PopKulture

Gene Bilbrew cover.

It is a wonderful cover from a series with some of EC’s best covers, like issues 6, 7, 12…

A lot of dealers indeed have individual pages for sale, but since packing and shipping such a large and delicate artifact is half the battle, I believe most collectors search out lots, often ten to twenty pages. Sometimes they’re consecutive pages, while other times they’re a collection of more random dates. For the serialized strips like Flash, Prince Valiant, (Richard) Tracy, etc. where continuity might matter more, I have seen dealers offer complete years (or half-years). Myself, I just like to have a few examples of each of the seminal strips as well as the obscure ones. I know almost all the key strips from Nemo to Terry have been reprinted, but as you allude, there’s just something very tactile and satisfying about thumbing through and experiencing the originals.

That fadeaway technique was used with great commercial success by Coles Phillips, and less famously so by other illustrators like Valentine Sandburg. Coles’ Life covers (1st series) became really hot for a spell about fifteen years ago. In his day, Phillips attained a level of success nearly equal to that of Parrish or Leyendecker. They’re definitely worth a peek.

Those pages are from the Des Moines Register which featured Buck Rogers pages opposite Tarzan frequently from about 1933 to 35, when Tarzan was abruptly ended and Flash Gordon started (albeit, not with the inaugural strip). The color saturation of those mid-30s sections is really strong, as are a few others like the Denver Post and the Detroit News. The earlier examples I posted are also from Des Moines Register sections, but they weren’t as vibrant before 1932 or so (but still wonderful to behold in their original form!).

Anecdotally, I’ve seen a lot more Tarzan originals than early Buck Rogers. I’m sure a search of the old Cochran art catalogs or the Heritage archives would shed more light on the survival rate. Myself, I was priced out of the art market when I was younger and even more so now that I’m older!

Here’s another Buck page from 1933 with the facing page featuring a Foster Tarzan (and a nice Tailspin Tommy on the reverse).

Here are a few examples of Buck Rogers Sunday pages from 1931. You can see the obvious shift in the strip from doom and gloom to sci-fi and adventure.

Ahhh… that classic Porky cover. That was my first, and I recall it being the first for many others as well.

You’re correct in that it is somewhat forgotten today, but it was one of the earlier “classic covers” as broken out in the Overstreet guide (I know, I’ve been looking at back issues of the guide lately). (An interesting tidbit: long before Suspense 3 or Startling 49, the Colorama issue of Black Cat was listed as “classic” and issue 50 was not!)

The basic mythology was fleshed out in the Amazing Stories ish pictured previously, but the character as we all know him came alive in the comic strips - first a daily strip and later a Sunday page - about a year after the Armageddon 2419 AD story.

Check out Chamber of Chills 19 there… it doesn’t even have a “classic cover” notation! At least not on the right, where it usually is located… CGC must’ve run the well dry of “classic” designations by assigning that moniker loosely of late to every pulp with a skull, skeleton, almost-naked girl, girl in a tube, etc…

All Fiction House?! That’s super impressive! Those early oversized Jumbos are tough! Big historic runs like that are a testament to persistence.

Close… he’s a rugby player. It’s a British brand.

It’s a great Cole cover, and one that doesn’t seem to come around too often.