sfcityduck

I think that article misspells his name. I think it is Peter Sidlow of VCA Auctions. Perhaps Mitch would know, as my guess is that Theo knows him since he deals in those old coin-ops.

I wish I could post the picture, but all I can do is link the image of the newspaper article and photo. Click here: http://news.google.com/newspapers?id=YWQhAAAAIBAJ&sjid=DYcFAAAAIBAJ&pg=751,1260704&dq=comic+book&hl=en If you clicked, what you see is a February 9, 1966 article about Leonard Brown bidding less than $5 on a trunk in a storage locker auction that yielded what he estimated to be $10,000 worth of comics. The accompanying photo shows Brown holding Batman 1 and Superman 1. A related LA Times articles quotes Brown as stating that the collection was "mint" and included complete pre-1943 runs of Batman, Superman, Captain Marvel and "Flash Gordon" (?). Brown was planning to sell the run of Batman 1-30 for $1,000. http://news.google.com/newspapers?id=Q2hkAAAAIBAJ&sjid=oXwNAAAAIBAJ&pg=1097,2422946&dq=comic+book&hl=en The first comic pulled from the trunk was Hi-Spot 1 which Brown pegged as being a $100 comic, on par with the very best of the other issues in the trunk, because it contained an ERB story. Times have changed. But the dream remains the same.

I would bet money that photo is from a mid-late 60s comic convention. The way to confirm that would be to just run a search on the NYT archive.

I love Krigstein. Thanks, yet again, for sharing. There's a reason this thread will soon be hitting the big one five zero zero.

BangZoom is my nominee for the "Poster Who Most Spreads The Joy of Comics and Pulps EVER"!

I'm with you tb, after reading Barks' FCs, the b&w and modern colored Barks' Library editions just didn't cut it. In contrast, Fantragraphics coloring (and paper) really does give the feel of reading the original comics! The Barks "Lost in the Andes" book is undoubtably the best collection of classic comic book material in a long long long time. It will rack up some Eisner awards. And with an initial price point at less than half the cost of Archives and Masterworks ($24.99), yielding Amazon prices as low as $12.49, this is the book that will garner Barks new heights in popularity because it not only getting great reviews, but is affordable for the casual buyer.

Great story! The "Spicer Willits" part I mean. Not that the Barks isn't also a great story!

I think I own the rarest modern comic book. I believe only one copy was ever made. But it is not some insignificant fanzine type comic or manufactured collectible (e.g. a "limited edition" or "variant cover"). It actually has a significant history as it's publication caused the NCAA to ban any college or University from ever doing a similar comic again. The comic book got extensive media coverage. You can read a write up about it in Sports Illustrated here: http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/2008/writers/andy_staples/06/19/recruiting.main/ And Sports Illustrated actually posted scans of the complete comic here: http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/multimedia/photo_gallery/0806/cfb.oregon.comic.book/content.1.html From SI: "Gilmore enlisted Oregon students Brett Kautter, Heather Terry and Brian Merrell to create a one-of-a-kind recruiting tool that -- while still adhering to NCAA rules -- would make recruits think of Oregon as the nation's coolest program. So when Oregon coaches identified their top 20 prospects for the class of 2005, Gilmore and his staff designed custom comic books starring each recruit as the hero who leads the Ducks to a national title. Because NCAA rules at the time only allowed programs to send letter-sized, black-and-white pages to recruits, Gilmore sent each prospect one page a week. After a few months, the recruit had the full comic book. And when that recruit came to Eugene for an official visit, he would find the bound, full-color book sitting on a table, possibly alongside a fake Sports Illustrated cover -- attached to a real copy of the magazine -- featuring the prospect wearing an Oregon uniform and holding the Heisman Trophy. Recruits loved the books, and they helped the Ducks land several stars. For example, Jonathan Stewart didn't lead the Ducks to a national title the way he did in Snoop: A Hero Is Born, but he did become the school's second-leading rusher in just three seasons. Before they could immortalize the class of 2006 in graphic-novel form, Gilmore and his team received the ultimate backhanded compliment -- the NCAA banned the books." I have the Jonathon Stewart comic, which was printed up solely to show to Jonathon (now with the Carolina Panthers) on his official visit to Oregon, but not to give to him to keep (as that would have violated NCAA rules). It was obtained from the UO athletic department. I'm curious if anyone think it has any value given its interesting history and Jonathon's decent college and NFL career.

It seems unlikely in these cases. In the case of the PR 18 the other bidder leapfrogged over me several times. One minute I'm the high bidder, the next minute I'm outbid. This went on for awhile until I gave up. Then it shows up on a their website at a fixed price. To reiterate, though, if Metro was bidding on a book put up for sale by a third party, and was acting just like any other bidder, subject to the same rules and processes as any other bidder, and Metro's purpose was to buy the book for resale, then there's nothing nefarious here. It only would be a problem if Metro's purpose in bidding was to drive up the price paid by someone else. Frankly, I'm not concerned by Metro outbidding folks on a third party's books, but I would be concerned if Metro often turned up as an underbidder on a third party's books. And if Metro is bidding on its own book in the fashion you describe, then I'd be shocked.

It is not clear to me that Metro is the seller. These books may have been sold by third parties. Still, if Metro was the seller, you have a seller bidding on their own books in a no-reserve auction, and isn't that what we call "shill bidding"? In California, the Civil Code (§ 1812.608(h)(2)) directs an auction company violates the law if it “[c]ause or allow any person to bid at a sale for the sole purpose of increasing the bid on any item or items being sold by the auctioneer” and includes instances in which the auction company “[a]llow the owner, consignor, or agent thereof, of any item or items to bid on the item or items, without disclosing to the audience that the owner, consignor, or agent thereof has reserved the right to so bid.”

These last few posts are either defamatory or a great lawsuit. They are defamatory if Metro is legitimately bidding on lots put up for sale on ComicConnect, just like everyone else, for resale at a profit. It's a great lawsuit if Metro is just trying to drive up prices realized on CC to generate greater fees, and occassionaly gets stuck with a book they really didn't want to win. How can we know? A good question is how many lots Metro bids on an auction, and how often they end up the underbidder, as opposed to the winner.

Slightly off-topic, but I figure you guys are the brain trust on old publications. Have any of you ever run across a magazine entitled "Japan" and put out by a Japanese steamship company?

Lucky for you that IDW is coming out with Steve Canyon reprints starting in January: http://www.bleedingcool.com/2011/08/04/idw-to-publish-milton-caniffs-steve-canyon/

You should change the order of your bottom row to Crime, nightmare, Great so that the seabed is a similar level. Other than that, its fantastic!

Fyi, there are a lot of articles in news archives about comic fandom from around 1964 onward, including a lot of articles about conventions in the 60s and 70s. Saw them while trying to find info on comic record purchases.

Did you look at what was on the shelf immediately above it?

That's a very old newspaper headline - I hope. I'd like to read one some day proclaiming "Ouster of All Politicians Near!" Many fabulous pictures in this thread though. (thumbs u That newspaper headline probably relates to Executive Order 9066 (February 1942) which led to subsequent orders like this: For me, the most interesting images in this thread are the pictures of the kids in the internment camps reading Timely comics.

That girl on the far right is faking it. I don't think she's really that into the comic. She's just making it look good for the camera. Probably thought she was going to be the next Shirley Temple. And the girl in the front is irritated because she doesn't like having her picture taken while she's trying to read a comic. And frankly, who does... who does? I'm not even going to comment on the poindexter reading Francis Mule except to say the school yard was a hard place for him as a kid. He probably had to grow up fast if he was going to survive. But secretly, he still likes Francis Mule to this day. He just can't tell anybody about it. Look how engrossed the girl reading Donald Duck is in that comic! Great picture!

We've all seen Ringo reading Mad (in Hard Day's Night). But has anyone seen this?

More:

Another view:

Anyone seen this one?

Can't tell if that is a comic in the background:

Not sure if these photos from LA Public Library database have been posted before:

Bangzoom, You need to vacuum your billiards table or stop practicing the trick shots around that dragon.