Click here for Page 1 of the Leader's Report on Tidewater Comic Con 2025

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Saturday 28 June 2025

Jamie Conner Jamie with the DC comic Ist Issue Special #1, 1975. This title lasted 13 issues. This first issue is the first appearance of Atlas, a character derived from Greek mythology. The cover and interior art is by Jack Kirby. As usual for Kirby's work at DC in the 1970s the art is good and the writing is mediocre.	Steve Edmondson, Larry Fredrickson Steve and Larry of Sinister At Arms always setup at this show with their inventory of 3-D printed popular culture models. I had a resin 3-D printer a few years ago but got rid of it because the software was too complicated. Someday when the software gets easier to use I will buy another one.	Steve Edmondson, Larry Fredrickson Larry with a 3-D printed Batman head.

Mike Zollo Mike Zollo talking with a customer.	Mike Zollo Mike with Fantastic Four #33, 1964 and #43, 1965. In the Marvel comics house ads promoting what Marvel comics were on sale that month the cover to #33 was mostly hidden by a hyperbolic blurb to arouse a potential buyer's curiosity. It turns out the cover to #33 was the first Marvel comic to use a collage of black & white photos created by Jack Kirby. Fantastic Four #43 is a sentimental favorite as it is the first issue of that title I remember buying. I had only been dabbling in buying Marvel comics in 1965 and didn't know much about the Fantastic Four. I saw this #43 on the comic book spinner rack at Fordham's Super Market where I later got a part time job as a bag boy. I bought it and all subsequent issues of The Fantastic Four until I quit buying Marvel comics when I joined the Air Force in 1977.	Ray Demerock Llopiz, Jamie Bramble Jamie Bramble with his back to the camera talking with a customer. At far left is another Virginia Beach comic book dealer Ray Demerock Llopiz who was helping out Jamie at this show. Yes, Ray is another visitor to Zeno's Books and its owner Wayne Zeno's Sidewalk Sales.

Jamie Bramble Jamie with two high grade CGC graded copies of The Fantastic Four. #59, 1967 and #82, 1969 both featuring the Inhumans.	Stephen Su Stephen Su is a comic book dealer I had never seen before. Here he is talking with a customer.	Stephen Su Stephen had some interesting Atomic Age and Silver Age comics. This PGX graded Marvel Collectors Item Classics #2, 1966 along with related title Marvel Tales were squarebound comics that reprinted mostly Marvel comics from the early 1960s and sometimes Atomic Age comics from the 1950s Golden Age stories from the 1940s. I bought both these titles for a few years in the late 1960s because I only started collecting Marvels in 1965 and I was is a hurry to read all the stories I had missed since 1961 when the Marvel Age of Comics began. It seems a bit presumptuous in 1966 for Marvel to label reprinted stories no older than 1961 as "classics" but Marvel was never noted for the "soft sell." 3 Dimensional EC Classics #1, 1954 was created by EC to cash in on the temporary 3D craze that was popular in movies and comic books in 1953. The second and final issue was 3 Dimensional Tales From The Crypt Of Terror. The stories in these two comics are not strictly reprints. The stories had appeared in earlier EC comics but for these 3D versions they were redrawn by the same artist who did the original story or another artist. These two 3D comics were never reprinted in Russ Cochran's Complete EC Library and so far haven't been reprinted in Dark Horse's ongoing EC hardcover color reprint series. I just discovered Fantagraphics Books did reprint these two 3D comics but only in the regular 2D and in black & white. I can't afford the original comics so I guess I'll never get to read these stories in color in all their three dimensional glory.

Gerald Hogan Most of the Trilogy Comics booths are full of manga books, statues and toys but owner Gerald Hogan does have one wall of vintage comics seen here. Gerald's head can be seen in the far background.	Gerald Hogan Publisher James Warren switched from girlie magazines to monster magazines in 1958 with the first issue of Famous Monsters Of Filmland edited by Forrest J. Ackerman which lasted many years and is still around today with a different publisher. Warren fiddled around with a few other pop culture titles like Spaceman and Screen Thrills Illustrated both of which died after a few issues. However he did much better with two long enduring titles Creepy and Eerie and later Vampirella. Both Creepy and Eerie were a reincarnation of sorts of the 1950s EC horror comics. Both magazines used an EC style ghoulish narrator and used some of EC's artists. Gerald is holding Creepy #1, 1964 with a cover drawn by EC artist Jack Davis and some of the stories drawn by EC artists. Gerald is also holding a mid-grade (but still expensive) DC comic House Of Mystery #1, 1952 which includes one story by EC artist Bernie Krigstein and one story by DC's top Superman artist Curt Swan. As I've noted many times DC has little interest in reprinting its 1950s and 1960s science fiction and mystery titles and no other publisher has taken up the slack under license. I am buying some of these 1950s DC titles sci-fi and mystery issues but I doubt I will ever be able to afford this House Of Mystery #1.	Mario Russo I hadn't seen Atlanta, GA comic dealer Mario Russo for several months and in the interim he acquired this 14 foot Mario's Comics sign visible from anywhere in the exhibition hall.

Mario Russo Mario with part of a small collection of EC comics he recently purchased. He's holding Weird Science #21, 1953 with cover art by Wally Wood. Across from that is Weird Fantasy #8, 1951 with cover art by Al Feldstein. On the bottom row Incredible Science Fiction #30, 1955 with cover art by Jack Davis and Weird Science-Fantasy #25, 1954 with cover art by Al Williamson who also drew the interior story depicted on the cover, the Ray Bradbury story "A Sound Of Thunder." Stay on the path!

Click here for Page 1 of the Leader's Report on Tidewater Comic Con 2025

Click here for the Main Introduction Page to see the Leader's Report on the Columbus Moving Picture Show