tiberius’s ambitious Praetorian Guard chief Sejanus in the 1976 mini-series, I Claudius.
Sunday 9 June 2019

Rick Fortenberry
As usual, I’ve save the best for last, two of the Leader’s favorite comic book dealers, Rick Fortenberry and Banks Robinson. Here’s Rick with three Marvel Gunsmoke Western comics: Gunsmoke Western #56, 1960, #61, 1961 and #75, 1963 all starring Kid Colt. They all have the usual Jack Kirby covers but the #56 is unusual since the cover is inked by Steve Ditko who didn’t work much on the Marvel Westerns.
Rick Fortenberry
Rick with the Marvel comics Tales Of Suspense #58, and #59 both 1964. The #59 started the Captain America second feature which replaced the science fiction and fantasy stories that followed the Iron Man main feature. In the previous #58 issue however Marvel teased its readers with a story featuring Captain America battling Iron Man. Marvel pulled a similar stunt with another comic about the same time, Tales To Astonish. In #59 of that issue the Hulk battled Giant-Man in the lead story and then in #60 the Hulk became the second feature replacing the science fiction and fantasy stories.
Banks Robinson
Banks Robinson of Columbia, South Carolina presiding over his large empire of Silver Age comic books.
Banks Robinson
Banks with some rare and esoteric comics: Fast Willie Jackson #1, 1976 is sort of the “black” version of Archie comics. It rarely turns up in high grade like this one. Santa Claus Conquers The Martians #1, 1966 is a Dell comic adaptation of the 1964 movie. Astro Boy #1, 1965 based on the Japanese animated cartoon series is another comic that doesn’t grow on trees. I’ll next see Rick and Banks at HeroesCon in Charlotte, North Carolina in June.
Rick Fortenberry & Banks Robinson
It’s 2 p.m. Sunday afternoon and I have to leave early for the long drive back to Anderson, South Carolina while Rick and Banks are still hanging in there.
Click here to return to the Main Introduction Page to see the Leader's Report on the Tidewater Comicon and the HeroesCon