AJD

Some Australian GGA this time, from the Tim Valour title, another of John "Crimson Comet" Dixon's creations.

You sure it wasn't when I posted it earlier? I looked through the GCD listings for a lot of US-published Archie titles and couldn't find it.

Kitten to kittens

Archie 14 was the unknown one until mine turned up. And, yes, that seller had quite a few Archies that don't surface much. I also got this, which has what I'm pretty sure is an Australian only cover.

Archies aren't as hard to find as some Australian books but they are still pretty uncommon. I stupidly didn't buy that copy when I first saw it, and haven't seen another one despite looking. Still, I did get this from the same seller, so I shouldn't complain... (And that's the only copy I've ever seen of that book. Until I uploaded a scan none of the reference sites had it.)

Low grade with CT, but still very nice to have. One of the nice things about non minty books is that you can read them. I enjoyed this story. I for one welcomed our new ant overlords.

Ray guns - check Space babe - check Rocket - check Alien - check I think this might fit here.

More underwater action

If anyone has nice copies of Heroic 25 and 31 they want to profiteer from, hit me up!

Then you can start adding in foreign editions as well...

I just got a few more nice Australian Disneys. These books have a nostalgia value for me far above and beyond their cost. The newer they look the more they take me back. This one has been on my want list for ages - it is the first comic I can remember buying on a trip to Melbourne with my mother aged 8.

Dinner date to date stamp

Worth to worthless

Er, not as such, no. Here's the end:

Oops - yeah, it's a twenty. I'd say so, yes. Just looking at the images that come up when you Google "Maurice Bramley artist", the style seems spot on. Thank you Duffbloke! Though I now blame you for a hankering I have to get some of his war covers too...

I really like the crime comics published in Australia by Horwitz publishing. The insides were mostly reprints of stories from Quality Comics' crime titles, but the covers appear to be new - and often really good. Here's a new one into the box. No GGA this time, but a really well constructed layout. I like that the foreground character is shaded while the guy behind is fully lit: The pictures of death is reprinted from T-Man #9. I just wish the $ bill with the skull replacing GW was a bit more featured in the splash. I think it would be quite a striking image (though a bit more effort in drawing it wouldn't have gone astray...). Here's another Horwitz book, with another good cover - this time on a nice glossy stock, which is unusual in my experience. And as a treat to my dedicated readership (all three of you), here's a test of your detective skills. (And you may marvel at the evidence handling techniques on display here!)

I hadn't made the connection, but I think you're right. That's awful. Yes, modern humans exhibit much more neotony - carrying childhood physical characteristics into adulthood. Look at a baby chimp, and you'll see it has a much more human face than an adult. Chimps become more, er, chimplike as they age, while we don't.

Wheel tyred to real tired - and very suitable for the weather here this week! 40+ C every day...

So I can look forward to receiving my "bumper book of comics you'll never own" from Heritage? One of these days they'll realise I never buy anything in these auctions and stop sending them.

Portrait classic to landscape classic

A few new Australian books have joined the fold. This one is my 91st Australian Fiction House book. It has a filler 'educational' look at gorillas, with some accurate and some dodgy claims. (Is there really a documented instance of a gorilla bending the barrel of a large gun? Or of a gorilla wrestling a cheetah/leopard?) I thought the tacit discussion of the human-neanderthal-gorilla evolutionary relationship is interesting. But it doesn't mention that gorillas are vegetarians, and I think the portrait might have been drawn from the ugliest gorilla (with the worst orthodontics problem) on record!