Comics

I used to have a penchant for sifting through the obligatory 25-cent bin at just about every comic shop I could find. I wasn’t seeking lost, valuable treasures as much as I was seeking out a great story or inspiring artwork. Anyone hoping to stumble into a comic shop and walk out with an unrealized treasure is in for a sad realization, because they just don’t work that way. I’ve always leaned towards the eclectic, so someone else’s junk comic may just be an ideal find for me.

Usually, the comics just plain old sucked – but it’s hard to go wrong for a quarter. There’s a level of suck that can be reached that cyclically runs back around into the scope of ‘unintentionally awesome’.

Back in college, I picked up a few stray issues of The Puma Blues that I found in one such bin. After reading a whole lot of Sandman in high school, I became a fan of Michael Zulli’s artwork, so I was excited to find a whole comic series illustrated by him. While I couldn’t make much sense of the story, due in equal parts to missing issues and a storyline that was thick with dreamlike weirdness and shifting through time, it was only recently that I realized the significance of this series in the larger world of comic books and how they are distributed.

It all comes back to Cerebus’ creator Dave Sim, the Angry Man of Comics. The Deranged, Frothy Man of Comics. The Misogynistic, Unapologetic Man of Comics. Either way, he’s notoriously controversial and he takes comics very seriously, love him or hate him. It’s this seriousness, overblown or not, which changed the face of comics and how we collect them.

Initially published under Sim’s ‘Aardvark One International’ imprint, The Puma Blues moved to Mirage Comics after ‘The Puma Blues Distribution Incident’ of 1987. Sim’s own Cerebus comic was a very popular title at the time, so when Sim decided to not use Diamond Comics Distribution Services to distribute a Cerebus graphic novel, Diamond retaliated by arbitrarily deciding to also not carry The Puma Blues anymore. Because Diamond is now, and has always been, an almost monopolistic force when it comes to comic distribution to your neighborhood comic shop, this was a noticeable blow to both parties.

This battle led directly to Sim orchestrating a series of meetings to establish The Creators Bill Of Rights, which was established in 1988 by a handful of prominent independent comic book writers and artists. While this hasn’t completely stopped Diamond Comics from butting heads with small creators and shops, it marked an important landmark in the treatment of comics as a valid creative medium. The establishment of these ideas were instrumental in the formation of Image Comics in 1992, when many creators walked away from mainstream publishers Marvel and DC Comics and their questionable contracts to focus on original creations. Image has since established itself as the fourth largest comic book publisher in the United States, which is impressive when you consider that they’ve been around for only a fraction of the time that Marvel and DC have existed.

So, The Puma Blues is the little comic that changed the way that we collect today. And I found it in the back of my closet.

In November of 2008, the popular collectible miniature game Heroclix was pronounced dead.

Heroclix was, and remains, the only published game where you can effectively and officially make teams of your favorite DC and Marvel heroes and bad guys and pit them against one another on a battlefield, using tiny figures that display a wide array of numbers and symbols to describe each character’s attributes. You could make DC’s Superman fight Marvel’s Hulk – and not only that, but you could make at least six or seven different incarnations of each do battle.

(Of course, Superman’s flight and ranged combat ability would give him the upper hand, but the Hulk could probably do some serious damage if you get him angry enough, or if you use ’smart’ Hulk with the giant gun.)

Over the game’s evolution, WizKids released over two dozen different sets of characters from throughout the universe of comic books. I was a pretty dedicated player from the moment that the game was released, and introduced many, many of my friends to it. We staged battles in my dorm room, over the internet, and anywhere we could find the time and space. We ran to the WizKids booth at ToyFair and got sneak peeks at production samples and asked prying questions. In short, we were fans.

The game evolved, the rules changed, and eventually, things got a bit too complicated for me to casually enjoy anymore. I gave up the game itself when I lost the ability to fly in Iron Man carrying The Thing and have him destroy everything in his path in one big move – but I kept on collecting the figures. Tiny superheroes are keen. Topps purchased WizKids, and before too long, Topps decided to very, very suddenly kill off WizKids, stunning the gaming community, as well as employees who were sent scrambling for new work. Just like every high school in the US, they were deciding to put all of their available funds towards sports-related things and leave the artists and nerds in the gutter. I’m not making this up – this was in the official statement. They did, however, decide to keep such wholesome, intelligent, and not at all alarming things as ‘Baby Bottle Pops’.

I kept my Heroclix. They were still useable, and almost every major and minor comic character had been made already – from Captain America to Zombie Colonel America, Frankenstein to MODOK – and even a gigantic Fin Fang Foom piece. There were talks of small gaming companies banding together to keep the game alive, but nothing came to fruition. Licensing Marvel and DC characters is not cheap.

In September of 2009, NECA quietly displayed a Heroclix piece at one of their convention booths. This was enough to stimulate hope and interest throughout the entire gaming community once again. Almost a year to the day of Heroclix meeting an untimely death, NECA released the ‘Hammer of Thor’ set, based on the titular Marvel Comics superhero – and still using the reconstructed WizKids to keep things in order.

While I don’t know if this ranks among the great comebacks of popular things pronounced dead, like Polaroid film, Justice League Unlimited action figures or Futurama, it’s certainly something that we gamers can all appreciate. Now, we can pit ‘Thor, Frog of Thunder’ against, oh, let’s say Ambush Bug.

If that last sentence made you at all excited, you’re a nerd. Welcome home. Let’s game.

After I interviewed Hillary DePiano about her My Little Pony collection, I interviewed her about another one of her collections: She-Ra, Princess of Power. Since Hillary is the author of The She-Ra Collector’s Inventory: An Unofficial Illustrated Guide to All Princess of Power Toys and Accessories, she sent me a copy of the second edition of the collector guide for review.

The She-Ra Collector's Inventory, by Hillary DePiano

As I stated in my interview with DePiano, I’m admittedly not at all familiar with She-Ra, He-Man, or the Masters of the Universe (MOTU) (although, I must admit my interest is growing rapidly!). However, I don’t think my inexperience makes much of a difference reviewing this collectors’ guide because most people use such guides for two reasons: One, to identify specific items properly and two, to get a ballpark idea of monetary value. And in both those cases, a guide book ought to help a collector (or seller) who is unfamiliar find their way about; and The She-Ra Collector’s Inventory does just that.

After a brief overview of the MOTU world and the Mattel line of toys, DePiano gives an account of her pricing process and grading evaluation, including a very wise word on pricing which all collectors, regardless of category, should heed:

Though some sites, or your local collectibles store, may try to insist on a higher value, I have found in my many years as an eBay seller that the only true value of an item is what someone is willing to pay for it, which is why I have based the prices in this guide on the average completed sales over several years rather than higher priced unsold listings. (The same is true in reverse, however, for if two bidders get in a war over your item, it may go for far more.)

After gaining understanding of her pricing and grading, the author gets into the individual Princess of Power toys and accessories.

Arrow: Princess Of Power Horse (page 17 in The She-Ra Collector's Inventory)

Dolls Action figures, including winged horses and other figures, are listed by year, each with color photo, description, checklist of clothing &/or accessories included, variations (if any), along with a price guide, listing values for those “Mint in Package” (MIP), “Complete,” and “Loose” toys.

The Fantastic Fashions section gives a general overview, with a centerfold-style color section showing you the fashions in their packaging. The Accessories and Playsets chapter is much like the chapter on the action figures.

In the Appendix, you’ll find Princess of Power prototypes never released in stores, international variations and packaging, detailed descriptions of wing types & combs, items commonly mistaken for She-Ra (including Golden Girl: Leader of the Gemstone Guardian), other She-Ra items (books, magazines, mini-comics, lunchbox & thermos sets, Shrinky Dinks, etc.), comments on custom dolls made by She-Ra collectors, and a checklist of MOTU Evil Horde figures who featured on the Princess of Power series (with photographs). While the Appendix has less pricing information, there are plenty of color photographs and information to assist the collector in identification and, therefore, in performing their own pricing research.

The She-Ra Collector’s Inventory: An Unofficial Illustrated Guide to All Princess of Power Toys and Accessories is a slim 55 pages in a trade-sized (6.6 x 10.3 inches) paperback, but it’s easy to understand and packed with color photos plenty large enough to be useful in identification. All of this makes it easy for a collector (or someone who discovers a box of the retro 80’s toys in their basement) to identify what they have, discover what they are missing, and learn how much it may be worth — which is exactly what a primary collector guide book ought to do.

Every so often, I get an e-mail asking for assistance with finding a particular piece of nerd paraphernalia… and usually, I’m so entrenched in the nerd word that I can help a brotha’ out. It’s rare that I run into a comic collectible that I wasn’t aware of, but this time, I was a little surprised at my own ignorance.

Back in the good ol’ days, even before I was really into reading comics, I would collect Marvel and DC trading cards. Marvel in particular seemed to endlessly pump out set after set, every year until I just got bored of Joe Jusko’s stiff artwork and Wolverine’s exact birthdate no longer held the magic that it once did. There were a ton of Marvel card collections, and the neighbor kids would trade them during warm afternoons, and in one particularly divisive incident, steal them from one another. The neighborhood was never the same after that.

During this same time as the first few sets of Marvel cards were being released, ToyBiz was producing some of the earlier X-Men and Marvel action figures. As was a common gimmick back in those days, many action figures would come packaged with a single trading card – usually always from one of those existing sets of Marvel cards, and usually something that you already had anyhow. No big deal. If I got an action figure, I’d tear the thing open and chuck the extra card into my box of doubles.

So, it’s not until 2009 that a Collectors’ Quest reader has informed me of the error of my ways. As it turns out, all of the cards that were packaged with these action figures were quietly and subtly branded with the ToyBiz logo – something that was not present on the normal edition of the cards, as they were usually made by a completely different company, like Topps or Impel. This variation had never been brought to my attention before.

Here’s where things get really complex for collectors (and I give much thanks to Jeramy Bonnelle, card collector, for sorting the information out). In 1991 and 1993, ToyBiz only packaged specific cards with specific figures, resulting in a series of 19 branded cards, none of which are too difficult to track down with packaged figures. However, in 1992, ToyBiz decided to reprint the entire 99-card Impel X-Men Series I set and randomly package them with the figures produced that year – a nightmare if you were interested in collecting the branded cards, or even packaging variations.

If you were crazy enough to try such a thing. Like Jeramy Bonnelle.

To make things worse, Jeramy informs me that these cards were roughly taped into the packages, unprotected, and very likely just torn out by the kids opening the toys – two factors that have degraded their condition immediately. I can’t imagine that almost 20 years with tape stuck to ‘em has done too well for the cards that are still sealed, either.

My presumption is that at least a good portion of toy collectors were also card collectors, and also that a good portion of collectors were also not aware of this variation at the time. Remember – we were pre-internet. If you didn’t have a buddy who was super-observant and collected on speculation, this info was downright esoteric. It’s likely that you have a few ToyBiz cards tossed in with your old Marvel card collections and don’t even know it.

Of course, Jeramy seeks these cards, and because I’m both fascinated that people are still collecting the old Marvel cards, and because it’s such an interesting variation to collect, I impel the nerdier readers of CQ to plumb the depths of their collections and drop Jeramy a line. He’s always looking for more, and to upgrade his existing collection.

By way of a visual aid, Jeramy provided these images. Comic geeks, prepare for a trip back in time. The set that was packaged randomly with the ToyBiz logo is the set that features the X-Factor card immediately above, where you can see the light grey ToyBiz logo hovering underneath the flavor text. The two Wolverine cards pictured above are from other sets and provided just for reference. If you can help, drop the guy a line at jdbonnelle77 at hotmail.com.

Good luck!

By the time you’re reading this, New York Comic Con 2009 has started. A few million billion socially askew nerds have converged upon the Javits Center on the west side of Manhattan, altering the shoreline and elevation of the island itself with their sheer geekpowers, and I will be among them.

I’ve been doing the Con thing for years upon years, and it’s afforded me some perspective on what Cons mean to a collector, as a fan of entertainment, and as a sane human being.

As a collector, NYCC has begun to offer an amazing range of exclusive collectibles that were previously only available at conventions like Wizard World and San Diego Comic Con. This year, there are countless exclusive items being made available by the urban vinyl toy vendors and artists that will be available nowhere else, from Brent Nolasco’s hand-painted customs, to production pieces painted up in colors that have never been released previously. Because of the nature of these artist toys, the likelihood is that even at their high prices, their editions are so severely limited that they’ll sell out very quickly. This isn’t to say that the high prices aren’t justifiable – just think of it as buying original art, because that’s what many of them are,

Mattel will be offering their exclusive Masters of the Universe Classics ‘Faker’ figure – essentially, a He-Man painted blue, and an actual character from the classic cartoon. He’ll be the fifth released figure in the series, which began at last year’s San Diego Con with a limited ‘King Grayskull’ figure (with light & sound packaging), and has recently bee accompanied by figures of He-Man, Beast Man and Skeletor, respectively. At $20 – $25 per figure, available only at cons and via mail order from MattyCollector.com, it’s a slow, but attractive, collection.

And though the NYCC website would have you believe otherwise, Hasbro’s ‘Extreme Conditions’ GI Joe sets, featuring the Joes in both desert and snow gear, are NOT this year’s exclusive. NYCC needs to get on updating their info, as they’ve created a large mix of exclusives from all previous years without distinguishing which is which. I’m not a Joe collector (except for the silly looking ones), and it’s no SDCC Fin Fang Foom, but they’re neat sets.

Last year, I purchased a Con-only Iron Man glass from PopFun, which I’m still a little in love with and have big plans for. This year’s glass from PopFun features a classic Wolverine, no doubt to coincide with the new Wolverine movie and cartoon coming out.

Tonner will also be at NYCC, offering an exclusive Lara Croft : Tomb Raider figure in a coat and brandishing a sword. Twilight fans will also be able to pick up 1 of 100 Twilight sets of the film’s two main characters. regular readers will know that despite my undeniable manliness, I loves me some Tonner.

And of course, there will be comics abound. More than can be sensibly counted. The real merit of going to a Con and enduring the best and worst of humanity all at once is meeting the creators. I’ve yet to match up the list of guests with the list of creators in comics I might want signed, but there’s no eBaying that experience.

And speaking of eBay – there’ll be plenty of people there who are buying up these exclusives to resell them for a profit on eBay, so unfortunately, a bit of speed in getting to the things that you really want first is usually required, so map and prioritize.

Bring water. Bring comfortable shoes. Bring a lot of patience for the family-sized guy standing in front of the creator you want to meet / action figure you want to buy / space you want to walk through. Don’t bring a huge backpack to stuff full of junk – if anything, bring a rolling case, and have some kind of off-location home base to store things in when you’re becoming overburdened, such as a car or a hotel.

And remember : it’s there for entertainment. It might be crowded and frustrating, but take a breath and remember to have fun.