AJD

Turns out it's really hard to stop at just one. Hopefully there's some kind of program...

My spider-whomper is bigger than your spider-whomper.

I just caught up again with this thread. Fabulous stuff in here. I have another couple of entries. This Australian 'annual' is actually about 15 remaindered comics rebound (without covers) into this spider-whomper of a volume. This particular one has two copies of the Australian original Silver Starr in it, which makes it a great one to have. I got this WDC&S on Heritage slabbed as a blue 4.0, but since liberated. Pretty nicely preserved other than the binding holes.

Next up from the box o' Marwoody goodness is this very nicely aged copy of an early WDC&S. This is a great book. As well as a bunch of Donald shorts by Taliaferro, it has a big hunk (23 pages) of a Gottfredson Mouse serial 'Robin Hood' and some more Gottfredson dailies. So pretty much a reprint book of newspaper strips, but quality from go to whoa. Like many of the best Barks stories, the Robin Hood yarn has an extensive build up that involves growing and shrinking potions a la Alice in Wonderland: And we're a full dozen pages in before a shrunken Mickey gets lured into Sherwood Forest in a book on his shelves (by a mechanism that is never quite explained): All good fun though. And here's a one pager I liked, in which Goofy appears to be pretty shrewd after all:

Except for 67, which is a reprint of #10.

My contribution. Shipped anywhere (from Australia). Mary Marvel #20 2.0/2.5 - OW/W

So... this was going to be part 3 of 'swing and a miss", but it has a happy ending after all. Roughly 70 days ago Mr X, a US-based boardie sent off a package of books for me, including some that I bought from him and some he kindly acted as middle man for. I won't embarrass him by calling him out for a big thank you, only to say that 0.4 < X < 0.6 The tracking went as per normal for a week, until it got stuck here: And there it sat... and sat... until I called the Post Office, who told me it was in Customs... so I called Customs, who said they never received it. The USPS shrugged it off and said they couldn't provide any information beyond that. That was about three weeks ago, and I'd pretty much written it off. Today I got home and found the box sitting on the porch, undamaged, but with a nice sticker on it: The box had been in 60 day quarantine for biosecurity reasons. I also found this inside (the box was very neatly sealed and I had no inkling that I wasn't the first to open it: All a bit of a mystery. But then I realised what must have happened. I think one of the books must have spent time in a comic shop @Get Marwood & I has farted in. I just hope the quarantine sniffer dog is OK. But enough silliness. I know you're all dying to know what's in the box (other than a trace of Marwood's lunch from two Novembers ago), so here's the first book. Extra! #5 - the last in the run and it completes my set as well. From Jim Payette, graded 4.5 and clearly a stone cold 6.0 or a little better. Always a pretty lean series for quality stories, this issue is a good reason to stop here. But I do like the Egyptology on display in this splash by Reed Crandall. Though the EC lads let their usual high standards of research slip in the last panel: Anubis? This guy, with the head of a jackal? Pretty sure the statuette is actually Horus, with the head of a Falcon:

Jungle to Mau Mau

Hacksaw to what the hack saw

"Slave Ship" to "Slave Ship" (Ingels in Piracy #6, not my OA, alas)

I'm with 50s - 5.0 for me

I'd be happiest around 5.5 from what I can see. What's happening at the top of the spine - is there a small split there?

Mask to masks

I buy from Metro a bit because of the depth of their catalogue and relative ease of purchase form overseas. I always discount their assigned grade when weighing a purchase - they are always at least 0.5 high and sometimes more. But overall I've been happy with what I got and what I paid for it - I simply avoid buying anything where the assigned grade is critical for getting value. IIRC, Metro didn't do too badly in Cheetah's comparative grading statistics a few years back. I'll try to dig it up. Edit: here it is

A bull and a one-off for me - and I'll probably go backwards.

Kirby to Kirby and Simon

Doctor to surgeon

Candle to candle