New Arrivals

It's nice to get home on a Friday and find some new arrivals from Ebay to add to my ever growing, somewhat haphazardly-collected collection of back issues.

The first is this one, Jimmy Olsen #69 from 1963.

I've known about the Nightwing and Flamebird thing for a long time, since way back when I first read the Superman Encyclopedia and discovered the amusing yet epic charms of Silver Age Superman stories, but because I have not yet purchased Superman Showcase Vol. 4 I have yet to read the first story in Superman #158 where Jimmy and Supes first shrink down into Kandor and become the Batman and Robin-esque heroes. This issue I just got officially marks their second foray, so so much for reading things in order, but I'm sorta used to that anyway. I have nothing but respect for people who wait until they've collected an entire series before delving in from issue one, but I just can't do that. Perhaps if I collected more Marvel it might be a necessity because of the storylines where one thing always leads into another - though I do collect Fantastic Four and tend to just read in any old order, then one day when I have them all (well I'm shooting for about the first 400 via a cocktail of reprints and originals) I'll sit down and read them all again. In the case of Silver Age Superman titles I tend to just grab the ones that appeal to me, I so far have not made any commitment to getting all of them! That'd be lots! I have set my sights on collecting all of DC Comics Presents, the Superman title that started in 1978, teaming him other people in the DCU, and I have about half of its 97 issue run. I figured that was one pre-Crisis Supes title I had a chance of getting a complete run of, any other ones will have to wait until I strike it rich.

The other item that I received is Justice League of America #98. This is from 1972 and a glance at the cover tells us we're moving away from the Silver Age.

Lots had happened in the world in the 9 years since the other ish, so now we're drawing pentagrams and having seances! It might be the Rob Zombie fan in me, but one thing I do tend to grab when I see them is covers with Superman and some form of deviltry, covers like Superman's Girlfriend Lois Lane #103 or Superman #419. In this case, I'm completing my run of the original JLA series so it sort of suits both concerns, and I saw this one pretty cheap so I grabbed it. It's a Neal Adams cover. I'm a fair to middling Adams fan, though he's far from my favourite artist, but it does kind of annoy me that these days if a back issue just has a cover by him you can just add a zero to the end of the price you'd probably pay if it wasn't by him. But I got this one at a great price, no complaints from me!

Condition is not a top concern with me. I tend to go about Good, Very Good, Fine especially when it comes to older issues. I figure an original is still an original, and I wouldn't even trust myself with something I paid a bundle for and have to handle like plutonium. While some people are doing that, someone has to treasure the ones that have gotten a little knocked around over the years, as long as they've got all the pages and so forth. I like that I can read them without having to really stress. Someone has to buy the copies when other people upgrade. Maybe someday I'll get upgrade fever. Well, I did recently replace a Justice League of America #200, but that was an extreme case, my first copy was missing several pages and the previous, presumably young, owner had drawn parts on several of the heroes which didn't exactly charm me upon rereadings! Call me delicate.