Crimebuster

Received a box of great books from Dr. X today. A good deal and very securely shipped. Thanks! (thumbs u

This isn't technically Action related, but I went in to a local art store today to have a piece of original art framed and the guy running the shop told me that when he was young, he was into comics and had a complete run of Avengers among other things. But the highlight of his collection was Superman #1-3, which his father had passed down to him.

Unfortunately, when he got married in the early 70's, his new wife made him get rid of all his comics and he sold about six boxes of stuff for $200, including the Superman #1-3.

Yeah, it's not a big deal. I bought it knowing there was a page missing. But when I mentioned the missing page to a few people they suggested it might be made that way, so I got excited briefly at the thought that I might have a complete copy after all.

But hell, I never read the text stories anyway.

It looks as though my copy is missing the text story. The splash for "Hero of the Month" is there but the page facing it in the centerfold has apparently been very carefully cut out.

I thought this was likely the case, but I have been told by a few Golden Age collectors that some GA books were produced like this, with only a half wrap, due to paper shortages, so I wasn't sure. But there's no text story there and the page count does appear to be off by one leaf - 58 and 29 instead of 60 and 30.

Thanks (thumbs u

A couple of Boy Comics questions for those who might know:

a) Does anyone know if Allen Bellman ever worked on Boy Comics or the Crimebuster strip specifically? The new Alter Ego has an interview with him where he mentions working for Biro and Gleason, but it doesn't mention what titles he was on. I've looked around the internet and apparently he worked on Boy Meets Girl and a couple others, but I haven't found any mention of Boy Comics; it's not listed on Bellman's official website. But he also says he doesn't remember everything and some of the listings on his site were provided by readers and collectors who are filling in the gaps, so I thought there might be a chance. If he did work on the Crimebuster strip, I am thinking about commissioning something but I'm not sure he worked on it.

b) If anybody has a copy of Boy Comics #11, can you tell me what the centerfold looks like? Specifically, my copy has only one half of the centerfold, with the other page missing. But it appears to be production related, like they just stapled in half a wrap. I've been told this was not uncommon at the time period, but I haven't been able to verify if Boy Comics #11 did this or if my copy is just missing a page that someone really, really carefully cut out with a razor or something.

Thanks. (thumbs u

Neither, that's the very rare style of facial hair known as the "gunstache."

+1 good vibes for Buddy. Through absolutely no fault of his, the Post Office decided to Shanghai his shipment to me and nearly sent it to Shanghai itself as a result. Buddy stayed in communication with me until the muties at the post office finally figured out what the hell they were doing and delivered it; he also had offered me a full refund if the USPS ended up losing it. The books were a great deal to boot.

Okay, okay. They could have at least used an abacus anyway!

Just got this in today. I'm not sure this is what you guys meant by "have a cigar:"

Mid-70's should be right on the money. This style was still in use into the 80's, but I believe the later ones may have had plastic toppers instead of metal ones. I'm not entirely sure on that, but I think that may be the case.

I have a 4 sided version of this rack, and mine was definitely '74 or later, as the slots are too narrow to fit silver age sized books. The width of the comics changed during the 25 cent era and mine can only fit the smaller modern sized books. If you can fit silver age sized books in your spinner you may have an earlier version.

Courtesy of Hibou - thanks again (thumbs u

Why does that cover get flack? I'm just curious. I haven't seen it before, but I think it's pretty great.

I received the rest of my romance comics lot today. 67 silver and bronze age DC romance comics.

Most of them were low grade. I'd say maybe 15-20 were in the 4.5-6.0 range, the rest were beat but complete readers. Some good stuff here, including Girls' Romances #109 with the girl daydreaming about the Beatles on the cover.

The whole pile was just under $2 each, so I am pretty doggone stoked.

In fact some Mexican publishers were allowed to write their own stories and artwork! Thats pretty loose and free with Spidey as a brand... makes for some cool, sexy, collectable covers though I will give La Prensa that!

Funny you should mention this, as I just received today my first foreign editions. Namely, two issues of the Mexican Sgt. Fury series by La Presna, which are among the dozens and dozens of original Sgt. Fury stories they apparently published in the 70's after Marvel stopped producing new Fury stories.

I mean, how could I possibly pass this up when I saw it on ebay?

A hot Spanish spitfire, with a hairstyle and a micro-skirt straight out of 1970, attacking Fury with a giant sword? C'mon, how great is that?

The story turns out to be a thinly veiled rewrite of Sgt. Fury #5, only with this female sword-wielding assassin in place of Baron Strucker. Which is a fantastic change.

I don't speak or read Spanish, but I speak the universal language of hot women with swords.

Great cover.

Just in from Heritage. I've always wanted a nice copy...

 

 

Good lord, the colors.

Whoever was the colorist for this cover, I hope they got a bonus check.

 

 

 

I've found this to be a VERY tough book to find in solid shape. I'd love a decent copy.

This copy is pretty nice. It has a couple issues, the main one being the small chip out of the bottom right front cover, which you can see in this photo. There's a slight overhang along right right edge, which is why in this photo it's slightly bent over, especially at the top right front corner, but those bends are non-color breaking other than a very tiny bit at the top corner. There are also some spine ticks, though it's not too egregious, and a couple non-color breaking wrinkles above the DC logo on the top edge.

Gloss is really high and the book is flat and tight though, so I'm pretty happy with it for sure.

The lot actually came with a second copy of this issue as well that also looks very nice at first glance. I actually thought at first that the second copy was nicer, as it has better corners. But upon closer inspection, it has some vertical stress creases along the spine that limit its potential. Someone also at some point was doing math on a piece of paper on top of the book, so if you tilt it, there are indentations of math equations all over the cover I think those might be pressable, but the color-breaking stress lines cap how high it could go.

If I could combine the two books, it would be perfect!

Here's a picture of the two copies side by side. The second copy is the one on the right. You can see the short stress lines that run parallel to the spine, starting about halfway up the book in her hair and running up to the thought balloon. Not terrible, but not pressable either. Looks pretty nice, right?:

But... math.

Use a calculator for god's sake!

Everyone else's books are about a thousand times nicer than mine, but I thought I'd post here anyway. I just bought a large lot of DC romance, running from 1965-1975. The final haul was 92 issues for the cost of $180, or $2 each. Most of them are low grade readers, but there are some solid mid-grade books mixed in.

I'm getting them in a couple batches, so I've only received the Girls' Love Stories issues so far, but here are a some of the nicer looking ones I picked up, which are probably in the 5.0-6.5 range (and which could all benefit significantly from a cleaning and a press).

I'm pretty happy with these for two bucks each (even if the lady on #164 with no pupils is creeping me out):

Awesome (thumbs u

Thanks very much (thumbs u

Question for those of you who are experts in this sort of thing: It's my understanding that El Sargento Furia not only reprinted Marvel's Sgt. Fury stories, but also presented new stories done by Mexican creators after Marvel stopped doing new content for the book. I was wondering if anyone knows which issues of El Sargento Furia contain new material, as I'd be very curious to read some of these original Mexican Sgt. Fury tales.

The simple fact that you know what any of that means... makes you an expert. Sorry!

 

DG

 

actually, that makes metarog a nerd.

Same thing.

Should be 8 leaves on either side of the staples not counting the covers.

Great, thanks very much. Looks like this is a complete copy after all. Woo-hoo!

Speaking of Jughead #1, I just picked up a really mangled copy. I'm not sure, but I think the centerfold might be missing. What should the centerfold look like in Jughead #1? The stories are all complete, so if it is missing I assume it must be ads or a text story or something.

My new copy of Jughead #1

Does anybody know where Dan Spiegle's cover for Blackhawk #269 is? I've seen pages from this issue around but can't seem to track down the cover.