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John Popa
Byrne Robotics Member
Joined: 20 March 2008
Posts: 4644
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| Posted: 09 July 2025 at 5:55pm | IP Logged | 1
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Yeah, ebay killed the hunt for me where I can find a run of anything at any time for any price. And, really, at this point I'm more interested in hardback collections than individual comic anyway.
Some of my early freedom as a driver was getting to go to some of the less local comic shops and dig through those back issue bins, since I'd exhausted the local places.
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John Byrne
Grumpy Old Guy
Joined: 11 May 2005
Posts: 134758
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| Posted: 09 July 2025 at 5:59pm | IP Logged | 2
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Can someone explain unto me air freight and ship’s ballast business?
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Robert Walter Auberger
Byrne Robotics Member
Joined: 11 April 2014
Location: Austria
Posts: 34
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| Posted: 09 July 2025 at 7:18pm | IP Logged | 3
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Sometimes when I visit a flea market, I find a comic book that piques my interest. Then I get very excited untill I remember I probaly have that comic book as a cbr file on my computer. Often I still buy it, but it goes into a box and is never read. That gives me a terrible feeling. Same with old music records.
Makes me feel, like we have way too much entertainment at that tips of our fingers and we lose a lot of value!
(Fun fact: Shortly before movies or series could be streamed , I found two VHS cassettes of the 90s X-men on the flea market. I bought it and brought it home, eager to watch it! Then I found out that I didn't have any video player anymore!)
Edited by Robert Walter Auberger on 09 July 2025 at 7:18pm
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Scott Wagahoff
Byrne Robotics Member
Joined: 10 October 2019
Location: United States
Posts: 165
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| Posted: 09 July 2025 at 7:28pm | IP Logged | 4
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JB: Every Thursday I would bike over to the drugstore, pick up the latest comics, then stop by for a box of fried chicken to eat as I lay on the living room rug reading my latest haul.
------------------------------------------------- This was a huge nostalgia wave for me as I had a very similar routine.
On Saturdays, after getting my allowance, I would bike to a convenience store (aptly named "Convenient") in Louisville and then head across the parking lot to have lunch in McDonald's while reading.
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Eric Jansen
Byrne Robotics Member
Joined: 27 October 2013
Location: United States
Posts: 2454
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| Posted: 09 July 2025 at 9:03pm | IP Logged | 5
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I was there for GS #1 and issue #94, but somehow I missed X-MEN #95--and it took me about 40 years to finally read it in a reprint edition! That was a good feeling!
My Dad bought me my weekly comics one time when I was sick and he included WARLORD #7 and then I was hooked! ("This isn't a super-hero! Oh wait, this Mike Grell guy is writing and drawing all sorts of cool stuff!") Again, it took me decades to finally read the first six issues (and the FIRST ISSUE SPECIAL premiere).
I jumped on board CAPTAIN AMERICA just as Steve Englehart and Sal Buscema were finishing their run on what immediately became my all-time favorite super-hero, and I was soon to be disappointed when they both left and were replaced by a bunch of fill-in talent for a year. (A year is long when you're nine! Thank goodness when Jack Kirby eventually came in and righted the ship.) I've been buying a lot of Marvel's Epic Collections in recent years, usually at a 30% (or more) discount, but I was more than glad about 3 or 4 years ago to spend $60 on a thick Englehart/Sal-heavy CAP Epic covering the years right before I started reading! I couldn't have been happier if I had found a chest full of buried treasure!
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John Harrison
Byrne Robotics Member
Joined: 27 July 2007
Posts: 1452
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| Posted: 09 July 2025 at 9:52pm | IP Logged | 6
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My biggest hunt for a single comic was NEXT MEN #16.
My LCS was an awesome shop. It just never came. All other issues NEXT MEN
arrived just not #16. it never popped up in back issue bins not at the other
shops near by. I even looked in a few card shops that sold some comics.
Nothing. No one had #16.
Years later I gave up and bought the TPB.
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James Woodcock
Byrne Robotics Member
Joined: 21 September 2007
Location: United Kingdom
Posts: 8237
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| Posted: 10 July 2025 at 4:35am | IP Logged | 7
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Air freight vs ship ballast.
The UK seemed to receive their comics three months after the USA -
because the comics came across in ships. The popular reason seems to be
they were used as ballast, and thus their freight was really cheap.
This meant two things.
1 - we got them the month that was printed in the cover, whereas you got
the. Three months before cover date
2 - the price was the pence price that was printed in the cover
Comic shops would air freight comics over, so they got comics the same
week they came out in America. An expensive shipping choice, so those
comics cost much more, pretty much a 1:1 price conversion, with the GBP
price being the same as the $ price printed on the cover.
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Bill Collins
Byrne Robotics Member
Joined: 26 May 2005
Location: England
Posts: 11402
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| Posted: 10 July 2025 at 6:22am | IP Logged | 8
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That's exacty how i understood air frieght/ship's ballast
James. In those days we were far behind the U.S. on many
things! It's still often the same especially with U.S. tv
shows. In fact i watched the 2025 Valentine's episode of
The Rookie last night!
As for never visiting West Brom, i have never had the need
to!
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Dave Pruitt
Byrne Robotics Member
Joined: 16 April 2004
Location: United States
Posts: 6175
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| Posted: 11 July 2025 at 9:00pm | IP Logged | 9
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When I started my comics journey I was 9 and only was really keen on Richie Rich and his pals at Harvey. I tried some DC too because I liked the Batman show I watched in reruns, Superman the Movie, but the only spot was the spinner rack at 7/11 next to my apartment building in Mesa, AZ. I moved back to OH a short time later and there I found, at King’s Department Store, a copy of X-Men #112. That was a great day. Then I had to have everything by this John Byrne guy.
As a Byrne completist the longest, hardest hunt was for Dracula’s foot, as JB used to say, IIRC. That was where he was in the office one day and some art came in that had to be altered in some way, a word balloon got moved, and there was a foot or a leg missing underneath it. John dutifully drew it in. He couldn’t give me much more than that, and for years, my assignment was find Dracula’s foot. So, I’m looking through all the Tomb of Dracula I can, all magazine appearances, other guest appearances. No dice. Finally, with the aid of human computer Roger Stern I was steered to the Marvel Classics adaptation of Bram Stoker’s Dracula, and there it was.
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Mark McKay
Byrne Robotics Member
Joined: 16 April 2004
Location: United States
Posts: 2286
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| Posted: 11 July 2025 at 10:09pm | IP Logged | 10
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I love that story, Dave!
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