sfcityduck

Hey! If the pricing is too high in your eyes, feel free to make an offer!

The only one I can locate is Paul Gustavson. But I'd kill for a Bill Everett poster.

Nope. He was busy fighting. There is only one major Timely artist I know of that did anything artistic for the war effort other than just draw comics. Curious if anyone has come across his work or any work by any other Timely artists.

Quick quiz: Can anyone here name a major Timely artist who did a WWII poster?

EDITED: Changed my mind. Too much to do tonight. I'll come back to that listing later. It deserves very serious attention. I'll be here all week. Future offerings will include WWII work by Dr. Seuss (a poster I did not know existed) and Noel Sickles (a legendary output during WWII), and others.

PRICE CUT TO $365 or best offer! Here's a message for our friend who just bought the "gateway drug" piece from Will Eisner: "Don't be a dope!" Yep, next up is a very early poster by Will Eisner. He did the "Joe Dope" series of posters for the US Govt. from 1942-1944 and its sort of neat that his rank increases in his signature. But what we have here is one of his earliest 1942 posters signed "Pvt. Will Eisner." These are what collectors of GA artists WWII work are looking for: This poster is 82 years old and was a working poster displayed at camp, base, or where ever it would do some good. Like most of the original posters (which I guarantee this is), it has pin holes in the corners. It is 14" x 18" (the fakes usually aren't) and is on the right paper stock. But this is one is a cut above others I've seen as it has square corners, bright colors, and looks vibrant. For display, I would probably give thought to a linen back. The only flaw really worth noting is a repair: A prior owner, probably in the distant past, applied two cellophane tear seals to preclude small rips on the central horizontal crease from moving. These are applied to the back and they and the tear are not detectable from the front. Let me know if you want a photo. This is really one of the most important grails for a collector of GA artists WWII work for a reason beyond just that it is by Will Eisner - it is so early in his Joe Dope career that Eisner was killing off Joe to make the point, or scare straight, the audience. Later on he let Joe live. And, indeed, the Joe Dope posters were a precursor to Eisner's years later PS Monthly project for the military. Really historically interesting, presents very well, hard to find. Price: PRICE CUT TO $450 or best offer! A steal at $500 or best offer.

Congrats! This is how the dealers hook you! PM me your shipping info and payment preference. I may not get back to you until tomorrow a.m. if you don't mind.

Link:

From impossible to find to impossibly big: SOLD! This piece is just a gateway drug. An impossibly big 3 foot by 4 foot propaganda poster featuring a special Lil' Abner strip on military courtesy: For context, that suitcase above the image is a full size wheel-aboard. Each of those panels are 7" by 6". It is huge! But, as you can see, the condition is not museum quality. It has some tears and creases. But if you want to dip your foot into this exciting area of comic and cartoon adjacent collecting, then this is a great way to do it. Price: SOLD!! For this a mere $36.00 or best offer. This is your chance to start a new addiction at a very inexpensive price. My gift to someone. Don't worry, there are more items in line which will not be so inexpensive.

CANIFF ITEM (ONLY) WITHDRAWN LIKELY TO BE RELISTED ON OA SALES BOARD! They say the early bird gets the worm, but the early bird could also have been burned. I should have looked closer at this item. Was doing some more research on comparables when I found the heritage listing for the Ms. Lace pictured in the Male Call book below on Heritage as original art: And then I realized, looking at the dirt grime and whiteout on the Ms. Lace, how lacking in intelligent thought I was. This piece of original art had sold at Heritage for $5,125 back in 2009. So I took a very close look at my piece and my sanity was restored as it all clicked into place. Did I think I was Blind? yeah. Here's why: All of the background images and lettering is original art. The blacks used in the background art are different in color and texture, brushed texture, than that on the blacks on the Burma which does appear to be a printed image. The removed paste-up and white out on the other side should have alerted me, but I thought maybe he was correcting a printed image. Not true. The pasted on copyright should have also made clear to me this was at a minimum production art and to have looked more carefully. I didn't. This is Original Art. I also noticed my piece and the Heritage piece had similar prices on the bottom right of each piece. Fortunately, I noticed this before all of you! But a cautionary tale worth sharing. We might as well start with Milt Caniff - probably the most famous comic and strip artist entering WWII. Background Everyone knows that Caniff's Terry & the Pirates was published in civilian newspapers, but Caniff also created a comic strip especially for publication in only military papers. A strip with one of the hottest GGA characters he ever created. Yep, that's right, that strip was Terry and the Pirates! Oh ... you thought I was going to say Male Call? Well, here's the thing: Male Call was Caniff's second GGA comic strip created just for military publications. Ms. Lace was not Caniff's original plan. She was just a fill-in after his first plan hit a roadblock. Most Caniff fans know that the fans and military guys would write Caniff asking for pin-ups. And Caniff, who must have been a great guy in this respect, would send them back a pin-up. Caniff had a stack of pin-up prints of his characters he'd hand color and send to his fans. However, in certain very rare circumstances, when Caniff got a request for a pin-up from a military base, camp, or outfit, he'd sometimes put in the extra effort to customize the pin-up for that military group. There's a great example of this in Hermes Press's "Male Call: Complete Newspaper Strips 1942-1946": These customized hand colored prints for a camp, base, or outfit by Caniff are very rare. They are NOT, however, the rarest of the very rare. Ms. Lace and Male Call were published from January 14,1943 to 1946 .... wait a second! If that's the case why does the Hermes Male Call book say 1942-1946? Caniff's original 1942 GGA strip creation for GIs was a parallel universe Terry and the Pirates published ONCE A WEEK only in military publications. Because Dragon Lady and the other great Terry characters were already accounted for in the main DAILY Terry strip, Caniff featured Burma (who wasn't part of the Terry storyline then) in the ultimate GGA for GIs role which Ms. Lace would later inherit in Male Call. Here's an example of the 1942 military only Terry & the Pirates strip from the Hermes book featuring Burma and a legion of topless serving girls: Obviously, GIs loved Burma and wanted pin-ups of her well before Ms. Lace appeared on the scene. But here's the thing: Burma only ran in the Terry & the Pirates military strip from October 1942 to January 1943. Only four months. After that Ms. Lace and Male Call took the field. Why? Because a Florida civilian newspaper publisher was pissed and he forced Caniff to stop publishing "Terry & the Pirates" to the GIs. As a result, Caniff had to create a new GI oriented strip that did not use the Terry name or its characters. This story is all told in the Hermes book and an issue of a 1943 Life Magazine (which magazine I am generously including in this lot to provide storytelling context for the lucky person who wins this first listing). The magazine shows the Burma weekly strips and the very first Ms. Lace strip: The magazine is also the poor man's version of Caniff's infamous and embarrassingly racist "How to Spot a Jap" which is also partially reprinted therein. But enough of that, lets get to the main offering. Offering A very very rare example of a hand-colored, customized, pin-up for "Bombadier-Navigator" trainees featuring not Ms. Lace, but Burma! This was undoubtedly requested in late 1942 and issued by Caniff in January 1943 before or around when Ms. Lace and Male Call debuted. I've seen Ms. Lace and even the Dragon Lady in these type of GI oriented pin-ups later in time. But never Burma. Very rare, super cool, and likely very early for a customized GI pin-up. It is 14" x 11" When will you see another? Like some of my past offerings on this site - maybe never. Take special note of the innuendo in Burma's dialogue!: It is possible that this was intended or was used as the paste-up for printing of a reproduction. I haven't seen a reproduction, but the copyright line below Burma is a paste on - which is suggestive that this is a one of a kind piece intended to be reproduced. That shade of blue was also used by Caniff to get shading in a b&w reproduction, and that might also indicate it was to be reproduced. If so, then this was an actual production art original. I could see Caniff might have created this so he could print up enough b&w copies to send to the Bombadier School so each airman could get a copy. Again, if so, never seen one. Condition The above picture accurately captures how it presents to me. I think it is beautiful. It is 81 years old. So it has some creases and wrinkles none of which break color. These are the issues as I see them: 1/4 inch tear above the left word balloon; Five horizonal creases across the page which appear of the kind you get when paper is rolled and then gets a bit of weight on top of it, but they do not break color; There are other creases consistent with its age that do not impact the image; There is a correction of some sort - white out and maybe a paste-up residue above the pilots head; Faint pencilled "25 -" lower right (probably erasable); and There is minor soiling consistent with its age and some mat burn type tanning on the surface of the back page but does appear to impact structure or the image side of the page. Below are pictures in strafing light intended to accent flaws. These pics are not color accurate, they darken the page, and highlight flaws. Why am I doing this? Not to scare off buyers but to make sure you understand every nuance. Not only does this piece look great as is, per the above pic, I believe all flaws can be minimized and overall look improved with a minor conservation budget for dry cleaning, maybe a gentle press, and perhaps removal of the correction residue. Comparables Caniff's hand colored prints of a single character for non-GIs are not rare. They are not really comparable because they are simple images with no customization. But they still get prices from around $400 to $1,000. Most recently, on April 10, 2024 (Wednesday), a very faded hand-colored print of the Dragon Lady on tan paper sold on Liveauctioneers for $475. That print was 13 inches tall. https://www.liveauctioneers.com/item/173749129_milton-caniff-hand-colored-the-dragon-lady-illustr This piece is clearly more than twice as desirable. I am aware of only two other hand-colored customized GI pin-ups (the one in Hermes book and one on CAF), as well as one other non-colored customized print (b&w on CAF). Price ITEM SUSPENDED! I think this piece tops out any single character images, especially as it is customized for WWII airmen and has suggestive dialogue. Yours for only $1,350 or best offer. Again, as I said, I'm open to offers, but first "take" takes it.

THREAD CLOSED! Page 1 Caniff - 1943 Burma Pin-Up Customized for Military Base - TAKEN OFF TO BE RELISTED LATER Capp - Lil' Abner Training/Propganda Poster 3 foot x 4 foot - SOLD! Eisner - 1942 Joe Dope Poster - STILL AVAILABLE for $450 $365 or Best Offer! Page 2 Various - 1945 Cartoons for Fighters PB - SOLD! Mauldin - 1943 Sicily Sketch Book - SOLD! Page 3 Seuss - 1943 This is Ann Overseas Edition Poster - $1,500 $990 or best offer. Ok, ok, that first price was high. Especially, since I think you should linen back this thing. Sickles - 1944 poster and bonus - $550 $375 or best offer. Discounted to allow funding of linen backing if that's what buyer desires. CANIFF SUSPENDED! What were comic book and newspaper strip creators doing during WWII? Well, like a lot of Americans, many served in the military or helped out the war effort on the home front. Some even did both. And a fair number used their artistic skills in the effort. This sales thread is going to offer WWII items with art by some of the legends of the industry - artists from both newspapers and comics. The offerings are going to include posters (were their posters by GA greats during WWII? Yes!), rare publications, books, and more. This is a sales thread for folks who feel patriotic about WWII, appreciate great art by the masters of the 1930s and 1940s, perhaps want to put art on their walls not just in a cold dark box, or like rarities. Hopefully, this thread will have some surprises for you. And for you lurkers, hopefully you'll learn something from the write-ups. TERMS: First "take" wins. I am open to offers on all items, so feel free to PM me. But first "take" wins. So if you want to make an offer, make it quick and don't be surprised if I wait a bit to see if I get a "take" first. If you really really want an item, just say "take." Buyer pays actual shipping cost including insurance for full purchase price. If you have your own collectibles insurance and want me to ship under your shipping label, that's fine. For this auction, I anticipate that all shipping will be by USPS flat rate medium box. You can propose an alternative shipping means, but I get a right of reasonable refusal if I'm uncomfortable with the means. I prefer payment by check, m.o., wire, Zell or equivalent; however, I am open to other options. I will generally take a return if notified within 3 days of delivery. Notably unique or exceedingly rare items are hard to value. A lot of buyers want the comfort of comparable sales. You might not get it for some pieces on this thread. Buyers of notably unique or exceedingly rare items from me on this site include SOTIcollector. I can provide other references, including of five figure items, if desired. I have no doubt that none regret their purchases.

Is that code for DA owns it? LOL. I thought he had the 26 but would not sell it. Nice to see your copy, Thanks!

I keep waiting for someone to jump in with the famous pic of, I think, Rick Durrell's bed covered with high value comics and his cat in amongst them.

The guy on 23 (as Ian Fleming once said: "You only live twice. Once when you are born and once when you look death in the face") or the front guy on 24 (not sure he is)?

Obviously, a matter of taste: But I like 23 better than 24. More drama. The guys on 24 could have just portaged their canoe, but the guy on 23 is fighting for his life. Colors on 24 are spectacular! But I prefer the simplicity and focus of 23 (which also has great colors in the sky -- and the snow really focuses the action). To be fair, both are masterpieces of the time. DC non-superhero adventure (little "a") covers are the standard for the time.

Mitch is an old school collector who is coy about what he owns, usually only referencing what he's sold (I'm still blown away he bought the Krigstein Master Race OA off of Russ Cochran). And although he reveals some aspects of the story of the world record Action 1 in this story I've never seen before (like he had three copies at one point), still he was coy in the interview: Why's he being coy? Still owns all or part of that Action 1? Interesting. Playing coy to avoid detailing his final sale details or something else? Mitch once opined on this site that the reasons that folks don't CGC their comics is that they don't want to do so until they want to sell or they want to see what their "competition" for the best copy has gotten as a grade. He basically stated that there are Action Comics 1 owners in a standoff waiting to see how others' books grade out. Talking about himself? Only Mitch can answer -- but he demonstrated in the interview that he won't.

Here's something that most people have not seen, the great Hal Foster (Prince Valiant and Tarzan) did a special single panel comic strip (one panel a day for a 6-day run) for newspapers shortly after WWII telling the nativity story. It was reprinted in Argentina and he was given the cover. A really cool item as I am unaware of a US reprinting in which he got the cover. It is also Life Magazine size.

Well, Mitch says it was a 5.0 but I'm thinking nicer based on the pic.

Here's a clearer pic of Mitch and his seemingly nice copy of Action 1 from a press photo that was once auctioned (hence the watermark). If you want to know whether you own the original World Record Action 1, there appears to be a stamp on the comic to the right of the N in Action that has two lines. .

What's the last one you got and where?

The provenance was alleged to be that Ian's copy was the original stack of paper from which all others were made. Basically, the story was that the loose stack of papers put in the Xerox machine to be copied was bound with those plastic circular claw bindings with blue covers whereas all the copies that came out of the Xerox were bound with a blue cover but a different, taped, binding. Ian bought the volume off of eBay. Unfortunately, bootlegs are known with a white cover and the same plastic binding. Paul Levitz says the original all were tape bound. So it came down to whether you believed Ian's credibility in assessing the truth of the eBay seller's story or not. Given that he had a lot of reason to want to believe the eBay seller's story, and I don't, I came to a different conclusion than him. So did the auctioneer who said they "strongly suspect" that it was a bootleg.

No. I think it was Keller (sp?).

Maybe Zaid.

The V family's Allentown CA 1 is a 9.8. It was resubbed after the inferior SF was given a 9.4. No idea what the deal is with the MH CA 1. The V family's MH MC 1 is supposedly flawless but never been submitted.

Both 9.0s went to Hariri with Metro acting as his agent. He has a deep personal connection to Superman due to his memories of his assonated father, so he is unlikely to sell anytime soon. Of course the copy that beats those two, the MH, is also not going to be sold anytime soon if ever (owner and his son both deal comics). That makes the 8.5 the best AVAILABLE copy - maybe just for decades, maybe forever.