Darwination

Man, what color, purple passion

Love those bottom two. (even shot an offer out for a reader/display copy of the Flora)

No file copies from these guys, they enjoyed their Charltons while drinking milkshakes https://archive.org/details/dynamite-v-07n-03-1983-09-mc-nation-ia

I think I've posted this one before but it's necessary for the next image From my eBay emails today. No, Britain, just no. UK pulp reprints are so varied. Some were arranged, some pirated. There's an old story that remaindered pulps were used as ship ballast for the trip over and then re-covered. That ain't the original contents page right there, tho -

So, seriously, slap me if I'm spammin, but I got another in me eBay emails of interest as far as figuring out how this grading is gonna go Even a little glue on the cover seems to indicate resto? But at the inner spine is far less of a strike? Looks like there will be some nasty weird menace issues getting the treatment 2.5 again. Maybe the grades around Good will be much easier on pulps than on GA comics?

There's nothing like the original sections as far as I'm concerned. Plus Lady Luck and Mr. Mystic, woo!

There's a first time for everything. Deal me in, good sir:

Loose pages, but sometimes you'll find some glue at the spine, too. That one must have been in some sort of binder, a classic cover I'm curious whether that awesome mask came inserted in a paper, too, or how it was distributed, neat-o!

I thought this was pretty cool. The inner back cover of an issue of All-Story Love from February of 1940 a pulp scanner shared today: which shows the cover of Prize Comics #1 (which was surprisingly distributed by the Frank A. Munsey company).

All of them! I had a young English teacher that left many buttons unbuttoned like the young miss above and liked to do that thing with her pen in her mouth when I was in high school. The boys all loved her. The girls all hated her. She ended up marrying the principal a year after I graduated (after he divorced his wife). True story. Romance! Killer cover. she and I just spent a minute staring into each other's eyes even if my eyes did wander down a bit

I've barely grasped the basics of CGC grading and never really quite understand how qualified issues work. My comment there is mostly just to say I'm happy they are counting pages and noting missing ones, as I'd be ticked to find a missing story page I didn't know about. This one's been sitting for a while at MCS also with a green label: Interestingly, the girlies have been getting slabbed for a long time (I guess because they are similar in build to the comics?). It hasn't really caught on with the handful of us girlie collectors out there as far as I can tell since the few of us I know like to be able to thumb the mags (contrary to stereotype of being a cover-only collecting genre), or it may just be the fact nobody wants to pay the imagined increase in value (this one's actually reasonably priced imo). Missing pin-up pages are pretty common, and it's often the whole slick section of pin-ups having been spirited away by some lonely soul. For me, that's not a dealbreaker, but it does cut the value of the book in half. Missing story or illo pages, though, are another matter (to me at least). I'm gonna keep posting new ones that pop up in my eBay emails that raise questions of how the grading is being done. These two popped up under "Tales Pulp," yeah that's a big net cast with that search, I know. Somebody slap me if I'm spammin' Resto because of the spine glue? Too much spine glue? Resto cuz of the trim? Too much trim? Beaut copy in any case. I've heard this is a killer mag. Big chunk missing, tape at corners, trimmed 3 edges. No need to mark as resto cuz it's grody? 2.5??? Bergey cover? It was published in Philly, so it's possible, but I don't see it. The wiki says Bergey did some interior illustration, and Kofoed used Bergey all over the place (Brief Stories, Laughter, Paris Nights), I'll believe it if the contents page says so. OFC YOU CANT EVEN LOOK AT THE CONTENTS PAGE CUZ IT IS IN A BOX

She's not in on the caper? https://www.mediafire.com/file_premium/8hxys70djosgj6z/Headline_Comics_027_(1947-11.Prize)_(Darwin-Dregs).cbr/file

Love this one. That thread is so incredible I had to stop even peeking in there, times is tough, man

Incredible. Thanks for the pics of this.

What model's that one, RM?

Yeah, I must have read something about not favoring crying women in the Fantagraphics book on the St. John romances (or maybe somewhere else) to give me the notion Baker girls never cried. I did find at least a few St. John Baker girls who are shedding (little) tears very quickly, though. Speaking of the inking, there are so many thick lines on these Quality covers. And the lettering is so thick, too. Really gives their covers a different look. Good romance comics, but adding a big tear goes along with my impression of too much melodrama.

He's got the credit and the dudes definitely look Baker. I was wondering if I'd seen many Baker girls shedding a tear but quickly found other examples.

Happy to see they are catching missing pages.

People just really dig girls in glasses?

You don't have to thank me now, but a gentleman in Arizona is offering a straight up VG purple label at fire sale prices

I fell asleep at the wheel both nights, friday night being date night - you loverboys might know what I'm talking about - and I actually had some issues in my watchlist that ended up in reasonable territory As far as window shopping (and leaving out the Romantic Hearts catfight cover or the wonderfully weird Radiant Love Mr. Spaulding displayed a few weeks ago), these were my faves. The taglines are sleazy though the girls are anything but

Man, I don't even know how to answer that question because the pulp market is so volatile right now. Girlie pulps have been steeply going up in prices for a number of years now, but the auction that one sold in was a particularly over the top crazy affair with a ton of great offerings. Just ten years ago any of those three in sweet condition would have been top tier girlie pulps at 300-500 a piece (that is if you could find them). You're not gonna find almost any comps at Heritage mainly because eBay has always been the place people look for them. Worthpoint is better for finding historical value since it's eBay sales, but you're still not gonna find many comps cuz of scarcity. And maybe comps don't even matter when the market is so wonky The other one that came to market last year in a similar (but markedly better grade imo) was this one: I chalk both these prices up to the fact they were listed at Heritage when crypto was high along with a general early year buzz about pulps getting graded by CGC. Even though girlie pulps have been getting graded for years now (why girlies got special treatment I do not know, maybe their format is so similar to comics with saddle stitching and approximate size) and slabbing seems to make no difference in how fast they move especially since sellers don't seem to realize that lifelong girlie pulp collectors aren't going to pay ridiculous premiums for a book in a box they might find "in the wild" for a fraction of the price (scarce, though they may be). As a side note, I've seen the market on average girlie pulps on eBay simmering down pretty steadily over the past 9 months which is an interesting development to say the least. I think these big sales shook loose a lot of books and now people don't know what to think since there are a lot of great books just sitting around at reasonable prices eBay and MCS. It's such a weird market cuz there's only a handful of us regular girlie pulp collectors - I have a feeling the high rollers at Heritage are totally different breed Still, Cupid's Capers and the one I consider a sister pulp, Stolen Sweets, are gonna fetch some of the highest prices the market will bear. The most sought after Stolen Sweets being these two (not my copies!). The first one might be my own Bolles grail (but hell if I'd pay anything like ten grand for any pulp, cuz that's about what I like to pay for a car ) If you're holding, I'd say it's a good time to list them at Heritage in the right auction and find out.

Woo! Killer. As the peeps around here would say "tough book." Squarebound line, contents pages at rear, middling content inside as far as the fiction and illos. Definitely one of Bolles' signature runs with a contortionist sort of thing going. Nice looking copy, too. I've got one (v01n06 March 34) - I think I've posted it somewhere around here already but happy to again : Actually, I have a second one which is sort of a mysterious outlier from July 1936 with a numbering of v02n08. The cover design doesn't fit with the rest, though the indicia looks legit-ish, and there's a blank spot for it on the Fictionmags index (which I'll rectify). Add the fact that it isn't squarebound like the earlier issues, either, and that it's from over two years after v02n01 (1934-06). Of course these numbering and reprinting shenanigans aren't too uncommon when it comes to Henry Marcus' girlie pulps, but something seems funky. The same painting and stories used again three months later (or more likely something is fishy with the above issue) on Tattle Tales which was a Donenfeld pulp with a much better color strike, H.J. Ward, Tattle Tales October 1936 (copy available at MCS). But if the first appearance of the cover isn't the greatest it's at least a step up from this UK knock-off only 75 cents, date unknown - But back to the Bolles, geez - - - my faves in the line besides the one I have (and these are not my copies). This one went for nearly 10 grand in January at HA. An absolute classic. Somebody liberate this poor girl from her newton ring cage please and then there's this one I really like, v01n03 1933-11

Some fantastic comics from all sorts of publishers (I especially liked all the Foxes). Overstreet may have a little adjusting to do in the GA romances

Killer main article there, and I mean to get into the magazine indexes, too, as I'm particularly keen on the mid-50s magazines as an extension of the Timely/Atlas scanning project. I'd cast an aside, though, and say not to overlook True or Saga (or Cavalier or Cavalcade a rung down) just because the material is a bit staid and hasn't crossed into the Ilsa She Wolf of the SS territories of the later sweats. Some of the early sweats drew in some bigger names in fiction and journalism (and art for that matter) and are fantastic reading. For my personal tastes, late 50s is actually the sweet spot.