Dr. Love

Thanks Bo. Here's a tough one. Dell. Huge publisher, but incredibly small footprint in the romance space. Non-existent, really, as their one attempt (Four Color #324) was more of a cross-over. I hardly count this as belonging in a romance index. A decent cover, I suppose - I've certainly seen worse. Michelle Nolan also counts Dell's two issue run of Private Secretary in her romance index. I don't count this title in mine. But the painted covers, especially this #2 with it's allover red tone, intrigue me.

Well, I know a teensy bit more overall about romance than most, but that's about it. Bo_Hogg, who probably has forgot more about rare books than most people know, is correct on all of these. And comicnoir has been dabbling in the genre for years as well. I have most of the ZD Romantic Marriage run, but I've never gotten my hands on #10. The Marilyn Sweethearts is certainly on the top 20 rare romance. And I use the term as in, hard to find and valuable. There are many hard or impossible to find romance books, which doesn't mean you'll get $10 for them. They were just so that nobody bothered to hang onto one. #119 isn't like that. I bought all of the Crowley Sweethearts run, but the dealer who brought the Crowleys out, Beschara Malouf now of Nostalgic Investments and dealing primarily in OA, wouldn't include this one. I almost threatened to walk from the deal over it, but I knew my bluff would be called, so I didn't bother with the gratuitous gesture. I did manage eventually to get my hands on a copy - in a Sweethearts small bound volume, 119 (Marilyn), 120 (I Lived in an Atom Blast Town), and 121 (Liz Taylor). I believe it was the Dentist's. GCE 13 is of course tough. Most of the big Fox books from the 6th Street Collection certainly fall into this category. As do Negro Romance, Daring Love, It Rhymes with Lust, the tiny Comic Media Confessions of Love and Honeymoon Romances. Girl Comics 3 (Liz Taylor). There are about 20 or so one shot romance books that you'll never see, but they're not particularly valuable. Same with the early Charlton silver romance. Bo, would you mind reposting your pics of Enchantment Visualettes for us? These were under discussion in a previous thread on this topic some years ago.

You saw that nice Texan, too? Texan3 canadian blb = persona non grata extremosa

has baker western left the station too?

well with these prices there should be a steady flow of low grade baker. not that there hasn't been. ebay is steady, and new slabs keep getting graded almost every 2 weeks. but with VG at $500, FN at $1000 - we should start seeing more VF/NM looking for $1500. Not that we haven't seen that happen at sparkle last year (you know who you are!), but it could become more mainstream. Price will always break books free, but to guys with money, this ISN'T real money as far as comics go. Only in the romance world is it huge. Still, an undervalued asset. imho!

OMG. That auction was really something. I almost went for the TLP 5, but just...couldn't. Who knows what it would have taken. Rick Starr, congrats. Recap Diary Secrets 18 F- $406 Dairy Secrets 24 VG/F $323 Pictorial Romances 6 F+ $203 Teen-Age Romances 14 VG $261 Teen-Age Romances 34 VG+ $478 Teen-Age Temptations 7 VG/F $149 True Love Pictorial 2 VG $137 True Love Pictorial 5 6.5 $741 True Love Pictorial 8 6.0Q $103 True Love Pictorial 10 6.0 $299 Wartime Romances 3 F- $980

That's quite the tale...secret santa...your generosity will be repaid a thousandfold hundredfold tenfold many times over would you take a marvel no-prize instead? you're a good man, charlie brown!

Giant Comics Editions

That Secrets of True Love is tough. and I would include the Teen-Age Diary Secrets 9.

Really? I don't own that book (yet). That is very interesting...

1) John Benson 2) he doesn't say 3) none Benson, from the St. John's Checklist: "Identification of the artists was done many years ago. All art identification is by Jim Vadeboncoeur, Jr. for other than for Baker and Baker-style stories. The latter, where Jim and I worked together on identification, require some special comments. One would think that Baker's dominance in the line and his distinctive style would make identi-fication of his stories a snap. But, as Jim noted, "My quick review of these stories reinforces my belief that Baker had four inkers, and that there were two people imitating him." So far as we know, all Baker stories were inked by others. We haven't attempted to guess which stories were inked by Ray Osrin or John Baker (the inkers whose names we know), and for clarity, we haven't put a "/?" after every Baker entry."

I'm starting to wonder if this one is as rare as advertised. I thought there were only two extant, but just one the boards here, we've got at least three. Yes, but I only know of those three, plus one more- that copy that sold for about $700. on eBay last August, remember? Here's the census I've been keeping on this book: RICK STARR'S copy, my copy (which is the Crippen copy), the one that sold on eBay last Aug., and another copy owned by a member of the Yahoo Romance group (he sent me a scan, years ago). Those are the only four I've been able to confirm. Anyone else have one? Never had one, only ever saw one listed in - roughly - 15 years. Is it, then, the rarest of Bakers? It could be the rarest of non-Bakers that is taken for a Baker. And don't yell at me, I'm only the messenger. Fantagraphics didn't even list it as questionable, or Baker-style. "The only St. John romance line-drawn cover not by Baker." I gather you guys would disagree?

Yup that's my copy. Or at least my copy as it looks photoshopped! It's a Crippen, but it's a 6.5 Crippen, and there's a reason for that. I'm planning to crack it, press it, and resub, even though it may replace the OW-W with a CR-OW. It's the only graded copy, but I'm pretty sure Bumble Kitty has one too. Other than that I haven't seen one around, but having said that, we'll probably get 3 more posted in the next 24 hours.

WOW

Barry, if we wanted to see back cover images of slabbed books, how would we go about doing that?

Geez Louise, white pages, white pages, white pages, white pages. How often do you see that? Mucho compression yeh? Didn't Craig say something about stacks? Makes me wonder if some of those wicked creases could get pressed out or not. Like on that TLP 11.

The only D Copy Baker I got was the All-Picture All-True Love Story #2. The posted scan made the book appear to have conspicuous cover creases... which it does, but not nearly as bad as the Heritage scan made them appear. Since buying the book, I've had those creases almost completely pressed out by Matt Nelson. Was he able to press it out as it got closer to the spine? I wonder how that goes with those squarebounds.

Not 100% sure brian but I would say couldn't be. Crawling the cgc site for data is quite the operation. Frankly, it blows my mind that they would make the investment represented by that feature on their site. Not to change the subject, but I find their whole site and operation in general sets the bar in a number of areas. There might be a few who join them in selling a book at the same grade they set when they buy it from you, but noone else states it as an upfront policy. Remarkable that it stands out in our hobby, and that we had to put up with so much over the years (beaten up on price and grade!) until the net leveled the playing field. Well, I got beaten up anyway!

Quite right duke. Yeh I got about a dozen or so of those myself. The slabbed copies were sweet, often getting highest (still) grade. The raw were...raw. Wavy if ya know what I mean.

Chuck's list had about 60 Baker romance issues. Who knows if it was hit prior to that. Some of those were apparently "true" Mile High, others clearly secondhand.

Nice group! Some key offerings, new highs. Quite the selection. I'd prefer a closed sealed bid auction for the True Believers! Set a reserve floor and let us have first crack. But if that's not to be...the heads up is much appreciated! Man o man, that's the collection that keeps on giving. Hard to plan around, but that's what you call a quality problem. TLP #7 8.0 - a high that's tied with one other and one you don't see every day #8 5.5 - new highest, really only graded copy for all practical purposes #11 6.5 - new highest in one of the top 5 (?) covers. Gnashing of teeth from the owner of the 6.0 at some undisclosed top $ price. Blue Ribbon #5 7.0 - census makes it look like only graded. Don't be misled - the highest 8.5 is lurking mislabeled as Diary Secrets #5 TAT #2 7.5 - new high for a happy cover that is always a crowd favorite. Is cgc really grading harder now than 2006, which is when the 7.0 was graded? We'll see. That spine had the advantage of staples in at least 1/4". For some that's a bug, for others a feature, or at least neutral. It sold for $550 in 2011. #3 5.0 - new high by quite a margin #4 6.0 - I used to claim my pgx 6.0 was the only graded copy. Not that that got anyone to buy it! But no longer. Trailer Girl! This cover is the BOMB #5 6.0 - new high in a somewhat crowded low grade field Teen-Age Diary Secrets #8 8.0 - new high "big head" photo cover, it's basically a shot from the neck up. Confessions of a Hat-Check Girl!

and another beauty. A census topper - and I know that's gotta be a deep, rich purple on that cover. I've always enjoyed that shot, she's a cutie. (thumbs u

Shoulda known it was yours, BK! Outstanding!!

A little Cole eye candy One of my favs. If you prefer lush Cole over psychedelic Cole, this cover's for you. A mood piece. How different artists interpret rain is always interesting. I know, I know, but...it's got LB's sensibility in terms of editing, it's a powerful study in primary colors. And as one of the few (less than 10) Liz Taylor comic book photo covers, it rocks (name the others for a no-prize).