Listen, I am going to say this straight (pun intended), but this felt like the first, most fun and interesting, and believable relationship this season so far!
But really, with all the story real estate going on, what are the chances that this isn't anything more than bait and a throw away experience?
Refreshing to say the least. I hope they spin more fun into this series.
Bear with me on this, because I am compelled to write a little about this experience, even though I know none of what I am about to say is new. Still, what is new is that this purchase has sent me down a completely new path with collecting, and I’m excited to see what I find!
I just purchased the Wolverine Limited Series by Chris Claremont and Frank Miller. Trade paperback. First printing.
And this isn’t the first time I’ve owned this series. It certainly isn’t the first time I’ve read it, either.
Years ago, I owned the hardcover, the black slipcase with the gold lettering. I even had it signed by Claremont about ten years ago. He signed the second page in gold Sharpie. At the time, I remember wishing I’d had him sign the cover instead, but when I was getting it signed, he kind of just grabbed it from me and was quick about it. No big deal. Especially since, well… I eventually sold it.
Not for any particular reason either.
Or maybe for a reason I didn’t fully understand at the time.
I haven’t read Wolverine Limited in its original format, the floppies, as they are called, in probably 20 years. Maybe less. Either way, somewhere along the way, I realized there was a hole in my collection.
I didn’t have a copy of Wolverine Limited sitting on my shelf.
And that felt lacking, missing.
I don’t read the book often, but I wanted the ability to reach for it. I wanted it there. So I went looking for my copy.
Now, I don’t know if other collectors think this way, but I have a real hesitation to rereleases. Sometimes they’re fine (I’m really trying to be open minded here), but most often I find them ugly, tacky, cheap, or overly manufactured.
The covers are usually garish. Garish, not my word, but a word that gets used a lot when talking about the colorings. It’s aptly used. The colors are often too bold, sometimes even altered. The recolorings give my head a spin.
At any rate, I was looking for a copy and it didn’t take long before I found this particular collected edition.
Wow.
What a cover. It absolutely knocked me over.
It has presence.
Later editions don’t have the same vibe.
But what really got me wasn’t ONLY the cover. And as I’m sure you’ve guessed it by now, it was the:
Paper.
Oh, the paper.
“High quality” NEWSPRINT.
OOOOOOHHHhh I am in HEAVEN. Heaven!
This is what these books need to be printed on.
The smell. The texture. The way the colors sit in the page, not on it, and bleed through the inks. It’s all there. Just as I felt and remembered.
I took a few pictures of the interior pages, just to see the color bleed in.
Love it.
So there we have it. Now I know why my 1st print hardcover, signed by Claremont in that beautiful gold ink, didn’t hold up in my collection. It didn’t present well. I know, and vividly remember, that paper. Oh the hack job of that paper against the colors.
We all know the color options back then were limited. Some magic happened back then for sure, but you can’t replicate it. It’s of the times, and this is one of the few options available to experience it.
Here I am now. Collecting in a new way. I am now on the hunt for the old reads, this time, in the sexy, pulpy paper it was meant to be represented in. Next up, The Dark Phoenix Saga.
Oh, side bar. So funny, since I never had this copy of the Wolvie Limited tpb, I did have this Lone Wolf and Cub tpb, and thought to myself all those years ago, wow, what an excellent presentation in the book. Now I know where Frankie got it from. Himself… many years before.
This venture has taken me longer than I expected.
I started hunting for uncirculated notes about 7 months ago. the first 8 or so were easy and affordable but now each note is costing a lot of money.
I’ve also had to resort to waiting.
Now that I’ve got certain notes too, I want to swap out 3 others. Do others have the same situation?
With the announcement of Genndy Tartakovsky‘s Conan, coming soon… I wanted to take this opportunity to congratulate Jim Zub.
Some of you might be asking yourself, but why? What does Jim Zub have anything to do with Genndy’s Conan.
I would like to show you, the circle of life.
See, I know Jim’s work, and I’ve followed and read a lot of it over the years. And some of you might know that Jim wrote a little mini, an excellent mini on a property that I had a large admiration for. And so did Jim. That property was Samurai Jack.
You see… many years ago, Genndy created a mystic cartoon series that called back and referenced other comic book literature, like Lone Wolf and Cub and Frank Miller’s Ronin. It was a great little cartoon series that gained recognition and awards.
Samurai Jack fell off the rails. It got cancelled. Fast forward a few years later and Jim Zub came on board to give Samurai Jack fans, the closure they deserved, and wrote this mini, with Genndy’s blessing, to give a proper, if not continuing, send off, to the man out of time.
A few years after that, and capitalizing on the continued success of the property, Genndy decided to make his own Samurai Jack ending, and deliberately threw out all the work that Jim Zub did. It’s unfortunate too because, not only did Jim handle the property with class and sophistication, but as far as I remember hearing, Jim also kept Genndy in the loop as Jim’s series progressed.
None of that mattered in the eyes of Genndy, and finished his own property, in his own way, and in my humble eyes, in a more inferior fashion.
But the future has a sense of humour, and it would be a bit ironic to be in the position today, where the old ‘master’ is now in a place to take notes from the man he once shunned.
So I say to this, in the void of the internet, Genndy, you’re lucky to have Jim back in your corner again. Might I suggest that, this time, you don’t spit in his face.
I liked the first volume, for the Savage Wolverine line by Frank Cho, but wow, there's a Joe Mad story for volume two??
How did I not know this! Has anyone else read this?
So, it's right around the corner, literally, and I was curious to hear what people think is going to happy in episode 5.
I am just worried it's going to be a throwaway episode. I hope it isn't, but I am struggling to see how they are going to tie this into the larger narrative.
I keep forgetting that X-Men '97 is a continuation from the OG, so my slow brain keeps expecting another Weapon X tale, which we won't get. Not to mention 268 also came before BWS' Weapon X... so what is this episode going to be about?
This has taken me a lot longer than I expected.
I got the scenery series quickly ('79), but I actually started with the Devil's Face notes, and they are hard to get without spending crazy cash. and I want the '37 series, but also expensive. Ugh.
The '35s are going to kill me.
Then it will be the pre-35s after I get all of these. See you next year? lmao
I don't normally like to send over links to youtube videos, but I stumbled upon this today, and thought it brought a very real, very interesting take on Weapon X that I think true fans of the story would appreciate.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=X6tfzd3yUs4
Please keep in mind this is a very real, very adult content specific view, but it's grounded, it's real, and I think it brings the material to an important height.
I know this is a bit personal, and others will not see this the same way as I do.
I am sure that a few of my collecting mistakes will ruffle a few feathers because others won’t see these as mistakes at all!
But here goes…
Getting books signed and not getting them submitted for SS CGC books. Keeping signed books in raw form was throwing away money. I wish I never did it. Selling signed raws was one of the most painful experiences in my life.
On the flip side of that, I would also think that every book in my collection had to be graded. Omg what another waste of money.
This one is tough because I love the hobby for a reason. But selling books individually is an insane time waster. And if you sell them in bulk, kiss your money goodbye. I wish I kept my collection down to a 100 books, tops.
I want to be clear. Anything. And I do mean anything, that I have purchased at cons, was cheaper, somewhere else. I’m talking comics, toys, clothes, whatever.
Self explanatory
I thought, when it was released... ah, this is expensive.
I can wait...
and then they kept selling...
and then they kind of all, dried up! Then I got worried. I'm not going to find a mint condition copy now.
I missed out!
Well, one dropped, and i snagged it. I wanted this specific version, no foil, no trade dress.
And she is as beautiful as I expected.
Wow, this game is a total dumpster fire. I can’t believe they did all these things.
Don’t you just wish they did all these other things instead?
I hate this and that and that and this. This game is awful. Two thumbs and two big toes waaay down.
I mean, I haven’t played it yet, but just going on what I saw online and I can already tell this game is going to suck. Even though it looks wicked and everything I could ask for, there’s still going to be all this stuff I’ll complain about. Especially since I haven’t even played it yet.
Okay seriously, internet culture has hit new levels of toxicity. The amount of complaining this game has been getting is ridiculous.
It looks literally perfect and yet, we are all inundated with posts ragging on a game that hasn’t even released yet.
I say BOO to you, armchair critic. For shame.
So in my old age, I have found myself in love with finding unicorns. I don't know why, but it's a thing for me. On that topic, I have been looking to find this unicorn.
It is the X-Men 25, Black and White (sketch) Retailer Incentive Variant WITH Nooooo Hologram. I am curious if anyone has or knows of the one where the hologram is missing.
This is one of those books that I am just in awe over.
I'd be curious if many people knew that this existed!
But I've wanted one for years.
Specifically, X-Men 25, The Black and White Retailer Variant, in Near Mint condition.
I've always wanted one in near mint, without paying the actual CGC 9.8 near mint pricing.
There have been many raw books on ebay over the past few years but they've either been too high or they will have a very obvious flaw to them.
I am happy to report however, that my copy, is pristine. It's just nice to hold the raw copy in my hands. Oddly enough, as I have bought a few copies of these over the years that were less than ideal... a lot of them tend to 'yellow'... the white, of the 'black and white' sketch, isn't all that white.
I know it's of the dreaded hologram era, but man I love this book. Wolvie, my favourite, gets owned lol
When I am in love with a book, I can't seem to stop.
This isn't the only book I have multiples of, but I don't have many comics either.
What is it with this obsession of having so many of the same book?
At the time of this post, which still shows 6 days left… this blank is already at $900 with OPEN BIDS.
WHY??
Here are some of my favourite books. And they are my favourite, for so many different reasons.
Mostly I loved reading them. But there's more to it than that. I've realized though that, when I try to organize my collection, I look crazy.
There is no way that anyone, other than myself, looking at how I organize these books, would ever make sense to them.
Yes, I do have some reads collected together, but then I collect by artist? Or, I have other books of the same story, over there somewhere, in a different box... I've organized some by year, as a whole, like it's a museum, there's raw signed books mixed with non-signed.
I am a mess!
What happened August 4th, 2025?
This is a 10 year graph, which shows steady, consistent, albeit boring, activity.
Then August 4th 2025 was Day Zero, of a 9 month rollercoaster.
These past 9 months do not make sense. All of a sudden?
All of a sudden, the world woke up and realized how import silver is? Come on...
Historically... this is a huge red flag. Thoughts?
I wanted to post here to see if I could get any more traction on the tracker I created a few years ago.
Back in 2023, I was obsessed with the Marvel Comics Presents #72, specifically the CGC 9.8 SS (Signature Series). Mainly, There are a lot of Universal Grade 9.8s, but at the time I made this post (found originally on CGC's Chat Forum), there were only 19 SS books! So I wanted to know, what were the signed books? How rare is rare.
It turned out, pretty rare.
These were my findings:
Submission: Marvel Comics Presents #72 CGC 9.8 SS
Total Census Count: 19 (as of November 29, 2023)
Serial Numbers Found: 12
Serial Numbers List:
0958841001 - signed Barry Windsor-Smith
0958841002 - signed Barry Windsor-Smith
0993676007 - signed Barry Windsor-Smith
0993676008 - signed Barry Windsor-Smith
1008501002 - signed Barry Windsor-Smith
1008501003 - signed Barry Windsor-Smith
1318940011 - signed Stan Lee & Herb Trimpe
0216214010 - signed Stan Lee
1331997003 - signed Stan Lee
1330643004 - signed Stan Lee
1019794012 - dead number (was signed Stan Lee)
1063796003 - signed Hugh Jackman
So, from that list, I was missing 7.
Now there are 26.
So I am missing 14. But I do know that since 2023, Stan Lee and Barry Windsor-Smith haven't done more signings, so I am going to bet these are Chris Claremont, and potentially more Hugh Jackman signings?
And I love it!
I am obviously on a Maple kick.
I bought the Grand Maple, but the Maple Tree of Life was always in my sights.
Now they are joined, at last. Next up, the Ultra-High Relief! I can't decide on the OG or rose gold...
Any other 5oz I should keep a look out for? There's the Matthew...
I know this isn’t a big deal, or that big of an accomplishment, but I’ve been trying to get all of these, in uncirculated condition, at a fair price.
And to be fair, I have been buying… other things, but this was important to me.
When I first switched hobbies and collections, this was literally the first thing I wanted to get, all the Scenes of Canada notes that I grew up with... that weren’t all bent to hell.
So where to go from here? Now I’m going for all Devil Face notes? but those are so expensive. It will take me a long time to get those.
As well as the 1935 series. ultra expensive.
Any other bank releases etc I can look into is great. I just got the $100 note from 1937, but the series suffers from the same as the 1954 notes, with all same faces
