Super Sexy-Pants Midweek Ramble!

I keep trying(and failing) to get an actual Monday Ramble out, but it doesn't seem to be working very well.  Let's go with this one for this week, at least.

First up a question:

Do these sunglasses make me look all, you know, celebrity and stuff?  (Probably not.  The scraggly-ass goatee is looking particularly scraggly-ass here.  Brad Pitt can pull that shit off.  Me?  not so much.)

Cold, windy and wet this week, but no freezing temps and no snow.  We've had too many days of that over the past couple of weeks.  I declared a little while ago that I wasn't leaving the house until the temp was above 20, then promptly spent several days drinking hot chocolate, eating pie, and watching cartoons.  I am so over this winter.

I have definitely come to understand why some large mammals hibernate during the cold months.  I'm wondering how I can sign up for that program myself, since I am also a large mammal.  I just need to find an electric blanket that will stay on for three months and teach the cat to feed himself and scoop the litter box.

I'm working on a major booth redo, but it's going painfully slow.  I'll have pics when I get done, if I get done.  It's been a good January, sales-wise.  I haven't really had a post-holiday dip, which usually happens after New Year's.  I've been on a bit of a roll since the week before Christmas, even with the store closing for a couple of days due to weather.  Small furniture and higher-priced items are really moving right now.

2017 was kind of average as far as booth sales went.  I set a huge record in March, then crashed hard in April.  Summer was better than usual.  Fall would have been, except that I took an extra booth during a rent special to try and move some furniture, then barely broke even.  I ditched it when the special was over.  November and December were super-good.

Tine for another pic.

That was my anniversary gift from Keith.  We decided not to do Christmas presents this year, just a small anniversary gift each.  My collection of Batman shirts keeps growing.

Tucker is starting his daily rampage through the house.  It's crazed kitty time!  (Or, as I like to call it: "Go, Speed Racer, Go!")  Life with kittens, I tell you.

I made a super-major comic score at an estate sale last week.  Nearly 100 issues of one of my primary comic obsessions.  I plan on sharing it soon.  I actually want to do an in-depth sort of look at the four kinds of comics that make me go "Squee!" when I find them.  One them you can already guess, vintage romance comics.  I'll go ahead and surprise you all by saying that none of the other three are Batman or Wonder Woman.

And with that, I'll leave you with some Midweek Music.

Comic Book Friday: Big Flea Finds

There wasn't a lot of good comic picking at the last Big Flea.  A couple of the usual dealers weren't there, and several that were did not bring their cheaper stock.  Oh well.  At least the comic shop will start having sales again soon.

I did find a couple of things, but not too much.

You all know I love me some old romance comics.  Typically, though, I stick with the DC comics, as they are both the cheesiest and the best quality.  This one is from Charlton, which was kind of a bargain basement comics company overall.  I got it because I liked the cover, which has an interesting and uncommon art style with all the shading. Charlton wasn't generally known for doing unique stuff like this.  The cover itself reads like this could be the comic version of the "Me Too" movement, except that you just know in the story she's going to fall in love with the creepy boss. 

I already have this one in several versions, so it's going to the booth. Also known by the title Barefoot Gen, this is one of the most powerful manga I have ever read.  The cartoonist lived through the atomic bomb blast in Hiroshima, and the comic tells that story.  It's graphic, intense, and not for the faint of heart.  It's also incredibly timely right now, as we have leaders bandying the prospect of nuclear war about like it's no big thing.  I highly recommend this book.

Thirteen Going on Eighteen  is a teen humor series by John Stanley, who wrote and drew the classic Little Lulu comics.  His work has a style and flair to it that I have always loved.  

More romance comics, this time from DC.  This was the second-to-last issue of Young Romance, which ceased publication in 1975.  The romance genre in comics did not survive the 70's, sadly.  I got this book and the one below from a dealer who is always at the Big Flea.  I usually buy manga and Hardy Boys/Nancy Drew books from him.  He's had these comics forever, but wanted ten bucks each for them.  Not from this romance comic geek. He'd marked them way, way, way down to a much more reasonable price, so I picked them both up.

And that's the comic book update for this week  I'm going to work really hard to make this the regular thing I intended for it to be this year.

I'm off to an estate sale today that is supposed to have not only old comics, but one of my other comic obsessions.  At least, according to the pictures.  The person running the sale has caused some problems for me in the past, so I generally give her sales a wide berth, but I can't pass this up. Wish me luck!

Monday Rambles

THE BLIND LEADING THE BLIND

My glasses broke the other day, so I'm back to wearing contacts, which I haven't done regularly in years.  I've kept my prescription up to dote, but I've gotten to the point in life where I want getting ready in the morning to be as easy as possible, so the hassle of contacts has been just one more thing to do that I don't really want to and so I haven't.

The nerd glasses didn't really go with the longer hair anyway.  They'd work if I were planning to actually go the man bun route, but I feel like I am too old and fat for that.  I'm actually working on more of a loose, hippie ponytail.  I think little, gold-rimmed specs would look better with that.

Without my glasses, I think I look like my mother with a goatee, which kind of makes me nostalgic for my childhood days with the carnival, when I would watch Mom primping and combing her beard before going on stage to do her act is kind of unnerving.  Even worse, Keith keeps telling me how much he likes the way I look without the glasses, and in the back of my mind, a little voice is going, "He thinks your mother with a goatee is hot."  I think I need therapy.

FROM THE MOUTHS OF BABES

I had a great conversation yesterday at the mall with a 12 year old boy looking for Spider-Man comics.  He told me he was looking for "older ones."  I said "Old for you?  or Old for me?"  He had to think about that for a minute, then told me he meant 90's.  Old for him, then.  I told him to keep checking back and would do my best to find some.

I actually do need to carve out some time for a bad movie/comic bagging marathon.  I've been selling a lot of those boogers lately.

SPEAKING OF THE BOOTH

It feels like tax season is finally upon us.  Sales are picking up all the time.  The weekends have been gold rush city of late.  Saturday was my second best day ever.  The gravy is flowing and the small furniture is flying out of the door. So is the pricier stuff.  Saturday some dude came in and bought all of my vintage metal lunchboxes.

IT'S JUNKER CHRISTMAS!

This is junk set out week for the next neighborhood over from us, which means that we are next.  We've already got an early start on our set out pile going.  You're not supposed to do that, but my neighborhood ain't much on rules.  It's the first time we've ever tried it, though.  Watch us get cited for it, while the folks down the street who have had the nasty couches sitting on the curb for a MONTH, get by with nothing.

I made two "practice runs" last night.  One to a pile in the other neighborhood.  Got some small stuff, but nothing notable, except for two old fishing poles.  The other stop was at the magical house down the hill that disgorges all kind of interesting stuff every set out period.  They always start early and will be putting out crap right up until the garbage trucks come.  Last night it was a bunch of old religious texts and prayer books.  SCORE!

There's also a new renovation dumpster on our street, two doors down from us.  I told Keith that it was like having junk delivery!

All this is to say: 

IT'S ON BABY!

MUSIC FOR MONDAYS

And finally, to set you on your way:  The Carolina Chocolate Drops!

Monday Rambles (Post-Apocalyptic Edition)

Okay.  I'm back.

This has been a rough year for blogging for me, apparently.

I did have a good birthday.  Thanks very much for your well-wishes.  I went to three vendor malls I don't normally get to, plus a church sale that turned out to be really great.  This guy at the church sale had a tub of Batman comics, but the sign with the price was turned over.  I went to flip it back, expecting it to say they were a dollar each or something.

Instead, they were 25 cents each.  I heard Keith say:  "I know that look."  And the next thing you know, they guy and I have negotiated a price of 20 bucks for all of them.  I counted them later and it worked out that I paid about a dime each for them.  Score!

Here they are all waiting for to have a chance to pop in a cheesy movie and bag and price them.

Some other guy at the sale offered to run home and get his "brand new" Batmen comics for me.  He had been asking five apiece for them, but would take a buck each from me.  I told him I was too cheap for that and walked away.  Seriously, you just saw me pay less than 25 cents each and you think that's a strategy that will work with me?

It ended up being a good comic weekend.  Two of the malls I went to had some great comics for good prices available as well. 

Just a small representative sample.  Lots of Silver Age Harveys and Archies in this batch.  I have a couple of buyers that look for these, along with Dell, Gold Key and Disney stuff.  It's honestly a niche that the other guys with comics in our mall don't bother with, not even they one other guy who actually knows comics.

Since the previous weekend, I had struck out on comics at the big flea and at a comic shop sale, I was kind of glad to find so many.  I told Keith that the comics I expected to find the last weekend were actually hiding in the next weekend!

I did find some fun DVD's at the big flea, even if there were no good comics.

And then the world ended.

I've spoken and will continue to speak my piece on the election over on the Book of Faces, so I won't repeat it all here.  I will say that I am sad over the election results and scared as hell for so many reasons.  The racist attacks we've seen so far are only the tip of the iceberg.

I am still trying to wrap my head around it all. I may end up yet having to do some posts here as well.

I will share this though.  I stayed up until 2:30 on election night,  Keith went to bed, but I had to know.  I stayed up until the electoral votes hit 270 and it was called for Trump.  At that moment, the tears I had been just barely holding back let loose.  Chiquito was asleep in my lap, and he sat up and looked at me and started rubbing against me.

I got up and laid down next to Keith.  I woke him up and told him what had happened.  We held each other and I cried some more.  Chiquito came and laid on top of us and it was just us, alone in the dark. Together against what had just become world.

The next day, I cried myself out.  I posted about my sorrow on the Book of Faces, which has caused people I thought were my friends to mock me.

We have got to be better than this.

I am finally almost done with the booth re-do.  Keith went and helped me for several hours on my birthday.  (Best present ever!) And now things are looking good again.  I still have a bit to do, plus I sold a shelf last night, so I've got some extra work to do today.  I'll have pics tomorrow.

Sales are slowly picking up again.  Election day was the first hundred dollar day I'd had in over a month.  Since then, things have been a lot stronger, with several big pieces selling. Looks likes Melissa was right.

This past weekend, I house sat for my sweet friend Laci.

She likes my orange backpack and sleeps on it every time I'm over at her house.

I had a mishap at Goodwill last night, when I picked the wrong size cart.

Oops!

 But that wasn't as bad as missing out on three boxes of Shiny Brites when some kid cut in front of me and grabbed them.  ACK!

I have sooooooo much to do this week!  Treatment tomorrow.  Finish the booth.  Get the Christmas out.  Laundry. Pack.  Plus, there's a John Prine show on Friday that we have tickets too.

Thanksgiving is a week from Thursday.  Ack!  How does it sneak up like that every year?  We leave for Arkansas this Saturday.  (Shara email me!)

The sorrow that began with the election results last week continued with the death of musical genius Leonard Cohen.  (My beloved Emmylou Harris had stated that he was the one artist she always wanted to work with.  Now she'll never get the chance.) 

In light of everything that happened last week, there's only one choice for Music for Monday.



Take care of yourself.  Take care of each other.  Be loving and kind.

I love you.

And today, I am 52!

It's time for....

Well, comics geeks will get the joke anyway.

You see, for the past couple of decades or so, major comic companies have gotten in the habit of reinventing their lines every so often--tossing out everything that has gone before and starting it all over.  This is why the Superman, Batman, Wonder Woman, et al that you see today are very different from the ones that were being published in the 90's, the 80's, the 70's, and so on and so on.

It's also one of the reasons why I prefer to stick to reading pre-1990 super-hero books.  It's gotten way too confusing to try and keep up.

Anyway, in 2011, DC comics did a relaunch they called "The New 52."

Since this is my 52nd birthday, and thus the start of a whole new year for me, I decided that would also be a pretty nifty theme for this birthday.

Not to mention allowing me to do a birthday post and a Comic Book Friday post in one fell swoop!

EDIT:  Oh yeah!  I forgot to mention that there's a theme song too.  All good birthdays have one, you know.

Just take out "New Zoo Review" and sing "The New 52" in its place.  Totally works.



Singing pink hippos optional.  (But who wouldn't want one?)

Big Flea Finds!

Eddie-tor's Note:  I had this post written last night and was getting ready to add the pics, when Blogger decided it was hungry and ate the post. (Burp!)  This is attempt number two, which probably won't be as good as the ine you'll never see.  Stupid Blogger.

Let's start with that box of comics from yesterday's post.

I always check all the vendors with comic books, even though there are some that I really don't like.  One vendor in particular always has this guy with him that pesters every customer with the same questions over and over again:  "Do you have any old comics you want to sell?"  "Any old toys?" "Games?" "Magazines?"  No.  I'm looking to BUY thank you very much.  It's pretty annoying.

So, I see this vendor, and thankfully the Interrogator is not with him.  Plus, he has a box of dollar comics--just my price range.  I pulled a nice stack out of the box, some for me, but mostly to sell.  There were a lot of older Disney and Looney Tunes comics in the box in pretty good shape.  I have a couple of regular customers who are looking for that kind of stuff, so I'm confident I can sell them.

There was a lot more in the box that I could have gotten, but it was only like the second or third stop, and I didn't really want to spend all my cash just yet.  When I went to pay, the seller uttered the magic words that everyone longs to hear:

"Would you like to buy the rest 

of them for 25 cents each?"

Why, yes.  Yes, I would.  Thank you.

And just like that, SCORE!

There are a few comics without covers in the box.  Some of these I'll keep to use as placeholders in my own collection, until I can find a better copy.  The rest I can sell.  Coverless comics are really not worth that much, but I bundle them up and sell them in batches.  If nothing else crafters might want them.

And, just like that, the theme of the day was set:

Buy something.  Get something 

else for free or cheap.

Buy three boxes of vintage ornaments.

Get the loose ones free.

Buy a bunch of 2 dollar comics (all for me).

Get the one dollar book free.

Buy a bunch of 4/$1 items.

Tonka Trucks Galore!

Instant Ancestors!

Get a flat (much lower) price when the vendor gets tired of counting.

Yes, this is your bargaining tip of the day:

Wear them down!

Buy some comics.

Yes, that Isis.  She used to have a comic.

Get a bunch more of a quarter each.

I just grabbed a bunch of X-men, Spider-Man, and Batman titles.  Sometimes it pays to stick with the sure sellers.  I'll have to bag all of these, so the 25 cent price makes for a better margin for me.

Walk by a bunch of books.

Get them for free!

It seriously was that kind of day.

I also got a Brooke Shields doll.  (No, I didn't squeal and dance over this one.)

A couple of DVD's for me.

Yes, that says "Ninja Cheerleaders."

And a bunch of random bits and bobs of awesomeness.

Representative Sample

If I ever get cool enough to have my own posse, I'm going to call it the "Random Bits and Bobs of Awesomeness."  Take that, Taylor Swift!

There is one picture you're not seeing:  the vintage, three piece child-sized kitchen playset--stove, sink, and fridge--in excellent shape that was only $10.

The reason you're not seeing it?

I DIDN'T BUY IT!!!!!!

Oh, I dithered and dathered over it.  I dillied and I dallied.  But I just kept thinking over and over again:

"I don't want to make that 

many trips to the van."

It wasn't until the close of the day when I realized that:  a) the Fairgrounds has carts you can use and b) we could pull the van up to the front of the hall.

But, of course, by that time the set was GONE!

Yes, I am an idiot.

And that is why I will never have a posse.

People don't want to be in a posse with idiots.

Unless the idiots are young, rich, and pretty.

And I am none of these.

Well, I am kind of pretty.

But am I posse pretty?

The world will never know.

It would be cool to roll into a thrift store with a posse, though.

Come with me to the Big Flea!

Let's see what there was to see yesterday at the Big Flea!  Wheeeeeee!

Here we are at the Kentucky Fairgrounds, getting ready to go into the West Wing.  Whenever they have the Antique Wing added on to the Big Flea, it moves back to the West Wing.   In the days before the South Wing was constructed, all the Big Fleas were held in the West Wing.  For some reason, the show always seems bigger when it's in the West Wing.

During the fair, the West Wing is where the livestock is judged and displayed.  The room where the Antique Wing is held is used for the small animals, like rabbits and such.  The fair just ended last week, so I hope they got everything cleaned out.

This is a pretty big deal.  The Fairgrounds raised the parking to 8 bucks a few years ago, and that has impacted the attendance at the Big Flea ever since.  That's just outrageous and I go to all kind of lengths to avoid paying it.  The half off deal is new.  They experimented at first with only making purchases from certain vendors eligible for the rebate.  It always seemed like it was vendors that Were of no interest to me, so I never did it.  Now, any purchase at all qualifies you.  And can make some purchases!

And, we have arrived at our destination!  Please remain seated with seat belts fastened until the pilot has finished pulling into the gate.

Whoa!  I just got here.  How did all this get into my cart? I think Gran just attracts the stuff to her like a magnet!

Look Melissa!  (Definitely not in your price range.)

I tried to take a bunch of pics of cool stuff, but this is the only one that turned out at all.  The lighting in there sucks.  As a result, this is kind of a boring photo essay.  Sorry about that.  i did have good intentions.

He shoots!  HE SCORES!  See tomorrow for the story on this one.

Rearranging the cart.  Mavis the tote bag is  photo bombing in the upper right corner, along with my knee in the lower right. I'm keeping the finds under wraps until tomorrow, because I'm a tease like that.

Overall, it was a good show for finds.  I had to make an unloading trip to Mazda about halfway through, which is always a god sign.  It could have been even better for me, but I lost my mind and did something stupid.  More on that tomorrow too.

I heard from several vendors that it was a slow weekend.  Some were already starting to pack up at noon.  Several of my regulars weren't there, especially in the Antique Wing, which was only about 60% full.
 

And so we leave our day at the Big Flea.  Come back for the finds tomorrow.  They're adding a Halloween show this year, which I am really psyched about.  There won't be an Antique Wing, but it will still be worth attending.  They haven't done a Big Flea in October in several years.  I always liked this show, because it is right before my birthday!

This one's for Roger Green!

It's not often you find a comic that has a connection to someone you actually know, so when I saw this one at the Big Flea a while back, I had to pick it up.

Blogging buddy and role model Roger Green worked for the company that published Smilin' Ed  and knew the creators well.  I'd been wanting to post this for s while, but decided that today is a good time to do it for two reasons.

First, just to let him know that I'm thinking about him and to send him some cheer.  The anniversary of his father's death was this week.  It was right after my father died that Roger reached out to me and we bonded over having experienced the same type of loss.  He's a good man.

Also, this seemed like a good way to inaugurate a new feature for the blog:  Comic Book Fridays!  Whenever I can remember to do it, I'll be posting something comic book related on Friday.  I hope to talk about some aspects of comics that will be helpful to other junkers, but also to share a bit about my favorites, trivia, etc.

Hope you enjoy it!

PS Check out Roger's blog for thorough, thought-provoking, and humorous posts every day.

Stuff I Haven't Shown You (Comicon Edition)

I've never been good at doing posts in a totally timely manner, which is why I've ended up with stuff that I haven't shown you in the first place.  In other words, it's not really that surprising that I went to the Derby City Comic Con last month, but am just now getting around to writing about it.  Of course, given that the really biggie Comic-Con just happened in San Diego, I could argue that this is kind of timely, but I won't.

When I first started attending cons, I was really into the whole fandom scene.  I'd  go to panels and showings and all that stuff.  Of course, I'd spend a lot of time on the con floor, browsing and shopping and what not.  I even went to the San Diego con and worked booths a couple of times!  Those days are long behind me.

Nowadays, I treat cons like the Big Flea--opportunities to shop.  There are lots of comics to be had and lots of bargains to be found.  Usually, my priority at a con is to fond stuff for me and my collection, or at least stuff I want to read and then sell.  Finding stuff that goes right to the booth is a bonus.

Since I went on Sunday, I didn't take any pictures.  There weren't that many folks in costume on the last day.  I didn't see him, but I know Spider-Man was there, because I saw his van parked outside.

He must have been doing some serious shopping, since he's parked in front of the bank across the street from the convention center.

Speaking of serious shopping, this was my deal of the day.

Five HARDCOVER graphic novels for 20 bucks!  The two in front retail for 35 each!  There's a dealer there who buys things on clearance from the distributor and then sells them for five bucks each at the con.  If you buy four, you get one free!  Lots of interesting reading here.

By the way, I'm limiting this post mainly to the stuff I bought for me.

I always buy the original Classics Illustrated when I can find them cheap.  I lucked into these for 50 cents each!  I have so many of these now that I often end up buying something I already have.  In those cases, the duplicates go right to the booth.  This was one of the rare cases when I actually found a bunch of issues that I did not already have.

I picked up this series because it looked interesting.  The covers did what good comic covers are supposed to do, grabbed my attention.  You'd be surprised how rare that is these days.

Coverless comics from the sixties.  Comics without covers are not really worth that much, so they're usually pretty cheap.  I pick them up and use them as place holders in my collection, especially if they're from series--like the one of the right--that I don't have many of.

I'm not sure what I'm going to do with this one.  On the one hand, I love, love, love the older, extra thick, 25 cent giant issues, from any company.  On the other hand, I'm not really that wild about the old MGM cartoon characters.  I'm much more of a Warner Brothers and Disney kind of guy when it comes to classic cartoons.  This one might go to the booth.

Stuff I got because it looked interesting (and it was cheap!)  A whole lot of the comics I got came from a dude that has a new shop in town that I hadn't heard of before.  It's not far from the house.  I need to get over there and check it out.  Another dealer that I got some stuff from looked so familiar that it drove me crazy trying to think of who he was.  Finally, I remembered that he's one of the guys I run into at every yard sale where they have comics.  And that he annoys the living shit out of me.

A few issues from what I consider to be the greatest era of super-hero comics--the Silver Age! (roughly late 50-s to early 70's)  I got all of these from a guy that I see all the time at the Big Flea.  I was kind of surprised that he didn't recognize me, since he always knows who I am there.

ROMANCE COMICS!!!!!  Be still my heart.  Sigh!  The cover of the one of the left is particularly striking.

One booth buy that I will show here is this lot of toys.

They were all in a box marked "Show Special!  One dollar each!"  I circled it all afternoon and plotted.  And watched.  And counted.  And calculated.  And waited.  Finally, during the last half hour of the con, as folks were starting to pack up, I went back to that booth, picked up the whole box and asked about an offer for the lot.

I was a little taken aback when the dealer kind of defensively grabbed the large Batman out of the box before answering.  He asked me what I was thinking as far as a price.  I offered 12 bucks.  I had been planning to go 10, but the way he grabbed that Batman made me think I probably shouldn't lowball.  At that, he put the Batman back in the lot (whew!) and countered with 15.  I took it, since I was figuring that was where we'd end up anyway.  There's still plenty of room in that for me to make some money.

The Fantastic Four toys are mostly from the first FF movie. The Doctor Doom has two little spots on his back. 

If you place your finger over them, you complete the electrical circuit and he lights up.

DOOM ON!

DOOM OFF!

 The current is so mild that you don't even feel it.  I used to have a Pikachu that would shout its name when you completed the circuit.  Nerd stuff is fun stuff.

I'll keep a couple of the Robin figures, for my dresser top collection.  They're all from the late 80's.

A plethora of Boy Wonders!  (Boys Wonder?)

I'm calling this dude "Fashion Plate Hulk."

Waaah!  Hulk rip Brogans!

This summer started off very slow for comics, and I was getting worried.  With the Comicon, I was finally able to lay in a good stash for the booth.  There was a sale last week at the comic shop that helped too.  I came away from that with a large lot for the booth and, of course, some for me.

My stash includes this nice batch of 1970's Superman comics.  For 50 cents each!  What a deal.  It always amazes me when I wade into a nerd herd and people are passing stuff like this up.  It seems like most of the younger collectors are only interested in the most current stuff, so a lot of the older stuff like this gets passed by, even when it's dirt cheap.  It's kind of sad, because these are some really great comics.

On the other hand, that leaves more for me!