We were all quiet for most of the car ride up, focused on the task at hand, and I imagine we were each developing a plan of attack for our own individual quest, but I know each of us counted our money at least once before we arrived. I had $1,000 in cash for the first time in my life and I wanted to make sure I made it count.
We parked in a gravel lot on a slight incline about 30 minutes before the doors were going to open at 10am. We had to prepare. We each poured over our "lists", thumbed through the marked pages of our Overstreet Guides, counted our money again, and discussed our game plan. This was a war and we weren't taking any chances.
In 1997 I was a 15 year old who's best friend's were all 10 years older than him. At the age of 12 my interest in vintage Comic Books exploded and my local store owner and his 2 best friends were there to help shepherd me. Mike owned the local comic shop, and Frank and Kevin were his childhood friends who hung out at the shop a lot. All 3 had been collecting since they were in middle school, but I was determined to build a collection to rival theirs as quick as possible. I had "the bug" bad.
The previous year was my first time making this trip and I came ill prepared and under funded. At 14 it was hard for me to have high expectations about going to a Flea Market Comic Book show but that 8,000 square foot building was a feeding frenzy. It was packed full of dealers who had premium books and other things I had never fathomed. But this year I was ready. I was going to kick this show's ass and leave them all wondering who that "kid" was.
I sat in that Nissan 170 miles from home, with 3 grown men, and we were psyching each other up like we were about to storm the beaches. With 10 minutes to show time we got in line about 10 people deep. By the time the doors opened there were another 40 or so behind us. As the line began to move we all looked at each other and knew we were ready to conquer this show.
Context
No one could have predicted how Comic Book Shows/Cons would have evolved. It was sort of like the "Wild West". Before eBay took off and before PayPal provided a trusted method of online commerce, Comic Book Collectors had to scour the wild for the books of their desire. If you wanted to finish a run or if you were simply seeking one of your "Grails", traveling to Shows/Cons and other Regional stores was the only way to accomplish it.There were no smartphones or readily available databases. You had to know the value of the books you wanted, shop smart, and haggle. You were forced to be armed with knowledge and ready to fight for every precious dollar. Every buck you saved on a book put you that much closer to to walking out with another good find under your arm.
People usually attended these shows with an agenda so it was important to focus on your wants and to not let someone snake a book from under you because who knew when you'd be able to find it again? And that right there is the "problem" that the internet "solved" and changed how cons/shows would evolve. It's a problem I kind of miss.
"Where are your parents?"
As I handed over my $5 entry fee I could smell it... that mix of mildew, must, ink and oxidized paper. The smell of money and dreams. It was like getting an adrenaline shot to my heart. I immediately made a very quick lap around the room before it got too full to get a feel for what booths I needed to hit first, and it didn't take me long to acquire a target...To say that the first dealer I encountered didn't know what hit him would be an understatement. I didn't know it at the time, but Mike and Kevin were a few feet behind me and watched this whole ordeal go down. Being 15, I was a little more socially oblivious, so when he asked me "Where are your parents?" I didn't initially realize he was being condescending.
This guy easily had the best stuff in the room. Graded comics were still 2 years away, but he had serious books in serious grades, and some great cheaper Golden Age comics. I was on a mission to find a Golden Age issue of "Flash Comics". I didn't own a Golden Age Flash, and I wasn't particular about which issue I wanted, I just wanted one that looked nice. This guy had 3 issues that caught my eye, the most expensive being Flash Comics #17 Vf- condition for $500, and two others for $350 each.I asked to see the #17 and that's when he laid that question on me. I laughed and said "I came here to buy a Flash Comics, can I smell it?" and his eyes lit up... Smelling comics is a weird collector quirk. It's hard to explain but it triggers a feeling of awe. Not all collectors do it, but the ones who do are usually pretty serious, so this was the point he realized I might actually have money.
He handed it to me and I took a deep whiff. God I love that smell. I asked to see the centerfold and he obliged and I began discussing my personal collection and I watched all of his doubts disappear. We even began to get a little friendly until it came time to haggle. This guy was easily in his 50's and had been around a while, but I didn't care, I wasn't paying sticker price, not at a Show.
I laid the book down and just said "$350". He looked at me as if I told him his wife was ugly. He picked the book up and put it back on his wall and told me to "run along kid". This infuriated me.
I was a smart-ass who liked to pick at my friends and I hated being dismissed due to my age. I was never someone who would take things lying down. I told him I didn't know many thousands of dollars my friends and I brought with us, but none of it would be leaving with him, and I walked off. He said something that I couldn't make out but I just shook my head and marched on.
Mike and Kevin walked up to me laughing. They said that guy was in such a bad mood that the customer behind me walked away quickly. By the end of the day I made sure to stroll by his booth again with the biggest pick-up of my day, a decent copy of Adventure Comics #72, on the out side of my small stack of goodies. Was this petty? Yes. And I loved it.
"A $30 Playboy?"
Shortly after my first encounter, Mike wanted me to meet his dealer friend Barry. We walked up and Barry had the biggest spread there. He had purchased 3 booth spaces, one for comics, one for records, and one for Playboy & Penthouse magazines. I had never seen so much "smut" displayed at a show before and it was hilarious. There were at least 6 or 7 long boxes full of it.The issues on display were bagged up and only had their titles exposed with the price and issue notes written on the front board in the bag. Barry is a giant, jolly guy and we're still friends today. He was probably in his late 20's at the time and the first thing he said to me was "Want to buy this Suzanne Somers Playboy? Only $30!"... Of course I was curious, but I wasn't about to purchase a $30 Playboy from the 1980's. I told him I was only 15, and he said "Good, I like to get my clients hooked young."
This guy had no shame and I loved it! All he wanted to do was make a buck and enjoy life. He had a table full of random comics collected he called the "Lets Make a Deal Table!". He was such a natural salesman and made several deals while staying engaged in conversation with us. Before I knew it I had bought an Adventure Comics #283 from him for $30. Yep, he was going to squeeze that $30 out of me one way or another. Barry is easily the longest lasting friendship I've made through Comic Books outside my local store. He has since gone on to become a fairly successful attorney.
The Great Rancor Incident
In one of the more random dust ups I've witnessed when the nerds gather, two neighboring vendors get into a fist fight over a factory sealed original Star Wars Rancor figure. The Rancor was Jabba the Hutt's giant cave monster pet in Star Wars: Return of the Jedi. I have no idea what the price on the item was, but apparently a customer wanted to purchase the item to open and the dealer declined the sale. I can respect that.
I don't know exactly what was said, but fingers were pointed and the Star Wars dealer pushed the neighboring dealer into a table of back issues knocking a box off, which resulted in a retaliatory swing and miss! They locked up and fell over a steel chair onto the floor. The 2 were quickly separated and as they flailed like toddlers, they were both taken out of the building and there booths were covered with sheets. Neither of them returned while I was there. At 15 years old I thought this was the wildest shit I'd ever seen.
The Box
Speculating on Comic Books is just part of the culture. You always hear these people boast about cashing in on a comic they had bought a dozen copies of, and I've certainly bought extra copies on books I thought would spike, but to this day I still haven't met anyone as all-in on a book as I did at this show.Barry walked us down a few booths to meet his friend Eric that was also a dealer. Eric was a short, stocky, hairy, ball of testosterone. He was wearing a dirty NY Met's jersey and his hair was slicked back to such a high shine I could see the over head lamps reflecting the light. The first words I heard him speak were "Brought me more victims Barry? I don't think this kid can handle what I got!" and I remember thinking this guy looked like a cartoon character.
Eric had a hodgepodge of comics, Conan, EC Horror, Vamperila, Kiss, 80's Cartoons, and Heavy Metal merchandise. He had a real big thing for Frank Frazzeta and asked all of us if we had any copies of Tally-Ho Comics #1 we wanted to sell. This was Frazzeta's first published comic book work. After we all said no Eric pulls out a short-box of comics and produces 17 copies of Tally-Ho Comics #1. That is a VERY hard book to find and this guy has 17 copies... But wait!!! There's More!!!
After he pulled those out I noticed about another 50 or so comics in the box and the top comic was Adventure Comics #247, the first Legion of Superheros. That book was rare even back then and it was on my short list, so daddy was ready to pounce! I pointed at the book and Eric immediately shut me down and turned into an iron curtain. He then picked the box up and every single comic left in that box was an Adventure Comics #247. He had 58 copies of it. 58! Holy shit man!
Eric spent half of his year traveling the con/show circuit and had acquired these books on his travels. He said he never passed an opportunity to buy either one. He then pulled out a nearly flawless copy of Adventure Comics #247 to let me look at, and it was like sex after a chocolate sundae... There aren't many things that excite me like Near Mint Silver Age gems. I would love to know what that book ended up grading for, and just how many copies Eric ended up with. I never saw him again and Barry dropped out of doing shows a few years later. So if you're out there Eric, drop me a line!
Breaking the Law
While the primary agenda was comics, I did have a secondary objective. The year before I had encountered a guy at the show who sold bootleg VHS tapes of rare B movies, Anime, and Japanese action flicks, as well as a few under-the-table films. I'm pretty sure everything on this guys table was %100 illegal, and he probably had 500 tapes there. My primary goal was to secure a copy of the Roger Corman Fantastic Four movie from the early 90's that was never released.If you're unfamiliar with this strange chapter in Comic Cinema history, the short version is that Corman had to make a movie to retain the rights, but he didn't have to release it. So on a shoe string budget he assembled a cast and crew to film this movie and didn't tell them he had no plans to release it. There's actually a pretty good documentary on Amazon Prime about this called DOOMED: The Untold Story of Roger Corman's Fantastic Four.
The film itself can be found in it's entirety on YouTube, and it's worth a watch just for the laughs, but in 1997 I forked over $20 for a copy of a copy. Legend goes that the Director sent the finished film to the studio to have two copies dubbed for himself and another crew member, and it's believed that whoever at the studio was dubbing these tapes made a third copy for themselves and then it just spread like wild fire.Frank was shopping at this booth as well and walked away with 6 tapes, and was almost talked into 7th... Another Urban Legend of the time, the infamous Supergirl porno film. You have to remember that the internet wasn't the gold mine of opportunity that it is today. This film had been made in the early 80's and blatantly ripped off the character of Superman/Supergirl and was cast into oblivion by DC's lawyers... but again, a copy found its way out. I think Frank really wanted to buy but was worried about being given shit from us for buying porn, but I think we were all a little curious about it. 😂😂😂
I heard a few years later that guy was finally busted by authorities at a show for his bootlegs. I don't know what kind of punishment he received, but they likely did him a favor since most of his inventory is now easily found online, and often on YouTube.
The Haul
Between the 4 of us I think we spent about $5,000 at that show. We weren't the biggest ballers walking that concrete circle, but it wasn't from lack of trying. Overall though, we conquered that show.What's difficult to properly convey were the silent, subtle and tense moments while digging through boxes when someone tried to crowd you out of your spot. These were the moments where the battles were won. While I don't know if this stranger would have bought the Flash #137 that I found, I wasn't giving him the chance. I'm generally a polite person, but within those walls it's kill or be killed.
I walked out with about a dozen comics and about $35. I got a nice copy of Detective Comics #225 (1st Martian Manhunter). I was happy at the time, but I chose that comic over a nice copy of Detective Comics #168 (1st Red Hood/Joker Origin), and in retrospect I regret that immensely ðŸ˜ðŸ˜ðŸ˜... Both are fantastic pieces to add to any collection, but the #168's value has gone nuclear.
Frank got his anime and a few EC Horror comics that I had yet to learn how to appreciate. Mike bought a few long boxes of decent $5-$20 books to sell at his store. Kevin was the big winner though. Kevin walked out of there with a Police Comics #1 (1st Plastic Man) and a few other things, but that book is a true gem. It's hard book to find and even harder to get a discount on. I don't know what Kevin said or did, but the dealer let it go for $900 and was asking $1,350, and it was a clean mid-grade copy.After 6 hours in combat we piled back into that shitty little Nissan and headed back home. The ride back was more memorable. We were all in a euphoric daze bragging about the deals we found. We were all riding this buzz like we had just won the Super Bowl. I look back on those trips and find great peace in how simple the times were and how hard you had to work at being good at your hobby. Don't get me wrong, I love having eBay and all the other resources at my disposal, but few things beat the feeling of finding a book in the wild to complete your run, and that's a feeling that's all but extinct.
The evolution of Comic Book shows is a bitter sweet history. Today they're more geared towards Pop Culture in general, but they generate immense revenues. While I miss the thrill of the hunt it was wholly propped up by the era it was in. I've been spoiled by how easy the internet makes it to shop for books but with that has come an explosion of growth and total social acceptance. The community is stronger than ever and if the price for the culture's current position is the thrill that I miss then so be it.
Annnnnnnnnnnnnd on that note I'll end it.
Come back next time when I talk about the drama that Hal Jordan's death caused at my local shop and what a total little shit I was at 12 years old. Thanks for stopping by!
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