Yellow Kid

One more and then some of you have to start posting! When the Yellow Kid was popular in 1896-1898, you could walk into a tobacco store, buy a pack of cigarettes, and take a premium Yellow Kid pin from a large bowl full of them. They proved so popular that they had to be reprinted over and over. The first 16 had blue publication information at the bottom center of the pin and a paper insert in the back. The next issue had red information on the curl and went from #1-39, again with a paper insert in the back. The next series had a beautiful shiny black back and again went from #1-39. The next series was the famous easel back type that had a wire rim around the edge and a small easel on the back so the pin could stand up, once again for numbers #1-39. This is why the first 39 pins are more common and less expensive, they were reprinted so many times.. As their popularity increased and most smokers now had the 39 pins using the various varieties, the next publication had tin backs and went from #1-94. Then as interest waned, they jumped to the flag series and did #101-160 with tin backs.. Along the way some had small letters, some had large letters, etc, and I once had over 4,000 Yellow Kid pins trying to collect them not only by number but also by series and variations. Of course I finally gave up. My favorite series was the easel back pins, and this picture shows #1-39 except #2 is missing in the top center of the display.. If one of you has a copy of the #2 easel back, I would love to complete the set and would pay or trade generously for the missing pin. Every comic collector should have at least one Yellow Kid pin!

Little Orphan Annie and Tracy were two of the most popular newspaper comic strips. They were not only reprinted as comic books, BLB's, etc., but they were also merchandised in a wide variety of forms. One form was the popular Little Orphan Annie sweater. The box on the right is what the buyer would get when purchasing a new sweater, complete with a nice illustration by Harold Gray. The box on the left was sent to dealers and held several of the customer boxes. This was being produced at the time in the comic strip when Punjab gave LOA a magic whistle to blow anytime she needed his help. Most people have never seen this box so they have not seen the picture of the whistles, which aren't marked. If a person saw one, they wouldn't know what it was without the picture on the box. The most experienced premium collectors I know have never seen the whistle, and these five might be the only ones known. I also placed the LOA sweater pinbacks on the box for looks but they did not come with it. I use these whistles as an example of something that is very rare but not expensive, in part because they are unknown, as opposed to so many things in our hobby that are expensive but not overly rare. The law of Supply and Demand strikes once again. Just imagine what an Action #1 would sell for if there were only five known copies!

These prints are really nice and by some of the earliest artists.

Bob asked me to post a few more premiums. In 1937, Tip Top Comics would give you four 8x10 prints of their leading characters if you subscribed. I am still looking for the Captain and the Kids print if anyone wants to part with one. My next post will show the Tarzan print.

Bob asked me to post a few more premiums. In 1937, Tip Top Comics would give you four 8x10 prints of their leading characters if you subscribed. I am still looking for the Captain and the Kids print if anyone wants to part with one. My next post will show the Tarzan print.

Decoders were very popular during the golden age of premiums. They were made of metal, and then paper during the war years. I always thought that the most beautiful one was the Punjab Mystic Code Translator published in a Sears Christmas giveaway comic.

That is a very nice copy of Barks' second WDCS story! Congrats! The WW II paper drives "ate" so many comics from that period that nice copies are really hard to find...but beautiful to look at.

My brother was ten years older and used to leave his comics all over the house. My mother told me that I taught myself to read from them during the late 1940's but I don't remember organizing and collecting them until the 1950's. My now departed dear friend,Ray Funk. was a true collector, specializing in Buck Rogers but loving it all. He was about 20 years older and could remember buying everything off of the stands as it came out in the 1930's. I can vividly remember buying Uncle Scrooge in "Only A Poor Old Man" off of the stands but he could remember buying Action #1!

At least we are not like Barks' second litho, "An Embarrassment of Riches." The three of us total well over 100 years in this great hobby and have had a lot of fun along the way.

It is always a pleasure to come across such a well-written post with such valuable data in it. It is somewhat surprising that your linformation isn't just common knowledge since it refers to the work of Carl Barks, but at least you have now made the situation clear and future collectors will have your post as a reference. Thanks for your contribution.

At least for another day, Rich!

Exactly what did happen with the entire Rick Durrell collection? I've always been impressed with his collection as one of the first, early serious collectors of books and grade. Mark Evanier mentioned he claimed to have had two dozen Action Comics #1's in his collection at one time. My great uncle started his collection in the late 1940's and was also very condition aware early on tracking down earlier books he didn't own to add to his existing collection and as a kid I remember him mentioning crossing paths with Rick Durrell (I'm guessing at comic/book stores or those early cons). My great uncles collection remained intact but Rick Durrell seemed to have a massive collection with many multiples of books that finally got broken up. Any details on how that happened? After charging Durrell's widow fees for the restoration work he said that he did on nearly all of the books, Gerber advertised them in The Comics Buyers Guide, the best place to sell books in those days to a national audience. By the time he paid himself for the restoration work, there wasn't much left. At that point she got a lawyer and sued Ernie.

When Leonard Brown and I sent out our first list of comics for sale, Rick Durrell was the first person to respond. We all became friends because we all loved old comics. His wife, however, hated Rick and his collection because he spent all of his free time and money on the collection. After he died, she wanted to sell it all. I had made her a strong cash offer and she was on the verge of accepting it when she called me to say that someone else had just offered her a lot more, maybe 3X or 4X more, and she was going to sell it to him. I tried to explain that it simply wasn't possible for someone to pay her that much and she should be careful. She said it was so much because it wasn't a cash offer but rather a high percentage of the sales as the buyer was going to sell the collection piece by piece for a lot of money. What happened aftere that was horrible for her, but it proved once again that if something looks too good to be true, it probably isn't. Gerber needed money to finish his great project, the books we revere him for, and he apparently didn't care how he got it. I didn't know Fred White. However, the night before Leonard and Malcolm Willits opened their first store, they held a champagne reception for a handful of the leading collectors in the area and Fred White appears to be in some of the pictures of that event. Of course Rick Durrell was there as well, and several people I can't identify. Leonard is dead and Malcolm coiuld only remember one name. When I used some of the pictures in an article I wrote about Collectors Bookstore for the CBCA, I asked for help in identifying the other people in the picture but didn't get any responses. All I can really say is that as he was present at the reception, he was viewed as a serious collector.

I was lucky enough to attend the Houston Con twice in the early 1970's and they were the best shows I ever attended! The only reason I went to cons was to visit the dealer's room, and it was gigantic and the dealers had great stuff. The only thing that rivaled it was the early Chicago Cons. Great times!

Be sure and watch the great Disney animated propaganda movie, Victory Throiugh Airpower, which was a nice WWII animated feature. I haven't watched it in years but it seems like it had a brief history of the military use of air power.

' Robot Man is the Greatest! Not only does he have the widest array of great old collectibles that I have seen, but he has the knowledge to go with them!

Robot Man is the bomb!

Thanks so much for posting the page. It is on that nice glossy paper always used for page proofs and the colors are still fantastic. And you are right, Brian's two volumes are wonderful!

Thanks, Mark!

Brian Walker showed it as a full-page picture on p.32 of his excellent first volume, "The Comics Before 1945." I will try and post scans of it and the art later today. If anyone can post it before then, I would appreciate it.

IMHO my Yellow Kid web site has more information than any other source. You can visit it at: www.neponset.com/yellowkid I like the Sunday tear sheets by R. F. Outcault better, but George B. Luks also did his version for about a year for Pulitzer after Hearst first lured Outcault away from Pulitzer, Having one of each would be a nice collection. The last time I checked, there were fewer than ten pieces of original Outcault Yellow Kid Sunday comic art, and about the same number of pieces of presentation art. It is all rare and expensive. After the November 26, 1896, Yellow Kid Sunday was published, Outcault cut the original art into ten pieces to give to friends as presents. I have the piece with the Yellow Kid playing the harp, and with his inscription added, "With Compliments, R. F. Outcault" It is roughly triple the size of the published art and quite impressive. At one time, I owned the only known Yellow Kid page proof, but donated it to Ohio State University, along with a lot of other items, because I wanted to make sure they would be properly cared for and I have the highest regard for their operation. As I always tell people, the Yellow Kid was not the first newspaper comic character, but he was the first one to become a comic superstar and increase subscription numbers as well as market everything from toys to whiskey.

Congrats! Your WDCS #7 is a very nice copy! Congratulations! I'm only putting 1 - 50 together for now, as my collection is pretty broad. Limiting runs to sub sets, or favorite issues is about all I can handle any more

Given their age and the paper collection drives of WW II, it is amazing that any high grade copies of MMM still exist. Of course this just makes tb's incredible collection of MMM all the more fantastic. I think I remember that he posted that he now had them all at 9.0 or higher!

Like you, I love the Zeppelins, too! Toys, models, postcards, stamps, trains, and the list goes on and on. The Zepps are great!

In addition to his book on comic memorabilia, Robert Lesser's book, Pulp Art, is a must for collectors of that genre.