SOTIcollector

Yes, The Ten Cent Plague is a thoroughly researched book about the anti-comics hysteria. Read SOTI if you want to know what parents and legislators were being told about how comic books would rot little kiddies' minds. Read The Ten Cent Plague for a look at that whole era, and the impact of Wertham's criticism. Unlike SOTI, Ten Cent Plague has lots of notes citing exact sources for its information.

Now where's the drooling emoji when you need it? Awesome books! I have only one Church SOTI book, and I'm happy to have it. Thanks for sharing!

Awesome! I didn't realize you were one of those early SOTI researchers. It was repeatedly reading the phrase "Used in Seduction of the Innocent" in the 1976 Overstreet Gide that piqued my interest, an interest that would later bloom into a full-fledged obsession with SOTI and the anti-comics hysteria of the 50's. So thank you for all your research! The "bums & bombs away" was in Dagar, Desert Hawk #21. For years, Overstreet indicted that it was used in SOTI, but unlike most other references, they didn't indicate the page number on which it was referenced.

I bought an awesome Crime and Punishment SOTI book from Howling Mad, and I am howling happy. Great communication, great packing, quick shipping. Awesome transaction!

per pm.

Lovin' that Frazetta art on the back cover!

What a great time at the Western Mass Comic Book Expo! Thanks to PeterPark and all the others who came out to the show.

I can't wait to see them there! Oh, wait . That's me. My capable and talented assistant (one of my two awesome daughters) will be there, and we hope to see you there as well. When was the last time you went to a comic book show with FREE admission? I've been going to shows since 1980, and I don't recall ever going to one that was totally free. Stop by and say 'hi' if you can!

I'd be all over this if I didn't already own it. This is the first appearance of Dr. Fredric Werthless!

Kind of what I figured. Some of those figures look like they were drawn by somebody whose grasp of anatomy was not quite as good as Wood's. I went back to one of the auctions, so I could contact the seller, and I noticed something that was added to the auctions since I first saw them. "Wally Wood is the only artist associated with this book that we can find, he may or may not be the artist for this page." So the seller is apparently already aware that the art may be mis-attributed to Wood. The title of one of the auctions reads "Inside Crime #2 pg 1 (2) Original Comic Art Interior Page Wally Wood SOTI Used" I've contacted the seller, saying that perhaps they should cancel and re-list the auctions given that there are three significant things in the titles that are incorrect. 1) It's not from Inside Crime #2. 2) It's not by Wally Wood. 3) It's not used in SOTI. I guess the auction title is correct in stating that it's an interior page. But that's about all that's correct in the auction title. We'll see how they respond to my suggestion of cancelling the auction. There's one page I'd like, and I could probably win it in a fair auction. There's not a huge demand these days for mediocre art from 50's crime books, at least not compared to the demand for Wood art. If I'm bidding against any number of people who erroneously believe this is Wood art or a SOTI book, then I'll surely be outbid.

This caught my eye on eBay. A well-known seller is offering individual pages from this 1950's story, which is advertised as being Wally Wood art from Inside Crime #2, a Fox book. That jumped out at me because Inside Crime #2 was used in SOTI, and I collect all things SOTI. Alas, this story is not from Fox's Inside Crime #2, and the story was not referenced in SOTI. From what I've been able to tell, this story is actually from the unumbered issue of Inside Crime put out by "M.S. Dist", that sketchy company that reprinted lots of Fox books in the mid-50's. The front cover of the M.S. Dist Inside Crime is a reprint of the Wally Wood cover to Fox's Inside Crime #2, but the interior of the MS book, including this story, appears to be previously unpublished. To be clear, I have no reason to believe that the seller was trying to be misleading in their listing. I'll give them the benefit of the doubt and assume they simply listed the art as being from Inside Crime #2 because that's what's printed on the art. But in any event, the art is unsigned, GCD doesn't attribute this art to Wood, and there's at least one other error in the listing. Which got me wondering if the art is really Wood's. I know his EC work quite well, but I don't have the eye or the experience to identify the work he did for other publishers. So I'm wondering if there's anybody here who could offer an opinion as to whether this is truly Woody art. I'd greatly appreciate any help you could offer. Thanks!

Noooooo! On Saturday, October 12th, at 11am, I expect to be somewhere near mile 18 of my first marathon. You can postpone this a few hours, right? You can't really expect me to stop running and check this thread...? But I suppose I will if I have to.

At last! Value submission: "Received" 5/7/2019. Grading/quality control 9/11/2019.

Fingers crossed. My value sub got there a day before yours (5/7) and is still scheduled for grading. I wonder... if CGC have a financial incentive (paid fast tracking) to keep the long turnaround times, do you think turnaround times would be any quicker?

Can I join the party? This has been so awesome seeing all these amazing books. I tried to narrow it to a top 10, and the closest I could get was a top 11... then I left some of the runners-up alongside just because they fit in the photo. The comic that was cited by Wertham more than any other as being dangerous to kids. Off the top of my head, I believe it was cited in Saturday Review of Literature, Ladies' Home Journal, SOTI, the NY State Legislature hearings, the U.S. Senate hearings, and even an art gallery exhibition featuring the pernicious comics of the day. GGA and iconic cover, pictured in the SOTI illustration section. But as GGA goes, and as SOTI books go, it's hard to get more iconic than this Baker beauty. As a fan of GA crime books, this one of course had to make the list. GGA meets PCH. It's so hard to pick a Baker romance cover, but I went with this one for its salaciousness, combined with that disturbing theme that occurs in some romance books of love=rape or romance=rape. To this day, this is still one of the funniest comic book covers I have ever seen. Maybe because the first dozen or so times I saw the cover, it made no impression on me at all. Then one day I took a new look at it, and suddenly I got the joke. I laughed out loud, and it still cracks me up that they got away with this cover. The ultimate injury-to-the-eye cover. I keep this in an area of my collection that I call "Wertham Missed It." Not cited in SOTI, but it sure seems like it should have been, given how much Wertham criticized the injury-to-the-eye theme. And once again, iconic GGA pictured in SOTI. My current favorite of the rotting flesh/flesh melting away covers. The book Gaines testified about in the US Senate. Gaines tried to defend the material he was publishing, but it didn't go as he would have hoped. Newspaper headlines decried the publisher who calls decapitation and a bloody axe "good taste." Senator Kefauver: Here is your May 22 issue. This seems to be a man with a bloody ax holding a woman's head up which has been severed from her body. Do you think that is in good taste? Bill Gaines: Yes, sir; I do, for the cover of a horror comic. A cover in bad taste, for example, might be defined as holding the head a little higher so that the neck could be seen dripping blood from it and moving the body over a little further so that the neck of the body could be seen to be bloody. Senator Kefauver: You have blood coming out of her mouth. Bill Gaines: A little. Senator Kefauver: Here is blood on the ax. I think most adults are shocked by that.

Wait, what? There's a variant of my all-time favorite crime book, the book Wertham cited more than any other as a comic book that will rot little kiddies' brains and turn the youngsters into psychopathic killers? I'm annoyed at myself for not finding this thread earlier. So, is this variant one what has the date blocked out in the indicia? Who might be able to provide more info on this?

Great buyer. Quick and courteous payment. Thanks!

"Nothing" is gone from here, but there are plenty of somethings here.

Sensation #1 Famous First Edition Hardcover. No dust jacket. Some discoloration spots (water damage?) on the bc. $20

Here are a couple additions (editions? I guess either way you spell it, it's correct), featuring the queen of 1940's bondage: Wonder Woman. For years, the Famous First Editions stood out to me as some of the best reprint books ever made. What could be better than oversized full reprints, covers-and-all (mostly), of books I could never afford? I loved my FFE's, and for years tried unsuccessfully to find the hardcovers that Overstreet said existed. I scoured the pages of TBG/CBG, and searched at cons and stores, but I could never find these elusive hardcovers. I even put out fliers at cons in Boston in the 1990's offering to pay many multiples of Guide for hardcover FFE's, and I got no responses. Thanks to the internet era, I was finally able to complete a set of the hardcovers. I've had these undercopies sitting around for some years now, and it's time for somebody else to enjoy them. If you love these books as much as I do, now's your chance to pick up some affordable hardcovers. Still great reading after all these decades. Wonder Woman #1 Famous First Edition Hardcover. The dust jacket is heavily damaged, and a previous owner taped the jacket, damage-and-all-, to the book. $30

Zoot #14 This is the Zoot #14 from March, 1948 (which GCD calls 14a), not the Zoot #14 from May, 1948 (which GCD calls 14b, and which was not used in SOTI). This is a great SOTI book chock full of GGA and bikini-clad women in battle. Many condition issues here. Brittle at the edges, heavy wear, loose CF. The top edge is blackened as though it's been in a fire, but it doesn't have a smoky smell to it. It mostly just smells like old comic book. Used on page 104 of SOTI, so I've included a pic of the page that was cited, as well as a pic from page 104 of SOTI. Wertham didn't like the woman nailed to trees with blood flowing from her arms. Go figure. Yours for $120.

One book removed. Nothing to see in this part of the post. Keep scrolling...:)

A quick post here before offering these elsewhere. PM's are welcome, but the first "take it" in thread trumps all. HOS-ers and Probationites need not apply. Payment by Paypal within 3 days. Returns within 30 days in the same condition. Shipping $8 via fully insured US Mail within the United States. Books will be shipped within 3 business days of payment (typically quicker than that, though). Contact me for international shipping rates, which will be expensive because I ship only by fully insured methods. I'm happy to provide better photos than these crappy iPhone pics. Just ask.  SOTICollector's Feedback Thread

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