sfcityduck

Who did the art? Copp also did the Atomic Revolution. And was an agent of Noel Sickles.

Top of his head.

Check out pages on this “c code” book being offered raw as having “Ohio pedigree markings”. https://www.ebay.com/itm/325711068921?itmmeta=01HQTRRTXSWM1T75H75K0WWJCB&hash=item4bd5e47ef9:g:3fIAAOSw89lkm6AA&itmprp=enc%3AAQAIAAAA4JFiz3zF3KRYL4dLbVlxzoJgJKfttql2veMifr9VL%2FpXRwTe8Fo9YMMceyJqsKSfqkUZXCKxB5NZriqKn60p7CbInuRlDTYPvzjGtlgtQoC9W2MwwU7ftYn0gPevkr7zRvaaF7sf2Ea5j72YBkx0NlAN8zHlRoAqLbmIkuGQMCbAHDKaHEqBRHMDcgc2EE1aDFJuHGXg29uoBWq8%2BqOiNC6v6fFgdOohH43zkr9cQ3Y3qAhWV9E3GXW4YQ75bgzjNZofZJYOwwcgeu4C8RbeZOiq7UIJZl0FAZfulwP4DCH0|tkp%3ABk9SR_6u49i-Yw

I just noticed something sort of cool. This pic of Gaines and Feldstein: Why cool? Because I haven't seen very many racks that look like that. In fact, searching around, the only rack with that shape I was able to find is this one: Makes sense that the son of Max Gaines would have a GA DC rack and that he'd pull the signs off and use it to rack up his own comics. I'd take a bet on that!

Does this look close enough? It sure does to me: It's a Promise. What about this?: Also, a Promise. This? Promise. On the other hand, this Ohio doesn't look close enough (but surely more than one person must have been writing those codes): You cannot identify an Ohio based on the code. End of story. CGC might as well say all "c code" books are escapees from the Promise Collection (which also had a lot of K code books, perhaps because it was closer to Cleveland than Akron).

This is what I hate about CGC. The Ohio Pedigree refers to books bought by a specific OO who sold the books in 1994. The only identifying marking is a distributor mark (or maybe store mark) for books sold in the Akron area. Obviously, EVERY BOOK SOLD BY THAT DISTRIBUTOR (or store) WOULD HAVE THE SAME MARKS! But only the books sold by the OO to the dealer in 1994 who brought the pedigree to market would be part of the pedigree. So if you have a different OO who was buying books in the Akron area in the 1950s and sold them prior to or after the time the Ohio pedigree surfaced in 1994, it is quite likely those OO books would have the same Akron distributor (or store) marks. IN FACT, the Promise Collection includes books with the Akron distributor (or store) "c code" marks - not surprising since the OO was near that area. That doesn't make the Promise books with "c codes" or any other Akron area books part of the "Ohio Pedigree." For CGC to presume to "certify" that a "c code" book is an Ohio without any additional information justifying certainty of that designation is, frankly, stupidly dishonest. If treated the same as some treat the Mile High and SF pedigrees, Ohio would now also be known the by the OO's name (after all, the dealer bought them directly from the OO and presumably knew his name). If so, and if folks were more wary about identifying a pedigree solely by a widely used distributor mark, then maybe we would not have this problem. But, as it is, pedigrees will be watered down quickly if just sharing a distributor mark is good enough.

Not sure that a book from that Pedigree, located up near the Canadian border with a lot of travel into and out of Canada around that town, should be considered evidence the comic was sold in the US.

By "sold under duress" they are referring to the fact, for example, that the Nazis forced Jewish art dealers to auction their inventories below market and jews fleeing Nazi Germany had to sell their paintings to fund payment of the “Reich flight tax” imposed in 1931 to prevent capital leaving Germany that the Nazis exploited to seize the assets of Jews escaping persecution. Doesn't seem at all ridiculous to me. We're not talking about someone selling art because of their own self-imposed problems, but due to unjust external forces. A few years ago, the Houston Museum of Fine Arts is at the center of a storm since it was donated a painting in 1961 with a clouded title - the painting had been found by the famous "Monuments Men." It was one of three that had been sold by the same owner to the Germans and was to be put into a museum Hitler was creating. It ended up in the mines in which the "Monuments Men" found a huge stash of art. Germany returned two of the paintings to the seller's heirs after the government’s Advisory Commission on Nazi-looted art determined that the the seller was a victim of the “systematic destruction of people’s economic livelihoods by the Third Reich as a tool of Nazi racial policy.” Strangely, the Houston Museum wanted to retain the painting. That's led to some misinformation on the internet as people debated the issues. In my book, the Houston Museum was way out of line. I don't find the "sold under duress" standard, recognized by many countries, as ridiculous at all. But that standard has nothing to do with stolen comics in the US. And as for stolen comics, you have to ask yourself this. If instead of being found in a locker and identified by Fishler, the "Cage copy" of Action 1 had been found in the locker and bought by someone at a locker auction, should Cage have been denied the return of his stolen comic? Tough question but there is right answer. I can think of several pedigrees that may have been stolen comics (but not the ashcans referenced above which came from an employee/manager's personal collection - DC had its own archive with its copies of the ashcans and I've never any accusation they were stolen). But I know of no attempts by heirs to recover stolen comics. So this appears to be a non-issue. Sadly, when it comes to acquiring art and collectibles, economic motives can cause people to overlook the simple ethical answers due to their desire to obtain or retain the objects.

Marty, Your thread has 142 pages. Keep the title. The thread is now an institution.

Marty, Always happy to see your posts! But everytime I see that contest winners announcement, I want to start taking bets on which one you are. I hope that some day you will share in a bit more detail about your early comic collecting days. Of course, I love your thread - linked here for others: And if you ever want to cash in on your Pep 60, let me know because I'd love to have a copy associated with a winner of that contest. (My advice though is keep it in the family! What a great bit of family history!).

Hell, here it is. A very interesting summation of what's on this thread (but there is more to come). The key line?: "Comics didn't save him." Here's the article: A Snail’s Pace At long last, after many a long day on the tractor and a long night at the computer box, the promised post on David Pace Wigransky. I am finally ready to dissect the second real-world personage mentioned in this stupid little one week arc from ten years ago from a defunct comic strip that literally no one else on this earth but you guys, me, and the writer himself, cares about. ARE YOU EXCITED? To recap, since this has been an overwrought process of dragging things out that would make even GRRM and Patrick Rothfuss blush. Day One: Chullo Head to Skunky: “Did u here vidya gamez iz bad 4 kidz?” Day Two: Skunky to Chullo Head: “Did u no in 1950’s dude said comix wuz bad 4 kidz?” Day 3: Skynky to Nobuddy: “Videya Gamerz are against the system dude.” Day 4: Video Gamers and Comic Readers = People wrongly accused and hanged for witchcraft. Day 5. Chullo: Did no one stand up for poor little comic books? Skunky: Yes, a literal child man. And that brings us to today, the last day of that week, and my last post on this stupid subject. Neat and tidy and preachy. So you know there’s something wrong with this story. I had to know the truth. And my research tangled me into a multitiered web of intersecting obsessives and obsessions. My first Google journey on Wigransky, (born Sidney David Wigransky, Jr.) led quickly to the comic book collectors chat forum of the Certified Guaranty Company. There, an incredibly and wonderfully obsessed poster going by the handle ‘sfcityduck’ had already done all the hard work for me. He’d gone on a multi-year frenzy of fact-finding on the life of David Pace Wigransky and this post will really just be a belabored summation of his exhaustive work. I can’t reinvent the wheel when this man has already built an atomic superwheel capable of crushing millions. So sfcityduck, whoever you are, I salute you good sir. Here is a link to the forum thread itself. Come for the thesis level research on an obscure subject, stay for the typical forum slapfight. First, a little clarification. In this arc Batiuk lays it out as if David Wigransky wrote his rebuttal directly to Seduction of the Innocent, published in 1954. But this isn’t true. Wigransky was writing in response to an article by Dr. Wertham published in May 1948 edition of Saturday Review. The arguments in the article, “The Comics…Very Funny,” are nearly identical to the more detailed arguments from Wertham’s later book. David Wigransky’s rebuttal was also written in 1948 and excerpts of it were published in the July edition of Saturday Review of that same year. Why only excerpts? Well, according to at least one news article sfcityduck found, little Davey’s rebuttal was tens of thousands of words long. Tens, of thousands, of words. Obviously, David Pace Wigransky was far from an average comic book reading kid. Here’s a picture of him in 1948, in his comic book room. sfcityduck points out all the interesting facts he can surmise from the comic room picture. Due to sfcityduck’s research, we know that Wigransky wasn’t just a kid picking up his favorite issues at the newsstand to read. He collected back issues, he wrote to artists and writers, he put out ads in newspapers hundreds of miles from where he lived looking for more old comics. He was an obsessive nerd, full stop. The other thing I’d like to point out is the tone and vocabulary of Wigransky’s insanely long letter. It’s written at a beyond a college level. And to my modern, meme-rotted brain seems almost overly wordy and pedantic. I don’t know if it’s an adolescent over-emphasizing a style that he thinks will give his arguments more weight, or if this is just how all snooty doctoral dissertations were written in 1948. But the kid is obviously very well read in more than just fiction. It’s easy to see why Wigransky became the darling and poster boy for comic book supporters at the time. Other adults had written very well reasoned and educated arguments against Wertham. Other children had sent letters saying they read comics and they were fine. But here was the two combined. Wigransky’s letter got several shout outs across different publications and newspapers. He was quoted, by name, in an editorial included in the pages of most Marvel/Timely comics published in February and March 1949. The editorial was likely penned by then editor-in-chief, Stan Lee. Wigransky was even gifted original art by comics artists like Joe Simon and Jack Kirby. Wigransky’s letter was quoted again during the 1954 hearings of the Senate Subcommittee on Juvenile Delinquency, which led to comics publishers adopting the Comics Code Authority. But what became of David Pace Wigransky, that precocious whiz-kid? Did he ever become a comic author and artist like he’d hoped? Nope, he became a juvenile delinquent. At least according to himself in his self-published 1963 novel, Raising Hell, written under the psuedonym Dave Jay. The book is full of his art and illustrations which sfcityduck says show Wolverton and Crumb influence. The only comic we have of his creation is “The Uncanny Adventures of (I Hate) Dr. Wertham.” Written some time in the late 40’s. It was discovered about ten years ago in the archives of the National Cartoonist Society by Professor Carol Tilley. Professor Tilley covers the plot of the 22-page handmade comic book in this guest post on the Ohio State University Libraries blog. Of note, “Wertham realizes the error of his anti-comics argument. He endeavors to retract it, but in doing so, he is professionally disgraced and left penniless. The comic ends with Wertham trading in the last of his worldly possessions for a revolver, which he uses to kills himself on a pier.” If only Wertham had known his poster boy critic harbored such a dark revenge fantasy. In 1951, Dave Wigransky graduated high school. His father died in 1955. I didn’t see any mention of Dave going to college in sfcityduck’s posts. Rather he seems to have spent the 50’s drinking and partying with his friends all while still living with his mother. He only moved out of his mother’s house in the late 60’s, a few years before he died. He spent most of his life in the D.C. area except for a time in 1966 when he lived in Berkeley CA. So Dave built a persona for himself, complete with a costume of a leather jacket and hat, such that years later people still remembered him. On the sleeve of a 45 record he self-released in 1960, we can see him in his costume of choice, the same one worn by the lantern jawed biker on his novel’s cover. Wanna hear the voice of Dead Skunk Head’s hero? Why a record? Though sfcityduck found evidence via ads and personals that Dave still collected comics through the 50’s and early 60’s, Dave Wigransky had another obsession at the time in record collecting. Specifically old jazz records and even more specifically the vaudevillian, Al Jolson. You know, THIS Al Jolson Among the Al Jolson fan community that existed then, and still exists, Dave ‘Jay’ was THE superfan. He had the biggest collection, the most records, and all the facts and trivia. He put on a DJ show where he played old wax records of vaudeville and jazz and provided commentary. By ’67 Wigransky’s love of Jolson had completely supplanted his love of comics, sfcityduck managed to contact a fellow Jolson fan who’d visited Wigransky in 1967. Dave ‘Jay’ Wigransky never married, and seemed to have trouble connecting with women. Though he did put some suspect personal ads into the local newspapers looking for love. “WANTED: Beautiful girl partner (all girls are beautiful) with whom to join sexual freedom league and/or anyone willing to lend, share or (as last resort) rent a typewriter so that I can write the greatest satire on humanity since “Gulliver’s Travels.”” sfcityduck, taking all his research and correspondence together, comes to the conclusion that Dave Wigransky was smart, funny, obsessive, opinionated and occasionally difficult. In 1969, Sidney David Wigransky Jr. died at the age of 36. Since then some rumours have said he died of stomach cancer, some said of an brain aneurysm. But sfcityduck found that it was very likely Dave had taken his own life. In an Al Jolson Collectors publication he found a memorial from one of Dave’s friends and fellow collectors, Maynard Bertolet. His mother, Lillian, sold her home in DC in 1970 and moved back to her childhood hometown in Mississippi. She died in 1988 at the age of 93. And it was this sad revelation that made this post so daunting, and difficult for me to finally get out. Because David Pace Wigransky, the plucky kid that Tom Batiuk decided was the hero of his little morality play, was such a tragic, interesting, and enigmatic character. There was a refrain that echoed in my head for the last month, as I drove tractors in the dark, as I checked cows, as I wolfed down turkey and schmoozed with family. Comics didn’t save him. I had a long conversation with my roommate about it. Comparing Wigransky’s life with Wertham’s. And from a cruel and cold part of my brain came the view that Wigransky had lived a selfish life, and Wertham a selfless one. Wigransky seeming a spoiled only-child who never held down a job, bouncing from one self-aggrandizing project and obsession, determined to be noticed and praised in his own narrow circles, until he selfishly took his own life, leaving his mother childless. Wertham, by contrast, had a wife and a career where he sought to guide others who desperately needed help through their darkest moments. He lived a long life, and for better (desegregation) and worse (the 50’s comics collapse) had an larger than normal impact on the world. But that isn’t fair. People who knew Wertham describe how he was a proud, sometimes petty, man, who was put-out when he felt like his work wasn’t getting what he thought was the proper respect. And Wigransky is remembered fondly by his friends. His research, as niche as it was, remains important to its audience. And we don’t know what darkness or issues let Dave to take his life. Wigransky’s later life also doesn’t invalidate the points he made in his letter against Wertham in 1948. Because those points were based on logic. Violence existed before comics. Violent stories existed before comics. And the vast majority of children still turned out alright. These things remain true. But comics didn’t save Dave Wigransky. Not that I think they did much to hurt him either. His concurrent Al Jolson obsession shows that Wigransky was the kind of guy who was going to absolutely go full nerd-mode over something. If it hadn’t been comics it would have been stamps, rocks, westerns, movies, paperbacks, trains. Modern armchair psychologists would probably say he was a high functioning autist. I think modern armchair psychologists would probably be right. I know better than anyone the absolute refuge a nerdy obsession can be. There have been dark and stressful times in my life where knowing the names of all the Aerialbots or being able to recount the entire history of dragons in Middle-Earth served a soothing distraction from a life that had become too much. But I’ve seen other people who let a nerdy obsession trap them. People who can’t face and accept the average awkward autist they are, because they’ve overdosed on the highfalutin world they spend all their time in. People who won’t get jobs, won’t move on, won’t grow beyond a selfish comfort zone, because all they want is to be the famous actor, artist, or writer, they just HAVE to be or their life becomes meaningless. Even though they lack the real talent or drive to achieve that state. Even though their life, as is, could be rewarding, fun, and full of real and tangible gifts to give to others. In the best cases, fun little obsessions have led me to friendships that have been the real lifesaver when things get grim. Dave Wigransky made friends through his fandoms too, it seems, even if in the end those weren’t the lifesaver he needed. Ironically, maybe what he needed was a psychiatrist. A professional. Like a drowning man needs a lifeguard, not his untrained friends. Comics didn’t save David Pace Wigransky. And he was far from the perfect poster child of all a young comic fan could be. It’s not a simple story of Wertham bad, Wigransky good, comics good, censorship bad. As much as Batiuk wants it to be. It’s a complex tale of real and complex humans, and of what fiction can and can’t do for people. Next time! I promise! Stupid NONSENSE!

I would be good with the following commentary on following linked site as my obit (a long time from now): https://sonofstuckfunky.com/2023/11/28/a-snails-pace/ Aside from the nice comment, read the link for the very good summation of the Wigransky story.

I should add the seller does a good job of paraphrasing parts of this thread: First (and only) edition of this rare, extravagant novel of pre-Beat teen hooliganism by the legendary ex-Teen who stood up to the anti-comic-book moral panic of Dr. Frederic Wertham. A juvenile delinquent book for delinquent juveniles. One of life's great Teens, "Dave Jay" was the pen name of David Pace Wigransky, a shining figure in the history of comic book censorship. As a precocious 14 year old, his indignant rebuttal to the malevolent and over-excitable psychiatrist Dr. Frederic Wertham was published in the May 1948 Saturday Review of Literature, defending the autonomy of the teen mind and its right to discern and choose: "It is high time that society waken up to the fact that children are human beings with opinions of their own," he wrote. The essay that outraged him was Wertham's "The Comics.Very Funny!", which would form the basis of his infamous SEDUCTION OF THE INNOCENT (1954), which culminated in Senate hearings and the creation of the Comics Code Authority. Wigransky's defense of freedom on behalf of his own generation has been cited by an approving Stan Lee and holds a permanent place in comics history. Wigransky was a busy adolescent, however, and produced not only furiously cogent letters but comic books of his own, including the recently uncovered 27-page "The Uncanny Adventures of (I Hate) Dr. Wertham" (as Sterling South). Known in his hometown as Beer Dave, "a notorious Hot Shop habitue who wore a black leather motorcycle jacket festooned with beer can openers," alumni newsletters would trade bemused updates on his doings in later years. A record as well as a comic collector, Wigransky issued a novelty single, "Me For President," in 1956 (as Dave Jay), advertised his "DEEJAY SHOW - 'BIG TIME ON WAX'" in Billboard in '62, and would later publish an Al Jolson discography. Always slightly out of step with the times, this novel (which is confirmed as Wigransky's via copyright records) was his most ambitious and perhaps mistimed project of all - celebrating one raging generation of youth just as another was on the ascendancy. RAISING HELL's only semi-contemporary review came from the author's old schoolmate and then-manager of Country Joe and the Fish, who wrote of hearing a rumor "one rainy evening that Beer Dave was writing a book about Bethesda that told it like it was." RAISING HELL was that book: its heroes were "the hard guys who swore at the teachers and blew up the principal's house, the people whose history is found in a few headlines and sensational detective story magazines. The generation who were setting the stage for the beatniks." Self-published by Wigransky (who died in 1969 at the age of 36) with the notorious Vantage Press, the book is scarce in the market. OCLC finds just ten scattered copies. 8'' x 5.5''. Original black cloth with gilt-lettered spine. Pictorial endpapers. In original unclipped ($5.50) pictorial dust jacket. Illustrated in black and white by the author throughout. 544 pages. Jacket lightly edgeworn with some chipping. Book with some shelfwear at extremities and light spotting to fore-edge. Stain to top edge. Overall, sound. Very good minus in a very good jacket.

More of Wigransky's comics as bound by Russ Cochran after he bought them straight from Dave:

For any Wigransky fans out there - here's an opportunity (no affiliation to me and my copy is not for sale): https://www.abebooks.com/servlet/BookDetailsPL?bi=31735993981&searchurl=kn%3Dwigransky%26sortby%3D17&cm_sp=snippet-_-srp1-_-title1

That may be the most awesome post on this site ever!

ow, with a preference for at least ow-w. If I'm going to buy a slabbed book, I want the book to last a long long time. I'm not interested in buying a decaying book (or worse yet a page) just so I can feel I can check a box on a list of comics I want. My personal enjoyment derives from enjoying the book not checking a list. And if I'm going to buy an unslabbed book, I want the book to be robust enough for me to read. Having said that, if you buy unslabbed books over the internet you are going to end up with some books that are cream and worse. So I have books below ow in my collection. And,

You really put in a great effort on this! I have to say that there has been a LOT of healthy skepticism on this thread about the Bette story (me included). These included observations about how the Chicago story was impossible due to the date that certain comics were issued. As I once posted: Having said that, you looked beyond some conventional wisdom that blinded others and have come up with an interesting theory that may well be correct. You took the time to research the original documents. I am super happy to see more of this kind of research effort. I've gone on my quests, and its nice to see others putting in this effort. Congrats! I do think a lot of folks have been misdirected because what other "in the know" collectors have said. So how does your theory account for Alan Bahr's story that: "he found a letter neatly folded inside Tip Top #102, written by the young girl while in the internment camp. She described life in the camp, which fascinated Alan so much he began to actively pursue the other parts of the collection."? As I understand it, that letter was written by Bette and was the source of his handwriting comparison. Did Alan give you some better info or have you seen the letter? (I hate handwriting comparisons. Back then everyone was learning cursive by copying. So a lot of handwriting looked similar. There are Bette examples that seem to match up if you are into that kind of thing. I'm not.) I'm also curious if you've dug deeper into the the family relationships. It looks like Bette and Jayne were just a year apart in age, right?. So they must have been in H.S. within a year of each other. Have you found a yearbook with both of them in it? Also, it is worth noting that Bette Okajima married Toshio Nakamura. There was a Toshio Nakamura of Woodlake, CA, who was interned in Poston. Interestingly, Niles Masamuro "Happy" Okajima married Janis Shima Nakamura of Woodlake, CA (Toshio of Woodlake's sister given their ID numbers and ages). Finally, I'm curious if the family recalls a yard/estate sale or any comics? Bette's family adamantly denied that the family would ever hold a yard/estate sale. It may have been a cultural thing (which would cut against your theory). On the other hand, one of Bette's closer relatives denied there was ever a comic collection in Sanger at all (which could support your theory). One last point: I've seen a fair number of pictures of comics in internment camps and I've never seen a "ledger" marking. I do agree that the markings are probably in the nature of a store mark for returns (like a date received stamp) but I'm having trouble believing it was more than that. I'd be curious to see pics of comics in Poston. I haven't gone to look, but someone should. Or you could ask the Poston internees group if they have info on comics. I think you advanced the ball and maybe got the right family but I'm not sure the story on this pedigree is done being told.

Hariri's second purchased Action 1 9.0 (sold by Adams) makes me say Hmmmmmm. Spine splits top and bottom. Piece almost falling out on bottom of spine. Divot on interior pages that looks like it extends through the book.

Funny thing is, I've seen certain pulps graded for years. There's four copies of the LB Cole cover pulp "A How-To Book" issue 7 ("Complete How-To Book of Space") on the census.

Yep.

The other 8.0 is the Larson. The other 8.5 is this: It sold for a bit over $2M in 2018. Resold in 2021 for $3.25 million. Which 8.5 is better? I guess we're going to see how big an impact the Pandemic had on perceptions of value.

My favorite quests are for comics that are so rare you are lucky to see one in a collecting career and owning two is unthinkable. But like everyone else I end up with dupes. Most of the time when I have dupes its just temporary while in the process of upgrading or downgrading (I do both) or picking up multiples of an undervalued comics for short term resale to fund stuff for the core collection. But lately I have found myself liking certain obtainable books enough to pick up multiple copies. Usually its because the books have a cool cover. Lately I've also gotten into covers by great comic artists that you can't find in the U.S.: GA Swedish innuendo (it just looks wrong); GA awesome Australian Hal Foster covers (unbelievably cool - why wasn't there a GA Prince Valiant with Foster art? Puts most everyone else to shame); GA Barks cover for one of his best stories only seen in Italy (who knew?). And sometimes its because I'm looking for comics off the beaten path (don't mock my desire for less seen Silver/Bronze/Copper comics!) and it turns out you find more copies than you expected: Iron Giant Preview Variant Cover (yeah that fits into my nostalgia) and Dennis the Menace and the Bible Kids 10 (only 1 copy of either on Census). As long as you make it interesting for yourself, it's all good.

May be a torn piece folded inward.