Collecting Comics: Picking Up My Childhood Hobby

 

Me and My Prized Possession - Amazing Spider-man #361, 1st Appearance of Carnage

Like many kids growing up in Canada, collecting baseball cards and comics was a big part of my childhood.  Particularly, when I was in grade 7 and 8, I spent much of my spare time reading, drawing, buying, and trading comics.  I was so passionate about comics that my mom enrolled me in art lessons on Saturday afternoons.

It all started in 1990 when Impel came out with a set of trading cards with Marvel characters.  It was all the rage at that time. Any kid who was in grade school at that time must have either collected them or at least seen their friends bring them to school to trade.  I was no different.  Soon, I was sucked into the world of Marvel and I guess have never left since then.

Soon after that, I started collecting comics and began with the most popular titles like Amazing Spider-man and the Uncanny X-men.  Not going far from the beaten path, Spider-man and Wolverine were my favourite characters.  I certainly enjoyed reading the comics, but I was even more interested in the investment aspect of the hobby.  I guess I've always been an investor, even when I was a kid!

Learning the Trade

As with most things, there was a learning curve that I had to climb. Initially, I was buying all sorts of comics.  Whenever there was a #1 issue of a new series, I would buy it just because I thought it would increase in value.  Eventually, I figured that the most valuable comics often had the first appearance of a character (much like the rookie card of a sports player).

At the top of this post, you can see a picture of the Amazing Spider-man #361.  That issue was the first appearance of the character, Carnage.  The latest Venom movie introduced this character to the big screens.  Back in those days, there was no internet to read up on the latest comics news.  So, I would buy the monthly Wizard magazine that talked about the hottest upcoming comics.  I remember that whenever there were hot issues coming out, I would ride my bike to the local convenience at Bamburgh Circle and pick up several copies of the comic.  With the first appearance of Carnage, I picked up 3 copies from the convenience store.  Of the 3 copies, one of them was graded at a 9.8, which is essentially a perfect score (there are 9.9 and 10.0 scores out there, but they are exceedingly rare).  The 9.8 was worth as much as $1900 last year, but now, like stock prices, comic values have come down and is currently worth around $1200.  I believe I bought them for $1.75 each; so, not a bad return on investment!

In 1992, a few star artists and writers started their own comic company, Image Comics (The Walking Dead and Kick-Ass are notable series from Image).  I immediately bought a bunch of #1 issues that were published that year, including 7 copies of Todd McFarlane's Spawn #1.  Other than Spawn, none of the comic series that came out that year made it too far.  Although Spawn continues to be a popular comic, they printed so many copies of the #1 issue that a copy with a 9.8 grade sells for $200 only.

Although my collection may sound like a pretty good collection to someone unfamiliar with comics, it is figuratively and literally child's play.  To put things into perspective, a 9.6 graded copy of Amazing Fantasy 15 (first appearance of Spider-man) sold for a cool $3.6 million.  Ok, so that was the most expensive comic ever sold, but a low grade Amazing Fantasy 15 could easily go for tens or hundreds of thousands of dollars.

Spider-man #1 by Todd McFarlane - One of My Favourite Comic Covers

My Most Valuable Collection

Passing the Torch

For many years, my comic collection sat inside a couple of boxes in my parents' basement.  In fact, I had not really looked at it since I was in grade 8.  You can probably guess how it happened: I hit puberty and girls became a lot more interesting than Spider-man!  So, the comics sat there until my parents renovated their basement and needed to clear it out.  Those boxes then got transferred to my own basement, where they sat for another several years or so, until...COVID!

Since we were stuck at home for so long, I pulled out the comics to look at them and even posted a few pics on Facebook.  My childhood buddy, Julian, who is an even bigger comic book collector than I am quickly noted how much some of the issues were worth.  I did some quick searching on eBay and that was the start of how my passion got re-ignited.

For much of my adulthood, my love for comics had never been truly extinguished.  I had watched all of the X-men films that were made in the 90s and early 2000s, and of course, all of the Tobey Maguire Spider-man films.  With a bit (a lot actually...) of my influence, Athan has grown to love all things Marvel.  Below are some pics of us dressing up as Spider-man and Wolverine!  I'm so grateful that I'm able to share my love of comics with him and also everyone else in the family.  A week hardly goes by without a couple of MCU movies playing on the TV throughout the week!

Spider-man Themed Birthday Party for Athan with Me as Spider-man

Athan and I Dressing Up as Different Versions of Wolverine

Our First Comic Show

Gift for My Boy's 11th Birthday - A Marvel Encyclopedia

Deeper Lesson

Not sure if this is a bit of a stretch, but I think collecting comics (or any other collectibles for that matter) may have a deeper lesson, that which is related to economics/finance.  Comics are simply assets to which people attribute value.  Are they not as tangible or intangible as a stock certificate (not that any of us has ever held a physical stock certificate)?  The value of a comic often follows simple rules of supply and demand.  So, hopefully, the lessons that my kids can learn from comics would help them navigate the world as they grow up.  I certainly would like to think that collecting comics have helped me become a better investor!

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Update: 2021 New Year Resolution - Bible in a Year (and a Half)

Hello Everyone!  Hope you are all enjoying a relatively COVID free summer!  My writing seems to come in waves and the past year definitely has been a trough.  Hopefully, I will make it a priority to do some more blogging this latter part of the year.

As a quick update to my 2021 New Year Resolution of following the Bible in a Year Podcast, I have finished it in pretty much exactly a year and a half (early July)!  I first read through the entire bible when I was in my teenage years.  As you can guess, this second time around was a much different experience.  As a person, I have matured (or at least hopefully), going from a son to a father of six!  I have had much more exposure to the teachings of the Faith and the many challenges our Church is facing today.

Father Mike Schmitz, the host of the podcast, not only reads the Scripture to you, he also spends an equal amount of time commentating on it, which is very valuable, as there is so much richness in Scripture that one often glosses over many important points.  Sometimes, maybe even more importantly, one can hear the passion in his voice (and at times, he even chokes up with emotion), which clearly demonstrates the realness of his relationship with God.  I would definitely recommend any adult Christian (Protestant friends absolutely encouraged) to do this podcast.  It's about 20 to 25 minutes a day and totally do-able if you incorporate it into your daily commute or other routine.  As I had incorrectly assumed initially, the podcast actually does go through the entire Bible!

3 Lessons from Bible in a Year

Of course, I can't really write a blog post without giving my thoughts on listening to the Bible in its entirety.  Here are 3 lessons that I learned.

1. Pre-requisite for All Christians - This isn't really a lesson, but I thought I'd throw it out there.  How many Christians are there who have not read the bible in its entirety?  Can we really be serious in our faith if we haven't read the most important book ever written on the faith?  It's like saying that I really like Malcolm Gladwell but have not read his books (Gladwell is great, by the way.  Would recommend Outliers and David and Goliath).  With this podcast, it has become so accessible that we really don't have a good excuse not to read it.
   
   
2. Humanity is Broken - if you thought reading the bible would give you the warm and fuzzies, then I'm sorry to report that you may get the opposite, especially if you're reading the Old Testament.  Don't believe me?  These are the things you will encounter after reading the first half of Genesis, the first book in the bible: fratricide, countless cases of polygamy, wiping out of the entire human race save one family, sexual abuse, lying to steal another's birthright, incest, and many accounts of deceit and violence.  More surprisingly, a number of these sins were committed by the patriarchs and matriarchs of the faith.
   
   Knowing this perhaps gives us a different perspective into the challenges we see today.  Our faith did not originate from a line of righteous and perfect people.  In fact, most of them were pretty horrible.  Take King David, for example; he is perhaps the greatest figure in Israelite history.  However, what is he best remembered for?  It would be his great sin of killing of Uriah so that he can take his wife, Bathsheba, to be his own.  Sin, therefore, is the rule and not the exception.  However, this just doesn't seem right...how are we to make sense of this?  Read on.
   
   
3. Christ is the Fulfilment - Another thing that I realized after reading the Old Testament is that there is no conclusion in and of itself.  The nation of Israel never really recovers its prior glory after it was invaded by the Babylonians.  There is a great sense that there should be some sequel to the Old Testament, like a movie with a dissatisfying ending.
   
   As with point #2 above, it seems incredibly sad and pointless if our faith doesn't answer these most basic questions in life.  What is the point?  Why do people suffer?  Why is there so much evil in this world?  Why do good things happen to bad people?
   
   Fortunately for us, God does give us an answer.  Although sometimes it is difficult to really understand, especially when the circumstances in our lives give us moments to pause, the answer is plainly there in the Gospels.  John the Evangelist tells us, "For God so loved the world that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life" (John 3:16).  In Christian theology, we understand God to be love itself.  If God is love, why could he not create a world where there was no pain and suffering?  Why does God permit evil to exist?  He does so such that a greater good can come from it.  He allows evil to exist in the world so that He himself can be betrayed, tried, scourged, and finally crucified and killed, in order to reconcile Himself with us.
   
   Imagine you are an athlete training for the 100m dash and you end up winning the track meet.  Would you rather have won because you were naturally gifted with superior genes and really did not need to train very hard, or because you had given up sleep and woke up everyday at 5am to train for the meet?  Which scenario would be the one that has greater meaning and satisfaction?  I'm sure most of us would say the latter.  And so it is with life itself.  It is not meaningful despite the brokenness and disappointments, but because of them and the redemption Christ offers us.
   
   It is easy for me to say this, but fully comprehending this is not only difficult, but may seem impossible at times.  With this, I leave you with a final quote from the Gospel of Matthew, "Ask, and it will be given you; seek, and you will find; knock, and it will be opened to you" (Matthew 7:7).  One cannot only use one's mind to understand this great mystery, but must open one's heart.  Will you start by trying the Bible in a Year podcast?
   
   

Now What?

So, just as I was breathing a sigh of relief knowing there's no looming podcast with which I need to keep up, Father Schmitz goes and decides he will do another "in a year" podcast.  Starting January 2023, he will be starting a Catechism in a Year podcast.  Oh boy!  Not many Catholics have read through the entire Bible, but I am sure even less have even picked up and read the Catechism.  What is the Catechism, you may even ask...in short, it's a summary of the teachings of our Faith.  It's a great reference when you have questions, which is what I've used it for mostly.  I definitely see great value in reading through it in its entirety.  In a world where Christian beliefs are at odds with a lot of secular society's beliefs, it is essential to any practicing Catholic to know why we believe what we believe.  Whether it's to ensure you are not shaken in your faith or to help you defend that faith, it will be invaluable.  As you can guess, I will be, maybe a little begrudgingly, following this podcast when it starts next year.  See you there!

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Are Electric Cars Really Better For the Environment?

 

As you know, we bought a Tesla Model 3 back in 2018.  It now has just above 80,000 km on it.  I've driven about half of the mileage while the other half have been driven by my guests on Turo.  Recently, I exchanged a few comments on Facebook with my university buddy, Dennis, regarding how environmentally friendly driving an electric car really is.  I really didn't know at that point, but it just seemed to me that not producing CO2 from burning 6400 L of gasoline (thus far in the car's life) was not a bad idea.

Of course, there are skeptics in this world, perhaps caused by misinformation spread by conspiracy theorists, right leaning media, and the oil giants of the world.  So, I decided to do some quick research just to see on a very general basis, whether driving an EV would benefit the earth.

Carbon Emissions

First, I wanted to look at carbon emissions, namely the amount of carbon dioxide emitted directly or indirectly by driving an EV vs a gas-powered car.  This turned out to be a not-so-tough task.  There is a free app called Tezlab that I use and it provides a charge report.  It basically tells you what the carbon impact is for your charge.  The neat thing is that it actually looks at your location, and by using publicly available data on the electricity grid, determines the equivalent volume of fuel burned.

In the screen capture below, you will see that I recently charged my car from a state of charge of 38% to 90% (i.e. 52% of the battery capacity) which is an approximately equal to 250 km of travel range.  It cost me $3.77 of electricity and had a equivalent carbon impact of burning 0.6 L of gasoline.  0.6 L!!  How far can one drive with 0.6L of gas in a Prius?  I think maybe 15 km under the best conditions, and that's a Prius.  It is an order of magnitude better to drive an EV.  Let's say I put 250,000 km on my Model 3.  It would mean that I would save about 10,000 L of gasoline worth of carbon being put into the atmosphere, when compared to a Prius.

This huge difference in carbon impact is actually due to the fact that Ontario produces 95% of its power using fossil-free resources such as nuclear, hydro and wind.  Only 5% of the power generated comes from natural gas power plants.

I guess the next question is: well, that's Ontario; what about in places where they burn coal to generate power?  It turns out that driving an EV will have a lesser impact, from a carbon perspective, in 95% of the world.  Most countries are de-carbonizing their electricity grid due to the great economics caused by the declining costs of solar and wind power generation.  So, this will only get better in the future.  Eventually, we will get to 100% non-fossil fuel power generation.

What About the Batteries?

Another often cited downside of EVs is the sheer volume of battery cells used in an EV.  Since batteries contain harmful materials like cobalt, lead, copper, etc., that would be a problem in itself.  A quick read of the Wikipedia article on battery recycling informed me that battery recycling technology today can achieve up to 96% of the materials recycled.  With EVs scaling up, I can only believe that battery recycling technology will further improve.  There is no shortage of new battery recycling companies starting up.  Since the battery pack is the most expensive single component in an EV, there are great economic incentives for companies to solve this problem.

Recycling batteries, in my opinion, is also a much easier engineering problem to solve than removing or capturing carbon dioxide from the atmosphere, where the concentration is merely 400 parts per million (0.04%).

Often Forgotten Benefits of EVs

As I mentioned above, I've put about 80,000 km on my Model 3.  Thus far, the only maintenance task I've had to do on the car is replacing wiper blades and changing to-from winter/summer tires.  There is no engine oil, transmission oil, and engine coolant to change and dispose of.   In fact, there is no regular maintenance schedule for Teslas.  You bring the car in as you see fit.

There You Have It!

To me, it was quite intuitive that EVs are a great means to reducing my carbon footprint.  However, there's much misinformation out there.  Hope this quick post will help you transition to a cleaner future!  Also, 0 to 60 mph in 5 seconds or less is also pretty darn sweet! 😉

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2021 New Year Resolution: Bible in a Year!

 

When I was in my teenage years, I had read the bible literally from cover to cover (Genesis to Revelation) over the course of a couple of years.  Although it was a good exercise and something that I can brag about (like what I'm doing right now 😉), I don't remember too much of it nor do I think I really benefitted that much.  It was probably because I had read it without much guidance nor did I really do much reflection of the text.

More than 10 years ago, I had enrolled in Regis College's (U of T) Master of Theological Studies and had taken a few courses on Scripture.  They were quite eye opening!  Unfortunately, I only finished about half the program and had to quit due to juggling of work and newborns which seemed to come quite regularly 😂.  After that point, I had rarely picked up the bible, which is always something that made me feel quite sad.

Fast forward to last year, the COVID pandemic has had quite a number of silver linings.  One of them was our discovery of Father Mike Schmitz on YouTube.  We alternated between masses said by Father Francis Ching (in Cantonese) and Father Mike when the churches were/are closed.  Both fathers have amazing homilies and I would recommend tuning in every Sunday.

Since the start of the year, Father Mike had started a Bible in a Year Podcast.  It's a daily podcast with Father Mike reading a few chapters from the bible and then reflecting on it.  Each day's show is about 20 minutes long and so it's not much effort at all to follow along.  The podcast is advertised as reading the entire bible but it's not quite that.  I don't think reading Deuteronomy on a podcast would be a great idea, except if the podcast was designed for insomniacs!  It will read through the most common books like Genesis, Exodus, Numbers, Samuel, Kings, Isaiah, Psalms, Luke, Acts, and Revelation.  You can take a look at the reading plan.  Father Mike is super charismatic and passionate and he has (re-)lit a fire in my heart!

So, this is my New Year resolution: to complete this Bible in a Year program and bring Scripture back into my life. If you're Catholic, Christian, or just curious, I'd encourage you to do the same.

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