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About this journal

Are you a collector that seeks variants of your favorite comics?  How extreme is your condition (this must be a mental disorder)?

I've always had an attraction to scarce comics.  I also have an attraction to the artwork of Matt Baker (among many other artists, of course).  I set a goal for myself of obtaining every St John Publishing standard titled romance comic featuring a cover by Baker (the qualification of "standard" put there because St John would rebind remainder/return comics with a new cover and try to sell them again - and these particular books are quite scarce and the demand is high).  For example, I collected the titled "Teen-age Romances", but not necessarily any of the re-covered guts of those issues ("All Picture All True Romances" is an example of a re-covered set of "Teen-age Romances" comics that were unsold).  I began spending "substantial" (the prices were seemingly high back then) amounts on comic books around 2006.  If you follow Matt Baker comics, you may know that prices for Baker comics are selling for much more since then.  While I'm not "priced-out" of obtaining the last few issues I want to achieve my original collecting goals; I am certainly unwilling to pay the costs for upgrades to any of the books in my collection or to seek the highest graded copies.  I only need one more book to achieve my original goal.  Yet, I still want to collect more.

Why am I shifting the goal-posts?  Shouldn't I just get that last issue and be done?  Perhaps due to seeking out the books I "need", and having stumbled upon the odd curio comic which featured art by this artist -  my malady FORCED me to buy it.  On other occasions, I mistakenly bought a Canadian Edition of an issue I needed that looked nearly identical to the United States counter-part.  You have heard that saying, "it's not the destination - it's the journey"?  Yeah.  Let's go with that.

So... I have accumulated a bunch of non-USA Matt Baker comics and wanted to share them.  This is ultimate niche collecting and I am certain only tens of collectors even care.  Therefore, presented here will be the Baker comics I could not leave behind.

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Entries in this journal

Secret Story #1

Secret Story #1

I love the L Miller books... So here is a first issue of, "Secret Story"! Secret Story #1 (1955 - L. Miller & Son Ltd.)  A UK edition of the USA title of the same name but numbered 20 with a February 1956 copyright.  Simultaneous publishing? I'm sorry Colletta rushed the cover of this one because he did really nice interiors.  Don't judge a book by its cover! Davenport Askew & Co. Ltd. !  Printing looks pretty aligned...  This is a straight match to
Diary Secrets #4

Diary Secrets #4

Here's a really clean copy of this Canadian comic - Diary Secrets #4: I was looking at the Superior Publishing title listings on Grand Comic Database, and they have listings for both "Diary Secrets" and "Teen-age Diary Secrets".  The early St John published books are confusing enough to track, but compound that with foreign printings...  well, CGC seems to label it by the TADS USA information with a small font notation of the actual title: But I don't want to belittle CGC t
Yorick

Yorick in Diary Secrets #4

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Historias de Amor #75

Historias de Amor #75

I'll need some help identifying the original source(s) for this one.  Based on the interior artist line-up (Baker, Pike, Colletta...) I would guess that this originates from an Atlas series (My Own Romance, Love Romances, True Secrets, Lovers....  one of those).  I tried to search the titles by the translated results, but there were no direct matches. This is the book in question; Historias de Amor #75 (1958) Lovely cover that I believe also originates from the USA.  I think ther
Love and Romance Library #98

Love and Romance Library #98

I've been running into some interesting Australian digest interior contents...  so allow me to showcase another before my flight out. Love and Romance Library #98: Come on Doug, have a heart! This Australian digest series "Love and Romance Library" has a skeleton index at Grand Comic Database of over 280 issues!!  Impressive.  This one isn't listed there...yet.  While GCD notes the publisher as "Frew Publications", we'll see yet again a series of printers/distributors/etc li
True Secret Diary #136

True Secret Diary #136

Let's jump back over to Australia and get small... True Secret Diary #136: Here we have a digest comic from Australia that's from the long running "True Secret Diary" series that masquerades as "Romance Picture Stories".  I posted an image or two of this in the "Foreign Comics" thread, but I can't seem to find the page and wanted to feature it here anyway.  The thread discussion touched on who the publisher of this series is.  My recollection was that we felt Jayar Studios was ho
Fightin' Marines #2

Fightin' Marines #2

Well, GCD has already has this one cataloged: Fightin' Marines #2: I dig the coloring, but that line-work leaves much to desire...  This one was a surprise arrival/gift from a knowledgeable UK collector.  @Get Marwood & I  Published by L. Miller & Son Ltd with likely a local UK Artist drawn cover.  No other like it!  The date of publication might be attributable to the fact that it's "L. Miller & Son" and not "L. Miller" or "L. Miller & Co."  GCD has an appro
Teen-age Romance Comics #1

Teen-age Romance Comics #1

I was so excited to see the first issue of this series pop-up on feebay! Teen-age Romance Comics #1: The cover is easily matched to the USA St John Publishing comic titled "Teen-age Romances" (#2 - April 1949), this Australian comic has a locally redrawn/swiped cover and black and white interiors.  The interiors on this book do not completely match the St John Publishing book, and perhaps I'll get over to Grand Comic Database (GCD) to add the index for this Young's Merchandising/
Diary Secrets #2

Diary Secrets #2

This may have been the genesis of this collection... I obtain this Diary Secrets #2 in 2011 direct from Canada (if you sold it to me, please drop in and say "hello"!). I recall posting it on the Baker Romance thread and being told it was not the Blue Ribbon Comics #4 (St John Publishing - June 1949) that I was looking for, and that CGC was unable to correctly label either book anyway.  CGC had been labeling BRC #4 as "Diary Secrets #4" (terrible image below, but I don't know wher
The Texan #4

The Texan #4

Today's offering is simple, and the central book of my Journal montage image. The Texan #4 This book is easily matched to it's USA St John Publishing counter-part: The Texan #9 (August 1950).  However, it is not a full "reprint" with all of the St John interior stories, but I won't get into that as there are NO Baker interior stories/art.  Bummer.  Grand Comic Database does list this with it's siblings and denotes the publisher as Pemberton's Limited (a United Kingdom publisher).
"Historietas" Contigo A. XVI N. 736

"Historietas" Contigo A. XVI N. 736

I've shared an image of this before in the foreign comic collecting thread , but I'll add some more detail here. "Historietas" Contigo A. XVI N. 736 An interesting re-drawn Colletta mash-up cover, and I love the title font with the hearts within "Contigo". The Baker interior story is uncredited on the Grand Comicbook Database (which I believe is due to the inking), but it comes from Wedding Bells #19 (Nov. 1956 - story titled "Why Did He Stand Me Up?").  I don't see any resu
Real Adventure Comics #23

Real Adventure Comics #23

...and here we go! This is the most recent foreign Baker arrival, so why not start here? Real Adventure Comics #23! Easily matched to the USA St John Publishing comic titled "Authentic Police Cases" (#15 - Oct. 1951), this Australian comic has a locally redrawn/swiped cover and black and white interiors.  The interiors on this book do not match the St John Publishing book, and perhaps I'll get over to Grand Comic Database (GCD) to add the index for this Jayar Studios publica
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