AJD

You guys are all so young! Carl Barks and Uncle Scrooge for me, hands down.

Microscope to soon to be microscopic

It took me a very long time before I had credentials to post in this club. I'm hoping this will get me past the velvet rope...

Thrilling 2 v Exciting 1 for me

Yes, @gadzukes I had one of those briefly until it found a more appreciative home. I've always thought that the B&W interiors must have been a disappointment when the cover seems to imply coloured pages!

Here's your chance.

Hawk to vulture

The scary thing is that that isn't even Chuck's scariest look... (No, not the cat... )

Mars to Mercury

I had to Google that. (here) Not sure I'd want to have a beer with either of them!

This one arrived in the mail yesterday. It's the first square comic I've ever owned. It's also huge - just a touch smaller than an LP record sleeve. Here's a photo rather than a scan because it won't fit on my scanner. I wrote a bit about this on the 'GA in Australia' thread. Basically, Speed Gordon = Flash Gordon with the name changed because Australian slang at the time meant that it would be the equivalent of "person_who_is_obnoxiously_self-impressed Gordon" in today's terms. The local editors had to go through and replace Flash with Speed everywhere it appeared: Gotta love the Alex Raymond art throughout. Less lovely is the poor quality paper. The cover stock is quite thin, which might be why it's only printed on one side. Now I have to find a way to store it safely...

I thought you must have made an error in typing the same dimension twice... nope. This thing is a freak of nature!

Flame thrower to flame thrower

Drowning in river to drowned in river

Safe in the shadow of the chair to far from safe in the chair

Those are my favourite EC books. Kurtzman was a superb visual story teller.

Here's another "from eBay" scan that I want to include here because of its backstory. The Lone Avenger was a popular character created by artist Len Lawson. If there is ever an award for the "worst human being associated with the comic industry" there will be a robust competition for second place but nobody will come close to Lawson for the top prize. From Wikipedia: Leonard Keith Lawson (1927 – 29 November 2003), better known as Len Lawson or Lennie Lawson, was a bestselling Australian comic book creator, successful commercial artist and photographer. However, he was also a notorious criminal who was sentenced to life imprisonment for rape and murder. He died in custody in 2003. Lawson first came to prominence as the creator of The Lone Avenger, an Australian comic book hero, whose first appearance was in the second issue of Action Comics in 1946, running for thirteen years, eventually taking over the entire comic and selling up to 70,000 copies. Lawson also created another masked Western vigilante hero The Hooded Rider, as well as Diana, Queen of the Apes and Peter Fury. In 1954, Lawson took five young models to bushland in Terrey Hills to take swimsuit photos for a calendar. He bound the women and sexually assaulted them, raping two. He was sentenced to death, which was commuted to 14 years in prison when the death penalty was abolished in New South Wales later that year. Lawson asked to continue producing The Lone Avenger in prison, but it was handed to another artist. The comic was subsequently banned in Queensland and withdrawn by its publisher. Lawson was released from prison in 1961 after serving seven years, or half, of his sentence. On 7 November 1962, Lawson sexually assaulted and murdered a 16-year-old girl whose portrait he was painting in his apartment. The next day, he took several hostages at the Sydney Church of England Girls' Grammar School, killing a 15-year-old girl in the ensuing siege. He was sentenced to life imprisonment. Lawson attacked a female dancer who performed in a concert at Parramatta jail, seemingly as part of an escape attempt. He died in Grafton Correctional Centre in November 2003.

Great stuff @Dikko. Sorry about beating the price up on your copy of #13, but at least you can be happy that it's better than mine! Now I have to try to find the other four...

Looking at the GCD, I think it *is* the copy there. Look at the foxing spot in the R in Gordon.

The one that just sold last week on eBay will be coming to a thread near you shortly. ( ) The one shown above also sold on eBay a couple of weeks prior to that for about twice the price.

My first thought was 5.5 too. Fine doesn't seem out of the question though.

To another Planet Stories

Ah, Pogo, my first vintage run completed. Love 'em. (Hmm, my photography skills have come on a lot since then!)