PopKulture

Recent pick-up from an antique dealer friend of mine. He bought them from the lady who bought them off the newsstand. I'll scan a few for the Dan DeCarlo thread when I have a little more time.

These Dark Mysteries are so killer! I'm enjoying each new post more than the previous. Bravo!

I picked these up at an antique advertising show from a dealer friend of mine who found them at a sale right down the street from his house. The lady who was selling them bought them as a child, along with some Spooky and Casper comics I did not pick up. It's pretty cool to get a big chunk of any Atlas run in one fell swoop. Here's a group shot until I have time to scan a few of my favorites:

Both are outstanding covers, no doubt. I wish I had an Astonishing 32. I can't even pull the trigger on mid-grades anymore at their price levels. I wish I had been more aggressive in the old days...

Gotta have at least one Captain Marvel story by Beck in there...

I thought this thing looked cool, and then I read your description of what it does: I'm ghoulishly green with envy!

I love Wood (I know that sounds funny), but I like #3 a ton. Who can argue with any of this PCH goodness??

I'd say you had a pretty successful dive!

Looks better without that bronze age Spidey in there. The Patsy's can eek by on their GGA merits...

Love it! Vermont is definitely the place for Americana. Have you visited the Shelburne Museum? I've only been there once and can't wait to get back. So much to see.

Interesting piece indeed, and a bit of a narrative de-bunker. In the years after the war leading up to the Nuremberg trials, the narrative developed that no one knew what was happening behind the German lines. Look at the date of 1939: people knew.

I'll look for it. I'm amazed at some of the collections that they get to rummage through. There's a LOT of great stuff out there. Not everything is as rare as anyone thinks. There are lots of untapped "junk piles."

That has GOT to be the neatest applied date stamp ever! And are Cap and the Torch showing off for the Blonde Phantom? And is Namor instead bringing her a shark as an offering? Pretty peculiar doings in any case!

A lot of the downtowns still look like they did in these views, minus the signs and businesses. The people that are left are on the outskirts of town by the WalM@rt while the former sporting goods store and womenswear shops on Main lie vacant. There are usually a few bars that seem to weather the storm however.

I could see why you find these pleasing. What makers are we looking at?

LOVE this Elvgren!! And that Kayo sign bridges advertising and comics perfectly. Did you appear in the episode? What was the title I'll look for a repeat or on-demand.

THAT... is a really strong 7.0!

I've mentioned before that I collect various postcards - mostly Roadside America as it is termed. These are a few of the "chromes" I picked up today (so named because of the Kodachrome process). I'm strongly drawn to small town main streets as they remind me of childhood roadtrips with my family. I still get excited about driving out of my way on some obscure US or state highway just to criss-cross through a few more towns that I've never visited. Most of the great old neon signs are gone, and the few that are left are disappearing rapidly. Gone too are the mom-and-pop eateries and dimestores. Nostalgia is a curse, I tell you.

It's all subject to some debate as to whom to attribute what deaths, but estimates for Mao put him near 40 million, nearly twice the range of estimates for Stalin or Hitler. Stalin by most attributions edges Hitler out even with the Holocaust estimates of nearly 6 million included. The Soviets were just brutal: history has been too kind to Stalin and communism in general. Of course whether it's 1 million or 100 million, the magnitude is mind-numbing and comparisons become sort of a matter of pointless accounting. Throw in what happened in the Congo, Armenia, Cambodia, etc. and you have a pretty sh*tty century for mass killings.

Man, that is a silly good cover! And worthy of its place in the pantheon of duck books. Oh, and a nice enough copy, too.

Well stated. And curiously enough, you could probably post the same ad today with ten Stalin stamps and it would receive little fanfare. The twentieth century featured a horribly prolific trio in Hitler, Stalin and Mao, but Hitler is by far the most infamous, even though the body counts are thought to be much higher for the other two.

Or since thinking outside the box was earlier clamored for, how about this: people realize that Batman is sort of a derivative character with no special powers and the gap WIDENS between Action 1 and Detective 27? Batman is iconic enough, sure, but basically was a mish-mash of pulp characters of the day, while Superman is THE discontinuity and THE true spark to the powder keg that are comics (while, superhero comics). And you did see those hundred or so covers, splashes and adventures which feature oversized cash registers and typewriters, right? And Rainbow Batman, Zebra Batman, Lucky Charms Batman... (p.s. I know this should probably be posted in the unpopular opinions thread!)

For me, it doesn't make sense to talk about the top books without including ALL books, but fine. I would put Marvel Comics 1 in there over Batman 1 all day. It's the umpteenth appearance of Batman, after all, but I won't be buying any of them anytime soon, so I guess whoever has the $$$ will be the ones to have the final say on what the top books are (and believe me, AF 15 is going to be there!).

Action 1, Detective 27, Amazing Fantasy 15, Captain America 1, Superman 1. "Desirable" as a notion is tricky: Hulk 181 might be considered the most desirable at a given point simply because large numbers of collectors can't even wrap their brains around ever owning the big, big books.

Smooth edges, without the overhang typical of other pulps. Congrats on a great pick-up!