garthgantu

Great, great stuff, Timely - that Shores was one versatile artist. Ignorant question: what's with the 3-punch holes along the sides? Have you actually put these in some sort of binder?

That's a great book!

Thanks mucho - in case ya wanna see a few of the "offending" panels that Disney banned, I provided a scan of an interior page in the main H-a-C thread under General...

Posted this one in the main H-a-C thread in General, but I thought I'd post it here as well..

Our own FlyingDonut saw my post re: this 1947 Cheerios premium, and quickly tracked this one down for me, at below guide Thanks again, Dan!

Only major flaw is a 1" tear extending from the top near the spine...

This is one of my personal grails, in my quest to acquire every Barks duck story in its original form. This one had until recently never been reprinted, because Disney didn't like the fact that the citizens of Duckburg have their hair fall out as a result of Donald detonating A-bombs around town! Apparently WDC&S 571 includes a reprint, but the final panels have been changed, so that Donald isn't selling his hair-restoration tonic, but is instead giving it away... somehow that makes his original transgression okay..?!

I had/have five cousins. As a kid, the older three cousins seemed basically 'grown up' to me, as they were 3, 4 and 5 years older, respectively. They generally didn't let the younger cousins participate in their activities...but the youngest of the three, 'Fritzie,' had a stash of several hundred Archie books under her bed. She let my brother and I not only enter her bedroom, but paw through the Archies at our leisure. This would have been when I was 6-8 years old, in the very early '70s. Needless to say, she was by far the favorite cousin She deserves much of the credit (blame?) for getting me hooked on funnybooks in the first place.

Now who's NOT going to accept that offer?!? Betty is quite the betty...

Great thread!!!!! I too am a huge Samm Schwartz fan - he's my favorite Archie illustrator. Dan DeCarlo may be slightly more synonymous with Archie and the gang, but Schwartz' artwork is a bit more stylized to me...

I'll try to dig out some Archies and scan 'em... the most interesting stuff is prettied buried, tho...

And given the fact that the Superman/Bradman comic is listed in Overstreet at three dollars. Just cause its rare doesnt means its worth more than 3 dollars. Right now only two people in the world care about it: you and them. What SHOULD it list for in Guide?

 

Well it's a Superman comic with a fabulous cover, made in 1988 as a special commissioned gift for a kid by his obviously affluent father by special arrangement with DC. Only 100 ever printed, and ninety eight of those sent to the Father. I've seen the cover and it's awesome. i think it just MIGHT be worth more than three bucks of anybody's money. I already offered five hundred for it.

Maybe the father's fallen on hard times, or the son is no longer into Supes... I'll bet the family has a spare copy they'd contribute to the cause if they knew the honorable goal you're striving to achieve.

"Crimes Set to Music" sounds like a good name for Justin Timberlake's latest album. Now THAT's a crime!

 

It was every 28 years until 1978...after that it became 75 years for companies and the life of the author plus 20 years for individuals with no renewal possible.

Just to tie this all back to Disney - and Sonny Bono! - here's a recent story about how this copyright extension has been further expanded in the legal sense, with much help from Disney's lawyers and lobbyists... largely because the 75-year protection was about to run out for Mickey Mouse...

http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,75612,00.html

Here's what I found on the LOC's website.

 

Special Collections in the Library of Congress

Comic Book Collection

 

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

 

For more than sixty years, the Library of Congress has acquired comic books through copyright deposit. The current collection of 6,000 titles, probably the largest in the United States, contains approximately one hundred thousand pieces

Hard to imagine how that could make it the largest collection in the US... I'm sure there are collections that dwarf this, both in number of titles and total number of books. Still, it does sound like viewing this 'collection' would be like Aladdin entering the treasure trove of the forty thieves...

Represented in the collection is the entire range of comic-book subject matter: western, science fiction, detective, adventure, war, romance, horror, and humor.

Hehe - what about "superhero" ?? How could they forget to list that? Obviously that category is well represented in the LoC's collection...

Back to the subject at hand...

FF I like your thinking on this... if the LoC in fact disposes of "dead" copyrights and the related materials as you posit, which comic book publishers ceased publication roughly 28 years ago? The second Atlas (publisher of "Planet of Vampires" etc.) ? Others? The copies of those books that are in the LoC might be due for 'disposal' soon if the copyright owners aren't renewing them..?

Tell me, I'm interested. Great Ormond Street is very famous here for getting the Peter Pan money. Did the Barrie estate sell out to Disney or do something stupid ?

 

No, they didn't sell out, but Disney is being their usual selves:

While I don't have the details at my fingertips, I know that a similar legal battle is being (or has been? It may all be settled by now) fought over the rights to the Winnie the Pooh characters. Disney appears to have fudged the numbers on sales of videos, merchandise, etc. to avoid paying A.A. Milne's estate tens of millions of dollars in royalties.

A full run of SA Charlton? In high grade? I'd like to see even a portion of that... do any of the other 'big name' pedigrees include substantial Charlton runs?

I've been able to find, so far, Gold Key and whatever company published the comic called "The Thing" books from the Pacific Coast so far. Hopefully I can find some more from other publishers. :\

 

Brian

Brian, if you mean "Thing!" it was published by Charlton...

That is an awesome website. I love Adams' work, especially when he pencils AND inks. I've got my copy of B&B 75, so I'm ready to help corner the market, Zonker - just say the word!

BTW, have any of you ever heard about Neal's "expanding Earth" theory? Here's a great article about Adams and the theory, from WIRED Magazine: http://www.wired.com/wired/archive/9.03/adams.html

...it's pretty loopy stuff... did the comic he was writing about this ever get published? The 'panels' that were shown in the article were the usual Adams' gold, but they were all talking heads and virtually no action... kinda like "Harvey Pekar meets Neal Adams."

1) Is any of the "lightness" on the cover of the "BB's Christmas Funnies" actually on the cover, or is that on the surface of the slab? I've got a number of high grade Dell Giants and early Four Colors, some of which have that sort of sporadic cover wear...I'm guessing the comic above is clean in that regard and these 'blemishes' are on the slab?

2) How about a "Ho-Ho-Have A Cigar" thread in the Comics General area, for Xmas holiday covers from all eras? I've got a Holiday Comics #5 with L.B. Cole Christmas cover that I'll post when I get home...

I recall reading several market reports in Overstreet stating that non-key issues of Golden Age books were becoming more and more difficult to sell at guide price (except Timely).

So is it unrealistic for a Golden age seller to realize guide prices for VG-F-VF books?

Also, will this trend continue? There will always be something desirable about the first appearence of a key character, but as the years pass will we see a distinct decline in prices paid for Golden age comics? I guess what I'm asking is will the Golden Age crash?

I'm not exactly an expert, but I do actively pursue and purchase GA books. Your question(s) are pretty open-ended... but here's an attempt to answer:

- realizing guide prices on GA stuff in VF or below is a very mixed bag. Certainly the superhero titles tend to come closer to guide prices for the most part. Then there's a sort of 'sub-category' of titles that are of interest to broader audiences. Roy Rogers, I Love Lucy, Red Ryder, Little Beaver, Lone Ranger, Bob Hope, Jerry Lewis, Annette Funicello, and many other people/characters, primarily from film and TV, tend to command prices closer to guide even when in lower grades. Many of the non-comic book collectors purchasing such items don't really care much about condition, they just want the memorabilia.

Overall, I'd say that getting 70% of guide for a VG book from the GA, if it's just an average, non-hero title, is about right. As you get into mid-grade, the % tends to come down, as the demand decreases. There simply seems to be less demand - and correspondingly lower %s of guide paid - for mid-grade than there is for low- and high-grade.

Your overall question about the current and future state of the GA market is one that I ponder from time to time, with varying results. I too worry that in another 20 years, the market for many GA titles may drop off significantly, with the further decline in awareness of those titles/characters. On the other hand, I'm an optimist, and I tend to think that comic books will always be viewed as an important category of Americana, and that in fact over time we may see the market broaden, as GA books increasingly are viewed as 'antiques' or even art by a broader portion of the consumer base. Let's face it, when you're talking about Mickey Mouse collectibles from the '30s and '40s, as just one example, comic books are one of the more accessible categories of items, because millions were printed.

I do think that in some ways Silver Age and Bronze Age books are 'safer' from an investment standpoint, simply because they're more pertinent to more people alive today, and that will hold true for the foreseeable future, I'd guess. But then you have the issues of condition and supply to offset the popularity factor...

Can you have a 'prototype issue' with a prototype of a hero or villain whose first appearance actually occured 20+ years earlier? I think not...

Yes - ST #114 qualifies merely as "first SA Captain America impersonation."

What % of the Ostreet good price do u think is reasonable to pay for a coverless GA comic complete w/ 1st wrap & centerfold? Say, a non-key issue like Action #25 with off-wht pgs?

With Off-white pages? I'd go as high as $14. Oh, wait - a NON-key, you say?

I'm not a high grade fanatic, though I strive for the highest grade I can afford. But even on a book like Tec 27, I'm kind of retentive about the damned thing being *intact*, so coverless books are nigh unto worthless to me. (I do appreciate the fact that they're more valuable to others, however. If I had just the cover to Action #25 I might go 20% of the GC price for the innards as you describe them.)

I have to admit to not never having seen a copy of the 15-cent variant of Batman before... and I'm a pretty enthusiastic Golden Age collector...

If there are only three known copies, then yes I would think a significant premium would be in order... but perhaps that's already factored into the OS Guide price? In other words, it should certainly garner a premium vs. the "regular" version of Batman 2, but given the restoration, I'd still expect it to go for a % of whatever price has been assigned to the variant by OS or any precedent-setting auctions in the past few years.

Very cool book, regardless!

"Central Command to Steel Sterling... Forget the tank battalions; skip the snipers; don't worry about the concentration camps... just SAVE THE CANDYSTRIPERS, For God's Sake!"

I think in 50 years it'll be all about Jughead, man... he's really the straw that stirs the MLJ drink I mean, you GOTTA be cool to wear a hat like that!

I love it! Do you think the Robotmen were the inspiration for those little "de-stressing" squeezable dolls that look just like them, or did the dolls come first ?

Great covers, all... I'll try to get my scanner working such that I can post a few recent acquisitions!

Yeah, I suppose if you don't have anything good to say...

 

Cheers

 

Bachelor of Comics

The above was in reference to Murph0 not negging a bad seller.

I just thought I'd take the opportunity to say *this is wrong* - I realize Murph/Brian may be referring to his early days on eBay, so this isn't directed at him; I know I was a bit leery of leaving neutral/neg feedback initially as well.

But kids, Don't Try this At Home..!!!! If you have a negative experience with a seller, and it can't be resolved through "normal diplomatic channels," such as email correspondence with the seller and the offer to return the merchandise for refund, then NEG THAT SUCKER. Better yet, if you bought multiple lots, drag the negs out over time; leave one per week or one per day, depending on the amount of stuff the seller sells.

Buyers unite - you have nothing to lose but some lousy sellers who should have read A's painted on their forehead. If you don't neg such sellers, you're doing a disservice to the rest of us buyers.

'Nuff Said.