AJD

Must be the week for nicely presenting low grade acquisitions. That's a beaut Corey!

The Inner Completist Strikes Back Despite having complete runs of Weird Science, Weird Fantasy and Incredible Science Fiction, I only had six of the seven issues of Weird Science Fantasy. The classic Frazetta cover on #29 never did all that much for me, and with the premium it attracts in the marketplace, I thought I was just going to live without it. But browsing eBay recently, the following inner dialogue took place: AJD: Ooo, a WSF 29 from a local seller Inner completist: you know, you really need one of those AJD: , overrated for the price IC: So, you're gonna have 54 of EC's 55 sci-fi comics? AJD: Seems so IC: You know that's not true, don't you? AJD:Fine, let me show you. This one's, what, a 3.0 or so, and it's $180 bucks. IC: Yeah, but check Heritage results - that mightn't be too bad, and don't forget that's Australian dollars, not real money AJD: OK, here's a 3.0 that sold for US$191 recently. IC: Aha!! Look at it - big creases over the Frazetta artwork and some fugly spine creasing. This one keeps its flaws away from the main image and is US$60 cheaper. AJD: Fine, then. If I buy it will you shut up? IC: Yep. IC: Now, about those EC sci-fi annuals AJD: SHUT UP. I CAN'T HEAR YOU LALALALALALALALALALA Darned if that cover isn't growing on me now!

I wonder if that cover was the inspiration for this Australian Firehair?

I agree about the waste of time, but a lot of the stuff I see copied and for sale is out of copyright and legitimate to offer for sale.

Nice score - the one in the middle is a low print run issue and sells for $50 and up. They are also all really nice comics.

Ok, let's go with that. So you have a 4.0 SA in your grading world. What's your estimated value of a VG, and what discount do you apply for the resto? You know what? Put me on the 'out' list. Sayonara.

Yes!! Think about it - what grade do you give it without the pink? Now deduct a couple of points.

Great stuff Ed. I have three Don and Maggies, but mine were all slabbed (not any more) and there was no COA, which is a shame.

What grade do you think it is? It looks to me like a 4.0 or so without the pink drawing on it, so I'd say Meeklo wasn't far off.

Probably both, but the 'slap a Jap' cover seems to attract more of a premium. I know I want one for my war bonds collection, but can't find one that presents well at a price I'm prepared to pay. Anyone got a PLOD or GLOD they want to sell?

Great stuff Harry. You've made me pull out the Thor Essentials volume to re-read these (which I didn't think I'd ever do).

All way too scary for me. here's an eBay 'very good' I lucked onto:

I'm a big fan of the gradient covers, including this one. Me too.

I'm willing to bet I'm the only kid on the block to get one of these this week...

As I've observed before, the Australian drawn covers for FH reprints varied from very good to pretty darn ordinary. I'll let you decide where this one sits on the spectrum:

I'm still trying to figure out why he's using a different accounting for his little books than he is for his big books. Little Books Bought $2455.12+247.01+699.53=$3401.68 Sold $4007.43+1679.24=$5686.67 Losses $1079.43+637.19= $1716.62 Profit $568.37 Big Books Bought $5329.03 Sold $2340 Losses $2989.03 What are all the colored figures in the Little Books section for? Nevermind. I'm not sure why the others are colored but the red is for losses and the green is profit Wait, what? If the red is for a loss, how can you add it to two positive numbers to get a total number that's the sum of the absolute values of the three? And if the red is for losses, what's the line 'losses'? Seriously, I have no faith that you even know what your current situation is. Please do an introductory book keeping course, or at the very least buy 'book keeping for dummies'. And if you really don't want to invest any money there's always this. If you are ever successful at this, you'll have to pay taxes and might get audited. In that case you need books that can be scrutinised - which means they have to be understandable by people other than yourself.

Well, Australian politics of 1950... so no poofs here (I hope). The Heritage listing said this: Slightly different from the US edition with some extra graphic content. Clearly the covers are different, including the old Parliament House on the back. Sqeggs: can you shed any light on the contents changes?

Interesting what they chose to put on the back. The American copy also has Ten Commandments of Citizenship (Canadians only got six) : 1. Know your government 2. Know the issues before it 3. Keep up on foreign problems 4. Be respectful of all other races, nationalities and religions 5. Practice your own religion 6. Read newspapers and magazines critically 7. Use your vote 8. Follow closely the actions of your elected representative 9. Join political organizations 10. Be American first Some obvious changes for Australia, but a couple of them are a bit odd. "Be British and Australian first" is a real hangover from the days of Empire. That wouldn't surprise me on something from 1915, but it does in 1950ish (is there a date on the comic anywhere?). It suggests that the sense of being Australian rather than a British subject is more recent than I thought. I when Australia voted to remain constitutionally tied to the UK rather than become a republic in the late 1990s. so I suppose it shouldn't be such a surprise to see the view from 1950. The other odd thing is the reference to the Constitution as a charter of freedom. I'd assumed that had just been copied over from the American edition, but clearly not. With the Bill of Rights, the US Consitution does guarantee many freedoms. But the Australian Consitution is a very much a legal document spelling out the powers of the Federal Government as opposed to the states that agreed to sign up as a single entity in 1901. There's not a lot in it about rights and freedoms - those are mostly inherited from British Common Law or legislated, rather than Constitutional. A final comment - the conservatives in Australian politics ran very hard on an anti-communist platform in the 1951 election (and even tried to dissolve the local communist party with the Communist Party Dissolution Bill, which caused a huge fuss at the time). This comic would have played very well for their platform.

Great book, and very hard to find. I wondered who won that one. It sold for a lot for an Australian comic. There's only a handful that go for A$2k.

I did buy the English editions. I read them right through with my daughter, who remains a duck fan to this day. My son wasn't so interested - except for colouring in a few pages in one of the volumes with crayons.

Can I play too?

That CC #40 is from 1953 or 54 I think. Like many Australian GA/Atom Age comics, the indicia doesn't have a date. According to the 'Bonzer' book, the CC ran from 1947 to 1959. To make things more confusing, there were two series - the first ran from #1 to #69 (at least) and the second from #10 - #42. This is a first series book judging by the cover price. In that case Bonzer says the art is by Albert De Vine - all I'll say is he did a pretty fair John Dixon impersonation if that's the case. Collecting Australian comics is definitely more confusing than collecting American ones!

An Australian original title this time. The late great John Dixon's Crimson Comet, with a GGA cover to boot. A recent eBay pickup:

Here's an Australian book for which there's no shortage of competition. Three Crimson Comets came up for sale this week, and all had five or six bidders. I picked out the one with the GGA to put my sights on. It sold for the very top of what I thought was a safe enough snipe: You know, I'm not sure that angry sugar gliders are the scariest monsters the CC would ever face!

Please don't do that - I'm really appreciating the lack of competition for these books!