OtherEric

On 4/13/2024 at 1:11 PM, Surfing Alien said:

Yeah, I kind of agree. The copy says "The Books", not "The Publishers" but it is is poorly worded and I can see how it can imply a more benevolent intent on the publishers part than they had, which was surely to sell books to men in raincoats with their collars raised

Be fair.  Their intent was to sell to absolutely anybody who could get their money onto the counter... which they probably suspected contained a lot of men in raincoats with their collars raised, but they didn't discriminate.

On 4/13/2024 at 10:08 AM, Sarg said:

Early pre-cleavage Avon. Crude compared to their later covers, but charming in its own way. Looking forward to reading this. The only other Merritt I've read so far is Burn Witch Burn.

 

 

 

 

Nice one!  In my experience that's the hardest of the Merritt Murder Mystery Monthly issues to find by a fair margin, and it's a beautiful copy.

On 4/13/2024 at 9:44 AM, Sarg said:

Heritage's description of The One Between by Arthur Adlon (Beacon, 1962) is ludicrous:

"The One Between dates to what's called the "golden age" of the lesbian pulp genre. These books used the public's appetite for erotic, lurid, and sensational stories to create space for representation of queer characters not allowed elsewhere in mainstream American culture and are highly collectible today."

Beacon's strategy in publishing was purely and simply to peddle cheap thrills and sleaze to the prurient interests of men. Heritage knows this, of course, but decides instead to rewrite history to retroject a false motive of "inclusion" on the publisher's part. I hate dishonesty in advertising.

See, I don't see that as saying the publisher had any of that intent.  But some of the creators did, and even without that the books did have the effect described to some degree.  So it's a fair statement, if poorly worded in suggesting that the books somehow had intent on their own.

On 4/13/2024 at 4:48 AM, ThothAmon said:

 

On 4/13/2024 at 12:09 AM, Darwination said:

So that's the final magazine sized issue?  Pretty sweet. Ten bucks?  

300 bucks means somebody's been exposed to a little too much of that spice, but I can see it as being in the realm of possibility for somebody that really wants a nice copy without having to look for it.  

Seems like Analog is the sort of thing you buy a long run of for dirt cheap in a big box, but I'm sure I'm out of touch per usual

 

 

 

 

That issue has been pulling a legitmate premium as a classic cover and story for quite a while now, $10 was a good deal when I grabbed it several years ago.

95% of Astounding/ Analog from about 1945 up is very much of the "grab long runs cheap" category, as you suggest.  But some issues can be a pain, because they've inevitably been cherry picked by the first person to see the lot.

On 4/11/2024 at 9:53 AM, F For Fake said:

Been spending some time IDing parts today, I have this totally random assortment of stuff left. I think most of it is literally junk, but I'm mostly curious abou tthe black thing cicled in blue, if anyone recognizes it. I've ID'd everything that is crossed out in red. The rest of the stuff I'm assuming is junk or not worth IDing, but anyone sees something they recognize, let me know!

Oh, and if anyone knows what line these little army guys came from, that would be cool too!  

 

This looks like a magic trick I had as a kid, the basic idea is it has what looks like a moving blade that you can pull out the top, you put something in the larger hole, and you push it down.  The blade appears in the lower hole but has passed through whatever was in the bigger hole.

I say "blade", it was a piece of semi-tough plastic.  It might cut a soft french fry in the lower hole on a good day; it couldn't break skin.

On 4/12/2024 at 11:30 PM, Darwination said:

I can't sell you on that one??? How about SINGLE HIGHEST GRADED

 

See, that one seems semi-sane.  Not something I'm going to drop my money on, admittedly, and I bet there are a lot of nicer raw copies out there to be found.  But overall that's not the joke the other one was.

Then again, I'm happy with the raw I paid $10 for several years back, even with the slight corner creases:

On 4/12/2024 at 11:18 PM, Darwination said:

That issue is from the run when analog was magazine sized in the 60's.  It actually changed format during the middle of the serial.

I'm roughly 100% certain there is no such thing as a non-newsstand variant of the issue for that matter...

On 4/12/2024 at 9:12 PM, Darwination said:

It's cheap, too!  Deals everywhere

 

New Baker sighting this week in the pulp scans group.  The scanner was just after one story, but I was able to confirm that likely the entire issue is Matt Baker illustrated (which I knew was likely the case)  Not my scans here, Terror Detective Magazine, February 1956, a crime digest from Everett Arnold.  I hesitate to even show this thing in such sharky waters (and absolutely do keep some Baker secrets to myself ).  What a fantastic cover this is (artist unknown):

Harlan Ellison, Day Keene, Edward Hoch are among the authors in the issue, totally killer, I'd love to get my hands on it.

and I found the auction where it came from and another illo, very likely all the splashes are Baker

 

I've got the first book publication of the Ellison story:

It's the first story in the book.

On 4/12/2024 at 6:20 PM, Axe Elf said:

I cheated and looked ahead to the letters sections of VAMPIRELLA #15 and #16 to see what the fans had to say, and for the most part it looks like they liked it--though there was one dissenting opinion.

That was more about the artwork than the story itself, though.

But this one was more @OtherEric-level of praise:

Me and Randy will just be over here in our corner telling each other how smart we are and laughing at the rest of you.

But seriously, I do feel BETTER about disagreeing, now that we've done it a few times and everyone realizes that there is no "right" or "wrong"; just different opinions on creative works of art.

This reading club is still one of my favorite things in life right now.

I think we have about the right level of agreement here, honestly... enough agreement that we don't go "what the heck are these people thinking?", but enough disagreement that we can see different opinions and have something to talk about.  It makes for a fun discussion.

For what it's worth, while I think it was a great story it's not the best thing they've published... just to name one, "The Curse" was definitely better. 

On 4/12/2024 at 3:38 PM, Axe Elf said:

And if there was redundancy in the "Death's Dark..." titles, then there was also Egyptian redundancy in multiple recent stories about the Ramses kings that brings us to the piece that @OtherEric called one of the all-time Warren classics--"The Silver Thief and the Pharoah's Daughter."  I hate when we disagree so sharply, and I love ya Eric, but I feel like I must be missing something here!  The debut of the Jose Bea art was ok, but it was a long (11 page) story for a small payoff--the thief was so good that the king gave him a job?--and his daughter's hand in marriage?  It seems ridiculous to me, as were some of the plot devices (how did the chopped-off arm get him past the guards in the chamber with the king's daughter?).  And further, this isn't even a horror story--not even a psychological or human nature horror story--it belongs more in Ellery Queen's Mystery Magazine or something!  I could have gone through all the Warren magazines without reading this bloated historical crime drama.  For me, it just doesn't fit and it's not that great--but I always hate dissing a piece that other people enjoy!  Forgive me!
 

See, I'm fine when we disagree, as long as we can both explain why we like or dislike it.  I think key to my liking of it is my viewing it as "pitch-black comedy".  And like I said, the last page is just magnificent... ending with a 2/3 page splash of the protagonist and antagonist (and you can decide which is which in context) playing checkers as the princess look on is just glorious, and the last thing I would ever expect as the punch line to a Warren story.  Part of why I like it so much is it keeps looking like it's going to become the horror story we expect, and keeps pulling the rug out from under us.  It's certainly not something I would want to see often, and I can get why you (and others) dislike it as in some ways it's almost an anti-Warren story, deliberately twisting everything.

Does anybody else have thoughts on the piece?  @The Lions Den?  We could use a tiebreaker here.

On 4/12/2024 at 2:11 PM, pmpknface said:

MINE!

On the other hand, this copy I've had about a week is now available, cheap.

On 4/12/2024 at 1:56 PM, Chip Cataldo said:

Did Frazetta do any or they were just elevated in price when Boris did them?

As far as I know the only Frazetta cover for Marvel was Epic Illustrated #1

As far as value, some of the very late issues are commanding a premium these days since they're relatively scarce, but not necessarily huge.

On 4/11/2024 at 9:58 AM, jimjum12 said:

I got lucky on my 63 annual ... 1ST with Silvers and then again on eBay. It was hard to tell which was the undercopy. That rarely happens for me. GOD BLESS ...

jimbo(a friend of jesus)

All I'm missing now are 1952/53 and 1961/62. 

 

My copy is missing the back cover.  But it's one of those books where I'm happy to have a copy at all.

On 4/10/2024 at 4:50 PM, 50 Cent #II (1st) said:

It’s being reported that Trina Robbins has passed away.

https://www.newsfromme.com/2024/04/10/trina-robbins-r-i-p/

Just a legendary creator, and one of my favorite underground artists.  I'll try and get some covers scanned later tonight.

Today's book.  I'm down to three Ace D&S series SF non-doubles to go:

On 4/10/2024 at 7:02 PM, Surfing Alien said:

I like a nice minty fresh Avon once in a while. They have a certain charm to them.

Did we ever figure out the artist on that one?  We agreed the ISFDB was wrong when they said Bok, as I recall.