Friday

Friday was the day I set aside for going through dealer boxes and buying some back issues for my collection. I found some good Green Lantern books at a decent price, and picked them up.

I wasn’t planning on making any big purchases this year, but as I walked by the Metropolis Comics booth, I noticed a few copies of Showcase #22.

Showcase #22

Showcase #22 is the first appearance of Green Lantern in the Silver Age. There was an earlier character named Green Lantern in the 40’s, but he was an entirely different character. The Green Lantern that most people know, and who will be the character in the upcoming Green Lantern movie, is the character that was first introduced in Showcase #22.

This book has been pretty hot, because Green Lantern has been gaining in popularity. The upcoming movie is also pushing the value of this book up as more and more people are looking for it, me included.

I started buying silver age Green Lantern books a couple years ago [The silver age refers to comics published in the very late 50s and throughout the 60s]. My goal is to get all of the Green Lantern books between his first appearance up through Green Lantern #75. Before this weekend, the earliest issue I had was Green Lantern #2. Issue #2 is his fifth appearance, since was in Showcase #22, 23, and 24 before he got his own title.

So I was walking along, and saw a couple copies of this book at the Metropolis booth. I hadn’t seen any other dealers with this book at the convention, and had heard that it was selling for dealers very quickly. I asked to see them, and centered in on one that looked nice, and was within my price range. It took some thought, because this would blow through my entire spending budget for this one book, but I finally decided to get it.

This book is what I have most wanted since I started buying Green Lantern books, and is the highlight of my collection.

Only Superman, Batman, Wonder Woman, and The Flash are more important DC characters, and I am very happy I finally got a copy of this book.

After the show, a bunch of folks I know from the Valiant Fans forum got together for a couple poker games. Money was made, money was lost, and a good time was had. After the games we recorded a podcast episode, but it came out not so great. It’s up, but I won’t link to it. It was late, we were tired, it happens.