Auction Highlights #83

The comic book portion of ComicLink’s February Featured Auction Ended Wednesday February the 26th and what a mammoth auction it was!

For the 1st time ever really a strong group of quality “Canadian Whites” were on auction and the results can only be described as historic. I’ll direct you to Ivan Kocmarek’s post covering that portion of the auction.

As I said above, this was a very strong auction.

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1989 In Comics: Happy 25th Anniversary!

1989 is one of those years that doesn't seem like it was that long ago. The late seventies or early eighties, sure, and anything pre Star Wars definitely. But 1989 can't be that long ago right? It isn't like someone who was born that year could now legally rent a car or anything. Time, as they say, does fly and before we know it a quarter of a century has passed since we were asked if we had ever danced with the devil in the pale moonlight. But 1989 wasn't only the year that introduced us to Prince's Bat-Dance, for there were a lot of other comic book milestones that year. Here are a few of the key books and events that made headlines.

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Comic Collecting Costs on the Rise

The weakening Canadian Dollar got me to thinking about the effect it is having, if any, on the back issue comic book market. Comic books are like oil in that they are traded in U.S. dollars. The price guide is quoted in U.S. dollars, almost all the big internet dealers are U.S. based and all the major comic auction sites are U.S. and prices are quoted in U.S. Dollars. Basically holding a comic collection is like holding U.S. dollars.

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Love ’em or Hate ’em? CGC Signature Series

I guess my dislike for Signature Series books would go all the way back ,to when 10 year old me stupidly signed my name to the top right hand corner of Silver Surfer # 1,2,3, and yes, number 4, only to realize as I became more knowledgeable in the collecting world, that this was a great way to make my books very unattractive to sell or trade. As well as devalue them.

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Jacking Up The Price

When it comes to action figures, there are popular figures and there are "highly sought after figures". And most times, the popular figures are not the ones that die-hard collector's want. We want the hard to find and obscure characters.

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How I Got My Job (A Series): Cary Nord

Being a passionate fan of comics, it is only natural to dream and hope that one day you could possibly work in/with them.

Well, I might not work in comics, but I do live in a city that allows me to meet and be friends with people who are. My next couple of articles will be a series of interviews with people who work in the comic industry focusing on how they got into the positions they are in today. These people include artists, writers, retailers, editors etc.

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Arcs & Runs #2 | Fantastic Four 44-51

This instalment of Arcs & Runs will look at the most important run of comics in the silver age IMO. DC Showcase (revival of super-heroes - new Flash and Green Lantern) and The Amazing Spider-Man, both receive and deserve a lot of consideration as the most important run of the silver age. Spider-Man is easily the most popular character to emerge from the 60’s; however he may not have even happened if it weren’t for a comic called the Fantastic Four.

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Whites Mystery Artist

In doing my ongoing research into Canadian war time comics, I recently came across this Toronto Star article about a Whites artist named Michael (Bud) Riled who seems to have created a female jungle heroine called "Terena of the Jungle." It even has a quote from Peter Berkemoe, owner of The Beguiling about the period of The Whites.

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To CGC or Not to CGC?

This is always a hot topic among collectors and dealers alike. Now, I have resisted writing this column because of the heat that goes along with the debate. Nowadays it seems very difficult to have a serious debate about anything, because of the highly charged state of political correctness. But what the heck, here goes.

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