MBFan

Who needs a trip to San Diego when you make discoveries like these?! I am totally in awe of your collectible-hunting prowess, especially when you land a Diary Secrets #28 with a Baker cover for just $3. With only one on the CGC census with a 3.0, you might have one of the best copies around.

Definitely not Baker.

Already did.

I believe this is another case of Overstreet getting it wrong when it comes to Baker art. http://www.ebay.com/itm/DEAR-LONELY-HEARTS-3-VG-SI-6-1951-One-staple-book-Matt-Baker-jungle-Sty-/191596815039?pt=LH_DefaultDomain_0&hash=item2c9c0f62bf Even though Overstreet says Dear Lonely Heart #3 has a "Matt Baker Jungle Girl story", it's not on the list in The Art of Glamour, and the splash page pictured in the eBay listing does not look like Baker to me. What does it take to get Overstreet to correct all the Baker misinformation?

Ain't that the truth! Finds like this remind me that there are still hidden treasures to be found, and it fuels my fire to keep hunting. An employee at one store I visited during the trip said a copy of Action Comics #2 walked in a few weeks ago. I didn't get a chance to see it because the shop owner had taken it home, but the fact that a sweet book like that can still turn up out-of-the-blue is amazing.

There's no telling how long Diary Secrets #26 was in that box waiting for me. The 1990 edition of Overstreet has it listed as $9 in Fine, so perhaps it had been there for decades.

Arriving at the Matt Baker party as late as I did, it's been frustrating to see some of you brag about the good ol' days when one could purchase certain coveted Baker books for a pittance. I must have been due a Good Karma payment though, because I finally scored a rare book for a sweet price. A couple of weeks ago, during a cross-country trip to visit my son in Syracuse, New York, I stopped off at a few comic shops near my route. At one store, the proprietor checked his special boxes of books behind the counter and said he didn't have any of the issues I had asked for, but I was welcome to look through his regular back issue boxes out on the display floor. Sure that I would run onto nothing but the usual plethora of Marvel foil cover multiples and other over-printed issues, I was reluctant at first, but something told me to give it a brief try before getting back on the road. Going straight to the “D” section, I started looking for a specific St. John romance title. Digging past tons of Detective Comics from the 1990's and the 2000's, I came upon something that made my heart stop. The sticker on the front had the incorrect issue number, and the price seemed wrong, too, but I wasn't one to quibble. I paid the man and got the book out of there as soon as I could.

Scored a nice book at a good price, and it arrived well-packed and undamaged. Recommended!

A great display of commercial creativity! Thanks for taking the time to scan and share.

Go for it Steve. Big romance book, one of top 10 or so, with tremendous crossover appeal, always has staying power. And oh yeh the art work is pretty dang good. It'll only hurt for a second. I second that emotion! Thanks for the advice - the book was raw, it was gorgeous, but it was also too pricey so I passed. Picked up this instead... A great pick! I'd have to crack this one out, because it's got a very stylish Frazetta story inside.

Lily Munster!

That's super rare. I have seen only one other copy. I guess most digests just didn't sell well or had limited distribution because stuff like this just doesn't turn up very often. As I understand it, many stores didn't know where to display such books. Due to their smaller size, they didn't fit in racks with regular comic books, so they generally got stuck with other books of digest size, which is not where someone who likes comics would be looking. As a result, many digest size St. John's were returned unsold.

Sekowsky? It does look like Sekowsky, but his Wikipedia page acknowledges no work for him in Girls' Love Stories until issue #38. Girls' Love Stories #31 was published in 1954, and Sekowsky started working for DC in 1952, so it still could be his cover.

Haven't seen that one before, so I did some poking around. Grand Comics Database has it listed with the cover and a majority of the stories as being by Matt Baker. http://www.comics.org/issue/319820/

Here's the back cover. It was made by Max Gaines to give to the fellow campers of young Bill and his sister Elaine. Wow. Talk about incredibly rare! Thank you for letting us see it.

There are six "True Vision" books:Romantic Adventures 46-48 and Lovelorn 49-51. Here's what the 3-D Effect looks like It's a cool effect, but printing all that black probably raised their ink budget.

Here's a past thread with some pics. http://boards.collectors-society.com/ubbthreads.php?ubb=showflat&Number=4895215&fpart=1

That's the truth! Wayyyy too much ad copy. If you want to reach kids now, you do it with a few bold headlines and lots of big photos.

WOW! That's a find I'll never forget, too. I like to think that there are more boxes like that out there somewhere. Thanks for keeping me inspired for the hunt!

I'd love the digests like it was Valentines Day if I could get my hands on 'em!

Don't know the reason for page 3 & 4 being torn out of most copies. Please fill me in.

Thanks, Dr. Love, for sharing your knowledge and covers!

cool cult series, and nice copy (thumbs u Thanks. It is one of those series that as soon as I become interested in it, they seem to disappear from dealers' inventories. I believe a boardie owns the 9.4 copy of this issue (the only one on the census). As part of a group buy last year I acquired a VG+ copy of Space Western #44. I had never paid attention to the series before, but it's some wacky stuff! Cowboys and Nazis in outer space are a magical combination. That's as good as it gets right there!

cool cult series, and nice copy (thumbs u Thanks. It is one of those series that as soon as I become interested in it, they seem to disappear from dealers' inventories. I believe a boardie owns the 9.4 copy of this issue (the only one on the census). As part of a group buy last year I acquired a VG+ copy of Space Western #44. I had never paid attention to the series before, but it's some wacky stuff! Cowboys and Nazis in outer space are a magical combination.

During the last days of the 2014 Christmas rush, I found a comic package bent and stuffed in my mail box. It did not have "Please do not bend" written on it. That's the only time that happened all year. Other than that, the only comics damaged while in shipment to me during 2014 were due to being packed with backing boards that weren't the proper size. At least 3 different Golden Age books received extra corner dings because they were packed with Silver or Current Age backing boards which didn't extend beyond the edges of the books.