From The Scoop: New Advisors Join Overstreet Line-Up
From the August 18 issue of Gemstone Publishing's The Scoop:
Over the past three years, the staff of Gemstone Publishing has actively sought to add new and diverse voices to the ranks of the Overstreet Advisors, particularly seeking out those who sought an active role in documenting the history of the comics medium. In the past few months both Comics Buyer's Guide Editor Maggie Thompson and EsquireComics.com owner Mark Zaid have signed on.
This week a range of new participants have joined.
"We're extremely happy to add this group of new advisors," said Executive Editor J.C. Vaughn. "Since Bob Overstreet started working on the first edition of The Overstreet Comic Book Price Guide, the input of advisors has been critical to the book's ability depict the marketplace. We're looking forward to their active participation and receiving their views on what's going on."
The Overstreet Advisors contribute sales data, market observations, story and creator content data and other information to various books produced by Gemstone Publishing including The Overstreet Comic Book Price Guide and The Overstreet Comic Book Grading Guide.
Their ranks include dealers, collectors, historians and other parties devoted to the better understanding of the medium and the marketplace.
Peter J. Bilelis
Peter J. Bilelis, who has been acknowledged by Bob Overstreet and The Overstreet Comic Book Price Guide Guide on numerous occasions since 1984 for his Golden Age knowledge and data contributions, has joined the Overstreet Advisors.
Serving as Legal Counsel since mid-2005 for ALSTOM, a multi-national corporation with divisions in the power generation and transport sectors, Bilelis began his legal career working for the Bridgeport State Attorney's office before being appointed to a Judicial Clerkship. After his Judicial Clerkship, Bilelis accepted a position with a large Wall Street law firm, where he specialized in Securities Law and Mergers & Acquisitions. In 2000, he accepted a position with the Legal Department of a Fortune 50 company.
Bilelis is a native New Yorker, who grew up in New York City. He attended the Bronx High School of Science and St. John'sUniversity. He has been collecting comic books since the early 1970s, and avidly collecting high-grade Golden Age comic books since the late 1970s. Bilelis is a well-known and highly-regarded figure in various circles of the field, and is often consulted by several dealers for his hobby knowledge, as well as for legal counsel. Bilelis now resides in Connecticut with his wife and three children.
"Being offered this wonderful opportunity was quite unexpected, but came as a very welcomed surprise," Bilelis said. "I have always admired Bob Overstreet's invaluable contributions to our hobby and welcome this opportunity to use my experience, knowledge and integrity to help foster a balanced perspective and a better hobby."
Dave Matteini
"I am thrilled to join the ranks of the Overstreet Advisors. This hobby is very important to me, and The Overstreet Comic Book Price Guide and Gemstone Publishing represent the standard for collecting comic books and associated paraphernalia," Dave Matteini said. " The hobby's most important day of the year is when the Overstreet hits the stands and I am very much looking forward to offering my perspectives as an Advisor."
Matteini works in the Strategy Group of the Global Investment Bank at Banc of America Securities in New York. He has been an avid fan of comics since the 80s when classmates introduced him to the medium. While his current passion is Golden Age Batman title comics, he has varied tastes spanning DC, Marvel, EC, Dark Horse and Valiant comics as well as original art. A staple at many east coast shows, he often works as a volunteer for ACTOR, A Commitment to Our Roots. To learn more about him, please see his "Star Collector" piece profiled in the http://scoop.diamondgalleries.com/scoop_article.asp?ai=5797&si=124 section of the July 23, 2004, in Scoop.
"The Overstreet Comic Book Price Guide is the single best reference point for novice and aficionado alike. I look forward to working with the team to leverage my knowledge base and contacts to continue to advance the hobby. I am very excited to have been selected as an Advisor," Matteini said..
Brian Ketterer
Brian Ketterer grew up in Basking Ridge, NJ and graduated from DeSalesUniversity with a B.A. in Political Science and a minor in Philosophy. After college, he next attended and graduated Seton Hall School of Law with a Juris Doctor in 2000. For the next four years, Brian practiced law with the Philadelphia District Attorney's Office prosecuting major felonies including rape, gun point robbery and aggravated assault among others.
In 2004, Ketterer left the District Attorney's Office to join Provost Umphrey Law Firm, LLP in Philadelphia to work in their mass tort division in litigations such as Fen-phen, Hormone Replacement Therapy and Silica. Most recently, in July 2006, he joined Brent Coon & Associates, a leading national plaintiff's law firm specializing in toxic tort, mass tort and other catastrophic personal injury cases, as Managing Attorney of their Philadelphia office. Currently, he resides in the QueenVillage section of Philadelphia with his girlfriend Laura.
Comic books have captured his imagination from the time he was four years old and saw an illustration of Batman on the side of a cereal box. From then on, it was a constant obsession to collect every image of a super hero or comic character that he could find. From the time he stumbled into the local pharmacy and saw an Avengers comic book, they became his number one focus at age nine. It was a passion that would continue on into adulthood. Primarily focused on high grade silver and bronze age Marvel and DC Comics, his interests extend into all grades of many different genres including Charltons, ECs and various other publishers. Still an avid reader and collector of modern books, the excitement is still as fresh as it has always been when picking up a new comic book.
A high grade vintage collector for the past dozen years, Ketterer collects superhero titles such as Captain America, Avengers, Green Lantern, Justice League of America, Journey into Mystery and Batman. Additionally, his interest in the market in general has led to a wealth of accumulated knowledge on the various different segments of the markets, speaking to full time dealers at both local and national shows across the country and being intimately involved in the comic book market on the internet as well.
"Having been a comic book reader and collector for over 20 years, and a serious collector of vintage comic books for the last twelve, being included as an Overstreet Advisor is an honor and privilege. It is also a responsibility to try and provide data and information that can be used by the general collecting community so that we have a more informed and educated body of collectors. Finally, for me, it carries with it the responsibility to be an ambassador for the hobby, trying to better it by bringing more growth and integrity into our wonderful community."
Stephen Ritter
Stephen Ritter has been collecting comics since the early 1970s and dealing in comics for almost 20 years. He still considers himself a collector but now spends more time as a dealer. Stephen started with high grade Marvel and DC Silver/Bronze Age comics and then migrated to Golden Age in the 1980s after completing his Silver Age runs. Although he still specializes in Silver Age, he deals in all comic genres from the Golden to the Bronze Ages.
In his other life, Ritter is a Lieutenant Colonel in the U.S. Air Force, which moves him frequently all over the country. He finds this a great way to meet collectors of all kinds. He had previously been stationed in Washington, DC but has recently been located to Ohio.
Ritter has always had a fascination with pedigreed comics which came from an early 1980s transaction with Chuck Rozanski and the Mile High Collection.
"Knowing the history of the comic, where it came from, how it was saved and stored over the decades, has always heightened my interest in that comic."
He currently possesses several thousand pedigree copies from the Golden to the Bronze Age, and has become a student of pedigree comics. In fact, he is co-writing a book about comic pedigrees with several other Overstreet advisors. They have high hopes that this book which will document the history, contents and marketability of every major comic find in the past 40 years will heighten collector interest the way the Gerber Photo-Journals did in the 1990s.
"I am very honored to be asked to become an Overstreet Advisor. I hope my inputs to the Guide will continue to make it the most valuable tool in comic collecting."
Alex Winter
Alex Winter is the General Manager of Hake's Americana & Collectibles, where he has worked for over 20 years. In this capacity, he has contributed to Hake's Price Guide to Character Toys for more than a decade, and has worked on numerous other price guides.
A comic book fan as long as he can remember, he says he got his feet wet in collectibles doing shows and related events. His interest in comics extends to a wide range of eras and genres. The same can be said for other collectibles, with his interest extending original artwork, figurines, posters, Underdog, and more.
Winter was featured in the October 22, 2004 "Main Event" http://scoop.diamondgalleries.com/scoop_article.asp?ai=6611&si=124 in Scoop.
"It is a tremendous honor to be added to the stellar line-up of Overstreet Advisors. The collectibles industry has been my sole source of employment and The Overstreet Comic Book Price Guide has been by my side during my entire tenure. It is the perfect model of what a price guide should be: informative, accurate and definitive."
West Stephan
West Stephan's start into the world of comics actually began at the age of 12 and bought his first Golden Age book at 14. At 15 he attended his first comic book convention. Shortly after this he got his first booth at a convention and sold as a dealer.
Stephan started collecting high-grade Golden Age books specializing mostly in the Edgar Church/Mile High and other pedigrees such as San Francisco and Larson copies. Over the years he has owned many Edgar Church/Mile High runs, including titles such as Action Comics, All-Flash, Boy Commandos, Green Lantern,Leading Comics, More Fun Comics, Star Spangled Comics and Sensation Comics.
He brings his experience of grading books for CGC, his knowledge of Golden Age and Silver Age comics, his study of pedigrees, his trust and a respected position within the collecting community and noted eye for restoration detection earned over the last 16 years.
"I must say I was quite honored and thrilled when I was picked to be an advisor to The Overstreet Comic Book Price Guide by Bob and all the professionals at Gemstone," Stephan said. "I have been a part of the comic book community for the last 21 years, a pedigree collector for 18 years ( I am currently working with three other hobbyists on a book about Golden Age pedigrees), and a grader at CGC for over two years now. I have seen more comic books in the last two years at CGC than most people will ever see in twenty. As a grader, one of the most important things I do is count pages to make sure they are all there and that they are the ones that are supposed to be there. In doing so, I have found plenty of key comments and artists that have never been included in the Guide until I started to send them to Managing Editor Tom Gordon for inclusion in the last two editions. As before, and even more so now, I look forward to sharing and contributing key comments, artist and writer attributions and now grading input to the Guide and to help the comic book collecting community as a whole."
To view all of the pictures from this article, read it at The Scoop’s website at http://scoop.diamondgalleries.com/scoop_article.asp?ai=13002&si=124.
