Doohickamabob

We should have a contest to see who can do the most interesting job coloring it in.

Hi, I am auctioning a bunch of Fox Feature Syndicate comics on eBay this week. Also three nice Exciting Comics with Alex Schomburg GGA/bondage covers. Here is the link to my CGC marketplace post And a photo of the comics being auctioned: Thank you!

If you enjoy the bios of AC/DC and Zep, be sure to read Keith Richards' autobiography, and also the bio of Brian Wilson from the Beach Boys. I recently read the first book of "Maus" and really enjoyed it. I also just read a very long article in the New Yorker about Scientology and Paul Haggis, and it was very interesting.

There appears to be some imminent cannibalism, though I'm not sure puppets can really be cannibals.

I have to agree... I want a Plastic Man movie! It's rather disturbing that the story ends with the bad guy getting imbibed.

Oh great! Another entry in the "things that cannot be unseen" list!

Ha ha, that is too true. He looks like a cross between Hitler and Beaker from "The Muppet Show."

Just a guess: They're stuck between the seat cushions, along with about $5 of your change from that one time.

I ain't much help, but I will say that there are multiple number designations of other Fox titles, such as early Jo-Jo's. Fox isn't the only publisher with such mix-ups. Timely's Human Torch starts with #2.

A couple more...

Zoot #13 (Feb.) is a killer comic -- I will post some interior shots of my copy.

I guess the idea is that the tape is on the outside, so the molecules won't have much effect on the book on the inside.

Very nice to hear that. Thank you. (Ditto to SenorMac.)

Awesomeness. The cover for #18 is a great non-Supe. (#14 is nothing to sneeze at either.)

nanny nanny boo boo

Just saw it. Pretty neat. I wish they'd show the outside of the book. What I don't like about volumes like that is they're usually trimmed. I don't understand why they have to do that -- why not just use a larger book binding?

Was looking over Plastic Man #1 and took some photos that show the cool interior pages.

It will, to some extent. But the point is, it is best to remove additional sources of acidity (ALL unbuffered backboards) to minimize the acid load on the microchamber paper and allow it to do its thing removing by-products of deterioration and pollutants. If you use Gerber or Cole boards you have the structural support of the board and the chemical support of the buffering. CGC places microchamber paper inside the front cover and back cover to protect the most critical/valuable part of the comic. I also put a piece in the centerfold of my more valued books. If I had $1000 books more than a few minutes, I would probably put a couple more pieces in them. Thank you. My current storage method for valuable comics is buffered acid-free backings, 2-mil mylar sleeves, and microchamber paper.

Will microchamber paper mitigate the acidity of various backings? Also, when you put microchamber paper inside a comic, do you put it in the centerfold, or in each inside cover and back cover?

If the cardboard is taped tightly, the comic does not slide around. Regarding "the comic needs to be secured to one of the pieces of cardboard" -- the problem I've seen is when people decide to use clear packing tape to secure the comic to the cardboard. Clear packing tape really should never be used anywhere on the inside of a package, only on the outside. It's extremely sticky and can potentially damage anything it adheres to, including a comic sleeve. Masking tape is preferable, and blue painter's tape (or green woodworking tape) are even better choices. Also: What are your concerns with a priority envelope? True, it is not as durable as a priority box, but for lower-value comics it costs about 1/2 as much. My experience with the US Postal Service has been that comics, when packaged securely, arrive safely via a Priority Envelope 99% of the time.

Here's an old image about packaging I thought people might appreciate.

I posted about this in the Original Comic Art forum. To see the full explanation as well as numerous photos, go to that forum and do a search for "jaffee." Meanwhile, here are my two original Al Jaffee fold-ins. He paints the originals with a medium called designer's gauche (a powdery form of watercolor). These are from Mad issues in 2000 and 2004. I'd love to have earlier fold-ins but it would seem they're mostly tied up in people's collections. I think Jaffee is a genius.

That's funny, that's the range for most Mad fans. My Mad fandom spanned roughly the same time period: about age 7 till early high-school interests took over. I must admit, though, that I've enjoyed reading the recent issues -- such as the one currently on newsstands. If you hadn't gone to that yard sale, what would you have ended up collecting instead? I sometimes wonder what would have happened if I hadn't retrieved my old Mad collection from my dad's garage, which is how I ended up getting back into it (and into golden-age comics as an off-shoot). At a certain point, I decided to focus on only the magazines and not the paperbacks, and I ended up selling them in lots on eBay. They sold for disappointing prices. In retrospect I should have kept them all, or at least my favorites, but at the time I lived in a small apartment and free space was worth more to me than stuff. That's an amusing hybrid-interest focus. The Signet "Bedside Mad" also has an Egyptian mummy/casket cover. That's one of the few Mad-related books I don't own, partly because I am afraid of what would happen if I did: I'd spend even more money than I already do. Grant Geissman's "Foul Play!" book opened up a rabbit hole of collecting that I will probably never extricate myself from. Cool! What will you do when you finish? Do you anticipate feeling a little sad that the thrill of the hunt is over? Or will you move on to the next hunt? Cool! I am sure you must know the eBay seller "madtothebone." That guy has some of the rarest and most specialized Mad stuff I've seen auctioned....or I should say "had," since he's sold so much of it. I think he bought the contents of the late Mad editor Jerry DeFuccio's estate. I'd be curious to know how you found foreign paperbacks by accident. Must have been quite some accidents. I did once buy a large lot of Mad paperbacks and foreign issues from somebody on Craigslist, who turned out to work at the same company I did. He gave me a killer deal and I broke even after selling just a few duplicates on eBay. I had no idea about these. I know about the foreign magazine issues but not the paperbacks. Do they tend to have original cover art? Or is much of it recycled from the U.S.? I can't imagine many of the U.S. puns or double-meanings would translate well, such as "A Mad Treasure Chest." Good luck finding those -- sounds like quite a challenge. Maybe you'll have to take a vacation in Athens sometime and seek out whatever their equivalent of a large used bookstore (like Powell's) might be... I've done that sort of thing before. When you divert your vacation to search for collectibles, you know you're a fanatic. My understanding is that you can't add a photo directly; you have to link to a photo that already exists somewhere on the web. The best place to upload photos for free seems to be Photobucket.com. Setting up an account is easy and quick. Once you've uploaded to Photobucket, copy the URL address, then when you're here and writing a message, click on the little image link, and paste the URL into it. I think Flickr also lets you do things like that. You can also post photos if you have your own server/website through GoDaddy or whatever.

Hey I was gonna bid on that! How's the Flyin' Jenny #1?

That is amazing. How long did that take to put together? Is there a comprehensive list somewhere of all the paperback editions? Somehow I doubt it, unless it's in that "Collectibly Mad" book. I can't remember if collectmad.com has much information on the paperbacks. I have always found the cover of "A Mad Treasure Chest" rather fascinating. Good to have you in the forum and I look forward to the photos.