OtherEric

This. I still haven’t seen the first one, but this is insane enough to interest me.

I would say that, even if there are various complications, that the idea the DC UKPV covers are directly tied to the change in ownership and the move is reasonable, even if it's an incomplete explanation of all the books we have.

If people here are trying to make me worried that I won't finish my Avon Fantasy Reader run before prices go crazy if I don't do it now... congratulations, you've succeeded. The remaining holes are on order.

Generally, you want the cover date on a book to reflect the END of the on-sale period; otherwise it would get pulled before the next issue showed up. With a quarterly release schedule, the next issue should have shown up late October... which lines up perfectly with the cover date. It just feels early since they went with a month, not a season, and it was on a slow release schedule.

I already gave the "War is good for nothing" as one example. Another classic is "Love is wonderful"/ "Love Hurts".

According to the Mike's Amazing World site, Blazing Combat dropped on July 29th, so just over two weeks before the song. Definitely they were both being worked on at the same time. My feelings are complex on the matter, given that I did four years in the Air Force. The only resolution I've ever been able to come to is the quote from Niels Bohr: “There are trivial truths and there are great truths. The opposite of a trivial truth is plainly false. The opposite of a great truth is also true.” To quote another song, "What is war good for? Absolutely nothing!" But Hitler needed to be stopped, to pick one of the least controversial choices. War is always a horrible choice... but sometimes, it's also the least bad. But still horrible.

Details, details...

You'll have to either ask Thorpe or Porter, or keep speculating, because none of us are sure yet...

I’m slightly suspicious of what task would leave you bored, but I’ll conditionally allow it

Before we let you take the minutes we need to know where you plan to take them. Goodness knows you’ve taken the rest of this thread all sorts of weird and interesting places.

I had no idea this one was tricky, one turned up inexpensively when I first went looking. Guess I got really lucky. Here's my "I never see this in the wild" book that I've had my eyes open for for a few years that I finally spotted this weekend:

I think, with the August 1928 Amazing Stories, it's considered a classic cover even if it isn't actually Buck. It's possible, even probable, that part of the reason it became a classic cover is because people misidentified the character- but for a very long time it's been a classic on its own terms. It's a wonderful image that captures the aesthetic of the early science fiction era perfectly.

Been rereading the various fables books myself to refresh my memory for the new series. Agreed that Jack is a pretty disappointing title overall, after a while I was just buying it from a combination of inertia and a love of the Babe the Blue Ox page. Fairest was a bit hit or miss, as anthologies tend to be, but with quite a few stories I enjoyed and some wonderful Adam Hughes covers.

"My Candle Burns at Both Ends/ It Will Not Last the Night/ But Oh, My Friends, and Oh, My Foes/ It Gives a Lovely Light." Blazing Combat #1 thoughts: This is a series that burned- nay, blazed- through its entire run in only four issues. But it is widely regarded as one of the best comics ever, matching and arguably even surpassing the classic EC war books. Let's see what we've got here. Cover: Scans really don't do justice to the impact of the cover; it's easy to miss details like the blood still suspended in the air where the bullets ripped through the fallen soldier, or the pure grief on the face of the survivor. Perhaps not Frazetta's most famous Warren cover, but in some ways it may be his best. This one hits hard. Frontispiece: A gorgeous piece by Severin. It doesn't matter what war you're fighting in, a soldier (or sailor, or airman, or marine) is always a soldier. Viet-Cong: A look at just how ugly the war in Vietnam was, years before a lot of people realized it. A brutal and effective start to the series, showing us the sort of book this will be. Aftermath: Another stunning look at just how ugly war is, and how that does and doesn't affect those fighting it. Flying Tigers: George Evans is possibly the best comic book artist ever at depicting aerial combat, and this is spectacular as always. Long View: I'm running out of things to say other than stunning art on a story showing just how ugly and brutal war is. Cantigny: What passes as the change of pace light hearted story for a few pages before crashing down brutally at the end. Combat Quiz: Nice Toth art, not much else to say. Mad Anthony: Another slightly lighter story, but one with a very solid message as to why you still need to treat your opponents correctly when you're not actually fighting. Enemy: People on both sides of the conflict are still people. A lesson far too easy to forget. This is not an easy book. This is not a fun book. What this is is a masterpiece by Archie Goodwin and several of the best artists ever to work in comics, pretty much all of whom are inspired to do incredible work. And I don't even think this issue is the highlight of the series, other than possibly the cover.

I believe there are two stories in the run where Goodwin co-plotted them with the artist, and one story written by Wally Wood. But overall, this is Archie's show all the way. I cannot recommend Two-Fisted Tales and Frontline Combat enough, I've got complete runs of both titles. Mostly low grade, as is my way, but I've got them!

I think August 1928 Amazing Stories has to be on the list somewhere as well.

Today's book. I'm very happy with it, despite the narrow strip off the cover. It looks like a production error to me, rather than chew... which it looked a little like in the photo. #19 and the special to go... and I've got a #19 on order, although it's coming from Canada so may take a while.

Mine makes at least 15. It's not impossible a few more copies were submitted for grading because it has a rep for scarcity.

To quote a wise collector, “I don’t need high grade to be happy.” But I appreciate the suggestion.

A few of the results I found interesting, for one reason or another. The Shadow in particular was a jaw-dropper, the others I'm admittedly more interested in because I have copies.

I think it's for a few reasons. The characters first appeared in pulps several years before the comics. If you're picking one or the other, the pulps are enough like comics that there's probably more crossover to the pulps than there would be for other characters. And from everything I've heard the early Shadow and Doc Savage comics just weren't that good, and the Tarzans were strip reprints. So there's not that much driving them compared to other first comic appearances.

Avon was unduly proud of their swipe on the #2... these are the back covers to the two Avon SF&F readers:

The U.S. and the UK: two countries separated by their common language.

More befuddled than bamboozled, I should think. But delighted as well, this stuff is fun.

You weren't previously familiar with Toth? I almost envy you having all that ahead of you. He's not my all-time favorite artist but he's definitely in my top 10.