PopKulture

Some Buffalo Bill novels:

I was digging through some boxes of “thick books,” which are often lumped in with dime novels. In any sense, they’re terrific precursors of the pulps and everything after.

I'm not saying that they couldn't be in better hands; moreover, that they are safer not changing hands. I don't hold him on a pedestal by any means.

I just looked up the original ad by Overstreet and Bruce Hamilton in Overstreet 11 and it didn't mention anything specific about whether there would only be one re-creation of each cover, so perhaps someone else knows one way or another. I do think it's notable, since I couldn't help but steal a glance, that the Top 50 Books included (in the top 10 no less!) Motion Picture Funnies Weekly, Captain Marvel Adventures 1, Wow Comics 1 and Double Action Comics 1. Pretty amazing when you consider in tandem the Duck books from a few years before that. The hierarchy has definitely changed since then to include numerous classic covers and the like!! (Marvel 1 was first, btw).

Do you really think that's the same one?? I recall the ads, especially in Overstreet 11 with the Cole cover, about the re-creations. I figure that's one he must've had multiple requests for. Boy, if I could pick only one Cole cover commission...

Cool books!! GLWTS!

At some point in every thread about the Church Action 1 or the Allentown Detective 27 or the like, someone bemoans that those books are locked up in Dave's collection. Upon reading such remarks, I always feel a little guilty for having the exact opposite reaction - "Good. I'm glad those books are locked up and safe," I think to myself. Otherwise, they'd go under the press multiple times like the Windy City Marvel Comics 1 or the recent Batman 1. Heck, if anything, I'd rather see a VG-ish Captain Easy with some unsightly cover waviness hit the press rather than NM copies of All Select that already look like they popped out of a time machine. I joke about being buried with my comics, but really I'm just a steward of those books, be they an Action 1 or Stumbo the Giant in Tinytown. At least then let me be a mindful steward.

The books themselves are great! I'd buy a nice hardcover book picturing them a la the Gerber Photo-Journals like someone mentioned earlier in the thread. I would, of course, prefer they were captured in their glorious, unmolested raw state were such a book ever to be offered.

Okay, I'll try my best to be happy if you concede there's nothing altruistic going on here. Good fortune, you say? Are these books being handed out at a children's hospital or something? No, the same old big money machine is revving up and many thousands of dollars will be flying around wildly, and 99.9% of the people who enjoy comics will never hold one of these books in their hands much less own one, and then on the back end there will be even more excitement and money flying around when the powers-that-be offer micro-trimming or some such "service" and the cycle starts anew... It's not sour grapes: I'm really, really content as a hobbyist with my crappy old Four Colors at ten bucks apiece. It's not at all about the have's and the have-not's. I don't hate Elon whether he's worth a million or two hundred billion on a given day. More than anything, I just hate the entrenched malpractice we're seeing perpetrated here.

Then why am I not happy? For starters, I will never own a single one of these books. I may as well try to find happiness in the fact that as a dutiful art lover I should be pleased-as-punch that Stephen Cohen and David Geffen get to trade $100 million dollar paintings. Or as a once-a-month poker player that there's a new super-swank casino opening in the south of France with the coolest card room ever that I'll never step foot in. But more than that is the fact that I belong to a hobby that is split - who knows if it's down the middle? - on whether or not it's good stewardship to take what are likely in many cases to be the best copies in existence and F with them: errrr, I mean, maximize them. I get it: leave no money on the table, bla bla bla. The long term effects cannot be known, but are often dismissed with a wave of the proverbial hand. The short term risks, however infrequent the damage, are obvious from some of the scans already posted. Ergo, someone cannot say pressing carries no risk. So maybe I'd like to see one of the largest conduits of books for the hobby take the lead and stop codifying faulty stewardship and this reflexive malpractice. They'd still get record prices across the board and if someone wants to CPR one of these treasures down the road, then that would be on them. Stop doing it at the institutional level! Respectfully yours, Grumpy old man

Are you implying this is likely due to pressing and therefore avoidable?

I like the Archie Annual 10 peeking out as well as some paperbacks on the shelf below that, which look to include Green Mansions (a strange choice) and possibly Whip Hand and Behind the Flying Saucers. The Crumb checklist is also neat. I always like seeing what else people collect!

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A hobby that doesn't involve F5, F5, F5...

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Some sort of fumble-fingered screenshot mayhem!

No kidding! I though I did that!!

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Hulk 1 >> Marvel bronze.

I like the area around Anamosa and Stone City - Grant Wood country.

That was a killer lot!!

well, that's nearly everybody!!

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