AJD

OK, having slogged through updating the pictures in 18 pages of this journal (though it was kind of fun to revisit all of those scans and remember when the books were new to the collection), I can get back to some new posts. Here's a book I've wanted for years. I had to go a little downmarket for grade, but it's more solid than it looks (the scan does it no favours), and it contains one of my favourite early Barks adventures. Not the cover story (which is OK), but the very atmospheric 'Mystery of the Swamp'. While it mightn't be obvious, the page I scanned is the first appearance of the Gneezles. Some great swampy artwork here. (They are under the alligator hide in the lower left panel!)

I'll play too. Thanks Andy!

I really like the stuff you bought. But, yeah, a disappointing outcome compared to what might have been.

Yes. Yes it does.

In the same package as the Planet #10, here's a #17. Stellar condition for an Australian book from the 1950s. A not so stellar locally drawn cover... While the #10 had reprints from American editions numbered in the 60s, this one reached further back, with stories from #35, 36 and 39. A pity they didn't use the cover from one of those. This Gale Allen story is from #35:

Link for the Google impaired?

They are very hard to find. I've been collecting Australian Planets for four years, and I've bought every one that has come to market that I'm aware of. I now have 7 of them, from 24 thought to exist. My best source has been eBay, and I've bought Australian GA from pretty much everywhere in the English speaking world.

Here's an Australian Planet, with the cover redrawn from the American #65. The contents are stories from three different Planets.

Ha ha - no, in this case the (only slightly) dodgy seller provided everything as advertised.

You guys don't want Australian comics. They are dreadful things. If you must subject yourselves to them, let me buy them cheap and I'll display them in my journal. I'm intrigued by the 'FOREIGN FILE COPY' stamp on one of your books Corey. I wonder where and why it picked that up?

A Planet Comics of a different kind today. I paid quite a bit more than I hoped to for this one, but they are hard to find and I like it a lot! (I wish the comment in Gold Comics that "there's not much interest in these comics" was true!) The cover is obviously a local redrawing of the American Planet #65. The interior shot is the very nice inside front cover splash: I've started to index these Australian editions, and I'll upload to Ausreprints and the GCD when I get the time. Here's what's in this one: Lost World from Planet #61, Space Rangers from Planet #58 and Auro Lord of Jupiter from Planet #60. There's also a 4 page story 'Call the bird dogs' from Wings #114.

Thanks to the beneficence of the architect, I'm slowly rebuilding the images in this journal thread. Page 1 is done now. Yeah, it's OCD, but what are you going to do? I'll keep some new posts coming as well. Here's a recent Planet I picked up. The last one in the run: In many ways it looks like the end too. The cover is only OK, after a stellar run in the proceeding few issues. And the interior artwork mostly looks phoned in. With the notable exception of the aliens on this page, which wouldn't have looked out of place in a Wally Wood sci-fi story.

Funny you should say that. I have been thinking of a new thematic focus, as I have a good % of the war bonds covers I know about and it's getting hard to find new ones. I'd narrowed it down to kangaroos (for obvious reasons) and submarines (a long standing professional interest). As for kangaroos as ongoing characters... you better believe it! Skippy could do all sorts of things, including tuning radio dials and communicate that dad was in a car that had gone into the creek. (That seemed to happen a lot.)

Thanks guys - it is a very cool book, and a Schomburg cover to boot, according to some. (Though not credited at GCD.) Here's an inside pic: Have to say that there's some pretty sketchy knowledge of Australian history here (and in the rest of the cover story). Summerhill Creek is near Bathurst in New South Wales, which is across the Great Dividing Range from Sydney. One of the great stories of Australian exploration is the discovery of a path through to the interior tablelands by Blaxland, Lawson and Wentworth in 1813. According to this page, though, the inland through the Blue Mountains was only opened up in the 1850s, just after Edward Hargreaves got back from not discovering gold in California. And the last panel is set in my home state of Victoria, but it's all screwy too. Anderson's creek is east of Melbourne (in a pretty part of the country) while Ballarat is an hour's drive to the west, and was - along with Bendigo, my home town - among Victoria's richest goldfields. Perhaps the biggest howler is that the book was published in October 1942, and talks of Australia's forces being ready for anything that Japanese can throw at them. That would be eight months after the calamitous fall of Singapore, which saw Australian and British troops soundly defeated. So "real life" it aint. I'm still glad I own it though! A big thanks to @Point Five for spotting it in a boards sales thread for me.

OK, let's try this then...

I like it too.

Sigh, another thread where 80% of the pictures are gone.

Any chance of allowing me to refresh the images here @Architecht?

Well, I'm prepared to rebuild. I put enough effort into this journal and was unreasonably proud of it. (Monty Python's castle owner comes to mind at this point.) Please Mr @Architecht, is there any way to make the early posts editable again so I can replace the Photobucket images? Oh, and I just realised how the 'War Bonds and Stamps' and 'GA in Australia' threads I started must look now... Poop.

Great story - but I'm looking forward to Part 2 after that cliff hanger!

Well this sucks. This thread is dead unless Photobucket relents. Edit: I'll go back and replace what I can. See above.

Yes to all of that.

Plenty of pence Australian copies out there:

Here's my second favourite book in the last bundle. I bought this beaut from @blazingbob Storms. So easy to deal with, and great books. Thanks Bob! And here's a hyper-realistic view of life on Mercury...