Gem City Comic Con 2026

[MRP]

So this past weekend was Gem City Comic Con, one of the bigger pure comic cons in the region. It was held over 2 days (Sat & Sun) at the Marriott on the campus of the University of Dayton.

One of the organizers, Jesse Noble, is a friend of mine and I helped him distribute posters and bookmarks for the show to some of our local shops, and had gotten a couple of free passes to go on him this year.

As I mentioned, this is pretty much a pure comic book show-no media guests, non-comics merch and vendors, etc., just comic creators, comic dealers and a couple of toy/comic merch dealers.

The guest list was small, but interesting

Stuart Sayger
Dave Aikens
AndyBennett
Jason Moore

and a couple of local Indy/self-published creators.

I went both days. A friend came with me on Saturday, so I was more browsing looking around, chatting with guests, etc. Sunday I was flying solo and did more digging.

Here was my day 1 haul

TheHaul.jpg

The Robin Hood book by Grell was $4, the Avengers $5, the stacks of comics were all $1-$3 with 2 exceptions. The Solomon Kane book isn't out yet (well it drops tomorrow) but Stuart had done a variant cover and had signed copies for sale. I had ordered it, but not Stuart's variant, so I grabbed a copy.

and my Day 2 haul

Gem CIty Day 2 haul.jpg

The front left pile were $3 each, all the other stuff came out of dollar bins. The back right stack is all Batman, the back left pile all Superman, the center back misc. DC and the front right misc. comics. Casca was an adventure series form the 70s featuring an eternal warriors (a la Highlander before Highlander). I've been wanting to try it out, but never found any in the wild until this show. It was $5.

I'll do more detailed pics in posts below.

-M

[MRP]

Here's a closer look at the Day 1 haul...

Pyle.jpg

This dealer had one of the larger set ups at the show. For most of his stuff he was doing a 50-70% cash discount. This was marked $10 but with the 70% cash discount on trades and such cost me only $3. I love Pyle's adventure stories and Grell's art, but my wife is also a big fan of Grell's Green Arrow art, so this will be shared between us.

SamHill.jpg

This was my favorite pick up of Day 1-Sam Hill Private Eye #6 from 1950. I love detective fiction in general, and I collect comics (and pulps) featuring women in red, so this was SA double bonus for me. The art is by Harry Lucey, one of the most popular Archie artists of the era, but done in a non-Archie style. It was $5, but I will grab comics form the 50s at $5 a pop all day.

4 color ducks.jpg

Same is true of 50s Disney Ducks, but these were only $3 each. Definitely reader copies, but that's always fine with me. 2 are Barks issues.

-M

[MRP]

More from Day 1

I am a big Alex Toth fan. I spent a lot of day 1 trying to track down Toth books and didn't have a lot of luck. I found 1 issue of Four Color featuring the Real McCoys with Toth art, and one issue of Witching Hour which used the Toth vignettes of the three witches on the cover. Most issueso f Withching our from early in the run have Toth framing sequences or stories, this is one of the few that didn't.

Toth.jpg

I did have a long conversation about Toth with Dave Aikens, one of the guests. I've known Dave for a while. I have a sketch cove of Biotron from the Micronauts from Dave. He's better know for his work for Nickelodeon on Dora, Sponge Bob, and other properties for their book division, but he does some fantastic stuff in more traditional fields of comics and horror.He has a copy of Toth's Dear John he is willing to part with, and we made arrangement for me to pick it up from him next time I see him (in Agust at one of the quarterly Jim & Dan shows over at Wright State). Dave was also thinning out his collection and had a lot of stuff for sale. I was tempted by a huge lot of DC Digests at $5 each, but the only thing I got from him was a avengers paperback with a awesome Larkin Vision cover and a random issue of Blue Beetle.

Avengers pb.jpg

I had a lot of paperback collections like this as a kid on the 70s (especially the Tempo Books DC collections), but I never had this one. Vision was my favorite Avengers as a kid, and I've wanted this book for a while.

The other Avengers purchase, was also a childhood nostalgia. I'm recreating my childhood comic collection as I can, and Avengers Siggy pictures gets called a minor key and I hadn't grabbed it yet. I got it format he same dealer with the cash discount (50% on comics) for $5. The Tower of Shadows issue has a Lovecraft adaptations in it. I got the snifty Fantagraphics volume reprinting the Tower of Shadow run last year, but it omitted the Lovecraft adaptations because of rights issues, so I grabbed this issue.

Marvel books.jpg

-M

[MRP]

More Day 1

The Tower of Shadows wasn't the only Lovecraft themed book I got. The other was Skull Comics #4, an underground from the late 60s/early 70s. I got 2 undergrounds. The Skull Comics issue was the most expensive back issues I got all weekend-it was marked $20 but that 50% cash discount came in handy here, so it was $10.

Undergrounds.jpg

Other rarities I collect are the Golden Legacy books, featuring prominent figures from Black History. I grab these whenever I see them at the right price, and these three were in a dollar bin...

Golden Legacy.jpg

The other books garnered from dollar bins were mostly issues of Firestorm (and that Blue Beetle I got form Dave)

DC Heroes.jpg

-M

[MRP]

And even more from Day 1.

Another dealer I spent a lot of time at had a lot of loose $3 comics and a couple boxes of as marked comics. I found a lot of Kubert War books (which I collect as well) in those $3 bins as well as a few other treasures.

Rock Army.jpg

Fighting.jpg

One of the other treasures in those $3 bins was a copy of Phantom #2

Phantom.jpg

and a copy of Angel and the Ape #5
Angel.jpg

That wraps up the day 1 haul.

-M

[MRP]

On Day 2, I went back to the dealer where I got all the $3 books to find all the $3 books were now $1 and all the price as marked books were $4. I got 10 very snifty $3 books and a whole lot of $1 books from them, as well as from a few other dealers.

My fave of the $3 pick ups was a copy of Brave & the Bold #38, featuring an early Task Force X story...and the 1st 2 appearances of B'Wana Beast in Showcase.

$3 B&B Showcase.jpg

I also got some cool JLA issues I needed. I am only a handful of having JLA Mego Collectors Map up and these 3 100 page giants got me closer...

$3 JLA.jpg


I also got a couple of Silver/Bronze Superman books...

$3Superman.jpg

and the last $3 book was an issue of Sugar and Spike...

$3 Sugar & Spike.jpg

-M

[MRP]

More from Day 2...

Aside from the Casca novel, everything else from Sunday came out of dollar bins. I got lots of Batman, some Superman and other DC books, and a miscellania of other stuff.

Let's start with Batman...

$1 Classic Batman 1.jpg

$1 Classic Batman 2.jpg

$1 newer Batman.jpg

$1 newerDetective.jpg

Filled in a lot of holes in my Batman and Detective runs on the cheap.

-M

[MRP]

More Day 2 on to Superman and other DC heroes...

$1 Superman 1.jpg

$1 Superman 2.jpg

and misc. DC

$1 DC 1.jpg

$1 DC 2.jpg

I was kind of excited to find a copy of Hex #15 for $1 as it was the only issue of that run I didn't have.

-M

[MRP]

Last of Day 2 stuff

Most of the runs I am filling are DC, but I did get some non-DC stuff, not a lot, but some...

$1 Marvel.jpg

I only got 2 Marvel things. The Avengers finishes the Busiek run of Avengers for me. And I love those Chronicles and grab them whenever I see them. I had the Avengers one as a kid. With this FF one, I now have them all except the X-Men one.

$1 Ducks and Darwyn.jpg

I got another cheap 50s Duck issue and the Darwyn Cooke Prince Valiant cover that has eluded me for a while. Love me some Darwyn!

Lastly a handful of Charlton/Gold Key issues ...

$1 indy.jpg

I left a lot behind, but I was already at my budget when I found that table that had reduced prices from the day before and wound up going over budget to get a bunch from them. I could have kept digging, but I decided to leave before I went more over budget.

I've got a Jim & Dan Show at the end of August, so I need to replenish my war chest before then. All in all though, a great show and lots of lovely comics came home with me to enjoy.

-M

[Jorge Galvan]

How was the Golden age stock there? Any dealers that you remember?

I see that you scored some issues of Superman Family.

I ordered a load of Superman Family issues off Ebay. Trying to replenish my running order.

This is the opening day of San Diego, so I'm a bit bummed that I am not there. 9 years since I have been.

At least I have the summer Chicago toy show this weekend.

[MRP]

How was the Golden age stock there? Any dealers that you remember?

I see that you scored some issues of Superman Family.

I ordered a load of Superman Family issues off Ebay. Trying to replenish my running order.

This is the opening day of San Diego, so I'm a bit bummed that I am not there. 9 years since I have been.

At least I have the summer Chicago toy show this weekend.

There was a lot of dealers who had Golden Age books on their "walls" though there was more Silver Age. There were 2 dealers who had a lot of Golden Age stock. One I didn't look at because it was all CGC and I don't buy slabbed books. The other was almost all GA/SA but he also had a lot of Pulps, and I spent more time browsing his pulps than his comics. I can't remember either of the dealer's business names though. Sorry.

-M

[Jorge Galvan]

No worries, M. Glad you had fun. At least you didn't have to do a lottery just to have the "opportunity" to buy a ticket. And another lottery to get a hotel that you want.

[BudgetMego]

I enjoyed your pics. I was a big comic guy until the last store in my area closed about 2 hrs ago. Still have my collection (more like a library). Alot of the eighties Batmans I got off the rack at 7-11. Have the one with Manbat, the Two Face one, and the ones with The Monk The Avengers paperback with the Vision was actually the first Avengersbook I ever bought. I also have fond memories of the Fantaco chronicles series. It made me want to get the issues I didn't have. I've never been to a convention, but in the early 2000s when I got dial up, I did alot of shopping with Mile High. They had sales every month and free shipping. I would get huge boxes. Late Silver Age Marvel. Iron Man from 10-120, and Daredevil 30-100. Really expanded the library. When I die, the family has a hell of a mess.

[BudgetMego]

Should be 2 years ago and Daredevil 30-200.

[Frenchy99]

Great pick ups!

I try not to look at comics since dont want to start collecting them again. lol

Comics are my original collection, the toys came afterwards. Love the fact that you can still find deals, I was shocked at some prices in shows where I live in the last year. Saw lots of comics that I bought in the dollar bins back in the day in the 150$ price range now. Wow...

Looking at what you got, very nice haul. I would have grabbed several in your pics.

Enjoy !