Westy Steve

On 1/21/2023 at 1:31 PM, dover said:

Helper.

Take

I’m in too

One nice early Batman and maybe an Avengers 4 or a Strange Tales 110.  But there are a few Numismatic items I’d like too. 

On 10/29/2022 at 2:11 PM, brainbats said:

Catalog art for Valmor Products.  It's signed at the bottom, but I can't make out the signature - does anyone know who the artist is?

 

https://www.chicagotribune.com/news/ct-xpm-2003-10-10-0310100335-story.html
 

I think this is it

He was a ground breaker

On 11/4/2022 at 12:50 AM, Prince Namor said:

Great book! George Frese is so under rated and hardly ever mentioned. Such a short career, but that is pretty much a perfect comic book cover for an Archie title. 

I agree. When I found this book, I looked up the artist to see what else he did. I really wonder if there was miscommunication regarding the type of character Betty is/was supposed to be and there was no time to redo it. She is Forward, yes, but she mostly always dressed conservatively, although she could make a sweater scream in pain. 

I also believe The Luther first appeared in Superman 4 if you note the timing of the advertisements, but that’s another topic. 

On 6/21/2022 at 2:03 PM, Professor K said:

Yes it did but the cover isn't depicted in the comic. This is all they show of the earthquake. I used to think the bald guy was Lex Luther, boy was I wrong. 

Thank you.  Perfect.  Then follow this. In the next issue, the cover shows Superman tearing apart a wall/portcullis/jail wall to save a woman who is under duress and trapped inside. 
 

In the comic (Issue #5) Superman tears down a steel door to get to bad guys and save Lois.  
 

My thought is that Superman 5 is the first cover appearance of Lois, not Action 29 which came months later.  I base this on the ads for Batman 1 which was in Supes 5 and showed up in an Action comic before #29. 
 

I believe the cover artists often worked on the covers without full details of the story and they were inspired by the plot therein. 
 

(And yes, she seems to have Blonde highlights, but we’ve seen Supes without an “S” in early issues too…details weren’t their strong suit when they did the covers independently of the stories, IMHO )

I have a question about Superman #4. On the cover it shows Superman wrecking a building or tearing down columns or something like that. Did anything remotely close to that happen in the story?

On 6/17/2022 at 6:14 PM, divad said:

 "There's no accounting for taste." 

If this is the behavior of “tasteful people “, then I’m glad to be a troglodyte.

I collect modern age, copper, bronze, silver and golden age because I like comic books.  There are modern age books older than the silver age books that were, and still are, grails when I started collecting.    Many of the collectors on these forums who collect the most valuable books have treasured books in their collection that they bought off the rack. Don’t be so close-minded.

Interesting. And very helpful information. Thank you. I’ve often Wondered about that. I once bought a collection of golden age war books where the previous owner put tape on the spine for prevention rather than cure. It was amazing what damage the tape did to some of those books over time. Since then I have avoided tape like the plague, however I couldn’t say no to the Superman. Still trying to decide what I will do but conservation is definitely an option. For what it’s worth it appears that the market place values conserve books at around 2/3 the value of unrestored blue label books. So I have a lot of thinking to do. Thanks.

On 6/12/2022 at 9:55 AM, Sauce Dog said:

Removal of the tape might result in a detached cover and lower grade regardless of if it gets cleaned and pressed as well.

I would either leave it as is if a blue label is important to you OR I would invest in minor conservation (my preferred option) which would be able to remove ALL the tape (no sense doing work if you are going to leave some) and some tear seals on the cover wrap. I've used Phantom Restoration for such work before, always happy with the quality and grade bumps I got for such low end books like yours (I also had a CGC 1.8 with tape on it. After he removed it all, tear sealed/reinforced it, cleaned and pressed it regraded as a CGC 3.5. Also had him work on a 0.5 which managed to re-grade as a 2.0)

https://www.instagram.com/phantomrestoration/

Very interesting and worth considering. Do you have an idea what it would cost, excluding grading?  And how does that work? I mean if a private firm conserves it, What prevents CGC from just labeling it as restored and giving it a purple label? Is it the quality of workmanship?

Hey guys,  I just worked a deal for this. Says it has tape inside and of course on the cover. Looks like the cover has never been cleaned. What would be the end result if I send it to CGC and asked them to clean it, remove the tape on the outside, and then have it re-graded? Is that something they do? Would they do a good job? Anyone have before and after pictures?
 

 Are there better options for me? I got a good price on the book so I can justify spending a little money on it  

Thanks for any advice.

Bump. I’d love to know the answer to the question above. 

When I say, “let me take that out of the bag for you”, I mean it!

On 6/2/2022 at 12:16 PM, valiantman said:

Thanks for the picture.  That’s a modern grail for sure. 

Funny you woke this thread up.  Because  Daredevil’s show is going to be produced again, and She Hulk is due to be released (and both of them are attorney/legal shows), it has ignited speculation that we will see Jessica Jones again on Disney. So the book has spiked. Unfortunately though, I didn’t buy a very high grade, so I didn’t participate in the spike like I could’ve.

So I advertised for some books recently.  Someone answered my ad PUBLICLY with a good lead on a couple of books. And of course they quickly sold…but not to me. 
 

This isn’t the first time this kind of thing has happened to me. I feel some people read want to buy ads, or they see someone’s collecting theme and say to themselves, “those are cool, I’m going to do that!”
 

The only way to avoid unwelcome competition is to keep your collection theme secret.  Especially when you’re looking for golden age books because often times there are only a few dozen graded examples or less.

So without divulging what you’re collecting, do you have a secret collection? A genre or theme of books that you’re collecting that you don’t want to advertise?

On 5/28/2022 at 7:41 AM, Cat said:

Why would it be? 

Because the Hulk is F-ing awesome. That’s why. 

Hey guys,

I’m thinking about cracking out this book, having it witnessed/signed by the writer, then having it sent to CGC for pressing and grading.  
 

Never done it before. Any recommendations?  Does it needed to be signed with special ink?  How can I safely crack it?

Do you think their font and color scheme is intentionally reminiscent of the Hulk’s?

Thanks to all who replied. I felt like it was more like an 8.0. Based mostly I’m trying to figure out what would keep it out of at least the VF category.