AJD

Here's my contribution. I had Pogo as one of my priorities for 2009. I just love Walt Kelly's covers and these are charming books. As it happened, I didn't have to wait long. In January an ebay seller listed #1-15 'in VF except for one or two'. Well, I didn't really expect that, but what I got was a lot that ranged from VG (only one, #5) with the rest F+ to VF+. I already had #16 (but have a better one coming from the VCC). But I couldn't wait to show off the group so, without further ado, here is the run of Dell Pogo Possum (still gotta find the two Four Color issues). [blatant plug - selling thread of undercopies coming soon...]

How'd you go finding a #6? I started a thread in the WTB forum last year about it. It is a very tough issue in mid to high grade. Only two in the census (an 8.0 and a 6.5 from memory) compared to 20-odd for the ones around it. I'm still looking for one - I have 1-71 in 6.0 or better except for that one. I'd settle for a nice 5.0 There were two overgraded "VF"s on ebay last year (both were about 7.0). Both went well above guide for VF and I was the underbidder on both. Anyone else have this problem?

I have noticed that, but it's because you are buying up all the issues I want! One of the things that lead me to focus on Ducks right now is I was STUNNED by the lack of pre #50 WDCS at the NY con. there were a few, all very overpriced low grades. I expected to have my pick and just couldn't believe it. Just based on ebay prices for duck books over the last few years, I expect the new Overstreet to show a fair bump for early WDC&S and DD four colors. Not so much Uncle Scrooge - low and mid grade copies still go cheaply, although the high grade ones are more robust than they have been.

I know we've had one of these posted lately, but mine arrived today and I'm delighted with it. I thought we could spare a few pixels for a pic. It looks even nicer in hand in a shiny new mylar.

69 is right up there at the top of the coolest covers Yep, and it's especially cool for Australian collectors because it was the cover of the Australian WDC&S series #1 (which started in 1946). Excuse the small pic, but I don't have a bigger one, having never owned a copy. It's scarce and desirable. The only one I've seen for sale in the last few years was a 3.0 which sold for a tick under $600 late last year. The comic was 24 pages and only the covers were colour. The interior was B&W. Later issues had some interior wraps in colour (never color) and later still it became all colour.

WOO HOO! That's a great catch on a tough Four Color. Jack You thunder stealer. I am waiting for my copy to arrive in Australia. I was very pleased when a 'buy it now' at a reasonable price and grade turned up on eBay and pulled the trigger. I suspect you did a bit better... and more power to ya!

I just picked up a couple more Mobil giveaways. In this picture, the upper one is a (badly cut) Australian edition - not too unusual in these cheaply-produced comics. The story is a cut-down version of the ten-pager in WDC&S 86. The lower part of the pic is from the interior of the NZ edition. The covers and stories are essentially the same, although the NZ one has eight pages of puzzles and games in the middle, all untouched (yay!). I thought I'd show you how they cut down these stories to fit into less than seven equivalent pages. In the WDC&S original, there is a sequence where Donald rushes out nude and HD&L have to remind him to go back and put clothes on. (Only the top half of course, which is better than being naked because...? ) The dialogue in the original is (Come back) (and put your clothes on) (before you get arrested). You can see here how a different letterer has changed the dialogue to allow that sequence to be cut out and the story to more or less flow. The other reason for posting that particular page is that it allows me to include that great panel of DD running with the axe. It looked even better reworked to include a fire engine going the other way for the Barks Library slipcase. It looks less good on the cover reworked by an inferior artist for this edition. Cheers from Oz. Andrew

I'll give you $42 for it! Great book! US dollars... I'll sleep on it. (Not really). Love your books btw - that telescope cover has long been a favourite of mine.

What he said. This is really useful. Thanks. Andrew

I have had one of the best weeks yet in the mailbox stakes. A 7.0 Incredible Science Fiction, three new hard to find Australian Disneys and a very (very!) nice run of Dell Pogo 1-15 I won on eBay. (I know this isn't a sales announcement thread, but if you want my 5.0-7.5 undercopies of 3, 6-8, 11-15 send me a PM and we can talk...) Here is the pick of the bunch. This Australian comic is one of the earliest reprints of US duck material. Although undated, it had to be after Sep 43 (US publication date) and before Sep-46 (when numbered and dated Australian series started). My guess is '44 or '45, because this is a very small comic - less than 5" x 7" - which suggests wartime paper shortages. I've never seen one of these pocket-sized comics up close before, let alone owned one.(I'd only seen them online, including the very good Australian Disney comic site at http://home.goulburn.net.au/~alecto/ - this one is listed under the Ayres and James issues). I've seen a couple of lowish graded copies sell on the Bay for several hundreds of dollars in the last few years. I got this very nice one, mis-described and listed on UK ebay (probably because of the sixpence 6d price) instead of Australian. It cost me $21. I'll post some other Aussie duck stuff in the next few days.

I'm the one doing most of that. On the boards, I am always wondering what lies behind all the cool covers posted and just imagine that others are so I make a point of always showcasing a sample of the insides. It's fun to me Keep it up - I always like to have a look inside. After all, the pages count too!

Bronty is talking about the cover of the Four Color 108 that SweetieBones posted earlier - Terror of the River, and not WDCS 108 (thumbs u Oh.....

anyways, 108 is a nice enough cover (the fact I mistook it for barks says a lot, but I'll stick with what I said about donald's hands, and the faces. I must have missed something here - are we talking about WDC&S 108? the one with Donald and HDL on a small sailboat? That is a lay-down classic Barks cover. One of my absolute favourites! Barrier's book has it as Barks and it was one of Gladstones Barks' poster series (I want to buy one if anyone knows where I can get it). Or did I miss something?

Since the first one seemed to be of interest, here's another. This one has a different car for Scrooge on the back cover. I suspect this scene was redrawn from Barks panels by the unknown Australian artist(s) who produced local Disney covers sometimes. Cheers, Andrew

Excellent point, I never thought about the gag/associative trends. One of the hardest things about distinguishing so many issues within the whole Dell/GK Uncle Scrooge run was the gag covers, which got compounded because they`d be reprinted over and over. And the lack of issue numbers on the GK covers, of course. Tell me about it! I can have read the issue five times and generally speaking I still won't have a clue what story I'm about to read by looking at the front cover I think I have to stick up for the gag covers here! Those Scrooge covers in the Dell run are, to my mind, some of Barks' finest work. Classic composition, solid colours that look great and really striking images. (I have a couple framed on the wall of my office here - #4 and #10. I'm going to add #12 soon.) I think the Scrooge covers took a turn for the worse at #45, when the story-specific ones re-appeared. I'll caveat all this by saying that FC 386 and FC 456 have great and iconic covers and the first gag cover FC 495 leaves me cold. But the others make those Scrooge issues classic comics and a beautiful timeless product (which is why they keep getting reused). BTW the Gold key issues have a date publication code that can let you work out which is which. For example, WDCS 264 is 10011-209, which breaks down to (1) decade = sep 1962- aug 1972 (0011) = WDCS (2) = 1962 (09) = september. Grabbing one at random beside me, it is 90011-205 or a WDCS between sep 72 and aug 82, and specifically is May 1982. (It has a great Barks gag cover too.) The Uncle Scrooge codes work the same way, but the title id is 0038. So 10038-611 is Uncle Scrooge November 1966, 90038-803 is the March 1978 issue and so on. Apologies if you all knew that already, but I was very pleased when I worked it out!

Welcome to the boards. Gotta say that's a fantastic book to start with! Can I have it? Please?

Very cool, Andrew. I really like the back cover too. I take it these are tough to track down? Yes, the quality of the paper tends to work against them. The last half a dozen must have been printed in larger numbers, because they pop up on ebay a lot (and sell for $20-$30) but in my 6 years there, I think I have seen #1 and #2 once each. I've found a couple in antique stores too - Mobil collectables are a bit of a thing in some circles here, so I hope to get them all eventually. I have a lead on a #12 from New Zealand at the moment.

I just got this in, and thought I'd show it here. This is the last of 24 giveaway comics distributed in Australia starting in the mid 1960s. I remember getting this one with my dad when I was a kid - probably 1968. There was a New Zealand series as well. The Australian ones are numbered and glued, the NZ ones un-numbered and stapled. They are printed on very poor quality paper and the production standards were low as well - that's a production crease right through the front cover. But they are a really neat little collectable - they are half the size of a regular book. The duck stories are Barks 10 pagers from WDC&S, but are edited down to fit the format. There are 16 pages, including front and back covers, making 7 and a bit normal comic pages. Sometimes the editing is well done, but sometimes odd gaps appear in the story. There were some Mickey Mouse issues, and a Sword in the Stone one. These are a collection focus for me this year. I have 12 of the 24. In the (unlikely) event that you see any, you know who to PM...

The chart says 1184 is missing. Allow me.

I don't know if 15c variants exist, but FWIW, my copies of 14-16 are all 10c. My 11-13 are 15c. (I don't have 9, 10 - yet). Maybe the price reduction was an atempt to pick sales up? After all, Pogo finished after #16. Andrew

You geeky intuition is likely on target as the MOC back covers are not pictured in the Gladstone albums. Or in the hardcover Barks Library. Can anyone post a scan? I've never seen them.

I just noticed a neat example of an artist re-using an idea. Two takes on the same gag from Walt Kelly (and ducks on both, of course). Here's one I've had for a year or two, the Xmas 1946 WDC&S: and here's a purchase I just made on eBay, Pogo Possum #11 from 1952:

I feel your pain - that's my experience too.

Bergdoll, are you (or anyone else) interested in the Australian Uncle Scrooge variants? I'd be happy to write a short article and scan some covers. I posted a couple last week.

I think this one might have been omitted from the Don Rosa index: Title: Back in Time for a Dime! Year: 1990 Book: DuckTales Magazine, Spring 1990 Publisher: Disney This was reprinted in a relatively recent Uncle Scrooge. Don't go to too much effort to find it. It's a horrible 4 page story that was scripted by Rosa and drawn by someone else (Cosme Cortieri from Diaz studios). Apologies if this was already noted.