BB-Gun

Well if you have $1000 to spend, you can put out a request for Giant 12 and Diary Secrets nn and see which you can buy first. I haven't seen any copies of Diary Secrets nn but I haven't looked either. If it really is that rare, then the price will go up or more copies may be found. But I would still rather have the Giant 12. bb

Wow Scrooge. That was amazing. I had never put all of those scenes together before. We probably will see even more of that inspiration in the digital age. bb

I think that is pretty easy. The St. John Giant #12, Diary Secrets, seems to be the toughest. Maybe it is just because of price. I don't see the Teenage Romances in the high numbers very often either. But are those issues rare? I don't know. I don't see the Blue Ribbon issues very often. Does anyone think those are rare? bb

Boris was also featured in the comics. He was Mr. Wong in this strip printed in Popular. He also did guest appearances in Frankenstein. In case you wondered, Mr. Wright plays third base for the Mets. bb

And the inside back page looks like this. Do you have a low grade copy you would part with? No, I don't have an issue, only the scan. You could match up the back cover with another issue if you can find one. Apparently Submariner #1 has the same back cover. See how much easier it is to match them up. bb

Schomburg's anniversary cover Sorry, I show that pair as often as possible. bb

What year did Schomburg start doing covers for The Experimenter? He started with the Nov 1925 issue. The one above is the first and he did another a few months later in 1926, which was incorrectly identified in the Comic Book Marketplace article as his first. I think that article was also published in the Advanced Collector series. bb The magic of Tesla coils, electricity and radio. With radio we had fireside chats and stories which reminds you of the way cavemen must have passed on traditions but on a more national stage.

And the inside back page looks like this.

Maybe you need a copy of the Experimenter so you can design a crystal ball. It might come in handy when working at your new job.

Is it OK if the interior is in black and white? Or a really fuzzy fiche scan? bb I will have to recolor my copy with a crayon because the Daredevil colors are wrong. I had to do that with the Marvel version too. bb

Looks like Superman 101 from 1955 and Batman 95.

Blackstone was featured in Super-Magician which also had Red Dragon stories. The two issues that I looked at in the S box had magic tricks by Blackstone (ghosted by Gibson?) and a couple of stories. Red Dragon was drawn by John Meditz and Blackstone was by James Hammon according to the WhosWho. And both strips were signed by the artists. Jack Farr also did a back up strip, Blitz-Busters, in some of the issues.

Nice collection of autographs your mother-in-law assembled. What was her employment that enabled her to have access to the various personalities? My mother-in-law was a waitress at the Hotel Durant in Flint, MI. Apparently even famous people appreciated their morning coffee. She was a nice person, hard working and tough as nails. Unfortunately, she also smoked two packs per day. bb

I checked my MIL's record collection but I didn't find any of the other band members listed in the autograph collection. I saw the regular people listed on 78 rpm, ie, Sinatra, Doris Day, Frankie Laine, Kay Kyser, Harry James, Hank Williams and Lefty Frizzell. Too bad my mother in law died 30 years ago. I would like to track down the rest of the names but I guess I will have to google it. bb

I am still trying to identify the rest of the autographs. There are a couple of band leaders that signed autographs and a few musicians. One that I recognized was Gene Krupa and the another was Claude Hopkins. She also had some trumpet players signing autographs. I am not sure who they were. The only one that I remember from the big band era was Harry James. By the way, he grew up in the circus. His mother was a trapeze artist and his father was the band leader. bb Sorry, I am off on a tangent again.

I should amend that statement. There is a lack of interest in westerns (movies and comics) which were so dominant back in the fifties and early sixties. Even Will Smith couldn't save the westerns at the box office. But Kevin Costner tried. bb

Very nice Atlas Westerns you got there Scrooge. Some of the best Atlas artists worked on the westerns. I think they are keepers but most of the fans like the guys in long johns and a cape or girls with next to nothing on. GGA is definitely not with the hoop skirts and parasols you see in westerns.

In making you jealous? I got more books including a couple of MJ&S. I assume you have them all? Here are some of my other pick-ups. I picked up 2 fave DD stories in the mix - Who does the art for MJ and S? I noticed that Hubbard did similar work on Peter Wheat. Just wondering. bb

And one of my favorite actors was also included in the scrap book. My mother-in-law didn't get the picture of Boris. She only got an autograph. But she said he was a very nice man and a good tipper. bb

This item is a little out of my area but I found an illustration in an old scrap book. Apparently, Blackstone Sr. was a bit of an artist. He signed his autograph with a little illustration. I found an example on line and compared it to the one that I found from 7/5/44. It looks pretty authentic to me. I also found autographs by Boris Karloff and Lou Costello in the scrapbook. I haven't read the Blackstone comic very much and wonder if he had some comments or an agreement with Street and Smith. By the way, the second drawing, I believe, is of my mother-in-law.

I think I have one or two of the Comic Art magazines thanks to a LCS but I don't think I have the illustrators mag. They both look pretty good. Now I will have to search for them. bb

Snow White and Dumbo were reprinted recently and can be picked up at your local book store. I have a nice Song of the South but some of the other Disney books have been harder to find and the reprint looks pretty good.

BB, are you familiar with the "Today's Inspiration" blog? Leif Peng posts a boatload of old illustartion art. On August 18th of last year, he posted lots of illos from the "Scorchy Smith and the Art of Noel Sickles" book: Link The latest artist he focuses on is William Smith: Link Thanks for the link. I had forgotten our discussion about the Crane and Shuster connection. In my mind, Crane, Caniff, Sickles and Shuster are all connected as if they studied with each other. Toth was one of their off spring. But as Scrooge points out, the connection is most obvious with Crane and Shuster. However, other contributions to the Superman style, such as costume design and perspectives, are probably influenced by Raymond.

BZ, There are several Train Scam cartoons in the 1910 Mutt and Jeff book. Mutt and Jeff seemed equally inept at performing the Train Scam. In this case Mutt was disguised as a dog, of course.