Crimebuster

Here's my latest batch of YouTube videos! In this one, I go through a box of miscellaneous back issues I've picked up over the years for no real reason: Here's a look at some foreign comics I have picked up as souvenirs on my travels: In this one, I go through my run of Avengers #101-150: And here's my latest group of new purchases:

My copy isn't quite as nice, but I was fortunate to have Mr. Wrightson sign it several years ago at a show in Boston.

Very happy to pick this one up. The colors are really vibrant.

I think this is one of the sexiest romance covers around.

Young Romance #1 is my attainable grail right now. I know I'll never have an Archie #1, so I am treating #50 as the starting point for my run - that's another!

I have looked though it; its incomplete and has guesswork, but it's a good starting place! A couple things from her work on Boy Comics and Daredevil jumped out to me. I had speculated in my original post that one possible jumping on point if she ever wrote the Crimebuster strip in Boy Comics may have been around issue #30, as I think there's a change in writing around this period. So I was interested to note that the earliest Boy Comics story that GCD credits her with is in fact from #30 - though it's on the Swoop Storm backup. The other thing I noticed is that she's credited with most of the stories on the Sniffer strip in Daredevil, and it's guessed she did the last several Iron Jaw and Sniffer strips in Boy Comics. That suggests another possible point where she may have taken over the Crimebuster strip, if she ever did so. Sniffer moved from Daredevil to Boy Comics with Boy Comics #80 (going from memory here) where he appeared as an antagonist in the Crimebuster story for a rare three issue arc in #80-82. Following that story, Sniffer and Iron Jaw took over the lead and cover spots from Crimebuster, where they stayed for the next 15 issues or so. There was clearly a shakeup by Biro as editor in #80, as that issue also debuts another new backup feature, Rocky X. It would make sense if Hubbell wrote at least the three part storyline with Crimebuster and Sniffer together, especially assuming she was still writing the Sniffer strip when it was in Boy Comics as she had when it was in Daredevil. One other thing that makes it a little hard to figure is that Biro was notoriously proprietary about Crimebuster, insisting on drawing the character's head for the covers - my understanding is, he'd often have other artists do the cover, but then he'd paste his dwaring of the head over it, much like when Kirby's Superman had his head replaced. I think Biro may have done this at times inside the book as well. So given his connection to the character, it's possible that Biro continued to write the Crimebuster strip himself even after turning the rest of the stories over to other people; or possibly at points he gave plots to Hubbell or other writers to work off of, sort of Marvel Method.

Good idea, I will contact Alter Ego - this was part of Michal T. Gilbert's regular column, so he may know more.

Hello! I'm looking for any information I can find about Virginia "Ginny" Hubbell, a long time comic book writer from the Golden and Silver Ageof Comics who apparently ghost wrote an unidentified number of stories for Charles Biro at Lev Gleason. Obviously, I'm a huge fan of Crimebuster and Boy Comics in particular. I've long touted Biro's writing as being highly underrated, as it's in depth character studies and subtle understanding of human emotion and motivation put those storie sona different level from other comics I have read from the Golden Age. However, the more I read, the more clear it's becoming that some of not all of my favorite things about "Biro's" writing was actually done by Virginia Hubbell. In the book Ten Cent Plague, Lev Gleason artist Pete Morisi states pretty unequivocally that he didn't think Biro was capable of writing the material put out under his byline, and says that Hubbell wrote almost all of it. He makes a point specificaly of noting that she was a student of human nature, while Biro couldn't have cared less. An online article about Hubbell by Brian Cronin mentions that around 1951, a newspaper article about a play Hubbell had written noted that "...She produces on an average of six complete stories a month for Dare Devil Boy Comic magazines, good practice she says, for learning to tie up a plot with no loose ends." Her obituary - which as far as i can tell is the main source for her wikipedia entry - said that "Under the name Virginia Hubbell she wrote much of the later content of Charles Biro's Daredevil and Boy Comics, as well as the notorious Crime Does Not Pay." What I really want to find out is when she started writing Boy Comics in particular, and which issues and stories she worked on. So far, I haven't found any specific information, or any theories even. From these sources, though, it seems that she at least wrote "the later content" in Boy Comics, and based on the newspaper article, apparently had been doing this at least as early as 1951. I can see a few clear break points in the writing on Boy Comics that are possible jumping on spots for Hubbell as a ghost writer. There's a drastic change in direction with #107 where Crimebuster stops being a crime fighter in the city and goes off to a rural college. That issue certainly qualifies as "later content" but it isn't cover dated until January 1955. Another candidate would be one of my favorite issues, #60, which had a cover date of December, 1950. This gives Chuck a new "costume" where he loses the last superhero trappings of the book, while also bringing back his arch enemy Iron Jaw from the dead. But I think it's possible that she could have been writing the series much earlier. Several references to Hubbell insist she worked on Crime Does Not Pay, and for me there's a clear uptick in writing quality on Boy Comics around #30 or so when the book goes into longer form crime stories that really dive into the motivations of the characters involved. That would put her on the title as far back as 1946 or earlier, though. One final note: some of this information was mentioned in Alter Ego #162 recently; in there, they also quote another Lev Gleason artist, Bob Fujitani, as saying that Biro wrote a fair amount at first, but when the line expanded he couldn't write as much and began using ghost writrs that he would sign his name to. He cites Bob Bernstein as another writer who worked on both Daredevil and Boy Comics without credit, which further muddies the waters. Biro has himself said that he had to write less when Lev Gleason told him to double the size of the line, which Biro was editing by himself. This expansion seems to have happened around 1948, when the company began rolling out a slew of new titles - so that's another clue. Anyway, if anyone has any information about Hubbell's work, or any other suggestions for when she started writing on these various titles, I would love to hear it!

He didn't!

I have spoken to Denis Kitchen via email, and he confirmed that this copy was indeed his when he was a kid.

Kids are the number one buyers if comics today. Just not floppies. They buy trades like Dog Man and Raina Telgemeier's comics by the millions. That readership - almost entirely kids - dwarfs the tiny number of us readers buying floppies from Marvel and DC.

For the same reasons as Tales of Suspense #59.

Tales to Astonish #70 is the first issue of Namor the Sub-Mariner's solo series. It should be a key book - every other Marvel SA first issue is. Even the other split book firsts, which are underappreciated and undervalued across the board, are considered keys to one degree or another and the prices reflect that. But TTA 70 seems completely ignored. A Sub Mariner #1 is likely to cost three figures, even though it's actually the third "first issue" of the run, but I just got a TTA 70 on ebay last week for $5. Shouldn't this issue be a bigger deal?

Key is always a vague word, but I'll take a crack at this. I'm also not sure exactly what we're defining as the Bronze Age here - I've typically seen with DC people regarding GL/GA #76 as the start, but there are a few books from the year or two just before it that would make my list if we push the term back, such as WW 178. So I'm just going to wing it. As a romance collector, I personally mark the start of the Bronze Age with Falling in Love #99 even though it's a 12 cent book and thus should be Silver Age. Whatever! Here's a crack at it. 1. House of Secrets #92 - 1st Swamp Thing 2. Green Lantern #76 - iconic 3. Batman #232 - 1st Ra's al Ghul 4. All-Star Western #10 - 1st Jonah Hex 5. Batman #227 - classic cover 6. Batman #251 - classic cover 7. DC 100-Page Super Spectacular #5 - rare romance giant size 8. Falling in Love #99 - classic cover 9. Jimmy Olsen #134 - 1st tiny, pointless cameo of Darkseid 10. All-Star Comics #58 - 1st Power Girl 11. Green Lantern #87 - 1st John Stewart 12. Batman #234 - 1st SA Two-Face 13. Detective Comics #400 - 1st Man-Bat 14. Detective Comics #395 - BA revamp begins 15. Detective Comics #411 - 1st Talia al Ghul 16. Love 1971 - rare classic cover 17. New Gods #1 - 1st New Gods 18. Forever People #1 - actual 1st Darkseid 19. Lois Lane #106 - infamous story 20. Justice League of America #75 - 1st SA Black Canary, basically. classic cover 21. Weird War Tales #1 - 1st issue 22. House of Mystery #174 - 1st horror issue 23. Showcase #80 - 1st BA Phantom Stranger 24. Mister Miracle #1 - 1st Mister Miracle 25. Wonder Woman #178 - 1st New Look Wonder Woman 26. Mister Miracle #4 - 1st Big Barda 27. Green Lantern #85 - infamous Drug issue, classic cover 28. Swamp Thing #1 - 1st issue 29. Wonder Woman #199 - classic cover 30. Wonder Woman #200 - classic cover 31. DC Super Stars #17 - 1st Huntress 32. Superman #233 - classic cover, new revamp begins 33. Star Spangled War Stories #151 - 1st Unknown Soldier, yes, this is his 1st appearance 34. The Demon #1 - 1st Demon 35. Kamandi #1 - 1st Kamandi 36. 1st Issue Special #8 - 1st Warlord, should be worth a lot more than it is 37. Phantom Stranger #1 38. Brave and the Bold #85 - 1st new look (SA) Green Arrow 39. Wonder Woman #204 - 1st Nubia 40. Black Lightning #1 - 1st Black Lightning 41. The Witching Hour #1 42. Love 1970 43. Dark Mansion of Forbidden Love #1 44. Sinister House of Secret Love #1 45. Ghosts #1 46. Jonah Hex #1 - 1st issue I added a couple things, including House of Mystery #174 - it had the same cover date as Falling in Love #99, my starting point, so that works for me - Showcase #80, Phantom Stranger #1, Witching Hour #1, and Ghosts #1. I'm sure I'm still missing some things - there are some 100 pagers I think belong on this list maybe that I don't have on here yet.

I think it is him, yes - didn't mean to be coy. I will drop him a line and see if he will verify it.

I love names on books! I haven't tracked anyone down, but most of the names on my books are pretty generic, so it's a little tough. This is Silver Age, but I thought I'd show you the one book I own where I know something about the original owner. I can't say I had to do much research, though!

I've been making a bunch of videos for my YouTube channel, so here they are if you've missed any of them. In this one, I found a whole shortbox of Silver Age Superman comics I forgot I owned, so I recorded myself rediscovering what the heck they are: In this one, I discuss the how and why I cosplay as Wonder Woman: In my first test Livestream, I show off my small collection of unopened multi-packs In this one, I look at a book with worldwide cultural impact that I think is really undervalued: And in this one, I show off another batch of new comics, some of which are nicer than others:

Its the same character, but she first appeared back in the Silver Age, in Linda Carter, Student Nurse #1.

Going to throw in a couple more ideas. Conan #1 - I know some people consider this the start of the Bronze Age Conan #23 - first Red Sonja Ghost Rider #1 - 1st appearance of Son of Satan, plus it's the first issue Night Nurse #1 - not really a first appearance, but still.

I'm guessing most of the newsstand books from the mid 2000s on that were printed ended up destroyed anyway. I worked in the magazine department at a large Barnes and Noble in 2006 and my job was restocking magazines and the stripping the covers off unsold copies to return for a refund. That included comics, as newsstand versions were still returnable, unlike direct editions. I know at my location over the several months I did this we sold very few comics; probably 80-90% of our comics went unsold and were destroyed by me personally.

I think the implied scam is that you broke the slab open yourself to swap out the book with a lower grade copy and then return it due to the damage while keeping the nicer book for yourself.

I haven't used a large, but the medium flat rate I can usually fit 50 comics in. When I sell in bulk on eBay i do it in 50 book lots as a result. I should test the large to see how many it can fit.

Hello there, friends! I am currently toiling away on The Crimebusters #3 and wanted to show you the regular cover. I have some cleanup work to do on the logo, but otherwise, this is it! I also wanted to announce that I will be "appearing" at this weekends virtual comic con, Stay At Home Con. I have a virtual booth set up at the show, which is mainly just links to my website. But on Sunday morning at 10:30 ET, I'll be doing a livestream event to chat with "convention goers" so feel free to stop in. Here's the link:

Curious about the notes, looks better than a 7 to me!

I know this is Silver Age, but I am really stoked I finally found a copy of this after looking for quite a while. There seem to be very, very few covers that are beefcake covers. Tons of covers with hot women being looked at by leering men, but almost none the other direction, which is weird given the target audience. This is one of the few pure beefcake covers I know of - not only is it a shirtless lumberjack, but the whole point is the woman in the background doing a double take at how hot he is, while her jealous boyfriend gives her the stinkeye! It's basically...