Darwination

I only own a single pulp replica, and I'm pretty sure it's standard TPB size. Maybe some of them even mimic the bedsheet sizes they replicate? Those small ones are a little chintzy, and they even trimmed the covers for you

I've never read one. The covers are wild, there's always this crowd or group pouring in from the distance or next room. Like a barbarians at the gate feel, maybe with political undertones and whatnot. This one's got a pair of scissors in a holster?

I saw a BIN pop up on eBay today for the issue, saw the bright color and was like what the? A pulp replica for $250, no thank you

She might want to zip up that jacket - it looks a little gusty.

Yeah, the prices seemed in line with the sale histories even if the condition on both are dicey. The Shadow cover deserves its reputation. The other? Hrm.

The poor brits. I always feel compelled to donate boxes of color comics to their orphanages

Cuffed to a body, likely someone you've killed, stuck in the desert. I wonder how many times this plot device has been used in movies and episodes since. Megan Fox starred in one most recently, but I can remember a couple others... The cover story is disturbing but maybe not as disturbing as the opener.

I know I've seen Alan Hynd before (and likely numerous times if I remember the name). I don't know if it's from slicks or what, though. The cover for Queer Affair looks more sweet than sleazy, cept for the redhead is almost gritting her teeth and has her hand sort of tensed up. Alley Kids is my favorite. The whole cityscape is shiny and vibrant and playfully unrealistic (quite unlike a dark alley).

Whoa This issue has gone from hunt list to MUST HAVE

Oh, my, love the bottom sketch. I'm not sure I've seen the last two of these. Where do they come from? I recently picked up Manhunt v01n08 and found no Baker (reading it as my gym book this week) which leaves me with I believe one remaining St. John digest I haven't seen with a decent possibility to contain his art (Verdict v01n01).

You didn't cherry-pick some high grade issues or killer covers??? I'm sitting here *tweaking* that I can't reach out and look through that bookshelf right now I swear when I'm in flea markets and antique malls I say the word "pulp" and get a blank stare, EVERY SINGLE TIME. I think love pulps are going to see a bit of a rise. They remain the least read genre (even if some were very popular back when), but the interest by public and researchers seems to be rising (recent book on Daisy Bacon, etc.). There's a lot of crossover with a publisher like Ace between the painted covers on the comics and the covers of the pulps, so the romance comics crowd (ok, not a huge crowd) should see the appeal.

I've never quite understood the fascination with this issue

Love, love, love Vargas girls The guy sold a lot of Esquires. Vargas did make some appearances in girlie pulp adjacent material in the mid-20s in places like Burten's Follies and Ziff's. There's a lot of highjacked stuff in that era from foreign sources (the French predominately), but I'm pretty sure Vargas sold some work directly to American publishers. Whether Cap'n Joey paid for this one or jacked it, I do not know, but he sure seemed to like this Turkey (not the greatest lol), as he used it in 1925, 1929, and 1933 I better post a better Vargas to refresh the eyes, woof, or rather me-yow.

I've seen just *a bit* or re-pricing this week on eBay following HA's "Pulp Summit."

A follow up on This Week. Phil S-P has pointed out during a discussion in Pulpscans on the subject of possible variance that This Week has been digitized as part of the NEH's Chronicling America initiative in the pages of the Evening Star. It's all black and white (as is the case with a lot of "institutional scanning") but still super cool. There's an indexer working on it for Galactic Central that's made it up to 1941 and is including illustrator credits. Excellent! https://chroniclingamerica.loc.gov/lccn/sn83045462/1935-02-24/ed-1/4/

On the other hand, say you are a E.R.B. fan and expect to find that full story in this super-pricey book you've just purchased if you do happen to crack it. You'd be pretty upset if the first page of the story (or whole story) was clipped when that's a key part of the value of the book. I hear you, though, noticing cut outs or a neatly clipped page can be tricky, especially in a 200+ page book. And, yes, just thumbing through a brittle or semi-brittle book can shed much pulp flake (with supple pages, though, you might have zero issues with this, some pulps are very sturdy). Overhangs can be especially delicate and sometimes the loss of those bits affect the overall look of the cover. And while we're celebrating the wonders of the pulps here, and while I'm digging in my files from curiosity, some illos from Doc's particular (very cool) issue there. First published appearance of Anne McCaffrey? Scans courtesy of Gorgon. Having a good scan available of a pulp or golden age comic might ease the mind in putting a copy under ice. Peter Poulton with a slightly unsettling spot illo for the McCaffrey story Or how about Virgil Finlay illustrating Philip Jose Farmer? I wonder if the pulps might have influenced any later Sci Fi imagery, hmm

Yeah, I guess I don't mean unique in that there aren't attributions out there in comics land (and elsewhere) that are questionable or that the waters aren't super murky in some cases, but the scope and high profile and number of dicey attributions with Baker strikes me. And the fact that these identifications never seem to go away Jim Vadeboncoeur, Jr. (rest in peace to the best IDer I've ever known) used to get incensed at all of this during the JVJ project at the digital museums (in which comic scanners like myself were granted access to his fantastic collection including many Baker treasures) to the point where it was kind of funny. I get that no one wants to see the value of their books decline and that sellers love to tag a book "Matt Baker" (I do!) but there's really no harm in allowing for grey areas. IMO putting it "on the box" is straight up false advertising. You people (excuse the standard snark ) want some sort of assurances about these books in boxes, and this seems to me a very questionable assurance.

So what is the deal with Overstreet (I assume that is where the ID comes from) and all of the Baker misidentifications? The way artist identification works is that an expert (who often will have an intense focus on a particular artist or area and is also armed with the knowledge of what artists worked for what publishers or titles and when) makes an ID when absolutely positive. Otherwise, we use words like "probable" "likely" "suspected" or "possible." In comics, it is more complicated because of interplay between pencils and inks and studio work but the same rules apply, and we openly discuss the possibilities. The Baker misidentification situation is perpetually ridiculous and unique, is there an origin story?

Stumbled across this one at eBay tonight and am like, Baker, really? The box says so, cough. But maybe possible? An article on BC from just last year makes an argument for some sort of proof or portfolio piece or something. https://bleedingcool.com/comics/leslie-charteris-and-the-mystery-of-avons-the-saint-4-at-auction/ I'm gonna stick with no. What's the consensus on this one?

I chuckled at the "we're always looking to get into new markets" or whatever the equivalent line in the video. And also at the symbiotic relationship between grading companies and auction houses.

For real, re: the uncertainty of numbering in some pulp series. I'm an avid indexer of the girlie pulps, and we've actually made a ton of progress in most of those titles in filling out the record (at least gathering a cover image and contents, the full record means a full scan, girlies were not collected and microfilmed by the Library of Congress who have since discarded their paper collection save covers). That said, I still run into issues I've never seen all the time and all sorts of funkiness in terms of record keeping (multiple issues using the same volume/number or date, unpredictable gaps in publishing, errors in indicia, etc. GA indexers have an inkling of what that's about). If you go back into the teens and twenties at Galactic Central, you'll find titles with all sorts of holes in the index even though the circulation was high at the time. Snappy Stories from New Fiction? It was a romance title with high circulation, but the record is like Swiss cheese. There are magazines of substantial historic value (say, Brief Stories where you can find early Dash Hammett) where we have a good contents record but haven't seen much cover art. No one has shared cover images for over half the issues. Word is there are a few collectors with long runs. I've never laid hands on a single issue. All this to say - establishing a solid numbering scheme for some titles is foolhardy.

Nice, OE, took a peek, this one has a 1906 inscription, don't know how you'd tell earliest edition: https://archive.org/details/lifeadventuresof0baum/mode/2up Couldn't find much on the illustrator, but I like her, Mary Cowles Clark, selected by Baum. I'd never heard of this before.