Chuck's in London - plus 1,000 more Silver Age Comics! next email newsletter March 22, 2010 Howdy! After packing up my purchases of over 50,000 comics in Orlando, I flew to London on Wednesday evening. Thanks to some careful planning, I ended up sleeping the entire night through here at our hotel, and I am thus feeling quite refreshed this morning. As those of you who are familiar with transatlantic travel are quite aware, switching multiple time zones usually disorients your personal body clock, sometimes to the extent that some people never recover their normal sleep cycles while abroad. I have figured out a few simple tricks that seem to help me, so I thought that I would share them with you in case you ever switch multiple times zones. First, see if you can get a prescription to a mild sleeping aid. I personally use very light doses of Ambien. I start by taking one half of a tiny 5 mg pill when I see the flight crew boarding the plane (about 45 minutes before takeoff). I also eat a light meal prior to boarding, so that I won't be tempted by the in flight meal service. I then take the second half of my Ambien tablet about 15 minutes after we are airborne, and immediately put on two sets of eyeshades and heavy-duty earplugs. Do also try to make certain when booking all overnight flights that you have a window seat, and bring along a thick pillow and warm coat. They sometimes turn the heat way down on planes in the middle of the night, which those thin blankets simply cannot offset. It is also very important that you don't drink any caffeine or sugary drinks 8 hours prior to flight, and absolutely minimize all liquids 1 hour prior to departure. Needing to pee in the middle of a flight can be very disruptive to the person sleeping in the seat next to you, and definitely screws up your sleep cycles. I even dry-swallow my pills... Once you arrive at your destination, a rookie mistake to avoid is immediately going to sleep at your hotel. Wrong! Instead, I drink a lot of strong black coffee in the morning when I arrive at my destination, and then do my best to stay awake at least until early evening. Having been a test subject in some sleep experiments when I was in college, I know that I sleep in 2:45 minute cycles, with the last 20-30 minutes being critical REM deep sleep, which is the most refreshing. I missed one entire sleep cycle while in Orlando because I worked so late into the night picking comics at the Intergalactic Trading Company warehouse, so I was determined to make that up last evening. I went to sleep at 7:30 PM, but sure enough, my body clock woke me up after just one sleep cycle. That's where my Ambien once again came in handy, as half a tablet allowed me to drift back into sleep. I awoke this morning at 6:30 AM feeling completely refreshed, having completed 4 full sleep cycles. It doesn't always work this well, but on this trip my techniques for coping with jet lag saved me from a lot of misery. Chuck and Michael (click on image for larger view) In case you're wondering, now that I'm here in London, during my first two days I'm basically just being a tourist. My daughter, Tanith, came by train to meet me from Glasgow, where she is a Doctoral Candidate in Medieval Literature. Several of the ancient texts she is studying are housed in the huge British Library, which is just down the street from the Royal National Hotel, where the comics show will be held on Sunday. Tanith is researching at the library by day, and then keeping me company in the evenings. We spent a little time together yesterday afternoon at the British Museum, which currently has a wonderful showing of ancient Chinese jades. This afternoon, I will be having lunch with my good friend Mike Lake. Mike is one of the founders of British comics fandom, having been instrumental during his 40+ year career in the creation of not only the largest British comics shop, Forbidden Planet, but also Titan Distributing and Titan Publishing. Mike and I are working together right now on a project to document the origins of comics fandom and comics retailing on both sides of the Atlantic, so today's meeting will be a great deal of fun. It's very interesting when we compare our recollections of historic changes in comics history, as the differences in our perspectives created by being on different sides of the Atlantic can sometimes be quite profound. If you're lucky, we may actually find the time in our busy schedules to actually get this book written. Between us, Mike and I know some incredibly cool background information about comics history, much of which has never before been revealed... Moving on to news from Mile High Comics, the first 1,000 Silver Ageand Bronze Age comics that purchased in Orlando arrived in Denver on Wednesday, and were uploaded to our website on Thursday morning. A few of them sold instantly to clients who received free notification e-mails from our Want List program, but most are still available for you. Another 3,000 - 5,000 pre-1982 comics are being shipped by truck from Orlando, and those should be entered into our inventory for you in about two weeks. Suffice it to say, however, the combined effect of my purchases at all of these conventions that I have been attending is becoming quite prodigious. Our online selection of back issue comics and magazines is now approaching all-time high levels, with some areas now having more issues available for you than at any other time in our entire 40-year history. If you doubt my word, just check out our New-In-Stock and Premium New-In-Stock listings for the past week. We've added over 25,000 additional comics, magazines, and books during just the past 7 days! The largest concentration of newer (1982-2009) comics additions have been Marvel Comics titles beginning with the letters I-T, including IRON MAN, MARVEL TALES, PUNISHER, RED SONJA, and SPIDER-MAN, and all the smaller titles in between. Aside from the great selections of Marvel and DC mainstream titles that we just entered into our inventory, we have also been adding a lot of very hard to find niche publications. As a case in point, among the 15,000+ magazines that I brought back to Colorado in that truckload purchase that I made in LA last week were over 100 different Big Daddy Roth publications. While most of you have no clue as to who Big Daddy Roth might have been, those of us who grew up in the 1960's well remember his various newsstand magazines with such colorful titles as Car Toons, Drag Cartoons, Surf Toons, etc. Even in their day, however, these unique comics magazines received poor distribution, and were thus very hard to find. Most copies were also read to death by their fans, so very few survived in higher grades. I am especially fond of Roth because he had the prescience to be the first major publisher to print the incredible WONDER WARTHOG stories by Gilbert (Fabulous Furry Freak Bros.) Shelton. Only two issues of WONDER WARTHOG magazine were published by Roth in 1967, but they are incredibly funny (and rare). I have an extra G/VG set of WONDER WARTHOG magazines in my own personal collection of Undergrounds, but I will only trade them (hint, hint!) if someone out there might have some of the old 1960's comics fanzines printed with that crazy blue ink ditto process. I am especially looking for early 1960's issues of ROCKET'S BLAST, ALTER EGO, and COMICS COLLECTOR, but any fanzines printed with blue ink are needed for my history of comics fandom book... I'll close out today's newsletter by reminding everyone that our 30% off 40YEARS codeword is still in effect for you on all of our back issue comics and magazines (please keep in mind the codeword does not apply to new comics, Dallas Stephens comics, trade paperbacks, hard covers, graphic novels, statues, or supplies). You can also still combine comics, magazines, and books into single orders in order to reach our free shipping plateaus of $50 for domestic orders and $125 for International orders (no express carriers). Just make sure that you reach the free shipping minimums AFTER all codeword discounts have been applied. Finally, we are still giving away hundreds of books and other cool items each week as Bonus Book items rewards for larger orders. I sort of wanted to include a short listing of the big Orlando Silver Age shipment at the end of today's newsletter, but I then realized that I've not asked Lynne to run the entire Bonus Book listing for you in quite some time. The Bonus Book list is really important to you, as you can have these items entire for free (!!!), simply by asking for them in the "Notes" section of our order form. Just add up the total of your order (after discounts...), and then see how many required $20 and $50 increments that you meet. The larger your order, the more free items that you can pick! Do not wait to place your order with us, however, as our business has really been booming over the past couple of weeks. As a direct result, Will Moulton is having to steadily eliminate more and more older items from the Bonus Books listing. He's still adding five new items with each newsletter, but if you've had your eye on one of the free Bonus Book items for some time now, you really do need to get your order in to us right away, before it drops off of the list. 'Nuff said. Happy Collecting! Chuck Rozanski, President - Mile High Comics, Inc. Advance Previews of next weeks comics from Archie Comics Bonus Book Listing New $50.00 Level TMNT: SECRET OF THE OOZE MOVIE ADAPTATION #1 Very Fine/Near Mint Retail: $37.50 FREE! New $20.00 Level UNCLE SCROOGE: THE GOLDEN FLEECING (DYNA) #1 Very Fine/Near Mint Retail: $16.80 FREE! WARLOCK (1972) #14 Very Fine/Near Mint Retail: $14.00 FREE! WITCHCRAFT (1994) #1 Platinum Very Fine/Near Mint Retail: $14.00 FREE! ZOIDS SPECIAL COLLECTED COMICS MAGAZINE (1987) #4 Very Fine/Near Mint Retail: $21.00 FREE! $50.00 Level 3-D MONSTER MAGAZINE #1 Very Good/Fine Retail: $25.20 FREE! 1990 HOMER SIMPSON BENDABLE ACTION FIGURE Mint on Card Retail: $30.00 FREE! AMAZING SPIDER-MAN (1999) #533 San Diego Near Mint Retail: $11.20 FREE! ASTONISHING X-MEN (2004) #1 Incentive Very Fine/Near Mint Retail: $46.50 FREE! BARBARELLA GRAPHIC NOVEL #1 2nd Print Very Fine/Near Mint Retail: $80.00 FREE! BATMAN (1940) #404 Very Fine/Near Mint Retail: $21.00 FREE! BATTLESTAR GALACTICA OFFICIAL POSTER MAGAZINE (1978) #2 Very Fine/Near Mint Retail: $16.80 FREE! BIZARRE ADVENTURES (1981) #27 Very Fine/Near Mint Retail: $12.60 FREE! BLACK WIDOW: THE COLDEST WAR GRAPHIC NOVEL (1990) Very Fine/Near Mint Retail: $30.00 FREE! BLAZING COMBAT (MAGAZINE) #3 Verg Good/Fine Retail: $21.25 FREE! BRING BACK THE BAD GUYS TPB (1998) (Marvel Villians) Near Mint Retail: $20.00 FREE! CAPTAIN AMERICA (1968) #132 Fine Retail: $12.85 FREE! CAPTAIN GALLANT (1955) #1 Very Fine/Near Mint Retail: $28.00 FREE! CAPTAIN UNIVERSE: UNIVERSAL HEROES TPB (2005) Near Mint Retail: $18.00 FREE! CLOSE ENCOUNTERS OF THE THIRD KIND (Magazine) #1 Very Fine/Near Mint Retail: $22.40 FREE! CREEPY MAGAZINE (1964) #18 Fine/Very Fine Retail: $27.40 FREE! DARK HORSE PRESENTS #56 Near Mint Retail: $28.00 FREE! DARK HORSE PRESENTS (1986) #61 Very Fine/Near Mint Retail: $28.00 FREE! DARK HORSE PRESENTS (1986) #62 Very Fine/Near Mint Retail: $33.60 FREE! EERIE MAGAZINE (1965) #4 Very Good/Fine Retail: $21.25 FREE! HEROES HC #1 (Lee) Near Mint Retail: $15.00 FREE! LAZIEST SECRETARY IN THE WORLD TPB Near Mint Retail: $20.00 FREE! MONSTER WORLD (MAGAZINE) #1 Very Good Retail: $20.15 FREE! SIN CITY #1/2 Rare Wizard #1/2 Edition Near Mint Retail: $22.40 FREE! SIN CITY: A DAME TO KILL FOR TPB (2005) #1 (7th Print) Very Fine/Near Mint Retail: $14.00 FREE! SOMEPLACE STRANGE (1988) #1 Very Fine/Near Mint Retail: $21.00 FREE! STAN LEE PRESENTS: AMAZING SPIDER-MAN PB (1977) Very Fine Retail: $34.00 FREE! STRANGE TALES (1951) #155 Fine Retail: $25.75 FREE! TOMB RAIDER/DARKNESS SPECIAL TOPCOWSTORE.COM EXCLUSIVE (2001) #1 CGC 9.8 Retail: $84.00 FREE! TOP COMICS (1967) #1 Lassie Very Fine/Near Mint Retail: $10.80 FREE! TOP COMICS (1967) #1 Super Goof Very Fine/Near Mint Retail: $6.40 FREE! TOP COMICS (1967) #1 Zorro Very Fine/Near Mint Retail: $15.20 FREE! TOP COMICS (1967) #2 Snow White Very Fine/Near Mint Retail: $11.55 FREE! TOP COMICS (1967) #2 Yogi Bear Very Fine/Near Mint Retail: $11.00 FREE! TOYBIZ MARVEL SUPER-HEROES PUNISHER FIGURE Mint on Card Retail: $28.00 FREE! WARREN PRESENTS: MOONRAKER (1979) Very Fine/Near Mint Retail: $35.00 FREE! WATCHMEN #12 Very Fine/Near Mint Retail: $28.00 FREE! WWF BATTLEMANIA (MAGAZINE) #5 Very Fine/Near Mint Retail: $28.00 FREE! X-MEN (1963) #143 Fine/Very Fine Retail: $30.20 FREE! X-MEN (1963) #507 (Planet Com) Near Mint Retail: $5.60 FREE! $20.00 Level 1989 ERTLl DIE CAST BATMOBILE, JOKER VAN, & BATWING MICRO-MACHINES Mint on Card Retail: $10.50 FREE! 2001 (1976) #1 Fine/Very Fine Retail: $9.20 FREE! AKIRA (1988) #29 Near Mint Retail: $8.40 FREE! ALF TPB (Issues #1-3) (1990) Very Fine/Near Mint Retail: $24.00 FREE! AMAZING SPIDER-MAN (1999) #1 Near Mint Retail: $8.40 FREE! AMAZING SPIDER-MAN (1999) #583 Obama (4th Print) Very Fine/Near Mint Retail: $7.00 FREE! AMAZING SPIDER-MAN VOL. 1: COMING HOME TPB Platimum White Near Mint Retail: $17.50 FREE! AMAZING SPIDER-MAN VOL. 2 - REVELATIONS TRADE PAPERBACK (Platinum) Retail: $17.50 FREE! ANGEL: HOLLOWER TPB (2000) Fine Retail: $16.80 FREE! ARCHIE & ME (1964) #77 Very Fine/Near Mint Retail: $8.40 FREE! ARCHIE & ME (1964) #93 Very Fine/Near Mint Retail: $8.40 FREE! ARCHIE'S TV LAUGH-OUT (1969) #48 Very Fine/Near Mint Retail: $12.60 FREE! ARRGH (1974) #2 Very Fine/Near Mint Retail: $16.80 FREE! ARRGH (1974) #4 Very Fine/Near Mint Retail: $16.80 FREE! ARRGH (1974) #5 Very Fine/Near Mint Retail: $16.80 FREE! BALLAD OF SLEEPING BEAUTY (2004) #1 FCBD Near Mint Retail: $1.50 FREE! BATMAN (1940) #407 Fine Retail: $7.55 FREE! BATMAN: A DEATH IN THE FAMILY TPB #1 (1st Print) Near Mint Retail: $15.00 FREE! BATMAN: OFFICIAL BOOK OF THE MOVIE (1989) Very Fine/Near Mint Retail: $10.00 FREE! BATMAN/TARZAN: CLAWS OF THE CATWOMAN TRADE PAPERBACK Fine Retail: $4.50 FREE! BLADE: BLACK & WHITE TPB (2004) Near Mint Retail: $8.00 FREE! BUFFY THE VAMPIRE SLAYER: CRASH TEST DEMONS TPB Near Mint Retail: $4.95 FREE! BUZZ & BELL: SPACE CADETS GRAPHIC NOVEL (1991) Near Mint Retail: $15.00 FREE! CABLE VOL. 1 (1993 SERIES): SHINNING PATH TPB (2002) Near Mint Retail: $15.00 FREE! CAPTAIN AMERICA GOES TO WAR AGAINST DRUGS (1990) #1 2nd Print Very Fine Retail: $5.45 FREE! CARE BEARS MARVEL UK MAGAZINE #67 Very Fine/Near Mint Retail: $9.80 FREE! CHAMBER OF DARKNESS (1969) #8 Very Good/Fine Retail: $12.85 FREE! DAREDEVIL #180 Very Fine/Near Mint Retail: $21.00 FREE! DAREDEVIL: LOVE'S LABOR LOST TRADE PAPERBACK Retail: $15.00 FREE! DARK HORSE PRESENTS: ALIENS (1992) #1 Platinum Near Mint Retail: $14.00 FREE! DARK KNIGHT (1986) #3 (2nd Print) Very Fine/Near Mint Retail: $8.40 FREE! DARK KNIGHT (1986) #4 (1st Print) Very Fine/Near Mint Retail: $7.00 FREE! DC GRAPHIC NOVEL (1983) #7 Space Clusters Very Fine/Near Mint Retail: $15.00 FREE! DONALD DUCK ADVENTURES FCBD (2003) #1 Near Mint Retail: $3.50 FREE! DRAGONLANCE SAGA GRAPHIC NOVEL #4 Near Mint Retail: $20.00 FREE! 1964 FAMOUS MONSTERS OF FILMLAND #34 in Very Good/Fine (Warren Publications - 1964!) Retail: $25.20 FREE! FATHOM TRADE PAPERBACK Retail: $12.45 FREE! GI JOE #138 Near Mint Retail: $14.00 FREE! GRENDEL: PAST PRIME ILLUSTRATED NOVEL Near Mint Retail: $7.45 FREE! GROO ADVENTURER TRADE PAPERBACK Retail: $20.00 FREE! HELLBOY II: GOLDEN ARMY NOVEL PAPERBACK Retail: $7.00 FREE! MAD MAGAZINE #182 Very Fine/Near Mint Retail: $15.40 FREE! SGT. FURY AND HIS HOWLING COMMANDOS (1963) #40 Very Good/Fine Retail: $13.40 FREE! SHADOW (1973) #4 Very Fine/Near Mint Retail: $23.80 FREE! SPIDER-MAN: ELECTION DAY HC (2004) #1 (Variant) Near Mint Retail: $15.00 FREE! STAR WARS: DARK FORCES JEDI KNIGHT GSA TRADE PAPERBACK Retail: $7.45 FREE! STAR WARS TALES: A JEDI'S WEAPON FCBD (2002) #1 Near Mint Retail: $1.50 FREE! SUPERMAN: UNCONVENTIONAL WARFARE TPB (2005) Near Mint Retail: $15.00 FREE! TEEN TITANS: GO (2003) #1 FCBD Very Fine/Near Mint Retail: $2.20 FREE! ULTIMATE SPIDER-MAN (2000) #1 FCBD Very Fine/Near Mint Retail: $4.20 FREE! ULTIMATE X-MEN: ULTIMATE COLLECTION #2 TRADE PAPERBACK Retail: $12.50 FREE! UNCANNY X-MEN NEW AGE: END OF HISTORY TPB (VOL. 1) (2004) Near Mint Retail: $6.50 FREE! WILDC.A.T.S TPB Very Fine/Near Mint Retail: $8.40 FREE! WILL EISNER: A LIFE FORCE GRAPHIC NOVEL (2001) Near Mint Retail: $12.50 FREE! WILLOW GRAPHIC NOVEL Near Mint Retail: $17.50 FREE! WILL EISNER: LAST DAY IN VIETNAM GRAPHIC NOVEL SC 2nd Print Retail: $15.00 FREE! WOLVERINE: BLOOD DEBT TRADE PAPERBACK Retail: $6.45 FREE! WONDER WOMAN (1942) #219 Fine Retail: $9.80 FREE! X-MEN ANNUAL #14 Near Mint (First Appearance of Gambit!) Retail: $14.00 FREE! XENA WARRIOR PRINCESS: SLAVE TPB Fine Retail: $10.00 FREE! In case you missed it, the way my new Bonus Book program works is pretty simple. Place your order with us as you usually would, and then ask in the "notes" section of our order form for your free item(s). If your order totals $50 (just as an example...) you would not only receive free shipping for orders being delivered in the USA, but would also be able to select either two Bonus Books from the $20 list, or one Bonus Book from the $50 list. A $125 order (which is the level at which our International buyers earn free shipping) would earn the right to select up to six items from the $20 list, or a combination of several items from the $20 and $50 list. A couple of quick terms for the giveaway program. First, we have limited supplies on a few of these items, so some will undoubtedly run out over the next couple of weeks. We do have enough for orders received this week, however, so if you order quickly all of the above giveaways should be in stock. As items do eventually run out, even more cool items will be continually added to replace them. My goal is to keep this giveaway program fun, and interesting! Second, you can order multiples of the same item, if you wish. Third, you will need to manually ask for each item you've earned via the "notes" section of the order form, as we have no way to automate this program. Finally, our International patrons need to be aware that we do still need to add the small per book shipping fees to any request for books to be delivered to International destinations. View past eMail Newsletters: [March 17, 2010] - [March 15, 2010] - [March 12, 2010] - [March 10, 2010] - [March 8, 2010]