sfcityduck

This book is a bit unto itself. It is not like the illustrated pamphlets you see from the 1950s. This is physically like a comic book, has comic style art, but is more like the one pagers you see in some comics rather than the feature stories. As I said, reasonable minds can disagree whether it is a comic book. But, it's real import is it is a DC comic format newsstand publication. It's not Batman or Superman, but it does seem to belong in the collection of a DC completest.

If you haven't seen them, those Eisner publications are definitely comics. Word balloons, multipage stories, GGA, etc. But, they are tiny thin little digests. Almost paperback size.

Sold on eBay:

Because he also does not post here anymore, here's Beerbohm's copy:

Worth noting that the indicia of Real LIfe 27 says 1945, not 1946, before the Atomic Bomb was dropped. A great typo. But, I like Real Life 27 the best because of the cover artist and the fact that it shows the history.

Depends on which Boardie you ask. Opinions here tend to vary wildly on what constitutes a "comic book" or "graphic novel." I often find myself on the more restrictive end of that debate insisting on panels, word balloons, etc. This is a comic format publication, all of the publishers other publications were clearly what all of us would call a comic book, the publication is edited by MC Gaines, it has multiple panels of art and text on most every page (some text story pages). But, it does not tell a story that progresses from page to page. But, then again, neither did New Fun 1 and many other early comic books. Reasonable minds can differ on whether it is a comic or a comic-related publication. It is mostly educational, but with a healthy dose of entertainment.

Because in the GA, DC had "affiliate" publishers like All-American Publications (which included Jolaine Publications) which were later fully absorbed into DC but did not always have DC on the cover. Examples: The point made by Ian, and I think it is a good one, is that these publications which were not originally advertised as "DC" on their cover in the GA, certainly are necessary parts of any DC collection.

Just to get things going because he does not post here any more, here's a pic of Ian Levine with what he regarded as the hardest most important trophy books of the compete DC collection. Over his left (our right) shoulder, you can see his copy of "Defend": * Rewrote post because other link broken.

Ian Levine declared when compiling his complete DC collection that "How You Can Defend Your Home!" was the rarest DC publication. There are only two copies on the census, a 3.0 and a 3.5. When the book has come up for discussion on this site in the past, the board members who then had a copy were limited to: Ian Levine Mark Zaid (Esquirecomics) Bangzoom Jerome34 Robert Beerbohm (BLBComics-Migration) I'd love to see pics, so please if any of you guys read this post a pic. In addition, the board member Baz posted he'd seen a copy with a rat chewed corner. I have only seen records for four copies being sold by a dealer: Harley Yee sold a copy to [?] in 2009 or so (not to Zaid, Jerome34 or Levine) for $1000 (previously been offered for $900) eccomic sold a copy on these boards in 2015 to [?] for an unknown amount. Worthpoint shows that a "fair" copy sold on eBay (I don't have a Worthpoint account, but there are pics, date and amount if you do). Potter & Potter's July 2017 auction included this gem: "Item 254. Gibson, Walter. A Collection of Bound Comics, including How You Can Defend Your Home: A Handbook of Air Raid Preparedness. New York: Jolaine Publications, [1941]. Illustrations by Hubert Mathieu. Bound with a collection of comics books pertaining to air force pilots, all published by Street & Smith, New York, comprising Pioneer Picture-Stories. Volume 1, nos. 6 and 7, 1943. Red Dragon. Volume 1, no. 5, Jan. 1943. Air Ace. Volume 1, no. 9-13, 1943. Bill Barnes, America’s Air Ace. Volume 1, no. 8. 8vo. Red cloth with gilt-lettered spine. From the personal library of Walter Gibson. Est. 200/400." Estimate seems laughable, love to know what it went for. Only three public institutions, two University library archives and the Library of Congress, have the book in their holdings. So it does seem pretty rare. It also does seem to be a DC publication. It is pictured on page 8 of DC Comics: A Year by Year Visual Chronicle (2010) as being published by DC. The publisher indicated on the indicia is Jolaine Publications, which was one of the All American Comics indicia publishers, appearing on the indicia of All-Flash Comics 2-26, Comic Calvacade 26, and Green Lantern Comics 1-23. The editor is denoted as M.C. Gaines! (The writer is Edward Gruskin and artist is Hubert Matheiu). The below ad for the book appeared in All-Flash 4 and 5 This or a different ad for the book may have appeared in Batman 10, Sensation 4, All-American 37-39, All-Star 10-11, and Green Lantern 3 (all in April through June 1942). Here's my copy (found in the wild two days ago): Please note: All known copies of this comic found in the wild have a hole punched or drilled somewhere in the upper left corner, presumably so it could have been hung from a string or wire. It is rumored DC might have an unpunched copy in their archives. Who else is presently a member of this club?

I'll give you this. The idea might have value as a greeting car or Star Registry product. But it does not have value, in my eyes, as a way to collect comics or invest.

You should use a Daffy Duck avatar. LOL! But, my statement remain unaddressed.

No, I'm saying your analogy was horrible. The purpose of buying a greeting card or a Star Registry is NOT to make money. They are apples and oranges. You are sinking on this one.

All you get to choose is what fractional share you choose to purchase. You don't get to choose what Action 1 you get a fractional share in. You don't get to choose how long to hold it. You don't get to choose the price at which it sells. You have no personal attributes of ownership. You are not a "collector," but a speculator under this fractional share scheme. And, no one will be impressed by your 1/10th of 1% fractional share interest in an Action 1.

Dumbest analogy ever. Star Registry is not claiming to be an "investment" by which you can gain money. It's basically a greeting card type product. The product is intended to be given as a gift to make others feel good. Star Registry has no commonality with GA comic collecting. I'm more than a bit shocked anyone would claim that.

And, yet, that is exactly what you are advocating because it is Rally, not you, that picks the comic and possesses it.

When was the MPFW sale? I missed that one. Details please. Or was this just the OPG moving up a price without supporting data?

I saw an article which stated the "manager" holds "at least a 10% interest" in each asset.

Only 8 public sales have topped $1 million. 5 Action 1, 1 D27, 1 MC 1, 1 AF 15 (and that appears an outlier now).

Every comic book acquisition is a "purchase". I think the term "investing" gets thrown around a little too loosely in this context.

Notable that while taxes were withheld for someone, it was not "taxes related to the gain on the sale for any individual members" (e.g. could have been for the manager's taxes?). I have not read the prospectus, but it sure seems based on this disclosure that there are costs to the investors that they would not have if they just bought their own collectibles directly from other collectors or dealers.

I completely agree. But owning a fraction of a share in a minority ownership interest in a comic book is the same to me as owning stock in Marvel or DC. In neither example do I own a comic book. I just own an intangible ownership interest. I can't pull out my comic, show it off, read it, admire it, register it, or anything else if all I got is a fractional interest (especially if a minority interest) with no attributes of possession or control.

A LOT of financial folks will tell you that buying collectibles is materially different than investing in a company because a company generates revenue and a comic book has no intrinsic atributes upon which "value" can be derived. It's value is due to irrational attachment (just like art and many other collectibles). This doesn't mean that folks can't make money buying and selling comics, as they obviously do (so too with art and other collectables). It does mean, however, that assessing the value of the investment and its upside is far far far more an art form than assessing the value of a stock. The value of a collectible is a product of nostalgia, coolness, the joy that ownership brings the possessor. A stock's value doesn't derive from any of those things. So when you make a comic book into something that is intangible and cannot be possessed, you have, I think, divorced that collectible from its only true appeal. Doing that seems like a recipe for disaster. Because if you think of a comic an "investment," you will start to analyze its value with your head, not your heart, and your head is going to be telling buyers a far different message than their hearts.

I don't anyone who owns TWX or DIS stock who is going to boast about owning a piece of the comics and art in the DC or Disney or Marvel Archives, the DC or Marvel character rights, or the other things that those stocks represent. I'm not sure why a "fractional ownership" interest in a comic book would satisfy anyone's ego or create any boasting rights that would exceed ownership of TWX and DIS. Collecting comics, which are a markedly different things than a stock ownership interest, is satisfying for collectors because they like objects, not intangibles. Why do you focus on the notion you can "get yourself a cheap reprint" of Action 1? You could, after all, just access one of the many free readable copies on the internet. The answer, my friend, is because even you want to own something tangible, not just an intangible interest or electronic images publicly available.

This is not big books for small players. As far as I can tell, and feel free to correct me, this is somebody buying a comic for $X, then selling fractional shares in that comic. Which means that they are likely making their money by overly agressively pricing the IPO of the comic or are retaining an interest and basically finding underwriters to take on their initial investment so their share is "house money." I really don't like this model at all. And I'm not impressed by their offerings. I would not do this until I have gone through their prospectus with a fine tooth comb. Meanwhile, my 17 year old kid turned has turned $3,500 into $13,500 in a month by investing in Covid-19 vaccine company stock options, and just bought his first contract for Amazon options. Demonstrating that if you want to play securities, which is what this is, not owning comic books, there are far more lucractive ways to make money that might actually put you into the position to buy outright the comic that you think is a good fractional share investment. At the very least, get back to me when then these guys sell one of these comics and can show a return for the investors so we can compare their performance with securities investments.

Aside from dealers pooling some money to buy a comic for a relatively quick resell, I would be shocked if this ever became a thing. Too many legal complications, too much expense, not enough profit, and none of the satisfaction of actually owning a comic.