Darwination

Yellow jumped off the stands and was a go to color on pulps and mags. Unfortunately for us all these years later, yellow ages worse than any other color (even white). In digital restoration, the way you handle yellows (and yellowing whites) is key and either overdoing it or underdoing it misses the mark. Yellow was a great choice for this background as it contrasts with the red of the hair and the flesh tones of the lady jailbird. And it makes the red of the title graphics just pop. Definitely a beaut cover, SA. Get the painted covers you like when you can and hope for a high grade copy to come along later, cuz some of them never do

I don't own any of these, but I think I'd grab this one if I saw it for the kitsch value (only a couple handful of others in the entire run seemed notable). I went looking for a cover image at Heritage, but the walk through every Brides in Love they've ever offered was, uh, very short I do like the title design.

"headlights," like sparkling even. Lovely cover.

Not a romance comic, but I was digging around a little bit in Charlton (looking at first Hit Paraders, v01n01 shows Charlton as the indicia publisher in November 1942) and caught that this neat little one-shot one is actually a Charlton pub (T.W.O. Charles Company in the indicia). Not sure when they started Capital Distribution, but this one has an FDC on the cover. https://archive.org/details/hepcats-jive-talk-dictionary-1945.-t.-w.-o.-charles-d-m-ia

Swimming pools, eh? Ties to associates with gentlemen in the concrete business Charlton lore goes way back to when the outfit started by straight up pirating sheet music. Here's a Hit Parader from 46 that's actually a well done magazine. Edited by Harold Hersey who had quite the history in the pulps and author of Pulpwood Editor, one of the more famed memoirs on the era: https://www.mediafire.com/file_premium/fd93s6eztd5g5zs/Hit_Parader_v04n10_%281946-08.Charlton%29%28D%26M%29.cbr/file I'm not sure I'd be breaking the bank for that Brides in Love (high price, yes, but sit on that ish for a minute - you'd be fine), but Charlton has great romance covers here and there (with so many issues, it might be hard not too - leading publisher of romances ever). In particular, I think the color design on the Charltons is neat. A few of the above issues stand out: I admit I often open a Charlton romance after seeing a fun cover and sort of shudder at the contents All that aside, they're being collected. I list one on eBay, any condition, any issue, and it's gone. A friend who's been disgorging his Charlton romances has had the exact same experience. Charlton romance used to be considered the lowest of the low. And maybe it still is, but people are collecting them! 13 bucks a page, SMH

Enoch Bolles and other *fine* pine-up art

I like the Goodman digests, too, even though don't really collect them. I have a friend that scans the hell out of them, so I thumb through a ton of them. That era of pin-up is eye-catching even if some of the jokes or toons aren't the greatest (and there are some great ones in there, too). There were so many titles over so many years, they must have sold well (and production costs were low). They are kind of interesting that way cuz they sort of managed to find their way on to displays or newsstands where you wouldn't otherwise expect to find semi nekkid girls. Bill Wenzel and Bill Ward sold an amazing amount of covers and illos to those mags over the years, for real.

Not in my collection, but on the bay - I always seem to notice the shark covers after this thread. A very strange sweat in the Weider stable, American Manhood, art by Peter Poulton

Looking for a cover artist ID for this one, this seems to be a good place to ask

It took me a second to figure out what is going on with the head in the background. The yellow menace is always sneaking up from behind and out of the floorboards Had a feeling, but double-checked, Anatole Field there is Anatole Feldman. That's the only noted used of that psuedonym, but he used Anthony Field a good number of times. New one in this week, the last issue of Fawcett's Daring Detective Tabloid, I don't know the artist: Some nice graphics and content within. It looks like it started as an actual tabloid??? Those first issues must be tough. http://www.pofoz.com/magazines/true-crime/titles/daring-detective/index.html

I'm a huge fan of both those books. Miss Lonelyhearts is gut-bustingly funny. I think A Cool Million is underrated as well. This little hardcover with both of those books probably isn't rare or valuable or anything but is a much loved volume on my shelves: All 3 might be just as philosophically grim as They Shoot Horses, but at least you are laughing all the while

I'd never read this one despite it being McCoy's most famous, so I stuck it on my nightstand when you gave it the old "Great American Novel" status. I read it this week. Total stunner/bummer. I guess McCoy worked as a bouncer on a pier in Santa Monica, and the experience led to the story. It kind of reminds me of Camus' The Stranger in some ways - "existential novel," to be or not to be, etc. Lots of McCoy in Black Mask, apparently, some in Brief Stories, not easy pulps to get ahold of :I

The Secret History of Marvel has a good survey of artwork from these (and the pulps), but it's still just a fraction of what can be found. I'm the same way about painted covers (gtfo of my collecting area, bastards) but there's great interior art and layout as well. I daresay that Goodman's true crime magazines were much better than average which is absolutely not true of many of his other types of magazines.

Woo!

Spicy is an excellent title, nice covers, illos, above-par stories and decent photography even if it's not always printed well. Girlie photos only in some eras. Started as a large squarebound, later a standard pulp sized saddle-stitch. Originally owned by Frank Armer, sold under financial duress to Harry Donenfeld (who later hit gold with Superman) and a key girlie for him along with Pep Stories in the 30s. This one has two stories of R.A. Burley art within, too. That issue was scanned by my pal and girlie pulp lover, Ufikus, who sadly did not make it through Covid. I'd note here the difference of the paper texture (and I'm giving Ufi credit here by not double checking in my box, could be wrong) between the two illos is that one is on the slick, whiter stock where the photos would be and the other on a pulp page. Dropping here since I don't see it up at the IA. https://www.mediafire.com/file_premium/we0p0dltunggnob/Spicy_Stories_1933-04_v08n04.Merwil_%28ufikus-DPP%29.cbz/file

Higgins did the full color pin-ups in Goodman's Esquire clones like this one (which is on the scanpile) Here's another in my collection That's January 34, not sure who the publisher is off the top of my head. From my files and not my collection, some more Higgins, he worked in a number of the late-era girlie pulps (think photos/legs) And imagine you've seen this one since you mentioned Higgins over in the Detective thread

After the kind of drab look of that first Goodman true crime, I ended up going back and looking at an older scan of an issue I sold recently. Absolute time machine copy, too. Like 10 bucks in open auction, muh bad. This is the November 1940 issue. I'm not sure if this is Joe Simon's first issue as Art Director, but pretty much instantly the design explodes with all sorts of cool graphics and illos and overlapping photos, etc. There was a significant improvement in the paper quality and production, too. I stuck the scan up at the IA just now. Kirby/Simon, love this page More Kirby, more cool design https://www.mediafire.com/file_premium/koqxduy8siya1m5/Complete_Detective_Cases_v02n06_%281940-11.Postal%29_%28Darwin-IA%29.cbr/file https://archive.org/details/complete-detective-cases-v-02n-06-1940-11.-postal-darwin-ia

That series has some very nice covers. I'd note it's a tricky series with some of the IDs. The seahorse cover (absolutely fantastic) is by Walt Otto, as he's got some variations of that W as a signature, but most of he did are unsigned. Blown up from the original painting of March 36: I think the redhead of SA's from the previous issue to the seahorse is him too (love that one as well). Otto's covers on the series are often misidentified as Bergeys, although Bergey did do the v01n01 as well as the end run before a switch to photo covers. There's at least a couple of other mystery artists earlier on in the mix too.

Crypto is up again

Nice copies, too! I just got this one this week. I was gonna post on the Timely golden age thread because I love to bomb the insane high grade comic collectors in there with my grubby magazines, but I'll just stick 'er here The first ever Goodman true crime mag, Complete Detective Cases v02n01 December 1939: The first volume of the mag was all fiction in pulp format including a famous Saunders cover Joe Simon took over Art Director duties on Complete Detective cases after a handful of issues and greatly improved the graphic design of the magazine and also used Jack Kirby and other Timely/Atlas artists in the process. More info (on a post which just happens to run down the painted covers SA is talking about) on an old blog post from Doc V: http://timely-atlas-comics.blogspot.com/2014/11/martin-goodman-painted-cover-true-crime.html https://www.mediafire.com/file_premium/3z5mbiokkaez0n9/Complete_Detective_Cases_v02n01_%281939-12.Postal%29_%28missing_back_covers%29_%28Darwin%29.cbr/file https://archive.org/details/complete-detective-cases-v-02n-01-1939-12.-postal-missing-back-covers-darwin-ia My copy is missing the back cover (despite the auction saying "complete" and there was no mention of detached front either - cheap enough I didn't throw a stink even if I'm sure the seller knew better), so if anybody haz and can scan those two pages for me, I can complete the digital archive - Here's a splash while I'm at it. You know I like my reefer

For real. I have seen high grade copies of the best issues fetch before but not like that. Given, it was in an auction where the juices were already flowing. HA seems to do that 🤣