OtherEric

Yep, Looney Tunes got lost in the Dell/ Gold Key swapover. Not positive why, I suspect it was merged with Bugs into the "Bugs Bunny Showtime" giant for content and then lost in the shuffle when they went back to normal-size book.

Some people point to Superman #128 as, if slightly late to call the last Golden Age issue, the last issue with the Earth-2 Superman as the main character rather than the Earth-1 version. The Superman Versus the Futuremen story in that issue only works if Superman was never Superboy.

You may be very right on the copyright issue. Back then, copyright in the US was 28 years with one 28 year extension allowed, without much regard for the rules in other countries. Sherlock first appeared in 1887, so copyright would be clear in 1943, if I understand the rules back then. So dropping the name for the 1942 story makes a LOT of sense. Now I'm wondering what the first use of Oz in the comics was. I know there were reprints of the newspaper strip adaption of the novels in early issues of THE FUNNIES, but I'm curious when the earliest original material showed.

I like that cover! A good gag, and a lot more attention to detail than you would normally see on a funny animal cover like that... the piles of sawdust, the spikes on the shoes, the uneven stump and base of the tree matching one another. Nothing that would be odd on a more straightforward drawing, but distinctive here.

Very much not sure if this still applies, but when I filled in the last of my holes on Warrior a few years ago the ones from Dez had price stickers on the covers. They were otherwise very nice copies. Other note: When I say filled in holes, I still haven't turned up a copy of Warrior 27 that was actually a flip book on an issue (I can't remember which one) of Comics international. That's a tricky one...

There were at least 9 of those mini-comic issues, I've only got the 1. It seems to be the most common of the issues, in that I know there has to be at least 3 copies. But one of those copies is in such low grade the paper is actually rotting, and it STILL sold for over $300 a few years ago. I got crazy lucky on a BIN on the bay getting mine. I would say all of the mini issues like that are Gerber 10's; and it's not impossible there are some that no longer exist. They seem to have been tied to one very small bakery chain.

A very obscure 1/3 size book:

*blinks* I'm always fuzzy on exactly how small dings bring down a book, but it might be worth submitting my copy if a 5.0 is top graded... Yorick: No, the 1st Canteen Kate is in #2

It's got a few flaws that would bring down the technical grade, in addition to the obvious slight miscut where the bottom is about 1/4 inch narrower than the top, there's a slight dust shadow and a 1/3 inch tear on the back cover. It's still a very nice looking copy, I think. And I grabbed it on pure impulse because of the Baker cover, and only realized when I got home it was the 1st issue. Based on what I paid for it, I'm pretty sure the dealer thought it was the later #15 as well..

Stretching to call this "romance", although there is a hint of it in the Baker story. Still, a VERY nice pickup at the LCS today:

And a few other odd early issues just for fun. I've got just over half the run, but I haven't been working on it much the last few years. I really need to correct that:

I had forgotten this thread existed... I don't spend as much time as I should over here in the SA forums. Reviewing the thread, I saw a few #1's (including mine) and a #2 (mine's a beater), but I don't think there was a #3 anywhere. Let's fix that:

I can top that one easily enough; Bugs Bunny's Christmas Funnies #7 has a Speedy story in 1956. The character had only appeared in two cartoons by that point, one of which was something of a prototype version. Anybody know of an earlier story? Edit: Hey, I guess this does get back to the original topic of this thread; that seems rather appropriate now that I'm done with the cover marathon.

Well, I definitely count Adventure, because that's the only other title on the list I've got a meaningful chunk of, and even then I've only got a fifth of them. At least I've got the 247... D'oh! I knew that on the Daffy 27, but for some reason I was thinking it was Speedy Gonzales who showed up there, not Pepe. Did we ever figure out Speedy's first appearance. (And NO, I don't mean More Fun 73...) Glad you enjoyed the run of covers!

245 and 246. And so we come to the end of the run. I hope people have enjoyed seeing the covers like this, sorry I've got holes in the early part of the run. But I'm happy to have what I have. Looney Tunes is, I think, without a doubt the easiest book published every single month of the 1950's to put together a run of; but actually doing it is still a bit of an achievement. I'll be back as soon as I or somebody else gets some more books to post here, but this marks the end of my daily bumping the thread, I fear.

243 and 244

I didn't know that about the 240, I'll have to pull it out and take a look. Why is it debated? 241 and 242

It's because in 18 she shows up in her true form. I'm not sure that's not enough to warrant that being the key book of the 3, but I would certainly prefer the 17 to the 16 if I had to choose. I really don't understand why the 17 is the cheap one of the 3 issues.

There's also the whole issue of how the character is used. The entire point of the Avengers 181 appearance is to introduce the character who is going to show up the very next month as Ant-Man. The MSH 13 introduces a fairly major supporting character who showed up in a lot of Captain Marvel stories as well as the Kree/ Skrull War. I think, despite the lack of costume in the Avengers 181, you've got a Hulk 180/181 analogy. The Scott Lang appearance in Avengers is noteworthy, but not ultimately major. Carol Danvers has quite a bit of history before becoming Ms. Marvel.

239 and 240. They're really going for the same few gags with slight variations the last couple years of the run, aren't they? Although I do love the expressions of both Porky and Elmer on the 239.

238 and Dell Giant Bugs Bunny's Beach Party 46. The cover gag on the Beach Party gag always feels a little odd to me... It's clearly playing of the "I never studied Law" school of jokes, but the execution feels weird. These two episodes tie as the last Dell issues with Mary Jane & Sniffles comics, sadly; although I believe the text stories continue in Porky Pig slightly past here. (I can't remember when Porky Pig ended, exactly, relative to Looney Tunes.) And as far as I know, there have only been two non-reprint stories with MJ & S since Dell stopped; the very first Gold Key Bugs Bunny has one last story and then the DC Looney Tunes series had a story with them in issue #140, I think. Given that my major reason for collection the Looney Tunes comic is Mary Jane & Sniffles, their disappearance marks the beginning of the end for the series, even if I do have the rest of the Dell run.

I'm happy to share what there is, but you're going to be disappointed. There is no article connected to the cover, just a short paragraph describing setting up for the photo. (They only had 30 minutes to do it, in Gleason's dressing room, as Gleason was filming his show.) I don't think any of the Help! covers ever directly connect to anything inside the mag; which I assume was just Kurtzman being his own wonderfully odd self, messing with people's expectations.

That's not until tomorrow, though. 236 and 237