Alzabar

Here are a couple of pick-ups from the recent Comiclink auction. I definitely overpaid for the #3, but I guess there is at least one other person out there who wanted the almost as much as I did. It is a hard book to find, but I wonder if now that I have one will I see a whole bunch of copies come to market. I think I have decided to collect the run from 1-20. So I will just have to find 17, 18 (not too hard) and #1 (not too hard but expensive.) I think I will try to find a #1 somewhere in the 4.0-5.0 range. Here's #3 And 47 (I think I've said it before, but there are a lot of cool covers in the run from about 39-60.)

Moths to a flame.

This is by no means my favorite Cole cover but it is my only Church book so I thought I'd post it. Can you imagine if there were women on the cover instead of men - it would rival Seven Seas #4 in popularity (at least for underseas covers.)

My run pales in comparison to G.A.tor's former run. In fact a couple of books that I have posted before - Wonder Woman 48 and 49 are Rick's deslabbed old copies that I bought from Bedrock. I could have bought the 17 and 18 at that time too, but for reasons explained above I did not. Nineteen I bought from Podboy66. I love how H.G. Peter did animals. The elephant here and the Mammoth and Tiger on #9 are some of my favorites. The 20 I bought from Dave Kapelka in 2002 at the Motor City con. And finally (for now,) here is the #26 that I bought in a Heritage Auction.

Well there is no 17 or 18, and again I'm not sure there ever will be but for reasons other than the #1. I had originally thought of collecting the whole run 1-329 (as I have the run 98-329 except 105 already) but decided against it. I then thought I would just collect the first 28 issues as based on the dates of release they are probably the ones that are written by W.M. Marston, but a lot of the covers in the 20's don't really appeal to me. Then I thought I will just get the first 20 issues, but I realize how relatively common that 16 up are compared to the first 15 issues and acquiring 17 and 18 just doesn't "do it" for me. Besides that, I find the cover to 18 quite dull. So maybe I'll stop at 15 or 16 (because I already have it.) Nevertheless there are a few more books which you'll see in my next and last post of my little Wonder Woman run.

So here is number 14. I bought this from the PCE back in the late 1990's. At that point they still had their buyers premium (?20%) and I think they even added a 3% surcharge because I used a credit card (which I think contravenes the merchant's credit card agreement but I am not sure.) Now I don't mind paying a buyers premium when I deal with an auction house, but on retrospect I can't believe I paid it to PCE which was definitely not working on an auction model. If I remember correctly they droped the premium eventually. They seem to be out of business now, but curiously their website is still up (last update 2003.) Number 15 I bought off bay from Joanna Sandsmark. It is a deslabbed 3.5. And number 16 I bought from Ron Pussell at Wondercon in 2009. The first time I have attended that show, and I really enjoyed it. The book is a deslabbed 5.5.

#11. I bought this from Chris Foss in 2002 at Wizard World Chicago. He gave me a really good deal on a really great copy. I bought #12 from Ed Jaster (pre-Heritage) in 2001 in Charlotte. I also bought the #13 in Charlotte in 2001, but I do not know the name of the dealer.

Thanks Gator.

Here's #8. I bought this from Metropolis at SDCC in 2004. I bought #9 from Four Color Comics back in 1999. Number 10 is an upgrade that I bought from Joe Vereneault at SDCC in 2007.

Here's #5. I bought it from Metropolis at the SDCC in 2008. The 6 is also by way of a Heritage auction. I bought the 7 from Bruno M. from Montreal back in the mid 90's. It was the first GA Wonder Woman I owned.

So I've been thinking about starting to post my modest run of Wonder Woman comics, and tonight seemed as good as any to start. I will include where I picked up each book, mostly for my own interest as it chronicles the slow growth of the run. I'll start with Number 1 which I don't have and I am not sure that I ever will. Not that I wouldn't like a copy, but I am not sure if I will ever want to spend that much money on a comic. I would probably be looking for something with good eye appeal in the 4.0 -5.0 range. As always it has to be the right book at the right time at the right price. Without further ado here is #2 (from a Heritage auction.) Now number 3 is a at the top of my want list. There have been a couple of copies on the boards in the last while - G.A.tor's 5.5 which I hesitated on because of the slight miswrap/miscut even though was offered at a great price, and there was a 6.5 awhile ago which was quite nice but the price seemed a bit high. Oh well the search continues. On to #4 (also from Heritage.)

I've always liked the covers in the range of 39 to about 60 - here are 3:

To Billy Parker and spillred - Thank you.

One more. This is the only Phantom Lady that I own. While I have not actively pursued them, #21 does seem to be harder to find than the others. Maybe 2 women on the cover makes it more desirable.

This book is not really in my collecting interest, but for some reason I couldn't resist it in the November Heritage auction. It is a neat cover and I liked the white pages I guess. Also, with apologies to the consignor, I was able to pick it up for a lot less than it went for the last time it was auctioned.

Fairly recent pick-ups for me.

Has there ever been a poll for the best Cole cover on these boards?

Here's a recent pick-up. I really like the cover, but I wonder if the Fighting Yank ever felt a bit of a let down in his post war career. Saving sleepwalkers seems like a significantly less exciting pursit than battling the Axis, although the sleepwalker here is signifiantly more attractive than the average German or Japanese soldier.

Here's the most famous issue of Contact. I just picked it up in the Heritage Sunday auction a couple of weeks ago and it completes my collection of the 4 great Cole black background covers - Mask 1 and 2, Captain Flight 11 and Contact 12. Those Sunday auctions have such great books in them sometimes.

There is one major dealer that has 2 copies of Captain Flight 11 listed on their website if anyone is looking. To avoid any appearance that I might be soliciting for that company, I will refrain from mentioning its name. If you want to know send me a PM and I will point you in the right direction. Just for kicks here's another great Cole cover. I heard a story that when Cole started to do his cover recreations he refused to reproduce this cover because he didn't want to have to do all the scales on the snake again. I wonder if the story is true. Does anyone have a recreation of this cover?

I guess I`m in a posting mood, I`ve nearly doubled my meagre post count tonight. I know this cover has been posted before, but I thought I`d show off this copy that I picked up at Wonder Con this year (first time I`ve been to that con and I really enjoyed it.) I had been looking for a copy since 2002 when I foolishly passed on a fabulous copy that Chris Foss had for sale. I bought it from Harley raw and had it graded. I was lucky, it wasn`t on his display, but when I showed him my want list he pulled it from a collection he had just purchased. Had it gone on display, I`m sure I would have missed it. Sorry about the glare.

And a couple more:

Hi, Just thought I would post a few more of my favorite Sensation covers.

Picked this up in the recent Comiclink Auction - I'm not sure how horrifying these guys are. Large eyes tend to make things cute (ref. Puss in Boots in Shrek II) - not scary. Oh well, I just couldn't resist it.

I believe Marvel Mystery 31 is the second issue with the "Remember Pearl Harbor" bullet. I think it was on 30 and 32 as well, I'm not sure about other titles. Here the Japanese are portrayed as being quite montrous. It seems to me that as the war progressed, and the tide turned for the Allied powers, the Japanese were portrayed more as buffoons as in this Action Comics cover (which I think is the last Action Comics war cover.) That said there are a number of later issues of Marvel Mystery such as 50 and 58 whose covers feature what I call "Giant Asian Monsters." Sorry I don't own those issues to post. Finally, one really interesting cover is Marvel Mystery #55 which has a female Chinese prisoner on the cover. Her features are charicatured, but not in the hateful way that the Japanese characters are. I think the portrayal of the Japanese was a combination of the unfamiliarity of most Americans with "the other" and a healthy dose of hatred for a wartime foe.