ghoulaid

WOW! Makes me want to dig out some of my sweet Timelys and post them.

Timelys are great - my favorite Golden Age company!

Looks "sweet" to me! Appears solid with nice eye appeal for a "mere" VG.

Great covers Shiver and Timely! On Superman #14 I never noticed before the faint images of military equipment in the background. Ditko, Crandall and Barks are all deserving of their reputations. The art is inspiring. Though none of these recent posted examples are super high grade, it proves that VG's deserve love too and get it ...from me!

 

I don't understand what the problem is here. The issue date shows February 1946 which usually means that the book must have been on sale around late November or December of 1945. This is in line with the date stamp of December 1945.

 

Books have always been available on the newsstand a couple of months prior to the actual date indicated on the cover. I believe the cover date is supposed to represent when the news dealers were to remove the books and send them back to the distributors.

You are right on the money here. Comics always had arrival dates from between 2-3 months from the cover date. The cover date actually is the date that a book was to be removed from sale to make room for the newer books and to get credit for unsold copies. The Edgar Church copies (for example) are very interesting because of the arrival dates in addition to how many copies were ordered.

One of the 1st Golden Age I ever bought - paid $17 for it. The pages are still white.

Thanks, guys! After looking at these books for the 1st time in years I'm starting to think Nedors are underrated compared to other Golden Age companies. Here's a nice Schomburg cover:

That was fun . . .lets go to the other end of the spectrum with this...(I've always liked this cover)

The Nedor characters may be in public domain and Bill Black uses them as he see fit. We've seen Startling #50 and #60. If I do this right, here's #70 with Frazetta art (inside):

I have a bunch of Nedors that I'll see if I can dig out. Most of mine are early issues though, pre Shomburg. Don't know about super high grade though. Still want to see 'em?

I've never seen a Timely comic except from pictures (am 36 and only moved to the US 10 years ago). If you were to point a novice collector to a single issue of any title in order to get him excited about that publisher, what would it be? Joanna recommended Wonder Woman #28 for that title, for example.

I know this question was directed at Timely but thought I would offer an opinion - I have a very difficult time selecting a TITLE let alone a single issue! After mulling it over I would probably sample an early issue of Marvel Mystery (1-35) to get the best feel for the company. There you get The Human Torch and Sub-Mariner and can compare their early versions with their later Marvel incarnations.

Captain America is extremely popular so you might prefer one of those. Personally, I always liked the oddball Timelys like Daring, Mystic and USA and prefered going after those. All Winners gives you all 3 stars (plus my fave - The Destroyer in some issues). It's so hard to pick just one!

Batman has one of the best designed costumes ever (as does Superman). He's not wearing gloves in those panels - was this common for him in very early appearances?

Someone say More Fun?

Next is USA #5, Incredible Hitler, Tojo Hussilini cover as they threaten Churchhill. CGC 9.2 Chicago copy.

 

Timely

The Victory Boys look like pixies. No wonder they never lasted. Still, that's one of the USA's I still need. Great book!

Congrats! At one time I was buying Black Magic for a friend of mine who wanted a complete set. Most of them went through my hands but I don't remember that cover! If it wasn't for collectors these things would be lost to the ages. That would be a shame. Good job!

I much prefer collecting Batman over Superman (Golden Age). As a character, I've always liked Batman more. And, you're right, Batman covers are much more appealing. At one time I was only 20 issues shy of completeing the Batman run. However, when it came time to drop a bunch of money for one book, Superman #1 won out. The historical importance of Superman outweighed Batman (to me) and I chose Superman #1 as the cornerstone of my collection. Glad I did. I'm sure others feel the same way regarding Superman's importance.

All nice books but that Detective is a real beauty!

Golden Age I was advised many years ago to spend as much as I could afford on the best condition books. That's great advice but I didn't really follow it because I'd only own about 20 comics now if I had. I always tried to get as many books as I could in F/VF or better with however much money I had instead of blowing all on one book. This was pre CGC days so paying many multiples of guide wasn't usually a problem like it is today.

You can't go wrong buying DC and Timely superhero titles. All other companies are 2nd tier and I would say Fiction House is 3rd tier (Planet is cool though). I always prefered anthology titles over others: Flash over All Flash, All American over Green Lantern, Marvel Mystery over Human Torch for example. That's just me. I like the variety. The most valuable comics have always been Action #1, Marvel Comics #1 and Detective #27 - all anthologies. As much as I like titles like Speed, Startling and Thrilling, I would stay away from those for investment purposes. Stick with DC, Timely: Action, Detective, Marvel Mystery are proven winners. Nothing wrong with All Star, Adventure, Mystic, USA, etc either. Sounds like you're going to have FUN!

According to an older issue of CBG - "Squirrel Hill Institute of Technology". I think it was a joke though.

In addition to older comics, I collect non-sports cards (Wacky Packs, etc) but especially Bazooka Joe and other gum comics. This is a much overlooked field of comic collecting. Close to 2,000 different Bazooka Joe's were made from 1954-1977 and I'm only missing about a dozen.