mwotka

Let's keep this thread rolling. I have been fortunate to pick up a couple Stars recently. These are just loaded with early art from many of the golden age greats, including epic historical illustrations from HC Kiefer, adventure stories from Rafael Astarita, sci-fi/adventure from Clem Gretter, animal comics from MR. Ryan (who I think gives Walt Kelly a run for his money), early Creig Flessel work, a Biro cover, and Fred Guardineer (who takes over sci-fi duties by #6). These are worth checking out on comicbookplus, if you have not already done so.

As others have mentioned, the FH colors are often faded, especially orange (great copies of Planet 26 and Rangers 26!). Planet 54 is almost always yellowed out. Jungle 14 has great color strike too. And this APC is the best looking Baker book I own and practically gleams in hand..

Great pickups, Jared. MM 9 is one of my favorites as well, the aliens remind me of Squid Head from Star Wars. Fantastic 4 also has Star Wars vibes with the closing wall trap. And of course the interiors are top notch as well, with the Samson giant robot story featured on the cover of #3, TWO Fletcher Hanks stories, and more odd tales. Well worth checking out on comicbookplus! Gotta love Fox books!

Another one I was very happy to get recently. Bill Everett's first cover and first work (but not on the inside until #2).

I agree, this is one of the best all time threads. I have been meaning to post some things on here, so glad to see it on the front page again. I've had some success tracking down a few books I've been searching for for a long time. Here are two trifectas that have taken quite some time to complete. First off, the three Arrow issues. And then the three Mad Ming Funny Pages issues. Some of my all time favorite comics. And I know @G.A.tor doesn't have everything anymore, but you have helped many people like me get some cool stuff (including one issue in both of these mini-runs) and that is much appreciated.

Ditto! Was thinking of going for a couple of them but thanks for removing the temptation. What a great thread so far!

That New Adventure 27 is really a great cover, and so tough to find. But let's not forget the Detective 15, as well as the 16! Another awesome Flessel that was swiped to great effect with More Fun 65.

Picked this up a few weeks ago at Windy City. Really happy with the colors on this one.

Here is one I got a few years back from a CC auction for really cheap. I think this has the issue you are talking about, calling it trimmed on the bottom. But I don't think it actually is. I just thought the cover was cool and amazing shape for something that old.

Here is another one that I think was shot at with BBs or perhaps a .22. More fun target practice I guess...

Oh yeah forgot about Wonder Woman!

How are there no Planets yet?

Nice grab, was seriously thinking about this one.

I love Wonderworld 3. I was fortunate to acquire one fairly recently, albeit nowhere near a Church copy. Still, it has nice color and I like it.

Had some Fox luck at Planetcon KC this weekend. Got a Science 3, incomplete but was a deal and presents well. And then a real nice Rocket Kelly 4 that turned out to be a Cosmic Aeroplane ped!

Just going through my haul from Planetcon in KC and one of my best finds was this great looking Fox books for a song. Opened it up and realized I scored a Cosmic Aeroplane.

Lot of fun books in this category...

Always loved this one. He did some great work for Avon.

And here is a pretty good option for Conserved. Not sure how this married cover is conserved when other married stuff is qualified...

For green label, this is a good contender for my favorite.

This is a tough category as I have too many RCQs, as that is the easiest way to afford more key books. But this might be my favorite purple label. I was on the fence getting it but decided if it was good enough for Jon Berk I could live with it.

Beautiful copies of everything! The Prize Charlie Chans are great and I've had mostly rough copies of all but never been able to find a 3 and been looking for several years.

I too have read through this thread several times. I did some searching on the boards and found a few older posts that hadn't disappeared into photobucket oblivion of some more True Comics from Frisco's earlier posts. You will note that all of them appear to be issues from the late 1940s. Given that Hamman was born in 1934, that would have him reading these from about age 11 until maybe 14/15. Those have cursive in pencil that is quite sloppy, and when looking at the signatures, the E usually connects to the rest. From what I can see, those are the only ones from Hamman. The open question is the block letter signed issues as seen on the coverless Action 25, Superman 4, 7, 15, 19, 21, USA 3, World's Finest 3, and then the Jungle 47, which goes up to late 1943 (might be others I've missed, I checked HA and Comicconnect). I don't think there is any way Eldon Hamman was reading these books at age 6 or 7 and writing his name on them so neatly, or leaving them in such nice condition (coverless Action aside). They just don't line up with the True books from years later. There are numerous sales on Heritage and elsewhere mentioning the Eldon pedigree being from Hamman and these are incorrect. I think we all agree the cursive books, aside from True Comics, are Eldon Tuffentsamer. They go back to early 1940s books with the tight cursive -script in ink with an E with a curl at the bottom separate from the rest. See below my Fight 22 from late 1942, USA 4 from early 42, Sub-Mariner 5 from early 42, the Whiz 25 on an earlier page from late 1941, a Cap 1 & 3 from early 1941 and even Batman 4 from late 1940 (all not pictured are on Comicconnect). Do the two styles connect? It is possible he sometimes wrote in block letters. Or there is another Eldon out there. I think Eldon Dedini is out because we've seen how he signed his full name in a block. He was much older too so why would he sign what looks like a child's signature years after a stylized -script, as seen on the Funny Picture Stories. And everything of his seemed to come out in one small lot in that auction of a few dozen books, I believe all of which are earlier than everything else that is signed. Therefore it is probably easiest to ascribe most everything to Eldon T. I don't know that enough evidence exists to do so for the block letter signed copies. But I have several pieces of evidence that it might be the same. First is that Jungle 47 with block letters mentioned above and pictured on a previous page. It is clear Eldon T. loved his Fiction House books and took care of them. He had a number of issues in this era and run. What are the odds of another higher grade early mid 1940s FH book with a different Eldon signing. Second, there is the USA 3 with block letters and the USA 4 cursive, both higher grade. Again what are the odds two Eldons collected the same issues back to back and saved in higher grade. Third, is signature placement. All of them are either above/below the title or in the title. This is not Recil Macon signing everywhere. I think the placement on both types of Eldon signatures is very similar, and the signatures are all quite compact as well, and in ink. But ultimately I'm not completely certain. There could be a 4th Eldon out there. But I don't see any way to be certain, unless an issue exists with cursive and block. He did double sign a few issues over the years so perhaps one is out there with both styles. If it is him with both styles, he gave up on the blocky signature after 1943, when he was about 15.