Flea Market Finds

My folks are in town and they came by and ate lunch, then wanted to go to the flea markets.

There are several around here and most of them are pretty good. There are rarely any comic books to be had - at least any good ones - but you sometimes come across a few if you dig long and hard enough. And I did just that today.

I found a bagful of Vampirella comics, with backing board, buried in a stack of license plates, sewing patterns, and other stuff. It looked like someone had hidden them for a later date, so I just grabbed the Vampirella books and slid the rest back into place - it's called "manners" and it's just one of those unspoken credos decent collectors live by - something we just do - just like ethical people in similar pursuits do (or should)... of course, if it had been a cache of NM 1968 Marvels? Well, I figure all bets would have been off and I would have understood the same from anyone else.

The guy gave them to me for $3.00. All-told, that isn't exactly a steal, but it isn't bad, either; the three issues I got run for approximately $15 or so, altogether.

Plus, they are gorgeous books! Beautiful, full-color, cardstock covers with black & white interior by Mike Royer that might as well have been drawn by John Buscema himself, back in his Conan days. I haven't gotten into them yet, but they are all written by none other than one Forrest J. Ackerman, so they will definitely make a rainy day bright... and the forecast calls for rain tomorrow. Hopefully I won't be in jail...

I also picked up a few cookbooks and some shelving for the bathroom. The truth is that I can already cook my little butt off, but I love to get these "primers" - The Encyclopedia of Cooking and so-forth - especially when they have chapters on wines and spirits and herbs, as do the two volumes I picked up today: Better Homes and Gardens New Cook Book and How to Cook Everything by Mark Bittman. And I have been saying I was going to put up shelving in the bathroom literally since the day I moved in - it would have cost me around $25 plus a lot of manual labor to do it myself, but I found one of those metal units that sets over the commode for $10.00, so I'm set. Looks good, too.

I also came across a real gem for a pittance: a reprinting of The Cumberland Cook Book from the Cumberland Presbyterian Church in Nashville, TN, in 1895. I got this specifically for use in any Victorian Age games I get to play - should there ever be any, ever again... and for resource material when I get ready to put together the Cthulhu by Gaslight and Space 1889 stuff for the site. In fact, I have so much Victorian Age resource material that I am considering putting together an area on the site dedicated just to that, for use as you see fit - especially since I am going to have to do some of it for CoC, Space 1889, and even Chill (meaning to say that I am not going to actually do anything specific to the era for Chill, but it could certainly be played in that age).

Of course, I couldn't afford any of this stuff, but they are little things (and one big thing) that I needed and can use. I also picked up some beautiful coffee mugs that actually go with the color scheme of my house. If that makes me gay, so be it, but damn they look cool!

© C Harris Lynn, 2008