Darwination

The thing that gets me is that I've never heard of their being multiple pressings Joe Kubert would have been the guy to ask about this, but he's long gone (RIP).

The "Kubert Edition" which I guess is what we'll be calling ones like Eric's copy here (thanks for the purchase, homeboy) has an identical indicia and contents page to this one for what that's worth. The only other difference I can note so far between editions is that there is a white subscription page with a blank back between pages 72 and 73 in the copy Saskia scanned of one of the Baker illo copies. This page isn't present in my copy (and I don't recall seeing it any any editions of Manhunt I own for that matter) so I don't know if it was stapled in or just a loose card. To me, it would indicate that the Baker copies came later and the subscription card is a response to the high popularity and demand. Some have speculated the Baker edition was first and that somehow the scantily clad woman on the opening page was scandalous and replaced by the Kubert. My feel is that the yellow bile shooting out of the mouth of the guy getting punched is even more distasteful. (and yet awesome heh heh)

Nice leads here, Yorick. We're trying to get to the bottom of this and only finding the Baker illos on any copies thus far. As far as I can tell there's no mention on the web of multiple printings, and there's no mention of them in Peter Enfantino and Jeff Vorzimmer's 2021 The Manhunt Companion. Maybe, being a UK edition, your copyright block (which tends to be referred to as the indicia) is different than this one from a copy with the Baker illo on the first page?

Various Plustek A3 models give true color and have nice depth of field. Best raws I've seen are from the Plustek OpticPro A320L. I haven't been able to pony up for a Plustek A3 (though I do use a Plustek as my workhorse A4 scanner) but have been pretty happy with my Scannx 6167 for A3 work which has a very substantial and solid build but doesn't work with newer operating systems. Outside of the overhead scanner system they use at the Library of Congress, I've never seen one with anything approaching flatbed quality. Cameras can get good images but there are all sorts of angle, lighting, shadow, and color considerations. Any sort of accurate reproduction or archival quality image imo requires a scan.

Manhunt v01n03 March 1953 $50 Great cover from Willard Downed, eyes afright, pearls flying everywhere, the wretched male hand grasping for flesh. VG/FN. Great cover gloss, square and flat. Faint reader crease. Pencil marking in M of title, likely store or distributor marks. Small chip out bottom of spine, very small chip out top of spine. Light even browning to interior pages. S Spillane serial continues. Also Leslie Charteris, Bruno Fischer, Evan Hunter: Also 2 excellent Matt Baker girlie art splashes. Here's one: Gonna call it quits for the evening with that one.

Manhunt v01n02, February 1953. $35 VG-. Flat and square. Small chip out bottom corner at front of spine. Small chip out adjacent spine at the bottom of the back cover. The largest defect presentation wise on the lovely cover is some sun shadow running perpendicular to the spine. Small scuff at bottom right edge in the redhead's dress. Artist unknown? It would grade higher except for the sun shadow and edge browning of the interior pages. The story of the magazine's success and huge demand is told on the inner front cover by McCloud. Judging from his story it might explain why the second issue doesn't seem as common as those to come (from the pulpscans edition by woldhound, so you don't have to blow up my image): This time around Spillane is joined by John Ross MacDonald and Fletcher Flora. The Spillane serial continues. A splash from Matt Baker as well as some spot illos, blue and green accent inks:

It's up there, my man, $15. I'll bold prices henceforth to make them pop out.

Let's start at the beginning, shall we, with Manhunt v01n01. The first crime digest? Not really. Ellery Queen's Mystery Magazine was around since 1941, but Manhunt was perhaps the first *hardboiled* digest and landed that initial gutpunch that would bring a slew of imitators to the market. Archer St. John was willing to pay the top rates it would take for editor John McCloud to lure in heavyweight novelists and top short story writers to a new publication. Add to that the fact that St. John was a repository of artistic talent from the comics, and you have recipe for a classic, grubby little magazine. The first issue flew off the stands and had readers clamoring for more. Is the first issue truly hard to find? It's hard to say. I never fiercely collected the series (though that would be fun to do) but I have noticed the first couple of issues are harder to find. Especially "in grade". My copy, however, is not in grade Generally, I notice that Manhunt prices have been rising and that finding certain issues can be tricky. Manhunt v01n01 January 1953 $15. All of these Manhunts and others of the size will come in a digest sized bag with a custom cut board. Fair. Significant scuffing and creasing as well as a couple colors of pen marking, split and missing spine at top front and rear covers, split spine bottom inch of back cover. Beat but complete. A bit of spine roll, browning but still supple, mostly square pages with some edge staining. Read it in the can while drinking coffee, like a real man. Cover artist unknown? An itty bitty gun and a redhead falling out of her blouse. But who cares about the cover (even if some great covers are to come) as the writers are big time. Mickey Spillane, seller of over 20 million paperbacks, headlines. William Irish (Cornell Woolrich). Evan Hunter. Richard Prather. Frank Kane. They all get a spot on the back cover: But if the fiction aint enough, how about a sock on the jaw on the opening splash from Joe Kubert in awesome yellow inks (it kills me Fictionmags doesn't list artist credits for these in their indexes) If that doesn't scream Sin City...Kubert doesn't whet your whistle? How about Matt Baker brings his finesse down to the gutter? Pink! Red! Excuse all the pics, I can't help myself An interesting aside and totally new to me (and I'm not gonna pull the listing just because of it). I had no knowledge of multiple printings of this first issue, but the scan the pulpscans group has (executed most skillfully by Saskia "the killer" via a paper texture fill technique here) shows a different opening splash (I see no other differences though anywhere else in the issue) Wild. I'm not sure how to account for it but would guess that Baker splash here is a replacement. Either because of the grossness of the yellow bile shooting out of the mouth of the gentleman in the Kubert illo or maybe just the elegant attraction of a Baker dame as the lead. So much demand they had to do a second edition as a back issue? What the hell. Anybody ever hear of this?

Recap space if I need it.

This is my first sales thread on the boards, and I hopefully I manage to set it up without breaking any rules. I wanted to do it here in the new pulps area even though there doesn't seem to be the eyes here yet that there is in the GA area of the marketplace because I like the idea of having a place where pulps, magazines, paperbacks, etc., get some special attention and aren't drowned out by comics. Of course, I've got comics to sell, too, so if this goes well I'm sure I'll be over in the main marketplace as well. I've been selling on eBay for the past year and am a top-rated seller and have been buying there since 2007. You can see my heretofore flawless feedback here. I've been somewhat successfully if slowly narrowing down a collection of about 40 shortboxes of comics, pulps, and magazines in an effort to shed some belongings and in the process ease the *minor* burden of having a couple of kids in college. Well, I say that, but I'm constantly feeding the dragon, too, with new collecting interests picked up around here. Sell pulp to buy pulp? Something like that Rules: No list people. Lord willing I don't have to make my own list, but I'll let you know if it comes to that. Shipping in the U.S. only. You can P.M. me to see if I'll make an exception, but the hassle isn't usually worth it in the price range I'll be selling in. Shipping for comics and magazines is a flat 8 dollars and will be USPS Ground Advantage. I pack securely with books sandwiched by cardboard in a stiff mailer or padded envelope or in a well-packed box. I ship as I like to receive, and you collectors know what I'm talking about. Payment via Paypal or Check or Money Order. If you're doing one of the latter, it's going to be slower as we have to wait for the thing to mail and clear which isn't a problem. Returns within 30 days. You pay for the return unless there's an omission in the listing in which case I do. In any case let me know if there are any problems, as I like both the buyer and the seller to be happy with the transaction. Please feel free to PM with any questions or reasonable offers (particularly on package deals). A quick note on my prices. I see some people around here with "wall" prices that stick a few slabs up at boutique prices and move nothing. I see others that are dealing at a lightning pace at rock bottom prices. I imagine I'll be somewhere in the middle. If I may be so bold, I give a lot to the hobby and dare I say discipline in scans, scholarship, and enthusiasm, so I'm not really looking to straight give away my collection, too There's items I may put a high price on and be happy to never sell, but then there's stuff I just want gone, too, as well as plenty of points between. I may offer price reductions on unclaimed books or I may just close a thread and issue invoices, we'll see how that goes. As for grading, well, that's gonna be a mixed bag. Pulp grading traditionally is more in line with paperback grading but I imagine it's all going towards a system more in sync with comics. I'll do my best. I'm likely going to be giving more pictures than I tend to see on the boards but not as many as I use at eBay. We've got some trust here as knowledgeable collectors, and intend not to break that. I have not in the past been a high grade collector (even if I seem to be trending in that direction these days), so you're going to see plenty of readers and beaters. Anything listed here is exclusive. If you see something I've previously listed at eBay it means I've killed the listing there for as long as it's on offer here. Do bear with me as I learn the pace and presentation of these board sales, there seems to be an art to it, but I'm going to start slow. And as I'm sure you know by now, I may ramble on a bit -

I've bought a couple times on the boards and really enjoy the experience and thought I'd try my hand at a little selling, too, so this is to be my kudos page. I'm a long time eBayer and top-rated seller with flawless feedback over a thousand plus transactions, ratings here. I pride myself on being personable and punctual and ship how I like to receive. Thanks to anybody that takes the time to make an entry here with the kudos.

I looked at that forever trying to figure it out. Going from the blurb, he's disguised in enemy clothing and having her put on his own uniform? Looks like love is in the air. Has his back turned like a gentleman while she changes but taking a peek? heh heh heh. I love it when a cover actually pulls you in to a story like that.

I can't believe one of these PCH loving sickos hasn't grabbed that hanging human head.

I'd take it a third time, that would just show I'm truly not paying attention. EDIT: STILL CREEPING ME OUT WITH THIS DOUBLE EDIT: WTF

You're creeping me out with these, man

Desert Showdown is my favorite as far as the painting. Westerns can have great design in the title graphics - there's lots of variety and color: Simple but distinctive yet totally bold: to almost cartoonish. You can get away with all sorts of colors and outlandishness and it doesn't look out of place at all with the color mix you have on the western covers: The actual painting on that one is in almost a noir style you sometimes see on the late 40s early 50s westerns.

I've been trying to identify a painter from the late 40s for Ace lately and that one may be the one I'm looking at. The Ace comics prices in high grade for some of them been going nuts as evidenced by the monied freaks in the romance threads snatching them up and showing their wares. A hint to any that wander over to this little corner of the forum is that you can find "first use" of many of those covers on the Ace love pulps (which were mostly edited by Wynn's wife). Well, if you can find them "in grade". They tend to be far cheaper but also beat down and kept even more poorly than the romance comics. But Ace had painted covers on magazines like the ones above which I group as "women's true story/confessions mags," too. Ace switched to photo covers at some point in the early 50s like happened across all the magazine genres, but some of the photo covers when you find them in good shape can have *great* girls (stories are fun, too). None of these below are mine (but I'm sure I'll share my own examples of this type of magazine in here sometime, it's a genre that spanned the decades. Ace was big into them but Goodman sold a boatload, too). Excuse the spammery but I just grabbed a bunch of covers in a moment of interest and thought I'd share some good ones. "Secrets" from Ace was the title I was looking at and I'm gonna show a bunch to demonstrate the crossover with the Ace comics covers. These first couple aren't actually Ace but Merit out of Ohio (Jack Dinsmore) - they had Hot Dog as humor digest and maybe Funny Stories (?) which was girlie pulp adjacent. Phil S-P at Galactic Central has this title as 1922-1923, but I've just found many later examples, so maybe I'll have to try and index it for him sometime. How good is this? I'd pick this up in a second for the right price or in good shape "The Devil's Needle - Confession of a Dope Fiend" Anyways, Ace's Secrets 1936 to 2011. That's one *very* successful magazine of a variety many don't think of when it comes to the history of U.S. periodicals. Those familiar with the Ace comics will see the same painters at work. The artwork imo is a cut above a lot of what you'd find in the downmarket magazines That last one is a straight stunner, woo! But the photo covers can be good, too. You can't tell me these covers were meant for only women, no way, jose. Great stuff. One last one, a Goodman jobber. If this doesn't scream "male gaze" I don't know what does

Goldie's got the fast gun AND the good taste

Great color on that Double Detective. I wonder if people will tend towards experimenting with grading with their most valuable books or the ones in peak shape? I can't imagine that out of all my many boxes I've got very many that would hit 7.5, and most of those would be girlie pulps that are saddle-stitched with no overhang. I'm curious what the other ones you've submitted are

58 viewed in the last 24 hours heh heh

I've never bought a single magazine, pulp or comic in a slab and feel like I navigate the waters just fine in terms of condition. The very same magazine on eBay might be listed as "good" by an amateur or conservative grader, VG by actual grade, and Fine by those who don't know better or volume dealers who know they can get away with calling a book that. There are girlie pulp sellers I buy from regularly that will call a book Fine or even VF that I don't think gets too far past good. I just don't pay more than my estimate of a book's grade (exceptions will be made, ha!). That's what pictures are for. And a lifetime of looking at books. And, hell, you often actually get 10 or 20 pictures of a bunch of different aspects of a magazine on eBay instead of just the front and back cover like you do with a slab. Comics are graded a little tighter, but I'm sure we all know eBay sellers that are consistently over by one if not two whole grades. I've been around this place long enough to know that 9 out of 10 of our members can look at 2 or 3 pictures and have a great sense of what they are looking at. Personally, I don't feel like I need to give agency to a third party or pay fifty or one hundred bucks more for some supposed security about what I'm getting. If I bought higher priced books I probably would, though, and I get that people like to feel safe in a transaction with a seller they don't know. Getting into paperbacks lately I will often contact a seller for a picture of a front cover of a "VG" on Abebooks to get a better feel which makes me happy you at least get mandatory pictures on eBay. When it comes to pulps, any grade of fine is automatically suspect, especially very fine. When the books are actually that grade, though, they tend to have this color and freshness that's a whole 'nother cut above. Anyways, I do see CGC coming to the game likely leading to more grading accuracy in pulps and more disclosure of restoration (even if it's not going to be as much of a factor outside of maybe color touch) which is great. Since I've been on the forums here, I've gained more of an appreciation about the exactness and nuances of grading standards, even as I see that the best graders around this place can be way off in their guesses from an actual grade in the PGM area or the grading contests. What I don't see happening is people wanting to pay multiples of what a book is worth because it's been graded once the initial thrill wears off. Seriously, there are books I'm seen in a box in not even very good grades that you can do just a tiny bit of searching for and still find at a good price. And for those who are new to the pulps and want to explore them, how do you even do that when they are in a box anyways?? Just like with the comics, I've got a lot of appreciation for presentable beaters. I do see certain upsides, though. A truly valuable presentation only copy should be pretty secure in a slab and face less handling damage, overhang loss, etc. Weird Menace and Spicy Detectives etc. are a natural for it and probably a lot of higher end Weird Tales, too. There are cases where you aren't told (or shown pictures of) rusty staples or moisture damage or brittleness (even by the reliable auction houses) and maybe CGC will help some of that go away. I dunno, I still wouldn't trade any of it for a bunch of good pictures and especially the ability to handle a book myself before buying which you lose when graded I can see myself buying graded girlie pulps, but I can't see myself paying 600 dollars for a 200 dollar girlie in a box. And I sure the hell aren't sticking any of my PC gals in there. I haven't even been willing to do it to my golden age comics that I've been selling even if there's upside on the resale just as a personal matter. Maybe I'll get over it one of these days