OtherEric

A very nice couple of books!

I miss O'Leary's horribly, one of the two best comic shops I've ever been to. Got my first true GA book there (Fawcett's Funny Animals #10), one of the only issues of All-Star I've ever had (All-Star #20, sadly sold on now), my first precode Super-Hero books (a handful of beat up Marvel Family books), my first issue of Scribbly (#9, $9); the first Platinum age book I've ever had (The Funnies #13). And that's just the Precode stuff that comes quickly to mind... First pre-Adv 300 Legion appearance I ever got (Action #287). First Steranko art I ever saw (X-Men #50). First Neal Adams art I ever saw (GL/ GA #87). Got my GL/ GA #76 there, as well. I want to say I paid $14 for it at the time, the most expensive book I had ever bought up until then. One year for my birthday, my parents got me the GL/GA #85 they had in the case up front; signed by Neal Adams and Gil Kane both. (I got Denny O'Neil to add his signature to it a couple years ago, finally.) Pogo Books. Sugar & Spike. Bantam Doc Savages. Dell Looney Tunes. An issue of Goofy Comics with Frazetta text illos. For Legion fans, That Damned Tabloid. Half a dozen Harlan Ellison 1st editions as a lot for 75c each, as I recall. Always something good there, even when my budget was next to nil. It was only a couple miles from my high school, so sometimes I went without lunch and went there instead. I miss O'Leary's horribly. And I'm far, far from the only person in the area who does.

And, just some low grade copies, but always nice to have. Up to 20 Planet Stories now... I think I've passed the point of no return on the title. Should be some interesting reading in that one. B. Curtis is Maggie Thompson's mother; and it also has an early Philip. K. Name-I-can't-use-here story. Brackett is always good, as well. And wrap it up with an issue with Bradbury, Brackett, and PKD. All good stuff, even if the Bradbury story is actually a reprint.

Would love to put together that run, or at least the revival half of it. Great set, Hap!

Clearly, just a reader copy. But for $20, I couldn't resist it at my LCS today.

Those are some beauties, Hap! The late pulp-format issues of both Doc and the Shadow seem to be, if not scarce, at least high demand, the Docs in particular.

Been too quiet in here for a while... So here's a late Doc Savage I just got. It's the last digest issue, with the last 3 issues of the series returning to the pulp format. It's also got John D. MacDonald's last work in the title, with a story that's actually longer than the lead Doc 'novel'. They were also clearly squeezed for space getting ready for the format change- there's only 1 1/2 ad pages in whole issue, and the Doc story doesn't even get an illustration.

For no clear reason that Science Fiction Plus brought to mind another book with a somewhat odd appearance by a creator not often seen in the pulps. This issue features the only story one writer ever did for the pulps. But us comic fans know him better as an artist... I know, given the nature of the pulps, that it wasn't unusual for an artist not to illustrate a story they wrote- Hanes Bok comes to mind as somebody who both wrote and drew, but not necessarily the same story. But wouldn't it have been amazing to see C. C. Beck draw for the pulps?

I've heard it failed pretty badly, despite a few good authors in the mix. The most interesting in that issue is the winner of that month's Short-Short+ story contest. It's Anne McCaffrey's first published story, and one of only two she had published in the 50's.

Gerber has this as a 7, I think it might actually qualify but if it does it's a lot closer to 50 than 20. Still not an easy book to locate:

I can respect that position. Like I said, I don't have any Zorro appearances. I do have an appearance of one of McCulley's other continuing characters... That one showed up in here: Not a very impressive copy, but it was the first hero pulp (and one of the first 3 or so pulps as opposed to digests) I ever got so I'm fond of it anyway.

Like Tarzan or Conan, Zorro didn't have his own series as such; just various appearances. Mind you, I would love to get at least one Tarzan and Conan and Zorro story into my collection. But that's a separate goal from one issue of each of the long-running hero pulp series, as I defined it up there. (Trying not to get too crazy on projects.) What issue was that Zorro page you just posted from?

Oh, I did mention a couple pick-ups, right? Missing the back cover, sadly. But the last issue I needed from the later part of the run, starting from the first Purple Invasion issue. So issues 26-48 complete, and 35 of 48 overall. In addition to one of each major hero title, I want all of one title and Op #5 is the one I'm going for. Still a ways to go, but at least I'm at the point where I know I'll pull it off eventually.

A couple pick-ups today: Been wanting an issue of Phantom Detective for a while, trying to get one example of each of the longer-running hero titles. By longer running, I mean at least 10-15 issues, the ambiguity there being because Green Lama was 14 issues, I believe, and seems to be a pain to find. So if I get one, I'll go with the lower number but until then I'll stick with the higher. I think the titles that count are these: Shadow (325 issues) Doc Savage (181 issues) Phantom Detective (170 issues) The Spider (118 issues, I still need an issue) G-8 and his Battle Aces (110 issues, I still need an issue) The Black Bat (62 issues of Black Book Detective) Operator #5 (48 issues) Secret Agent X (41 issues, I still need an issue) The Whisperer (26 issues, I think. Not positive on the length of the 2nd run) The Avenger (24 issues) Captain Future (20 issues including 3 novel-length stories in Startling) Green Lama (14 issues of Double Detective, I still need an issue) Am I missing any other hero pulps of significant length? I'm not counting Nick Carter as a hero pulp as such, and I'm not talking about characters who had extensive but sporadic pulp appearances like Tarzan and Conan. And I'm not counting appearances in short stories in the pulps after their title died, like the Avenger or Whisperer or the Captain Future shorts as opposed to the novel-length stories.

Wow! Serious gratz on that one, it seems to be the hardest of the four Lovecraft Astoundings to locate. (Goodness knows I've never seen an even remotely affordable copy.)

Apparently the book was based on an earlier series of stories done for the pulps under a pseudonym, but completely redone. I've only got the one:

Might as well throw this one up here for fun: Unlike most BLB's I've seen, this one is also all comics, no text pages.

Looks like it's #27. It does not seem to be a particularly valuable issue, to put it mildly. Certainly I couldn't resist snagging a copy when I saw the cost.

It's great your kid will be growing up with Bugs. He is a great philosopher and role model for young people. Here are a couple early appearances: Bugs Bunny All Pictures Comics - A Tall Comic Book. All B+W comics. Supposedly reprints Bugs first appearance from LT 1. Easy to find cheap, for now! Famous Gang Book of Comics - Not first appearances but pretty tough to find early giveaway with an all star cover Some of those pages are definitely from Looney Tunes #5 and #6: I've scanned as much as I feel like tonight, can pull a comparison page from the #6 tomorrow if anybody wants it.

You've got one too? Well, I've got two, too! So here's my 2nd copy for giggles: And a few more wartime covers for fun:

Let me clarify part of that one for people: A nice issue, with two stories by Walt Kelly.

It very well could be, I don't remember seeing Pepe in the Bugs Giants or the Looney Tunes title itself off the top of my head. But then again, on an awful lot of those books the only story I've read is the Mary Jane & Sniffles, with the rest of the book getting a quick flip-through at best. But comics.org is rather spotty on indexing of the Warner Bros. books still, last I checked.

And here's Four Color #402; Mary Jane actually never appeared in the cartoons but it's her team-up with Sniffles in the comics that Sniffles is probably best remembered for, with his cartoons being a bit of an afterthought. That's the best copy I've found in years of looking, though. I let a VG go when it went over 50 on the bay; and at this point I'm kicking myself since I haven't seen one in any shape in forever. But 4x guide for a low grade copy seemed high back then.

Most of the 1st appearances are in Looney Tunes/ Merry Melodies #1, which is probably not an optimal choice for the wall of a child's room. Bugs Bunny Vacation Funnies 8 has the 1st appearance of the Road Runner in comics, but he's not on the cover.

The Unknown Worlds was a bedsheet as well. They both went bedsheet for 1942 and part of 1943, then went briefly back to pulp size for about half a year before Astounding went to digest size and Unknown went away. Supposedly it was a choice between taking Astounding bi-monthly or getting rid of Unknown due to wartime paper rationing. I think there were 16 bedsheet issues, Jan 42- April 43. But I'm not 100% sure.