Below are the 20 most recent journal entries recorded in Bob Pfeffer's LiveJournal:

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Wednesday, August 27th, 2008
2:32 pm	Ipod, Pinball and a few movies I recently got an Ipod Classic 80G. I've been looking at one for awhile. I wanted something more portable then the CD MP3 player I was using for working out. I've been walking/jogging about 3 miles 3 or 4 times a week so I needed something that could play something longer then a standard CD. The CD MP3 player worked pretty well for that, but it was sorta clumsy to have it in my pocket. Anyway, the Ipod is working out great. I spent about a week getting my CDs on there and have been having fun discovering I owned stuff I've long since forgotten about. It is also suprising that I don't owe somethings I was sure I had, like The Time Ice Cream Castles. Come on, I never had a CD that had The Bird and Jungle Love on it? Sheesh. Compilation CDs are a bit tricky. I've been uploading the ones that are a single artist, but I haven't decided if I should do all the ones that are more like mix tapes. Vinyl records are another thing, I've got at least a 100 of those that I have no way as of now to get into digital formats. Anyway, as of today I've got 4936 songs and a little over 500 albums on there. And it isn't even half full. Amazing that I can have my whole music collection fit in my hand. Desmond and I have been playing a lot of pinball lately. We got Williams pinball for Wii. I wanted it because it had Pinbot on it, one of my all time favorites, but it also has a lot of other good tables, like Taxi and Whirlwind. We've been trying to find places locally to play real pinball, but it is hard to find. The is a place in Hopkins, S&S Billards that has a bunch of pinball and we've been there twice, but it is a bit of a drive. I used to be able to find pinball everywhere but I've only found one in St. Cloud, and it is in bad shape. It's a shame. Many of the newer games are really cool, but I just can't find them. Went to see a bunch of movies at the Imax one day a few weeks back. The theater is about 40 minutes from here, so I took an afternoon off to see Batman The Dark Knight on the Imax scene. It was good, I can't really think of anything I didn't like about it, but I wasn't terribly excited about it either. I used to really be into Batman and the Joker, but, even though they got it "right" I just wasn't feeling it. The Watchmen trailer looked interest. After that I saw Star Wars The Clone Wars or whatever it was called. I thought it was okay for what it was. Nothing critical. Then I saw the first half of Tropic Thunder. It started out good, but I got bored and went to see the last half of Pineapple Express which was okay. Probably my least favorite Seth Rogan film. Still worthwhile, but not his best. (3 Comments |Comment on this)
Friday, August 31st, 2007
1:49 pm	A new car and the Fred essentials I recently purchased a new car, a Hyundai Sonata because a van recently blew up. It was on it's last legs (wheels?) all summer and I didn't drive it anywhere far, but finally one day it exploded on the highway. A loud bang and lots of steam and red fluid and no power at all. The transmission blew up, which is the second time it had happened on the van. $3400 to get a new one for a van with 160000+ miles on it? No thanks. I was sorta looking around at cars for several months because I suspected the van was not going to make it. I wanted something with good gas mileage and the was costing me $60 a week in gas. I ended up with the Hyundai because the price was incredibly cheap for a brand new car ($200 / month payments, $500 down), it had decent gas mileage (34 highway) and was big enough to fit the whole family. I actually wanted something much small or possibly a hybred, but this one made the most sense. The Scion xD was a close second. Anyway, the car came with 3 months free XM radio. I wasn't really interested in the XM radio (though I did like that the CD player can handle mp3s so I can play my OTR CDs) but since I had it I decided to try it out. There are some good stations, I really like XM Public Radio, some of the Soul and Jazz stations are good, and the 70s and 80s decades staions play Casey Casem's ATop40 which is a hoot. But Fred is the station I listen to most of the time. Described as alternative music for the late 70s to the early 90s, it is pretty most of the stuff I like to listen to. Sure, they are a bit heavy on The Smiths and Echo and the Bunnymen for my taste, but in general I like everything they play. The Jam, Elvis Costello, Squeeze, U2, Alarm, Depeche Mode, Undertones, New Order, REM, Clash, Crowded House, XTC, etc. I've been having great fun these last few days listening to the Fred Essential, which is a countdown of their 2044 "essential" songs. I guess they do this at least once a year, and it lasts 6 days. I haven't been able to find a complete list online, but here is the top 71 from 2004. Number Artist Title 0001 New Order Blue Monday 0002 Cure Love Song 0003 Clash London Calling 0004 Smiths How Soon Is Now 0005 Echo and the Bunnymen Lips Like Sugar 0006 Pixies Here Comes Your Man 0007 Depeche Mode Blasphemous Rumours 0008 Bauhaus Bela Legosi's Dead 0009 English Beat Save It For Later 0010 U2 Where The Streets Have No Name 0011 Talking Heads Burning Down A House 0012 Cure Pictures Of You 0013 Shilling, Peter Major Tom (Coming Home) 0014 Television Marquee Moon 0015 Modern English Melt With You 0016 Ministry Everyday Is Halloween 0017 Smiths Bigmouth Strikes Again 0018 Iggy Pop Lust For Life 0019 Wall of Voodoo Mexican Radio 0020 Jam Town Called Malice 0021 Numan, Gary Cars 0022 Frankie Goes To Hollywood Relax 0023 Psychedelic Furs Pretty In Pink 0024 Soft Cell Tainted Love 0025 Siouxsie and the Banshees Cities In Dust 0026 XTC Dear God 0027 Berlin Sex (I'm a …) 0028 Public Image Ltd. Don't Ask Me 0029 Police Murder By Numbers 0030 Ramones I Wanna Be Sedated 0031 Violent Femmes Blister In The Sun 0032 Dolby, Thomas She Blinded Me With Science 0033 Stone Roses I Wanna Be Adored 0034 General Public Tenderness 0035 Beastie Boys Fight For Your Right (To Party) 0036 Simple Minds Don't You Forget About Me 0037 B-52's Rock Lobster 0038 Crowded House Don't Dream It's Over 0039 Boomtown Rats I Don't Like Mondays 0040 Pixies Monkey's Gone To Heaven 0041 Clash Radio Clash 0042 Dead Milkmen Bitchin Camaro 0043 Erasure Chorus 0044 Church Under The Milky Way 0045 Depeche Mode Never Let Me Down Again 0046 Cure Just Like Heaven 0047 Morrissey Suedehead 0048 Clash Rock The Casbah 0049 Eurythmics Sweet Dreams 0050 Replacements I'll Be You 0051 Carroll, Jim People Who Died 0052 Hoodoo Gurus Death Defying 0053 U2 New Year's Day 0054 Yaz Don't Go 0055 Smiths What Difference Does It Make 0056 Flock Of Seagulls I Ran 0057 Cure Friday I'm In Love 0058 Jane's Addiction Jane Says 0059 Sex Pistols God Save The Queen 0060 Nine Inch Nails Head Like A Hole 0061 New Order Love Vigilantes 0062 Damned Jet Boy Jet Girls 0063 Depeche Mode Enjoy The Silence 0064 REM The One I Love 0065 Costello, Elvis Veronica 0066 Gang Of Four I Love A Man In Uniform 0067 Shriekback Nemesis 0068 Stranglers Skin Deep 0069 Bowie, David and Queen Under Pressure 0070 Animotion Obsession 0071 Squeeze Tempted I wish XM wasn't so expensive ($13 / month) or I would consider keeping if just for Fred. (6 Comments |Comment on this)
Monday, May 21st, 2007
12:31 pm	Valleyfair weekend In a fit of theme park excitement after our Disney World trip in January, I bought season passes for the family this year. I knew we wouldn't be going back to Disney for at least two years, but I still wanted to the theme park thing and Valleyfair is really the only choice for that around here. Valleyfair is actually a pretty good park, being the first park Cedar Point bought when they starting purchasing other theme parks. They've always put a decent amount of money into the park and kept it up to date. It right now has 8 coasters, of which Corkscrew, Steel Venom and Wild Thing are near copies of the same coasters at Cedar Point. It is pretty clean and so we (read *I*) decided it would be our summer family trip thing to do a couple of trips to Valleyfair instead of an outstate trip. I was interested in the new coaster for this year, Renegade because it was almost the exact size as the Everest coaster at Animal Kingdom which was Desmonds and my favorite ride at Disney. The hill for both were about the same size, as was the max speed, plus both coasters had lots of high speed turns with one big drop. The only big differences were that Everest goes backwards for about half the ride (and is amazingly themed in Disney fashion) and the Renegade is a wooden coaster vs the steel of Everest. The wooden part gave me pause as I REALLY don't like the shaking and roughness of all the wooden coasters I've ridden. But this was a brand new coaster, and everything thing I've read about wooden coaster says they get rougher the older they get, so hopefully this one would be sorta smooth. Desmond was excited to ride the Renegade as well as he REALLY REALLY loved Everest and wanted to ride anything similar to that. The kids and I went to Valleyfair opening weekend, but Tina had to work. So we did mainly kiddie rides. My girls really suprised me as they were a bit scared with some of the rides at Disney. Paige, in particular, was scared to go on even the tamest rides. Dumbo was about her max limit there. We did get her to go on Pirates, but I don't think she really liked it. She DID go on Kali River Rapids a few times, but that was pure peer pressure from the other kids. Hannnah liked Test Track, but wouldn't ride in any seat other then the middle (so it wouldn't tip so much) and was freaked out of the Goofy rollercoaster. Anyway, that first weekend Paige and Hannah suprised me by wanting to do the Frog Hopper, which they each rode (with Desmond) about a dozen times. Paige would keep her arms up the whole time. The kiddie coaster they also loved, except Desmond, who said it was too rough. Paige would always run to the front seat and would go over all the hills with her hands up. It was amazing watching her ride that thing because she is so little she would get whipped around pretty good but she always wanted to keep going and as soon as she got off she would go right back to the enterance. Amazing. Desmond was shocked how daring she was, as I was I. The only ride that she didn't like was the Tilt-a-whirl. I rode with her and Desmond and Hannah rode seperate. The weight difference was HUGE and man oh man did that thing spin. I couldn't stop it the whole time and I've never been in a spinning ride that went around like that. Desmond and Hannah was shocked watching us, they said we were just a blur. Of course Paige didn't like that, I was even a little sick after. It is odd, I always really really liked fast spinning ride, but that was too much, as was the Tea Cups at Disney when I got them going really fast. The kids loved it, but I was ill. I wonder if when you get older you lose the ability to spin really fast without getting sick. Bummer. I can still do thinging like the Scrambler or Wild Cat, but I won't go on Tilt-a-whirl with Paige until she gets a lot bigger. Anyway, that was just the first weekend. With the second weekend Tina had the weekend off and her Mom was coming the first day, so we could ride some stuff that Paige was too little to do. We were staying overnight at a hotel in Shakopee so we could stay late on Saturday and get there early on Sunday. It was hot on Saturday so Desmond and I rode the Wave 3 times which the girls did the Antique Cars. The Wave was a new ride for me and it was pretty cool. Basically it is just the hit of the Flume but in a bigger car so it creates a HUGE splash. Really fun when you are hot. Tina even did it and said it was pretty good. Hannah rode the Monster with Tina's Mom next. That girl is nuts. I won't ride that ride. Tina talked me into it when we were dating and I'll never go back on it. She went on it with Desmond while Hannah and GM when again. Desmond survived but said he probably wouldn't do it again too soon, which it what Tina said. Hannah wanted to go on it again, which will be a problem if GM isn't there. The girls went on some kiddie rides while Desmond and I did the Corkscrew. I had never been on the Corkscrew before in all my trips to Valleyfair. It always seemed too scary but I knew it wouldn't be a big deal after some of the other coasters Demsond and I were one in Disney. Anyway it was really fun. The corkscrew part over the water is really awesome. The ride was pretty smooth, though way too short. There was usually no line but it took a long time to go from the exit to the enterance so it cut down on how many time Desmond and I would ride it. It think we probably did 10 -12 trying out all the different seats. I liked the front the best. We then went to the kiddie coaster, which Tina though Paige would not do even though we told her she did it last weekend. She was shocked. The kids wanted to do the Mad Mouse coaster, which we couldn't do the first weekend because Paige was too little. We did that a bunch and Hannah REALLY loved it. She just kept going back and back. Tina wrote it a few times with her, Desmond sometime, mostly me, with Desmond coming along most of the time. She probably did it 15 times over the weekend. I must admit it is really fun and stays fun with multiple rides, while I think the Corkscrew loses a bit when you've done it half a dozen times. Tina thought it was a bit wild, and it is in places, but it a lot of fun. The only ride Hannah didn't like was the Flume, I think mainly because the big lift hill was freaking her out. She wanted to do the corkscrew but was a bit too small. She did the Tilt-a-whirl a lot with GM, along with Wild Cat. We all did Scrambler a bunch. Almost all the rides were walk on. On Sunday Desmond and I did Renegade. While it wasn't really too bad, we both decided we would't rush to do it again. The main problem was that it was just too rough. I know the ACE type coaster fans really like that tyep of thing on wooden coasters, but I don't get why that is enjoyable. The ride really fast, which was cool, but being hammered like that just makes it not so much fun. After that one Desmond wanted to know all about the differences between wooden coasters and steel coasters, which looking the same really are two different types of rides. It is a shame that 3 of coasters at Valleyfair are wooden, which means we probably won't ride them much if at all. We'll do the Renegade again, but it is a shame it wasn't steel. THAT would be an awesome ride. Desmond wants to do the Wild Thing. It is steel, so that is a plus, but the 200+ ft first hill is scaring me away. We're going to have to find someone to ride it with him because he is too small to do it on his own. Anyway, it was a pretty good trip. The food was pretty expensive, and we'll bring more of it with us from now on, but with the season passes we'll be back several more times for sure. (5 Comments |Comment on this)
Friday, February 9th, 2007
9:52 am	Disney World Trip Man, this was awesome. I've wanted to go to Disney since I was a kid, but never got to go. My parents always claimed it was too expensive, but they would think about it "next year". After many many years of begging I just gave up when I was in the 6th or 7th grade. My parents divorced around that time and I knew there wasn't really a shot of going anymore. Flash forward 20+ years to last summer. Tina and I have talked about taking the family to Disney World, but she wanted to wait until the kids were older. She had gone once, when she was 4, and she remembered next to nothing about the trip. She wanted to wait until the kids were old enough to retain the memories as we might be able to only afford one trip. This made sense to me and I agreed with it, in principle, but I didn't want to wait until Desmond reached his surly teenage years either. We decided the best time would be when Desmond was 11, Hannah 9 and Paige 6, which would be in 2009. Okay, so this summer the kids and I are browsing the local library like we often do on the weekends. I'm looking through the new books and there is this Guide to Disney World book there. I'm curious about how much a trip would cost, hotels and food options, etc. I'm not planning to go at this point, but I check the book out. As I read it I thought, "Hey, maybe we can do this now." After looking over the upcoming school schedule and making the decision that I don't want to go when it is too busy I see there is a nice 10 period in January where the kids have a bunch of days off of school AND it is the cheapest time of the year to go to Disney AND the weather will be nice and mild in Florida while it will be frigid in Minnesota. I get it into my head that we are going to do this and start trying to figure out a way to pay for it. I had a great time doing research about where to stay, where to eat, what to do, etc. There is a ton of online resources about Disney and I used most of them I think. I had reservations for where we were going to eat 6 months out, each day planned out by park and where we going. There was so much stuff to do that even which 10 days we weren't going to be able to do most of what we wanted to do without a good plan. I tried to not over-schedule everything and make sure this felt like a vacation and not a commando raid, but if we were in Disney I wanted to see and do as much as I could. The plane trip was probably the worst part, and that wasn't really too bad, though Desmond did get sick on the plane and that wasn't fun. The plane ride turned out to be about 4 hours with the wait at the airports. The kids had fun looking out the windows for awhile, but sitting for that long wasn't something they liked. The plane was hot and packed. I think next time they'll have more of an idea what it is like and have more things to do while they are flying. Hannah enjoyed the landing when we bounced a few times. When we finally got out of the airport we noticed the smell. There was a sweet yet musty arouma that I really liked and was everywhere we went in Florida. The weather was perfect, low 70s. The bus ride to Disney was okay, though Hannah got sick on the bus and Desmond got sick just as we got to Disney. Later Paige got sick. It wasn't starting out too well with the kids all throwing up, but this was really the only trouble we had the whole vacation. We started touring the parks early the next morning. I learned a few things right away. One: Paige was going to be scared of a lot of things that I thought she would want to do. Two: Disney transporation, while really good, was going to take a bit longer to get to places then I had first though. This meant a few times we were running to try and make our dinner reservations. Three: There was going to need to be a lot of modifications of plans as we went along to deal with lots of unforseen things that came up. This wasn't really a big deal, I switched things on the fly a lot but it took Desmond a few days to get into the "go with the flow" mindset. He wanted to be able to know where we were going and what we were going to do and what we were going to do after that. I switched a few parks around, ended up moving our day at the water park (Blizzard Beach) earlier in the trip because it was going to be 80s that day, etc. So instead of going through each day I think I'll just rate the parks and some of the other stuff we did. My favorite parks was Epcot. It has three of the best attractions in Disney: Mission Space, Test Track and Soarin', plus one of the best shows, Turtle Talk with Crush. It has, by far, the best food and the fireworks/night show w(Illuminations) as amazing and far far better then what they did at Magic Kingdom. We ended up spending at least part of four days here and still didn't get to do all we wanted to. We had to rush through the Mexico - America side of World Showcase as we had spent most of our time on the Canada - America side the three other days there. We ate at Coral Reef, which had the best seafood I've ever had. Amazing how good really fresh fish tastes. The food at Mexico and Germany was really good. We just ate at the counter service places but nice time we'll eat inside at the table service and have dinner. Teppanyaki in Japan was really fun, the chefs were really amazing and funny. We didn't really like Alfredo's in Italy and wouldn't go back there again. LeCellier in Canada was also really good and worth another visit. Second favorite would be Animal Kingdom. It had the best ride, Expedition Everest, (5 times for me, 7 times for Desmond) and the best show, Finding Nemo, the Musical. I was shocked at how much I enjoyed Nemo. We ended up going twice and would have went three times but just missed making it in. We also really liked the Safari ride and Kali River Rapids (we ended up going on it 14 times over two days, there was no line for it at all most of the time. The Lion King show was good, as was the bird show. The food was really good here, Tusker House and Flame Tree BBQ being the best. Third would be Magic Kingdom. There were more rides here, and more family oriented things, but I just didn't like the size of the part. It seemed small, and on weekends it was pretty crowded I thought (even though it was slow season). Big Thunder Railroad was the big winner here for me and Desmond, I think I lost track at 11 rides. Tina even liked it (she though Everest was a bit much). The girls liked Dumbo, Pooh, Its a Small World and Tea Cups. The Goofy rollercoaster was pretty good. I did Space Mountain, Desmond passed because it was in the dark. Being in the dark really does add the ride. It was a bit much for me, but I think that was because I went just after eating. Stitch was really bad. I like Haunted Mansion, but Desmond didn't because the ride broke down when we were on it. He like Buzz Lightyear much more, but I was bummed that he had a higher score then I did. We all really like Jungle Cruise. Pirates was really good too, I wish we had gone more then once. Splash Mountain was closed when we were there so I didn't get to do that. We ate at the Castle for breakfast, which was much cooler then I thought it would be. We also had good food at Liberty Tree and Columbia House. Fourth would be MGM. I was pretty sure I wouldn't care for this park, but it actually was really good and puttin it fourth really is a sign that the other ones were just so good, rather then this was a crappy park. Rock and Roll Rollercoaster was down when we were there. Actually, it was open the very last day, but we had to leave for our flight at noon as we only had a few hours that last day. Desmond and I decided we would rather go back to Animal Kingdom and do Everest. Tower of Terror is the other big deal ride there but I don't like long drops so passed, though everyone around us who rode it said it was really good. Maybe I will be brave next time. The only other ride at MGM is Star Tours, which is a Star Wars ride. I did this because Desmond didn't want to, and it was okay. The rest of MGM was shows, and we saw Playhouse Disney, Beauty and the Beast and the stunt show. All were pretty good, but the best was the street performers. They were awesome and we spent a lot of time watching them, but we should had spent more. The best part of MGM imo. We had our only really bad meal here though, at the 50s Prime Time, which I wouldn't recommend. We also did Blizzard Beach which was really good. Desmond didn't want to go at first but he admitted it was fun and would go back. We went on most of the slides, while the girls did the Lazy River or the kids area. Seaworld was also good. The killer whale show was very good, we ended up seeing it twice. The dolphin show was pretty good. The best was the Sea Lion show. Very funny and worth seeing. We also ate at Boma, which is african food. I thought I would like it more then I did, but I wouldn't go back. Tina liked it though. I think my expectations were too high. California Grill was awesome. The most upscale place we ate at, it lived up to its billing. I WISH I would have tried the sushi, but wimped out. Next time. Great view as well. O'Hana's was really good as well, and is Tina's favorite of the trip. Hannah said Whispering Canyon Cafe was here favorite. She had 5 pieces of corn on the cob by the time she was done there. Desmond said his favorite resturant was the CA Grill and I voted for Coral Reef. We were there 10 days, but we probably only did 60% of Disney. Kids said I ran them around a bit too much, which is probably true, but the also couldn't think of anything they would have skipped. Tina says we should go back in four years, but I think it should be more like two years. I guess I need to start saving now. (5 Comments |Comment on this)
Friday, August 11th, 2006
8:58 am	Chicago Con report Here is a cut and paste of my Chicago con report from the CGC forum. I am not sure if the image tags will work. If not you can see everything at http://boards.collectors-society.com/showflat.php?Cat=0&Number=1347171&an=0&page=0#Post1347171 ( Read more ) (7 Comments |Comment on this)
Wednesday, October 12th, 2005
4:31 pm	Wow, I just might bid on this. http://cgi.ebay.com/JIMMO-JR-Williams-mini-comic-1990-HSC-comix_W0QQitemZ6567560507QQcategoryZ3979QQrdZ1QQcmdZViewItem I forget we even did this! (2 Comments |Comment on this)
Friday, October 7th, 2005
9:23 am	Spellbound I just saw Spellbound last night. What an amazing film. Wondering about what happened to so of the kids in the film brought me here. A bit sad. http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A13893-2004Jun3.html (2 Comments |Comment on this)
Wednesday, August 17th, 2005
10:32 am	Chicago Con report Man, this is really too much to type over again. I'll just be lazy and link it. http://boards.collectors-society.com/showflat.php?Cat=0&Board=comicgen&Number=898456&page=1&fpart=all   A few pics after the cut (if I do it right) ( Read more... ) (7 Comments |Comment on this)
Friday, August 12th, 2005
12:07 pm	Blast From the Past I found this in my "comics briefcase" -- the one I take with me to conventions. Haven't had much need of it in the past 10 years or so. My god, I am old. (2 Comments |Comment on this)
Tuesday, August 9th, 2005
2:12 pm	My dinner with Maggie I just recently got back from the Chicago comic convention, now called Wizard World (though *I* never call it that). I'll have a longer con report up pretty soon with lots of scans of comics and plenty of boring details, but I just wanted to post now about my dinner with Maggie Thompson! Well, it wasn't just me, it was part of the CGC Forum dinner. I wanted to go last year but decided it wasn't worth the hassle (or the cost, $60 a plate) but everyone just kept raving about how cool it was on the CGC boards and this year Tina and the kids didn't come. There was a wedding that they were going to go to. I somehow got out of going to the wedding and got permission to go to Chicago by myself, though Desmond really wanted to come as well. It would have been fun to have him, and I thought about it, but I think he would have just gotten too bored with me digging through comics for hours and hours. I did promise him he can go next year though. So, anyway, I was alone. I shared a room with a comic pal from MLPS, Steve, who is a big Archie collector. I decided this would be the perfect to go to the Forum dinner so I paid the $60 and Steve and I went down to the steak house around 7 P.M. Saturday. The person who was on the guest list that I most wanted to chat up was Maggie Thompson. I am a big fan of John Stanley and Walt Kelly and she has done some very good scholarship on the comic work of both men. Plus I knew her brother Paul from my small press days and so I thought I might be able to strike up a conversation with her. When I got there there were plenty of people mingling around, but I didn't know many of them and I just tend to sort of melt into the corners in crowded events anyway. But near the corner I was in Gary Colobuono (Moondog from those old Overstreet ads) and he had a bunch of his ashcan comics and showing them around. They were such cool historical documents, I was honored to get to look through them. Gary was great to chat with and is a really nice guy as well. Then I went to look at a Detective #1, #11 and More Fun #54 that were on the mantel place (yes, I was a little over my head comic wise). When I was done with that I notice Maggie Thompson had come in so I stood around a little to wait for her to have a free moment so I could tell her how much I enjoyed her articles and research on Stanley and Kelly. It took awhile because everyone wanted to chat with her, but when my turn came I started talking to her about Lulu. I also mentioned that I was first turned on to John Stanley by her brother Paul. She wanted to know all the details about that and I went into the whole story about how Randy and I visited Paul one summer for a week or so and he had just gotten the newly released Another Rainbow Lulu set. I sort of made fun of Paul for have it, and he recommended I read it. I did, and was hooked. Anyway, we just started talking about all things John Stanley. It seems as if Maggie hadn't been keeping up on the current Stanley scholarship (which is basically trying to figure out with 50 year old comic he did or did not write) so I gave her the latest scoop on these "new" Stanley discoveries. I told her about FC #169, the first Woody Woodpecker solo comic, and how I have been looking for it for a few years, finally found one at that con but it was too much because it was in too nice of shape. That lead to discussions about how we both preferred lower grade comics because they were cheaper and we just wanted to read them anyway. I gave her some gossip on Walt Kelly's Our Gang that she didn't know. We ended up talking about many obscure Kelly comics, of which she has a much better collection then I do. From there the conversion ranged to Old Time Radio, the Lulu art in the upcoming Heritage auctions and various other things. I was amazed that we chatted so much, and it was soon time to sit down for the meal. She and Brent Frankenhoff from CGC sat down at a table. Thinking she was probably bored of me now I was looking around for a place to sit, but she motioned for me to sit next to her so I did. For the next hour or so we talked about more Stanley and Kelly, Paul Curtis, small press, her Mom's house in Sagertown, her place in Wisconson, Harlin Ellison, cartoon glasses, early comic fandom, Minute Movies and just tons of other stuff. The thing was so neat was it felt just like talking to Paul when I used to call him on the phone long distance when I was 15 and 16. He also had many cool stories and was great at keeping a conversion going. And Maggie name-dropped just like Paul. Lol. One thing I thought was funny when we would be discussion some really obscure comic detail if I tried to correct some of her facts that she was sure were correct she would not back down. I would just give up after a few attempts at arguing my side. Funny thing, I looked up a few of the things I was SURE I was right about and it turns out she actually was correct. Let that be a lesson! After dinner I fanned out and started talking with more of the other people, but always ended up back talking to Maggie. Around 1 A.M. she was asking me what were the 7 glasses in the Sunday Funnies series and was giving me a hard time when I could only come up with 6. Finally I was too tired to keep up with her and went to bed. However I made a point of stopping by the CBG booth the next day to let her know last glass I had forgot was Gasoline Alley. Lol. I also showed her the FC #169 I had found. When the dealer saw Maggie looking at it he took $30 off. Sheesh. I need that kind of pull. Anyway, that was my cool dinner with Maggie Thompson. Easily the highlight of the convention for me. (9 Comments |Comment on this)
Tuesday, July 26th, 2005
2:30 pm	From the local newspaper While search for more information on the Avon ball park and the attempt by SuperValu to put a huge and unneeded store on the it, I ran across this little bit of news reporting from a recent city council meeting: Other residents along the street said that drivers were speeding, but police chief Corey Nellis said that when police cars are parked along the street, there has been little speeding. The speed display board has also been put up along the road showing drivers how fast they are going. Nellis also added he does not condone residents throwing baseballs at cars and yelling at drivers. I LOVE that last bit. Reporter "Police chief, do you condone throwing baseballs at passing cars" Police Chief: "Actually, we have reviewed this policy and have decided that it is probably a bad idea to throw baseballs at cars and so now we offically do not condone this activity." Anyway, here is an update on the ball field front. Sounds like they are tabling it, but it will come up again. I hope by that time SuperValu has lost interest. I've heard from some people in favor of building the SuperValu that they made a mistake in not taking the level of opposition into consideration and they will be more prepared to deal with that when they bring this up again. My response was, "You are probably right, but we'll be there to fight you ever step of the way." Things were getting a bit heated in town over this whole thing, as 90% of the people in town didn't want it, and 90% of the rich folks who live on the mansions on the lakes out of town wanted it. Anyway, here is the bit from the paper: Avon council puts sale of baseball park on hold by Mike Kosik The Avon City Council, after meeting in closed session at its Monday, June 6, meeting, decided not sell the baseball park property at this time. The council called the closed session to discuss the appraisal of the city's baseball park property. The council instead decided to wait until the city's comprehensive plan has been implemented and a park evaluation has been completed. At that time the council will reconsider the sale of the land. Supervalu has approached the city asking to purchase the baseball park property, which is owned by the city. Since the initial request by Supervalu, the council has taken into consideration the opposition by community residents to the sale and has established a committee to look at a community park that would include a baseball field. The meeting was closed following the completion of other items on the agenda. (5 Comments |Comment on this)
Friday, June 10th, 2005
2:01 pm	Some stuff I've been reading Just a few random reviews of some books I've read in the past few months: BOX OFFICE POISON - Alex Robinson Picked this up at the library when I was there returning some other stuff. They had a table of graphic novels set up and I've been interested in it, but $30 for something I've never read before is a bit much so getting a copy from the library was perfect for me. It is odd that the only artwork on the front or back cover is very different from the art inside the book. There is a little illo of one of main characters on the back cover, but it is taken from a flashback segement and looks pretty strange. Odd choice, I thought, to be the only artwork on the cover. Robinson started doing these as mini-comics and eventually they were published as B/W full size comice from Antartic Press. The art is not that good early on, but quickly gets better and by the end it is really good. The writing is really very good. The book is hard to pigeonhole, but it deals with a bunch of characters and there relationships, girlfriends, comics, crappy jobs, landlords, and a cranky Golden Age comic creator who was screwed out of a lot of money by selling his creation of a comic company in the early 1940s. There are very funny moments and some quite touching ones as well. The books is 600 pages and I finished it in 3 days. I can't wait to get Robinson's newest book, which I guess is coming out in August. Recommended. MURDER MYSTERIES - Neil Gaiman & P. Craig Russell This is yet another one of those Gaiman stories that I read that makes me realize I just am not very bright. This is the story of an angel who is killed in heaven and is basically a whodunnit. But of course it is a lot more then that, but I just don't get all of it. There is obviously a lot of subtextual stuff going on here, but darned if I really understand most of it. I know there is more here, but I just don't get it all. The artwork is really nice, but I felt really stupid after I finished it. I am sure other people can probably get a lot more out of it an I did. SMAZ - Alan Moore & Zander Cannon I think TOP TEN is the best of the ABC comics Moore has done. I've read reviews that claim that it isn't all that funny and Moore is being too self-conciously clever, but I love the whole thing. This is a spin-off that moves the story in more of a Fantasy vein. Smax and Toybox have to go on quest with a big scary dragon at the end, plus elves and trolls and all that stuff. I thought it was really really well done. Very enjoyable stuff. I wish Moore would write more of these. I bought this book at a con a few months ago for Zander Cannon. He had some mini comics on his table and I started talking about those. He mentioned Matt Feazell and I told him I used to publish minis with a friend and we printed some Feazell stuff. Oddly enough he recognized MISC! and remembered the Halloween issues with the Hilary Barta covers. Small world. He said he would do a pinup for the next Halloween issue we did, but that I told him that might be awhile. He asked me to come to dinner with some other small press guys from MLPS but I declined as I didn't really know anyone and felt it would be a bit wierd. AMERICAN GODS - Neil Gaiman His big book. I really liked it. I never got through Neverwhere, but this was really good. A long, meandering narrative, with a very loose plot, it felt he was just making it up as he went. Some bits were better then others, but most of the characters were interersting, and Gaiman does the mixing of various mythology amd folk characters better then anyone else. I finished it wanting to read more. (5 Comments |Comment on this)
Monday, March 7th, 2005
10:46 am	I actually did something Well, I usually tend to stay in the background and not me too big of a fuss. I don't know, maybe it comes from growing up in Minnesota. I can get upset about things, but I rarely actually go out of my way to do anything about them. Anyway, the local newspaper just had a piece about how some developers want to build a Supervalu (a grocery store) in our small town (less then 1000 people) even though we already have a small local grocery. But that isn't the worst part. They want to put this store right in the center of the town in a great baseball field we have here. This is just plain stupid. It is pointless development which will ruin one of the best parts of this town. There are tons of other places they could build, but they pick the one really unique part of this town and want to destroy that. I got mad enough to actually write a letter to the city council. I also plan on going to the new city council meeting, and talked to the few people in town I actually know about this. There was talk of doing a petition, and even though the thought of going door-to-door is abhorant to me, I said I would do that as well. Not sure any of this will help, but I am just so pissed about this. I know it really isn't a big deal in the grand scheme of things, but it is just so fricking stupid. There are some real idiots on the city council... -- I just found this news piece, if if doesn't work you can get it at www.avonlakers.com http://wcco.dayport.com/viewer/viewerpage.php?Art_ID=5266&tf=&ExCust= Here is the letter. ----------- I am writing to voice my opposition to the plan detailed on page 5 of the recent Avon City newsletter outlining the building of a Supervalu on the present location of the Lions Baseball Field. My wife and family moved to Avon over 5 years ago because it was a pleasant small community in which to live and raise our family. The baseball field is one of the most prominent landmarks in the city, and a large part of what makes this community special and unique. Every time a friend or relative has visited our family in Avon they have commented on what a wonderful ball field we have.I agree with them wholeheartedly: I think it is great that Avon is a SMALL town that values something like community baseball enough to have such a wonderful park in a central location. I cannot think of any other local community that has such a wonderful monument and it would be a shame to destroy it for no good reason. The reasons listed in the newsletter for wanting the Supervalu on the present location of the baseball field are factitious at best. The argument that it is the best place do to the traffic neglects to note that to go ANYWHERE in the city you have to drive past that location, so increased congestion would be a hassle to everyone in the town. The quote of 70-100 employees is ridiculous. I used to work as a manager Don's Food Pride in Little Falls, a far larger community that ours with a larger store then the projected Supervalu, and we NEVER had a payroll of over 30 and the majority of the time we had 20 - 25 employees. 70 - 100 is completely unrealistic, and the vast majority of the position will be part-time and near minimum wage. Tearing this park down and replacing it with a Supervalu makes no sense to me. I am not convinced we need another grocery store in the town anyway, but beyond that, why tear down a central landmark of Avon to do it? If they must build a Supervalu build it over by the new Post Office. A new McDonalds will soon be opening up there; and there already is a hotel and other businesses on that strip. If the thought of the council is the building a Supervalu will stimulate the economy of Avon then surely a better location is near the Post Office. With plenty of room to grow, visible from the freeway, and space to allow other businesses to locate there as well; that is the kind of PLANNED development that makes sense for our community. Tearing down the ball field doesn't make any sense. I could go on, but in short I wish to say I think the proposal as outlined on page 5 of the newsletter is an extremely bad idea and I hope the council will deny the Super Valu storeowners permission to destroy our ballpark. Sincerely, Robert Pfeffer (4 Comments |Comment on this)
Friday, January 7th, 2005
1:24 pm	I first got interested in Little Lulu and John Stanley in the mid-1980s when my friend Randy and I were visting Paul Curtis over the summer. Paul was a fellow small press publisher and had a cool old house full of old comics, artwork, records, etc. He also had the first set of the Little Lulu Library that had just came out. I was looking through his comics and I laughed at him because he has spent several hundred dollars for a bunch of "Girl Comics" (he had purchased the autographed set with the John Stanley and Marge signature! ) He said, "Read 'em, you might like them." So I did. The first story I read was a Tubby Spider story and I was hooked. Every since then I started picking up Lulu comics on the cheap at cons or comic shops. It wasn't too hard, as beat up reader copies of Dell and Gold Key books are easy to find and usually priced cheap. By the early 90s I had a decent size collection. I was in grad school at the time and I decided to do my thesis on Little Lulu and Little Lulu collectors and so I started to get more serious into the comics. I found that I didn't have ANY issues before 40. The early stuff just never seemed to turn up. I did have an Annual #2 which reprinted some of the older stories and I thought they were really interested. Around this time I was in Sioux City Iowa reading a paper on Lulu at an academic conference and during a break was exploring the town. I found a neat old antique shop that had tons of pop culture type stuff in it. I noticed a few comics and asked the guy if he had any more. He said he had the "good stuff" upstairs and if I was serious he could show me them. I said sure, and had to crawl up this ladder to this tiny crawl space. He had the motherlode up there, tons of Golden Age stuff, 99% of the stuff I could never afford. But I did find a beat up FC 110 (the third Lulu) for about $25. This was WAY more then I ever spent on a comic. But I decided I had to have it and used the credit card to pay for it. My wife was mad, but I had a cool old Lulu Since then I have been working my Lulu FC collection. I decided not to pay over guide from the beginning (a rule I had to break a few time ) and I didn't mind low grade copies as long as they were complete. Well, over 10 years since I started I finally finished and celebrated by making high-res scans of all the comics. The majority of these aren't the high grade stuff you usually see on these boards, but I am darn happy to have them anyway ( Read more... ) (5 Comments |Comment on this)
Tuesday, January 4th, 2005
9:26 am	Will Eisner R.I.P. I just heard Will Eisner passed away last night. He was 87. Wow, I am in shock. I remember meeting him at a San Diego con and he was wonderful to talk to. A huge lose. (1 Comment |Comment on this)
Thursday, November 4th, 2004
10:23 am	Top 5 OTR series I've enjoyed listening to OTR show for quite awhile now. Most are pleasant genre type stories, sort of like an audio version of old comics. Just like old comics you get a pretty much all the genres: adventure, mystery, western, horror, superhero, etc. Nothing too earth-shaking but still fun and enjoy listening to them driving to work. A few series however, imo, transcend the just "good genre" stuff of most OTR. Here are my favorites: 1 - Escape Easily my favorite show. Usually adaptions of adventure / mystery / horror/ SF / other stories, I haven't hear a bad episode of Escape. Much better then then better know Suspense, the writing is ALWAYS too notch, the directing and acting are good and the stories hold up very very well. The two parter Earth Abides is my personal favorite, but Leinengen vs. the Ants, The Most Dangerous Game, The Diamond As Big As the Ritz and The Fourth Man all stand out. 2 - Dragnet It is easy to pass by this because it became something of a joke over time, but in its day this was as radical to OTR as Alan Moore's Watchmen was to comics. Taking a genre type story (the Detective / Police story) and actually looking at it in a realistic way in a real world setting was something wasn't really done until Webb did it, and not as well. As a radio series, the first couple years of Dragnet are brilliant work. 3 - Gunsmoke The adult Western of OTR. Must better then the TV series IMO, and the TV series isn't that bad. Probably the best written not adapted stories show, with very strong acting and direction. You almost never get a Gunsmoke that is less then pretty good. 4 - Yours Truly, Johnny Dollar The Bob Bailey 5 part run. This long running show was your standard Private Eye genre show until they switch the format to 5 15 minutes shows running over one week. With punchy 15 bursts the 75 minute program allowed for some very fine plotting and writing and Bailey was flawless and Dollar. 5 - Mercury Theater of the Air / Campbell Playhouse The best of the hour long dramas (though some of the Lux shows are pretty good). Solid adaptions of more famous literature then something like Escape, but just as well down and of course the acting and direction by Orson Welles and his crew are first rate. Honorable mentions. (I needed to get some comedies in here) Jack Benny - More laugh out loud moments then any other OTR show IMO. The very early and very late stuff isn't as good as the other stuff though, IMO. Fibber McGee and Molly - Probaby the best of the sit-com shows. Always pleasant to listen to. (Comment on this)
Friday, October 1st, 2004
9:55 am	Debates Well, I watched the first half or so of the debate last night, and turned it off and went to bed in disgust. Kerry looked pretty confused up there, and Bush just kept hammering away with the same stuff over and over again (no matter what the question was). Why the heck are Republicans so good at finding one or two things and just sticking to those (Kerry flip flops and the "Wrong war, wrong place, wrong time" stuff) while the Democrats can see to get even one clean message across? Wellstone and Clinton were the last two good Democrats at staying on message and actually having a point come across when they talked. I *know* the world is more complicated simple stump speech talking points, but come on, you have to play that game if you want to win and I am tired on losing. I really hope Kerry pulls it together. (2 Comments |Comment on this)
Thursday, September 16th, 2004
4:19 pm	Some stuff I've been reading I am probably the last person in the world to get around to it, but I've finished Dan Brown's The Davinci Code. It was pretty solid. There were a few bits that just didn't work, I mean the point he trys to make about Walt Disney as a secret supportor of the Divine Feminine is just crazy. I mean 90% of the modern images attacking this sort of thing (the witches and hags and such) come from Disney films. I thought the stuff with the early church and their attack on pagan religions was pretty interesting, though a bit glossed over. That stuff was some of the more interesting material in my Folklore courses, particulary how the church subverted pagan images and icons. But anyway, in general I thought it was worth the time and I am glad it is as popular as it is. Not the usual mindless thriller one sees on the best seller list. Brown is not the best writer out there, the dialogue is at times pretty wooden and his very annoying habit of change focus in the middle of chapters is just sloppy writing, but the plotting makes up for it. I also read Digital Fortress, his first book. I was interested in the subject matter, the NSC and how they break codes and such, but this one I can't recommend. It started of well, but dragged pretty soon after it got past talking about codes and codebreaking. Most of the computer stuff is laughablely incorrect, and the "action" parts of the plot just drag and drag. And the annoying things about the other book are far more noticable here. The dialogue is awful in many spots. He switches focus sometimes 3 or 4 times a chapter. (7 Comments |Comment on this)
Friday, August 20th, 2004
3:06 pm	Chicago Con Report -- You can view this post with photos here : http://boards.collectors-society.com/showflat.php?Cat=&Board=comicgen&Number=574741&page=0&view=collapsed&sb=5&o=31&fpart=all I used to attend the Chicago Comic Con every year from the early 1980's (when it was in the Ramada O' Hare) to 1994 (by then moved to the Rosemont convention center and bought out by Wizard). I always went with my friend Randy, and it was the highlight of our summers. Before we could drive (I was 13 when I went to the first one) we would take a LONG bus ride from Duluth Minnesota. Once we could drive we could cut off quite a bit of time and we would usually leave at midnight Thursday so we could arrive early on Friday but not have to pay for a hotel room. Randy and I self-published comics then and we were on the guest list, and once or twice I appeared on a panel. It was a good time, we would met up with other publishing friends and have a blast. Usually I only slept about 2 or 3 hours all weekend. 1994 I went to my last Con with my girlfriend (now wife) and it had gotten so big and loud (and expensive) that decided it wasn't worth it anymore and would take a year or two off. Then grad school, kids, buying a house, jobs, real life happened and a year or two break turned into 10 years. I started to get the itch to go last year but couldn't make it happen. This year I convinced (tricked) my family into going on a family trip to Chicago the same weekend as the con. They could even go to the convention for a day. It would a fun family bonding thing Well, they bought it and so wife and 3 kids (age 6, 3 and 1) were packed in the van Thursday and I was going to the con My friend Randy had even decided to go and so I was going to met him at the con on Friday. I had saved up about $750 of "my money" (as opposed to "family money" -- a concept the wife isn't quite sure she agrees with ) and I had 3 comic buying goals with this convention. 1. Buy one "big book" - I was looking for a classic cover Golden Age, preferablely CGCed, in a nice looking mid-grade that I would be happy to own in the 300 - 500 range. I had never bought a book like that, but had ohhed and awed over them and I figured now was the time to finally get one. A couple of books I had targeted in the Hertiage auction were Plasticman #3 and World's Finest #7. 2. Work on my Little Lulu and John Stanley want list. I've been using ebay pretty much exclusively for this these past few years and was hoping to find some of the tougher books away from the dozen or so eyes of same people who outbid me auction after auction 3. Finish up my Gladstone Don Rosa collection. Actual con report --- Friday - The first booth I went to had a nice selection of Gladstones and I started to dig through them. I noticed the guy next to me also going through the Gladstones was pulling out all the Rosa. I looked closer and saw he was wearing an Eega Beeva shirt which is what a ebay dealer who had recently sold an FC 74 (and I had been outbid on ) told me he would be wearing at the con. Thinking that there couldn't be too many Eega Beeva shirts out there I asked if he was that ebay dealer. He said I was. I introduced myself and we chatted for a bit. He asked what I was looking for, I said Rosa books, and he said he left a few in there He finished with about 50 books from that dealer, I had about 20. He got a HUGE discount, I assume he was friends with that guy, and when I gave the dealer my books he told the dealer to give his friend (me) that same discount, so I got nearly 40% off a nice stack. Cool. Nice start to the con. I ran into him later and we chatted for about 30 minutes. He was trying to take me into being a full-time ebay dealer . Nice guy with some interesting ideas about selling on ebay which I'll probably discuss in another post. Started looking through various dealers for Lulu and Stanley and taking down a few wall books here or there. Most of the wall books seemed to be over priced, even the mid-grades. It was a bit odd because the mid-grades usually go under guide on ebay but everything with a nice cover was guide or higher. Superworld had a nice 4.5 Superman #23 that I was thinking about but for about $100 over guide. I thought I could do better. I saw tons for really cool Batman's and Detectives and World's Finest (some really great covers on that book) but nothing that thought was a good deal. I was getting frustrated because it seemed that the wall books were just there to get me to stop but no one really had them priced to sell. Maybe THAT was why I never bought one all those year ago when I went to the con? I did have better luck with my Stanley's. I found some nice New Funnies that he had work in, and some Nancy's (though those Nancy's are hard, those Nancy collectors scoop them up pretty quickly), and some of his later stuff like Melvin the Monster and O.G. Whiz. I was really happy to find these two Oswald Four Colors. Both feature book long Stanley stories which are pretty rare. He mainly did 8 - 14 page stories. Oswald #143 is Stanley's version of a Carl Barks-style adventure story, with all the expected wild deviations from the norm. Not really all that valuable but I was really glad to find copies. Most people who had Lulu's only had about issue 40 and up, which I can find pretty easily. What was different is that even those common issues were usually priced pretty high. Maybe someone told them Lulu was a hot book, but I was seeing many copies that I would only pay a few bucks for at 10 - 15. I doubt they sold many at those prices. And some had early Lulu's had just crazy prices on them. I saw a #9 in VF for $400. A few dealers mentioned they had sold most of their early Lulus on Thursday, so I figured they were in the hands of other dealers and I would either find them for crazy prices at the con or on ebay. I was getting a bit discouraged about finding anything reasonably priced with I asked a dealer to look at Lulu #1 in VG-ish condition for $200. A bit high, but guide on Lulu #1 is stupidly overpriced (dammit people, it is the NINTH issue of Lulu, the FCs before the #1 are MUCH harder to find, yet almost all the FCs are worth less then #1, sheesh, stupid Overstreet... ) He said he had more and pulled out a box in the back of his table. He had 4 of the Four Colors (included 3 I still needed) and a bunch of early issues including a 4 and 9, and a nice run in the 20s and 30s. His grading was pretty good and prices were just a bit over guide, but less then I would have to pay on ebay. I picked up the Four Colors I needed and he gave me a nice discount. I made a note to come back and see if I could get a deal one the rest of the stuff I needed on my list. I found the dealer that was holding some Batman books Flying Dounut had brought for me to look at. I've gotten some nice G - VGish Batman books before from him so he thought of me when he picked up some new ones. I passed on two right away (one I didn't like the cover, the other was too beat up, even for MY meager collection ) but he had a NICE Batman #43 with a great Penguin cover I was coveting. I said I would look around but to hold the Penguin book. He also gave me some ideas for family fun things to do so I could attend the CGC dinner I went by the CGC booth a few times, but it was always so packed I never got to submit the books I had brought. I had never gotten a book slabbed before and had a few questions but those guys were just swamped. I went back a few times during the con but never got to talk to anyone and so I still have never gotten a book CGCed Friday night went to the Heritage auction with my friend Randy. I ended up getting the Plasticman #3 for a price I was happy with. It was fun to see a Heritage auction live. Some books just went for crazy money (I was SHOCKED at the American Splender #1) while other went pretty low (at least I thought so). Low and mid-grades were much cheaper at the auction then on the convention floor. I would have picked up the World's Finest #7 as well, as it sold for a price I would have paid but I didn't want to blow all my money on the first day. Saturday - I spend a good part of my time looking for the dealer who had those Lulu's. I forgot to write down his name because I was sure I could find the booth again, but darnit, I couldn't seem to find it. Took me 3 or 4 passes before I finally located it. I looked through his whole Lulu stock. Seems as it was part of a brand new collection he had just got, and he said he had just finished pricing it and grading it that Friday. Most of the books were solid VG to nice Fine priced pretty much at guide. I decided that I would have to pay way more on ebay for those books and so I got a nice big pile of everything I needed plus some doubles on my list that were upgrades for me. Ended up with about $680 sticker total. I asked what was the best he could do (I had about half the books in the mind as "must-haves", and half as "willing-to-put-backs" - I wasn't going to take them all unless I got a hellva deal). He said $350. I took out my wallet. I would just call my Plasticman my big book I guess, I couldn't pass that up. That also meant passing on Donut's Batman #43 but dammit, these are LULU COMICS! I met up with Steve (143ksk) and traded some Lulu readers for Pogo readers. He also gave me some cool old Archies and even an Archie book. I wish I would have stopped and chatted more but things were getting a bit crazy. I noticed that most dealers seemed really busy. Often times they would just hand me a wall book and then ignore me as they were swamped. More then once I heard a dealer in a booth yelling into a cell phone "Get over here NOW!" - I'm not sure what sales were like but there were plenty of people looking at books. I also showed my wife and kids a cool piece of Lulu art Heritage had in there auction that night. I was shocked at how low the bid was so I put in a bid that I was sure would be outbid. I didn't even bother to check out the auction results Sunday because I knew I wouldn't get it, but when I finally go back to a computer a few days later I found I had won it! Now I have to figure out where to put it up in the front room. My wife and kids went to the con on Saturday so I hung out with them and my friend for most of that day. Went to see Josh Wheldon, who was very entertaining. My kids had a GREAT time at the con, and I must say Wizard has really improved the con from the last time I went making it fun and kid friendly for the younger set. My middle daughter loves everything related to the animated Justice League cartoon and she was in heaven looking at all that cool stuff. My boy played a ton of PS2 and many of the different games they would demo and play with you. He was mad that I hadn't taken him the day before he had so much fun. I was dog tired out by the end of the day, and they wanted to go get pizza and I decided to just do that rather then go to the CGC dinner. I wish I would have been able to make it to the dinner, but I must say I don't think I made the wrong decision spending a nice evening have great Chicago pizza with my family. Hopefully next year I can make it though. Even though my wife and kids weren't originally supposed to go to the con on Sunday they all decided they wanted to go back. I spent most of that day with them. I picked up a few books but nothing major as I was pretty much tapped out. I had a few sorta interesting dealer stories, but my hand is sore from all this typing. Maybe I will add them later. Sorry this is so long. (5 Comments |Comment on this)
Wednesday, July 23rd, 2003
3:13 pm	Cool Old Comics I've been in a buying mood lately for comics. Not really sure what brought it on. For about a year or so there I was adding a lot to my DVD collection but I got to the point where I had dozens I hadn't watched yet and most of the stuff I wanted I had. So I stopped going to Best Buy all the time to pick up new DVD's. Sure, the new Simpsons set comes out I pick it up, or I find something cool on sale, but I am not really spending much money on DVD's anymore. So I decide to start buying comics again. But when I went to the local comic shop I didn't find much I liked (X-Static is cool, The Batman Adventures, Bongo Comics) and they are all EXPENSIVE. So I started buying lots of older stuff in Good to VG condition on ebay. You can get bunches of reading copies of Dell Four Colors and WDCS for about a buck each. And they are almost always better reading than most of what is being put out new for 2.25 - 4 bucks. By buying in lots I've picked up things I would have never tried and found that I really like. Many of those Dell books have good art and decent stories. I've actually enjoyed reading Rin Tin Tin and Annie Oakley, and I now go out of my way to find Porky Pig comics. Tomahawk is also a really good series, though I've not been having a lot of luck getting reading copies for cheap on those. Too many other people I think collect them for me to get them cheap enough. I've been picking up reading copied of the Quality Blackhawk's and Plastic-Man's and have yet the run across an issue that didn't have at least one pretty good story in them. Space Family Robinson is a lot of fun. I wish I knew more about who created these cool Dell and Gold Key books but they never have credits and besides Barks and Stanley there isn't much info out there. The other thing I've been buying off ebay are running of the different Batman and Superman Adventure, and the various off shots. Those are really enjoyable to read for the most part, an occasional clunker but mostly good. I usually shoot for about 50 cents an issue when bidding on them and so far I've got about half the books they have put out. It makes me wonder if I should just not buy the books I like new at the comic shop but rather wait a few years and pick up a run of them cheaper on ebay. (6 Comments |Comment on this)