Mood: cool
Topic: Comic Books - New
TODAY'S FEATURE IS BLOG #4033 - I've mentioned already that I attended all four days of the 2015 San Diego Comic Con International in this Blog. Well, besides attending panels, I also hit the exhibit floor several times, and on Saturday I ran into Dan Fogle at his booth. He mentioned to me about the new edition of his Underground Price & Grading Guide, and that it was being published in two volumes this time, as there was so much data to print. So I walked away with a copy of his Guide. I've already mentioned his supplement edition that was previously published in blog #3148 back on May 28th of 2010. That was a while back! So, as you can tell by the previous archived blog, I have interest in this topic... Underground Comix (UGC). Not that I had that many when I was younger, but over the years I have picked up and sold a few collections that contained UGCs. So I have picked up info rather 'piece-meal' on UGCs over the years. So this newest edition of the Undergound Price & Grading Guide should be what I was looking for... So it is the first item I've read from all the items I picked up at Comic-Con. Here is 'My Take' on the Guide: First, the price section. The pages all have a normal sized font, which makes it easier to read, at least for older guys like me! There are two columns on each page, so there are a lot of listings on each page. At the top section there are four examples of UGCs shown for Good, Fine & Near Mint Minus grades. Each title is listed first, then with the name of the publisher. Then the issue numbers along with date of publication. Many UGCs have been reprinted over the years, so each one of those printings are listed and shown with prices for the three listed grades. I found this price guide to very informative and comprehensive, from A to Z. I liked the layout, the normal sized font, and the listings shown. The Grading section started on page 29 and went through page 48. There were more than three grades shown, as well as example of a UGC in that grade. Pretty detailed, along with a 'checklist' for each grade. The examples were shown only in black and white though. Still the photos were pretty detailed... Okay, so much for the Price & Grading sections of this guide. So what else was there to make this book so thtick? Well, there were several articles! . The ones that I enjoyed reading about were as follows: Page 9 - The Preface by Dan - Good to read for a first time buyer of this Guide. Page 12 - Dana 'Ma' Crumb - good story by John Orlando, Jill Orlando & Dan Fogel. Page 18 - Spain Rodriguez - Feature Film In The Works by Dan Fogel. Good update on this film. Page 21 - Underground Market Report - Several reports by UGC dealers. Always good to know what is going on in the back issue sales! Page 23 - Slab This! Good interview on why there aren't that many high grade UGCs out there! Page 25 - CGC - How The Company Has Grown And How It Works - Good article on the topic. Pages 49 thru 64 - The first color section in this Guide. Full page presentations of the UGC creators chosen and some of their works. I enjoyed seeing these pages! Pages 272 - 273 - Photos by Bob White of a 1985 gathering of UGC creators at Hi De Comics. Pages 278 - 280 - Richard 'Grass' Green - Black King of Underground Comix - This was a neat article on Richard. I had known about his above ground comics career, but this article about his UGC experiences was pretty neat! Pages 286 - 287 - Underground Rock and Roll Comics Revolutionaries - article by Jay Allen Sanford. Good two page history of Revolutionaryh Comics. Pages 305 - 308 - Origins and Influence of Zap Comix - by Robert Beerbohm - I've sat through a few panels with Bob discussing his knowledge of comics & comix, And enjoyed them! This was a good article on the topic. Miscellaneous pages, both in b&w and in color, on dealers selling their wares. Interesting to see the names of those still in the business after all these years! Plus a lot of new names who are now selling UGCs. All in all, I believe that Dan has another 'hit' on his hands with this Volume 1. I can't wait for Volume 2 to be printed! Oh... My comix grade for this Volume? I give it a Near Mint (NM) 9.4 out of a 10.0 grading scale. If you don't see Dan at a comic convention near you... Here is the link to where you can buy it from via the mail.. My thanks to Dan for letting me know of his latest publication! ~ Michael
NOTE FROM Michael D Hamersky On Comics: My thanks again to all of YOU reading this blog and our archived blog posts, now over 4,000 total posts in number! I do appreciate your continued reading and support of this Blog! BTW, You can 'follow' this blog by clicking the 'Follow' Button at this NetworkedBlogs app link! Thanks to ALL of YOU that have already clicked that button! And for those of YOU that haven't yet... I would appreciate it if YOU would!!! Note: My online 'Local' Comic Book Shop (LCBS), carries many different genres of comics, magazines, graphic novels, and comic con promotional items. Possibly even copies of the item(s) that was mentioned here today...! If I have it, you'll find under the BIG TOP of Comics, at Comic Books Circus.com! Web Page Note: This blog post is written per the IE Browser standards. Chrome, Safari, Netscape, Firefox and the other browsers serve the page up slightly differently, sorry about that! The screen display resolution is best seen at the setting of 1024 x 768 on your laptop or desktop computer. Note: Your computer's resoulution may be set differently, but the above resolution is the most commonly used resolution at the time of this blog post. NOTE: All images and characters within this blog post are copyright and trademark their respective owners. Comics Creators: If you are breaking into, or already work in the comic book industry or other pop culture productions, you are welcome to email or mail us press releases, news items, and updates that you feel would be of interest to my blog readers. Including YOUR own works! To mail printed items to me for possible review, just contact me. Also, if you are a Facebook member, I would have liked you to send me a 'Friend Request'. However, I have reached the maximum limit of 5,000 Facebook Friends and Fan pages already, so I've added a New 'Facebook Fan Page' so that even more of YOU can 'Like' what I am doing, and be interactive with me and others there. Here is the link to that 'Facebook Fan Page': Michael D Hamersky On Comics! Please click the 'Like' button on that page! --------------- In Addition, I started a YouTube Channel just before the 2011 Comic-Con International, where I am slowly uploading videos from conventions or other events that we attend that are also pop culture related. You are invited to 'subscribe' to that channel also! As found at 'HamerskyOnComics'! |