OtherEric

Your copy of the September 1927 Amazing looks better than mine, @Cat-Man_America. I'm just happy to have a copy at all. Interior Lovecraft story to interior Lovecraft story:

Lovecraft to Lovecraft

Mad 166. My copy is in storage, I should dig it out.

I agree that the earlier semi-gloss books were not as glossy as later on. I THINK my #88 and #91 were both originally glossy, but both are sufficiently low grade that I'm not sure. My 102 is definitely non-glossy, as is my 178. I'm not sure that it was a sharp line between glossy and non-glossy; I'll try to dig up my Animal Comics (where I have the full run, rather than random issues) and see how it plays out.

I think that's actually the most popular way of doing it. But part of me just feels the early issues deserve to be included, along with the Picto-Fiction magazines. Although I don't actually have any of the Picto-Fiction magazines, just the early Mads.

Today's freshly arrived book. Is it just me, or are #36 and #38 (which I got in earlier this week) surprisingly similar looking? Same logo and sidebar colors, primarily white cover color, and 3 figures in a row with a 4th fallen in the foreground.

Heath only ever did two stories for EC, right? O.P. in Frontline Combat #1 and Plastic Sam in Mad #14. And a couple pieces in Mad Magazine #27 and #28, if you count those. (I think the first 3 or 5 issues of Mad Magazine should count as classic EC's, just not sure if the cut-off should be 26, the last with the EC logo and last to come out concurrent with the comics, or #28 as the last Kurtzman edited issue.)

I don't actually consider the war books the best EC's, but I absolutely won't argue with somebody who does. They may be the most consistently excellent EC books, the other genres are much more likely to have a story where I go "the art's great but the story is meh". Certainly they're high on my want list; I've only got about half of them so far. I tend to be a fan of specific war comics, other than the EC's the only one I really collect is Enemy Ace. But a lot of the DC stuff is certainly excellent when I come across it. It's just not as good as the EC's.

Yes, it was, Raze. Sorry I was fighting you on it, not sorry I won. I know on low grade. I love high grade books on the rare occasion I get them, but I would much rather have 10 books I can read than one I can't.

You think you're the only one looking for the low grade EC's, @Raze? Here's the book I just got. This one has Wally Wood's "My World" in it. It's not my favorite EC story; that would be "There Will Come Soft Rains". It's not my vote for the best EC story, because it's barely a story... more an illustrated essay about science fiction. But I've said for years that if you made me name who I thought was the best comic book artist of all time- not my favorite, but who I thought was the best- I would say Wally Wood on a good day. The catch being Wood had too many bad days, sadly. But "My World" might just be Wood's very best day. It may not be the best story or my personal favorite story. But "My World" might just have my vote as the most beautifully drawn comic book story of all time.

Today's book. The "New" Two-Fisted Tales run by Severin in issues 36-39 never seems to get much attention. This issue is pretty much Severin cover to cover.

New Direction to New Direction. (And I have to admit that Conan did look like a roman soldier on that cover, for reasons known only to the artist...)

Conan to Conan (coincidentally still in Avon Fantasy Reader):

Avon Fantasy Reader to Avon Fantasy Reader

Picked this up last week at my LCS's closing sale. It will go nice with the copy of the original publication of the story that I got a few months ago.

H. G. Wells to H. G. Wells

Christopher Priest is writing the book; he's one of my favorite writers. The FCDB issue looked pretty good.

In a bubble to in a bubble

Fantastic Science Fiction to Famous Fantastic Mysteries:

I always thought Bradbury's response to EC's first, unauthorized, adaptation; and Gaines's response to the response, was incredibly cool and classy on both side.

Just spotted this, a genuine dollar bin find from sometime last year. Seven page Frazetta story.

Weird Science to Weird Tales:

Comic Cavalcade 27 to Comic Cavalcade 28. (With a couple splashes from the issue for good measure.)

Fresh in today. I find it interesting that Davis never did any work for the SF titles until the very end. And as much as I like the New Direction titles, there's still a feeling of "I'm getting the good stuff" with one of the SF books. (I know some people consider ISF a New Direction title but I never have.)

No stamps or any other markings beyond the cover and spine. The books, other than obviously being bound & trimmed, are gorgeous. I think it was a well spent $40.