BB-Gun

These belong in the too large to scan category. bb

I found these two at the flea market. And I bargained with a tough lady at an antique shop for this one.

Thanks for the film note and I didn't know the Dragnet theme came from the Killers. Speaking of movies, this magazine tells the story of the movie. Agar went from co-star in Fort Apache with Shirley Temple (his wife) and John Wayne to star of the Mole People. It must have been a strange 10 years for him. bb Aaaargh! Eeeeeekkk!

Here are four ducks, two swans, one american eagle and Spy Smasher in an aviator mask. bb

Those Killers issues are from 1947 and 1948. They usually go in the box with King comics and it is a tight fit because the Jungles and Jumbos are in the same box. My later lower grade King comic are filed separated and are harder to find. I don't find a lot of comics at the flea markets these days but I do have an adventure trying to sort through the comics in my own closet. bb

I did enjoy the comics but I bought the Spiderman too from ebay...more expensive and more hassle. bb I found these in the box with the King comics. The first issue has a text story by Gardner F. Fox.

I think that was the only issue of Daisy's Diary that Barks is credited with. I would have to check to see if he wrote any of those other issues. Someone probably knows already and will save me the trouble. bb

BZ, When I first started collecting in the sixties, those anthology comics were hot items. Years later when I got a chance to buy a couple of collections, I bought a golden age collection with King, Ace, Popular and Famous Funnies instead of silver age with spiderman and green lantern. Perhaps it was a mistake but I really enjoy looking at the old Flash Gordon, Jungle Jim, Buck Rogers, Brick Bradford and Mandrake stories. Thanks for showing those old strips. I was looking at one with the Mandrake art today (King # 15 wasn't it) and I was amazed at how good it looked. And it had robots. King of the Royal Mounted, Frank Buck, Red Man and the stories by Marge were pretty good too. bb PS The only problem with opening up the old comic boxes is that the cats like to sleep in the box tops. And I have to be careful when I lift the CBM boxes cause they are twice as heavy as comics.

This one has been cleaned up a little but I am glad to have it in my collection. And Daisy knew how to decorate the ceiling. Now if I can convince my wife... bb

Popeye was tough but Olive and Swee'pea knew how to handle him. bb

Popeye was great by Segar, Bud and BZ. And I always eat my spinach. bb Jiggs, Popeye and Flash all in the same book by the best artists. King must have been very popular at the time. I wonder what the monthly sales figures were?

I found a couple of addtional items in the premiums box. Another Tracy cover and I thought the Nat King Cole item would be interesting to the record collectors. There is also a Ms. Monroe photo on the inside. bb What a beautiful voice he had and his show was very successful on TV too.

Just Wondering: Has anyone discussed the production of a Gerber guide on a CD? It gets harder every year to see those little photos. Or how about a limit of 16 photos per page in a new edition? I don't think a quality printing is possible without losing your shirt but a large pdf file would be helpful. The GCD has done a lot of this for free and I have sent them a lot of scans in an effort to help but many of the scans that they have are not as good as they could be. The GCD is constantly upgrading but I would think that Gerber already has a huge number of negatives that could be converted to digital before they are lost. bb

I noticed that the Nila Mack (editor of Let's Pretend) papers are available at the New York Public Library. A short biography is listed below. Old time radio and comics combined to make some interesting reading. "Nila Mack was born in Arkansas City, Kansas on October 24, 1891. She was an only child. Her mother was a dancer and ran her own dancing school. Her father was an engineer who died tragically in a train wreck. Upon her father's death, she attended Ferry Hall in Lake Forest, Illinois. After graduating, she went to Boston and took courses in French, dance, and voice training. She was also a pianist and played in her mother's dancing school. Nila Mack's early career began in vaudeville and as a leading lady in a traveling repertory company. She married her leading man, Roy Briant. When Briant joined Paramount Pictures as a writer, Mack became a member of Nazimova's company. She was in the film titled War Brides and also wrote scenarios for screen shorts. She also acted on Broadway and appeared in the plays Fair and Warmer and A Doll's House. Her husband, Roy Briant, died in 1927 after 13 years of marriage. She was also an actress in the radio program CBS Radio Guild of the Air. Nila Mack, returned to Kansas to nurse her ill mother and at that time became the program director of a local station. This was the beginning of her career in radio programming. In 1930, CBS asked her to return and take over the children's program The Adventures of Helen and Mary later renamed Let's Pretend which she produced for the next 23 years. The show featured dramatizations of classic fairy tales. It was one of the most successful children's shows in radio broadcasting history. Nila Mack received fan mail from youngsters and mothers, some of which was read during the show. From her shows she discovered young talents who became performers, producers, directors, and writers. Nila Mack also produced other radio programs such as Let Freedom Ring, Treasures Next Door, Sunday Morning at Aunt Susan's, Funny Things, and March of Games. Nila also wrote children's stories for magazines and wrote the book Animal Allies and a storybook of Let's Pretend. Nila Mack died of a heart ailment in her New York apartment on January 20, 1953. She won numerous awards for Let's Pretend as well as individual awards for her accomplishments. During her 23 years in radio she was known as "Fairy Godmother of Radio". Scope and Content Note The Nila Mack Papers consist of correspondence, personal papers, photographs, clippings, and scrapbooks. The clippings and the scrapbook provide a complete overview of her life and career and span 1910 to her death."

I see that Black Hand found the MLJ witch that I was looking for. Similar but not an exact swipe. bb

BZ, I would like to have recognized the artist but I think that guessing this one was luck. I was looking at the Gerber guide and saw the Witch on the cover of Let's Pretend. It reminded me of the MLJ witch character and I looked closer at the cover just because I was curious. To my suprise, the characters in the crystal ball looked similar to the page you posted. And above their heads was a window with the poison flask and eureka! Mostly luck again. bb

I didn't find out much about DS publishing and whether it was related to ME. Maybe some of the same artists worked at both companies. Perhaps it was Holmdale (or one of the Fago family) but I wouldn't know for sure. My abilities are limited. I even checked Jerry Bails' Who's Who but it didn't clarify the relationship between companies but it would help if I knew the name of the artists. Eric Peters is listed as the artist for the Let's Pretend comic and we last saw him and Renee working on Abbot and Costello. Was that by chance BZ or did you do some homework? Lets see some interior work for comparison please! He isn't listed as an artist that worked at ME. I did notice during my search of ME that there was a powerful pixie called the Mighty Atom and was glad to find a story in one of my files. The story below is a cross between superman and Mr. Mind. I noticed the worm was a professor. I know he didn't teach at MSU (and probably not UK either) but maybe he worked in NJ or Boston. bb and sometimes they incorporated games into the stories. I didn't see this very often. Mary Jane and Sniffles didn't need this kind of help.

Let's Pretend #1. Just had to keep looking. bb

The art reminds me of some of the work in ME issues of Kola or Tick Tock Tales. That lead me to Pixies and the Mighty Atom. Any luck with that guess? bb

I found the old Collier magazine that I was looking for which had an article on McManus. I remembers this photo but not the text I guess. But he looked like his famous character even without the costume. bb

BZ, I love the Pop-Up books. Do you have any more that you can show? Flash Gordon, Popeye and Terry are a few that come to mind. And what about the Mickey Mouse or Wizard of Oz Waddle books? I think they made a reprint a few years ago which made it possible to cut out the figures and "waddle" them down an elevated plane (without loss of investment). There were also "Hingees" which had cartoon characters with links at the joints which could be used as puppets. I also liked the Straight Arrow finger puppets. I saw a bunch of mint sheets several years ago but neglected to buy them. I haven't seen any since then. These were all fun toys and very fun to collect. bb By the way, if you are interested in more Big Big and Fast Action books, I will forward Robie's list when he sends me a new one.

I think you are missing this Cap from the Summer of 42 (or you probably didn't show all of your issues yet). Wasn't Captain Future and the robot also featured on the cover of other pulps. I have seen a few. The second one below is probably my favorite. bb

And some more frogs

This is the cover of the other DT Big Big book that I have. And below are two other Tracy Fast Action covers that someone else has, which were posted on their website. bb

I love it! Science Comics #3 also has a tank and an "Artic Schooner" you can assemble some rainy day. But this one is more fun. Were there other sci-fi machines or spaceships to assemble in other issues? If you can make a high resolution scan of the comic pages, we can make a copy for assembly. I haven't seen any other sci-fi toys but I don't have a lot of early Fox issues. I have seen a few other toys from time to time. Fawcett was very serious about marketing the Cap Marvel toys. I met a guy who had so many kits that he had assembled working models of all of the Fawcett toys. Dell had featured toys on the covers of their Mickey Mouse and Donald Duck books. Unfortunately the result was quite a few coverless copies of Four Colors 291, 296 and 300 and etc. Fun to make though. I think I would like a Carl Barks' Magic Hourglass toy for my collection of junk. Maybe I can sell them on ebay. For $12.95 you can get 6 pages of cardboard toys and a small tube of glue. You only need a pair of surgical scissors and a lot of patience. bb