B5Erik

The first Batman comic I ever bought. The cover totally grabbed my attention. The Jim Aparo cover and interior art was (and is) fantastic, and the story was actually really well written.

PhantomStranger

Not as stunned as I was when I opened my Amazing Spider-Man long box for the first time in 22 years to discover my pristine, gem mint copy had been stolen. The thief definitely knew what issues were most valuable.

b2net

One of my favorite stories. Especially the end regarding the method of how they escape.

Spiderbite

Where did you have them stored where a thief could get to them?

Bronkster

Daaaang, that sucks!

Spiderbite

I actually had the below issue along with a ton of old stuff like this that I acquired at yard sales, friend's parents and grandparents, etc. I am so pissed I sold pretty much my entire collection back in 1990 as a 17-year-old. And most of my stuff was in great shape as I took care of my collection. Just stupid.

I loved these ridiculous DC covers. And I had a ton of them. Sob.

Spiderbite

Another one I had:

PhantomStranger

My entire collection was bagged and boarded in about 15 long boxes, stored in the basement of the house I was living at the time. The problem here is I had more or less complete runs from the Bronze Age on in their proper order, which made it easy for the thief to cherrypick the most valuable stuff. Leaving me none the wiser for many years since I didn't check on them, thinking they were safe. They were smart, going after the 10-20 most famous and collectible books I owned. It's clear they only knew Marvel and not DC, however.

They also took two copies of New Mutants #98. The theft almost certainly occurred in the early 2000s but I didn't discover they were stolen until a couple years ago. Fairly positive they got stolen when I went on vacation one year and a close family relative decided my place would be a great place to throw a house party while I was away. A former friend of the aforementioned close relative was almost certainly the culprit.

It is what is. They had more sentimental value (though yes, they are quite valuable) to me than anything else because they were all issues I had personally bought off the racks.

Trevor

I’ve sold collections twice in my life, both times to raise money to buy my first computers. It’s kinda crazy how expensive computers were, relatively, back in the day.

One time I sold my D&D collection, which included the first editions of AD&D, Basic, and even Chainmail, and tons of modules and dice and maybe 50 issues of Dragon. Got maybe $100 for all of it and while I’m sure that stuff’s current value would make me weep, it’s more the nostalgia of it all that I missed almost immediately. I should have worked a week or two of overtime instead.

At the same time I sold my Atari 2600 and a decade’s worth of cartridges, many I now know are rare, for a paltry amount.

The other time I sold stuff was about half my comic collection for maybe $200. I really wanted a computer, and wasn’t reading Marvel anymore. So off went a few longboxes, including a bunch of X-Men in the 90-140 range.

So I learned my lesson and never get rid of anything. Hi, my name is Trevor. I’m a hoarder.

B5Erik

I'm a big Gil Kane fan.

Spiderbite

I already posted a Gil Kane cover earlier so here is another one I owned.

While his style was always recognizable, I just never was a big fan of his. Something about his lines just didn't strike the right way as a kid.

B5Erik

My favorite era of comics - the early to mid 70's! The covers for The Amazing Spider-Man were always great. This is a classic example from John Romita. I've actually got an 8x11 of this that I printed up on my wall.

Spiderbite

I loved this Tarantula cover:



But this storyline that started there with Tarantula really turning into a spider creeped me the fuck out as a kid:

PhantomStranger

Last year I picked up that complete run of Bronze Age Superboy. Surprisingly affordable, lots of nice copies seem to circulate. Like you, Gil Kane's late 1970s, early 1980s DC art does nothing for me. I like his earlier stuff better.

B5Erik

Jack Kirby and Vince Colletta (one of those times Colletta put in some effort and did a good job - he was capable of doing that when given enough time).

Spiderbite

I didn't have a lot of Thor in my collection as a kid because I basically couldn't stand the way he spoke and I just didn't enjoy reading it.

But I did have this one below. Always liked this cover.

cultshock

I've always loved this cover (huge fan of Wrightson), Berni used Louise Simonson as the model. This cover is so iconic there are tons of homages.

PhantomStranger

I had no idea Louise Simonson was the girl on that cover.

B5Erik

Keith Pollard

Spiderbite

For some reason, I just don't know anything about Keith Pollard and don't seem to recognize his work just looking at it. I did some looking and found a cool cover of a comic that I had as a kid that he did.

Spiderbite

So here is an odd cover that I think I still have that I never really liked. I respect Bill Sienkiewicz's art, even as a kid, but never really enjoyed it. He was just to "out there" for me. And what the fuck is Batman doing with his hands?



And this is also a new Batman Black & White statue that is coming soon. I have a few of these and I love how accurate this one looks compared to many of the B&W series statues...but his hands still fuck it up for me.



More pix of the statue here: Batman Black And White Statue By Bill Sienkiewicz (firewireblog.com)

TheBang

I love Sienkiewicz, but I've never cared much for his Batman. That said, I had him sign this cover, which I thought was great, when I met him at SDCC:

Josh-da-man

I actually had to look that up. That cover looks more like a Sam Kieth job than a Sienkiewicz number.

PhantomStranger

I like that Batman #400 cover as an off-beat change-up from the more traditional comic book art of that day. DC Comics must have tried something new printing that comic because it feels weird in the hands and hard to find in absolute mint condition. They did something similar with Superman #400.

Spiderbite

A strange, random comic I had as a kid. I think I got this from a yard sale or my friend's grandparents.