AJD

I don't know what I like most about Ed Owen's stellar EC collection - the quality, breadth and depth of his books... or the fact that I can bottom feed on his undercopies. And, no, I'm not starting to collect Tales From the Crypt. Just a few with neat covers. This one and #32 have 'woman in peril' covers that will go well with some of my Fiction House books. At least that's my story. Thanks once again Ed.

Some unsolicited advice: Stop. Doing. Trades. So many things can go wrong, and even if all goes smoothly, what are the chances of both parties getting a good deal?

I was in the LCS today and they had one of these, which I had to buy. I blame you Corey.

Indeed it does. And to Point Five for that really nice Ghost. I have precisely none of those.

Hey, I have one of those. Australian style.

I just picked up this Australian Jumbo Comics #28. When it arrived, I thought the lesson was that low grade books are still low grade even if they're cheap (A$13, or US$9). Now I think the lesson is that low grade books with mostly sound covers can look great in mylar. Thankfully this one does. In any case, with these books I'll take what I can find. There's no telling how long before another one turns up. This (I just discovered to my surprise) is the copy scanned for the GCD here and Ausreprints here. Neither have the #17 I showed earlier. Does anyone know how to contact the GCD folks? I've tried 'contact us' and never had a response.

Anyone who has been looking for them in nice shape at an affordable price! Nice books you have there.

Hi Ed, thanks for the tutorial on cracking out. I might just have to stop using my teeth to get into the inner well...

Late to the party here, but that 10 pager in WDC&S 126 is Barks' finest work in my opinion. An economic parable that doesn't miss a beat. It just might be my favourite comic book story. On a more relevant note, the New Year's resolution 10 pager in WDC&S 173 is pretty good too. Oh, and just for fun, here are some NY covers:

That's, I say, that's a cool cover son.

Thanks Rich, I'm glad you enjoyed it. Here's the latest installment. I said earlier that I'm not into horror comics. But there are a couple of EC Tales from the Crypt books that have such great covers I have been eyeing them for a while. I'd successfully resisted the urge, but darned if Ed's EC journal didn't tip me over the edge. This one came up on Heritage last Sunday and had the right combination of eye appeal and price, so it's mine now. I find this cover funny. The rat is a bit over the top, but the guy's expression is priceless. And Marie Severin did a great colouring job on this one. The other one I like is TFTC #41. There might be others I'd like to have, but I'm not going to look too hard - there's enough completist in me to be a concern. Note to self: file under 'blame Ed'.

Your prediliction for statistics and charts warms my overly-analytic heart Ed. And we might need to talk again about one or more of those 162.

+1 on the Catwoman book. Very nicely executed idea. I'm trying to resist the urge to go and buy some of those!

Those are great Corey! I really like the daffy Duck/Green Arrow one.

I'm going to get under the covers with Pogo Possum over the next few posts, but I thought I'd start with how I stumbled across this character. As far as I know, the Pogo strip wasn't printed in Australia - certainly not in the Victorian newspapers I grew up with. (Even though Pogo 'visited' Australia in strips in 1956 and 1961.) So back in 2007 when I got interested in collecting comics again, I didn't know about him at all, and only knew of Walt Kelly from his covers on WDC&S, which at that time I only had on Gladstone/Gemstone reprints. I really liked his style - in some cases more than Barks. One day I found an eBay ad for a seller in New Zealand. I can't recall what he had that took me to his 'other items', but I certainly remember that he had a Dell Pogo #7, which I decided to take a chance on. When it turned up I was completely won over by the charming artwork. The writing was less compelling, but the stories were fun enough in their own right, especially the use of language. Here's a later upgrade copy I got: Perhaps as important as my reaction was my wife's. Mrs AJD thought it was the best thing I'd shown her to that point and said I should get more. When a large lot of 10 Dell issues came up on eBay she literally stood beside me telling me to bid more! (She is similarly smitten by the Dell Peanuts comics.) That lot had really nice copies of half a dozen or so of the short Dell run of 16. My records tell me that it took a little over a year to collect these: This was the first Golden/Atom Age run I finished. I've also picked up a few other Pogo books: The first two are Four Color 105 and 148. Note that Pogo wasn't the headline act at first - he was second fiddle to Albert Alligator. If I was a Pogo completist, I'd be looking for the run of Animal Comics 1 - 30 (though a few don't have Pogo content). For now I've resisted the urge, and Pogo Parade collects many of the early stories. But I do have #9, which has a Walt Kelly War Bonds cover: If I get a chance I'll pick up an Animal Comics #1, which contains the first appearance of Pogo, if the price/eye appeal is right. Speaking of first appearances, here's how Pogo looked in his first panel: Yup, your eyes aren't deceiving you... Pogo went through a few cosmetic changes before becoming one of the most successful comic strip characters of his time. In the next few posts we'll do some deconstruction of the language and themes of Pogo Possum comics vice the strip. (Hey, Ed's not the only slightly obsessive college professor around these parts!) And I can thank Alan Moore for making me think about these things, as we'll see.

And then there are Australian editions of Piracy (only one issue, as far as I know) and Two-Fisted tales (at least 11 of those). Note: you are only allowed to bid on ones I already have.

I don't think that's right. According to The Ten Cent Plague, "weird" wasn't on the banned list, but Gaines got it into his head that he had to change it anyway. The NY statute banning words in comic titles listed "crime", "terror", "horror" and "sex" (despite the fact that no comic had sex in the title). [10c Plague, p 311]. Crime does not pay was indeed banned in NY.

Good stuff Ed. I was 15 in 1978, and I certainly recall that poster. I'm sure you've read it, but the history you digested here is told very well in the book The Ten Cent Plague. There was a similar public discussion of the evils of comics here in Australia. I'll dig out an Australian reprint of Two Fisted Tales later that has an example of the publisher's response to moves to ban certain content.

It's that time of year again. The last couple of years I posted scans of the books I'd accumulated over the past 12 months. This year I posted them as I went along, but I still felt the need to pull them together into one place. So here's the thumbnail edition of... AJD’s Class of aught-15 Ducks EC Fiction House Australian Fiction House War Bonds/WW2 Other These are all clickable links if you feel the need to see larger versions - they'll take you to my Photobucket account, which you're free to troll around in if you so desire. I have some time away from work, so I'm going to post some reflections on comics in the next few weeks. First up will be some thoughts on Pogo Possum, and tributes thereto. Happy holidays all.

Great to see Ed. I'll look forward to seeing your wonderful collection unfold in your journal.

Yes, those are great. Very nice to see someone working so hard on a long run, especially filling in those 'gaps'.

Was that Captain Science from Heritage? I was after that, but forgot I was in a different time zone and missed the live auction! Nice pickup in any case.

Last of the new purchases. An Australian Fiction House reprint. This one is all Fiction House - Wings 120 to be precise. (And there's our mystery Russian fighters again). One of the stories in this issue concerns trying to get intelligence about "Russia's new bomber": I dunno - maybe they should have asked American company Convair... because I reckon that's a copy of their B-36 right there on the ice:

I picked up some more Barks goodness from the Four Color run lately, all from Heritage. Not my favourite story, but a lovely cover - I really like the Dells with strong solid colour blocks: This, on the other hand, has a great story in it. The cover is interesting in having the terror off-stage and showing only the ducks reaction. I only wish it was by Barks: Finally, a cover by Barks, but a story that's - to be generous - pretty ordinary. But I do like the cover, and the link with Don Rosa's reworking of the concept is nice too. This one will be cracked out when it arrives, to match all my other Four Colors.

Wow, it has been a while since I posted much here, so it must be time for a collection update. My trusted old HP scanner has packed it in, but I'll add a few Heritage scans of recent pickups. With this recent win, I need one Weird Fantasy to finish off the run of 22. Still missing #14(2). And another EC - with this one I still need #s 11, 13, 14, 15 and 17 of the 23 Mad comics. I really like the 'photo' of the comic book dealer selling the kid a 'hit'. Is it just me, or does the adult look a little like Bill Gaines? It's late and Photobucket isn't playing nicely, so I'll post some more tomorrow. Some ducks and some Australian Fiction House books.