JvR11

I think the inker is Anderson (cf "Cult of Killers", Wanted #52) I'm not sure I agree. You can see some similarities with the CL cover above. I looked at the Anderson story thanks for the reference. I don't really know much about him but looking at the story he has kind of a cross hatch look to his shading which I don't see in this particular story line. I'll have to look and see if I can see any other stories outside of Atlas that have this type of "dreamy" appearance.

Here's a cool Baker splash from Love Romances 45... I cleaned it up a bit in Photoshop. I think there is a good chance Baker also inked this one.

Not anymore - just a handful of the ones I really like!! I love this cover You have a nice collection.

I finally found a copy of TR11 . If anyone has a TR9 they'd like to part with, I really need this one too:) I thought it was really cool that the interior story was related to the TR38 cover.

How about a Baker story?

These are great thanks for sharing. Do you have any of the giants?

This is the nicest one I've seen of this cover. Really nice! This is one of my favorite covers. I have a beater copy of this one. Have you had it long? Thanks for sharing.

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Really nice cover with great color. It looks like it has great PQ. The whites on the page really stand out. Congrats!

Some low grade horror and the much in demand Crime Suspense 22 coming up tonight

Very nice! Local auction? Yes, I think these kind of flew under the radar.

Picked these two lovelies up at an auction today I also had a bunch of lower grade stuff too but these were the gems of the bunch.

Ahh, this makes complete sense. Thanks for sharing this info

I see more Colletta than Baker, but maybe it was because he inked it. The finger symmetry people talk about is just good drawing. People's middle fingers tend to close together when relaxed. Of course, there is no true answer about what Colletta might have done. I'm wondering if there was a mix. For instance, I can't see Colletta spending the time to ink all the lines on the girls pants. I think he would have just made it a solid cover.

You lucked out if you got it at a reasonable price. It looks like a really nice copy too I just picked up this First Kiss. It is not referenced as a Baker cover anywhere, but it is characteristically Baker to me. You can see it's the same time of finger symmetry on the man as in the Cinderella Love cover along with many other Baker traits. The mouth is a little more voluptuous than what Baker has been known for but this could have been a Colletta addition. This is a great First Kiss cover.

That's a nice looking group shot. (thumbs u Really cool group shot! Curious where you picked up your TR41 from? This one is hard to come by.

Sell it to Subliminal if you aren't completely happy with it

Most of the new volumes try to get as close to the originals in quality as possible, be it from collectors collected printed strips at worst but other have the advantage that the art is held at a particular institution and / or there still exists the original newspaper syndicate proofs so that the collection is very crisp while others have some work done as the recent Prince Valiant that has been recolored and looks vibrant. I'd say overall that the quality is really high and much better than some earlier reprint efforts, for example on Rip Kirby, the new volumes are better than the Pioneer reprints. Yet, I hear a lot of grumbling about how the Rip Kirby has been reproduced since the source used cuts off some of the original art (as different papers use different areas to have a variety of size available and the main source used opted for a smaller print frame). The recent Phantom Dailies collection look like a waste of time and effort. The format is odd, the repro quality not too good, ... It seems like Hermes bit more than it could chew and that's too bad as I was looking forward to a quality repro run of The Phantom. Sometimes, more recent strips can get badly repro'd. Some of the strips in the Modesty Blaise series are tough to read but that's the best Titan could get at times. Still, by and large most of these projects are worthwhile supporting and strive for best quality of repro. I'd love to see the whole Flamingo strip in book form one day but I think that would take some serious efforts to get the original art images together.

I haven't really had an interest in Blondie before but this looks like a great book. Which came first Blondie or Betty Boop? Blondie's last name sure is linked to Betty Boop.

I have a few questions about these strip reprints. Scrooge, I know that you've bought quite a few. What is the quality like? I wonder if they are using OA for the source of if they have to go back to the original newspapers. If so, this must prove to be difficult? What is your experience with these reprints? Have you bought books with microfilm as the source?

I'm not sure what you mean. Do you mean the entire St. John library? This would be too large for one group shot. No, I mean the Wartime Romances collection. Your photo shows them fanned out, which only partially displays the covers. Like I said, I realize I'm lookin' a gift-horse in the mouth here. But if you ever have them all out again, and find an easy way to arrange them so the full covers show, that would make a neat photo. Naturally, if you had any of the other titles out, I wouldn't turn away from looking at a cool group shot of those either. In fact, if you ever have free time and feel over-caffeinated, you really should photograph your complete collection of St. John comics -- you know, for insurance purposes! (And for us to drool over.) I wouldn't expect that you'd lay them all out for one big group shot, but rather take separate photos, grouped by name or genre. Then again, you could just ignore my suggestions. Always a safe bet! Thanks for the interest Show us a group shot of your nice Baker collection I've still got some stragglers that I'm having difficulty finding. This one below is one of the favorites in my collection. It's an 8.5, I couldn't get the slab image all in the scanner.

I love your group shot. Many of those covers I've never seen, and then there are the handful that seem to turn up on a regular basis. (Why is that?) I do have one request for you, which is to sometime post a pic that shows all the covers. I do not mean to look a gifthorse in the mouth, I'd just like to see 'em in full glory sometime. I'm not sure what you mean. Do you mean the entire St. John library? This would be too large for one group shot.

I posted this in another thread a little while back...here's a group shot of WR's. I just completed the run recently. IMO, the most difficult one to get is WR3. I've never seen one for sale on ebay. I hope I can upgrade mine one day. The one I have is pretty low grade. My favorite cover is WR16, followed by WR5 and WR8. My group shot is in order if you count through you can see which issues I am referring too