AJD

I've wanted a copy of this for a long time due to the charming and nicely composed cover image. But the story is pretty ordinary, so I was waiting for a nicely presenting copy at the right price. I paid $20 for this, so I think it qualifies. I'm contemplating collecting the run of Dell Donald Duck issues. I have 26, 27 and half a dozen others. They have the merits of some very nice covers and a few great Barks stories (especially Forbidden valley) and low prices. But do I really need 15 more Dells?

Would love to see those cards @Duffman_Comics! Meanwhile, my "not collecting" of Shock SuspenStories continues with this #1. So far I have managed to accumulate - but not collect - six of the 18. Some interesting work with facial expressions from Feldstein here. I say "not collect" because there are a few in this series that don't especially appeal from a cover presentation point of view. And, not least, I'm wondering if I really want to stump up for the #6 at current silly prices.

Yes. With you on that. I'd have it long enough to market it properly and sell it. Not with you on that one. Batman is such a cool character I'd be sorely tempted to keep it.

Agreed that Mystery of the swamp is the better story. But it struck me as more of a precursor of the Land of the pygmy Indians story than the underground one. Though thinking about it a little, it probably has elements of both.

Funny, my grades are usually a touch higher than most here, but I was thinking this one is a textbook 4.0. I could see 4.5 on a good day, but I'm not seeing 5.0

A nice Whitman cover on this Jumbo.

This just in... Interestingly, the cover shows that the local colourist went the extra yards to make the cat in the foreground spotted. Here's the American edition: For the UTC this issue I've picked out this page with the signature of the original owner (maybe?), M. Bogdanovic: And this page, with honest to goodness MiG-15s (and some F-84 Thunderjets) for @Hepcat And this ad for the 'knickers' (cue Benny Hill music) that @Duffman_Comics probably wore to school. (Pretty sure mine were King Gee a few years later.)

I don't know how to grade this one. Is the extra staple and/or tape actually holding the cover on, or would it be attached by the production staples?

Yep, 4.0

I have a really nice WDC&S with a 1cm tear (cleaner than that one) on the back cover. Instead of the 9.2 it would otherwise get, CGC went with 6.5 I think this book is around 5.5/6.0

Licensing. He also wasn't in the Gladstone comics of the same name. They introduced an annoying new character Launchpad McQuack to play the DD role.

I think they have been trimmed to the border of the image, then stuck onto a white background. You can see a few glue/paste 'crinkles' in places.

Looking at several scans on Heritage, it seems unusual. There is usually a little 'show through' if you look hard, but not as much as that scan shows.

I'd want to know the absorption properties of paper and ink at those wavelengths. My hunch is that it would be likely to affect more than just the staple rust - note that it removes paint from metal. (It looks great for treating rusty metal though! I want one.) To @Alf Pogs: staple rust starts out on the surface and gets deeper with time. I've cleaned some staples that look fine after nothing more than a gentle swipe with fine steel wool. Others with worse rust pretty much crumble if you try to remove them for cleaning.

A "trip" down memory lane there!

Excellent "V for victory" cover.

It's entirely possible that I'm the only person on earth who had this on his grail list...

My latest precious. An Australian book that sits very nicely with my other GGA books. In this story our hero and his client (the CC is a private investigator in his alter ego) face the menace of 4" tall Neptunian invaders. "Can't they just step on them?" I hear you ask. Well, no, the crafty little blighters bring you down to their level...

And we've already had John Dixon and the Crimson Comet a few times in this thread, but one more can't hurt. Especially this one, which I was delighted to get recently. It's another of the landscape format books (staples at the top of the FC), which I expected. But this is the earliest CC I have, and I had no idea how big they were. This one is even a little larger in both dimensions than the 'classic GA' size. And it has a nice GGA angle too. It has an October 1950 arrival date stamp. The villains in the story are 4" tall Neptunians...

Great stuff Peter - thanks for posting that. It must have been quite the event to go to. I have the con book you posted, and that's fun. (The Barks reprints article also cleared up a few mysteries for me about early Australian Disneys.) I have a few examples of work by the artists you mention in my collection. Here's one of Wheelahan's Panthers: And an early Raven: He was pretty prolific. As well as his own titles, he pops up regularly as a cover artist on reprints of American comics. Here's one of many from the Rangers run:

Great stuff Peter. The first run I put together when I got back into the hobby. Which ones do you still need? I have a couple of duplicates still - and I'll only charge US$24 per book for shipping.