Theagenes

Incredible trio of St. John's, BZ!! The condition of those is just Does anyone have the St. John book "Grand master of Fantasy"? Waiting for it to arrive from Amazon. St. John is a god. Talk about fresh off the presses! I never get tired of seeing these stunning copies. Ryan, I have the St. John book and it's outstanding. It has an honored place on my coffee table alongside the Frank R. Paul book and Frazetta Icon. Unfortunately my wife keeps putting gardening books on top of them.

One of my most prized possessions.

I haven't ventured much into the Gold Comics forum being that I'm still (fairly) new to the genre even though I've collected L.B. Cole horror covers for a while. I have checked out the Cole covers thread, but didn't realize how extensive this part of the forum was. I found this thread and wow - it's going to take me a long time to go through 1300 pages! Jerry Siegel has great taste being that he unwittingly praised H.P. Lovecraft when he referenced reading 'The Last Test' and 'The Electric Executioner' which were both almost entirely written by the old gent by way of his revision client (Castro). Coincidentally I just read both of these recently in Arkham's 'The Horror in the Museum' and his stamp is all over them. Not his best work, but after reading all of his known stuff, the revisions are fun in their own way. Despite being a fan for 30 years, I've never read any of his revision work and am going slowly so as not to eat it all up in a short burst. I've been a Lovecraft devotee for many years and have only recently begun collecting 1st edition Arkhams (not just Lovecraft, but others like Derleth, Wandrei & whoever catches my eye) and I have to say that this thread ROCKS! I look forward to reading more...thanks to all who have contributed. However, I'm very afraid of beginning a Weird Tales collection. I really don't need something new to start acquiring This is the best threaon these boards, imho. BZ, do remember what month this Jerry Seigel letter appeared in? THanks.

Wonderful batch of books Bill! I was just looking through an issue of Whiz this weekend.There's some very cool stuff lurking in the pages of those early Fawcetts. Love love love this book. (thumbs u Me too! Great books, Bill.

In the intro to Del Rey's Bran Mak Morn, The last King, the writer says that "...what most fans regard as Howard's finest story of Bran Mak Morn and the Picts (and one of his very best, period), the tale of which Lovecraft wrote, 'Few readers will ever forget the hideous and compelling power of that macabre masterpiece, Worms of the Earth.'" Definitely one of Howard's best! Mike If I had to choose one story to appear in something like a Norton anthology or Library of America collection; something that would best represent Howard and the themes that he most cherished - this would be the story. You can definately make the case that this is his finest work.

Here's another fun pick up. Since I'll never be able to afford an original Brundage pastels cover, I decided to settle for this fun original oil recreation. Unfortunately I don't think Claudia's going to let me hang it up.

I didn't realize Bok wrote fiction as well. I was fortunate to get to see the original painting for Skull-Face & Others at an exhibit last year - very cool.

Wilma's kinda hot. Just sayin'.

Man, those are great.

That is stunning, Dwight!

Wow! Great book - that's one you don't see very often.

The earlier issues of Weird Tales are pretty scarce as well and this July 1925 issue is no exception. It's also a grail for pulp collectors as it contains "Spear and Fang," a cave-man story that is the first published work of a young 19-year old REH. This one is beat, but I'm stoked to have a copy in any condition.

Time to bump this thread with some rare REH goodness. Strange Tales was a short-lived rival to Weird Tales that popped up in the early 30's and lasted for seven issues. Most of the WT regulars like REH, Clark Ashton Smith, Hugh Cave, Frank Belknap Long, and others wrote for them before they finally folded. Issues from this title are much, much scarcer than their WT counterparts from the same time. This issue from June 1932 predates "The Phoenix on the Sword," the first Conan story by several months, but it contains the REH story "People of the Dark," which stars a black-haired, sword-wielding barbarian named Conan of the Reavers. This Conan is from the historical dark ages rather than the Hyborian Age, but he can certainly be seen as a proto-type for Conan the Cimmerian.

Wow, very cool! Is that an original Calkins sketch?\ Jeff

Thanks guys! (thumbs u I went through many copies of the Kelloggs premium before I finally found this keeper and I just now got around to getting it slabbed. Steve, I believe the 1990's reprint is missing the kelloggs products on the back cover, but I may be mistaken about that as I've never actually seen one in person.

Both of these came in the mail yesterday from the REH Foundation. Started the Weird Menace one last night. Awesome pulpy goodness!

Believe or not, that copy was as nice as one of BZ's at one time - unfortunately the giant flea in one of the nearby issues escaped and was very hungry!!!

Speaking of Weird Tales, I just picked up a couple of the earlier, tough-to-find issues. This is the July 1925 issue and contains "Spear and Fang," a cave-man story which happens to be the first published work by a young 19-year old Robert E. Howard.

I was out of the hobby during the 90's too and also missed out on CBM during it's intial run. I started picking up back issues a few years ago and I have to say it's got to be one of the best comics related periodicals ever printed. I enjoyed reading your column Pat and I'm very pleased that you've started posting here and sharing your great collection with us! (thumbs u

A little more Buck Rogers goodness.

I was hoping for a higher grade on this one, but I guess it got hammer for the file copy stamp. Still top census though.

Got a few books back from CGC that I finally got around to submitting. Tied for the top census with one other book:

Nice! I was watching that. I love how the 1950's idea of what hairstyles will look like in the future is 80's-hair.

This thread needs a bump! So I've been seeing these Fritz Gurney oil-on-canvas reproduction of famous pulp covers on ebay for sometime now. I think David picked up a tarzan one and posted it earlier in this thread. Anyway, I finally decided to break down and get one - one of the Brundage Conan covers, naturally. Now if only I can convince my wife to let me hang it up.