JohnBull

Paging Comicmankev...

They're part of a small Action collection! The primary aim is to do 11-20 and then go back as far as I can (realistically, to about 8). I do love those Zatara covers, although I also like the other non-Superman covers too. I particulalry like 12 as it has Zatara, SF and also is the first non-Superman cover with Superman on the cover. A great combination!

Action #12 is my favorite non-Superman Action. It has such a great SciFi feel to it. Congrats. Thanks. I'm realistic enough to know that nothing is a keeper forever, but this genuinely would be the last book I'd ever sell.

My babies (as per the Relative Scarcity of Action 1-20 thread).

Also, Fine Art has several hundred years of history as a collectable on its side. There's a very old story about an Oxford Don dining with his star pupils. One of the pupils makes the comment that for the last 1000 years land has proven to be an extremely reliable thing to have money tied up in. The Don councils "Ah, but the last 1000 years have proven to be been particularly remarkable". How many Tarzan collectors are there today?

Kudos to Westform for a great deal on DC archives. Excellent packaging and quick delivery, but you really must try and find out about global priority Dan, before you go broke. Kudos also to DKB for some friendly communications and a super quick paypal payment. Thanks.

Oxymoron Lucky you didn`t make this quip while I still had them, otherwise I would`ve first flashed them at you to blind you with the glare from all the gloss, then I would`ve hurled them at you like shuriken, ripping you to shreds with the razor sharp corners and edges.

Oxymoron

That's about the condition level I collect in so you might be right! Still nice though and I'd happily

That is absolutely fantastic. I dream that one day I might own a book like that, but sadly I know it will never happen. Fortunately, I can live vicariously through collectors like yourself. Thanks very much (although I don't know whther to love you or hate you ).

Sounds like an amazing day out Adam. Nice one John. Whilst this was by some way the highlight of my comic collecting life, all the books were stored in mylites and I never actually got to physically touch any of them. Leafing through a Tec 27 would be amazing (although, funnily enough, Ian had two copies at the time, but both were away being restored I think).

OK, let's post a couple more and see if there's any life left in this thread. Early Mystery In Space's seem to be quite plentiful in higher grades when compared to other 50's DC's. This is slightly less well represented on the census, although it is a fairly common issue. Secondly, some more Superman silliness, where yet again the Man of Steel has a very confused expression on his face. Apropos an earlier mention of It's Gametime's scarcity, I collect a number of the DC's from this period which have scarce or rare dsignations in Overstreet and I'd be interested to hear anyone views on these. My experiences are based in England, which may well be very diferent (and I haven't been looking for high grade issues), but I've found: New Adventures of Charlie Chan 1-6 - These seem to all be quite easy to locate, but that may be due to very low demand. A well-below guide title. Phantom Stranger 1-6 - A much higher demand item and whilst numbers aren't huge, they do seem fairly easy to put together. Unslabbed issues seem to be slightly below guide (in a similar percentage to most mainstream SA titles). As with most of these titles, slabbed copies sometimes seem to find it hard to hit their reserves, when they are around or above guide. Congo Bill 1-7 - Definitely scarcer. Very difficult to find above low-mid grade and copies tend to go much closer to guide. It's Gametime 1-4 - 1 and 2 seem more common, but 3 and 4 are almost impossible. Anything above POS is comparatively high grade. Demand is almost non-existent though, so prices (for the first two) are never very high. Danger Trail 3 - I'd say that the whole series is about as scarce as the Phantom Stranger run, although 3 is a little more difficult to find. I'm not sure this deserves it's Rare tag though and prices for this issue are often very high (but unreached). The rest sell below guide. Sensation 107-109 - These seem scarcer than a lot of the other issues mentioned. Not as hard as the Gametime's, but much more difficult than the Phantom Stranger's. Rex Wonder Dog 1-3 - Not a series I've particularly tracked, but none of the issues seem to grow on trees. I would imagine demand is quite low. Are 1-3 that much scarcer than the rest?

Another great Star Spangled cover thanks. Any more??? I liked the Rex cover as well, not something you see too much of. Here's one of the remaining Phantom Strangers, which I think only leaves one missing. This seems to be quite a common issue, whereas the missing number (can't remember what it is) is one that I don't see too often. Secondly, a reminder that comics are for kids. Not that there's anything wrong with that, mind. This is one of the more obscure DC series, although I'm sure that everyone on this thread is familiar with it. If anyone can post decent scans for issues 3 or 4, or higher grade scans for any issues, I for one would be interested.

The story was posted here , but not the cover.

Some great colours there - I wish I had books with colours that vibrant. Todays contributions are going green and I've always felt that DC must have bought a huge vat of green dye in the 50's as they seemed to like the colour so much (yeah, I know that it's 4 colour and there is no green ink, but run with me here!). This wasn't just on the covers, but internally in the shading, along with plenty of yellow too. When you read books from this period, they do tend to look very unique and I think you can identify them as much from the colouring style as from the art and layout style. The Phantom Stranger is one that Adam didn't post earlier, although I'd love to see a copy in similar condition to the others he has...

Very nice. Here's another Superman-Mystic combo.

Here's some more Superman silliness. And here's a very dark Atlas book, the Circle 8 copy FWIW. I'll be sticking some covers up on the Ditko thread in SA shortly, which would qualify for this thread, but I won't bother posting them twice on here.

I like the DC Charlie Chan series from the 50's and here's a cover I like a lot. The reason I like it is that it's one of DC's more misleading cover pictures (SPOILER - no, Charlie doesn't really have his brain transferred!) and I always thought they had the best in misdirecting covers around. Here's another My Greatest Adventure. It doesn't really qualify as a scuba cover for FFB, but it does have an enormous amount of 'purple' at the top of the page.

Excellent! It's easy to knock the 'pedigree' designation, but the guy obviously had some very nice books.

Not a lot, unfortunately. Overstreets designation is "Steinway Comic Publ. (Ajax) (America's Best)" and the indica says Steinway. It's a mystery anthology but the art and stories are fairly crude. I've been quite scathing about Stan Lee on other threads, but when you read the smilin' ones short stories and compare them with what a lot of other publishers put out, they really are a lot more polished and readable. This particular book is fairly cruddy. I don't recognise any of the art and I've scanned a representative page below to see if anyone else does. Aside from the mystery stories, there is also one humour story which is obviously modelled after the Bill Everett approach that would have existed in some of the Atlas books of the time. Again, here's a page. Maybe someone else can shed further light.

Yeah, it's kind of like coming home! I've pulled some books to scan and I'll post some over the next week or two. Here's a nice copy of Adventure from the early 50's, with a wonderfully quirky Superboy cover. I have very few Adventure's from 101-200 in my collection, but they do crop up fairly regularly on ebay and I'm tempted to make a serious play in that direction soon. I also love the anthology books that DC started in the 50's and here's a nicer early copy from one of my favourite series, My Greatest Adventure.

I don't think I've ever seen a Star Spangled from this period, but on the basis of that book I'll have to hunt some out, as it looks like just the sort of thing I collect. Thanks for sharing. The lions share of my collection would fit in this thread, but most of my books are comparative beaters (I'd love to swap my Phantom Stranger's for Adams'!). Here's one book I have that is a nicer looking copy, although it's a fairly boring cover I'm afraid. And here's something you don't see every day of the week, although you probably don't want to!

40. I think I'll choose 35-40 rather than 40-45. Bought my first GA book around 7 or 8 years ago I guess and it's been a slow haul to the point where I have no real interest in much else.