Doohickamabob

While I really covet the brick s--thouse cover on issue #4 - this is a pretty cool GGA humor cover.

This was listed just as "high grade" on ebay and seller accepted a very reasonable best offer - I was amazed at how nice it looks. There are four minor spine tics and some yellowing on the back cover. I can't see grading this book any less than 9.0. My dilemma now is do I keep it or slab and sell?

 

I can't keep up with the Mad imitators, so how is that Eh! in terms of the comedy? I agree about issue #4, that is the one I'd love to get a copy of.

Another Mad-ish comic I like is Nuts, with my favorite issue also being #4.

I have a bunch of Fox Feature Syndicate comics listed this week -- auctions ending Sunday night, October 4.

These include: All Top, Zoot, Jo-Jo Congo King, Crimes by Women, Phantom Lady (Ajax), Famous Crimes, Murder Incorporated, The Bouncer, Women in Love, and several others.

eBay name same as here -- doohickamabob. Thanks.

A friend of mine pointed out the uncanny likeness of the model on Pictorial Romances #2. She looks like many of the faces that turn up in Baker's artwork.

Here's a graphic I made that shows the comparison. (Note how the left eyebrow hooks around.) I think I'm on to something here. What do you think?

Any thoughts on an Anti-Uthe vaccine?

At this point I am wary of ever doing business with anybody in Germany, for fear it could be him.

Here's a follow-up regarding my dealings with Uthe: Thanks to this board, I got the email address of the fellow in Cincinnati, Ohio who was shipping items to Uthe. I told the guy the entire story of how Uthe was a known, longtime scammer and so on. The guy in Cincinnati said he didn't know about any of the above, and offered to send my items back to me. I wasn't sure what to believe, but a few days later, my stuff arrived and I was free and clear -- Uthe scammed me out of the payment, but I got everything back. The Cincinnati guy told me he wouldn't be sending things to Wilhelm Uthe anymore. I got a brief email from Uthe expressing anger at me for talking directly to his intermediary, and I wrote back and told him if he weren't a lying, scamming scumbag maybe we wouldn't be having this problem. Never heard from him again. I am very sorry to hear he's still pulling this garbage. Nothing but a common criminal.

Congrats! I knew you were lookin' to go wild in Paris. (though truly, Amsterdam is better for that...) Now you have!

I have a bunch of Alex Schomburg comics listed this week -- auctions ending Sunday night. (Also will be auctioning lots of pre-code horror slated for next week).

eBay name same as here -- doohickamabob. Thanks.

Thanks for the photo! I knew one of you guys would have this. That might be my favorite splash image of all time. It's wrong on so many levels.

 

You are quite welcome (I'm not a "guy" though).

Whoops, sorry -- very lamely presumptuous of me.

Thanks for the photo! I knew one of you guys would have this. That might be my favorite splash image of all time. It's wrong on so many levels.

Anybody got a nice copy of Sensation #31? (And a scan of the inside splash page?) That's a favorite but I hardly EVER see it listed anywhere. Heritage doesn't have it in its archives, and none of the major online sellers have copies. (And the first splash is probably the reason why -- if you've seen it, you'll understand what I mean!)

A recent ebay pickup - a solid VG with ow pages for only $66 shipped! This will go nicely with my #20 and #22. What I really like is the little detail of the guys brains blowing out the back of his head in the mirror as well as at the top.

Notice the diagonal lines in the mirror are going the same direction as the gun blast/brain matter. I suspect this was the artist's way of creating "plausible deniability" in case anybody was offended by the depiction. He could say, "Oh, that's part of the mirror."

I was watching that auction ...pretty intense competition. But that comic doesn't show up very often at all. Great spooky cover. I'd hate to be that guy on the left... He looks forlorn...

So I wonder how long after Suspense #8 did LB Cole paint this cover? There is also a corresponding theme between the Suspense Comics cover with the swirl and floating eyes, and another one he did later for a Star Publications comic.

LB Cole is one creepy mo-fo!

Ladies in VERY BAD places!!! Some more classic covers from the pre-code era!

 

Awesome sets!!!

You can't really see the set on the lower right, cuz the woman's bent over.

I have a bunch of golden-age sci-fi comics listed this week. More next week.

eBay name same as here -- doohickamabob

Here's the only anti-communist comic in my collection (that I can think of):

The story is like this: A young woman gets invited to a club that turns out to be a secret communist club. She falls in love with one of the men there. Even though she doesn't really care about commie stuff, she keeps going to the club because he's such a hunk. But eventually the club leaders ask her to prove her loyalty by destroying government property or something. She is torn -- should she go through with it and betray her country, or should she refuse and jeopardize her love life?

From there the story is a total cop-out. Instead of having to make a tough decision, the man she loves turns out to be an undercover government agent.

What a disappointment. I wanted to see her turn commie.

How did one publisher manage to have three names -- Better, Nedor, and Standard?

They had a pulp called Startling Stories, and another pulp called Thrilling Wonder Stories. This explains the comics Startling Comics, Thrilling Comics, and Wonder Comics. Not sure what pulp Exciting Comics crossed over from.

The situation is so stressful to this poor woman that it has instantly turned some of her hair gray.

Whoa! You aren't messing around there.... I wonder how much that collection is worth?!

That's gotta be about 80% or higher of Schomburg covers.

Poor kitty!

Here's a small run of a Golden Age sci-fi title I just finished recently:

There were only 3 issues, making it a good mini-goal to complete the run. For some reason, issue #2 was more difficult to find than #1 and #3 -- much more difficult.

I really like the fact that these covers are same artist, and they all have a very deep blackness to them. I also dig the way the title color changes.

I'm not a WW fan, but #7 is a great cover.

Agreed! Why wasn't this turned into a campaign ad for Hillary? Oh yeah....wrong hair color.

Re: Fight comics cover

Nice coconuts!

Did somebody say William Uthe? That guy scammed me a few months back. Via email I tracked down his postal intermediary (thanks to this message forum), told him the whole story, and the intermediary sent me back my stuff at no extra charge. Uthe got nothing.

I'd like to see a larger version of the Schomburg group shot with the Hitler theme. It's great that you got those three together.

The U.S.A. -- #1 in amusing WWII propaganda!

Those Cochran reprint books are really great. I saw them auctioned the first week and I immediately assumed they would be bid up wayyy beyond anything I could pay. That was a really dumb assumption on my part, as many of them sold for very low prices. I don't know why but my theory is that it was because the swine flu scare had just gotten really crazy and people were talking about a worldwide catastrophe, etc. Just a theory.

Anyway, during the first week's auction, many of the Cochran books sold for $300-$600 when they should have gone for more like $1,300 to $3,000. I totally missed the boat. The one that I'm still kicking myself for not bidding on is the book full of Crypt of Terror and Tales From the Crypt comics (I notice the buyer is in these forums). That sold for something like $860, when it probably should have sold for more like $3,500. Just the first three Crypt of Terror comics alone should have been worth over $1,500 (that's a low estimate), nevermind all the great early-run TFTC's.

The guy who won that book got the biggest score ever. Put that book on Heritage Auction next winter and walk away with a $2,000 profit or more. I think there must have been a lot of people who were amazed and frustrated by the first week's low sales, because the next week people really put in some worthy bids, and items sold for more respectable amounts. The Vault of Horror early-run book sold for $1,900 or so, and the Mad comics early-run book sold for $3,300 or something.

Thanks for the welcome, etc. Yes, I guess this lot does reveal me to be a "horndog." I have various other style of golden-age comics but I happened to have these out the other day so I could put them all in mylar sleeves I got in the mail, and figured I might as well pop a photo to post in this message forum (ever since I've discovered this forum, I have been blown away by all the amazing collections and photos here).

A while back I realized it would be very difficult to get full runs for most of the things I like. So I decided instead to get a sampling of 1 or 2 issues of each title I like. Then I decided I had better narrow it down further and so I concentrated more on GGA because they are more fun to show to people.

I started off getting into golden age due to my appreciation for Mad Magazines, which led to EC comics, which led to reading Grant Geissman's "Foul Play!," which led to an appreciation for the individual artists, which led to finding the artists' work in other publications, which led to an appreciation of various non-EC artists, which of course led to some of the greats like L.B. Cole, Schomburg and Matt Baker.

I am still pretty new to this (only been collecting GA comics for a little over a year) and don't really know what I am doing half the time. It is funny how you can get into something, buy it up, and then a few months later have shifted interests and sell it all off again. Ideally I want to keep a lot of this stuff to stash away as an investment for my kids or something, but I guess I'll have to make some kids first, and oddly enough, a comics obsession isn't much help with that...

Anyway I look forward to shooting the breeze with people here.