Labor Day Means Back To School… and a Comic Show Plug

It’s been longer than I hoped since my last update, but it’s been a busy time as usual.  The new semester should be good for keeping me in a state of continuous frequent updates, especially with the new class, Digital Narrative.  Our professor has created a list of projects which include a basic requirement of keeping Flickr, WordPress, and YouTube accounts for our projects. You can follow the projects on this WordPress site  or type “http://blatherwiki.wordpress.com/” into your browser. It will also be used for some of my other non-school projects as a place to keep separate media creations.

In a related media project, I’m taking on my own labor of love in my eternal quest to research the Atomic Thunderbolt.  The Gerber Guide lists this is a truly scarce comic book from the Atomic Age, but compiling data on a rare book can be very difficult as sales are few and far between. How many copies truly exist? Are there multiples hitting the market once or twice a year or are these the same few copies being bought and flipped over and over? As it is, the Gerber Guide’s parent company was bought and sold a few times, and we all know that pre-internet data can get lost in the shuffle.

I decided as the owner of a couple of copies of the Atomic T-Bolt (a high graded copy and a nice beat up reader) that I would search auction archives from Heritage, eBay, and some other sites to document the copies. Many of these auctions already include cover scans that facilitate identifying each unique copy via markings and signs of wear. I also began to nickname the copies, some by id numbers, some by owner/seller name and others by colorful nicknames. The experience should be a fun labor of love, and perhaps I can discover something about this obscure character, his creator, and the publisher. Hopefully in the end I can write an article or short book about the process similar to Paul Karasik’s work in tracking down Fletcher Hanks’ life and comics in I Shall Destroy All the Civilized Planets.

The work I’m doing for class draws a nice parallel to the Atomic Thunderbolt project. It is very easy to simply upload photos and images and forget them. The internet is becoming a shoebox in a closet of old photos on Flickr, Photobucket, Tumbler, Picassa, etc., and we would be remiss not to continually share these images and relate the stories behind them. If we take a photograph of something or someone, it means at one time we felt an emotion, planted a seed for a memory, and experienced an instant of happiness. I’d like to share my happiness of discovering the Atomic Thunderbolt, and hopefully create new memories for someone else.

http://www.scribd.com/doc/519942/Atomic-Thunderbolt-1946-16-pages

I’ll be at the Wayne Comics and Collectibles Show on Sunday, September 4th, selling some nice dollar books, Bronze age X-Men, and some toys. It’s a great multi-collectible show and worth the trip for everything from Bauhaus vinyl to He-Man toys to vintage comics.  http://www.waynenjtoyandcollectiblesshow.com/

*UPDATE* HOLY DELETIONS BATMAN!

The Scribd Atomic Thunderbolt document has been deleted! This only reaffirms my quest to document this character before he disappears from comic history!!!!

Read Full Post »

Wayne Comics and Collectibles Show “Great Success! Yes!”

Had a great time selling comics and toys at the  www.waynenjtoyandcollectiblesshow.com. I wanted to just put up a quick thanks. I had some good sales, and the guys running it told me it was a “light” crowd. Can’t wait to see what a busy day is like! You can see August show pics on their site, and here’s my awesome corner table spot:

I offloaded all of my Mystery Men action figures, a ton of Power of the Force Star Wars toys, and some books. I’ll have to revamp the inventory for the next show, assuming I can make it…

That’s all for the short post. I apologize for being busy, but work and other factors have been excruciatingly demanding on my time. But I have to keep moving on, keep trying. I tell myself that even a short post is better than none.

Read Full Post »

Vintage Stock is the Greatest Store in the World.

Ah, the smell of cardboard and plastic. I just got in 30 CGC titles FINALLY that I had dropped off at the Philly Wizard World. It’s a beautiful thing. So there’s my registry banner above, as well as my X-Men ranking. Plodding along, plodding along. As promised earlier this week, here’s one of the highlights of my recent travels.

When I was in Joplin, Missouri a couple of weeks ago I had the privilege of visiting Vintage Stock, which is by far one of if not the coolest stores. Ever. It’s big like a Home Depot and just chock full of Games, DVDs, old console systems, comic books, and toys.  apparently, this is a pretty big southern chain but I’d never heard of it. It was heaven.

It was a hot Saturday morning and I had some time to kill before my friends’ wedding (yes, I did use the apostrophe correctly to indicate two friends and a possessive). I drove my rental Nissan to the Northpark Mall and tried to hide out from the 100 degree heat, as my hotel air conditioning was being taxed by the weather, the natural disaster’s effect on the power grid, and the general incompetence of Holiday Inn. I was about to turn tail after doing a full end-to-end mall run while searching for an iPod charger, when I saw a sign: Vintage Stock. I had time, so I figured it would be a stand alone used game store of some sort.

Boy am I retail ignorant when it comes to chains outside of the North East.

I was stunned. Absolutely stunned. Why don’t we have this out here in New Jersey? WHY GOD WHY? ANSWER ME!!!!

The back issues were pretty decent albeit stuffed with many 90s trash bin fodder. Behind the boxes was a display case with some great higher end back issues. I picked up a few X-Men from the Byrne era. All of them were marked down on sale, and in nice condition in mylar sleeves. Ah mylar…. stick your nose right in and smell…. snnnnnnffffffff…. ahhhhh

The toys were no joke. In addition to row after row of carded figures, both new and 1990s-2000s, they had display cases full of older transformers, busts, and old GIJoes. There was even a 1980s talking Mr. T doll. That is beyond awesome.

Coolest of all, I saw kids playing Magic and some other card games in store. I’m not a fan of Magic, I could never get into it, but I knew I was smiling. Keep in mind, this is Joplin, Missouri. Over one hundred people were killed and thousands lost their homes just a few months ago in a devastating and random act of God, but on a hot Saturday afternoon, friends could get together and just be normal kids. You can’t ask for more in a store than that; a place where all are welcome and shopping is a true joy.

I ended up buying about $100 worth of stuff, including an awesome Marvel wallet decorated with retro comic covers. Every time I open my wallet now, it reminds me of Vintage Stock, the great people I met in Joplin, and how lucky I truly am.

So please, check out Vintage Stock next time you’re in the midwest or deep south, follow them on Twitter, check out (and like) them on Facebook, and keep games and comics going strong. It means more than you know to millions of people.

Read Full Post »

Nothing to see… non-update update

It was been a busy past couple of weeks, I’ll have more soon, like the GREATEST STORE EVER that I found in Joplin, Missouri, and my preparations for the Wayne Collectibles show.

More to come, stay tuned…

http://www.waynenjtoyandcollectiblesshow.com/

Read Full Post »