AJD

The Golden Age guys took a while to learn the basics of visual story telling. It was common to see a caption "The Batman runs across the road" on a picture of ... er... Batman running across the road. By the time Stan Lee was writing silver age Marvels, there was no excuse!

Here's another late Fiction House book that @1950's war comics can charitably describe as 'affordable'. Nice colours though. The UTC this time around isn't a splash, but a page that contains one of those lines of dialogue that I particularly dislike - "Help, I'm falling!" I always hated that about Marvel and DC comics. "That wall! Falling on me! It will crush me, unless I can..." The dialogue in a world with physics would actually be more like "Oh f- <mangle, crush, flatten>"

Nice polite euphemism you have there!

I posted this in my journal, where it sparked a little discussion, so I thought I'd put it here as well. This is the first Australian printing of this story, about 6-8 months after the Four Color version. These Australian Disneys typically had better producktion values than the Dell versions - better paper of heavier and whiter stock, and (probably because of that) a better colour strike. Here are the two in a comparative shot (Australian on top):

Still have a few from my last shipment to post. This is the only copy of Ghost I have, but it's a good one. It got the 'Mrs AJD seal of approval'TM too. Alas, the cover is easily the best aspect of this book. Coming near the end of the Fiction House era, pickings get a little lean. It was hard to pick out an UTC entry that was worth the electrons, but this half-splash will have to do.

Based on the corner crease and spine creases visible in your photos, as well as CGC's note of a small tear, I don't think you'd get a big bump - if any at all - from pressing that book. 6.5 might be as good as it gets for that one.

That's it in a nutshell. It's also a thicker paper, and the sizing allows for a deeper colour strike, which also adds to the visual appeal. Here's a photo that hopefully shows the difference. The Dell issue is underneath, and the Australian edition on top.

Yes, that rings a bell now you mention it.

Ah, parasitic wasps - aka the ichneumons. They were quite the subject of debate in the mid 1800s, with their method of reproduction (laying eggs in paralysed prey, with their larvae eating their way out of the still-living spider or caterpillar) being used as an argument against a merciful God. No doubt The Wasp and Spidey have had this theological discussion at some point.

My first love in comics was Australian Disneys. When I first bought into the G series (a bit like the Four Color series, with Disney characters, movie adaptations, TV show spin-offs etc) in about 1970, it was up to #470. I recall wondering what the early ones were like and thinking how cool it would be to get some. I found some second-hand books in the 300s at one stage, but that's as close as I got. Thanks to eBay, I'm now slowly picking up early ones. Here's the latest - the first Australian printing of this wonderful story. The cover price of a shilling 1/- (or 12 pennies - roughly the equivalent of a dime) was a lot when most comics were 6d or 8d. But these were in full colour and printed on pretty nice paper. As a result, they have often aged more gracefully than their contemporaries. The PQ in this one isn't unusual.

And I'm "Mr-would-prefer-6.0-but-increasingly-settle-for-4.0"

Like the moon has a little to do with the tides. When I read the first post I thought "I must let Marwood know about this... oh, wait..."

All Atlas reprints from Justice Story 1: The crook who couldn't be caught Story 2: Lead-pipe cinch Story 3: On parole Story 4: The syndicate strikes

Overwhelmed as I am by your collective response to Barks and Gyro Gearloose, I shall nonetheless struggle on. Here's an Australian crime comic. Like the other Crime Busters I have, this one seems to have a bespoke Australian cover. This one has a bondage them and I'll eat my hat if that isn't John Wayne handing out a belting on the cover! The stories are all pretty ho-hum. Guy does crime. Guy gets away with it for a while. Guy eventually gets his comeuppance. Perhaps the most notable feature of this comic is that it has an ad for the first appearance in print of @Point Five - and I'm not making that up!

Post something I want that you haven't already sold me then.

What happen to Mildred Norton's nose?

"... the fifth quadrant..." That word - I do not think it means what you think it means. Welcome back Harry. That was a good read.

DUDE, USE THE CAPS LOCK KEY and stop shouting at us!

I seem to get about an email a week. Because of the time difference, about half the time the book is sold, but I do get the heads up.

A change of pace today, with a book that is neither hard to find nor valuable. But I was really pleased to get it as a freebie from the inestimable @Point Five It contains one of Barks wonderful mid-period Donald Duck 10 pagers. The formula isn't unusual - Gyro Gearloose comes up with an invention (in this case worms that catch fish autonomously) that is partially brilliant and partially crazy, and Donald takes it and misapplies it. Mayhem ensues. I really like these stories.

Yup, my play along at home grades for both those two was considerably lower. I can only assume the spots scattered across the cover of the romance comic were not foreign material? And my rule of thumb that "CGC hammers stains" takes a beating on the Conan.

Hey, I didn't say that was a bad thing. I've been known to overthink (and over explain) myself.

AJD didn't know one way or the other. There are other boardies with feminine names whe aren't female! So, I got my spoon kicked by a woman who has a great GA collection? I'm OK with that. As Jon said, come play in the GA forum some time. And FWIW, my wife loves GA GGA (though she has been known to comment on the implausibilite perkiness in some situations!) but we both hate the modern form of the genre.

You think it's concerning? I was one of his/her (not really sure!) victims along the way.

Wow - that's a stunner. Thank you for taking the effort to post it @GermanFan. Interesting that it's a 6d book when the Ausreprints series has #1 and #2 at 8d. I used to think that the lower price must be earlier, but now I understand that the lower prices on later numbers sometimes indicated a book printed in Australia for the New Zealand market. I promise I'll stop asking questions soon, but what does the indicia say? P.S. I really really want one now!