BB-Gun

Wow! There are some great comics and pulps loaded on this thread lately. Here is one from the dollar box. Or $0.25 box. But I like Avon comics.

Amazing show BZ. There are 495 items which consists of Spicy Pulps, Saucy Pulps, Speed, Jungle, Superhero, Westerns, Detectives and the original art. De Soto paintings were excellant as were all of the others.

My apologies for phrasing these remarks as if the Board members were novice collectors but I am trying to keep with the original purpose of Ed's article. Consider it time traveling like Billy Pilgrim in Slaughterhouse Five.

I think the Street and Smith issues could be sorted through a little and some of the better covers could be real treasures. Later issues of the Shadow, like volumes 7-9, have art by Powell which is fun to have but the early issues, V1 N1-6, have pulp reprints for covers and they look great. Get one from each era and pick up a V2 #3 if you see it on sale cause it has the first Supersnipe story. Buy Supersnipes from volume 2 or 3 but they are all pretty good. The most collected issue are volume 1 #8 and #9, which have Hitler covers. I would like to have an Army and Navy issue too, with a Jack Farr cover. Look for Super Magician covers that strike your fancy and Red Dragon issues. Red Dragon 7 and 8 have especially good covers. Air Ace is also a Street and Smith title with some nice Sci Fi covers but the racist cover for V2#2 has been more interesting as a collectors' item. Doc Savage covers from the first volume are pretty neat and the cover of Vol 2#7 is fantastic. I would pick up a couple if I could.

Oops, I corrected my Fearless mistake in a Fury when I saw your post. Here is my issue 1 which is a little beat up but the paper is nice inside.

Wow, where is Central Valley? Orange County New York or California?

I have purchased replacement copies of Alter-Ego 5, 6, 8-11 in the past 10 years but only have scans of AE 7. This copy is hand-colored by the original owner who was better than I at staying between the lines.

Agree here - Batman 4, along with Amazing-Man 6, are probably my two favorite GA comics. At least Ed mentions Centaurs, though he is rather harsh ("just one good magazine")! I think Ed reviewed his article a few years ago for Alter Ego and he mentioned that he had left out a few companies. By checking the Keltner Index, I can see a few that had a lot of Superheroes like Quality, Nedor, Hillman, Lev Gleason, Street and Smith and Continental, need a list. For Continental I would recommend: Catman 15-32, lots of Quinlan art and a few LB Cole covers in that batch Captain Fearless, 1 or 2, silly costume but nice work by Quinlan and a Ms. Victory back up Captain Aero 13-16, 21-26 Cole and Quinlan art again, never enough Suspense 4-8, hard to find, get an issue 3 if you can afford it Terrific 4 or 5, both have great covers Cyclone 1-4, I don't have any of these but the scans I have seen look pretty good Contact 10-12, more great covers by Cole

Agree here - Batman 4, along with Amazing-Man 6, are probably my two favorite GA comics. At least Ed mentions Centaurs, though he is rather harsh ("just one good magazine")! I agree with the comment about Centaur but some people would rather collect Timely to pick up those Everett and Burgos stories. I am still trying to buy Batman 4 but I do have a 3 and 5.

Alter-Ego #5 was one of my favorite fanzines because it had Ed Lahmann's article "So you want to collect comics". This must have had an effect on you, BZ, since your collection is so diverse and has so many of the goodies that he lists. I tried to follow Ed's philosophy but ended up with a lot of bits and pieces because some of the books were rare or too expensive. But the idea was there and I didn't collect just All Stars or Timely's. The last page list some single series like Tarzan #20 and Four Color 10. But we can add Four Color 9, 29 and 62 to the list. Thanks again Ed.

I still have my original copy of Alter-Ego #4 but it has been taped and restapled to hold it together. These are Jerry's scans. By the way, I don't consider myself a pioneer. I think I would be considered one of those city dudes who preferred to read about the wild west in a Penny Dreadful. Raymond Miller, Roy Thomas, Jerry, Howard Keltner, Don and Maggie Thompson, Biljo White, Grass Greene, Ron Foss, Mike Vosburg, Len Wein, Robert Butts and many others really built Fandom (settled the Wild West) while the rest of us read about it in their fanzine articles and letter pages. bb

This has a few nicks and dents but it is one of my favorite books. bb

BZ, Your collecting story seems similar to mine. Did you get a copy of Alter Ego after contacting Jerry or did you get a copy of On the Drawing Board? It was a terrific time to collect DC comics. All of those new superhero stories in Showcase and Brave and the Bold were fun to read. I still have my original Atom issues and Hawkman comics. I missed out on collecting in the 70s due to the number of years I lived on a graduate student's salary. But in 1981, one of my professors produced a stack of comics that she had acquired as a youngster in Nebraska and asked me to evaluate them. This started me back into collecting and eventually, in the 90s, I found a large collection at a flea market which helped build the golden age collection that I wanted. Thanks again Wally! bb

Wow Mr B, pretty stuff, I dont know too much about these books, yet, but I really like this cover a lot. Anyone have a run of Supersnipes? I think the entire run of Supersnipes was posted on another thread. They even had the Shadow issue with the first SS story. Here are a few of mine.

BP, Sorry for stepping on your toes and flaunting all of my comics that you don't have. Are you selling any of the comics in the above pictures? bb But I enjoy your posts and hope to see more of your beautiful collection.

bb, you're killing me. in the last day or two you've posted a fantastic, a hit and now a doc i need. haven't you been meaning to post those in the selling forum? Not doing it on purpose. Just adding to the discussion.

Those Doc Savage covers look great. The #5 looks like a Guardineer cover. Oops, just noticed it was signed by Binder. I only have two issues but I kind of like this cover. It looks like the artist copied the 1912 All Story Tarzan cover.

He did Betsy and Me which ran from May 28 - September 21, 1958. I guess I should have read some more about him but that Betsy and Me Sunday page is more like a minimalist version of Cole. I would like to see something more like his Police Comics covers and splash pages. scans from GA.UK

You've joined an illustrious club. You can check out a list of previous winners. I'm addicted now... ! I lost my job but made it to the top of BZ's list. A fair trade.

Cover scan was made by me by the way and the other scans are from GA.UK My old scans were a little better than my new scans which may be due to the quality of the scanner. Unfortunately the software on the old scanner was out of date and my new computer rejected it. Don't know why.

pretty cover BB. That one's a Samson cvr? Thanks Twistty, That's a Samson by Simon cover. Looking through my Gerbers I guess most of those were Samson covers, but how many did Simon do? #3 has a fantastic cover as well. Lou Fine did #3 and the interior of #6 has art by Blum and Fletcher Hanks. Strange work by Hanks as usual. Simon did 2 or 3 of the Fantastic covers I guess. But people argue which ones.

pretty cover BB. That one's a Samson cvr? Thanks Twistty, That's a Samson by Simon cover.

Those early Quality covers are great.

Picked this up on ebay a few years ago. It was a bargain I guess.

Those Schomburg paintings were also made into puzzles and are fun to collect. I think the story goes that the paintings were left in a store window for years and faded to nothing and were thrown away. They were used in more than one magazine. My scan of the aircraft carrier scene is from US Fliers in Action, I think.