Arkadin

Great cover! I'd like to find a copy myself, can anyone tell me what number this is? That's Marge's Little Lulu #16. Beautiful cover.

hi, Robot ( ) Would love to see a subset of Sunday comics, if you have any.

Connie by Frank Godwin started off as a flapper strip in the 20's, evolving into an adventure strip in the 30's. But it's the rare mid-to-late 30's science fiction Connie's that are most sought after by collectors. Here's a couple of tabs from 1936 I snagged recently. Godwin's masterpiece though was Rusty Riley in the 40's and 50's. The Sundays on this strip are simply beautiful. These aren't hard to find as thirds, but half pages are much tougher.

Nabbed a copy of the original 1950 Hillman paperback of Jack Vance's first book, The Dying Earth. Favorite line: "I am Chun the Unavoidable."

One recent exception - the Fighting American's in last month's Heritage auction that went zoomin' into orbit at multiples of guide.

Have a cigar, and an elephant too.

Can anyone identify the celeb guys in the pics on the wall? The somewhat obvious ones are Cary Grant (left), Sinatra (center), Van Helfin and Gary M could be Gary Merrill? Or is that Guy M? Probably Guy Madison.

Alternate Worlds: The Illustrated History of Science Fiction by James Gunn includes a lot of these iconic pulp covers. Recommended for anyone interested in learning more about the classic pulp writers of the 1930's to 1970's.

Little Skeezix in Slumberland...

84 years ago - Sunday, May 10, 1931 - Frank King worked his magic with another brilliant Gasoline Alley page:

The artwork on Farmer's Daughter was by cartoonist Irv Spector, though the girl was drawn by Bill Williams (who also did G.I.Jane).

Although not exactly a "superhero," I'd mention The Spirit by Will Eisner as being notably more mature and modern in its graphic storytelling than just about anything else at the time. Of course, as a weekly Sunday comics insert it was intended for adults as well as kids, so the stories cover a wide range - from crime capers to fantasies and humorous riffs on pop culture, including comic books. But when Eisner was in full "film noir" mode, The Spirit was definitely not directed at the kiddies. Some strips - such as the legendary fight between the Spirit and arch-villain The Octopus in August 1947 - are astonishingly violent for a Golden Age comic. Frank Miller has cited Eisner, and that fight scene in particular, as an influence on his work.

You're correct about rolling the dice. I was one of the bidders who took that chance. I have a really nice Jetta #5 but my 6 & 7 were a bit ragged. My ridiculously expensive #6 & #7 arrived from Italy today, thanks to express mail. The apparent tanning in the photos was thankfully a bit of an illusion. Here's my complete set with the two new additions. Hard to believe that these copies of #6 & 7 have been in Italy since the early 1950's. BELLISIMO!

Of all the screwballs bidding on this book last night, apparently I was the screwiest. So now I'm the proud papa to a Farmer's Daughter #3. Classic Irv Spector goodness.

On Sundays, I like to read whatever new additions I've made to my Sunday comics collection. Today, it's my latest Spirit tab. This one is part of the "Jewel of Gizeh" sequence, with a classic "cover."

Slowly rebuilding my Spirit tab collection...

Lost my comic collection recently in a fire - sigh - so it's time to get back on the horse. I've picked up a few Sunday strips already. White Boy by Garret Price. This classic 1930's adventure strip about an orphan boy taken in by an Indian tribe in the Old West sure didn't look like anything else in the Sunday comics. Little Nemo from 1935 by Winsor McCay's son Robert. Continuing the Sunday surrealism, I also snagged a couple of primo Hejji pages by Dr. Suess (1935). Finally here's one for porcupine, a 1935 Felix with a Laura topper.

Will Eisner couldn't resist satirizing literary sensation Truman Capote in the Spirit. Tooty Compote Truman Capote in the famous photo from his then just-published first novel "Other Voices, Other Rooms"

Picked up a bunch of Spirit sections, all from the Sunday Compass, a leftist newspaper published in New York City from 1949 - 52. These are from 1950. Besides being in nice condition, these sections all have a major bonus: they feature Jules Feiffer's great strip, Clifford, on the back page. Feiffer was only 18 when he did these. I love the way the strip captures the feel of a 50's New York tenement childhood of candy stores, back lot baseball games and cowboy heroes.

So, 110 shares of Alibaba would be about a $10,000 investment. That is, if you pulled the trigger right now. On the other hand, there's a 3.0 Amazing Fantasy 15 on Metropolis at $10,000 (that seems high since one sold on Comiclink last month for $9100, but still, it's there for the taking right now). All it takes to buy either is a mouse click - but which would be smarter? Short term, I have to think the Alibaba would be a better investment. Long-term, who knows? edit: And yes, any single comic costing $10,000 would serve the same purpose for this discussion. I just chose AF 15 since most think of it as a "blue chip" comic investment.

Maybe this would be a good compromise:

Alibaba is the world's biggest IPO, and looks like it will open around $90/share. As an investment, would you rather have 100 shares of Alibaba or,say, a lower grade Amazing Fantasy 15?

Snagged my first Don and Maggie pedigree. Brings back reading "All in Color for a Dime" when I was a kid - as well as the fun of getting CBG in the mail every week.