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In order to break Fernando Tatis's record of two grand slams in one inning, someone would need to hit three or more...

Wow. there are so many cool covers that I've never seen! GLWTS

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Yep, they’re the first of their self-titled issues, and great ones at that!

As a longtime fan of silver age DC, I still on occasion chance across the sentiment from Marvel zombies that the artwork in the DC mags was vastly inferior to their Marvel counterparts. To wit, I give unto them this issue, along with others by Heck, Tuska, Leiber, etc. If you're talking about the Fantastic Four issue numbers in the 50's or 60's, that Kirby/Sinnott art represents a very high bar. A lot of the other Marvel art, especially the early silver stuff, falls more than a little short of Swan, Heath, Kane, Anderson, Infantino, etc. The above story doesn't compare all that favorably against Gold Key or even some Charlton, IMHO.

I've never seen the Hulk from this series!! I believe I still have the Superman and Batman posters somewhere from the same series, and I've seen Thor and Cap, but never the Hulk.

I was dwelling on this after my last response to your same post. It's a subtle point, but I think an important one to posit: doesn't our strength really lie in our unity in spite of our diversity? Heterogeneity is the easy part: that our ships - mostly - should sail in the same direction is really the crux of our modern experiment.

Of course these waters require nuance to navigate, but I think you’re over-reaching slightly to justify a homogeneous nation’s nationalist, isolationist, and protectionist stance. I do hope that you’d argue as fairly and zealously if some of the details were mostly reversed.

Not to get too far off track, but don't you think Jack was more the iconoclast than Lee? The greater part of what Stan did with his editorial platform was to maintain the status quo, and on a month-to-month basis, perpetuate Millie the Model and My Girl Pearl as stereotypical dumb blondes. He didn't seem to care much about civil rights until he met the college crowd and started playing to their priorities like the deft showman he was. The stories took on a more progressive feel when the bullpen grew larger - and younger (think Roy Thomas). If it cast Stan in a favorable light years later to claim it was chiefly him leading the charge - well, he was a bit of a revisionist when it came to his own self-promotion.

I think you're more correct than not regarding Negro Romances as closer to the empowering end of the spectrum rather than the exploitive end of the spectrum, but the mere fact that it requires that I perform these social gymnastics is concerning enough - to me, at least. Add to that the notion that I can just as easily conjure a snarky counter-argument that, as an old white male, who am I to decide? These discussions by their very nature are fraught with similar peril!

There's enough Baker in the men's faces as well as the clothing that gives some credence. On a side note, I wouldn't feel comfortable displaying that book anymore, and I would certainly not value it anywhere near $7000, were I to swim in those waters. I noted in a thread in Comics General recently that I dabble in antique sheet music and that one of the hotter areas of collecting years ago was black Americana. I don't think those pieces aged or present well today, and certainly require a context and nuance I'm not willing to provide every time somebody sees them. In other words, if I'm not comfortable showing it to my wife's co-workers or my kid's college buddies, then why would I want to own it? Just to keep it hidden away? Those pieces in a vacuum don't reflect favorably on their owners sans explanation, as people too often ascribe motives to collecting, if even subconsciously, and it might not be enough across the board to simply wave your hand and say it's part of history.

I knew about the Charlton issue in addition to the three Fawcetts but it's the attribution that was news to me. (I guess I did imply they were photo covers, though, but that was only the Fawcett run.)

Lamentably, I believe in today's hyper-charged social environment, there is a recent taint associated with nostalgia, a sort of inexorable contagion if you will, wherein people ascribe or somehow affix the worst aspects of an era instead of the better aspects. For example, if you grew up in the 50's, it's no longer okay with some people to wax nostalgic. It's regrettable that you almost feel compelled to offer caveats - yes, I miss the cars, the music, the malt shop... but, I simultaneously and zealously condemn all the persistent racial animus, the McCarthyism of the era, the entrenched misogyny... You shouldn't have to over-qualify everything.

I didn't know that title featured Baker art! I know it featured photo covers over its short run. In today's cover-focused collecting community, it would be very interesting to see how a Baker cover would affect the desirability and value of those issues.

Wakanda's self-segregation could however be seen as staunchly protectionist, especially when hoarding a valuable resource like vibranium. Wakanda might as easily be seen as a nation that's trying to maintain a disproportionately high standard of living at the expense of neighbors far less fortunate. Race and identity often obfuscate what is the real inequity of our time - of all times actually, since before the pharaohs - the gap between the haves and the have-nots.

You bring up a good point in that people by their nature often choose characters that are relatable. On a superficial basis, this can include skin color and other immutable traits. This, however, seems to be something we should hope to move away from, but we always seem to circle back to it. It does seem strange that in the case of an Atlantean or even a Kryptonian, that they'd be either black or white! I think it made sense that Attuma was blue...

But Cecil Rhodes is deceased. Why isn't Wakanda striving to be more ethnically diverse like the rest of us enlightened nations? Why can't subsequent Black Panthers be - while by definition remaining tragically nationalistic - more diverse, such as a Wakandan of European, South American or Asian descent? As a nation, I think it's time Wakanda needs to stop being so ethnocentric and xenophobic. I find it dishearteningly regressive.

I fully agree with your caution.

Wow, I never saw this post before today. Hearty congratulations on these stunning examples of American Regionalism!

That I’d catch as I flip from the back cover to the centerfold. Front of the book is wide open!

As did the covers count on those 52-pagers of the 50’s. I always start at the back of a book and count the leafs (a page on either side): 12 for those nice thick 52-pagers and 8 leafs for most silver age books.

And then you vote with your wallet and elect not to buy, I assume?