Randall Dowling

I was just thinking that this looks like a good application for setting up a trust as a lot of expensive real estate is handled like that. But I'm by no means an expert on estate planning.

In my experience, this is the greatest threat to very high grade books that are encapsulated. The less frequently a book has changed hands and shipped across the country, the more likely it's undamaged in the slab. For obvious reasons, it's much less of a concern for mid to high grade books and lower.

Love it all!

Amen, sir! Tom Lovell is a recent discovery for me and I can't get enough of his work. Just outstanding!

"Once you start with Vampirella, you stop chasing the other fella." Copyright 2021 Randall Dowling

Love it. Beyond the excellent cover, the interiors are top notch as well. Stories by Archie Goodwin and art by Krenkel, Williamson, Ditko, Colon, Grandenetti, etc. Nice grab!

One of the things that's always stood out to me about Outer Limits (and Twilight Zone), is how effective their creature designs were in B&W. I took one of your photos and desaturated it, added a little noise and this was the result. Nice work! I really like this project you've been working on. Keep 'em coming!

The interior is from the 1972 Annual. Perhaps that's where the 1972 comes from? According to this site (which seems pretty thorough but who knows), it was published in 1975. https://vampirellacomics.wordpress.com/vampirella-international/vampirella-international-england-ipc/

I really appreciate your dedication to this. I notice that the Church Spirits aren't on that list (because Chuck held on to them until they were auctioned by Heritage). Would you be adding them to the list?

Agreed. Signatures belong on the inside of books, not on the front cover, like an animal.

This book was only printed in Canada. There was no US version of Weird Suspenstories. And the Canadian copies had much lower print runs and a very small few seem to have survived. As mentioned, the quality of printing was relatively low also. For EC collectors, it's exceptionally special even though many don't consider it necessary for a "complete" EC collection. It's the sort of book that could go into a collection and another doesn't surface for a very long time. Broadly speaking, foreign editions of golden age comics are exceptionally scarce and of considerable interest to collectors of obscure or otherwise, rarely seen comics.

That's correct.

I've heard this position before but it doesn't make much sense to me. If "good" is referring to the art then another way of saying it would be "quality girl art" and that doesn't seem to apply as it seems any cover with a woman on the front is called "GGA", whether the quality of the art is good or not. Sounds non-sensical. I'm pretty sure when Armstrong, Bolles, Dribben and the rest were painting those classic early GGA images, they had a particular theme in mind, not "was the quality of art good?" Anyway, the old guys that first introduced me to the term thirty years ago all seemed pretty clear on the definition. But I could be wrong. It just seems like one of those things that gets misinterpreted and distorted over time and usage and eventually becomes completely detached from what it was intended. I live near a lake called "Lotus Lake". There are several other lakes nearby, all named after women- Lake Ann, Lake Susan, Lake Lucy, etc. Generally, it's believed that the lakes were named by the homesteader that claimed this land over a century ago, probably after his daughters or something. One day I was looking at a map from the 1920s and looked at where "Lotus Lake" should be but it wasn't called that on the map. It was called "Lois Lake". FTR, there are no lotus plants on or near that lake. When you frame a building, after all the 2x framing is in place for the walls and roof, a layer of plywood is often applied as a substrate for exterior finishes and to provide shear resistance. This plywood is called "sheathing". Has been since plywood was invented. However, I routinely hear people refer to it as "sheeting", which could make some sense as plywood comes in sheets. But that's not the correct term for the application. These things do happen.

For those not in the know, this is arguably the rarest of the rare in EC comics. Very cool book!

Tough book! Is one of those the actual "first print" and the others later printings? I know nothing about the publication history of this issue.

This is an excellent question. For certain, the phenomena of actual GGA predates comics (Enoch Bolles, Gil Elvgren, Earl Moran, Rolf Armstrong, etc.). However, I remember when GGA was fairly recognized as a particular content in which a woman was shown in an innocent light and usually surprised at something or just innocently happy (hence Good Girl). I don't care what certain C-grade sci-fi authors have said, this is not GGA. Why? Because she doesn't look like she's well behaved or innocent. In fact, she looks like the kind of lady that might ruin a guy's life. Thus, not GGA. Today, it seems that any illustration of a woman is called GGA as long as she's attractive or sexy or pretty (any drawing of a woman will do...). Which is kind of weird to me. And ultimately, makes it difficult to ascertain what the first instance of GGA in comics is. I advocate for a return to the correct usage of the term. The rest can be referred to as "Bad Girl Art" or "woman on cover" or whatever.

Agreed. Perfectly centered, colors are bright and true, pages are probably white and bone fresh. I'll bet this copy even smells good.

I think this is more likely. I've owned many copies of all the black covers and this one didn't stand out to me as particularly different. Perhaps one of the others can chime in with their experience but that's my

The Batcave was our favorite place when I was a kid. I think it was in Greenwich Village back then.

Man, I'm sorry to hear it. When we were at the pulp convention, there were several conversations about why CGC is expanding to grade other things when they can't even keep up with demand for comics and magazines. Fingers crossed, you get yours graded soon.

In other words, you prefer a signature inside the book, not on the front cover like an animal.

Agree with others, for my collection, I'd call this a 6.5 (assuming nothing hidden). Great copy that presents well and you can read it without fear of massive value loss.

Due to the Sweetness of Lou 14, per pm.

The double entendre of this commentary with this book is delicious...

Pretty sure Sol Brodsky talked about color design of characters as evolving toward heroes being primary colored and villains being colored using secondaries and tertiaries or gray. And so some characters were initially green and became red (In the case of the Scarlet Witch, her hair was always red but I can see some conversation about the cover working better with her green costume). Or gray and became green (like the Hulk). So the FF are in blue costumes, X-men- blue and yellow, Captain America- red, white and blue, Iron Man- yellow (gold) and red, Spider-man- blue and red, etc. Meanwhile, Doctor Doom was gray and green, Green Goblin was magenta and green, The Lizard- green, white, and magenta, The Rhino- gray, Skrulls- purple and black, etc. Not a hard and fast rule but it does seem to apply to the silver age characters.