Crimebuster

I grabbed a #1 from a boardie, got a #3 from ebay, and just also got this one from the bay!

 

Nice date stamp. (thumbs u

I have noticed prices are dropping across certain Adams Bats, #232 especially.

Oh, don't tell the people in the Bat #232 vs. ASM #121 thread this. There will be a complete armageddon.

Just got this in. Unfortunately, the photo I took doesn't do the colors justice, as this is really a bright, deep red. Structurally, it's only a 2.0 at best, but it looks really nice in mylar:

Not sure if I overpaid a bit at $30, but I'm happy with it. (thumbs u

It would be great if you could share that information with others, especially collectors.

That's what he's doing in this thread, right? (thumbs u

Picked this up today, my first pre-code Action. The cover is detached and the spine is mostly split, though still hanging together in a couple of spots. Probably a 1.0/1.5 at best.

But for $5, how can you go wrong?

Well, since everyone's talking about Italian variants, I guess I will post the only one I own. Namely:

 

 

 

 

I got this four years ago during a vacation in Italy. The comic shop I found in Rome had an American Avengers #1 and quite a few other American back issues, but this was the only back issue of the Italian Avengers series that they had. I found that a bit odd, but I was happy to buy it, as Avengers #166 is an all-time classic.

 

I’ve read this one as a kid.

 

I’ve never been a big Thor reader. My very first issue was Thor #243 (story told here: http://boards.collectors-society.com/ubbthreads.php?ubb=showflat&Number=6371641#Post6371641 ) but I liked the Avengers and Captain America.

 

Since the italian Thor featured also The Avengers (and later on Captain America, when they closed the title) I have a small collection of italian Thors as well.

 

Avengers covers were less commonly used, a nice one is issue 111:

Ah, that's sweet. Avengers #96 is my favorite Avengers cover of all time. I had my ratty copy signed by Neal Adams last year because I just love it so much, low grade or not.

This isn't exactly my own personal artwork, but I thought I would post it here anyway.

As I mentioned over in the Gold forums, as a big fan of the GA hero Crimebuster, I've been thinking for awhile of commissioning artists to create new Boy Comics covers. One of our own boardies, Erik Mullins aka TeamZoth, happened to be having a half price sale on commissions this week, so I decided to start my collection of new Boy Comics covers and commissioned him to do one.

The idea I had was to do an homage of one of my favorite covers, Boy Comics #16:

I wanted it to be a little more dramatic in terms of composition, though, and really highlight the three main figures of CB, the woman and the armored attacker. So I drew up a thumbnail of what I had in mind:

Erik works entirely digitally, something I certainly never got the hang of myself, no doubt in part because when I studied art way back in college we didn't have anything close to today's technology. But in just a day, he finished this piece for me:

I then decided to put my very limited skills to use and try and add in a background. Since he did his work digitally, he nicely provided me with all the original files, so I was able to work with his layers. This was a big help to me. After a lot of work on my part, certainly more than it would have taken anyone with actual skills, I ended up with this:

It's not perfect, of course. I asked Erik to have the light source be from below for more dramatic lighting, which he did with some subtle shading that is made clearer in his version by the gradients behind the characters. In mine, though, I couldn't quite figure out how to do that. Plus I added a giant moon, which obviously would be throwing down light from a totally different angle. Like I said, my skills are limited.

Still, I'm very happy with Erik's work and sort of happy with my own additions. I think I've reached the limit of my abilities, though, so when it comes to coloring this piece and getting the shadows and shading right in the background - as well as the night sky - I will probably need to get someone much more talented than me to finish it off. Since this is a night scene, obviously the background should be darker and ominous and gloomy, none of which it currently is with that blinding white sky. But I think it's a good start for the background anyway. And it was fun to collaborate on art again, something I haven't done since my college days, especially since Erik actually did all the real work.

So, I've been thinking for awhile about commissioning artists to do new covers for Boy Comics. Sort of my own personal Next Issue project.

Well, one of our boardies, Erik Mullins aka Team Zoth, happens to be doing a half price sale on commissions right now, so I decided to bite the bullet and give it a go.

Here's the result, the new cover for Boy Comics #120:

As you can see, it's an homage to one of my favorite covers, Boy Comics #16:

I described to Erik what I had in mind and did a little thumbnail and he did the rest. He was even nice enough to add the logo for me, which I'm sure would have taken me forever since I suck with photoshop.

Anyway, I'm not sure when I will be getting #121 done or who will be doing it, but I'm very happy with Erik's work and I'm sure I will be getting more new covers for Boy Comics done. Who knows, maybe someday I'll have enough free money to rescue Crimebuster from the public domain scrapheap and publish my own full issue of Boy Comics. But for now, this will suffice just fine. (thumbs u

Just got this back from CGC, signed by Neal Adams back in November:

Sent this in back in November through GACollectibles (thumbs u , received it back today:

And now I am going to post it in every possible forum.

Well, since everyone's talking about Italian variants, I guess I will post the only one I own. Namely:

I got this four years ago during a vacation in Italy. The comic shop I found in Rome had an American Avengers #1 and quite a few other American back issues, but this was the only back issue of the Italian Avengers series that they had. I found that a bit odd, but I was happy to buy it, as Avengers #166 is an all-time classic.

Nice pence

+1

eBay pickups:

Total combined was $32.75 shipped.

Thanks very much for the info (thumbs u

Did the second cut-off in the middle of the Hockey cover commentary?

 

Anyway, been enjoying both parts. Fantastic viewing & very much enjoyed the running commentary. Pimping out the daughter to lure thugs into a death pit

Thanks for the kind words. I just double checked the video and it seems to all be there, it goes up through issue #59. It sounds like there might have been some upload interruption for you, as it cut out at #50 for you, but if you try again the rest is there are far as I can tell.

Here's the final video, for #60-119:

I am in the process of documenting my collection for insurance purposes, and one suggestion I was given was to film my collection and post the footage on YouTube, so if something happened to my computer or whatever - like a fire - I would have the information.

So I am doing just that and am in the process of filming my Boy Comics collection. I'm not sure if anybody is interested in watching clips of me talking about my comics, but since I am posting them to the internet anyway, I figured I might as well share them.

Anyway, as soon as I can figure out how to embed the video here, I'll do that. In the meantime, here's the link. Warning: the HD and weird lighting end up giving me some weird mutant wookie arm hair, so be warned:

And here's the second installment:

Heyo. Question for you restoration expert type people. My copy of Avengers #2 has extra staples that someone added after the fact. Now, if these were replacement staples, I would expect this would be considered resto. However, the book still has it's original staples, it's just that there's a whole extra set added in addition to them - there are like 5 staples in the book.

Would this be considered restoration and get a green label? Or just be considered a crazy defect and get a lower blue label grade?

If I had the extra staples removed, am I right in thinking it would get a blue label?

Thanks for the help.

Very nice.

From a more carefree era:

 

I don't even know what to say about that.

Indeed,.

 

Hey CB, did the story I tried to identify from that gentlemen’s memories was correct? I’d love to get in touch with him!

I believe it was correct, but I haven't heard for sure. I passed the info on to Brian Cronin, the guy who runs the Comics Should Be Good website and who was heading the search. I will pm you Brian's contact info if you want to email him.

Basically how it goes is like so, from my perspective:

Boy Comics #3-17 or so feature Crimebuster in a kind of pseudo-superhero mode.He has a supervillain arch enemy, Iron Jaw, who dies in #15. He also fights a few other "supervillains," such as He-She in #9 and the incredibly lame The Moth in #17, which is just an arsonist with no powers and a dumb nickname. These stories are mostly fairly short and relatively straightforward, though often weird (again, He-She) and usually topical (not just fighting WWII villains, but actually taking on home front issues, such as in #12 where Crimebuster goes undercover to expose a black market ring of profiteers).

Issues #18-27 or so feature a lot of growth in the characterization. The stories become longer, with more dialogue that delves into the motivations of the criminals and their crimes. Thematically, with the superhero stuff gone (other than CB still wearing his costume), the series becomes a true crime series. However, Biro hasn't really hit his stride yet, so the later complexity still isn't quite there.

Issues #28-44 is what I consider to be the best era of Boy Comics, where Biro really hits his stride, particulary in the late 30's and early 40's. By the end of this period, Crimebuster has pushed all the other characters out of the book and now gets 2-3 long stories every issue. Often, Crimebuster himself doesn't even show up in the story until the third act, stepping in on page 15 or 18 to solve the crime and bring the perp to justice. These are really detailed looks at crimes, motivations and are basically just straight up morality plays. Some great, great stuff.

Issues #45-59 during this period, Biro starts easing off the hard crime and starts moving towards what I would call public service stories. There are certainly still crime stories with murders and stuff, but there are also a lot of stories about sports, cheating in school, juvenile deliquency, the dangers of racing cars, etc. These stories read like the great PSA movies from the late 1940's and early 1950's they would show in classrooms to scare kids straight.

Issues #60-74 With #60, the series takes a turn. Iron Jaw returns from the dead. In the same issue, we have one of my favorite comic book moments of all time, where Crimebuster's supporting cast have an intervention to tell him that, well, nobody wanted to mention it, but he looks like a fool wearing a superhero costume around town. He gets in a fight with them over his clothes, but by the end of the issue he's ditched everything except his signature hockey sweater, losing the cape and replacing his hockey pants with slacks. It's a fantastic bit of meta-commentary on the demise of the superhero genre, and I think this is entirely intentional on Biro's part. [note: this issue has a cover date of December, 1949 - right when the superhero era was crashing to an end]

The last superhero vestiges are gone with this issue, though ironically at the same time they bring back his supervillain arch-enemy. Iron Jaw begins appearing regularly as an antagonist again, meaning there is less room for morality plays and PSAs and more straightforward hero vs. villain stuff, though with a Cold War twist. Crimebuster also loses one story slot to Dilly Duncan, a lame Archie ripoff.

Issues #75-96 By far the worst section of the series, these issues feature more and more Iron Jaw and less and less Crimebuster. In a rare three-issue arc, in #80-82, Crimebuster battles a dumb supervillain named The Vacuum, while Iron Jaw teams up with Sniffer and the Deadly Dozen. These knobs end up taking over the book, relegating CB to one little 8 page backup. The lead stories with Iron Jaw and Sniffer are tedious "comedy" stories, while Crimebuster, stuck with just a few pages to work with, begins having more adventure-themed stories with less hard crime and less character work.

The only "highlight" of these issues, beyond the still-decent Crimebuster backup, is the new Rocky X backup, which starts in #75 and runs until the end of the series. Rocky X is an astronaut in the future who visits other planets and fights aliens and the like. It's actually... more boring than it sounds, but at one point he does battle the classic Biro supervillain The Claw.

Issues #97-119 Crimebuster returns to the cover spot and starts getting longer stories again. The series becomes boy's adventure, with CB doing stuff like bullfighting, flying stunt airplanes and the like. #107 is a major turning point for the title. Biro was faced with the impending creation of the Comics Code, which would eventually prohibit him from even using the character's name - Crimebuster - because it had the word "crime" in it. So he came up with a typically realistic story to deal with this. Basically, the powers that be suddenly realize that an unlicensed, unregulated teenager is running rampant in their police department. Crimebuster is given an ultimatum: If he wants to keep fighting crime, he has to actually get a degree, then go to police academy and become an actual cop. Loover then gets Crimebuster a position at a school called Curtiss Tech, where he can get a diploma before heading to police academy. The rest of the series is CB under his real name of Chuck Chandler doing Hardy Boys style adventures while dealing with the reality of being in a high school environment, complete with an Archie-style cast of new teen supporting characters. It's a radical shift, but Biro still makes it work.

One very odd note: Just as Crimebuster becomes a teen adventure series, Rocky X - the sci-fi backup series about an astronaut in the future fighting aliens - somehow transitions into a Korean War series, with Rocky X and his sidekick fighting the red menace in Asia as soldiers. Don't ask me to explain how they made that shift.

Received this in the mail today, at long last. I don't know why it was so hard to find an affordable copy of this issue, but it was like pulling teeth:

 

This plugs the last gap in my run from #11-119. So I am pretty happy.

 

Very nicely done! What is going on here? They stealing butter and sugar? I love how Squeeks is tipping his hat to the dude they knocked out.

They appear to be black marketeers capitalizing on wartime shortages, yeah.

However, this issue was actually released in the summer of 1946. As a result, the stories inside aren't specifically about war profiteering (though there was such a story in #12). Instead, the first story is about G.I.'s returning from the war in Europe only to become easy marks for scam artists looking to bilk them out of their war pay. It's a very interesting tale to read now, very topical.

The second story, on the other hand...

Well, here's the splash page from the criminally underrated Norman Maurer.

This does happen in the story and it's even more gruesome than it looks here, as the husband smashes a lit kerosine lamp on his wife, engulfing her in flames. Then he loads her in the car and as she moans for help, all delirious with agony, he drives around in circles until she dies. It's right up there among the most gruesome deaths in the whole series.

Received this in the mail today, at long last. I don't know why it was so hard to find an affordable copy of this issue, but it was like pulling teeth:

This plugs the last gap in my run from #11-119. So I am pretty happy.

I would note that the least successful Marvel superhero movie of the post-Iron Man generation of films was Captain America, who in many respects is the most DC-like hero and thus suffers from a lot of the same modern audience issues (except that he's not too powerful).

Incredible Hulk actually was significantly less successful than Captain America, both domestically and internationally.

Captain America did $176.7 million domestically and $191.9 million overseas for a total of $368.6 million.

Incredible Hulk did $134.8 million domestically and $128.6 million overseas for a total of $263.4 million, over a hundred million less than Captain America.

By comparison, Green Lantern was at $116.6 million domestically and $103.2 million overseas for a total of $219.8 million. The Amazing Spider-Man, on the other hand, did $262 million domestically and $490.2 million overseas for a total of $752.2 million.

And Superman Returns did $200.1 million domestically and $191 million overseas for a total of $391.1 million in 2006 money. It also didn't benefit from 3D premiums. So it wasn't a huge disaster, it just cost a lot more to make than these other films.

I've only recently delved into the bottomless pit that is Superman family collecting, but I did pick up some low grade books recently that I am quite happy with. These are my first 10 centers for both titles:

The Action #255 was part of an ebay lot of 6 random comics for $10 shipped, so I paid $1.67 for it. The Superman #129 was sent to me by a benevolent boardie in the Pay It Forward thread (along with a bunch of other cool stuff, like 80 Page Giant #4), so I didn't pay money for it, I just paid it forward to someone else in other comics.

Now if only I can score similar deals for the 20 million Superman comics I am still missing.