PopKulture

The covers are so charmingly rudimentary - not so much in the general cartooning, but the appearance of Bugs and Porky compared to their later incarnations. I always prefer early Bugs to Space Jam Bugs; same for Mickey and Donald. Add to that the color gradations and that classic filmstrip title and you've got some very pleasing covers.

I'm happy to have worked with billbrown7080 on a deal for a lot of silver age Blackhawks. He was very accommodating in helping me fill in some missing issues and runs at a very fair price. The books were well packed and arrived in a timely manner, and they were at least as described or better. As a newer boardie, he showed enthusiasm and a willingness to learn the ABC's of dealing here on the Boards. I would definitely deal with him again!!

(swoon) Those are some really beautiful, early Looney Tunes!! Beverley or not, congratulations of the awesome pick-ups!!

Thanks for the report, Robot Man! I do love seeing all those great wall books and it's also nice to put an occasional face to some of the boardies I see posting all the time. I'm glad you did well from both sides of the table.

Okay, it's official: you have some pretty decent comics.

Yes, but in baseball the Hall of Pretty Good and the Hall of Fame have become indistinguishable.

Yes, it's not my money, so there's a libertarian nerve inside me telling me "it's all good." But is it? In my weaker moments, I can't help but feel there's a better way to utilize those levels of wealth. Still, I don't want a Robin Hood-turned-bureaucrat knocking on my door someday telling me not to spend $15 on a VG+ issue of Four Color, so best to leave things as they are.

I do prefer 16 over 7, but both are such strong efforts.

What a great one to have!!!

Now those were some classic covers!

I would have to question the sanity of anyone who pays millions for those paintings. Nobody who got rich working for their money could have that much contempt for it. There's no way you could open up a small muffler shop and do a thousand muffler jobs before saving up enough money to open a second shop, and then a third, and later a whole chain. Same, too, for owning a large roofing company, starting out with just one truck. How about a local success story here in Chicagoland? Portillo started with a little hot dog trailer and parleyed it into a billion-dollar restaurant business after many, many years of hard work and shrewd business decisions. Even the fantastic art collection of Samuel Kress was earned one dime at a time, and even though I'm guessing he paid near an inflation-adjusted 6.5M for works, he got something very painterly like a Raphael or a Titian. If you're going to make the argument that the lotus painting stands on its own aesthetic merits, then you'll have to out-Sisyphus Sisyphus.

I think they would (do), but I don't think of them as mega-keys. Kirby stuff hasn't flat-lined, certainly, but it's way down from where it once resided. I can recall people at cons bypassing boxes with PCH in search of some good Kirby romance.

So many books have fallen from grace like Single Series 20, Feature 10, Tip Top 1, King Comics 1 and pretty much all the newspaper reprint books. Consider that Famous Funnies, Century of Comics and Funnies on Parade aren't considered mega-keys anymore, and they're the first modern comics!! Detective 1 has really lost its luster - once a top ten book - and so has Motion Picture Funnies Weekly, also a top ten book. And while I'm thinking of it, New Fun has fallen out of favor, despite being the first of the most important publisher and composed of new, independent material.

A downturn in Kirby-mania. See the above mentioned Manhunter and throw in Red Raven to boot. I love em all, but as KirbyJack posted above, I am not one of those big fish throwing around the big bucks - ergo, my opinions aren't all that influential.

You dared say it! And you have a point on all of them. That said, please send me your copies.

This. Still, in this day and age where we only get to see the cover a great portion of the time, the covers really matter.

Take

Take

Take

Take 173

Take both issues

16 is a classic cover. We don't need CGC to tell us what we already know. It's an overused term these days, I believe, especially in the PCH genre. I think "notable" or "noteworthy" is now confused with "classic," but it's pretty much subjective anyway. I'm old-skool about my classic covers, and many once considered iron-clad classics have fallen out of favor. Nobody gets that excited about Everett's Target 1 cover, and even Wolverton's Target 7 has slipped. I'm all about the Fantastic 3 and the Superman 14. Throw in a More Fun 54 and I'm a happy man.

Perhaps the best collection is NOT known to hobbyists - yet. This discussion pops up once in a while and the consensus usually points to two collections: Dave Anderson usually gets the nod (best examples of the best books on the planet) but the late John Verzyl's collection is right there. I don't know that Anderson has Timely that well represented, however, and vice versa for the Verzyl collection with DC. Trust me, though, there are old-timers who might have collections to trump all of them. Time will tell.

Take

Take both please