OtherEric

In today, I love the handful of covers Bode did for the pulp digests.

Pretty sure you're right.

Like all but one of my pedigree magazines, this is from the John G. Fantucchio collection via MCS. In today and I couldn't be happier, even with the obvious slight flaws I swear it has the new book smell 55 years after the fact:

I don't personally agree, but that's one of the few issues where I at least won't argue the point... it's one of the best, even if I prefer the January 1950.

It may depend on where you shop. Not sure where they were distributed, I know they showed up in the Seattle area because a friend got one off the rack. I suspect they were ubiquitous for a while because the idea of variant covers was unusual even into the 90's so everybody wanted them; now that we're used to rare variants these aren't super rare compared to some and the books aren't key for any reason other than the covers. So they don't get pulled out as often at the shows or shops.

I'll bite, what's the best startling cover if that's #2?

The store I got my dollar copy out knew but didn't care; they liked to seed the dollar bins with gems. They were also big on slabbing books, anything not high grade was likely to get cheap boxed for a long time. They eventually started individually pricing some books, but it took them ages. (They mostly sell cards.)

I would say finding the "Superman Comics" test logo books in a dollar bin made no sense whatsoever... except I found this copy in a dollar bin several years ago, as well. (I also have a copy from around when it came out.) I think I finally found the Firestorm for around $10, but that was specifically grabbing it when Half Price Books was doing a half-off sale.

That 68 is a classic swipe that's well on its way to becoming a classic on its own, I think. Glad I've got both.

Today's pickups at a local store:

Since this thread seems to have become the general collecting ground for stamped books, I figured I would show this little gem I spotted while looking for a different book in my collection. I know I've had the book about a decade, but the stamp never registered with me before. A quick check of old emails shows I did buy it from the UK, which at least shows how it wound up on the West Coast of the USA...

It's also far less likely to be considered a first appearance if the ad appeared in multiple books, and I think appearing in multiple books from multiple publishers reduces the chances of it being considered a first appearance to nearly zero. Here's the page from Adventure Comics #385, October 1969, on sale date (according to the GCD) of 8/28/1969. I couldn't find the on sale date for Archie and Me #31.

Is there a list of the Lichtenstein swipes anywhere? I have to admit, I used to be in the "hack" group, until I saw some of his pieces in person a few years ago. I still have significant issues with how he swiped from others without crediting them... but I'm prepared to state that when you see his work up close, and can actually see the brush strokes, and appreciate the scale, it comes across completely differently than a picture in a book where all of that gets lost.

No info, but I love the discovery of something that was right under our noses, given that the scan on the DCM was the promises version.

Was scanning this for another thread when I realized something...

Although it has one plus I didn’t realize until I pulled it to scan right now:

Looks similar to my ticket to the club, which I paid a similar amount for just before the book went bonkers:

I've got most of the trickier SF D- and S- series Ace SF books already, at least: Cry Plague, Conan the Conqueror, all the PKD books (except possibly the 2nd print of Solar Lottery, D-340. I know I used to have a copy, but may have gotten rid of it when I got the D-103), the Ellison SF double, and so on. So I'll continue working on the basis of "I'll grab the D- and S- books when I see them affordable" and eventually decide how serious I want to be about everything rather than just the SF. For now, I'll keep grabbing everything as I find it cheaply, since I figure a nice mix of spines looks good even if it's heavily biased towards SF.

While I can't give a specific example, it seems utterly plausible given MCS's grading. Which reminds me, I've got to get this 5.0 from MCS cleaned, pressed, and submitted one of these days:

Are people starting to speculate on the Kree/ Skrull War turning up in the MCU?

Part of me really wants to; another part of me thinks I'm crazy to even think of that. The only thing I'm sure of is I'm going for all the Science Fiction doubles, I'm well over half-way on those. Then again, I do have D-15 already; which is far and away the most famously difficult one. Which is not the same as the actual most difficult one, of course...

Thank you for pointing out the Madman Comics #4; it doesn't perfectly match my specific definition of the set but I naturally want it on its own merits. As for Starslayer, if you're including #2 include #3 as well:

And, of course, my utter inability to resist Ace D-Series books shows up yet again:

A few from a local store today. The Rohmermight be my first book from Graphic:

Just wanted to point out how much Hughes has been knocking the Black Widow covers out of the park on this run. Incredible stuff: