AJD

A couple from the early 70s. This one is from the Australian WDC&S run. Most of them reprinted Dell/Gold Key covers, but a few were original to the Australian series and may have been produced here. I think this is one of them. The Inducks doesn't give any other reference for this cover - which I think is a nice gag well executed. This one is from the G series, which was like the Four Color series, but only had the Disney titles. (And unlike the US, Uncle Scrooge never broke out into his own series.) The 'Best of DD' issues collected three Barks ten pagers. The total number of pages (including covers) for most Australian Disneys was 32 (which was a problem for the 32 page stories, but I'll come back to that another time). The cover of this one may also have been redrawn locally. It is based on the cover of Dell WDC&S 195 but it is different in many details, especially Donald's pose. BTW, I was in Singapore and Brunei last year and went to a couple of second-hand book stores. I asked about these old comics. The owners remembered them, but hadn't seen any in years. I suspect the tropics weren't kind to them.

Is this the list advocating friendship, loyalty,honesty and respect as much more important than the almighty dollar or the bottom line ? Then count me in... (thumbs u I'd also never buy from anyone on the probation list. Never! No matter what the book was or how great a deal he gave. We all have to be strict about this - it kinda beats the purpose otherwise. Im in.. Try buying from me - just try.

YOU hope he doesn't expand his interest into foreign copies!!

Hey, I was three years old. I misremembered the stupid song as including April... As usual, Google is our friend (apologies in advance to non-Aussie readers who won't have a clue what all this is about): Decimal Change Over Song In come the dollars and in come the cents To replace the pounds and the shillings and the pence Be prepared for change when the coins begin to mix On the fourteenth of February 1966. Clink go the coins, clink, clink, clink Change over day is closer than you think Learn the value of the coins and the way that they appear And things will be much smoother when the decimal point is here.

I haven't bought any new Australian duck comics for quite some time, but I was glad to get these ones recently. This one is a reprint of Uncle Scrooge #30. I actually prefer this cover to the Dell edition. I think the yellow background does a much better job of selling the hot weather than the original light blue. And a WDC&S. This one reprints Dell #238 - the Australian numbers were offset by about 65 because they didn't start until 1946. The final edition was #380 in 1978. Minor points of interest are: The spelling 'color' which was used up until the mid 1960s. After that US spelling was avoided - to the point of word balloons being quite obviously edited to include an extra 'u' in words like colour and neighbour. I'll dig out some examples and post them when I get time. The currency - we used the British pounds, shillings, pence until April 1966, dollars and cents after that. I have a couple of issues from the couple of months before and during the transition that have both prices 1/- and 10c. Cheers, Andrew

The Mile High web site is quite a useful reference source for the Gold Key/Whitman overlap period. They list the books seperately - here's an example. Of course, while you're there you can buy them at Chuck's bargain basement prices...

FWIW, I'd be carefulnto not do something to a book I owned to make it look worse and I'd be even more careful to not do anything that would harm the book in any way. Removing CT that is well done and inconspicuous will certainly do the first and I'd have thought probably the second. (There must be some level at which the colour is bonded to the surface.) I'd leave it and enjoy it. If the PLOD bothers you, crack it and mylar it - it'd look wonderful! Andrew (another one - not you )

Just pretend we're a bit slow here in Australia (it's a stretch, I know) - which PLOD one? There's a couple of nice PLOD books in the Heritage Nov auction - the FC 29 is especially nice... but not color touched.

Gotta ask - do you have a licence to print money? The rate you buy seriously nice comics is astounding. Those are some great books!

I think this is a good innovation - for all of the reasons others have outlined. The one query I have is regarding reserves - I assume that the opening bid (in this case 20c) is the 'reserve' and highest bidder thereafter wins? I wouldn't want to see hidden reserve prices on these.

Given the recent posts in this thread, I feel almost embarrassed to post this. But not quite - this was an ebay pickup and I was delighted with the cost/quality deal I got. The book looks nicer in hand and has wonderful gloss. Dell giants.

Something everyone needs - nice pickup.

I'm sure others more knowledgeable will chime in, but there are other examples of Dells where some copies have an ad and others comics on the back cover. Barrier's book on Carl Barks notes some. At a quick look I found: FC 1055 and 1150 Daisy Duck's Diary FC 1047 1095 and 1184 Gyro Gearloose

Wow - your books are so consistently cool! Thanks for the kind words, and you know where to PM a for sale list....

As you know, I've been helped along by some great sellers.

Here's my modest (but growing) collection of WDC&S under 100. I've held out for fine or better on everything except #58 (and that one presents well for its grade). My hand trembles over the bid button when I see lower grade early ones on ebay, but I'm managing to hold out... so far. Anyone got a lead on a nice #46 - my current mini-grail?

Scrooge, I'm curious about this one - that (great) movie had some fairly adult themes and not a whole lot of action. How well does it translate into a Four Color?

A big trans-Pacific thanks to Bonds25 for adding a great 1942 WDC&S to my slowly-expanding collection. Great stuff Matt - cheers.

Impressive chair!! Are the buttons for decorative purposes only or do they control some special features? And do you have one that moves to get around in? One beep for 'yes' two for 'no'.

This is a not especially interesting 1973 Australian reprint of a Dell FC issue that I just got from eBay. What makes this comic special (for me - it's merely inflicted on you) is that it is one of my childhood collection - the stamp on the front is one my dad let me use and I marked most of my comics that way. It was the usual story, collection given away when I went off to university etc etc. It was kind of cool to be reunited 30 years later! There was even a puzzle inside the back page I filled out. I got it right.

Nice lot of ducks you have there 30sFG. Some of my favourite covers too. You just reminded me to get looking for a nice #142 - a low low grade copy was the first Dell comic I ever owned and it remains one of my favourite Barks covers.

That was going to be the first in my collection!! Dang - it's always more fun when you don't know who you've outbid.

Andrew, I thought about PMing you to make sure we weren't bidding against each other, but to be quite honest I figured it wouldn't matter b/c I didn't expect to win! My top bid was around $200 and I figured it would be clobbered several times over...I was really surprised that the book finished well under that. Anyway, it's a good sign...I'm sure there's a #20 out there with your name on it. (thumbs u Jon, I thought about bidding and was going to PM you for the same reason. But I got my nice #22 a couple of weeks ago and decided to let this one go. There's no doubt that there are some good duck books to be bought at remarkably agreeable prices right now. There's one in this week's Heritage that I want too... And at a great price!

Andrew, I thought about PMing you to make sure we weren't bidding against each other, but to be quite honest I figured it wouldn't matter b/c I didn't expect to win! My top bid was around $200 and I figured it would be clobbered several times over...I was really surprised that the book finished well under that. Anyway, it's a good sign...I'm sure there's a #20 out there with your name on it. (thumbs u Jon, I thought about bidding and was going to PM you for the same reason. But I got my nice #22 a couple of weeks ago and decided to let this one go. There's no doubt that there are some good duck books to be bought at remarkably agreeable prices right now. There's one in this week's Heritage that I want too...

Beautiful Jon - I was tracking that one and am really pleased to see that you got it. Now I'm after one...