sfcityduck

I would run to buy an O'Mealia Archive.

Speaking of Moondog/Gary knowing: He says: My surmise is that the Belden copy was the first to emerge back in 1975. The next four or five were from DC. And the two covers were from Harrision (and Fischler married one into a book). The copy that showed up from eBay in 1979 was already restored when the buyer bought it from eBay. That copy ended up with Zaid for a while, so either has two copies now or sold it. So a group showed up around the same time.

Gary/Moondog did weigh in I live in SF. You can drive down. No problems.

If so, I would have thought Moondog would know. But he never said he did. My recollection may be faulty, but I think he said the opposite. He and Zaid seemed to work together on ashcan stuff, but Zaid never claimed to know either. So I assume that Sol Harrison wasn't the seller. I assume they came from someone else at DC. The really beat up copies do look like they came from the "wild", but DC used to give away stuff like this to kids who visited the office. If they had a stack of worthless comics for a title that they never got off the ground (the story is MLJ beat them to it - for awhile MLJ marketed itself as "Double Action Comics" and may have reached a gentlemens agreement with DC to keep the TM but not use it for a particular title), then that would be prime material to give away. One of the ashcans on the market had that backstory. So unless someone can document where the limited distribution in Connecticut or Manhattan (which is actually almost the same story for the Nightingale - except its documented for that very rare comic) came from then it is hard for me to give it any credence.

It would be good to know the provenance on these. I sort of assume that they may have been stolen out of the DC office (most likely taken home by employees). Comic Connect was more than a little vague:"We believe the Double Action 1, likely the rarest of all DC comics, came from the offices of Sol Harrison, one of the longest-serving members of the DC bullpen, who rose from colorist to production manager and finally to president of DC." Uh ... "believe"? Didn't the owner know? Call me a cynic, but I assume that all "provenances" that are vague likely are for a reason - dealer might have gotten too good a deal and didn't want the sucker original owner being found by others, employee had sticky fingers like with the Marvel OA, etc. Here, I think this story is like the Marvel OA. Too many of these books came out at one time to have all been from a really limited distribution release to newstands. One copy came out before OPG 7. Then in OPG 10 or 11, there's suddenly four more copies plus the DA 1. I dunno. I suspect maybe Harrison had a copy and that came out first (maybe around the same time as the ashcans), then the other copies came out of the "vaults". Just a thought.

I disagree. Plenty of Action 1s still raw. Less need to get a NA 26 slabbed. New Adventure 26 is exactly the type of book that gets buried in collections b/c of the Action 1 ad. I suspect that the raw population is higher for that than DA 2 by a fair amount. I still wonder what Double Action 2 really was. Was it ever circulated? The jury seems out on that one. Weird book. Ian thought "How to Defend ..." was the rarest DC and there are less copies on the census. But, I'm not sure it is really a comic - definitely a comic format DC publication that you need for a complete DC collection - but not really a narrative story. Plus, they are still showing up in the wild.

... for Zaid.

They’re eight copies on the cgc census alone. Undoubtedly there are other raw copies than just DA’s. But even if not, 9 copies is more copies than several comics I can think of. It is very rare to the market, but there are comics which have fewer copies on census and I have seen only come up for sale once or never by a dealer or auction.

PBA has been selling some cool comics for the past few years. They also do art and books. Sadly, the two items I think I regret the most not noticing until after an auction occurred were sold by PBA - one a comic item and the other fine art for which I would have paid a lot more than the hammer price. I wish they’d been a bit more high visibility back then so I would have noticed. So kidos to Ivan for getting the word out early on this development and congrats to him for landing a consignment that is going to catapult PBA upward in the auction ranks. I don’t think anyone is going to miss that these auctions are happening.

Getting rid of ashcans because they are legal creations or, at best, production artifacts not intended to be actual comic books, I would be going with three out of the below: * the destroyed red seal comics (violated paper rations) which haven’t emerged yet (the same sort of Bigfoot as Double Action 1) but I bet exists somewhere; • the Nightingale (maybe 7 copies exist but is it a comic or a disguised children’s book?); * Four Immigrants Manga (but is it GA when pre-1938, and it is a graphic novel if that does not count); * The new Adventure 26 (but also pre-1938 and it is DC - is it rare or rare to market?) or * some rarely seen giveaway or genre comic from the 1950s like True Life Secrets 25. I do not think it would be a book that is heavily collected, Those might be rare to the market but is not the same as rare.

Just in Foster Christmas cover:

Looks like it could be same company. And it has Disney and non-Disney characters.

I agree Elmer is a candidate, but I think he’s too young as he’s a kid Elephant: Looks to me like that piece was unauthorized, ripping off characters of the 1930s, and not just Disney b/c that looks like a Babar rip-off to me. The plagiarists make the characters very close to the originals but change enough details (like Donald’s hat) to maybe get away with it.

Elmer was a kid. That looks more like Babar (created 1931) than Elmer to me. It's a clever piece that has enough variation from the real characters to allow for denial of plagiarism.

ROM is one of those nostalgia titles for people "of a certain age" when it came out. The interiors basically suck. The story is nothing special. But the Golden covers were fantastic -- talk about a bait and switch! I, like many collectors, bought the run for a while when it first came out - suckers looking for the next big book and after the Golden covers dried up there was nothing to keep us going. But a lot of younger readers seem to have fond memories of it. Micronauts on the first hand started strong with great interior art! But Golden left that title too. Sad.

Just out of curiousity, are you dividing your comics up by where you lived, or does that mean something different? I am impressed you've submitted 79 of your childhood collection!

Sounds smart. The only pedigrees that warrant a price boost are ones that (1) have some significant history associated with them (Okajima, maybe SF or Promise), (2) some real comic book collecting history associated with them (Cosmic Aeroplane and Mile High), or (3) some association that is cool or interesting to comic collectors (Gaines File Copies, Pay Copies, etc.). Why? Because a "pedigree" in comic collecting is nothing more than a pre-internet and pre-CGC concept developed to provide buyers with some reassurance that the books they were buying through the mail really would be as nice as they were described. It was a form of reputational security. We don't need that any more because you can get high definition pics or already graded comics. The "pedigree" concept for comics is largely obsolete -- unless there's a good story associated with it. (In the fine art world, a "pedigree" is a different concept - a chain of ownership that can establish a painting is not a forgery or was painted by a particular artist). For most comic pedigrees, especially modern ones, the backstories don't warrant a price increase. The concept really just means "big collection." Worse, my best surmise is that for some pedigrees, the backstory is largely confined to kid buys a lot of comics, keeps them without reading them much, decades later a dealer buys them from the kid or his family for pennies on the dollar in an unconscionable transaction, and dealer then hides identity of the OO in order to make sure that no one ever contacts the OO. That's not an association which makes me want to pay a premium. As for "registry points," so what? The very best collections aren't registered and may never be. Call me a cynic. For an equivalent or lesser price, buy the best book unless there's a super compelling reason not to.

What pisses me off more: There's now folks selling prints of fine art pieces. Usually, that's done by a museum selling a poster or print of a picture in its collection. But now there's folks pulling images off the internet, usually dealer listings, and issuing posters/prints of those stolen images. And, in fact, a print of an original piece I own was lifted off the dealer website I bought it from and is selling for $79.99. This pisses me off for two reasons: (1) A relatively obscure artist is now spammed all over ebay listing with what infer are print on demand images and (2) its my frigging piece. I have the original on the wall and images (obviously of lesser quality) with its distinctive signature and a previous collector's stamp are being offered for sale. That seems wrong. I expect that soon that will happen with OA, if it has not happened already.

Based on my father's collection I now own, which is full of superhero comics, SF, Westerns, Dell, etc. of the late 1940s and early 1950s, I just don't think War Comics were that popular a genre. Only a small portion of the collection are real War comics - an Our Army at War 1, GI Joes, etc. - and some lighter military themed GGA titles. My guess is that by the time the Korean War rolled around that American's were largely sick of war. Eisenhower after all ran and won on the platform of getting the U.S. out of Korea. I suspect that kids largely weren't reading or saving those comics in the same number they did other genres which might have been more amenable to repeat reading. That may explain why War Comics are rarer in the Atomic Age than other types.

Honestly, I feel safer in SF than I did in Downtown LA the other weekday. Felt more deserted than SF and has a homeless problem like SF. Both SF and LA have seen better days and will again. Of course I'm talking about the downtowns, the nice neighborhoods haven't changed at all. Interestingly, I was on vacation in London, Porto, and Madrid in March. All three cities were much better off than any American cities. I'm talking clean, busy, and no different than they ever were. Probably due to the fact that all three countries have extensive medical and financial safety nets that helps prevent the large populations of homeless folks impacted by mental illness and drugs that we see in the U.S. But, their comic book stores suck. Link? I think so. Folks there don't have the same quantity of excess cash and embrace of frivolity in acquisitions that we do.

Now that is a well-loved comic book that evidences it brought joy to its reader with repeated experiences! Right, Marty? My own copy doesn't appear to have been a repeat experience - nicest 7.0 white I've seen (sorry about the bad pic technique) - and now its locked away and can't be read at all. I only sent it in b/c I thought it would rate much higher. Sad:

Fair enough. Live and learn. I had posted price was coming. But I did delete the return policy.

My apologies for the delay on the other thread due to my mother's day obligations to my wife. The CGC Mods apparently missed my apology and explanation on that thread, or thought it was an inadequate excuse, and deleted the thread based on the delay. Maybe I'll repost some other day. For now this thread too is closed.

Bob Kane (and so many other GA artists) did so many swipes of Raymond and Foster, it is hard to keep track.

I will be coming back to this thread tomorrow. Probably first thing in the morning Pacific, I will be posting a new thread for one book only. But, right now, have to head to dinner with my wife and kid. I have other stuff I'm cleaning out of my office, so look for other cgc comics, etc. later tomorrow on this thread. Hope you find these threads a bit entertaining and informative and off the beaten path.