RareHighGrade

No, Gary never said anything to me about those books, but that's a plausible theory.

Wow, what a pretty copy!

I can confirm the existence of nos. 22 and 31. I have seen #24. It's a gorgeous copy, but has an unfortunate tear that takes it out of high grade. I've never heard anyone claiming to have seen nos. 25 and 28, but it's exciting to think they may be out there. What's most interesting about the fact that so many New Adventures are missing from the original MH catalog is that it suggests that someone who had early access to purchasing books from the collection before the catalog was printed elected to go after the NAs rather than all the other choices available.

Thank you. Yes, the last book in the run that I acquired was the #27, and it was not an upgrade.

The reason why I was so focused on completing the NA run is my love of the great Flessel covers. Similarly, his covers in the early Detective run were the original impetus for my pursuing the Tec 1-26 run, His last Adventure cover was #33, so I haven't made it a goal to collect all the issues through #39, although I really like the Flanagan covers in that run (nos. 36, 37, 38 and 39).

I appreciate all of the kind comments made by everyone throughout the course of this thread; they have made my completion of the run even more satisfying. I'll finish by noting that, starting with issue #32, the title dropped “New” and became simply “Adventure Comics,” which is the title that remained until the series ended in 1983 with issue #503. Creig Flessel's classic shark/raft battle cover was an awesome way to introduce the new title.

That's a perfectly timed question Dan. The first book that I purchased is the last issue in the run, #31. My raw copy, which I picked up 3 decades ago, comes from the “penciled S” pedigree.

There's no rhyme or reason that I can think of. They were not all from the same month, as demonstrated by this book, which came out several months after NA #26 and Action #1:

I believe that the Church copy of NA #12, posted at the beginning of this thread, was purchased second-hand by Church. I understand that the Church copy of #13, which I have not seen, was also lower grade, so it too may have been second-hand. The first issue that Church bought off the stand was probably #14 (posted herein), which is in relatively high grade.

We’re now in the home stretch of the run. The penultimate issue, #30, has a beautiful whaling cover. Speaking of vivid colors, this Church copy has them in spades, as well as highly reflective and seemingly still-wet gloss that looks like it was applied yesterday.

Issue #29. 8 Universal copies in the census. Another action-packed cover: A French Legionnaire is getting ready to body-slam one of his adversaries.

Issue #28 is another very tough book, with only 8 Universal copies in the census. It has a great cover depicting armed pirates taking over a vessel. The captain’s distressed look is understandable, given that his undersized billy club is likely to prove ineffective against his assailants’ swords and guns. If you look closely, you can see Flessel’s signature subtly hidden along the ropes. This non-pedigree CGC 9.0 copy tops the census. No one has seen a Church copy.

Similar to how he signed Tecs 3 and 34.

With the exception of when he was impersonating another artist (e.g., NA #16 (Shuster) and Tec #18 (O'Mealia)), Flessel typically signed his covers. Can you spot where he signed the NA #27?

Hi Scott, The back story on how I obtained the Church #26 is that it was part of a complex trade deal with another collector in which we exchanged a variety of Church and other high grade books decades ago. This occurred before #26 was even recognized for its rarity - i.e., before the publicity around Ian Levine's search for the issue.