So this weekend the entire cast of characters from the What If Podcast, my besties, Andrew The Giant, Franchise, and Beezy went down to Boston for the Boston Comic Con. After navigating public transportation around the city and standing in a long (but quick moving) line to get in on Saturday, we finally made it into valhalla: a floor of dollar bins and guys slinging silver age issues left and right, covered in cosplayers and artists willing to sign my meager Marvel books. Among the highlights:

Purchases – Took a good chunk of my list for Marvel Two-In-Ones, including my “big ticket” purchase, issue #1 for all of $18. Also procured a Silver Age Jim Steranko issue of Strange Tales for a scant $7 (and the cover isn’t absolute garbage either, so I’d call that a deal), as well as some Super Villain Team-Up issues and a Master Mold story arc on the cheap. Andrew The Giant had quite the experience procuring Uncanny X-Men #130, first appearance of The Dazzler, passing up a copy at $10 to “come back to it later”, only to find it had been sold, then procuring one when I bent down to look at a 50% off bin and finding it about three issue in for $8 (thus final price $4). Literally a bargain at twice the price, and the guy said he had sold “a few” of those already, so Dazzler’s hot business. Not for nothing, I picked up a copy of the luminous Dazzler #1, with a pretty crisp cover, for a mere dollary-doo.

Signatures – Overall I got signatures for most of what I wanted to get signed. Personal favorites include getting X-Men #53 signed by Mark Waid, the Spider-Man wedding issue signed by Paul Ryan (a lovely man who has a house up in my native Maine), the Spider-Hulk issue of Web of Spider-Man by Alex Saviuk, a triple signature on my What If AvX #1 by Jorge Molina, Norman Lee, and Jimmy Palmiotti, who was an absolute delight to talk to (along with his wife Amanda Connor) and Mark Texiera, who signed an awesome cover of Wolverine by also doodling a Wolverine next to his signature (and posing for a picture), quite the bargain for a dollar.

Overall, I’d say the Boston Comic Con, even without going to the panels, was an amazing time and a great way to spend a weekend.