BB-Gun

Supersnipe had a couple of covers which were deleted from someone's earlier post.

Not really a war comic but Batman liked to practice with the water-jacketed machine gun just in case there was an invasion.

I like the Speed 21 cover but probably enjoyed the Speed 43 cover a little more. It's the robot.

The Reading paper usually had Tarzan by Hogarth on the top and Superman on the bottom half.

and this Centaur is probably my oldest baseball related comic...

and a pulp for Red Fury...who was probably watching the Phillies.

The guys usually got together for a game.

I have a few real baseball comics and forgot to post because I was busy watching the opening day games.

Most of the tabloid size Spirit magazines that I have found are from the Philly papers too.

I like the Phantom and Flash Gordon (and Jungle Jim) but they all took a back seat for Prince Valiant in Ace 26. The real attraction to this anthology was the Captain and the Kids. However, the early Phantom work had lots of feathering technique, I think, which reminds me of Alex Raymond's work on the early Flash.

I do have some Phantom Sunday pages but my supply is limited. I sold most of my Phantom pages twenty years ago. I purchased a lot from Mr. Three L in Paradise which was between Gap and Lancaster. The comics and newspapers were in several piles on the tables in his barn. He also converted a room for display of his Marine artifacts, that's Marine as in Jarhead or Leatherneck. I found untouched copies of the Spirit comics in the pile, a Spiderman 1 reprint, World's Finest 32 and Bugs Bunny Christmas Parade. He charged me extra for the BB Xmas parade. I could have searched longer but it would have been necessary to rearrange his entire shop. No telling what was hidden in there. He was a funny guy and I still hear funny stories about him from people at Rennigers.

A few more pages from that Sky Band story. Most of these appeared in the Feature Book and Ace 11 to 20 or so.

As someone used to mention on the boards, it always starts with the lady in the red dress....

I notice a lot of interest in early Ace comics with the Phantom. The first Phantom story in comics was actually the second story which was also reprinted as a Feature Book."The Phantom Destroys the Sky Band". Nice art and filled with torture scenes which were also in the daily or Sunday strips.

Sometimes the villains went up in flames. I have an early Tracy cover with a scene from a fire that engulfed the bad guy. I wonder if Little Face was related to the hero Microface.

I was watching Tales of Wells Fargo recently and wondered whether Jim Hardy was an inspiration for the character played by Dale Robertson. Dale was an excellant rider and his experience with horses seems obivous in the old shows. I enjoy watching the old shows but seldom remember plots from my childhoo and the oriiginal broadcast of the shows. Love the simple morals of the time.

Traded my copy back in Houston but I still have 109 and 110. Both were released in 1959 although the Kid Flash origin is dated Jan 1960. Flash 123 was not published then but I gave away two copies and kept the restored issue re.

From an original owners collection I find some of my favorite cross-over covers.

I went to see a double header with Whitey Ford pitching against the Tigers. I think he beat Jim Bunning in that game. My Tigers never got to face Koufax or Drysdale but those Dodgers had a reputation for being the best in the game. Bunning also pitched in Philly.

Speaking of the Dodgers, I saw Don Drysdale on "Lawman" last night. Acting wasn't great but it was an interesting guest appearance. He spent most of the time in jail while his father tried to break him out. Dad was played by Robert Armstrong who starred as the jungle movie director in the 1933 version of "King Kong".

Books with Frazetta covers, even westerns, may be worth slabbing. Early Gene Autry, Lone Ranger and Red Ryder may also be worth the effort. Otherwise, preservation with buffer boards and mylar should be good enough. Dell comics have a slightly better paper quality, I think. But don't forget those Baker covers...fans are just catching on to those wonder western covers he did.

Carolyn Jones was my favorite. Astin was terrific in the role of Gomez.

I think I only have one. My Funnies 45 came with a certificate.

I had to have that one...