The Toy Box: Todd McFarlane

Showing posts with label Todd McFarlane. Show all posts

Awesome Con 2024 - Part 3: Jim Salicrup

Jim Salicrup was a late entry to Awesome Con 2024, but one that was going to set me back quite a bit.

Jim Salicrup signing my mountain of books

Mr. Salicrup was great to meet. He shared so many stories as he signed books, and drew pictures for folks, and overall was amazing. He was pleasant, kind, and seemed genuinely happy to be there. He shared stories about his time working with Todd McFarlane, regaling the tale of how it came to be that Todd would number the hidden spiders on his issues, as well as his time working on the various titles he was involved with.

Also signed by Jim Shooter, and
Rick Leonardi at Big Lick Nova 2023

He was thrilled to see this copy of Transformers issue three, and went into detail on the various Easter eggs he included in it. He showed me the little hidden picture of U.S. 1 tucked behind in one of the panels.

US 1 heads across an overpass in Transformers 3

He also showed the panel of Nick Fury, and talked about how he couldn't refer to Godzilla by name, but that was indeed what the character was talking about. Apparently, Nick Fury had made appearances in prior stories, which showcased him and S.H.I.E.L.D. battling it out with the creature. However, for copyright reasons, the name could not be used in the Transformers issue.

Speaking of copyright issues, Jim also wasn't able to use the traditional blue and red Spider-Man costume in the issue. Hasbro owned the rights to Transformers, and at the time of release, Mattel featured figures from Secret Wars, which hadn't yet revealed the black suit version, only the traditional one. Hasbro would not allow for cross advertisement of a competitive toy company, thus the red and blue suit was barred.

Jim also doesn't get the credit he deserves for his collaboration in the creation of Venom. Credit often goes only to Todd McFarlane, and David Michelinie. Jim has said many times he isn't interested in monetary notoriety for the character, nor does he diminish that the majority of it was indeed driven by Todd and David. However, he would still like his fair acknowledgement in the credits.

Well, while Marvel holds out, I'll give you your due, Mr. Salicrup, by having you sign my two preview issues of Venom's appearances.

...As well as the issues you were involved with that he made his cameos and first appearance.

Also signed by Bob McLeod
at Baltimore Comic Con

Keeping in procession with getting things signed within the symobite story arc, I brought with me all the issues of Marvel Age which featured advertisements or previews, which Mr. Salicrup was noted as editor.

Also signed by Jim Shooter and
Rick Leonardi at Big Lick NOVA 2023

Also signed by Jim Shooter
at Big Lick NOVA 2023

I also took one of my Todd McFarlane signed copies of Spider-Man issue one to have Jim sign (as editor).

Purchased at Big Lick NOVA 2022,
pre-signed by Todd McFarlane

Since I was apparently going for broke, I also got Mr. Salicrup to sign my run of Kraven's Last Hunt.

Also signed by Jim Shooter at
Big Lick NOVA 2023, and
Bob McLeod at Baltimore Comic Con 2023

I got other stuff signed by Mr. Salicrup, but that's a post coming down the line. Even then, there was so much more I could have brought with me if space allowed for it. For now, that wraps up this one, until next week when I return to Awesome Con 2024.

Jim Salicrup: $10.00 per signature

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Mail Call!

Boy, it's been two years since I've done a mail call, and today is quite the haul!

There's a whole lot of girth to those boxes!

You'll notice a theme today as I open and share box number one. Yes, a lot of them are comic books. However, they're not just any particular ones. Rather, this is me making a gallant effort to complete my Todd McFarlane collection.

McFarlane penciled both issue one and two of Invasion, but left the book prior to the third and final installment of the mini-series. I ended up purchasing the full run because it was simply easier and cheaper to get them all together than to pick and choose issues.

This next box encased a consecutive run of Infinity, Inc. issues one through forty-five, plus annual one.

The McFarlane sweet spot in these issues is number fourteen through thirty-seven, plus annual one and two, the latter of which I didn't get in this bunch. In doing the math, it actually worked out to be sixty dollars cheaper to buy this lot than to simply focus on the issues I wanted. Kind of a no brainer to grab it.

There are only nine more issues in the series, one of which is the second annual that I'm going to get. I may or may not just go ahead and finish the run.

Don't check out on my yet, toy lovers. They're coming up next. But, first, this lot contained a consecutive run of issues one through fifty of Todd McFarlane's Spawn.

This is a series I wouldn't mind catching up on, but with over three hundred issues out there, this literally is just the tip of the iceberg. I don't know that it will be feasible at this point to try and grab issues fifty-one through three hundred thirty-three. That's a lot of money, not to mention bags and boards.

Initially, I picked these figures up because I was going to take them to Big Lick Comic Con in Roanoake this August, and have them signed by Billy West. Then I looked and saw how far Roanoake was from me, and scrapped that idea right away. Unfortunately, I had already purchased the figures.

Despite autographs, they'll still serve a purpose as added decorations to my wall above my cartoon DVD's.

Before any of you flip out that I opened these, fret not. What I also found out was that the bubbles on both were already open, and not so nicely in the case of Stimpy. His entire bubble was given the x-acto knife treatment.

They fit in nicely on top of my autographed complete series of G.I. Joe. Boy, what a great day that was.

On June 30, 2022, I told several people, "If Hasbro doesn't send me something G.I. Joe related by the end of July, I'm cancelling ALL of my pre-orders, and selling off all my Classified figures. On July 1, 2022, I got confirmation that the Fortnight Snake Eyes Zero Edition had shipped.

I've had this thing on order since January 30, 2020. No, that's not a typo. I don't know why it took Hasbro over a year to produce and ship this thing, but that wait time was ridiculous!

While I'm happy to finally have it, I can certainly understand from my own experience why so many fans of the series are upset by Hasbro continuing to offer pre-orders for 2023 when they've yet to even fulfill orders from over a year ago.

Popping the box open, it's really just another Snake Eyes with minor deco. This is what, the fifth or sixth one in the series so far? Well, I guess I have to take that back. This is technically not a Classified figure. Well, not in name anyway.

The bubble comes out of the cardboard, making it easier to pop the accessories out, and man oh man, this is where this thing shines.

Ten different bits and pieces allow for a lot of uniqueness, in terms of displaying the figure. Sadly, there isn't enough storage space on Snake Eyes to accommodate half of them. So disappointingly, most of these are going back to the box to ensure they don't get lost.

It's neat looking when all decked out, but there's still that part of me that says, "It's just another Snake Eyes."

Still, I suppose Hasbro has fulfilled my need to have something delivered prior to the end of July, so I'll stick it out...for now. I'm not happy that prices on the figure are rising to make up for their lackluster sales as a result of their failure to put product on shelves.

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The Spider's Web

Remember back in the day when upcoming writer / artist Todd McFarlane co-owned a comic shop in Puyallup, Washington with co-owner and President, Kim Kolomyjec? No?

That's no surprise. Many people don't.

Though the store has since moved locations, and unfortunately closed down, The Spider's Web was a comic shop located in a small strip mall at 729 River Road. While these days it's an all you can eat sushi location, back in the 80's and early 90's, this location was the place to go not only for comics, but autographs from the soon to be megastar of the comic book industry.

Todd frequently made appearances at the shop, signing books for fans directly or for the store to put on shelves and sell later. Though he signed several books, the ones most notable for being sold by the the shop were the green and silver covers of 1990's Spider-Man number one.

This would lead to the mysterious red stamped issue. The book with its funny looking signature being passed off as Todd McFarlanes. Looking at the old signatures of the artist, many fans immediately write them off as forgeries, and poor ones at that. Little do they know, they are very much legitimate.

Being an age with no internet, this relatively unknown store, and its affiliation to McFarlane was left to the advertisements that were slapped on store windows, printed advertisements across paper fan magazines, and / or word of mouth of his pending appearance. So basically, word didn't spread far. As time went by, these books fell off the radar for many collectors, if they were ever on them to begin with, and have become an urban legend unto themself.

Such is the case of the promotion run by The Spider's Web, where they posted an ad in Comic Buyer's Guide issue 851, which offered one copy of Spider-Man number one, signed by Todd McFarlane. When this all began, Kim thought at best they would receive 8,000 or 9,000 orders. Little did he and McFarlane know, they would soon be diligently at work fulfilling 24,000 requests, as professed by Kolomyjec in a follow-up article in Comic Buyers Guide 859.

McFarlane spent months signing copies of the book, while Kolomyjec took on the one-man job of stamping each issue, boxing them up, and mailing them. As evidence of the signature, he provided a printed certificate of authenticity with each order, noting the stamp backing up the autograph being legit.

Flipping the book over would reveal the stamp in question.

McFarlane signed two different versions of the green cover variants in silver pen and one of the silver cover variants with gold. More on this below.

Comic Buyers Guide would print a follow up story to the promotion in issue number 878.

Comic Buyers Guide Issue 878 Article

The store only web stamped the back of comics they sold through the promotion. Customers who came in with their own book to be signed when McFarlane was present didn't receive this or a COA. Coupled with the relatively unknown signature style, and you can see how many fans would call ones without this fake - even to this day. Meaning if you're going to try and sell this book as an authentic Todd McFarlane signature, you're going to have more luck with the stamp, COA and history of how it came to be in existence.

CGC acknowledges their existence, and there are a few graded copies here and there. Neither the green or silver covers seems more common or rare than the other, and they all sell within the range of fifty to ninety dollars. However, many of these don't have the COA, and this price range is only reflective of raw books, not graded. It's also worth noting that the second print gold cover was not signed / sold during this time, so you won't find ones with the stamp on them - Not legit ones anyway.

Green Cover / Purple Webs

Green Cover / Silver Webs

There are three different versions known to be in existence. Regarding the green covers, McFarlane signed both the purple webs, which he removed the polybag from, as well as the silver webs version. The silver cover he signed was the price printed direct edition, which did not come polybagged. It would, however, be interesting to see if any of the blue, or even rarer, copper lizard error printings were among any of the silver cover versions signed, as this is the print which these errors are known to exist in.

I don't know what it is about Spider-Man number one. I know the book sold over a million copies, yet I always want to pick them all up when I see them. I don't, because they aren't cheap, but I certainly have enough copies of it in various different versions. I would honestly buy a long box of this issue if the price was right.

While everyone knows the fate of Todd, what about co-owner Kim? He was listed as President of Spider's Web, Inc. from 1989 to 2010, which is potentially the full timeline the store was open and operated. In 2011 he transitioned to working for McFarlane Toys, noted as presently still employed with the title of Manager of ECommerce (source).

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