Annihilation Conquest Issue #2 Pg. 6 ([ft Groot Spores, Blastaar, Babel Spire, and Phalanx] First undocumented appearance of Groot Spores)

I was right with you until "Can it be?"

Great page even if I don't understand the lore.

I see you made it atleast till lore. So you're saying there's a chance. I am going to have to find more Babel spire pages lol.

There once was a man named Saint

Disposed of biological waste

He knew all his lore

Of the Guardians’ Groot spore

When Raney and Hanna terminates

Some times I am full of biological waste and I dispose of it at great length.

Yet I love the lore for I always strive to acquire more. 

This time it's a spore and a we bit of gore.

Yet my true intentions were just Babel Spire!

1st Groot spore! ...now that's a good score!...score some spore, because he knew all the lore!

Ok ill stop it now.

Nice detailed page, really dig the all horizontal panel layouts with varying depth of view/field and focus. its super interesting page design to me

congrats!

Score some spore. Love it! Tom Raney is quite a creative artist and the inking is quite nice for this series.

I feel like you deserve to be lambasted for even thinking of, let alone mentioning,  "1st appearance of Groot spores". But instead, I'm just going to mention that Hanna has always been a "hit or miss" inker for me, and this is one of his big hits. The things he did here over Raney's pencils are gorgeous.

At least he didn't call it a 'birth' page!

Surprisingly enough, I'd be okay with that IF he was making reference to a character. There's no doubt that most collectors place an extra value on the very first page a character first appears on, over and above the value they apply to that character's appearances on the other pages they appear on in the same issue. So it stands to reason that those pages should be referred to in a specific way. Of course, I'm specifically referring to characters. I wouldn't use the term to refer to some %#!% spores! 😂

Groot does spores. Groot is my character. Does a Captain America collector not find importance in a shield, a Thor collector in Mjolnir, a Spider-Man collector in a specific suit. These all have first apperances listed. Spores even come with a musical composition as shown. It is as connected to Groot as anything else I previously mentioned for other characters. Everything else I previously mentioned just took a fan to find importance in it. As far as I can tell in the collecting world, there are few Groot fans beside me, or these pages would have already been collected. Thus, the value here is its place in my favorite characters history and importance to me.

Ian, you KNOW I love your passion. But come on, "there are few Groot fans beside me"? There are undoubtedly millions of "general" fans around the world due to the films, but even if we only count comic book fans, there are thousands. That continues to trickle down to the art collectors, of which there are still many Groot fans. But I think it's fair to say you are one of the very few (maybe only?) who are interested in getting deep down into the minutae of the character. It's all good, man, I really do love that you're as invested as you are. It makes it your very own niche in the hobby which you can have almost to yourself.

The quote doesn't have the same impact without adding the portion in the collecting world, which I mentioned. The comment was to relate to the OA community, which you agree with that there seems to be few in my field if any. Almost all other major Marvel characters basically have an army of OA collectors behind them, which reseach and collect the minutae. I understand the factor of nostalgia and its impance on the psyche of collecting. Thus, his late apperance to Earth-616 affected his impact on the older generation of collectors. Yet, his impact to Marvel has been explosive in the past decade. I think his important moments should be identified and known. This would be one of them for me if I were to count them. Groot did not have a special shield, weapon, power, in the era that I collect, which was his early history for the character as we know him. He propogates, disperses spores, extends his branches in battle, and says I am Groot! I have collected his first appearance Earth-616, his first and second propogation, due to our conversation I just realized I have the first time he stated saying I am Groot! In a sincle statement in Annihilation Conquest Issue #2 Pg. 18 (ft. Star-Lord, Mantis, Rocket Raccoon, Groot, Bug, Captain Universe), and now I have his first spore. These would be key moments for this character from the standpoint of how all other collectors collect minutae. The only difference is that Marvel didn't tell us what was important for him when he came out as he was never meant to be the star with which he became. These facts have to be researched by looking at his Marvel reading order and flipping the pages. Luckily, his history isn't complex from this point. Sometimes I make a mistake, but for the most part identify it like it is. I appreciate the support and love the soap box with, which you create to educate about the character. Constructive conversation helps build knowledge of this character for us all. Look we just identified one more thing with this post.

Beautiful!

Your love of the Groot character and everything to do with him is always fun to experience.  Not only do we get to see great art pages like this one (those Hanna inks are quite extraordinary), but we get to learn more about him.  I think we can all identify with having that one character that brings us an extra measure of joy ... Nice add, man!

Congrats nabbing an important moment in your cosmic Marvel collecting!  Raney pencils paired with Hanna inks...outstanding lines.  And good looking out, Derek!  Congrats, Ian!