Ah, the free Big Apple comic convention today was fun. Crowded, but filled with bargains, gee, everyone lowered their prices and the $1 bins were everywhere, the "2 for $1" bins and even "5 for $1" were irresistable and all over the place.

I found a nifty book, a hardcover. It's the 1992 X-Men Annual published by Marvel UK. Cover price was $8.95, going for $20 on eBay, I got mine for $7.50 mint from a stack of mint copies. It's a reprinting of UXM #139 and #140 (Alpha Flight appearances) with some additional [unrelated] material and a mini-poster of the X-Men. Dunno why Brit editors in 1992 were compelled to reprint those two issues from the 80s... Anyway, the book is larger than comic size, so it's nice to read those issues in larger print.

I also got me some other cool stuff, notably a Marvel Legends Sabretooth figure (Giant Man Series), which comes with a reprinted comic from Age of Apocalypse, Astonishing X-Men #2 (featuring Wild Child), paid $5 MIB!

One other cool thing I got was the Amazing Heroes Preview for Summer 1985, trivia: what important Alpha Flight event happened then... answer: of course the creative team switched from Byrne to Mantlo, and there's a 2pg article about it. I'll quote a bit of the article, a paragraph about a book that never got published but would have been very THE COOL: "Marrina will also have the spotlight, as we look at her past and how it relates to that of the Sub-Mariner in an Alpha Flight/Sub-Mariner graphic novel drawn by Mignola. (This novel will also resolve once and for all Namor's future history.)"

Another unpublished book mentioned is an Alpha Flight/X-Men limited series team-up book written by Chris Claremont and drawn by Art Adams. Likely, these two books never saw the light of day due to decreasing sales at the beginning of Mantlo's run, dunno the whole story.

Got some other neato things, like the complete 4-issue run of Age of Apocalypse trade paperbacks for $10ea, (cover price is $30ea) and some nicer copies of books I already had in my collection.

Love,
rplass