AJD

Lots of Australian books were odd sizes and layouts. I really like this WW2 vintage paper saving Four Color #29 Australian reprint. It's 4 3/4" x 7 3/4" (or 12.5 cm x 19.7 cm) Here is it beside a normal sized Dell:

And Mitch will be along to explain to us that eBay is a sewer/cesspit in five, four, three...

At least this one made his fortune square...

This caught my eye in the morning paper. A street poster in the French Presidential election:

Ah, Ben Bowyang. I remember the strip being in the Melbourne Herald in the 1960s and 70s. By then it had become Old Ben Bowyang, if memory serves. There were several Aussie strips on the comics page - Bluey and Curley, Wally and the Major and possibly others I'll think of later. Interesting that the Herald was pumping out reprint editions as early as 1939. I just checked out the Wikipedia page for the strip. It says it finished up in 1979, which seems about right. But it also says it started in 1939, while your reprint collection is from 1937. And the National Library has this one from 1934.

Good Lord! *choke*

Wow, that's pretty full on. Things were different in 1950...

I think I'm going to put this journal to rest after this post. It's no fun around here any more, and I think I might enjoy yelling at clouds instead. As a valedictory post, here's a low grade but fun book. An odd feature of this book is that the pages are printed at about 70% size! As the pig says, That's all folks!

I think I might have one of those...

I got this Australian Rangers over the weekend. Great colours on it, and a cover I thought I recognised from Wings. But I was wrong - this isn't a Wings cover. Or Jet Aces. Or any Fiction House comic I could find. The closest I could come is a colour and conceptual link with this L. B. Cole cover (not my book): It does have some FH material inside. This Space Rangers story probably comes from a late run Jumbo, though I couldn't identify which one from the GCD.

I love finding artist's reference photos. Back in this thread I had some aviation photos, but I think I can add these portraits - what do you think? Going through 100s of photos of Audrey Hepburn was tough work. You guys really ought to appreciate my efforts!

Another day, another Fiction House book out of the Heritage box: And a nice Mysta splash for the UTC fans out there:

Maybe if you wanted a genuine period piece to practice leafcasting and restoration on? That might make sense of buying an actual DC cover that can't get any worse!

I'm also thinking along those lines. I like the 'old journals' format, in which posts are simply appended to a continuing story. That appeals to me. The new journals are more like blogspot or wordpress, with each past stand-alone and the others in an archive. If my journal is going to look like that, I'll move it to blogspot.

I see your point. I think you need to look at those sorts of covers with a different eye from line drawn and solid colour representations. I really like it (which is why I shelled out for it) but I appreciate it more like a painting than a drawing. It's a bit like saying that Turner didn't really paint the Temeraire.

I'm still buying American comics when the right one comes along. Here's another one from the Heritage package. With a Nazi, a vulture, bondage and skulls with gems for eyes, it has everything a collector could want, except for a robot. And for your UTC pleasure, here's a Hooks Devlin splash with an important safety tip. If the stuffed bear at the museum is wearing a tie, there's a fair chance you've turned up to an event under-dressed.

I really hope you're wrong about that! The last thing I need is for people with US$ chasing them! They are not very nice books, and I take no pleasure in owning them No one else need ever buy one, because I'm taking one for the team! So there. (Well, I can try... )

Peter, Peter, Peter. Cole painted many of his covers. What gives them such a distinctive look is that he painted onto a black backing. You can see that in this one if you look along the spines at the top of the monster. The 'black' here is actually negative space. There's a terrific book on Cole and his work. You can preview it here.

While I'm here, I'll post another book from my latest Heritage bulk delivery. With this one, I doubled my collection of books with L. B. Cole covers. And the obligatory UTC shot, this time with a T. rex (such as it is) especially for Corey:

You can't go far wrong with them. The quality of the strips was uniformly good over its lifetime. There are lots of cheap paperback collections you should be able to find through abebooks (or maybe even Amazon) for a few bucks. Just grab any one and try it.

Give it a rest Mitch. Like most people here (I suspect), I've had many good purchases from eBay, as well as a small number of disappointments. When I compare what I've paid on eBay compared to dealer prices, I'm way ahead. A bit of due diligence goes a long way.

Wow, this thread went downhill fast!

While I have Photobucket open, here are a couple of WDC&S I added to the box last week. #43 first I really like the WW2 Disney-inspired military unit insignia on some of these late war books: This is #42 The Barks 10 pager is pretty funny, with Donald deciding to taunt the nephews by pretending to be a kite-flying girl. Some of the expressions are priceless.

Yes, it gets a bit untidy around here when Mrs AJD hits the fermented apples too. Here's a recent pickup. Very cheap, but a nice Montana Veronica cover on this Australian MLJ reprint. The interior artwork isn't so appealing. Probably the pick is this Suzie splash, with a neat Samm Schwartz signature. (Story from Pep 83)

I'm not seeing Baker in this one. The others you showed looked the goods to me, but nothing about this says Baker to me. And what is she looking for?