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| Your narrator, the Leader |
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The Leader attended the Tidewater Comic Con in Virginia Beach, VA on 13 and 14 May 2017 with his traveling companion Jim Frost. Jim for the first time in many years spent the night in the Leader's Lair for two nights to attend both days of the show. The Leader was pleased to see to see a number of dealers he knows from other shows who decided to set up for the first time at this popular and ever growing show. These dealers were Al Stoltz, Mario's Comics, Shelton Drum, Dave Hinson and Gene Carpenter. The Leader was especially glad to see Dave and Gene who haven't set up at a comic show in Virginia Beach in over 20 years.
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| The Virginia Beach Frame Shop has been setting up at this show for the last three years and this year the owner Sarah Hutchinson had a collection of large prints from comic books. Here’s a print of the DC comic Adventure #247 featuring the first appearance of the Legion of Superheroes. |
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| Sarah Hutchinson with a “test print” by artist Alexander Iaccarino of a movie poster for Marvel’s first Guardians of the Galaxy movie. Rocket Raccoon and Groot are shown. |
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| Jeff Lonnett had an interesting display of posters he designed showing how Marvel and DC superheroes would be depicted by 1960s magazines like Popular Mechanics, Popular Science, Time and so on. I thought that was a clever idea. |
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| Jim Beute representing the Hampton Roads LEGO User Group had a fantastically large and complex model built from LEGO blocks of a Star Wars space ship, the Tantive IV according to Jim. He said he spent about an hour a day for two months to build it. It wasn’t even for sale, just on display. |
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| Jim Frost checking out the comic boxes in the Atomic Comics Emporium booth. Scott’s dad has owned comic stores in the Hampton Roads area for many years but was retired now and so Scott is now running the show. |
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| Guy Rose of Guy’s Comics in Richmond, VA had a box of pulps that were mostly late 1940s Weird Tales. Several of them including these three examples had covers by a pulp artist I like, Matt Fox. Fox also worked on a few of Marvel’s early science fiction / fantasy stories in the early 1960s in comics like Tales of Suspense, Tales To Astonish and so on. Fox inked Larry Leiber’s art on these stories. Fox is a much better artist than Leiber so I always thought it should have been the other way around: Leiber inking Fox. Guy offered these pulps to South Carolina dealer Dave Hinson who was set up next to Guy. Dave didn’t want them so North Carolina dealer Rick Fortenberry bought them instead. |
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| Alex Needleman of Absolute Comics & Statues in Astoria, New York was set up at this show for the first time. I didn’t get a chance photograph him posing with a comic. As you can see here, he was busy with the customers crowding around his table most of Saturday. I last saw Alex at the Baltimore Comic Con in 2016. Word about the Tidewater Comic Con is getting around and more and more out of state comic dealers are being drawn to this show. |
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| This was the first time Mario’s Comics set up at this show. Mario sometimes does the quarterly Virginia Comicon in Richmond and I last saw him at the South Carolina Con in March 2017. |
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| Mario posing with Strange Tales #115, 1963. |
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| Veteran collector Keith Mitchell and I shop at the same comic store in Chesapeake, VA, Zeno’s Books owned by Wayne Ehrmann who was at the show. While I was at Mario’s Comics table Keith came over with a bag and I asked him what what was in it. He had a few comics he had just bought at this show and the best one was X-Men #4, 1963 featuring the first appearance of the Evil Mutants. |
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| I last saw Dave Hinson from Rock Hill, South Carolina a the South Carolina Comic Con in March 2017. I’ve known him since 1993 when he used to set up at comic shows in Virginia Beach. He recently sold his comic book store but still sets up at several shows a year to keep his hand in the comic collectibles business. This was his first time at this show and I was glad to hear he is coming back next year. |
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| Dave with two Silver Age DC comics, Brave and the Bold #35 and 36, 1961 featuring two early Hawkman appearances. |
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| Banks Robinson, Rick Fortenberry, Keith Mitchell |
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| Rick Fortenberry of Charlotte, NC has been setting up at this show for the last three years. This is the first time his associate Banks Robinson was with him at this show. Local collector Keith Mitchell stopped by to check them out. |
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| Rick with DC comic Strange Adventures #187, 1966. Check out those giant teeth! |
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| Al Stoltz, Allison Tahrawi, Jim Frost |
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| Al Stoltz owner of Basement Comics was also a first time dealer at this show. I frequently see him at the quarterly Virginia Comicon and annual Baltimore Comic Con. Jim Frost usually does some business with Al and this show wasn’t any different. Jim is at right in the background still pillaging through Al's boxes. |
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| Al Stoltz, Allison Tahrawi, Jim Frost |
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| Al explaining his comic book pressing service to some prospective customers. |
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| Al’s charming assistant Allison Tahrawi with a tawdry looking romance comic Strange Confessions #1, 1952. |
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| Harry Hopkins of Fandata always sets up at this show. I’ve known him since were were both in the Air Force in San Bernardino, CA in the early 1980s. Harry is wearing as always his Make Mine Marvel button. |
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| Harry Hopkins, Keith Mitchell |
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| Keith Mitchell must have hit every major Silver Age comic dealer in the room. Here he is chatting with Harry Hopkins. |
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| Harry with two Batman #130, 1960 and #138, 1961. Throughout Batman’s long history he battled mostly ordinary criminals and Earthbound human super villains. But for a few years In the late 1950s and early 1960s the Batman comic books were slanted toward science fiction with Batman battling big monsters and outer space aliens. Since I like science fiction this is the Batman period that most interests me. I can’t afford to buy the original comics so I’m waiting for DC to reprint this era in its ongoing Omnibus hardcover book line. At the slow pace those books are being released, it looks like I have a long wait ahead of me. |
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| Derek Woywood promotes the Philidelphia Comic Con. He frequently travels to other shows with Gene Carpenter and sets up next to him. Here's Derek surrounded with his comic backer boards and comic bags inventory. He's showing off a rare Journal of Frankenstein #1, 1959. After the first issue this magazine changed its title to the better known Castle of Frankenstein. |
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| I’ve been telling Gene Carpenter about the Tidewater Comic Con for two years and he always said he couldn’t go because he preferred to set up at what he says is a better show in Detroit this time of year. However this year the Detroit show and Tidewater show didn’t have conflicting dates so Gene finally was able to attend the Tidewater show. He was assigned just about the worse spot in the huge Virginia Beach convention center: the far back corner of the room. An old show circuit veteran like Gene however is accustomed to dealing with adversity so here is plugging away as best he can. |
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| This was the first visit to this show by famous 1970s The Uncanny X-Men writer. Every time I walked by his table he had a long line of autograph seekers. He's chatting here with a little girl about her angel costume. He was only charging $5.00 per autograph. |
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