AJD

When cleaning out my mum's cupboards, I discovered that I still have this one. The projector doesn't work, but shouldn't be hard to fix when I get a chance. Not surprisingly, it's all a bit worn around the edges from many, many slideshows in the early 1970s.

No other Airfix kids in this thread? This was my first big(ish) model. I think I built this Flying Fortress in 1976. We had kits imported from the US as well. My Revell 'dam buster' Lancaster was finished mid afternoon on Christmas Day 1975. Luckily even enamel paint dries quickly in the Australian summer!

That's... disturbing.

Champ #25 And this absolute classic from Vacation Parade #1

Wings #105 And a couple from Doll Man Quarterly #6

Standard and Paws? Thank you. I'm here all week.

So far I've managed to resist starting a collection of Australian Superboy/man/girl or Batman comics... but I can feel my resolve ebbing away.

I'm with the half point man - fine minus.

This might be a good time to not defend the indefensible.

Don't touch Halo with a barge pole. There are some local CGC dealers in Australia who might be able to help: http://www.cgcmagazines.com/submitting/dealer-listing.aspx?s=Australia I've never submitted a book, so I can't provide any more help than that.

I shall become... a bat.

Looks the right way up to me...?

Don't be so sure. While not in the same category as the OP's loss, I bought a green label 6.5 apparent GA book with the annotation COUPON CLIPPED from Heritage. The eye appeal was great and the price was right, and I could live with a missing coupon on a non-story page. Twelve months later I cracked it out, to find that it should have read PANEL CLIPPED - AFFECTS STORY. I think the book is worth less in the eyes of the market in that state. But I don't think I can reasonably go after Heritage, who were likely the consignees in this case. How far up the chain of ownership could I go for redress? In my opinion I have to do what I did - suck it up and discount CGC's opinion a little in future.

Very nice. And slabbed too. (Hopefully not by Halo, the embarrassingly bad Australian grading company!)

Not Aussie Post's finest hour. Dare I ask what was in it?

FC386 is a better piece of work in every respect. For a long time I didn't have a copy of 178, and TBH, probably would have continued to live without it if I hadn't seen the right copy at the right price. The Scrooge in that story is a Dickensian stereotype, and nowhere near the rounded and wonderfully rendered Scrooge of later stories. Barks' early stories sometimes lacked the human touch that makes his best work so memorable. All IMHO of course.

Because the Australian books were typically 28 pages, a single 52 page FH book wouldn't fit, and the local publisher could make up new issues from 'leftovers'. I think there were some locally drawn covers when they did that, but they were also often adapted (and sometimes straight lifts) from interior panels. In this case from the Firehair story that kicks the book off. This is a case where I think the local adaptation improves on the original:

I have a useful visual guide for fans of Mr Hanks.

The OP is also in Oz mate.

I don't know how kids feel about that, but I hate they way that women are drawn on the covers of many moderns. And this from a guy who has an extensive collection of golden age 'good girl art' - there's something really tacky and exploitative about the big boob and spandex look.

Back to Oz pence copies with today's offering. In landscape format yet. But I haven't totally sacrificed continuity in this journal, because under the (not so great) locally-added cover you will find the work of M. Baker, cover to cover in glorious detail-revealing black and white. Alas, by printing two pages per landscape page, the result is a little fuzzy.

I've been summoned! Thankd for the kind words @porcupine48 but TBH, I don't know much about copper/moderns, though I'm pretty sure the guys in this thread would be able to give you chapter and verse: