AJD

A package lobbed onto my desk today. It was an inter-Commonwealth transfer of these two books from the UK back to their native Australia. This one has a 'Jungle Tales by Trader Jim' feature which is just a thinly disguised reason to include some rather nicely done drawings of African wildlife. The B&W format is good for being able to enjoy the inking: This one has awesome cover inks. They're even still different reflectivity and look fresh from the printers. It's a real shame that the book has picked up wear and a few tears along the way. A high grade copy with these colours would be wonderful. As an observation, the Australian FH reprints don't seem to suffer from the colour fading that the US ones did.

Here's an interesting Dell fact I didn't know - apparently they had copies of foreign comics produced under licence sent to Racine for filing. This eBay seller has some of them listed now. And here's another NFC Dell. I can't recall buying it, so I must have got it in a lot with something else.

Not that beat - it actually presents pretty well.

Hi Corey - great stuff. The Australian comic is cool - I really like those top opening/landscape format books. And that's a nice splash panel! And while on the subject of old Australian comics - happy Rabbit Day* to you! * Australians hate rabbits but don't let that spoil your day.

Oh I had no intention of sticking to it. I like Scrooge #10 too. The Philosopher's Stone story was one I never saw in my early comic days because it didn't get a reprint here at the time. The first time I read it was in the hardcover Barks library. There were a few like that. Trala La was another one:

Ah, take out Ducks, Walt Kelly and LT, and my options narrow quite a bit... even fewer if war bonds and Christmas covers are out (each have their own thread). Still, there's this (and others in the run):

Yeah, that's a liberating moment, isn't it? These days I get as much or more enjoyment from books nobody else much cares about. (See my journal to see some of them.)

Agreed, that Animal Comics #4 is lovely - and I've often contemplated adding a few victory garden covers to my war bonds collection.

Some very nice painted artwork on those JJs. I especially like the rhinos and elephants.

Oooo - a chance to trot out some war bonds covers under a different pretext! Many more Dells where those came from. I'm going to like this thread.

I finally get to put something in this thread. Nothing like the calibre of other finds here, but I really enjoyed reading this, especially since it cost me $2 at a flea market.

I like this (Australian) one:

Frontline Combat is my favourite war series.

Wow - that's a trippy Four Color! What were the other two you found?

Another Aussie FH reprint to add to the collection.

Another recent pickup for me: Shark: I'm in the market for a FC #62.

More ducks today. Well, strictly speaking a large and eccentric chicken and some ducks. Another Gyro Gearloose Four Color - in fact the last of four GGFCs for me. There's one more one-shot (which is 'missing four color' #1329, from memory) which I'll try to run to ground as well. Here's an 'under the covers' special, in which Barks masterfully turns a sequence into a slapstick silent comedy. Donald has asked Gyro to produce a device to cancel out any noise HD&L make. Strange as it might seem, all does not go smoothly. A small fire breaks out and the device malfunctions. Hilarity ensues:

I had to look twice at that Tec 119. The bottom part of the cover is a hand drawn recreation, right?

Another day, another comic sized envelope on my desk. Here's my latest Australian FH reprint. Another 'big' book, at 2.5 cm (1") taller than the US editions: I couldn't find this cover anywhere in the US FH range, so I assume it's another Australian produced one. If so, it's certainly one of the best ones I've seen. Here's the back cover, with a 'house ad' for others in the range:

Thanks EBE! I spotted Wilbur #2 just recently, but I'd never noticed the CAG title. I can live without #20 since I tend not to go for just a text addition, but the others fit just perfectly.

A change of pace this time. This one was a prize in the grading contest (and a big thank you to thehumantorch). I have a small stash of SA Marvels, and this one is a welcome addition. Some great Kirby artwork in here - and I love Ben's line at the end of the page below. While there's a little too much of it sometimes, Ben's griping about Reed's inflated speeches can be pretty funny. And it's not just Reed - I love Ben's observation when The Watcher is waxing lyrical about the nature of Galactus: "This is a blast! Jest when we need all the help we can git, baldy decides ta turn philosopher!" Here's my favourite panel. Kirby dots. And, no, you haven't wandered into Harry Lime's journal. Normal GA service will be resumed in the next post.

Cool - can we see some of the interior pages?

It was time for another crack hit. In this case two lovely Dell file copies were sprung outta the big house. The first one is a white page beauty with a great Barks cover: Walt Kelly on this one, and the only flaw on this beautifully preserved one staple book is some tanning to the covers - still 'off-white pages' to the CGC folks though. Here's an interior page of the Albert Alligator story (Pogo's top billing came later). Note the early Pogo look and the southern dialect that Walt Kelly apologised for when some of these stories were published against his will in the Pogo Parade Dell giant.

Ooo, yeah, that goes OK.

I was unreasonably pleased to score this one for my collection. There are at least 24 Australian issues of Planet Comics. I now have 4 of them. At this rate I should be done sometime in the 2040s... Other than a bit of a tape/price sticker pull this one is beautiful. It even has the slightly greasy feel that older Australian comics with newsprint covers sometimes have in high grade when the cover inks are largely intact. Another Australia unique cover on this one. The others I have are #3,4,5. This #6 is smaller, and about the same size as a standard GA book. The contents are a bit odd. There's a Space Rangers story, which is fair enough, but then there's some very un Planet-like stuff. First a Captain Terry Thunder story (from Jungle Comics), followed by Senorita Rio (Fight Comics) and Camilla (Jungle Comics again). Not a whole lot for the sci-fi comic fan! Here's the Camilla splash. The story is from Jungle #132: