OtherEric

It seems like a reasonable first guess, with the standard qualifier that as more information or different copies come out the picture may change. I think the term you're looking for, rather than printing, is "state". When a book has no solid information on how many printings actually happened, but you can distinguish between versions and sort the order, that's the normal term. I ran into it a lot when I put my collection of Oz books together, for instance. You can have multiple states in a single printing, if something changes during the print run. An example of that could be direct sales and newsstand editions, back when that was a thing; or an error correction. The fix to Ka-Zar the Savage #12, where all but a few copies had a blank panel, is another example. You can also have multiple actual print runs that, because they're identical, are all the same state.

Absolutely correct, and I 100% respect and appreciate it for what it is. But for me, at least, it's not a spectacular place to just browse. My comment was meant as a specific counter to @Robot Man saying they should avoid looking, I was trying to say they should.

I think a lot of people, not just the group on the forums, is starting to look more at vintage paperbacks and magazines as a lot of comics are flying out of range. I THINK the order of events is roughly a lot of the old pulp collectors passed away in the past 20 years or so, so a lot of material you normally couldn't find hit the market. Making things both more available and more affordable. At least some of us jumped on that- I got some books that I never would have been able to afford. But that dump of material is rapidly drying up, and through things like these boards a lot more people are now aware of the material. So yeah, it's getting tougher to find stuff.

I really think, given its role as a "sampler" of the other genres, Feldstein and Gaines put a little extra effort into Shock and it shows, at least in the horror, crime, and shock stories. The SF, for some reason, tends not to stand out as much. The one war story in #1 is pretty good too, and interesting in that it's the only War story EC did that I don't think Kurtzman was involved in at some level; although some of the stuff in the latter Frontline Combat and Two-Fisted Tales he had a reduced role because he was ill at the time. Shock #1 is high on my list, but not until after I finish off Two-Fisted Tales...

I know I said it before, but thank you for giving the book a good home. It's beyond beat but it's got some great reading in it. And I can't stand the thought of EC's going unappreciated.

What few I have are a little bit later. The 391 is another "get the high demand cover much cheaper" example, although not as impressive as the 198. I've got the 1st 20 issues of Hulk comic somewhere as well, may be able to scan a few of those. Gotta love Night Raven and some early Steve Dillon art on Nick Fury...

20 to 21

I absolutely respect that site as a reference, and for a lot of stuff it's the only comprehensive source. But small scans and a horribly annoying to navigate layout mercifully keep me from wasting much time there, mercifully.

I would like to get a few more examples, but in general I'm not trying for the pre-trend books in any organized fashion. Good look on all of those, CSS in particular is just loaded with high demand books these days.

Maybe not. 2 of the 4 I need are the first two issues...

Today's book. Four Two-Fisted Tales to go:

Generally hard SF is separate from Space Opera... it's stories where, to greater or lesser degree, the science, while speculative and frequently wrong in retrospect, generally develops from what is currently (at the time of writing) the best model. Or, if you prefer, in this context it's stuff that was published in the SF specific pulps (rather than, say, Blue Book or Argosy, which frequently included SF stories). It's one of those "I know it when I see it" concepts a lot of the time. Verne or Wells, while they wrote what we now consider science fiction, predated the term and are generally somewhat in their own category along with a few other writers. Just don't ask what to call the category because an agreed upon term doesn't come to mind right now. Slicks and pulps is much easier, at least. At the most basic level, it's down to the paper the magazines were printed on; pulps on pulp paper and slicks on slick- or at least higher quality- paper. Slicks were decidedly the more respectable, and better paying, market, with The Saturday Evening Post and Collier's being the first two examples that come to mind because they're the ones I have examples of. The Slicks were also, in most cases, more general interest, with a much more diverse readership. The line between the two was not quite as sharp as it is sometimes made out to be... Blue Book is sometimes described as a slick printed on pulp. But the line was particularly sharp when it came to genre fiction, and Science Fiction in particular. It was a massively big deal for a writer who had made their reputation in the SF pulps to break into the slicks, and for the slicks to recognize that SF was something that would be of interest beyond the dedicated pulp market. Until fairly recently there was a very real critical disconnect, with a lot of critics claiming certain works couldn't be SF because they were actually good, or by 'good' writers. I recall at least some discussion in 1984 (I was in junior high) about the book 1984, with some people still trying to say it's wasn't SF because it was critically respected. Hope that clears things up at least a little!

As far as I know, yes. I'm pretty sure there are earlier stories in the slicks that we would now label science fiction, and I'm fairly certain there were writers who had some stories in the SF magazines also showing up in the slicks but it was very much a milestone when Heinlein, an author who had previously mostly been published in the SF pulps, broke out from the SF pulps into the slick magazines.

Nice. Here's the original pulp publication of part one of "If This Goes On...", the main story in "Revolt in 2100". It's somewhat unusual in just how heavily it was revised for book publication, unlike most (but not quite all) of Heinlein's works. This was Heinlein's first cover story as well. I've also got the first appearance of "The Green Hills of Earth" in the Saturday Evening Post, but I don't have a picture of that handy. Having a SF story appear in one of the "slick" magazines was a major development at the time.

I'm sure somebody here might be able to help you with disposal of that undercopy...

A minor dollar bin find today. Not super valuable but you don't see it that often:

That's a nice Cartier cover, but I'll take Rogers version. Agreed that it's not my favorite either, and to be very generous some elements haven't held up well at all. But considering it's his first full length novel it's spectacularly well done and compelling reading.

Not my favorite of Heinlein's, but far from my least favorite either. Glad you got a copy you're happy with, I think mine is a book club edition. Given that it's a loose sequel to GULF, you need to track down the magazines where that story originally appeared next...

It's very high on the list, trust me! One thing I find really interesting about the cover is that, while it's by Wood, it looks to me like Wood was deliberately trying to do a Williamson/Frazetta style on the cover, since it's for their story. Just glancing at it, and remembering the story it goes to, I always think it's by Williamson or Frazetta, not by Wood.

Nice one! That's one of three EC's I lost when I sold most of mine to make the rent about 15 years ago but that I haven't replaced yet. I really need to replace it sooner rather than later.

And a couple others, unlike the 54 these were $5 each:

Any idea why it's supposed to be hard to find? I grabbed this copy at my LCS today. Interestingly, there's a two-part story that started in the previous issue, which is unusual for the title from what I've seen. It pulls off the interesting trick of having the first part of the story being pre-code but the second half being code approved.

Getting really close on the Two Fisted Tales run, 5 to go. Very happy with this one, it hits the sweet spot I like of decently presenting solid copy but low enough grade to be affordable and a safe reader. Then again, I'm almost always happy to get an EC, I think I use that phrase almost every time I post one.

Agreed on this one, it's a beautiful Bok cover and first publication of a Conan story that's primarily by Howard, even if DeCamp overzealously edited it? Very under-rated, no doubt about it! This is the only issue I've got of the title, but I would love to get the other three issues.