IN DEFENSE OF STAN THE MAN

By  Barry Dutter

I never thought I would writing an article defending Stan Lee. Since I was 10 years old, Stan has been my idol. My hero. The man whose career I have most tried to emulate. (I even wrote the Bullpen Bulletins for about 5 years in the 90s -- just like Stan!)
One would think such a legendary figure in the comics world would not need defending from anyone.
But there are a number of Jack Kirby tribute groups on the Internet that spend a considerable amount of time denigrating the work of Jack’s frequent collaborator, the esteemed Mr. Lee.
The general theme of the posts on these sites is along the lines of, “Stan didn’t really write those stories. Kirby and Ditko really wrote the stories. Stan was just the scripter. And even then, he just took the dialogue that guys like Kirby wrote in the margins and polished it up a little bit.”
Now, let’s put things in perspective. When Marvel launched an all-new line of  superhero comics in 1961, Stan was the primary writer, and he did type up plots for the stories.
There exists a plot to Fantastic Four #1, written by Stan. You can read it online. It’s incredibly loose and leaves a lot to the artist’s imagination, (and was presumably based on discussions Stan had with Jack beforehand). But clearly, at least in the beginning, Stan was writing plots for the Marvel books that his artists would work from.
There came a time when Marvel started publishing so many books, it became physically impossible for Stan to plot and script all of them, so he began to delegate the plotting duties to his trusted artists like Kirby, Ditko, Wally Wood and Gene Colan. Reportedly Stan would sometimes give the artist a one-line description of the plot, like “Daredevil helps the FF fight Dr. Doom” -- and the artist would flesh out that idea into a full story.
Stan would then add the dialogue and captions later, and he did so with such flair and such panache that generations of writers who came later imitate his

style to this day.
As time went on, Stan was often too busy to even give his artists that one line description. (Steve Ditko is credited as “Plotter” of his final Spider-Man issues.)
But there seems to be no argument that the actual scripts for all those early Marvels were written by Stan. He wrote every word of every page of the first 100 issues of Spider-Man (plus annuals), the first 100+ issues of FANTASTIC FOUR, and countless stories of the Hulk, Sub-Mariner, X-Men, the Avengers, Dr. Strange, etc.
To those who say that Stan was just a glorified typist on those books, consider this: both Kirby and Ditko went on to write the bulk of their own work after they stopped working with Stan. None of the work that Kirby and Ditko did on their own was ever as well-written as the work they did with Stan. Kirby, in particular, had a real tin ear for dialogue. His dialogue always sounded so stiff and unnatural.
In the early 1960s, Stan Lee revolutionized the comics medium by writing dialogue that was smart, loose, and felt “real.” No one had ever heard comic book characters sound like that before. His work was smart, snappy and sarcastic. Stan wrote characters who talked the same way you or I do.
And no one has ever accused Kirby or Ditko of writing dialogue that sounded like the way real people speak.
But Stan didn't just write thousand of pages of great stories. His was the voice of Marvel. He wrote the letters pages and the Bullpen Bulletins pages, too.
He created a house style that was so friendly, so inviting, it made each reader feel like he was part of the Marvel family. Stan made each Marvelite feel like he was a member of a private club with its own secret language. (Hang Loose! Face Front! ‘Nuff said! Etc. )
There are those who will point to the work that Kirby did after he left Marvel -- THE NEW GODS, THE FOREVER PEOPLE, KAMANDI, MISTER MIRACLE, JIMMY OLSEN -- and say it was as imaginative and as great as any of the work he did at Marvel.
To this I will reply: have you actually tried to read any of those books? Honestly, they are mostly unreadable. Just try to make it through any issue of any one of those mags. You may have enjoyed them as a kid, but trust me when I say, they do not hold up.
Now go back and read any issue of AMAZING SPIDER-MAN or FANTASTIC FOUR that Stan wrote in the 60s. Some of them may seem a  little corny, a little old-fashioned, but you know what? They all have a certain charm. They all hold up today.
Stan was the first comic book writer that wrote comics that could be enjoyed by children, college students, and adults -- all at the same time. He told stories that were clear and fun, populated by characters who all spoke with different voices (a skill that seems to have been forgotten by most modern writers).

When you read stories written by Kirby and Ditko, all the heart, humanity and humor of the Stan Lee stories simply isn't there. Ditko and Kirby were incredibly imaginative artists whose work has been highly influential -- but writing has never been their strong suit.
Both men needed the work of a true craftsman to take their ideas and mold them into great stories.
“But Jack Kirby created hundreds and hundreds of characters after he stopped working with Stan,” you say. “And Stan hasn’t created any worthwhile characters in decades!”
Well, let’s break this down. Out of all the characters that Jack Kirby created since the dissolution of the Lee/Kirby team in 1971, how many of those characters have been as popular and beloved as the ones he created with Stan?
You can point to the Demon, the Forever People, the New Gods. Maybe OMAC, or Kamandi… but can you honestly say that any of those characters have caught on with the American public in the same manner as the Hulk? The Silver Surfer? The X-Men? The Avengers?
Not even close.
And as much as you might have enjoyed Ditko's creations, The Creeper and Shade the Changing Man, you must admit that neither of those characters has exactly set the comics world on fire.
The characters that Stan and Jack (and Steve Ditko) created together form the foundation of the Marvel Universe. Without those heroes, there would in all likelihood be no Marvel Comics today.
“But Kirby’s concepts are constantly being revived,” you say. “The Demon gets a new series every couple of years. So do the New Gods.”
This is true, and both of those series have their cult audiences. But neither has truly captivated the comics-buying public the same way those early Lee/Kirby characters did.
In fact, I can only name one character that Kirby created after 1971 that has truly won the hearts of comics fans, and that’s Darkseid. He has transcended his New Gods roots to become one of the top villains in the DC Universe. He has gone on to challenge Superman, the Legion of Super Heroes and the Justice League, and he has appeared in countless cartoons and seems destined for big-screen stardom.
As for Stan?  I would argue that Stan also has one notable character he created after 1971: the She-Hulk in 1980.
The She-Hulk came about not because of creative reasons but for copyright reasons only. Marvel had to publish a female version of the Hulk that they would own the rights to because if they didn’t, Universal, which was then producing the Hulk TV show, could do a TV movie starring a female version of the Hulk that they would own the rights to.
She-Hulk was not welcomed into the Marvel Universe with open arms, but over time, fans came to embrace her as a member of the Avengers and the FF, and in several long-running series of her own.
It can safely be said that She-Hulk has earned a place alongside the classic Marvel heroes. She bears little resemblance to the savage bruiser created by Stan in 1980, but still, the initial spark of the character was there from the start.
So there you go: I will give Stan and Jack one character each since 1971: Darkseid and She-Hulk. The others are all pretty forgettable.
“But Stan takes credit for characters he didn’t even create, like the Silver Surfer, who was entirely a Kirby creation. Stan hadn’t even written the Surfer into the plot!” Stan has always credited Kirby for coming up with the concept and the visual for the Surfer. But it was Stan’s words that brought the Surfer to life. Kirby created the vessel, but Lee gave him a soul.
“But the quality of Stan’s work has declined considerably since 1970,”  you say. To which I reply, name me a comic writer whose work hasn’t declined as they got older! Most comic book writers do their best work when they are in their 20s and 30s. Stan created the FF when he was 38, Spider-Man and the most of the rest of the Marvel Universe when he was 39. The real miracle is that he had his most creative peak from ages 40 to 50. That’s almost unheard of in comics.

And one could also that the quality of Kirby and Ditko’s work also declined as they got older. But again, this is a pretty normal occurrence. It’s called aging. It happens to all of us!
It’s worth noting that Kirby was 44 when he co-created the Fantastic Four, and his mid-to late 40s were perhaps the most creative streak ever seen by any artist in the history of  comics.
Why were Lee and Kirby both inspired to do the best work of their careers in their forties? And why did very little of the work they did before (or since) show that same level of greatness?

Steve Ditko, self-portrait

The answer is that Stan & Jack needed each other. Just as Captain America needed Bucky… just as Mr. Fantastic needed the Invisible Girl… just as Peter Parker needed… um… his Aunt May, I guess… so were Stan and Jack (and Steve) codependent on each other.
Lee and Kirby were an unbeatable team. Separately, neither man ever did any work that was as good as what they did together. Theirs was a mythic pairing that truly changed the world of comics for the better.
So the next time you see someone trashing Stan’s writing, remind them that Ditko and Kirby simply could not have done it without him.
That was the magic of the early Marvel Universe. And no amount of revisionist history can ever change that. I know that sometimes in the media, Stan is given too much credit for “single-handedly” creating the Marvel Universe. But to deny him any credit at all seems insulting to his legacy.
Truly Stan Lee was the greatest superhero writer (and in my eyes, the best comic book writer) of all time.
There’s only one possible word that can end this article, and every true Marvelite knows what it is: Excelsior!

Think you know everything about Batman? So did I! Then I sat down and read a book reprinting the first dozen or so Batman stories in chronological order. Turns out I hardly knew the Caped Crusader at all! In honor of Batman’s 75th anniversary, join me as I reveal…

10 THINGS YOU NEVER KNEW ABOUT THE BATMAN

By Barry Dutter


1) THE ORIGINAL BATMOBILE WAS RED! It’s true! In the first eight  Batman stories, the Dark Knight shuttled around town in a red roadster. (In one story, the red Batmobile is is shown to be the same car driven by Bruce Wayne! Way to preserve that secret identity, Bruce!) It was in the ninth Batman story that the classic Batmobile appears in the familiar blue color we all came to know in love. In the next issue, Bats was back to driving the red car again before he finally switched to blue permanently.

2) BRUCE WAYNE SMOKED A PIPE! Every time we see BRUCE WAYNE in the early issues, he is smoking a pipe, usually while lounging around Wayne Manor. Although many heroes smoked cigars in the 70s, I can't remember the last time I saw any major Marvel or DC hero smoke anything. 

3) BATMAN CARRIED A GUN! It’s true! He didn’t carry one very often, and he rarely used it. But the splash page to one of his early appearances in DETECTIVE COMICS shows the Caped Crusader proudly brandishing a pistol, as if it were a regular thing for him. Back in those days, pulp heroes like The Shadow and the Spider always carried guns, and I guess in the beginning, the creators of Batman were thinking that was the logical direction for him to go in. I’m not sure when Bats stopped using a gun, but certainly by 1954, with the formation of the Comics Code, that was the end of that.

4) BATMAN IS A CASUAL MURDERER! In his very first adventure, Batman accidentally kills the bad

guy by throwing him into a chemical explosion. In the next issue, Bats kicks a thug off the roof of a skyscraper. (We never see the dead body, but it seems unlikely any normal man could survive that.) Over the next few issues, Batman piles up an impressive body count for a hero.When three homeless men are turned into giant ogres, Bats make sure to kill each one. (The option of curing them is never mentioned!)
Any time a villain attacks

Batman with a  knife or a sword, Bats always finds a way to turn the weapon back on his attacker and stab them real good. You have to wonder how many times the police showed up at a crime scene and yet another dead hood who had “accidentally fallen on his own knife.”  In another issue, Batman encounters a deadly vampire, and shoots the monster with a  silver bullet -- while the vampire is asleep in his coffin! Comics were so much more fun before the Comics Code came along in the fifties and neutered everything for the next 30 or 40 years.

5) ROBIN LEFT BEHIND A FEW CORPSES, TOO! You might think the arrival of the cheerful and eager young Robin might stop the bloodshed. But it turns out, Robin was pretty good at murder, too! It seems Batman trained his young protégé all too well. In his first adventure with Batman, Robin battles a thug high atop a construction site. The thug is trying to knock Robin off a girder to his death. But Robin successfully evades the thug. An acrobatic kick causes to thug to fall many stories to the street below -- surely, to his death!

6) BRUCE WAYNE  WAS ENGAGED! In one of his earliest adventures, Bruce Wayne reveals that he has a fiancée, an actress named Julie Madison. But Bruce doesn’t seem interested in spending much time with Julie. Mostly Bruce wants to go out and catch bad guys as Batman or hang out with his friend, Commissioner Gordon. Sometimes it seems like the only way Julie can spend time with her fiancé is when she gets involved in one of Batman’s adventures. The engagement didn’t last long before it got called off. According to Wkipedia, “Julie…ended her engagement to Bruce on the grounds that she felt that he ought to do something worthwhile with his life rather than just being a fun-loving playboy (she still did not know of his secret activities).” She was gone from the book after about a year and a half. A modern version of Julie was recently introduced in Batman comics. She is referred to as a woman from Bruce Wayne’s past. 


7) BATMAN WAS WANTED BY THE COPS! I remember as a kid, growing up reading Spider-Man comics in the 70s, it always seemed radical to me that Spidey was wanted by the cops. Turns out, Batman had done the same shtick before, about 30 years earlier! The police aggressively pursued Batman in the early days. They would usually arrive too late, at the end of an adventure, just after Batman had captured the bad guy. The cops would mistakenly think that Batman was involved in committing the crimes, so they would shoot at him, but Batman would always get away. (Sound familiar, Spider-Fans?) Bats must have taken particular delight in knowing that his good friend, Commissioner Gordon, would often share crime news with him, never suspecting that Bruce was actually the vigilante, Batman!

8) WOMEN ARE HIS WEAKNESS!  The first bunch of Batman stories present the Caped Crusader as a very moral, upright citizen, willing to do whatever it takes to uphold the law and see to it that evil-doers are punished -- unless they are sexy babes! The first time Batman and Robin encounter Catwoman, Bats lets her get away at the end by blocking Robin as the Boy Wonder lunges after her. Robin pretty quickly figures out what Bruce has done and why he has done it. But Bruce offers no apologies. The understanding seems to be, “Look, she was hot, she turned me on, and I’m sure I’ll see her again!” Robin clearly does not approve, but even his teenage mind knows there are some things even superheroes are powerless against.


9) BATMAN IS KINKY! In that same issue (BATMAN #1), Batman catches Catwoman disguised as an old lady, in the midst of a jewel heist. Batman starts to remove her old age make-up.  Catwoman protests, but Batman shuts her up with, “Quiet or papa spank!” Papa spank? Huh! Who knew the Dark Knight had a playful side? He never talked to the Joker like that!

10) BRUCE WAYNE IS SO RICH, HE DOES WHATEVER THE HELL HE WANTS!  In the first 10 or 15 Batman stories, Bruce Wayne is portrayed as a bored playboy.  He is never shown working. Mostly he just hangs out with Jim Gordon and talks about police business. There is no mention of Wayne Enterprises. (Apparently that came along later.) Bruce seems to enjoy the life of a lazy rich man. In one issue, Bruce gets the idea of how to trap a jewel thief. He muses, “Maybe I’ll write an article for the newspaper to lure the thief into a trap.” The next day, Bruce’s article appears on the front page of the Gotham Gazette. But wait --Bruce just randomly decides to write an article and it ends up on the front page of the newspaper?” Or does he just buy the front page and tell them to print his article?

Lots of unanswered questions in those early Batman comics. Fortunately, many of these issues were resolved as the series went on. It was fun for me to find out all these secrets from Batman’s past and learn that even a 75-year old hero can still surprise you. Next up? Superman!

17 THINGS I LEARNED SELLING COMICS ON EBAY

By Barry Dutter

I started collecting comic books in 1974 when I was 9 years old. Over the next 30 years, I amassed a collection of about 10,000 comics. There came a day when I didn’t have room for the comics any more and I needed to make some cash. So I sold the comics, piece by piece,  on eBay. I didn’t think I could do it, but once I started selling, it just got easier and easier. 
I had so much fun selling my comics, that I decided it might be fun to sell other people‘s comics, too. I

One of the few 90s books that is actually worth money today.

started going around to local garage sales, and scouring Craigslist, buying up all the collections I could find. Now I buy and sell comics on eBay all the time. It’s turned into a pretty profitable sideline for me. Best of all, it gives me an excuse to go to comic cons and it makes me feel like I’m still working in the comics industry, as tenuous a connection though it might be.
Here are the things I learned selling comics online.


1) All comics from the 1990s are worthless. That’s right -- all of them! Marvel, DC, Image, Valiant, doesn’t matter which ones. All completely worthless. There are a few of exceptions, to be sure, (X-Men #266, New Mutants #87 and 98, to name three) but for the most part, comics from the 1990s were brutally overprinted. Doesn’t matter if the price says “$2.00” on the cover. All are worth pennies or less.
That was perhaps the biggest shock to me as a reseller -- that even comics that were deemed “hot” at the time (like Todd McFarlane’s Spider-Man or Jim Lee’s X-Men) all completely worthless now. Obviously there are exceptions -- “First Appearances” will always be hot. But these days, if someone is selling a huge collection of 90s comics, I run the other way. Even if someone were to give me a box of 90s comics for free, I would take all the comics out and give them away and keep the bags and boards. They’re worth far more than the comics.

2) Buyers love complete sets and TPBs. These days, most comics stories are mult-part epics that are usually reprinted as TPB’s. When buying online, people want the complete story, whether it be in collected form or as the original “floppies.” There’s  no reason for anyone to buy an incomplete set online when they know they can always get it complete from another seller. If you are selling a bunch of comics, make sure you have a complete set. Because if you don’t, you’d better be prepared to take a huge loss on the comics.

3) The New 52 made old DC Comics Obsolete. In September, 2011, DC launched The New 52, a reboot of their whole line, starting every title over with #1. This was a great jumping on point for new readers, making it possible for a fan to own every single title in the current continuity. This also had the effect of making the previous four decades worth of DC Comics undesirable to collectors. There will always be a demand for Golden Age and Silver Age DC Comics, but interest in Bronze and Modern Age DC comics has dropped off considerably. Thanks to the New 52, those stories no longer count, and therefore, are a  lot less collectable.

4) The Punisher’s life is not worth a plug nickel. Comics are very cyclical. What’s hot today might be ice cold tomorrow. No character better illustrates this than the Punisher. At the peak of his fame in the 1990s, he had 3 monthly books (not to mention various one-shots, graphic novels, guest appearances, crossovers, etc.) Now he can’t even sustain one monthly book. The end result of all those 90s appearances is that people got tired of the Punisher. The same thing happened to Lobo over at DC. Once one of DC’s most popular heroes, Lobo couldn’t even get his own series when DC rebooted 52 titles. Nothing kills interest in a B-list character like overexposure.


5) There is a Mind-Boggling lack of interest in Bronze Age Marvels. I grew up in the 1970s, which was an incredibly fertile time for Marvel Comics. So many talented writers and artists came up in the 70s with work that was exciting and fresh: Jim Starlin, Steve Englehart, John Byrne, Frank Brunner, Steve Gerber -- the list is a lengthy one. And there were so many radically different types of comics offered by Marvel at this time. Everything from HOWARD THE DUCK to MAN-THING to MASTER OF KUNG FU to IT THE LIVING COLOSSUS.Yet most Bronze Age Marvels generate very little interest in comics buyers online today.
As a huge Marvel fan, it blows my mind that comic buyers today don’t want to read the books that I grew up with. But I guess I can understand it. When I was a young man reading comics in the 1970s, I probably would not have enjoyed comics that my father was reading in the 1940s or 50s. They were made a for a  different generation.

6) Key issues always sell well. When Action Comics #1 sold for $3.2 million on eBay recently, I was not surprised. That is not just a  key issue --the first appearance of Superman -- it is one of the most important comics of all time. And if there is one thing I know about key issues is that they tend to hold their value. The person who bought Action #1 this year could probably sell it for $5 million in a year or two. And that buyer could then sell it for $10 million down the line. Books like that never go down in value.
It’s the same with most key issues. New Mutants #98 -- the first Deadpool -- was a solid $50 book for me in recent years. But now that a Deadpool solo movie has been announced, I see it selling for no less than $150 on eBay.
Which brings me to my next point…


7) Movies are now driving up the back issue sales of comics. One of the fun things about living in a time when so many comic book based movies are being released is that for the first time in memory, comic-book based movies are actually increasing back issue prices of comics. (OK, fun for a seller, maybe not so much fun for a  buyer!)
Case in point: a few years ago, I had a bunch of old INCREDIBLE HULK comics from the 80s. One of the issues was HULK #271, the first appearance of ROCKET RACCOON.  I ended up selling them for about 25 cents each. There is very little interest in this particular period in the Hulk’s history, so I was happy to find a buyer at any price.
Flash forward to 2014. Rocket is now starring in GUARDIANS OF THE GALAXY, the biggest movie of the year, and his first appearance is now selling for $100 or more!
No one could ever predicted that a goofy minor character from a 1982 issues of INCREDIBLE HULK would be starring in the biggest movie of the year.
Other examples: the first appearance of THANOS went up after his cameo in the AVENGERS movie… and sales of Ultron comics are going up in anticipation of the upcoming AVENGERS sequel.
Conventional wisdom says that TV shows never boost the sales of comic books. But THE WALKING DEAD has certainly disproven that. The TV show seems to be feeding fans back to the comic and vice versa. THE WALKING DEAD is really an anomaly in both TV and comics. The success of this franchise defies all the rules. 

8) Marvel’s Ultimate line is a bust. When Marvel introduced their Ultimate line in the year 2000, it was a good idea in theory: a reboot of the Marvel Universe, starting from scratch, with new origins, now powers, new costumes for all the heroes -- with stories crafted by the biggest names in comics! How could it lose?  Well, it turns out that comics fans are extremely loyal to the OMU (Original Marvel Universe.) This means that any attempt to do a different version is going to have to be better than what has gone before.
The consensus seemed to be that while the Ultimate Universe was pretty good, it was not significantly better than the OMU, which was still being published simultaneously. Fans voted with their wallets, and the OMU continues today, while the Ultimate Universe just keeps limping along, with fewer and fewer titles all the time.
When Galactus from the OMU visited the Ultimate Universe and attempted to devour it in a limited series, it seemed that few Marvel fans would have minded if Galactus had finished his “meal.”
Ironically, one of the key selling points of the Ultimate Universe -- the fact that all the books were starting from number one, thus making it easy for new readers to come aboard -- quickly became a moot point. Fourteen years later, the Ultimate Universe  is just as bogged down in continuity as the OMU.
I find I get zero interest when I list Ultimate Universe comics on eBay. Other than Ultimate Spider-man #1, and maybe the issue where Peter Parker dies, no one seems to care about the Ultimate Universe. It’s reached a point where I won’t even bother trying to sell most Ultimate Universe  titles. Not worth my time. (The same goes for Marvel’s New Universe from 1986!)

9) If every Marvel and DC hero went away except for Batman and Spider-Man, fans would be fine with that. Occasionally I will have comic fans stop buy the house to did through my comic boxes, looking fir books to buy. I always ask them, “What are you looking for? Then answer is the same every time: Spider-Man and Batman. When buyers pick through a box, they always pick out all the Spider-Man and Batman comics and leave everything else behind. Some times I think if Marvel published nothing but Spider-man comics and DC published 52 Batman titles a month, fans would be fine with that.

10) The only Spider-man book that counts is AMAZING SPIDER-MAN. When I was a kid, I used to enjoy 4 different monthly Spidey books: AMAZING SPIDER-MAN, WEB OF SPIDER-MAN, SPECTACULAR SPIDER-MAN, and MARVEL TEAM-UP. All would vary in quality  from month to month, but I never considered any of the books to be more or less important than the others. All were books that featured my favorite hero, good ol’ Spidey! After I started selling on eBay, I quickly learned that as far as most fans are concerned, AMAZING SPIDER-MAN is the only book that matters. I sold off my collections of WEB OF SPIDER-MAN, SPECTACULAR SPIDER-MAN, and MARVEL TEAM-UP for pennies. But AMAZING SPIDER-MAN -- particularly the issues from 1962 to 1985 or so -- can bring in big bucks.
It seemed that Marvel gradually learned this lesson over time. They used to publish 4 different Spidey books a month, but eventually they figured out it made more sense to simply publish the one Spidey title that people actually care about -- AMAZING -- as many times a month as possible.
 
11) DC fans love Nightwing. Based on my eBay sales, I would say DC’s 3 most popular heroes are Batman, Harley Quinn, and Nightwing. (National comic sales seem to echo this trend.) That’s why I was so surprised recently by the events of DC’s FOREVER EVIL mini-series, which had Nightwing’s secret identity exposed to the world. Following that, they canceled Nightwing’s book and launched Dick Grayson in a new ongoing series called GRAYSON. The character is now a secret agent instead of a super-hero. Aside from the fact that this makes no sense (the most publicly known super-hero in the DCU is now a secret agent?) it also robs the DCU of one of their most popular heroes. I know that most changes in comics are temporary, but I think DC needs to get back to the status quo on this one ASAP. DC fans cannot live without their Nightwing!

12) American comics are beloved all over the world! There was a time when my biggest buyers on eBay were other comic book sellers from around the world. They would buy up all my comics for as cheaply as possible, with the intention of selling them overseas for big profits. I had buyers in France, Australia, England, and one ultra-competitive buyer in Russia who was like the Terminator of buyers. He would ruthlessly outbid everybody!
The only problem I found with selling to overseas is that foreign comic book dealers are always broke! They would never have any money to pay me. They were really good at bidding and winning auctions, but when it came time to actually pay for their items, their wallets were always empty. I would have to wait a few weeks for them to make some money before they would have enough to pay me for their books.
Many foreign buyers will lie to you and say the reason they can’t pay is because they are “having trouble with their Paypal account.”  The actual trouble is that they “have no money.”  I finally ended up banning all international sales from my eBay store. I got tired of hearing the same old lies from buyers who have no money.

13) Modern Comics are where it’s at. One of the most shocking things I’ve found is you can actually make money selling Modern Comics on eBay. By Modern I should note here that I am only referring to comics released after the year 2000. Comics have very low print runs these days, making many of them hard to find. You know the old saying about “Supply and Demand.": Well, it definitely applies here. Modern comics are so expensive at retail -- most of them are in the $3 to $4 range -- that if you can pick up a few boxes of them for 25 cents or even 50 cents per comic, you can sell them for less than cover price and still make a decent profit. I know a few sellers who won’t even bother selling Golden or Silver Age comics. They just don’t want to deal with having to grading books and disappointed buyers asking for refunds because the books were not in the exact condition as advertised!


14) A collection of Silver Age Marvels is worth way more than a collection of Silver Age DC’s. If you ever have a choice to buy a  collection of  Silver Age Marvels from 1961-65 or a collection of Silver Age DC’s from the same time period, take the Marvels. The DC  Collection could be worth a few thousands dollars. The Marvel collection could be worth millions.
The reason? DC was basically treading water in the 60s. They didn’t introduce many new characters, and the old ones were just maintaining the status quo. Marvel, on the other hand, was revolutionizing the industry, introducing a spate of new characters like the X-Men, the Hulk, the Avengers,  Iron Man, and a certain Webbed Wonder.
The characters that Marvel launched from 1961 to 1965 were so popular and so beloved by fans, that they formed the foundation that company is still built on even today.

15) Variant covers are overrated. These days, there are at least two versions of every major Marvel and DC comic -- the standard version and at least one “Variant cover.” Most comic sellers (both online and in comic shops) usually jack up the prices on these Variant covers, with the thinking being that the variants are more valuable, because they are more rare. But my experience has been that most variants are not worth much more than the standard versions. Unless you have something truly rare, like a 1 in 50 variant or a 1 in 100, you’re not going to make much money. 1 in 10 variants are actually fairly common and usually not worth the effort to list.

16) Indie Comics from the 80s = No Sale today. The 1980s were a fun time to be a comics fan. So many new companies were sprouting up (First Comics, Now Comics, Eclipse, Pacific), introducing new characters by a  mix of older creators and young upstarts. Among the more popular characters from the era: Dreadstar, Jon Sable, Grimjack, American Flagg, Badger, the Elementals, Nexus. As much as I may have enjoyed these titles  back in the day, I can’t give those books away today. For the most part, I won’t even bother trying to sell them. Sadly, I find that nobody cares about any of them, other than the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles.
Times change. Tastes change. And as history has shown us, only the Ninja Turtles shall endure!

17) B-list Marvel Heroes are a Tough Sell:  With Marvel, there are the A-list heroes like Spidey, Hulk and the X-Men. Then there are the B-list heroes, like Captain America, Iron Man, and the Fantastic Four. I always have a tough time selling the B-list Marvel heroes on ebay. Although these second-tier heroes have found some success in the movies, the fact is that when it comes to most issues of THOR (post-Lee/Kirby) or DAREDEVIL (post Frank Miller), I can't give them away.

Those are just a few things I’ve learned over the past ten years selling comics online. I could, tell you more, but I have to get back to work. I have a few more boxes of comics to list on eBay!

identity exposed to the world. Following that, they canceled Nightwing’s book and launched Dick Grayson in a new ongoing series called GRAYSON. The character is now a secret agent instead of a super-hero.

Aside from the fact that this makes no sense (the most publicly known super-hero in the DCU is now a secret agent?) it also robs the DCU of one of their most popular heroes.

-- all completely worthless now. Obviously there are exceptions -- “First Appearances” will always be hot. But these days, if someone is selling a huge collection of 90s comics, I run the other way.

AMAZING SPIDER-MAN 2 REVIEW; SPOILERS!
By Barry Dutter

The movie AMAZING SPIDER-MAN 2 exists for one reason: to kill GWEN STACY.
From the very first scene, we are hit over the head with messages like “Life is too Short,” “Seize the Day,” and “Live Life to the Fullest Because You Never Know When it Could All End.”
Even Gwen’s graduation speech at the beginning of the movie seems to be more about dying than it does about living. Clearly if one is paying attention, one can sense that Gwen is doomed from the first frame of the film.
It’s a shame, really. As most critics (and more than a few fans) have pointed out, the chemistry between Peter Parker and Gwen is the best thing in the movie. If the whole point of this movie is to kill Gwen, it really casts a dark shadow over the whole thing.
But the signs were there from the start.
When photos began surfacing months online before ASM 2’s  release of Emma Stone dressed in the exact same outfit Gwen wore in the comics on the day she died, comics fans feared the worst. But the director of the movie hinted, “Watch out! All may not be as it seems.”

If Gwen wears this outfit, comic fans know what happens next.

Turns out, all was exactly as it seemed, and the makers of AMAZING SPIDER-MAN 2 had no problem going back to the old "Green Goblin tries to kill Spidey's gal" plot that we saw in the first Spider-Man movie with Tobey Maguire.
Worst of all, Gwen's death accomplishes nothing, from a storytelling standpoint. In the comics, Gwen was killed by Norman Osborn, a powerful underworld figure who had spent years building a reputation as Spider-Man's greatest foe.
In the movie, Gwen is killed by Harry Osborn, a punk kid who just got his powers five minutes ago and somehow learned how to master a flying glider in that amount of time. There is no dramatic purpose to her death. One minute she is alive and the next she is dead.
Honestly, the only excuse I can see for doing this would be if they were planning on bringing Gwen back as a clone in the next movie. (I know it sounds lame, but it actually was a story they did in the comics a few years after she died.)
AMAZING SPIDER-MAN 2 gets off to a very weak start with a comedic action scene where Spidey tries to stop a badly overacting Paul Giamatti from stealing some Plutonium in a runaway truck. The first half of the movie is largely played for jokes, most of which are not very funny.
After so many Marvel movies that had just the right mix of action and humor, it is somewhat jarring to see a big-budget super-hero movie that is as campy as BATMAN AND ROBIN. (Electro in this movie is just as corny as Arnold Schwarzenegger was as Mr. Freeze in that movie.)
What kind of bad jokes am I talking about? Well, for starters, there is Peter’s ring tone, which plays the theme song from the 1960s Spider-Man cartoon series (a show which logically could not have existed in this movie’s universe!)

"Ice to meet you, my twin brother!"

Then there is the scene where Electro blasts Spidey using the rods from a power grid which end up playing the song “Itsy Bitsy Spider.” (Ugh!)
In one scene, Peter is walking across a street toward Gwen and is so entranced by her beauty that he doesn’t notice that he gets sideswiped by a car and accidentally breaks the rear-view mirror off the car. (Ha ha -- love makes you stupid!)
Then there is the montage of scenes where Peter Parker returns home from random nights of web-slinging and has to constantly explain to Aunt May why he is late and why he looks so beaten up.
And then there is the “hilarious” bit where Peter says he wants to do the laundry and Aunt May complains that the last time Peter did laundry, he turned all the clothes blue and red. This joke doesn’t even make any sense. If Peter Had thrown his Spidey suit in the wash, then all any white clothes would have turned purple. (Blue + Red = Purple. Do I really have to explain this stuff? Sigh.)

3 villains = 3 times the suckiness!

For that matter, the whole arc of Jamie Foxx’s character is a direct steal of the Jim Carrey/Riddler arc from BATMAN FOREVER. (Or is it the Uma Thurman/Posion Ivy arc from BATMAN & ROBIN? I dunno. Both, I guess.)
Foxx’s part is badly written and it’s unfortunate. Back in the early 1990s, James Cameron had come up with a  really interesting angle on Electro and had planned to use him as the villain in the very first Spider-man movie. Cameron’s take had Electro as a more subtle corporate villain who had figured out a way to electronically steal billions of dollars without anyone ever finding out what he had done.
THE AMAZING SPIDER-MAN 2 has Electro as an insecure doofus-turned-super-villain whose plan is to, I dunno, kill Spider-Man and steal all the electricity in New York, I guess. Just really generic stuff.
But Electro is not the only super-villain in the movie. Oh no, there are two more! This movie continues the tradition of Spider-man 3, which showed us that if you have three or more super-villains in a super-hero movie, the movie will suck.

Does this look like the Rhino?

The next villain is played by Dane Dehan, who starts out as emo-Harry Osborn and then, after receiving a dose of Peter Parker’s spider-blood (?),  becomes a Green Goblin so laughably bad that it almost makes you miss the horrible Goblins from the Tobey Maguire films.
The Goblin only has one purpose in this movie, which is to kill Gwen, and he does so towards the end, so, um, good on ya, mate!

The new Green Goblin just might be the worst one yet! !

This brings us to the Rhino, who is totally revamped with so much body armor, they might as well call him “Tank” instead of “Rhino.” I have no idea why a talented actor like Paul Giamatti took this part.
Now, here’s the frustrating part about AMAZING SPIDER-MAN 2. The movie didn’t have to be so bad. In fact, if you cut out all the jokes from the first half of the movie, and well, if you cut out most of Jamie Foxx’s scenes, the movie wouldn’t be that horrible.
There are 3 questions I ask of every super-hero movie. 1) Does it stay true to the comics? 2) Does it treat the hero seriously or make him out to be a joke? And 3) Does it embarass the hero or his fans?
Sadly, with ASM2, the movoe fails on all 3 counts.

Nope, this movie doesn't make Spidey look stupid at all!

But it's not all bad. There are actually things in this movie that are better than any Spider-Man movie that came before. Spidey’s costume in this movie is the most faithful recreation of the way he looks in the comics that we have yet seen on film. (Best of all? Spidey ditches the SILVER BOOTIES that he wore in the last movie!)

No more SILVER BOOTIES!

The web-slinging scenes are the best yet, and they don’t have that “fake/ video game/ CGI look” that plagued the Sam Raimi movies.
This is the first Spider-Man movie in years where Spidey does not remove his mask in the middle of a battle. You might think I’m exaggerating, but go back and watch the original trilogy. The more famous Tobey Maguire became, the more scenes there were of him going into action as Spidey, without the mask on.
I get it that if you hire a famous actor to be in your movie, you want to show his face as much as possible, but damn it, Spidey is currently the only Marvel super-hero in the movies who actually has a secret identity, so it’s nice to see that some effort is made to protect his identity.

Mask? What mask?!

The biggest flaw in AMAZING SPIDER-MAN 2 is that it picks up on a  plot thread that never should have been dangled in the first movie. In that film, a dying Captain Stacy begs Peter/Spidey to stay away from his daughter, and Peter agrees to honor the wish of this man whom he admires so much.
So what does Peter do in ASM2? He goes back on his word, ignores the request of that dying man, and continues to pursue his relationship with Captain Stacy’s daughter - which directly results in her death.
So basically, the makers of this movie proved that they completely don’t understand the core principle of what makes Spider-Man the hero he is -- you know, the whole “Power/Responsibility” thing?

Smile, kid! You get to live while everyone around you dies!

Remember that lesson young Peter learned in the first movie about being responsible, otherwise the people closest to him could die? Yeah, it turns out he learned nothing! He makes the same mistake again in the second movie. Only this time, it’s worse, because he’s actually breaking a promise he made to a dying man in order to continue to be that same irresponsible jerk!
(There must be a special corner in heaven reserved for all the people who died because they were close to Peter. And most of them have the last name of Stacy. If I were Gwen’s  mom, I would stay as far away from Peter as possible!)
Why should this whole plot thread never have been? Because all they had to do was what stick to what happened in the comics, and this all could have been avoided.
If you’ll recall, when Captain Stacy died in the legendary AMAZING SPIDER-MAN #71, he did not ask Peter to stay away from his daughter. In fact, it was quite the opposite. He asked Peter to watch over Gwen.
So instead of going with that whole contrived “stay away from my daughter” angle, they could have gone with original “take care of her” angle, and then at least Peter Parker’s actions in AMAZING SPIDER-MAN 2 would make him look more heroic, and he wouldn’t look like a hypocritical jerk.
Gwen makes it clear early on that being with Peter is the thing that makes her happiest, and you can see it makes no sense for a girl to break up with the boy she loves so soon after the death of her father. Unfortunately, Gwen’s rebellious spirit is what dooms her.
She might as well have a sign on her that says, “I make my own decisions in this movie so whatever happens to me, I deserve it!”
Gwen’s role in this movie is basically the same role that Gwyneth Paltrow had in IRON MAN  1 -- basically, she tries to help out the hero by throwing a switch at the crucial moment and saving the day.
I get that the filmmakers are trying to give super-hero girlfriend’s something to do in these movies besides getting kidnapped and rescued, but there must be something else they can do besides throw a switch at just the right moment. Didn’t Gwen do the same thing in the first AMAZING SPIDER-MAN movie?

Could this be the face of J. Jonah Jameson?

The filmmakers play fast and loose with Spidey’s powers. In one scene, Spidey uses his webbing to fix a kid’s toy. Um, aren’t they forgetting the fact that Spidey’s webbing always dissolves in an hour, so as soon as that kid gets home, his toy will be broken again? Spidey, you cruel bastard!                                              We don't get to see J. Jonah Jameson in this movie, which is a shame, because he is an important part of he Spider-Man mythos. Reportedly, director Marc Webb is having a hard time casting the part. My old pal, (and former Spider-Man editor) Jim Salicrup once suggested Bruce Willis as JJJ, and I still think that's a  great idea.It would be a fun way to add some star power to the franchise.

Wouldn't it be fun if this girl became the Black Cat?

There is a girl in the movie named Felicia, and it seems like she might turn out to be the Black Cat, but apparently the scenes hinting at this ended up on the cutting room floor. The movie is already overcrowded with costumed characters, but still, it might have been fun to see the Black Cat on film, instead of the tired old plot about the Goblin trying to kill Spidey's girlfriend, which we've seen on film before. Another missed opportunity.                                                                                                                                        AMAZING SPIDER-MAN 2 seems to wrap up most of the loose ends from ASM1, which really makes one wonder how this could be a trilogy. Unless it turns out that Peter’s parents are not really dead (we never saw their bodies) Hey, maybe Peter’s parents could come back in the third movie and then they could die at the end, so Peter can be responsible for more tragedy. Way to learn your lesson, Peter!
ASM2 does set up a possible spin-off movie starring the SINISTER 6, but considering that fact that every Spider-Man movie has made less money than the one before it at the U.S. box office, you have to wonder if there is any audience at all for a Spidey movie where Spidey presumably barely appears, if at all.
And so, once again, my favorite super-hero is left in the hands of filmmakers who just don’t get the character. The way I see it, only possible way for them to salvage the next movie is for them to bring back Emma Stone as Gwen Stacy’s clone. Or they could have her play Mary Jane.

TOBEY MAGUIRE -- still crying!

Andrew Garfield plays Peter Parker as much less of a nerd and much more of a regular guy in this movie. In that sense, I guess you could say ASM 2 is showing Peter more as he appeared in the “clean & cool” John Romita era than in the nerdy Ditko era. I like how Garfield doesn’t play him as a whiney crybaby the way Tobey Maguire did. The only problem I have with Garfield is that he occasionally slips into his British accent and it is very distracting.
After Gwen’s death in the movie, Peter takes five months off from being Spider-Man. How convenient it is that there are no super-villain attacks in NY until the very day Peter decides it’s okay for him to be Spidey again.
(Either that, or, during the previous five months, there were numerous super-villain attacks on NY, but Peter just refused to go into action as Spidey, which means once again, he was using his power irresponsibly!)
I can’t wait till this trilogy ends and we can start Spidey over again., Maybe next time they will get it right!
The word “amazing” is tossed around a lot in AMAZING SPIDER-MAN 2, as in, “You look amazing!" “I feel amazing!” At one point, Jamie Foxx’s character decides that the only reason Spidey keeps getting bad press is because ol’ Web-Head needs to change his name to “The Amazing Spider-Man.” (Yeah, it’s that kind of movie.)
“Amazing” is not a word I would use to describe this movie. But I guess people wouldn’t go to see a movie called “The Mediocre Spider-Man.” Or “The Disappointing Spider-Man.”  
Perhaps a better title would have been, “The Amazing Waste of Time.”

I wish these 3 guys had been in the movie...