OtherEric

This is Pulps, not comics, but I think it fits the topic perfectly. I won a complete set of Arkham Samplers a few years ago. Tucked into one of the issues was a postcard from one of the publisher's other imprints:

Assuming that we're talking golden age to mean anything pre-code, and not specifically WWII era books: Crime Suspenstories. It's one of the EC titles I'm mostly just chasing in reprints, partly because I don't enjoy the stories as much as some of their other titles, but in large part because there are just so many covers that are miles out of my range. Composite image created from GCD images, the only issue I have of these is 23:

Separated at birth:

Published by All American (with the DC logo) to published by All American (with the AA logo)

Alan Scott to Alan Scott, Jay Garrick, and Carter Hall

Today's book. I don't need to explain why this is a big one. It's actually the first first issue from the initial wave of New Trend books that I've gotten; I have lots of the later first issues but this is the only one from 1950 that I own. I've actually had my eye on this one for a while; I hesitated pulling the trigger because there were cheaper but lower grade copies popping up and I kept hoping a slightly better deal would show. I finally pulled the trigger, oddly enough, when a slightly better copy showed: I decided the off-white to white pages made this the copy for me. I think this book is insanely under-rated, by the way: compared to the other first wave New Trend first issues this was a steal. Now to crack the slab so I can actually read it! (If you happen to see this post in the first moment after I post it: I need to edit it to add the picture, since I'm typing this on my computer but I'll need my phone to get the picture since the slab won't fit my scanner. Give me a moment...)

And with this, I'm almost done with the box of $10 Argosies at my LCS. There's one of the early 40's bedsheets I'll snag next time if it's still there. Featuring serials by Edgar Rice Burroughs (The Moon Men) and Max Brand:

They do seem about equal in number, and the variation is clearly marked... it doesn't look like, for instance, a plate got swapped or was running out of ink there. It's just the two words, fairly clearly GCD will generally take any variant where you can clearly show that a) it's not just a printing error and b) you can define the error clearly. I've added at least 3 previously undocumented variants there myself. (Looney Tunes #4, World's Finest #96, and the third version of Help! #12.) It's amazing how much we still have to discover about older comics despite decades of fans tracking and documenting them.

I _think_ this meets the thread requirements, although it is on the back cover, not the front. Mage: The Hero Denied #15:

The problem is, the artist deliberately did the signature in a Dave Stevens style as a tribute, so other than they're "PS", not "DS", I wouldn't know where to begin. That is presumably not their normal signature style.

All I know is I looked at the preview at comixology. If they're calling the druid "Panoramix" rather than "Getafix", I'll stick with the UK translations,thank you very much... I have a nearly full set of the UK hardcovers my family assembled in the early 80's, with most of the later books added as they came out. I really don't see the point of new translations.

I love that shot! Admittedly, if I could pick any two books from that rack I would say the Action and Adventure, while desperately wanting to get the Detective as well... But I also figure I'm better off than 99.9% of the people looking at that image wishing they had ANY of the books on it...

And I'll assume mine is!

It was being printed right when EC shut down everything but MAD. The copies that exist were bound by hand at the EC office; I've heard both 100 or 200 copies exist. It may not be the rarest EC, given how tricky some of the giveaways are, but it's close if it's not.

I've never seen any discussion on which is the main version and which is the variant on this one; I've seen very little discussion at all other than noting it exists. They don't seem to differ too much in how common they are. If I had to pick one, I would say Orange is the main version and Yellow the variant, as most if not all the reprints went with the Orange. But that's just me.

It turns out Metro has a few file copy Mad's cheap; I just grabbed #246. So I can at least say I have a Gaines File Copy, I'll show it when it gets here.

You said "all", and I took you at your word.

And me and @EC ed are just tripping over each other explaining it. I love the enthusiasm all of us in this thread have for EC's! Ed has better images, but I figure the comparison pictures I threw together are worth showing anyway... The three versions of Mad #28, as Ed described above. When we were talking about this issue over on the Mad thread in the Magazine forums, there was some agreement that this issue was the hardest of the early magazine issues to find in any version. And the Guided Missiles version seems to be the most common. (It's the one I have.) A very late thought: I wonder if the order on the versions was Useful Tax Guide- Useless Tax Guide- Guided Missiles. The Useful would be when they assumed the issue would come out before tax day, the useless would be when they figured it wouldn't, and the guided missiles would be saying "to heck with it". For whatever it's worth, the Tax Guide and the Guided Missiles articles are both actual features in the book, not them making something weird up for the cover.

The 2nd is Impact #1. The White Logo variant was printed by Charlton, and Gaines was so unhappy with the printing he reprinted it with the Yellow Logo instead. I have not seen much difference in value between the two. The yellow logo is the reprint and more common... but a lot of people prefer the better printing version, so as near as I can tell the two are about equal. Genuinely curious what others think, though. My copy is the Yellow logo version, the scans (in all these posts) are from the GCD edited to show the books together.

Certainly! The first is the Frontline Combat #9. There are two variants, one with Civil War in yellow, the other with Civil War in orange. I have never seen any discussion on why there are variants on this one.

That is truly a thing of beauty. If I might ask, how did you pick Mad #30 as your cut-off? I considered 23 (last comic issue), 26 (last issue with EC logo), and 28 (last Kurtzman edited issue) before settling on 31 (last Kurtzman inventory stories). Not sure where #30 came from, other than "Iconic cover"... which could be plenty of reason on its own. Also, do you have the variant issues? As far as I know, Impact 1, Mad 28, and Frontline Combat 9 all have variants (none of which I have yet...).

Such a cool book and provenance! I've wondered what happened to Jerry's comics in the past. I've only got a couple EC's with noteworthy provenance, my Panic #6 is from Don & Maggie Thompson, and my Shock #6 is from Gary Arlington. I really should get a Gaines File Copy one day, although my budget is such I would probably just get a later issue MAD so I can say I have one...

That's a simple "oops" on all our parts; the only reason I can think of is that he's more associated with the digests than the actual pulps, but even then he did quite a few for the pulps.

I respect that; but a lot of the pulps have stories that were never reprinted or only reprinted in books that are themselves rare. I won't touch brittle, but I've found a lot more copies with supple pages than you might expect. I have a personal rule: I will NOT buy a book I'm not willing to actually read. Some books may only get read once, gingerly and carefully, and then I go back to the reprint if I want to re-read it. But If I spend that much money I'm **** well going to read the thing. It's why I only have one book still in a slab, and that was special circumstances. I understand why lots of people feel otherwise, particularly with valuable or fragile books. But I must to my own self be true.

I've only got one, Four Color 1105-1116. LCS find, I think it was only $50. It's fun. Only one duck book in it, though.