buttock

You'd Not to come across as rude, but there are so many things wrong with this that I don't really know where to start. But in general, I wouldn't encourage you to do any of this.

This sounds like a pretty fair assessment of things. One bit you touched on that has colored everything since is the narrative that Stan put out. That was pretty clearly disingenuous, but everyone can see that. When confronted about it over the next 15+ years he dug his heels in which just made things worse. Had he conceded at that time that both he and Kirby were vital to the process, we'd all probably agree. As it is, after years of grudges culminating in a lawsuit, it's all a little tainted.

Unflattering view of both Lee and Brodsky... I'm working my way through 'Stuf Said' from TwoMorrows, and my impression from it is that Lee wasn't quite the shameless huckster that he is sometimes painted to be. Kirby was full of ideas, but a lot of them weren't great and needed some editorial guidance. The greatness of much of SA Marvel came from the synergy of both. Without Kirby, Marvel would still be chasing the trends of whatever was selling. Without Lee Marvel would be more unsuccessful forays like Crestline/Prize, etc. Ditko was singular minded and really drove Spider-Man's greatness more than Lee. But it looks like his trajectory was to peak and then crash back to the ground. Just my

I said several things, so I'm not sure what doesn't jibe. But the facts are what they are. I'm not sure what "real world historical examples" you're referring to. 1) lignin introduced during manufacture is a problem. Leads to continued degradation and doesn't leave the paper. 2) acid hydrolysis of the sugar chains leads to degradation. That's a process that is driven largely by exposure to chemicals in the environment. This is what we try to control. Avoid excess humidity (you need some humidity), ambient air, etc. The constitution stored in a chamber with argon gas, no oxygen. Again, ambient air isn't your friend, thus the concept of off-gassing and air exchange being incorrect. 3) natural degradation of the cellulose happens which leads to some acids forming. So there are more than one issues at play. You can control for some of them by storage which is vital. But you can't control for all of them unless you start chemically treating the paper itself.

The wells in a CGC holder aren't air tight. There's definitely some impairment of gas exchange, but it can still happen. If you take a tightly sealed Mylar-2 and a sealed barex holder and squeeze them both you'll see about the same rate of deflation. Open top mylars solve this problem, but I guarantee you more books have been damaged by the razor's edge of a mylar than have by gas exchange limitation of an inner well. Most of the chemicals released by the aging of paper don't emit as gases and remain within the paper itself, so gas exchange is pretty low on the spectrum of what we should be concerned about. In fact, the greater risk to paper is the introduction of chemicals from environmental air that accelerate the process of degradation. So you could make the case that limiting gas exchange actually preserves paper by slowing chemical degradation. What we should focus on is maintaining an environment where the books are not exposed to anything that accelerates degradation. https://www.loc.gov/preservation/care/deterioratebrochure.html

That Curator AF 15 is

Flipping through the boxes & books and I had forgotten how great of an issue this is. Starts with a banger from Don Heck, then Drucker, Reinman, and a rare Bob Powell war tale. Add in a really spectacular Heath cover (one of his more detailed Atlas efforts) and I give it two thumbs up.

ouch. Sorry. People are going to be looking at 2020-21 graded books as resubs in the future. But I'm glad to see CGC start accounting for things like tanning & dust shadows.

Here's the book still in the case: https://comics.ha.com/itm/golden-age-1938-1955-/shock-suspenstories-18-ec-1955-cgc-fn-vf-70-off-white-pages/a/18033-73458.s?ic4=GalleryView-Thumbnail-071515

I can assuredly say it's not

This may be the nicest DC war book I've ever owned.

If you're a legacy member at HA things ship faster. Typically within a week of payment. Usually a few days. My Clink books have shipped within one day of receiving payment within the past 6 months. They've done an absolutely awesome job of improving their shipping. Comicconnect still has the greatest lag. Results are all over the place.

Your reproductions are turning out really well Ken...

Where are the snakes?

Take

Brilliant!

Wow!

What we can be sure of is that they will be shilled.

That's what she said

The past year I've been fortunate enough to get a few nice books with Drucker art and I've developed a deep appreciation for how good he was in this genre. Not that I'm saying he wasn't good elsewhere, because I think he's just outstanding as an artist. But when I see his war stuff, I see genius level stuff. (Kubert cover)

One of my all time top pulps. Congrats!

Were there more? Maybe someone got to them first? Maybe some were stolen right out from underneath you?

I'm holding out for the Batman 359 just so I can flaunt it to you

Time to click "Disable Live Bidding"

I have a list of old names if you need them.