You say you want a resolution

 Carrie and I do like making little road trips and I usually take a bunch of pictures during them. Often I will get shots of Carrie and sometimes a shot or two of myself, but almost never do I take a photo of the two of us together. This year I have determined that I am going to change that and take at least one picture of us every month. Even if we don't take a road trip.

So the first of these was taken on a trip down to Portland. We made a stop at Trader Joe's and then were too early to go into Casablanca Comics. We wandered around a little, killing time, looking at architecture and icicles and a Japanese mailbox.

I used up a little of my credit with the comic shop on some Torpedo hardcovers that were on sale at five bucks each.

Afterward we went to a bookstore and found some ERB books I didn't have. I used the last of our credit with that store and spent some cash as well to pick up these four books. I hope we can go back soon with more trade goods and see what else they have.

May Day! May Day!

...was yesterday. Today is Free Comic Book Day!

Our comic haul for the day.

Supergirl stepped back as I first tried to take a picture of the Jawa.

Casablanca was strict in keeping us in line.

I now have one too.

Arch has her own trading card

We also saw Jay Piscapo.

A new addition to my Tarzan collection.

 We went to Casablanca Comics in Portland, Gamebox in Topsham, and Zimmies in Lewiston. I gave out copies of Teebo to the shop staff and was pleased to be remembered. Along the way we stopped at a bunch of yard sales and flea markets, finding a few interesting items here and there. We also found a few things just plain happening.

A parade in Portland

Motorcycle dangling from a crane in Lewiston.

How did you spend the day?

Comic Relief

Tarzan #50

Another yard sale find were these 10 comics for 25 cents each. Tarzan, which is in the worst condition of them all, was the second best find. I collect Tarzan comics but didn't know if I had this one or not. Turns out I don't. With that in mind, in spite of its condition, I would have paid more for this one comic than I did for the lot.

Brothers of the Spear is another series I collect, but in this case I already had this issue.

Best find was Secret Agent #1. I never thought I would actually get to own this. There were only two issues and they are generally priced beyond my perceived value, so I am very pleased.

Brothers of the Spear #13

Dell 4 Color 1066

Cimarron Strip #1

Wagon Train #6

Garrison's Gorillas #5

Lancelot Link, Secret Chimp #4

Mission: Impossible #2

Mod Squad #8

Secret Agent #1

To enlarge a comic, click on a finger.

The Berry Patch

 More about books

 

 As mentioned earlier, I have been buying books at yard sales, flea markets, and the like. The first one shown here is an advance proof of a biography of one of my favorite authors, Edgar Rice Burroughs. First biography of his I've ever read, let alone bought. Odd, considering what a Tarzan fan I am.

 And don't forget, in honor of Tarzan's 100th anniversary, there is a new postage stamp coming out on August 17th.

 In my earlier post about books, I mentioned a yard sale I bought the 1800's dime novels at. I went back this weekend and found two Lone Wolf novels. Earlier this year I discovered reruns of the old b&w tv show based on the series and a few months ago TCM was showing some of the movies. Both these books feature "scenes from the photoplay". The second book had the front half of the dust jacket tucked inside of it. No dust jacket for the other one.

 

There are a couple of tv series from my childhood that I actively seek books from. But for some reason I've decided to pick up other tv themed books. I won't get just any. I turned down Lassie and Dr Kildare ones offered. But recent purchases include Land of the Giants, Voyage to the Bottom of the Sea, and Mission: Impossible. Never high literature, but usually fun nostalgia.

As a child I also watched a lot of old movies. That's where my love of Tarzan started. The actor who played Boy in those films went on to star in a series of movies based on the Bomba books. I have long wanted to read one of them, but not been willing to pay the antiquarian bookstore prices of the only copies I'd ever come across. Well, a recent find at a flea market was one from that series in hardcover with dust jacket mostly intact. At only three dollars, I snatched it up. It was about the level of writing I was expecting and felt no need to buy any others. Until I found two more at a buck each.

to enlarge any image, click on the author's favorite word

Booked Solid

Saturday was our day off together and Carrie noted a number of flea markets and craft fairs being held mostly in the Augusta area. The first one we stopped at wasn't even on the list, but was the best one for me. 30 different Edgar Rice Burroughs paperbacks for $25. I owned most if not all of these in the past and only recently decided to start collecting the Tarzan novels again. With this purchase I now have 17 of them along with 11 of the Mars series and 2 of his westerns.

Swing Music

Today we drove around stopping at numerous yard sales, including one at a church Carrie had been to previously and bought some spiced pear preserves she wanted to buy again. They didn't have any this time around, but she still found a few things to pick up. And she found a few more at the other places we stopped at. I had very little luck until the very last one where I found the above for a buck. I'm a big Tarzan fan and I was willing to pay the buck for this without any idea what the music is like or even if it's playable. But now I have another reason to wish our house buying was over, so we can get unpacked and I can try and play it!

Before I Forget...

A bunch of things are going on here. I just joined Facebook in order to see pictures and stuff from an old college friend. Either he doesn't have much up, or I don't really know my way around Facebook. Not that the two are mutually exclusive. But anyway, if you're on Facebook please feel free to friend me and we'll see what we shall see.

On Friday while getting ready to take the tiara photo, my tripod let go of my camera. It fell to the floor with a resounding thud and I haven't been able to get it to work since. I haven't given it a good going over yet, but fear the worst. Luckily I had my webcam to take the shot, but I may go into withdrawal without my regular camera. I am not quite ready to get the cameras I want (yes, plural) but may have to get the small portable one just to feed my habit. Maybe the next item will provide me with funds to get the bigger, semi-pro camera I also would like.

I am going for a job interview for a State position on the 24th. It is not my dream job, but it would be better than 2 part time jobs, one of which I dislike greatly. And it would get my foot in the door for all the current-State-employees-only jobs I see listed a lot. Wish me luck.

Meanwhile, in Tarzan news, Darkhorse Comics is releasing hardcover reprints of the early Dell Tarzan comic books. The first one is out and available on Amazon.com for less than cover. I think the $50 book was listed at about $35. I will definitely be getting this, and the next several at least. I have a lot of Tarzan comics, but the early years are not well represented in my collection.

And I rejoined the Yahoo group that posts scans of Tarzan comics. I have started saving the scans to my computer rather than just reading them. I had planned on printing out the ones I didn't own and putting them into my comic collection, but never did bring a list of what I had in to work where I had access to a color printer. Now I think I will just save them to disk and not worry about having more paper cluttering up the house.

As big a fan of Tarzan as I am, I'm surprised that the only time I seem to draw the character is for the rare occasion when I'm doing a special envelope with some connection I can pull to him. And that hasn't happened more than a half dozen times.