L'Angelo Misterioso

I don't know if these have been posted in this thread, but yesterday I found four of these giant-sized Russ Cochran EC portfolio books from the early 1970s. Included are very nicely done reprints of stories from the vault and some cool acknowledgements to EC.

I've no idea if any restoration has been done. I'm new at this and couldn't even point out (what would be, to seasoned collectors) obvious color touch on a book. I got this book for free and I have no clue of its history. Could there be a glued piece here?

Decent copy, pages seem nice. Some stress on the spine and appears to have a very subtle tear on the bottom of each page. I'd like to know what CGC would call the page quality if I were to grade. Thanks!

US.

Lmfao yall hit me with the hahas like I'm wrong

No drek here!

You say this like the dealer wasn't a young adult during the crimewave of the 70s and 80s, when theft was much much more common. Much safer country now than it used to be

Fawcett really tried charging 15 cents for Master #1?

Lol. He's an experienced dealer who has sold high-end comics at hundreds of shows for years now. He put a copy of AF #15 at the *bottom* of his booth and operated without an assistant. I read in an old post here that he has an extensive history of not disclosing restoration on expensive books. I don't feel bad for him ngl

I have a unique story, partly because I'm so young compared to almost everybody here. The first time I became acquainted with the golden age comics was the wave of stories 7-10 years ago (can't remember exactly) about high end comic sales like Tales of Suspense 39, Hulk 1 (both of which I thought were golden age at the time), Detective 27, Batman 1 and Action 1. If I recall correctly, this is when some of these blue chip books were first clearing 7 figures, and they made the rounds on news sites, Pawn Stars, and social media. That was also when I learned that there's a strong market for vintage comics. I remember having discussions with friends about how cool it would be to have the first appearance of Batman, Captain America, Superman, and other characters we liked. Still, I didn't have much interest in comics besides reading them occasionally. Several years ago my dad, somewhat of a figure in the comic book world, passed away. He left a collection of comics behind--not an earthshattering one, but still a lot of stuff to sift through. I'm still in the process of sorting through it and it is mostly drek. After he died, we were so overwhelmed what with having to sort through his stuff and understand what he had. Rummaging through the stacks and stacks of book, I found an item of interest. The first thing I caught was the smell. It was distinct from any comic book I had ever held. "Marvel Mystery Comics." I've only known the company to be Marvel Comics, so I wondered--why is the word "mystery" in the title? Are these mystery stories? Is it an anthology? I threw it aside and continued searching for other books. The next one I found was this evocative horror comic from a publisher I had NEVER heard of. "Haunt of Fear." Keep in mind, I knew nothing about the market at the time. But I reasoned that because it has a 10 cent cover price, it must be really old. I put that with the Marvel Mystery I had just uncovered. The next one I found was a Human Torch book. Well, the only Torch I knew was the Fantastic Four character. I thought, huh, must be the same character? But here he's fighting Imperial Japanese soldiers drawn like yellow peril villains. It had little pieces missing from the cover, and yellowed tape all along the spine. "WOW! This is REALLY old," I said, and tossed it aside with the other two books. I forgot about these for a few years ago until I recently perused the collection again after hearing about more record sales of blue chip books. I still knew effectively nothing about the collector market. I didn't even know CGC, or what an EC was, or how much mid-level treasures like Timelys and Fiction House books routinely sell for. I rediscovered the 10-cent books and found yet another: A Marvel Mystery book with a damsel on the cover and binder holes punched in. I was eagerly searching to hopefully find more and more of these really old books, but the rest I found were reprints from the 1970s. Still, I was amazed by the evocative covers and history conveyed by the golden age books. I was drawn to them more than to any of the other books in the collection. They were just mesmerizing, in a way. Here are the four original golden age books I found in the collection: Here are the REPRINTS I uncovered, all of which I thought were originals because of how convincing the covers look: Ever since I found these, I became super interested in golden age comics. This discovery opened the floodgate to learning so much about not only the collector market, but also the medium in general. As a college student just entering the hobby in the late stage of collecting, I don't think I'll be able to afford many originals like the ones here. The prices in this hobby are insane. An early Action Comics book routinely sells for over $1,000. I'm still glad I got to discover this corner of the medium, and if a book for an okay price turns up I'll probably buy it.

I know this thread is chiefly about collecting the books and admiring the covers, but I wanted to give my thoughts on the series. I'm reading through Uncanny X-Men starting from Giant Size #1 and #94, and this is so far the most fun I've had reading an American comic series. I cannot wait to get to Days of Future Past. Currently at #120. I'd recommend these books to any comic fan.

I just read the Judgment Day story in Weird Fantasy #18 and it is shockingly powerful for its time!

Another nice Shomburg

My copy of HOF #17. Maybe a candidate for grading?

EC horror!

Tragic that these aren't loose copies

"Dull interior" is how I'd describe most Golden Age comics, but yeah the dissonance in Suspense 3 between the [highly overrated] cover and the interior art is kinda hilarious

I don't know how good the stories are, but I'm drawn to the Battle Cry books just based on the covers. And I have very little interest in war comics generally. I'm especially interested in finding a copy of Battle Cry #1, but really I'd love any of the books in the series. Best war covers IMO

Probably right about that. Regardless, it is an unbelievably stupid buy

The "No. 1" from the Action #1 cover sold for over $7,100. https://www.cgccomics.com/news/article/10007/action-comics-1/

All I'm hearing is that awesome cover-driven books like Mask #2 and Brick Bradford #6 may actually be affordable in the future. I can't wait !

Planet Comics #71 is a particularly expensive issue of Planet. Is this just in the cover art?

Definitely a valuable issue, and it seems like USA Comics across the board don't come up often. It's a Timely series, so I'd imagine there's strong demand for these. This reminded me of when I was going through my dad's comic book collection for the first time. I had no idea what I would find, and all I knew is that he used to be a serious collector. I eventually found a pile of Golden Age books, this USA #1 being at the top of the stack. I was stunned...until I opened all of them to find that each of them were reprints from the 1970s. Here is the stack (sorry for bad pic quality):

Divorced him because he collected comics or divorced him because his obsession created a rift between him and his family and took up a bulk of their home space?