OtherEric

And the last issue I needed for the complete Monsters Unleashed run:

A few more:

In today. It's interesting seeing Byrne/ Austin doing a comedy X-Men cover.

Today's book:

So, this book is not an EC. But, for obvious reasons, I think it will be of interest here as an EC-adjacent book, since it's essentially issue 0 of one of the earliest EC titles.

Two books in today. The Weird Tales is the last one I needed for their serialization of Herbert West: Reanimator, and it also has stories by Leiber, Bloch, and Smith. The Shadow is one where nobody is terribly interested in the Shadow story itself, since it's one of the Bruce Elliot ones. But long stories by Cornell Woolrich and John D. MacDonald make this one I'm really looking forward to reading!

Looney Tunes #27. 236 down, 10 to go. Hoping to get at least a couple more this year:

Not to get hopes up, but does it look like somebody put black marker over the price? I can't tell from the picture, but it seems unlikely because I don't see bleed-through on the inside back cover. But I've seen more than a few books at antique malls or thrift stores where they mark out the price like that, it's normally very visible but with white printing on black it could be less obvious.

I was unaware of this one until the cover of the companion, but snagged a copy once I knew it existed.

I went with Wally Wood, although I'm not sure how meaningful I actually consider the question. But most of the choices were excellent at one or a few types of comic stories or covers, while Wood (on one of his good days) was excellent at almost any type of comic. I've said for years that the best comic artist every was Wally Wood on a good day... the catch being that, especially later in his career, he had more than his share of bad days as well.

An EC-adjacent pickup I think people here will appreciate:

I should sit down and just read the Mickey Mouse serials in the one longish run of WDC&S I have, 204-254.

Fair enough in general, although this one is dealing with documented history, so it's a bit of a different category.

Creepy #31 thoughts: Cover: Another great piece by Bode and Todd. Although I'm sufficiently a fan of Bode that I'm probably going to call everything he does great... his work is stuff I would normally expect to not care for, in many ways, but I always find it incredibly compelling. I have no idea where to find the original art, or even if any record still exists other than the report that it was changed. Loathsome Lore: A so-so page. It gets points for actually being a Lore page, rather than a Feary Tale or a Monster Gallery with the wrong name. But they get the Lore they're presenting wrong... no witches were actually burnt in the Salem trials. Not sure how accurate any of the rest is. In the Face of Death: I've read it twice and I can't figure out what the point is. At least it's short. Telephoto Troll: At least I get what this story is trying to say; I just don't think it's particularly effective. A Night's Loding: Still a solid story. Pity they didn't correct the title, at least. Snowmen: After a couple underwhelming pieces and a reprint, Sutton turns in a very good tale, although I felt the twist was pretty predictable. A Wooden Stake for your Heart: A very well done story by Glut, with a perfectly played twist that wasn't the one I expected. The art by Black is decent, although I bet an expert could look through back issues of Famous Monsters and find all the stills where he swiped Christopher Lee's likeness if they felt so inclined. Death of a Stranger: A very strong, moody story by Brennan and Colon, although I feel the tone of Uncle Creepy's comments are the exact wrong choice for the tone of the rest of the story. Laughing Liquid: Kevin Pagan wasn't a name I recognized, he winds up doing quite a few stories for Warren, but this is his only one for a while yet. A reasonably neat idea for a story, but the execution is so-so at best. I think I was a bit grumpy reading this issue; but after the first couple stories this is a very solid issue; even if I have some gripes it's a pretty good package overall, although I didn't like it as much as last week's Vampirella #3. Then again, @Axe Elf didn't like that issue nearly as much as I did, so we'll see how others react to this one.

A photo would help here, I'm not aware of that as a regular habit but individual stores might do something like that.

A great collection, featuring Heinlein stories that are more fantasy than SF, although there's some overlap. "The Unpleasant Profession of Johnathan Hoag" first appeared in Unknown, under the otherwise unused pseudonym of "John Riverside". I suspect the unusual name was because Campbell had already said there would be no more stories by either Heinlein or "Anson MacDonald" for the duration of the war, since the author(s) were working on the war effort. "The Man who Traveled in Elephants" first appeared in Saturn under the title "The Elephant Circuit". I've got the book but I'm not sure where it is and don't seem to have a scan handy. "All You Zombies" first appeared in The Magazine of Fantasy and Science Fiction, it was Heinlein's last short story other than one created for an ad campaign. ("Searchlight"). Another one where I have the book but not sure where it is. "They" also first appeared in Unknown, a great mess with your head story. "Our Fair City" is Heinlein's only story for Weird Tales, in an issue that also has one of only two stories John D. MacDonald did for the title: "And He Built a Crooked House" was in Astounding. It actually appeared on the earliest versions of Heinlein's "Future History" timeline, but it doesn't really fit there. I suspect that was Campbell insisting anything that appeared under the Heinlein name, rather than Anson MacDonald, show up on the list.

Submitted without further comment:

I don't do it to taunt you. That's just a nice bonus.

And a few D-series to wrap it up. How do those Nurse novels keep getting into my orders?

I think there are only three S-Series Westerns; which would make it a tempting subset to finish off early. But I can't find a copy of the S-Series (or D-Series reprint) of L'Amour's Kilkenny for sale, period.

Today's mail call is all Aces, mostly S-series:

Crumb has always bent over backwards to promote Kurtzman, it seems. He even did an original page for a Little Annie Fanny on Underground Newspapers, and Kurtzman's Strange Adventures has an illustrated intro by Crumb. I don't think anything other than Kurtzman would get Crumb to do work that was published by either Playboy or Marvel Comics.

I really don't know. I don't have any of the Canadian Shadows, and only one Canadian Doc Savage. I suspect, but do not know for certain, that you would probably get less than you would for the US versions for the 30's issues in general, but more for the 40's wartime issues, particularly the ones with different cover art than the US editions. There may really not be a good answer right now, given the scarcity of the 40's issues and the volatility of the pulp market in general. Anybody else care to make a guess? @Bookery? @RedFury?