OtherEric

This thread needs a bump, even if I already posted this over in the EC thread in gold as well.

Today's book. Since this has the first appearance of the last original EC story (other than Mad), I think this one qualifies as a real EC in a way none of the other reprints do. And, of course, a ton of great reprints in giant size. Crazy happy to have found a nice copy of this fairly cheap.

Grazt on finally getting a copy. Any particular reason you wanted this one?

Fiction House pulp to Fiction House pulp

Four Color in the 500's to Four Color in the 500's

https://archive.org/details/Fantastic_Adventures_v03n07_1941-09_Wilddog-DPP

I think you and I are in very close to complete agreement on the New Direction books, other than I have a little more time for them because, as you say, they're way above most other post code stuff. Heck, they're way above most pre code stuff... just not EC's own pre code stuff. I had been mentally ranking the books, now that I've got over 3/4 of them. Still a few holes, so a classic could still surprise me, but here's what I've got from worst to best: 7: M. D. It's got great art, and is well written as far as these things go, but it feels almost like a deliberate attempt to placate Wertham in the subject matter. A bit of a mess, trying to be a 'good' book when that just was never EC's strength. 6: Extra. It's like they tried to do a private detective book, only PD's were unacceptable, so they made them reporters instead. This one I think might have grown into something given more time; the overlapping casts of characters in the different sub-series wasn't a bad idea, and the book was willing to get experimental at a couple of points. But they never got the mix right in the issues we actually got. 5: Impact. Trying to do Shock Suspenstories without the twist friendly genres of that book. I think this was also possibly the worst code undermined book of the lot. It gets 5th rather than last entirely because of "Master Race", and it's a good example of just how talented and dedicated the EC crew was despite the efforts to tear them down. But not one I see myself revisiting much. 4: Valor. Great art, good ideas for stories. Generally so-so execution on the stories, as you said. There's a definite gap between the top 4 and the bottom 3 on my list, Valor is firmly on the "good" side. But just as firmly at the bottom of the good side. 3: Psychoanalysis. No, seriously. It's a horrible idea for a book, or at least 30 years to early. It actually reads a bit like a late 80's- early 90's indy title. But the execution is excellent. Well written, beautifully drawn, good use of flashbacks and descriptions of dreams to keep things visually interesting. And at 4 issues, it tells three complete stories. That doesn't it help its reputation, because the issues don't work as well if you pick up one random one later in the run. A spectacularly complete package, brought down from the top because, as I said, it's a horrible idea. But it takes the horrible idea and creates the absolute best case possible execution of that idea. 2: Aces High. It's an EC war book. It's not as good as the others because it's post-code and Kurtzman isn't involved. But it's an EC war book, EC war books are excellent, and this one is no exception. 1: Piracy. They had a little more time to figure this one out rather than the rush on the other New Direction books. It's a good theme that manages to keep a bit of an edge while not having the excessive edge of the horror books for the tenor of the times. And the artists were clearly having an absolute blast with the material. Anybody else have any thoughts on the New Direction books?

Smilin' Jack to Smilin' Jack

All of the New Direction books tend to be pretty cheap. I suspect, in most cases, it's because they were actually more seriously collected when they came out than any other books of the era, EC having an established fandom. Less people bought them but more of those kept them. And then the New Direction issues wound up overall not going anywhere. So they're viewed as the most minor EC's. None of which entirely explains why Impact #1 hasn't jumped. I suspect part of it is the fact that Master Race was reprinted early and reprinted often. It showed up in the EC Horror Library of the 50's in the early 70's, and was one of the first EC stories I ever read when I found the Smithsonian book of Comic Book comics at the local library. It's always been one of the easier EC stories to find, so people weren't necessarily going to the source like they would for other books. The cover is good but it's not by Krigstein, so it perhaps doesn't have quite the appeal in a slab given the fame of the story. With all that said, I think the book is a hell of a sleeper right now. It probably won't be worth what a Weird SF 29 is (to name another EC on the stands at almost the same time) but I can sure see the day when you can't easily find a super cheap copy in the not too distant future. Now my question for everybody: When did Master Race start getting singled out as a classic? It was clearly recognized as something special fairly early, given its inclusion in the Nostalgia Press and Smithsonian books, but I don't know if that was because it was already considered a classic or just good taste on those editor's parts calling attention to it in the first place.

Piracy to Piracy

A little thread necromancy, but seems like the right place for this. Low grade, but happy to have it... I love the golden age 3D books, but am never willing to spend very much on them. This certainly isn't one of the rare issues, but I see it a lot less often than the Superman:

Walt Kelly to Walt Kelly

Fiction House to Fiction House

Absolutely agreed. And just for fun, here's the yellow logo version, since we've gone too long without any covers on this page of the thread.

The logo color is the obvious tell, so at least you don’t need to crack the case to figure out which is which. The charlton version has the white logo, the other one is yellow.

And speaking of the one EC with a Harlan Ellison story... Cheap due to a split spine on the cover. Does anybody know why split spines are so common on EC's, particularly the last couple years they were doing comics? It seems like I see them a lot on otherwise not too bad books, particularly compared to other companies from the same era.

Fresh in today. The last issue I needed for the run of 1-20 of the Hulk Comic run from the UK; which covers most of the new material other than Black Knight. There are a couple stray new Hulk and Ant-Man stories in later issues, but this gives me the complete run on Nick Fury (by Steve Moore & Steve Dillon, RIP both of them), and Night Raven by Parkhouse, Lloyd, and Bolton. Some fun stuff, rarely seen in the US.

A question for the EC experts out there. What unpublished EC stories later popped up, and where? The most famous is "An Eye for an Eye", which was meant for Incredible Science Fiction #33 and wasn't published until 1970 in Horror Comics of the 50's. I know there was also "The Planetoid", meant for the 3rd 3-D comic. I think that first showed up in Squa Tront #5. Any others people know of off the top of their heads?

Everett to Everett

Everett to Everett

Everett to Everett

I really do want to track down a copy of this one some day, but the price may keep me from ever getting it. I think it's the last issue I need with a Neal Adams story. Oh well, at least I've got the reprint of the Adams story.

I hadn't realized Kubert did anything for EC; which is dumb of me because I have one of his 3 stories. In addition to the one you mentioned, he had Tide! in TFT 32 and Bonhomme Richard in FC 14. @GomerPyleUSMC: Colan also ghost penciled "The Secret" in TFT #39, according to Severin. Both of them are artists that I'm incredibly happy to include on the list of EC creators! Another creator who surprisingly slides in at 5 or less EC pieces: Basil Wolverton. The fact that two of the 5 pieces are covers probably distorts how little he had. 1 panel in Mad #10, cover & story in Mad #11, story in Mad #17, and cover of Panic #4.

In addition to Heath, what other creators of note had only a handful or less stories in EC books? Harlan Ellison had one story in Weird Science-Fiction #24; his first professional sale on a national level by a couple of years. Ric Estrada had two, one in Two-Fisted Tales #30 and the other in Frontline Combat #11. Alex Toth had three, in Frontline Combat #8 and #11, and Two-Fisted Tales #22. I don't want to extend the list to Mad Magazine, there are a lot of big names that popped in for just an issue or so. Any others come to mind?

If we're including National Lampoons the Death issue with the dog cover is a shoo-in. Not sure if you can slab NatLamps, though. These might also qualify, I don't have the Death issue to share: