AJD

I was tempted by that one too @Yorick . Now you mention it, it does have a little Action 2 about it.

Oh well, I'll take a bull on Kamandi, but I wouldn't be happy if I paid 5.0 money for that ASM...

Holy cow - forgot it this and just got home from a Sunday morning bike ride.

Ouch - that looks like it might be a pretty cool cover image too. But don't try to peel the sticker with anything more than a gentle pull on that upturned corner (which I'm sure you knew). While old adhesive sometimes lets go with age more often it doesn't. But depending on what sort of adhesive it is you might be able to have it removed.

As am I. I knew I'd seen that but it would have taken a long time to find it.

I'd want tongs and a hazmat suit to handle that one Bob! In terms of 'fairly acceptable copies to me for the right price', that's the problem I have sometimes. I convince myself that I've actually done OK, but end up keeping stuff that brings me no joy, which seems kind of pointless. The two Startlings are probably in that category. The cost was acceptable at the low grade, but when I started thinking about selling off the one with mould I decided that I didn't even want to pass it on to someone else. One I realised that it became more obvious what to do.

The "swing and a miss" collection - part 2 These two books came from a seller I've had happy results from before, despite being an ebay seller with very terse descriptions and small not very helpful photos. In this case the photos concealed obvious water damage on both. It's obvious that the staples on #48 are rusted but the ones on #51 are hidden from the front and were badly corroded with extensive migration onto the interior paper - to the point where the two centre wraps were detached due to missing paper. The cover had no gloss at all and was stiff to the touch. The lower right corner of #48 had active mould growing in it. I might never own these books any other way at current price trends, but I didn't want them in my collection (especially the one with mould). Back they went. It's a shame, as the seller is an interesting guy who used to go fishing with Al Feldstein! We corresponded for a while, but he seemed to lose interest after this exchange. At least he was good about the refund - though he resold them with the same inadequate description, which at least made me feel less bad about sending them back to him!

Alter ego to mirror universe double

Hot chick to roast chick

Accurate grades submitted. It's anyone's guess as to how right CGC were.

Yes - they are wonderful.

In turn Murphy handed over to Gary Gianni. Gianni wrote a book about the handover and his approach to PV. My wife bought it for me for Christmas thinking it was Hal Foster stuff and was disappointed that it wasn't - but it's a great book which I highly recommend if you're interested in how one artist can make those detailed panels come together. Here's a sample of his work: This is the book: And while I'm here, Australian artists were influenced by Foster as well. Here's a page by Geoff Litchfield from 1941 that I think shows that. Unfortunately these are long out of print with little chance of reincarnation.

I've always thought the Dover & Clover and Superboy covers were an odd mix. Didn't stop me buying one for my war bonds cover collection though!

Chess to checkers

I-a already a-tolda you. AUD$200 No.

Worse than you'd think because the retouched colour was really flat and stood out from the still slightly glossy cover stock. The seller clearly didn't know what he was doing (I don't think he was being deliberately dishonest, though I can't be sure).

AJD's "swing and a miss" collection - part 1 As much as I like sharing the books I'm happy to add to my collection, we all know that collecting isn't always a happy story. For the next few entries I thought I'd post some bad news stories - collecting mishaps or books that I bought and wished I hadn't. Some of them I sent back (only when it wasn't my my fault) and others I wish now I'd sent back, but talked myself into keeping for various reasons, only to find that didn't get "accustomed to their face" after all. Here's a recent one. It was advertised for A$250 (US$170) as a VG and as having "a couple of small spots of colour touch on the spine". That price was high for that grade with resto, so I offered up A$200, which was accepted. (Probably still high, but it looked nice and the postage was local not the US$25+ I'd get from the States.) I've included a nice big scan, but I'm not sure it shows just how much CT there is on the cover. It's right down the spine (every tic and a couple of scrapes, extensively along the bottom and top edges and on the creases on the opening edge. The only bleed through was a couple of spots on the spine and i think the rest was done with good quality acrylic that didn't soak through. You can even see a few brush marks along the bottom edge towards the spine! To make matters worse I think the book was trimmed on the RHS (and possibly the top). At the top RHC the pages make the proper > shape to be expected when the book is folded during production but at the bottom they end like this | I contacted the seller with a polite note explaining why and got this in return: " The description of the comic is the same description from the seller I purchased from originally. The comic has not been trimmed. I am willing to offer a partial refund. Let me know if you are interested." I sent it back and politely suggested that he take it up with the seller he bought it from. A shame - I'd like to have one of those, and my wife loved it. But at least it only cost me a little time.

Yeah, that Airboy cover is great. I assume the book is hard to find or it would be more popular?

Very nice books Corey. I've got some unstamped Dell "file copies" too. But I suspect they are actually just uncirculated copies that were found years later. Pretty sure I've read about warehouse finds along those lines.

I might be off base here, but if the pedigree designation was attached to the book when it was graded lower, that would make it easier to identify that it has been monkeyed with. So there's a $ incentive not to include it.

Tell us more about this one...l

I love Dell file copies with the stamp.

Double double toil and trouble. Fire burn and test tube bubble.