OtherEric

That makes sense. Although it still seems odd there wasn't a #1 pence version...

A pair of books found at the LCS today. The stain by the lower staple on the Albedo dropped it down to an impulse buy price; the Space Usagi was 50 cents over cover:

Depending on what sort of grades you want, it looks like MyComicShop has most of the Canadian variants at not too crazy prices; you might be able to knock out a lot of them at one go. They don't have either of the Canadian annual variants, though. I"m surprised there were so few Pence variants, I thought those lasted a bit later in general. But I'm very much not an expert on the subject. Are you going to try for Mark Jewelers variants as well?

A stunning copy of one of the hardest digest Astoundings!

That I could easily support.

The 35 centers are going to be a pain, but at least people are aware that they exist. I'm not sure how well documented it is which issues exist with UK and Canadian price variants. I will take my well loved, frequently beat up, but complete run composed of a highly random mix of newsstand, direct, whitman, and reprint copies.

The novelization actually came out in 1976, if we want to start playing that game. But agreed, the book is a key part of bronze age comic history. My copy is a reprint, though... I think I finally got it in 1981, my family could just NOT find the whitman 3-pack of 1-3 like we did with 4-18, then my subscription started with #21. And even when I did get it, I read it to death and didn't know how to take care of my books yet... I probably got it for my 10th birthday, the first back issue (or at least tied for first) back issue I ever got. Still, although I wouldn't mind a better copy, I wouldn't want to get rid of this one for anything.

I would also note his great skill in thread necromancy, he will just as frequently find the relevant old thread rather than create a brand new one.

So, a bit of a technical question. Once you have the parts to complete a book, how do you best marry them together? I have an otherwise complete Mad #17 with a large, ugly chunk out of the cover. @Raze generously gave me an incomplete copy he bought online and was told to keep by the seller when it turned out to be missing pages. So, this is pretty much upgrading the eye appeal on a reader copy in the first place. Right now, given than the intact cover copy is missing pages from the middle four wraps, my best bet is to pull those wraps from my damaged cover copy and place them in the intact cover copy. I'm wondering if there are any hints for getting the pages to align correctly if I put them through the staples, or if I'm better off sticking with just laying the pages in loose. The centerfold itself is still complete and attached in the intact cover copy; I may be able to use that to line up the staples better on that page after replacing the other three wraps. Page quality is similar on both books. I guess, more generally, this is me asking: Any hints on marrying the books once you get the pieces assembled?

And a HUGE thank you to @Raze, who hooked me up with this book to marry with my copy with the damaged cover. Now I've just got to figure out the best way to do that... probably pull the center wraps from my damaged cover copy. Not sure if the staples alignment is close enough to actually reattach them, or if I should just lay the pages in. Suggestions welcome.

All My Children to Guiding Light

November 1941.

I don't think it was ever repurposed as a Conan story; it was reprinted in Conan the Barbarian #16 along with "The Frost Giant's Daughter", though. So it's been recognized as a prototype for the Marvel version of Conan pretty much since the launch of Conan the Barbarian, even within Marvel. But it's definitely not actually Conan, and since it's not the cover story I'm not sure it's going to have that much demand in the era of slabbed books. With all that said, it probably deserves more love than it's currently getting in the market.

Quoting this so people can see what they think of @Surfing Alien's suggestion that the Bantam 1436 cover reworks the 1295 on one page. The one does look quite a bit like a rough sketch for the other, he may have had the one in mind when he did the second one. Or it may just have been a fairly common design element on paperback covers, although I think it really got going later in the 60's and these would be fairly early examples.

Was looking for something else when I came across these two. For the life of me I can't remember if I posted them here when I got them, so showing them again. I really do need to sit down and read them... I've got a decent amount of Brown in my collection, but almost all of it is SF:

Thank you for the heads up; my entire knowledge of the book was "That looks like it's worth the $5.99 the store is asking." It seems like it's a much better spent $6 than I originally knew... ISFDB doesn't have a credit for the cover, you may be right.

I missed that as well; despite looking right at the book. But I tend to consider 281 and 285 a matched pair:

You are correct, no laminate on the 285 and the trade dress is closer to the Fantasy Novels. Did you have anything else you need me to check on it? Also, reposting the cover because why not?

Nice! Which reminds me (seriously), I still need to track down a high grade Marvel Godzilla #2, since I'm from Seattle...

Yeah, that's almost exactly the sort of set I'm looking at. Thank you.

I do not. It looks like most (not all) of what I'm looking for is Merritt and those two Avon Fantasy Novels. It's a nice little subset to work on...

Thank you, Pat. I had somehow missed there were a couple "Avon Fantasy Novels"; I'll want the Williamson as well.

I need to get the November issue one of these years. Oddly, Slan didn't get the cover until part 2 of the serial. The October issue also contains a Bullard story by Malcolm Jameson and the classic "Farewell to the Master" by Harry Bates. If that doesn't sound familiar, you may know it better by the name of the movie they based on it... The Day the Earth Stood Still.

And, despite having run to my local book shop yesterday, a check on their website showed me something else I had to go snag today. I don't think I've ever seen the Avon 389 before, but it's definitely will go nice next to An Earth Man on Venus and Into Plutonian Depths. I need to track down an Avon 370 (The Moon Pool) to go with those sooner rather than later. Are there any other classic Science Fiction/Fantasy covers with the round Avon logo I should be looking for? And, while I was there, I snagged the Pocket 214 off the shelf. Stated first Pocket printing:

Love me some John D. MacDonald any day of the week, McGee or not. It just gives you something to look forward to. I would argue that, while MacDonald is best known for McGee, his best known book is The Executioners. But people know that better as Cape Fear, since that's what they called the movies...