Brock

Hi @Williamtt (and thanks to @Get Marwood & I for pointing you in our direction) - We'll see who else chimes in as there is lots of Whitman expertise here. I have to start by saying that part of what draws many of us to Whitmans is that there are still a lot of mysteries left to solve. Generally (i.e. rule of thumb), we can say that prior to 1980, Western published its line under the Gold Key label, with many (but not all) issues also published with a Whitman logo. The general consensus is that Whitmans were non-returnable, while Gold Keys were returnable. After about 1980, the Gold Key logo disappears, and everything is Whitman. Our knowledge of which Gold Key issues were also published as Whitmans is spotty. Some online sites don't include unconfirmed issues in their databases (e.g. comicbookpriceguide.com) while other will have some sort of placeholder (e.g. mycomicshop, Grand Comics Database). It's probably best to try to work with photos where possible... That's not foolproof, though. As @Lazyboy has pointed out elsewhere, the images of Beagle Boys vs. Uncle Scrooge #10 and #11 on comicbookrealm.com do appear (at least to my untrained eye) to be fakes or composite images. The CGC census does not help in this regard. CGC normally distinguishes between Gold Key and Whitman editions, but in my experience, many Whitman issues are mis-labelled in different ways, especially with incorrect issue numbers. The Census currently shows BBvsUS #1 with 3 copies (all Gold Key), 2 copies of #5 (1 Gold Key and 1 Whitman) and 1 copy of #7 (a Gold Key), so it doesn't help us at all with 10 and 11. Basically, though, absence of evidence is not evidence of absence. In terms of my personal knowledge, I have never seen either book in a Whitman edition. There is some online discussion of #11 (see http://dellcomicfan.blogspot.com/2012/03/rare-whitman-comics-from-aug-to-dec.html, although this also somewhat dated). The author of that blogpost suggests that #11 is the rarest variant of the 8-12/80 period, but this is one in a long list of statements about which is the rarest book from this period. I will point out that back when this post was written, neither Black Hole #4 nor BBvsUS #11 had any copies on the CGC Census. Today, Black Hole #4 has 99 but BBvsUS #11 is still at zero. Nonetheless, the image of #11 that you found online (shared below, so it can be seen in this thread) does look legit to me. In my mind, I would guess that #11 does exist, and that #10 might exist, but that both are very rare.

Funny thing about Brett Goldstein… if you close your eyes while you’re watching Ted Lasso, you’ll realize that Roy Kent is the Witcher. and now you can never un-hear it…

I no longer feel bad about missing this show.

I wonder if this is Atome Kid? His look was pretty inconsistent over the years... And maybe @BA773 can help.

I feel like the dimensions and perspectives are all off… Like, how flat does that pistol become once it’s behind her belt buckle? However, I’m the first to admit that art is subjective, and glad that you two like it!

I always wanted to start a "Space Girls" set, but haven't gotten around to it...

OK, I'm as a big a Hughes fan as anyone here, but holy hand grenades, this week's Werewolf by Night #1 cover has got to be the worst Hughes cover ever...

I Knew You Were Trouble.

Dazzler #1 hit the CBSI Hot 10 list on the weekend. I think we may be approaching peak Dazzler…

I hate to spoil all the fun, but this book is consistently selling for $15-$20, and there are a lot of copies moving right now with all the Deadpool 3/Taylor Swift rumours. Your, um, “friend’s” 50 copies would have cost him $25 new, and he can get $1,000 now. What’s he waiting for?

Kellogg’s had a partnership with DC at the height of the Adam West Batman TV show’s popularity, so around 1966. I don’t think later Batman cereal products (e.g. 1989) were from Kellogg’s.

After that sad Superboy news, I'm pleased to show off my latest Batman addition which arrived today, courtesy of a seller in Connecticut:

A copy sold on eBay back on June 10, so it does appear to exist. https://www.ebay.ca/itm/115823572742?hash=item1af79f7706:g:BfwAAOSw~UFkH05M&amdata=enc%3AAQAIAAAAwFPeFy72RXR%2FiMFzbTiJA%2Fe5veZ25vhcxl6fXpd7j7EPR%2Bm6SU42icpH8y%2F8u7Cwa6ZyVrXJYCjXxuld%2FrSD0sOO1p1hHAtcXQZoNWAa89zqSt9ZmBCRxt33xk4bYqJUqQQn%2FMKYsaG1gDpoh5YJcLJkz%2B2LsmQ8epz0fc0hVCAgX0gyOC5V%2BGl161VyQB9OQRriU1Tfj9OF6xdAcojSn68VDqRxEWdK3e02z3HjYzda4huRUYnR9yL2ngYmpk7x1A%3D%3D|tkp%3ABk9SR8K_uNbNYg

Well, this thread didn't age well...

I received this on Friday... A nice copy of the Kickstarter Edition:

Here's another sad sale... New Adventures of Superboy #8 (Whitman) in CGC 9.4 sold for $3.25 yesterday: New Adventures of Superboy #8 1980 DC Comics CGC 9.4 WHITE | eBay The seller did not have Canadian or international bidding or shipping authorized, and did not respond to messages sent 6 days before the end of the auction. I'd have paid him about 40 or 50 times that amount...

I keep hoping I’ll find one of my own, with a tidy “Brock” written on the bottom of the first or last page. It hasn’t happened yet, but maybe one day…

So I just read John Le Carré's The Constant Gardner. It's my first Le Carré, and I'm quite conflicted about it. Basically, some human rights activists in Kenya get murdered by a cabal of pharma companies, and the diplomats all (or mostly) conspire to cover it up. Everyone raves about how wonderful he is, but I was left a little "hollow" by it... He has writing chops, for sure, as was able to convincingly give voices to a range of very different characters. For the most part, though, they were a pretty reprehensible lot, and I really only had sympathy for the dead people. So, yeah, it's a bit bleak. It may be that it just hit too close to home. I worked for a time in diplomatic circles in Kenya, and definitely met some of these reprehensible people. Maybe this made me want a story with more anger, or outrage, or revenger, or even closure? The Constant Gardner never really gets to any of those... I guess this is partly a question... has anyone here read any other Le Carré books? Should I try another, or is this just his oeuvre?

The foil edition of Titan’s Conan the Barbarian #1 shipped a week later than the other variants, and seems to have flown under the radar as a result. Copies are now going for $30-$40, and seem to be rising.

I'm working my way through the Market Reports in the new Overstreet Guide for this year. As he often does, mega dealer Doug Sulipa commented on Whitmans and fat diamond Marvels, and I thought it might be worth noting here. He writes: "CGC will also now be listing "Multi-Pack" editions on their labels, more correctly termed Early Direct editions (non-polybag editions, were 100% distributed thru Seagate only, as far as I know). This pertains to Marvel Comics from 2-12/1977, 1978 and 1979 (most with black diamond), which are often mistaken to be Whitman Marvel. In reality, only the plastic bag is Whitman. Once the comics are removed, they are identical to Marvel Direct editions. They are one and the same. There are approximately 400+ comics published thus in each of these years. with an estimated total of 1200-1300 existing in the period. The 1977 issues are usually scarcest, and typically command 50% over-Guide premiums, while 1978-1979 issues on average sell at about a 10-30% over-Guide premium. Since they are not broken out in the Guide, most collectors are not aware that they even exist. A few issues were not published as Early Direct editions in the period (three entire months if I recall correctly). That was probably a publisher oversite [sic] error, and they seem likely to not exist. Knowledge and statistics are still hard to find on these, with no detailed research on scarcity. CGC Census will help in the future. Some issues seems quite rare, with a few collectors having searched to find gaps in their collection for 5-10 year with little or no luck." "DC Early Direct editions started in December 1978 (see Batman #306 for example) through to December 1979. Many of the December 1978 DC Comics were Whitman Logo Variants. Many might not exist as Early Direct editions. The Whitman Logo Variants of DC Comics exist from March of 1978 through to August of 1980." I thought I'd share this as Sulipa has a lot of credibility on these kinds of issues, and was (as I understand it) an active dealer at the time.

Cool topic for a thread! I have one that I would add, though it's Bronze rather than modern... Weird Worlds was a magazine published by Scholastic Books from 1978-1981. It ran 8 issues, and was mostly focused on pop culture in the SF/fantasy/horror space. Weird Worlds #3 actually has a comic book story about a swamp monster ("The Return of the Swamp Beast") by a few industry newcomers. It's written by Bob and Jane Stine - that is, the now globally famous author R.L. Stine. And it's drawn by some kid named S.R. Bissette - the same Steven R. Bissette who went on to become one of the most popular Swamp Thing artists of all time. I've always been surprised that this issue hasn't been more sought after by collectors...

I just read a couple of short ones... The first was After Many a Summer, a short novella by Tim Powers, who is one of my favourites. His current work is sort of dark(ish) urban fantasy where gangsters, street people and other marginalized folk engage with secret magic. This was a good example of what he does, focused on European gangsters, seedy film executives and a hapless courier competing for control of a shrunken head that can predict the future. Since it's a limited edition, the curious may want to wait for a larger short story collection to read, but it's pretty good. The second was Armageddon 2419 AD, the original Buck Rogers novel from the 1920s. This is definitely one that has not stood up well to the passage of time... it was terrible - turgid prose, poor plotlines, one-dimensional characters, endless pages of nonsensical pseudoscience bafflegab on the properties of imaginary metals, and huge dollops of racism and sexism. It's not long, and I forced myself through it for reasons of "historical research", but man, was it terrible.

This is totally my experience... I grew up in the '70s on DC and Gold Key reprints from the Golden Age. My nostalgia for those books may be secondhand, but it's real...

And maybe a minibus for the Micronauts?

You could always get a Canadian to translate…