Rather than "Adventures in Comic-Boxing", perhaps we should instead categorize this post as "Adventures in Comic-BUYING"!
Either way, kindly direct your attention to the item below, recently received from one of what I regard as "The Big Two" of American comic book online retailing...
Don't panic over the LABEL at upper right! The comic is safely in a plastic bag, with the standard-issue backing board!
This is not an Internet scan of the cover of DC Comics' SCOOBY-DOO WHERE ARE YOU? # 18 (Cover Date: April, 2012) such as I often post, but a scan of the ACTUAL ITEM as I received it!
Can anyone tell me what's "Inadvertently Funny" (...or perhaps "Inadvertently Ironic", depending on your definition) about this image?
I'll give a big shout-out (can't afford a prize on what I earn for irregularly-spaced comics "Translation and Dialogue" work, alas) in the Comments Section to the first one who comes up with the answer!
I'll even give you all a HINT...
The answer can be found in THIS PORTION OF THE IMAGE! ...Though I'll admit that anyone completely unfamiliar with American online comic-book retailing is at a distinct disadvantage!
As always, you may click on the image to enlarge!
Velma's already got it figured-out! ...Do you?
(...There are NO additional hints in the dialogue of this panel! Don't look for 'em! I just wanted an image of the gang, where Velma is contemplating! No one can say I don't "play fair"! )
BACKING-BOARD BONUS: In response to the comment by Hex, here is the BACKING BOARD for SCOOBY-DOO WHERE ARE YOU? # 18, with my ISSUE NOTES on it... (Click to Enlarge!)
The remainder of the BLANK AREA of the backing board below my badly handwritten text is omitted!
33 comments:
Mile High is also the name of a comic book retailer, so it is a bit funny you’d get it from “My Comic Shop.Com.
THAT’S IT, DEB!
YOU WIN!
You don’t win very much, alas, as I’m not generating revenue as I used to… BUT, you do get a BIG TIAH BLOG SCOOBY SHOUT-OUT (…Or, would that be a “ROOBY RHOUT-OUT”?) for coming up with the right answer!
Well done! (…Or, would that be “rell runn”?)
I should also say that I highly recommend BOTH online comic book retailers mentioned in this post!
Both excel at different aspects of aspects of the business: grading, pricing, prompt shipment, free shipping - or not, level of customer service... but, overall, my experiences with each one are very satisfying!
And, it's easier to get great older back issues from them, than it is to accumulate... um, "less than satisfactory new issues"! At least that's what I'M doing these days! ...Get the not so subtle message, folks?
My first thought was that the comic shop label in the upper right was covering part of the word Scooby-Doo, but not "Where are you?" as if Scooby is partially hiding behind the label and the comic is asking, "Where is Scooby hiding" in the same sense that one might say to a child playing hide-and-seek, "Where are you?" when they are hiding behind the furniture but part of them is still showing.
I did vaguely notice the Mile High reference and remembered that Mile High Comics was a major advertiser in the Comic Buyer's Guide years ago, but the label hiding Scooby was was the thing that made me snicker.
By the way, I love reading your Adventures in Comic-Boxing, but have to admit feeling a little jealous of some the Gold Key finds like the recent Phantom Blot meets Mad Madam Mim. I still prefer those 1960s to 1970s comics that most people dismissively ignored. I certainly prefer them to what is being produced today, regardless of how juvenile and unsophisticated the plots were.
Hello, Carl!
It’s great to hear a voice from the pre-Internet days!
Funny, I thought the mycomicsshop.com (Lone Star Comics) and Mile High Comics thing was a “softball” question that I simply couldn’t resist posting on, once I saw the two names “brought together” as they were on that Scooby-Doo comic!
But, I’d also counted on folks having different interpretations of what it was I was showing them… and here you are! This is the stuff I enjoy most about Blogging! Thank you – and Deb – for your parts in it!
Glad you’re enjoying the “Adventures in Comic-Boxing” series of posts! I’m having a great time creating them, as an ancillary activity to my “Once-And-For-All-Final-Comics-Collection-Organizing-Project”… aka “My Retirement Project”!
My working life, and everything that came with both it and a life of domesticity, never really afforded me the time to do so – and now I’m not only able to do this, but also share some of the fun of my discoveries (or rediscoveries) with all of you!
So, stay with us, as there is much more to come, and hopefully share your own thoughts as well!
Oh, and as long as I seem to be ending these replies with a decided lack of subtlety, I might was well say outright that the “less than satisfactory new issues” I refer to are IDW Disney comics from the latter part of 2018-onward (once a great translation and dialoguing team was dismissed) and most DC Comics from about 2005-on! Let alone the “lifetime offenders” also known as Marvel and Image!
Though I’m most disappointed in IDW Disney and DC, because they were once SO GREAT! Marvel’s been crap since the late eighties-early nineties, and Image has ALWAYS been… um, “something worse than crap”! Therefore, the great older back issues of which I post become greater still with each passing day!
WOW! I’ve certainly strayed from my characteristic restraint, haven’t I? Sorry, it happens every now and then! :-)
I've used mycomicshop.com a lot for both for back issues and new comics that have restricted distribution to Europe. And they've always been great in my experience, especially with the packaging and I've never received anything being damaged (or loosing grade) in postage. But for some reason they always bag current sized comics with silver sized bags and boards. This is super annoying as I always have to re-bag their comics while I sometimes wish to keep that grading sticker for reference...
Hex:
I second your praise for mycomicshop.com with regard to “safety first packaging”! They ALWAYS pack their items extremely well, be it a package of 1 or 2 books, or a package of 30!
To your comment about Silver Age bag-and-boarding… Most of my purchases have been – and are – from the ‘50s, ‘60s and ‘70s, as I’ve more or less bought everything I want from later periods from the various comic book shops I’ve patronized for over three decades… so I may not be the best judge of this.
But, in response to your comment, I DID retrieve my copy of DC’s SCOOBY-DOO WHERE ARE YOU? # 91, a book from 2018 recently purchased from mycomicshop.com that I somehow missed when it was on-sale, as part of life’s usual tumult.
A Standard Modern Age Backing Board (purchased this year from my local comic book shop) measured 6 ¾ inches across.
The backing board sent with my copy of SCOOBY-DOO WHERE ARE YOU? # 91 measured SEVEN inches across! So did the backing board that came with SCOOBY-DOO WHERE ARE YOU? # 18, the subject of this post! Sure that’s not a lot, but we collectors tend to like things uniform, so I can relate!
Are the bags and boards you receive on modern comics MORE than seven inches wide?
I also tend to write issue notes on the visible side of the backing board so, the wider it is, the better it is for me. I’ll add to this post the reverse side of the backing board for SCOOBY-DOO WHERE ARE YOU? # 18, to illustrate my issue notes!
Even so, I don’t consider that enough of a sampling, and would agree with you simply because you order far more Modern Age comics of necessity!
I’m actually receiving a copy of DC’s SCOOBY-DOO (1997 Series) # 127 (one of the last two I’m missing) later in the coming week. I’ll make a note of the bag and board size, and report it here – even if I’ve released a subsequent post.
The boards I use to receive from Lone Star is about 7 inches, just like your Scooby-Doo's - while the ones I usually use for new comics are the 6 ¾ inches ones. So not much difference, but it still bothers me a bit when putting them in a box together.
I made a quick photo showing a recent DuckTales I bagged myself, and one I bought on mycomicshop.com (safe link):
https://imgur.com/a/MIV3Clk
That being said, I don't bag all my comics and I don't care too much about the grade.
But it's interesting to see how you make notes on the boards :) I don't usually do that unless it's missing the numbering on the cover (like a lot of the Gold Key ones), there is an ad variant or things like that.
(Of course I figured it out before I confirmed the correct answer in the comments above.) But while I was pondering the significance of that particular section that you isolated, and trying to "solve the mystery" this was what I came up with FIRST.
In the character insignia at the top of the page, Scooby Doo is licking his lips, looking very hungry and/or thirsty. At the same time the ghoulish host or hostess depicted in the cover scene appears as though he or she is about to serve up a poisoned beverage during the complimentary service. So there is a BIT of irony in "Corporate Scooby's" expression, which in the circumstances should more closely approximate "Real Scooby's" expression. "Corporate Scooby" looks willing to devour any substance no matter how questionably it may be served. If he only knew what fate awaits his "Real" counterpart!
Thank heavens you solved that puzzle for us, Madam Human-Debbieanne-Person. I, and my compeers of the Society of the Scarlet Crabs, were getting positively crabby trying to figure it out.
That is ONE GREAT INTERPRETATION, Scarecrow!
As with Carl above, that’s exactly the sort of “Flight of Fancy” that I was hoping for! The kind I would never think of, simply by not incorporating the “Corporate Scooby” logo element into the overall cover image! In this way, such contributions increase MY OWN appreciation of the cover image! And isn’t that why I “do this thing” in the first place – to increase everyone’s enjoyment and appreciation of many different great (and, sometimes, not so great) comics… including (thanks to all of you who contribute) my own enjoyment!
It is in this vein that I am in the process of formulating yet another “Subset Feature” of posts, to go along with “Adventures in Comic-Boxing”, “Separated At Mirth”, and “I’m Not An Artist, But…”.
It’s working title is “Please Explain This Thing To Me”, and it will be all about my interpretations of a cover, cover gag, or some other element of a comic, that “doesn’t quite carry it off”, and I will invite all of you to furnish your own explanations or interpretations of it.
Sometimes, the answer will be known, and revealed in the Comments Section by me. But, most of the time, I expect we will all be contributing differing theories to the benefit of us all!
I have one of these done already, with another “under construction”. So you will see this relatively soon.
Finally, we all know “Corporate Mickey” and, to some lesser extent, “Corporate Bugs”, but YEAH… There’s definitely a “Corporate Scooby” as well! He’s the one we see on puddings, shampoos, and fruit snacks! Even though he’s been “hiding in plain sight” on the grocery and variety store shelves, you’ve added to my lexicon anyway!
Hex:
I’m guessing that the standard for bags and boards for modern comics at Lone Star Comics / mycomicshop.com is the seven-inch-wide variety. I’ve checked a few more such items and they all line up.
Still, I can very definitely see the desire for greater uniformity!
It’s funny how every collector has their own types of organization and storage methodology (like snowflakes and fingerprints, no two are exactly the same), yet we all, in one way or another, stress uniformity and strive to maintain it in our own ways.
This is the stuff that fascinates me, and that I hardly ever get a peek into! But, when I do have the opportunity to view elements of someone’s collection, it is THESE aspects of the collecting hobby that interest me just as much – if not more – than seeing the various books themselves.
I bag every book! Newer ones, always two-to-a-bag with a cover facing out of each side of the bag! Odd Numbered-Issue in front, and Even Numbered-Issue in back!
I’d done that extensively with older comics too – but with a backing board in between them! But, more lately, the older ones get their own bag and board, with my sometimes-extensive issue notes on the back of the board! Before that, the notes were on a stick-on label I would attach to the front of the bag! Being very much “into the content” of the book, the notes are a natural for me!
I’m not into grade either… or value! Never have been, as I predate the existence of price guides! Oh, I can very much appreciate a high-grade book… but as long as a book is “complete and able to be read”, that’s all that really matters to me. I buy what I like, because I like it – not because of any perceived value!
Needless to say, I find the process of “slabbing comics” to be utterly absurd! When you encase a comic book in a sealed plastic shell, it can never be READ… and THAT is the purpose of ANY comic book, first and foremost!
Also, as I am so fond of saying to my comic shop owner and others, if you own a “slabbed comic”, you don’t own a COMIC BOOK… You own a very expensive POSTER! That’s ALL it becomes, once it cannot be opened, read, and appreciated for its interior content!
This is one of those threads that go to many great and unexpected places, especially given the humble original subject matter! I hope you’re all enjoying it as much as I am!
Crab(by) Leader:
I’m glad Deb solved the mystery too, and with great dispatch, I might add!
While I’ve got you, and have just finished a diatribe on the absurdity of “slabbed comics”, I can’t help but wonder what a CRAB thinks of putting comics in a SHELL! What would CLAWS anyone to do that?
And, with this post getting “such unanticipated traction”, would you say it had “(crab) legs”?
Crab Leader Scarabus, Hmm? Is that you again, Mervin? Just like you to go use someone else’s phone or computer just because you couldn’t find mine, you rotten rodent! I see that I need to start drawing comics again soon to give you something better to do with your time than spamming Joe Torcivia!
Call us shellfish if you like, but we'd rather keep all shells in the world to ourselves. A l l o f t h e m.
When the Shellvolution comes, the Snails won't have a leg to stand on! We shall reach into the domains of the sacred oysters, and pluck their secret from them — even as modern, crabby Prometheuses! If you'll forgive the Mary SHELLey reference.
MWAHAHAHAHAH!
Given that you are... "SO OUT THERE", no one can accuse you of being a HERMIT crab!
Yikes...and I thought the “Bad Goat Jokes” from back in “The Perfect Calm” were awful...
Deb:
As one of my uniquely singular contributions to Disney Comics Lore, “Bad Goat Jokes” are evergreen around here! For instance…
Multiple Choice Question: Why did the goat cross the road?
A: To GOAT to the other side!
B: He didn’t… He was too STUBBORN to move!
C: He only got halfway! When he reached the METAL DIVIDER, he stopped for LUNCH!
Why did a Chicago goat bound for New York end up in Los Angeles instead?
Because some publisher told him to GOAT west, young man! (…Or, “kid” to make the joke complete!)
Why did the li’l goat stop playing “kick the can”?
Because his NANNY told him to not play with his FOOD!
Why should you never lend money to a goat?
They take forever to pay it back, and nobody likes… “Waiting for GOAT-DOUGH!”
Bad Goat Jokes… Ah, those were the days! Crab jokes are good, but “Bad Goat Jokes” are sublime! And you can take that to the BAAAAA-nk!
Maybe I shouldn’t have said anything....
(Actually, there’s something unexplainably fun about bad jokes like that.)
Oho! So you think you can best us, do you, Scarabus? Surely we Snails shall come out on top of the Shellvolution! We'll slip out from beneath your tyrannical claws and stick it to you! We'll not let you advance your wicked claws - er, cause! Slowly but surely, we'll prove ourselves the best of the shelled societies!
-Grand Master Slimadeus
We agree that goat jokes are, truly, sublime - although we object to the notion that they are in any way bad or awful! How could something involving a goat be anything other than magnificent? After all, we at the Gaggle of the Golden Goats believe that goats are the most perfect creature - and, after a visit from us, you just might believe it, too!
Deb:
You wrote: "Maybe I shouldn’t have said anything....
(Actually, there’s something unexplainably fun about bad jokes like that.)"
That's the great thing about "Bad Goat Jokes"! Even when they're BAAAAA-D, they're good!
SNAILS? Hmmmph!
The number of people captured by snails is like... nobody ever in the history of the universe!
Snails are even easier to escape than DOCTOR WHO's DALEKS (...before they learned to levitate up those once-daunting staircases)! Just WALK AWAY!
You don't even need to RUN to get away... just WALK! Heck, you can even shuffle!
Here's a "Bad Snail Joke"...
Why did the SNAIL cross the road?
He DIDN'T YET... but he's BEEN TRYING, since last year!
Happy snails... er, trails!
Grand Goat Gaggle:
You baaa-ed: “After all, we at the Gaggle of the Golden Goats believe that goats are the most perfect creature - and, after a visit from us, you just might believe it, too!”
You don’t have to “horn in” to this thread to convince me!
Indeed, you can always count on me to “Vote Goat”!
And when we say “Bad Goat Jokes” around here, we mean “Bad” in the sense that means “Good”… with a Capital “G”, that rhymes with “Glee”… that stands for “GOAT”!
So, there’s no need to “GO AT” us on this matter, okay?
Finally, one to “Goat” out on…
One goat asked another if he could whip up a gourmet meal in a hurry…
The other goat replied: “CAN do!”
I got a million of ‘em, folks! A million of ‘em!
Dare you insult the great Sect of the Silver-Shelled Snails? We'll have you know that we have captured more people than those Daleks ever have! We just leave a slimy trail, and wait until our foes happen by - and just like that, they're stuck! Why, we've bested everyone from the Horde of the Violet Hare to the Crew of the Copper-Colored Cupids! So be careful, or we might stick you up next!
-Sincerely, Slimy Superintendent of the Sect of The Silver-Shelled Snails, Supreme Leader Slimadeus (yes, I know I said that I was the Grand Master - I can have as many titles as I want!)
Egad! I’m beginning to think that REBO, from THIS CLASSIC STORY, took the phone from Mervin that Mervin took from Debbie!
Gosh, that was a lot o’ links!
Y’know, life was a lot simpler when PHONES had CORDS and were attached to walls… and everybody used… (wait for it)… SNAIL-mail!
Rebo? Mervin? We snails would never associate with those slimy tyrants (the bad sort of slimy, of course)! Why, when we visited Saturn, Rebo mistook us for a group of Space-Snails and tried to feed a miniaturized prisoner to us. And Mervin was rather rude when we met with him - he stole our computer and used it to pretend to be the "Consortium of the Caramel Caterpillars!" Can you believe it?
-Supreme Leader Slimadeus
Say, Snails, we magnificent Golden Goats would like to extend an offer to you. You see, we've been unable to get all of the top world leaders to meet with us to discuss the splendiferousness of goats. Can you believe it? Perhaps you could stick them up for us so we might have a friendly chat about ceding all power to the goats. In exchange, when they do that (because of course they will, once they see how marvelous we goats are), we'll let you Snails rule the Moon! What do you say?
It's a deal - we'll meet you tomorrow and discuss! Soon the Moon will be in our slimy grasp! Take that, Scarabus!
-Slimadeus
So, then, folks - what do you think of our new organization? The union of the Goats and the Snails is one which will surely last! It's a natural match, right?
-Slimadeus and the Grand Goat
Public Service Announcement:
Unfortunately, the Grand Group of the Escargoat did not last. The Goats were too self-centered and they tried to serve us "Babbalucci" for lunch!
-Slimadeus
Ya know what, all you Secret Society Guys?
I know when I'm licked... slimed, butt-ed, battered, and bettered!
I'll let all of you fight it out, while I move on to OUR NEXT POST!
Happy... Happy... Um, whatever it is you do!
To Hex:
As previously noted, prior to all those Secret Societies taking over this thread, I just received my copy of SCOOBY-DOO # 127 (DC Comics, 1997 Series) and the bag-n-board are SEVEN INCHES WIDE!
So, that would seem to be the standard for Modern Age Comics at Lone Star / mycomicshop.com.
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