Just Doodling: Superman 78

I don't know...It just seemed appropriate to follow up last week's Just Doodling with this one.

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Comics Corner: Superman Vs. The Amazing Spider-Man and Marvel Treasury Edition 28 (AKA Superman and Spider-Man)

   

Title: Superman Vs. The Amazing Spider-Man
Issue Number: 1-Shot
Release Date: March 1976

Highlights

• Superman and Spider-Man meet for the first time, and team up to face Lex Luthor and Doc Ock
• Almost one hundred pages of Superman and Spider-Man action
• Spider-Man is hit by a red sun beam from Lex Luthor that gives him the strength to go toe to toe with Superman
• It's epic in and of itself for the team up
• Hero and villain bio splash pages that give readers an introduction to each character

Low Points

• Doc Ock's involvement is so miniscule that it verges on unnecessary
• Both Lois Lane and Mary Jane Watson equally serve little to no point to the story, the latter even less so
• Story is ultimately considered non-canonical
• Missed opportunity for DC and Marvel to collaborate on an all new villain more suited to be pitted against both heroes

Oddities

• Spider-Man being pulled through the skies on web skis by Superman
• Spider-Man knows how to fly space ships?
• Spider-Man says he's broken both of his hands, but promptly continues to battle throughout the remainder of the story without so much as a wince

Rating (based on a 1 through 5 Stans grading system)

Title: Marvel Treasury Edition (AKA Superman and Spider-Man)
Issue Number: 28
Release Date: January 1981

Highlights

• Sequel to the massive hit, Superman Vs. The Amazing Spider-Man from five years prior
• Superman and Spider-Man combine forces against Doctor Doom and The Parasite
• Reference is made to the rare Superman power, super ventriloquism
• Superman goes toe to toe with the Incredible Hulk
• Hulk punches Superman so hard, he launches the caped crusader miles away
• Peter Parker meets Jimmy Olsen
• Peter sells his photographs to Perry White, and gets three times what J. Jonah Jameson would have paid him, and then joins the Daily Planet as a new staff member
• Clark Kent goes to work for J. Jonah Jameson
• Peter Parker asks Lana Lane out
• Wonder Woman joins the story about 2/3 of the way in

Low Points

• Non-canonical, just like its predecessor
• Another missed opportunity to create an all new villain
• Shameless promotion when Spider-Man is using a labeled Nikon camera
• Spider-Man sings the lyrics to Frank Sinatra's Call Me Irresponsible while fighting
• Pop culture reference overload. In addition to the above, the story references Big Macs, Kojak, Elvis Costello, and Star Wars
• Story doesn't flow as well as its predecessor, nor is it as epic
• Parasite feels like a third wheel, relatively irrelevant to the story, and reduced to nothing more than being a glorified battery
• Superman and Spider-Man are definitely in this book, but they spend very little time on the same pages actually interacting with each other

Oddities

• Super ventriloquism
  
• Spider-Man can easily clear his name with Wonder Woman by letting her use her magic lasso on him, but he evades her every attempt even after she told him why she wanted to do it, and yet he wants her to believe he isn't the enemy - Just cooperate!
• Editor's day off - Three panels repeat themselves, and it is a very clear and obvious error

Rating (based on a 1 through 5 Stans grading system)

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An Estate Sale Like I've Never Seen Before

 

If there's one thing I enjoy, but which isn't typically very fruitful, is a good ol' fashion estate sale. My girl and I will not only hit these and local yard sales over the weekends, but watch a select few Youtubers who specialize in picking at them. What we'll often say to each other while watching them is, "Why aren't there any sales like that around here?" Well...We can't say that anymore.

My usual checklist item I ask about is CD's, which when people do have them, are usually the same rinse and repeat country or classic albums. While this particular estate sale at 21 Halifax Court in Sterling, Virginia, didn't have any of those, the site we were about to behold was truly amazing.

Every room, and I do mean EVERY ROOM, in this house was stuffed to the hilt in toys, comic books, games, DVD's, and all sorts of nostalgia and collectibles in between. This house was the equivalent of a local toy convention unto itself! If you couldn't find something here you wanted, then toys simply aren't your thing.

It was almost to the point of overload with how much was there, and with this being the second day of the sale, impressive with how much remained. I can only imagine what was there the day before.

I fired off photos to George of G.I. Jigsaw, knowing that this would pique his interest. He loves him some toy dioramas, and this background piece would probably work well for him.

Prices were ridiculously cheap. Well, cheap for what they certainly could have been, and the woman at the table made sure to let everyone know they'd be even better on the final day tomorrow - half off everything.

This was the kind of place you really had to look in every nook and cranny, and dig through boxes to find hidden treasures. I ended up spending way more than I thought I would, but man oh man, was I happy when I left.

It's one of those things you don't know you need until you come across it randomly. G.I. Joe juice. Infantry Orange, Gung Ho Grape, and Platoon Punch flavors. Commando Cherry is the fourth flavor released in the beverage line, but this one was not among them. These are all brand new / sealed, with the juice still inside. They're not very common on secondary markets, so at $8.00 a piece, I was down with snagging them. The woman at the sale even gave me an additional empty Gung Ho grape for free.

Mail away G.I. Joe Colton still sealed int he bag with his gun and file card for $12.00? Yes, please! I already have this figure in my collection, but I wasn't about to leave it behind for that price. Not when it's worth $25 - $40!

Many of these super hero figures were purchased with someone else in mind. It was easy to drop the cash when the above were only $6.00 each, and the below carded ones were only $3.00 each.

I saw these 1989 Batman film candy heads and Ertl vehicle, and immediately yoinked them to come with me. These are super sweat and sweet, and will go great on my Toy Biz shelf!

All four of these figures were picked up for someone else, as I already have them in my collection.

The internet wasn't exactly a thing for many people in the early 90's, so when it came to collecting G.I. Joe figures, you either knew all about them, and what to look for, or you were among the elite collector's who had the Official Collector's Guide to Collecting & Completing Your G.I. Joe Figures and Accessories, volume I and II. These were in pristine condition, and though I don't personally have a use for the information inside, other than looking at the fantastic photographs, I was all in on grabbing these. Especially at $2.00 each.

This Flash Gordon movie adaptation comic piqued my interest big time. Mainly because Sam Jones frequents the conventions in my area, and I wanted to have this available to get signed should he come around in the near future.

When I saw the familiar cover below sitting on the corner of a table, I thought, "It can't be." Sure enough, it was. I have been kicking around getting this Treasury Edition of Superman and Spider-Man for months at this point. I never would have thought I would have found one in the wild, let alone in this pristine of condition, and for a mere $10.00! It's easily a $50.00 book in this condition.

I walked past this last piece multiple times, and even left the estate sale once, only to come back inside to look for something which George texted about when he got my photos. Even during my second visit, I picked it up, and put it down two additional times.

The treasure inside of this thing kept calling to me, not specifically for what they were, but because I could feel the love that the person who owned it had put into it. This was their personal collection of fan club memorabilia, and memories of Star Wars from their youth through a series of news clippings, photographs, and fliers, among other items. I ended up picking it up because I honestly felt drawn to give it a good home where it would be appreciated for what it was, and not necessarily because it had monetary value (if it even does).

When taking these photos and researching what everything was, I saw someone on ebay had paid $75 on ebay just for the above papers. I would have never guessed they would have had such value.

The packet has a mish mash of items from the original 1978 and 1980 fan club kits, the latter year and subsequent photos which I remember receiving as a child with my membership kit.

The first items I actually saw, and gravitated towards upon my arrival were animated DVD's. With a price tag of $4.00, and a promise from the woman that the more I buy the lower the cost, I went all in. At the end of the day, I don't need ALL of these, nor do I necessarily want them. But, at $2.00 a piece when it was all said and done, I'll take them, and figure it out later.

These Scooby Doo DVD's are what I initially started pulling. There were several on my want list, mostly the collection ones which feature the classic episodes. I've looked at these many times, and at the average five to ten dollar price (plus shipping), $2.00 each was a steal!

This was an amazing estate sale. I've never personally seen one like it before, but I am certainly glad we went.

My return visit to this sale is "HERE".

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