Dr. Love

that is very much appreciated

you need a sense of humour...to survive in the Bronx!

Baker cover? magic eight ball says....

GCD, the source CGC pulls from for accreditations, doesn't agree with JVJ on many occasions.

Yup. Colletta's fashion sense (funky patterns, as per Point Five!) was more in tune with the times than Baker's, who was more a 40's type of guy. And two of Colletta's "tells" are how he drew his background elements, clouds and plant life. But the swipe for Romantic Secrets 20 - or homage as I prefer to think of it - from Romantic Marriage 24 is pretty clear. Also remember Baker passed away in August of 1959 and his work output was greatly reduced that year. "...yet it seems at this point, Baker was only doing a routine job, without much attention to detail, possibly on account of his ill health as well as of the meager wages that Colletta was paying him." (Art of Glamour, 2012) So this is the only Charlton cover that made it into the Art of Glamour checklist, as indexed by Alberto Becattini and Jim Vadebonocoeur Jr. For what it's worth, I agree. Romantic Secrets 19 (1/59) - inked by Colletta

Besides being the most prolific romance publisher - and not by a small margin either, nearly double the output from DC - no other publisher was as brazen at cross promotion as Charlton. BUY MY BOOKS! from swimming pools - in ground "Buster Crabbe" regulation size for goodness sake! to paid trips to California Disneyland - or NYC! would you like your own Real Live PONY?! hows about a Treasure Chest, matey? or the vague but impresive WIN 8000 PRIZES

The Charlton crew was something else. All mobbed up, they say. Certainly, those with Italian heritage were very much at home. John Santangelo, the big boss. Al Fago, D*ck Giordano, Rocco Mastroserio, Sal Trapani, John D'Agostino, Vincent Alascia, Art Cappello. Vinny Colletta. And the strange one, the outcast - Steve Ditko. Trust me when I tell you there's a lot about Charlton you may not know. For instance: "At approximately 10:00 a. m., Friday, August 18th, 1955, a natural disaster struck that changed everything for the staffers at Charlton, and even threatened to close the company's doors down permanently. The aftermath of Hurricane Diane cut a swath of destruction through the Carolinas, New York, Pennsylvania, Massachusetts and, of course, Connecticut. Eleven inches of rainfall caused massive flooding that claimed the lives of hundreds of victims in the Connecticut Valley area. All 129 acres of the Charlton grounds were submerged in 18 feet of water. $300, 000 worth of paper inventory, mats, comics art work, and plates, among other things, were destroyed by the flood in minutes. "When the flood came through," Burton N. Levey, cousin to co-owner Ed Levy and Charlton executive, said, "we had to get on top of the building because the water was rising, and a helicopter landed on the roof and took us off—that's how I got out of there! I watched my car float down the river." "The press was entirely underwater, the building was underwater," Joe Gill said. "[Artist] Maurice 'Reese' Whitman had to be taken off the roof by helicopter. Cars were washed away. When the smoke cleared, Santangelo called a meeting of the artists and myself. He was an inspired speaker in his broken English, and said he was going to carry on (though, in the meanwhile, the guy had gotten umpteen dollars in flood relief from the government, for free; this was an enormous boost for him), but he couldn't continue to pay us the same 'high rates. ' He said that we could all continue working at half of what we had been working before. I was dropped to two dollars a page [a quarter of what the major companies were paying at the time]." According to the Oct. 1955 issue of Newsdealer, the springing-back of Charlton was "a story of employee personal contribution which defies the imagination." The article says how the employees and community dug Charlton out of the wreckage, ultimately running the presses again in ten days, though staffer Giordano doesn't recall "it being that quick." Nor did Burt Levy: "It was a disaster and it took us a long time to get going again." "No," Ed Konick said, "it took several months to recover; we were operating but using outside printers. It took a long time to clean up that mess." Despite notice that the company maintained "a full payroll," there is no mention of either Santangelo's disaster relief money, or the pay-cut employees suffered. "If I didn't write fast, I wouldn't be able to get along under that price structure," Gill said. "So, we were working for those rates, and the artists were only getting $13 a page. What could you expect from an artist with a wife and child, and how much time and care could you expect him to put into a page? There was the pride of doing good work, but it was impossible to do our best work consistently over a period of time. I did a lot of garbage, and some good work—not much, but some. Charlton got a helluva lot more than they paid for out of me. People who are critical of Charlton artists and writers have to remember that the price structure of the company was a big factor." Giordano said the regular rate for art—pencils and inks—was $13 a page. "After the flood, it was halved to $6. 50; later it went up to $10; later still back to $13."

I'm not sure, Ron. I can see mid 200's for this book, but it's gotta be two guys throwing punches? A bit of a head scratcher. pros: Romance ON FIRE well, given MCS' hard grading, it seems clear that if graded it would be the highest graded (vs the sole 5.0 at present). It's a #1 in a decent sized 10 year run of 45 issues. #1's get the bump, always. It's a Charlton. Sooner or later the runt of the litter gets its day in the sun, rotation wise. Early Charltons are very very rare in grade - which for Charlton, means Fine and better. $430 is yesterday's $130? But 5 years ago you couldn't get that for this book, except maybe from me if it was a VF, not a F. cons: It's a Charlton! Poor art, poor manufacturing. Girodano's not high on the collectible artist list. It's post code. But then, all Charltons are post code, except for True Life Secrets and Pictorial Love Stories.

MCS auction, graded as Fine went for $430 not what I would call shocking, but instead things that make you go...wait, what?

Have you tried reaching out to Mike Nelson about your concerns?

not to mention that wannabe Infantino he's the worst

indeed, jimbo!

April 1957 as a matter of fact As far as the distinctive DC look - we can thank Ira Schnapp for that. Check this out, boys, it's fascinating - The Visionary: the Life and Times of Super DC Designer IRA SCHNAPP https://web.archive.org/web/20070107230611/http://www.dialbforblog.com/archives/372/

another of the infamous board Rorschach tests

Answer: A dedicated romance sales offering. By zoso! Question: What is the thing you least expected to see, on the boards, in 2024? GLWTS, sir!

recently, like last month, achieved the sole high grade by .5 (on the interior cover) a book that's not known for it's cover, and is pretty well represented (12) in half grades down to 5.5 HA bringing the heat, and then some. Congrats to the seller and buyer!

Two fighting it out for this highest grade HA does bring the heat

The refutation of physical damage to the book, twice and strongly, on the seller's part is the most concerning aspect of this kerfuffle. Either it was a bald faced lie or the eyes wouldn't see what the mind didn't want to see. Hit the bricks it is and good riddance.

Why take possession of the slab? You can see an image of it elsewhere. For that matter, why even need to see the image of the specific book? You know what the book looks like in general. Let's day trade the grade instead. And as long as we're doing that, options are reasonable as well - puts and calls - the right to buy or sell a particular grade of a particular book at a particular price. Just like acorns embody the possibility of the oak tree, once slabs were created all of the above became possible outcomes as well.

Just so. Red pill yourself, this thing we think of as a book, once slabbed, is just an image and then became just a number. Like the idea of money itself, a dream within a dream!

Schrodinger's slab

9.4 promo? whats up with that?

just sayin

Crazy teenager - and her crazier "uncle"

The opening scene from Ep 1 takes a bit less than 3 minutes and is absolute Reacher perfection. Everything about it embodies everything about Reacher. Everything they wrote after that scene does not. The supporting characters in that scene - the shop gal, the victim, the victim's son, the bad guy - all lean into who Reacher is and how he operates in the world. The writers know how to deliver peak Reacher - if they want to. They've got lightning in a bottle with Ritchson and appear determined to muck it up. Keep it simple - he's a simple simple man, that's the appeal - solitary, strong, violent, loyal, honorable, intelligent but non verbal - and the essence of the Reacher story is he stumbles on a thread end and pulls on it as the Alpha Protector, unflinchingly follows where it leads. Like the opening in Ep 1. And I don't want to see Reacher run. Tom Cruise runs. Reacher. Doesn't. Run. If you get this, you'll get him.