MBFan

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

Oddball, but fun. Glad to find a copy.

 

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!

Oddball, but fun. Glad to find a copy.

 

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.

In the immortal worlds of Monty Python "Now for something completely different!

 

That button looks brand new! But then, it was probably never in the hands of the public. The Tel Pic folks were apparently good at putting a promo package together but ran into a glitch when it came to actually publishing the book. Since seeing the Alter Ego article, I've wished that the Baker family would find a way to publish everything they have from the project, and all the other Matt Baker material they hold, for that matter.

I can't help but get awestruck when someone pops up with something I've never seen before, especially when it involves the great Matt Baker and an unpublished project. Thanks for the post.

I picked this one up...from the Prospect Mountain collection...has been on my want list and needed for my Rangers run for some time now.

 

 

Nice one! It's got a great Lee Elias-drawn Firehair story inside.

I remember that the owner of the newsstand kept these titles up

high on the back shelve...out of reach, so you had to ask him to

get it for you.

 

 

mm

That was a smart way for the shop owner to keep EC books and the like out of the hands of young children. I bet if he thought you were too young for an EC book, he's say so and not hand one to you.

Guest of honor and fandom legend Bill Schelly (seated) chatting with another fandom legend, Steve Fears.

I don't know the guy's at the next table over, but he was displaying pages from "Robin Dies at Dawn" including the splash page ... awesome!

The guy next to Bill Schelly is Ike Wilson, who represented the late Batman artist D ick Sprang during his final years. Ike helped arrange commissions with Mr. Sprang and also sold copies of Golden Age Batman & Detective Comics from D ick's personal files. (I've been lucky enough to acquire 5 of them.)

Check out some rare pieces Ike Wilson has on display at the Comic Art Fans site http://www.comicartfans.com/gallerydetail.asp?gcat=48725 and the excellent Facebook page he maintains in honor of Mr. Sprang. https://www.facebook.com/groups/1475023896087607/

Hi Gang. My name is Robot Man and I am obsessed with junk! I have lurked on these boards for a while now and thought I'd sign up for the fun.

Thank you for joining the forum and sharing your incredible collection. As diverse as it is, I don't see anything that isn't great. Congrats on being a superior hunter (and finder) of the kind of "junk" some of us can't get enough of.

The Swamp Fever illo is from the first issue of Nugget, published by Archer St. John, Nov. 1955.

 

The same issue features another great Baker illo for a short text called "Starskin Saga". It depicts a collage of nude and semi nude women around the boarders of the text. I've never scanned it from my own copy for fear of damaging the squarebound spine.

 

Does anyone happen to have a scan of the "Starskin Saga" illo from Nugget #1?

I believe that illo is on page 61 of The Art of Glamour.

Congrats on the PR 14. I don't think I've ever seen that cover!

Saw this ad in Adventure 259, thought it was cool, don't know if I have another book with a full page ad for Action 252:

 

Note that Supergirl's skirt is red in the house ad, like the Supergirl on the cover of Superman #123.

By the time they printed my copy of Jungle 104, they must have been running low on red ink.

 

 

The scan that I found only had a blurred face for Wertham. I added the red ink.

 

damn brother and here I thought there was another gruesome panel I needed to get...

Anyone else have a Jungle 104? Is it blurred or clear in the panel above?

Looks like the black ink didn't lay down properly on that part of the page when your copy was printed. The line below the panel "CAMILLA APPEARS IN JUNGLE COMICS" is dark and well-defined on mine. What about yours?

By the time they printed my copy of Jungle 104, they must have been running low on red ink.

My thought is that Baker abandoned the art before it was finished, in favor of the cover that was actually used for Wartime Romances #17. Details were probably added after-the-fact by someone other than Matt Baker himself.

And what's up with using the name "Matt" in the word balloon on an old piece of Matt Baker's art? That surely wasn't an accident.

Sprang did some interior art. I believe he drew "The a Goat of Gotham City" story inside.

 

I've seen a high grade CGC copy before with George Roussos getting the cover credit on #108. I think George also did the Air Wave story inside.

 

I think that's right: Roussos with the cover and Sprang with interior art on 108.

 

You are right. Roussos typically gets cover credit for #108, but interestingly the image of the Batplane over the Bat Signal and the image of Batman & Robin standing next to each other both appear in separate panels in the Sprang story inside.

 

Good catch. You know, I think there was more collaboration -- and pasting in swipes or tracings -- than we sometimes think when we cleanly attribute covers or interior art to a single artist. I've seen interviews with artists who say things like "I did the backgrounds on many of the covers in this or that run."

 

For instance, I think Raboy needed a lot of help to make his deadlines at Fawcett.

Ike Wilson told me that DC would often share with Sprang what the cover was going to look like, asking him to incorporate the scene in his story.

Is there a list somewhere of Sprang file copies? And when did they hit the market?

 

The color and gloss on those two books are really nice. (thumbs u

Ike Wilson represented Mr. Sprang during his final years, arranging art commissions and marketing some of his possessions, including the copies of books he kept in his big file cabinet in Arizona. I guess they were all originally sold during the 90's.

I acquired a total of 5 Sprang file copies from a local Oklahoma person earlier this year. All came with Certificates of Authenticity, but for peace of mind, I took them to Ike Wilson's table at OAFCon October 25, and he said, "Yes, those were D ick Sprang's books."

Ike has some great stuff displayed at http://www.comicartfans.com/GalleryDetail.asp?GCat=48725 including a tracing Mr. Sprang kept on hand of his original design of the Riddler.

Sprang did some interior art. I believe he drew "The a Goat of Gotham City" story inside.

 

I've seen a high grade CGC copy before with George Roussos getting the cover credit on #108. I think George also did the Air Wave story inside.

 

I think that's right: Roussos with the cover and Sprang with interior art on 108.

You are right. Roussos typically gets cover credit for #108, but interestingly the image of the Batplane over the Bat Signal and the image of Batman & Robin standing next to each other both appear in separate panels in the D ick Sprang story inside.

A couple of recent acquisitions, both of which are Batman artist Mr. Sprang file copies. (The forum software won't let me post his first name, like it's dirty or something.)

I recognize that one from http://digitalcomicmuseum.com and http://comicbookplus.com.

Thanks for sharing the scans!

Now David Alexander has caught the "high prices for mid-grade copies" bug: eBay

 

David was one of the originators of ridiculous overpricing on everything.

 

He's certainly aggressive, but I think these prices are beyond his normal levels. I think he's responding to some of the other recent lisings.

 

I can't see these books selling near these prices ... but I may have said that before!

I didn't know his name until now, but DTA came on my radar in a negative way in late June of this year, when I noticed that he (TopNotch) purchased a copy of Journey Into Fear #1 from a boardie on Misc. Sales thread for about $27...and then listed it on his site for $145.

Just going through scans of my TARs and TATs and I think she might come closest to passing as a teenager.

 

 

 

Edited to add: I should say with respect to Comicnoir's point that I was just looking at my scans of the covers.

The cover for Diary Secrets #19 is in the same vein, depicting an obviously older man hitting on the teen-looking refreshment vendor at a ballgame. The guy to the left wearing a t-shirt looks like he's more in her age bracket.

From the looks of some of the covers, St. John should have been honest and titled a series "Jail Bait Romances".

did anyone have any luck with neutralizing the stench of the stinky comics, that were disclosed as stinky comics, from FTs sales thread awhile back? :shrug:

 

I've had them in cat litter and baking soda for....., quite a few months, and can discern no change in their putrid aroma....

What could cause a stench so bad that it doesn't leave the comic? Bodily fluids, perhaps?

One of the fun, and sometimes scary, things about collecting is you never know what happened to old books before you got them. I imagine if someone kept their Golden Age collection in their outhouse back in the 40's, that would a cause a smell that you might never be able to kill.

I think this is why CGC grades severely against stains. WHO KNOWS what caused any given stain? It could be something as simple as getting rained on...or as putrid as a leaky baby diaper that was laid on the book at some time.

The book I deodorized had a kerosene type smell, but there were no stains, so it possibly had just been in a basement in the vicinity of a kerosene heater, or something like that.

If you've given the cat litter/baking soda process a few months with no improvement, it's almost like the smell is PART of the book. If there are no visible signs like stains, mold or mildew, maybe the inks are deteriorating and giving off a weird smell. Just making a random guess.