AJD

So, this arrived in my mailbox on Friday: It contains, inter alia, a reprint of this issue: In the cover story, a mining company is teleporting huge quantities of uranium ore from Venus (where it is hard to do anything because of the atmosphere) to Mars. The following explanation is given for the disaster shown on the cover. Mr Gaines, Mr Feldstein, we need to talk physics. The explanation of the mass on the end of the string is OK. The tension in the string (T) will in fact be proportional to the mass of the object (m), and its orbital speed (v) will be related to the tension and the length of the string (r) so: T = m v2 / r where the rhs of the equation is the centripetal acceleration. Now let's do the physics for a body orbiting under gravity: gravitational force = G m M /r2 = m v2 / r where G is the gravitational constant, M the mass of the central body (the sun) and r is the distance from the sun. Clearly m cancels out in this equation, giving G M = r v2 which is independent of the mass of the orbiting body. (In fact, that's Kepler's third law, relating the length of the year to the distance from the central body). In other words, moving stuff from Venus to Mars will do nothing to change the orbits. And that's pretty obvious when you look at the solar system - the big planets are on the outside! Amazingly, there are no letters in following issues pointing this out. I now think it's my duty to build a time machine, go back to 1952 and pen a cranky letter to the EC crew. I've read enough EC sci-fi to know that nothing could possibly go wrong with my plan... see you later, maybe. P.S. the calculation of the amount of U-235 retrieved from 350 billion tons of ore isn't too bad - the quoted figure of two million ounces is right if the extraction efficiency is ~10%, which could be right for the early 1950s.

Glad you like it! It's from this Australian book: Here's the splash page, on which we learn the name of our villain: Which leads to the showdown...

A trip down the paisley-print lined halls of time this post. The comics that set me on the path of a lifetime love of the medium were Australian Disneys. My favourites were the Barks Uncle Scrooge stories - like most fans I could spot a Barks long before I knew who he was. Most of the longer stories were reprinted in the Giant Comics series. Looking at the covers and working from memory, I started getting them in 1969 when I was six (G455 with an Italian-sourced Scrooge story was the first I recall having new, though I got a few earlier ones second hand later on), and the last ones I bought were in 1975. I think the last one might have been G611, with the great Terries and Fermies story. Anyway, I still pick them up for old times' sake when I see them in nice shape for the right price. Here's G506, which featured Barks' The Golden Nugget Boat'. It set me back $10 and 47 years.

With crazy recent prices on this book I'm glad I bought a cheap coverless a few years back. With a repro cover I can almost believe.

That's very plausible. It could certainly be the case here. I just spent 15 minutes looking for a 1940s or earlier drawing of an iguanodon that might have been the model for the cover. (And a lot more time reading articles about dinosaurs... ) I didn't find an exact match, but a few near misses (as below), and it seems likely that Reilly had looked up 'dinsoaur'. The 'hands' are a dead giveaway that this was the beast he was drawing.

There are many, many reprints of the Barks material. Probably the cheapest is to pick up Gladstone/Gemstone reprints from the 80s/90s. Here are a few to start with: Only a poor old man (Four Color 386): Uncle Scrooge Adventures #33 Back to the Klondike (FC 456): Uncle Scrooge Adventures #26 "The horseradish story" (FC 495): Uncle Scrooge #338 If you want to go upmarket, this hardcover reprints #1 - #6 and is a great package. (You can read the first half of the story from #1 on that webpage too.)

Yeah, perhaps not one of the better ones in the run. Interesting that it comes immediately before the couple I posted.

Yes, also a solid recommendation. But the Rosa series is better if you've read the Barks tales it extrapolates from first. (I reckon.)

Thanks guys - glad you're finding something worth reading here. Here's the other Silver Flash. This series has some wonderful cover images: The scratchy interior art is growing on me, even though the quality seems to vary from panel to panel. Look at this page for example. The face in the top right panel is quite nicely drawn and conveys suitable gravitas. The panel below looks like my dog drew it. Overall though, I'm kinda getting into it. Until next time - tampon! (Hmm, not quite 'excelsior', is it?)

Just to be clear, the first three are actually in the Four Color series #386, 456 and 495, then Uncle Scrooge #4 etc. The first three are wonderful (though try to find a reprint of the second one, 'Back to the Klondike', with five cut pages reinstated.)

The first 10 issues of Uncle Scrooge by Carl Barks would be the biggest run in the hobby if it was based on consistent quality and reader appreciation.

That's a very nice Raven you have there Corey. I don't have any of those, though I do have a few of Paul Wheelahan's other books. I'll dig out the copies of The Panther I have and post those. For today, I was very happy to get a couple of Silver Flash books in today. Here's one of them: Now, I know you're all thinking "why are they being menaced by an iguanodon, a harmless ornithopod herbivore of the early Cretaceous period. And why, while I'm on this train of thought, was the movie called 'Jurassic Park' when the main attraction was a late Cretaceous animal?" Those are good questions, and I can't answer either of them adequately, so I'll just be content to show you a picture, with said iguanodons brought to life by the stellar line work of Virgil Riley. And remember Silver Flash's immortal battle cry...

Hi again - I asked someone who is a collector of the earlier comic material like that and the advice was to either keep them (and that clipping does have a certain charm!) or put them on eBay as a group. The number of collectors for these sorts of things is dwindling, but they'll probably find a home. I don't think you're sitting on a gold mine though!

Excellent - I was wondering about this when I saw your excellent work on the census toppers. I'm not sure I can provide any sparkling insights, but I will say that I was mildly surprised to see Batman #1 in third place - it seems like an awfully 'big' book to be so common. And I have 10% of the top 50 in my collection - and I strongly suspect it's the bottom 10% by value!

Not sure what you are talking about? Do you have Teenie Weenie strips cut from newspapers, the 1950s comic books, or what? A picture would help. Welcome to the boards - if you could be a bit more specific I'm sure there will be answer here for you.

This one is amazing! I think I need to own a copy of this book...

Yes, CGC uses its own grading standards, and they clearly differ from Overstreet in many points of detail. They are not published and the only way you can get a feel for them is by experience. BTW, nice book! Overstreet and CGC would both agree that's it nicer than my copy.

Well I'm glad that one wasn't in a grading contest! Is the back considerably worse? That's a very pretty 2.0 Rick. Here's mine Full disclosure: it's a coverless copy with a repro cover. I still love it.

I very much doubt it, but I don't have a #12, so I can't say for sure. Didn't Wheelahan's character come along in the late 50s? There was also a Raven in the Frank Johnson comics of the WW2 years, but I think that's different again.

Late 1951 or early 1952, I think. There were three different TV series, with different numbered starts, and the GCD galleries mix them up. The first series ran from #1 to #38 from 1949 to 1952, the second series (of which these are from) started with #10 (!) in 1951, so they overlapped.

John Dixon was another Australian. As well as the Crimson Comet, he also developed an aviation hero called Tim Valour. Here are a couple I picked up recently. The return of Adolph Hitler story begins with our hero being tasked by the Argentine government (why?) to investigate some rumours of mysterious aircraft sighted off the coast. He crashes his propeller-driven aircraft on arrival in Argentina after a three hour flight (from where?) when an undercarriage leg won't lower (the only possible explanation for which, apparently, is that it was sabotaged when he left his base). The Argentines provide him with a brand-new supersonic jet fighter to go out and see what he can find (If they have more advanced planes why do they need Timbo?). Valour speaks to a fisherman (who unaccountably has access to an Air Force base) who tells him that he heard German voices near an island offshore. TV heads out and gets ambushed by jet fighters bearing black crosses (dun dun dun) and shot down. He bales out and tries to work his way into a mysterious base hidden in the jungle... So... Adolph appears for all of six panels (five, if you demand he be alive for it to count) and seems to lack an effective security detail. That's probably all for the best, really.

Nope - do I have to keep reminding you which Australian I am?