OtherEric

I think it's more the case that "the book never has another extended run with this high a percentage of excellence", not that the book doesn't have some great stuff and classic stories still to come. But there's always going to be the group that feels the Goodwin-edited, EC-inspired run that just ended is the greatest era the title ever had. Heck, I'm probably a part of that group. But I think that view is heavily weighed towards the EC fans, who are a large and vocal group but are not a majority of the fans. But even if I'm in the group that considers this run the high point, there's still vastly more good material to come than what we've already seen. And coming up we have more diversity in styles of stories and art, the Goodwin run played the EC style as well as anybody other than EC ever has... but EC's, as much as I love them, played to their strengths and never really broke out of that format until the were down to just MAD, which figured out new tricks once they went to magazine format. So while the era might be the 'best' if you need to pick a run to stick the label on, there's far more greatness to come than we've seen so far.

Eerie #12 thoughts: A general observation: The letter column in Creepy 17 said Goodwin was leaving after finishing this issue. Clearly something pushed up the timetable, since he's not credited here. But it's also pretty clear that the issue was worked on extensively by Goodwin before he left, despite him not getting credited. I agree with the index that this counts as the last Goodwin Era book more than the first Dark Era book, but there are some hints of the shift here for sure. Cover: A nice Adkins cover, with some interesting color choices. But it's also oddly static for such a dynamic event, almost looking more like a couple of friends posing in their Halloween costumes rather than a supernatural murder. Monster Gallery: It's a reprint. It's still nice Krenkel art. The Masque of the Red Death: Sutton is probably the highlight of the upcoming dark era, and it's fun watching his talents develop. A nice adaptation by Goodwin of the Poe classic. Vampyrus: Beautiful work by Jones. ... Nor Custom, Stale ...: One of the most EC-esque stories we've seen yet, and that's saying something. Great work by Craig. Escape: A so-so effort by Orlando. This is Orlando's final work for Warren; I feel like I've been really harsh on Orlando over the course of the reading club, he is normally an excellent artist. The flip side to that is I think he was generally turning in second rate work for Warren, with a heavy reliance on ghosts. Ironically, the one place I think he generally did turn in his better efforts were the Adam Link stories... which I couldn't bring myself to care about. Portrait of Satan: Ric Estrada is an EC alumnus who is probably best known as the co-creator of Power Girl for DC. He only did a couple stories for Warren, and this one really doesn't impress me. It doesn't really look like the other work I've seen by him, to the point I almost wonder if they were working from preliminary layouts rather than finished pencils. Just inexplicable. I've got to give the story credit for a very nice twist at the end, though. The Past Master: An adaptation of a Robert Bloch story, reprinted from Christopher Lee's Treasury of Terror. This gives us the odd case of the writer of the adaptation, Craig Tennis, actually having done no work for the Warren magazines, just three stories taken from the same book. It's a decent enough story with art by Al McWilliams, but to my mind it doesn't quite feel like it belongs in the magazine. At least it's new to the magazine material. Not a bad issue to end the era, but not a spectacular one either. It's very much a book of two parts... the first half is excellent with Sutton, Jones, and Craig; but the second half just collapses. It's almost like the eras change in the middle of the issue.

Roughly 5.5, nicely presenting for the grade.

You said it right there, Pat... Kayo is, while possibly not my all-time favorite bookstore, (I still miss O'Leary's in Tacoma) is easily my favorite currently operating bookstore. As my various posts every year when I go visit should amply demonstrate. Just as a starting point, that's where I got my Ace D-1, D-2, D-13, and D-15... for $133 total.

Well, 2-4th prints. No way to tell those three apart, as far as I know...

I like the idea, but honestly think the red is the better looking version. But the price difference is pretty big, so I'll take this one and be happy with it.

Today's book. Closing in on the run:

I personally think the early image books are really part of an era that began with the Independent boom in the mid-80's, and ended when Wildstorm moved to DC or so. I will freely admit that may in part be me trying to force ages into roughly 15-year spans (Gold 1938-1955, Silver 1955-1970, Bronze 1970-1985, Copper 1985-2000) but it works for me, and my memories of collecting in that era view it as a distinct time. One thing that always complicates matters is the eras, no matter how hard we try, never quite want to fit our dates exactly... the industry doesn't change completely overnight. Even using the CCA as the marker between Gold and Silver ignores Dell and Gilberton. But everybody has their own views, and yours is valid, particularly since it matches the more "official" definition than mine does.

For an age to break off from modern, there first needs to be a clear break point from the current age. And I"m not sure there's really a clear point the last couple decades where that happens. I do think Copper should be extended out to about 2000, though, but that's just me.

Very nice. I've actually got three copies of the 1st edition Lorna Doone, but they're all very low grade. Definitely a book that has some room to grow still, though.

This Week's arrivals:

And the Eeries:

And, as promised, a few Warrens. Let's start with Creepy

Thank you for looking this up. Although the 1969 date doesn't make sense... The series appeared in GALAXY in early 1970, and was apparently specifically commissioned (and then deliberately sabotaged by the editor), so not sure why there would be a self-published version before that. Particularly because the ending was specifically in response to the editorial meddling.

7.5. Agreed that it's a great book, and any Spidey Super Stories that isn't totally thrashed is a nice find.

Probably #9 (1st Captain Comet) or #79 (Classic Snowman cover)

I've got some Warrens in that I need to scan, but here's the non-Warren magazine of the day:

And it's already off the want list and into my collection:

A few more today:

Today's books:

Today's duck book. I've never actually read the story, I'll be interested to see how well it lives up to its reputation.

Two additions today. Both first prints, comixjoint claims there was only one printing on Sunpot but I'm pretty sure I've seen 2nd prints for sale. My copy does include the schematic poster. And this makes the second or third time I've bought the story, I've got both the reprint in the first issues of Heavy Metal and the original publication in Galaxy.

I must, respectfully, disagree. In my experience, the only group where it's true most people consider them "Atomic Age" are, well, Atomic Age collectors. Which is admittedly probably the most important group in this context, but in my experience collectors who don't seek out those books either don't know what the term refers to, or are confused as to why people insist on separating them from the rest of the golden age. I do like the term and think it's useful to distinguish the era from the rest of the golden age.

I was going to say that nobody considers 1956 Golden Age under current definitions, but then I realized there is actually at least one exception that enough people use to be meaningful... the last EC comics. But in general, I would say the only time a 1956 book would be considered GA is if it's the last few issues of a title (or better yet, publisher) that was primarily from the Golden Age but overran slightly. It might also be used by some people for anything predating Showcase #4, but I think more people would use the Comic Code Authority introduction as the cut-off, assuming they didn't want to get a nice debate going on the subject instead. It can be a very convoluted topic of discussion; there are even people who insist that the "real" golden age ended in 1945 with the end of WWII. It's made even messier by the fact that most comic collectors simply do not have any Golden Age books in their collection, so they don't really need to know the details of what's considered what. Hopefully that makes some sense, and welcome to the thread!

They are MORE likely to occur in bunches, if something goes wrong to create a double cover it's more likely to continue happening. Single copies are less likely but do happen.