OtherEric

This one is perhaps a bit more to your liking, @wombat? Although I think you could call Red Sonja "Spectacular"... after all, a train wreck is a spectacle as well...

I've been a fan since around 1990... but I didn't bother tracking down the covers, just the handful of stories. Stevens is a lot like Steranko: an artist who happened to work on a few comic books and had a huge impact relative to how little they actually did in comics. What is this from?

Two more in today:

I've got a tracking number now, will let people know when the book arrives. If I had wanted to give a fake number I would have gone with the Bugs Bunny reference and used TRanslyvania 6-5000

Another hole in the Super Special run filled. Perhaps similarly to the Eerie #75 we were just discussing, this one has always looked bland to me online but pops a lot better in hand:

There was a store in my area that did that back in the 80's and 90's; although I think it was actually either a quarter or 40 cents box. I have books I'm glad to have despite the sharpie, though:

Also got this in today:

People have panned the DV8 and Xena covers recently... but the A Scarlet Thirst cover is a classic:

Pretty sure I already have Shadow/ Doc Savage in a box somewhere; I know I got 1 when it came out but missed 2, to my great annoyance:

14, 16, something like that... the first ones arrived today. The GCD credits both Hernandez and Stevens with pencils on the cover, but it could actually be just Stevens inks. Nice cover in either case:

Another Sacred Six virgin cover. Might as well get the ratio variant if it doesn't cost extra:

Thank you all for the quick answers!

A question for the Frazetta experts here; I'll ask over in the Golden Age forums in a couple days but I want to hear what people here think first: Frazetta did 18 stories for DC comics from late 1949 to early 1951: Adventure 150, 151, 153, 155, 157, 159, 161, 163; All Star Comics 50; Gang Busters 14, 17; Jimmy Wakely 3, 4, 6, 7; Mystery in Space 1; Star Spangled Comics 113; Tomahawk 2. I'm down to only needing a couple issues to complete the set. I was wondering what other people thought the hardest issue of the lot was to find, and see if it agrees with my vote. Because I have what I think is far and away the scarcest of the 18 issue on the way to me finally.

JC only ever did 7 books, the rest of them were all THUNDER Agents. I believe the books were actually printed/ distributed in association with Archie.

Won a book on eBay; the seller messaged me that to send the book expedited shipping from Canada to the US they need my phone number. I have never in over 1000 purchases on eBay had somebody request my number; and on closer inspection I realize their feedback (which I forgot to check before the auction) is 0. Is this something legitimate; or should I just wash my hands of the whole mess?

I've never thought about this too much; but I would say my general guideline would be: figure out the difference between my target price and the asking price. Divide that in two and subtract it from my target price; so there's room for them to counteroffer but you can still meet in the middle. That's what I did last time, made an offer of $35 on a $49 asking price book; I was hoping to get it for around $40. Then was happy when they took the $35 without a counteroffer. But that's just a guideline, always make sure your offer looks like a fair price, even if it's on the low end of the fair price scale.

Given that seems to be an interior panel from an interior story that's a reprint... I would just about believe it if they told me that something fell through and they had 15 minutes to create a cover from scratch. Which, if true, means this gets at least a slight point for TRYING to do something odd and eye-catching. It's still a complete flop, obviously, but it would get a point for trying to do something different in a hurry... that hot pink is a bold choice. Not a good one, mind you, but at least they were trying something unusual. That's as kind as I can be, that's a horrible cover.

The art on the 21 is better known from the Iger Comics Kingdom book; the 43 is a bit less well known:

I'm miles from being an expert, either. The only suggestion I might have is trying to contact somebody who worked at DC at the time... I think it was Paul Levitz who confirmed that the books were printed at the same time as the regular run, maybe he remembers, at least roughly. I suspect, but do no know for certain, that the "Big 8" all had identical print runs since they came from the same month and were presumably distributed together; but as far as I know nobody has found any of the Big 8 still in an unopened pack. My guess is that the DCP #22 had the same print run as the others; but because the Whitman "W" wasn't in the DC logo, people didn't spot them for a long time and still don't notice them. Then again, there are STILL people who trash the Whitman copies as worthless reprints.

Captain Britain to Captain Britain

Just finding some of the Giants complete is about all I hope for on some of them. That one presents pretty nicely despite the obvious creases and spine issues. Nice pickup!

I really do need to sit down and watch that...

I sometimes forget what I have, but generally only with lower value books, luckily. If I drop more than $20 on a book I generally remember that I've got it. Oddly enough, I'm more likely to screw up with NEW books. I'll see a book on the shelf at the store and think I missed it (I've never had a store that's 100% with their pull lists, but they all try hard), only to figure out I grabbed the other cover a week or three before. That's partly my fault for letting a few months of a title pile up before I sit down and read it.

Last issue and the special.