I grew up on comic books. I love them. As a kid I had fun getting lost in the many adventures of our storied superheroes. Batman, Spiderman, TMNT, Punisher, Daredevil, Conan The Barbarian and the list goes on and on and ON! I remember grabbing Bibles in church, and squeezing a stack of pages between my thumb and forefinger, and imagining having “this” many pages as a Thundercats comic, balancing the heft, before thumbing another stack of pages, and pretending these pages were GI Joe, Transformers, Superman comics and more. Oblivious to the fact that I was channeling my inner omnibus desires way ahead of my time. You get the idea.
I love comic books with a passion. One of my favorite childhood memories was when my mom would take me to the local deli after church. I’d hone right in on their spinner rack, leafing through comics, struggling just to pick one comic for a dollar. Hardest decisions ever, but always rewarding and never short on discovery. Fell in love with so many underrated characters like Lobo, Deathlok, Darkhawk, and Night Thrasher!
As I grew older, I kinda lost touch with collecting comics, but I definitely wanted to revisit that great feeling of nostalgia. Some of my favorite comic books that I had collected over the years, I have been casually displaying on my wall by simply framing them.
There’s been many iconic comic book covers that I wanted to eventually own and showcase, and in my searches, I’ve always noticed graded comics, but never really got lost in the art until I recently wanted to collect a specific piece by George Perez.
Now I opened up pandora’s box on the hobby of graded comics, learning about getting them pressed, the different techniques that go in grading them, the companies who rate these pieces, and the meticulous submission process coupled with the costs that go hand in hand with having these precious comics of all decades appraised and slabbed.
So of course, this deep dive research into graded comics ultimately led to me purchasing my very first ever graded comic. So for a laugh, I searched up Ebay to see if anyone had my GALACTIC RODENTS OF MAYHEM comic graded, since our first issue released quietly under the radar last year with an obscure indie comic distributor… and LO AND BEHOLD
It was such an awesome sight, that I had to snatch it up quickly. The auction was an hour away from ending and I was able to get in the one and only winning bid over the weekend! I definitely snagged up a hidden gem for sure!
I’m no doubt hooked on graded comics, and I’m looking forward to collecting more and more of these slick looking slabs, but slowly of course, as the hobby of grading comics is super costly. Who knows, maybe one day I’ll find a signed version of GROM out in the wild going for such an exorbitant price, I could smile and know I made someone very happy.
Gilly Writes Comics 