OtherEric

A nice stack in from @Surfing Alien's latest sale today, plus a couple from other sources. We'll start with the Ace Doubles. I'm not generally going to bother with the F-series Doubles, other than the SF, but I couldn't resist the F-102 where the look of the doubles hadn't actually switched over from the D-series style. More importantly, any day where I get a single digit D series book is a great day. The D-223 is a nice upgrade:

Cracked Slab Bad Girls Virgin Variant Prototype

This is new… I’ve apparently used up my quota of reactions for the day. But I’m still loving most of the posts here!

Treasury Edition

You’re always a bit off. But we wouldn’t want you any other way.

PLOD

A gospel choir called Church Collection

Ratio Variant Subscription Crease Cream... wait, that one has already been used...

I went ahead and created a thread over in Comics General for the band name jokes, so we don't totally derail this thread:

Somehow, a recent discussion over in the Heritage Pulp Auction thread has diverted into some silliness over comic collector terms that would make good band names. I was guilty of starting it when @Surfing Alien mentioned some overpriced pukey beaters, and I asked if Pukey Beaters had opened for the Dead Kennedys back in the day. Some other suggestions came from @tth2 and @Aman619 and myself, including: Low Grade Drek Dust Shadow (clearly an emo band) Brittle Pages The Rusty Staples Anyway, I thought it might make an amusing topic for everybody, instead of just the few of us hanging out in the pulp threads. Anybody else have some suggestions?

I've always thought that this was a spectacular cover.

In today. This gives me the complete run of all 75 1/2 Ace D-Series SF doubles, which is roughly 1/8 of the entire D-S-G run and a definite milestone in my collection. The Star Guard leaves me 6 short of all the D-S SF books in total, and half of those I've got on order already. It will be a few days before I do a group shot of the doubles because I've got an upgrade on one book on the way from @Surfing Alien's recent sales thread, but I'll definitely do one soon. I really do need to figure out what later SF doubles I need, I've got lots but I've never put together an organized list. Anybody know off the top of their head how many there were total? (I don't include the very late doubles that only have one cover even if they are two books.)

Trying to think of others, it might be worth doing a thread in comics general for fun. Bug Chew- Punk Subscription Crease- New Wave Dust Shadow- Emo Church Collection- Gospel Cream- I think somebody already took that one...

My list of reasons was never meant to be all-inclusive.

Didn't Pukey Beaters open for the Dead Kennedys back in the day?

What's that look for? He's one of the two writers named on the cover. My low grade copy:

I appreciate your generous offer and will consider it, Jimbo.

There's a book with nowhere to go but up. A book with work by Ray Bradbury, Robert E. Howard, Franz Kafka, Ayn Rand, and Virgil Finlay. What a crazy combo!

If the signature wasn't visible I don't know that I would believe this was his. From Out of This World #14:

I think I've identified a couple more Ace wraparound covers, I'll probably order them next week. But I've got enough on the way that I don't want to add to the pile right this second...

To follow up on the recent discussion of Wraparound covers, I went looking through my Aces to see if I had missed any others. The best I could find was this one, which I would call a borderline case at best.

I had my next round of argument all ready to go, and was pulling out another book to use as an example. The problem being, looking at the other book actually convinced me you were right and I was wrong. Salome is better defined as a wraparound cover, all things considered. Here's the other book, by the way. I was going to argue the sharp line separating most of the spine from the back was more important that the slight overlap of image at the bottom on the Salome, but of course this book has an ever sharper line for roughly the same length... and is clearly a wraparound.

Don't get me started. The seller sent me the wrong copy, I think they let me keep it free when I complained.

I still say it's three distinct images, but I do think it was possibly painted as a single piece. Like I said, I don't consider it a wraparound cover, personally, but I fully understand why others do. We can at least agree it's always worth seeing again! Actually, let's get a better look at the cover:

Cover: I absolutely love this cover by Sanjulian, it's firmly on my upgrade list. But I'm always slow to upgrade... Feary Tales: Possibly the best work we've seen by Kaufman yet. Lamia is a name that has been attached to a lot of myths over the centuries, and this page kind of chooses details at random. The Lurker in the Deep: Nice art, and the story is decent enough, but there are so many running subplots going on between the Helsings, Pendragon, and the Cult of Chaos that the actual story for the issue seems to be fighting for space and losing. It gets rated higher as part of an ongoing serial than as a standalone story by me. From Death's Dark Corner: Steve Hickman only has a handful of comic credits, this and the Creepy #88 cover are his only work for Warren. The art is pretty good, reminding me a bit of Wrightson's work. I consider it a little unfortunate that we get two issues in a row with titles including "Death's Dark", though... it seems repetitious. The Silver Thief and the Pharoah's Daughter: Jose Bea makes his debut here, he'll be a fairly major contributor the next few years. This seems to be Dean Latimer's only work for comic books specifically, although he does have some credits on comic stories in National Lampoon, and on non-comic stories there as well. This is an amazing debut story; the art is a little stiff and the story a little stilted in places. But overall it's beautiful looking and brilliantly written, pulling off a pitch-black comedy that lands with a glorious final page that is utterly unexpected yet inevitable. Another candidate for the all-time Warren Classics list. The Frog Prince: Very much in the same vein as the last DuBay story, but a distinct improvement as well. Still not terribly impressive, and we don't really need the short humorous palette cleanser here either. Eye of the Beholder: A rather grim and ugly story, honestly. A disappointment after Kaufman's solid Feary Tales page, although it's one of those stories I can see others liking a lot more than I did. Easy Way to a Tuff Surfboard count: The 15th and final appearance in the Reading Club, although there were more appearances in Warren magazines we don't cover here, including two in Teen Love Stories under a different title. Farewell, Tuff Surfboard, you will be missed but never forgotten! I can't call this a great issue overall, but the Silver Thief cover & story make it a winner all on their own, and there's lots of other stuff to like if not love.