Robot Man

any space western...nazis on the moon...

Sure, next time I dig out that box. Stay tuned...

Any issue in particular? Pretty sure I have the whole run.

Couple more "In the Wild" "Paul" finds today. Love all the writing on them!

And, an un-expected surprise! "Paul" sighting! A friend who was selling sports collectibles had these two books sitting on his table. He bought these from Joe at a collectibles show. Got 'em very cheap because as he said: "They have writing all over them". That is the most writing i've ever seen on a "Paul" comic. Kinda funny what he wrote. I have a feeling that I will bump into a lot more "Pauls" in the future out here because Joe not only sold to private parties and ebay but at several toy shows and the Long Beach Comic Con as well.

Well, it's a beautiful Sunday and that means a trip to the Rose Bowl Flea Market for Robotman! Did OK today. I managed to find a nice vintage gum ball machine, and a few nice advertising pieces including this. Kayo was of course Moon Mullin's side kick in the funny paper in the 1930's. How many of you knew he had his own bottled drink? I love this very large embossed tin sign and was lucky to find it.

Next up is Western Adventures #3 sporting a great Graham Ingels cover and used in Seduction of the Innocent. Again, as glossy as the day it rolled off the press! Again, sorry for the murky photo. These are WHITE!

Hey Kids Comics!

Since I was ranting on about the "good 'old daze" and my trip to Casual Con to lay my eyes on box fulls of the sweetest comics I've ever seen, I thought I'd post a couple from that day. As I said, I was heavily into EC's, Pre-code Horror and Censorship books. A gentleman name Bob Nastasi on the other coast and I were jonesing for any we could find. Between the two of us, we found and informed Overstreet of their existance. Bob still owns a store in NY somewhere. If you are reading this Bob, Howdy!

First up is Jumbo #155 used in Parade of Pleasure.Hard to tell by this crappy photo but this is one of the glossiest books I own!

Gotta sign off. Going over to a friends house to see today's Dodger game on Internet feed. A few more weeks my friend!

Have a good weekend!

It was a different time then. A few years earlier At the small local cons, ECs were $4-8 each on average unless they were "mint". At the same time there were dollar boxes under tables full of pre-code horror and other "odd" stuff that wasn't real popular. You could get most horror books other than ECs in there. And I got down on my hands and knees and pulled out loads of those. I kinda laugh to my self today when I see what some of my dollar books go for today! How about Phantom lady's for a buck? Oh, good times!

I was stupid and traded a lot away long time ago for stuff I wanted more at the time. Pedigree was an unknown term back then. A few years ago I got a couple back from someone I had traded with. Much different value by then!

Honestly I don't know what I would have taken first. What is most emblazened in my mind about looking through Burrel's haul is still the oddball books that impressed me so much because I had never seen them before. On top of one of the stacks was an issue of International Crime #1 ... a book we hardly even talk about today ... but which I can still picture like it was yesterday. And I'd still love to have that book. I know what I would pick if I knew then what I know now. But I would have picked a bunch of crazy stuff back them because EVERYTHING would have been new to me.

Yeah, I know what you mean. EVERYTHING looked good. I did have some focus back then but there were so many books I had never seen it was real hard to choose. Putting stuff back just killed me.

Chuck was and is a pretty smart guy to come up with the idea to get that dough together.

 

..... not only did he put it together, he put it together quick.

Here's how that thought process went... "I'll call Burrel Rowe!"

Boom...quick cash (thumbs u

 

Got his phone number? I need some dough...

I do, but he is now out of comics. He is the guy that loaned Chuck the money...$2000...to buy the collection. He was the first to get to pick books. Glorious stacks of books. I saw Burrel's stacks probably a few weeks before you saw Chuck at the show. Fried my thirteen year old peanut brain more than any drugs ever could.

Yeah, I know that story. But what happened to them? I have rarely seen any Church ECs for sale. Are they locked up somewhere? Did they get destroyed in his garage? I know he didn't get all the Friction House 'cause I got the censorship ones at that con and there were more I passed on. I know, I was pretty fried seeing those box fulls of GA goodness myself!

Can you imagine being Burrell Rowe and being the first one on the Church collection with an under guide discount? I believe he took all the EC's, a lot of Fiction House and Fawcetts. Probably some other misc stuff.

It's kind of funny that in the early years the bigger buyers, Carters, John McLaughlin, Verzyl, Redbeard went for quantity not quality. I know I did. I just couldn't get enough of them. For years, the collection was fairly intact because of Chuck's aggressive pricing. The dentist really had the forsight to buy the big ones.

Now my question to you... If you were Burrell, what would you take first? (Not knowing what you know now of course). Me, I would have definately grabbed all the EC's first. After that, all the pre-code horror I could then if I had any money left over a few Caps. What would you have taken back then?

Here is my Little Golden Book wall rack. Sorry it isn't full of books but I'm too lazy to dig 'em out of the garage. I believe it is from the late 1950's. It has slots for 10 books. I've got to put it to good use one of these days...

Chuck was and is a pretty smart guy to come up with the idea to get that dough together.

 

..... not only did he put it together, he put it together quick.

Here's how that thought process went... "I'll call Burrel Rowe!"

Boom...quick cash (thumbs u

Got his phone number? I need some dough...

Recent addition to my Frazetta covers collection.

 

Awsome Book! Nice look for the grade too. I always thought this could have been a "lost" Buck Rogers Famous Funnies cover. Every bit as good.

late 40s Standard

 

Good Gorilla Art! I mean Girl art!

Another fruitful mailbox trip today! If only my camera didn't suck.

Wow, brother! You are on a roll! Better take a better photo or I'll have to drag my boxes out again...

I only need Tec 152 to have all the 1st cover appearance of Batman's leading

women.

 

My latest two

 

Great books! I love the Batwoman's Bat Cycle!

And finally another cool flea market score. A 1950's wooden Dell comics store rack. One of several old comic racks I've turned up over the years. I switch it up all the time. I just had it full of Christmas comics. My non-collection friends always find it fun.

Bob

Someone just put one of those Dell racks up on ebay, albeit in much worse shape than yours and probably at a much higher price ($1,200), but I'm sure it will sell. And before my mention of eBay sets off the usual whines complaining about the site, I want to say that there are still incredible deals and finds to be made on eBay. I just picked up this rack on eBay ... for cheap:

Wow! Awesome rack! I've never seen one like that. Very easy to date. I actually prefer the folding racks like that. They take up a lot less room if not in use. Funny thing, my Dell rack is complete as pictured. But, about a year later, I found another one of the blue panels with wording on it at an antique show all by it's self. I bought it and put it at the bottom so now mine has 3 blue panels. I recently picked up a cool 1950's Little Golden Book wire hanging rack. Only one I've ever seen. I will try and shoot a photo and post it later.

Little Golden Books .....post 'em if ya got 'em I just got back from the Williamsburg Film Festival that has a focus on old vintage movies with a focus on westerns. My comic dealer buddy there has a friend / partner who usually brings LGB's but didn't this year. He'll usually have real nice first print examples. GOD BLESS...-jimbo(a friend of jesus) (thumbs u

...... yeah....he doubled his investment with that 1 day show..... what a fantastic thing to have happen to you. I think I'd rather find the Mile High collection than win the Lottery. GOD BLESS...

 

-jimbo(a friend of jesus) (thumbs u

Yeah, I might agree with you. It would certainly be a whole lot more fun. My problem is that I am a hopeless collector. There would be so many that would just have to keep...

There has been so many people that have given Chuck a bad rap over this. I think it is just sour grapes. Under the circumstances, I doubt there are too many of us that would have done the same thing in a heartbeat. I'd be willing to bet that if he hadn't those books wouldn't exist today.

I also heard someone tell me in disparaging terms that he didn't have the money so he had to borrow it. I certainly didn't know any of my 21 year old "hippy" friends who had that kind of scratch at the time either. Chuck was and is a pretty smart guy to come up with the idea to get that dough together.

And finally another cool flea market score. A 1950's wooden Dell comics store rack. One of several old comic racks I've turned up over the years. I switch it up all the time. I just had it full of Christmas comics. My non-collection friends always find it fun.

Bob

Someone just put one of those Dell racks up on ebay, albeit in much worse shape than yours and probably at a much higher price ($1,200), but I'm sure it will sell. And before my mention of eBay sets off the usual whines complaining about the site, I want to say that there are still incredible deals and finds to be made on eBay. I just picked up this rack on eBay ... for cheap:

That con was a loooong time ago. Here's what I can remember. It was a small local con as we used to have often here. Chuck shows up with many box fulls of the Church books. Might have been his first public saleof them. He was asked why he traveled so far for a small one day show and apparently spilled the beans on his recent find.

 

I remember seeing a lot of people by his table so I went over to take a look. He had one table full of boxes of books. Guys were very aggressive and hogging boxes. I remember seeing them grabbing a lot of average GA DC's. I was amazed at the condition as I had never seen old books that nice. I moved to the boxes toward the edge of the table. This was mostly late '40's early '50's stuff (my interest at the time). I bought all the censorship books I could find (SOTI ect). I did get a lot of misc stuff like some Avon one shots, Fox books, a couple Atlas war and crime (very little Atlas and no horror books) and other books that just interested me.

 

I remember guys grumbling that he was charging 2-4 times "guide" but they were so nice we bought them anyway. I spent all the rest of my money (maybe $200) at his table. It kills me now to think of what I had to leave but consider myself lucky to get what I did get. That summer I saw him at San Diego con but by then, the word was out and I didn't get much. To this day, I have rarely seen books so beautiful..

 

You can read his account (which is pretty accurate) in his Tales from the Database on his web site. It is in section 13 of the Mile High collection installment. I don't think he published his list until after the Casual Con show.

 

Unfortunately, over the years, I sold and traded a lot of them away. They wern't known as "pedigree" books back then. There are probably quite a few floating around out there that are unknown. One I remember well was The Dead Who Walk oh, I wish I had that one back... Epic day!

 

...thanks for taking the time to post. What a lot of people won't realize is that back then, double and triple guide on a lot of books was 10 to 15 bucks. One book that sticks in my mind because it's a favorite cover is Detective Comics 71..... IIRC it's on his CBG list @ $35 in '77 in NM..... There are still a LOT of MH books out there that have never been put up for sale again. I do remember seeing some Atlas horror on the list...like the later Venus issues..... maybe he felt they weren't worth lugging around. Boardie MarkWoodcock committed the original list to a more user friendly format a few years ago.... but God only knows how many pages back that would be. GOD BLESS...

 

-jimbo(a friend of jesus) (thumbs u

That's true, by today's standards those prices seem so low. But it is all relative. Minimum wage was $2.00 an hour. My total living expenses were about $300.00 a month. I was pretty much living paycheck to paycheck. My disposable income was very little. I actually had a life that didn't revolve around comic books. Bringing $250 to a comic con was really living large! Chuck said he made around 4 grand at that show. Consider what that collection cost? He really made out.

I don't recall seeing many big keys. Just lots of miscellaneous stuff and a lot of DCs. I was more than happy to get the "scraps" because I got what I really wanted at the time.

I do remember that he sucked all the money out of the room when he set up. Dealers were just leaving their tables un-attended as they made a beeline for Chuck. Nobody but Chuck made any money that day.

Sure wish I could have bought more because the secret was out after that...

Very nice pick-up! One of the better "early" covers. First time I saw that and looked inside, I knew I had to have it too!

That con was a loooong time ago. Here's what I can remember. It was a small local con as we used to have often here. Chuck shows up with many box fulls of the Church books. Might have been his first public saleof them. He was asked why he traveled so far for a small one day show and apparently spilled the beans on his recent find.

I remember seeing a lot of people by his table so I went over to take a look. He had one table full of boxes of books. Guys were very aggressive and hogging boxes. I remember seeing them grabbing a lot of average GA DC's. I was amazed at the condition as I had never seen old books that nice. I moved to the boxes toward the edge of the table. This was mostly late '40's early '50's stuff (my interest at the time). I bought all the censorship books I could find (SOTI ect). I did get a lot of misc stuff like some Avon one shots, Fox books, a couple Atlas war and crime (very little Atlas and no horror books) and other books that just interested me.

I remember guys grumbling that he was charging 2-4 times "guide" but they were so nice we bought them anyway. I spent all the rest of my money (maybe $200) at his table. It kills me now to think of what I had to leave but consider myself lucky to get what I did get. That summer I saw him at San Diego con but by then, the word was out and I didn't get much. To this day, I have rarely seen books so beautiful..

You can read his account (which is pretty accurate) in his Tales from the Database on his web site. It is in section 13 of the Mile High collection installment. I don't think he published his list until after the Casual Con show.

Unfortunately, over the years, I sold and traded a lot of them away. They wern't known as "pedigree" books back then. There are probably quite a few floating around out there that are unknown. One I remember well was The Dead Who Walk oh, I wish I had that one back... Epic day!

Annother Atlas. Battle Action #5. Great colors and gloss on this one. I believe it is the Church/Mile High copy. I bought it probably 40 years ago from Chuck at the Casual Con he mentions in his Church article. Many of my Church books came this day. I was buying the "cheaper" stuff mostly horror, crime, SOTI stuff. Most people were on the superhero stuff but I have always like the "other stuff" more and I was able to get a lot more books for the buck. It isn't listed as well as the other stuff I got that day on his master list probably because he did the list after this show I'm guessing.

 

 

I think rob_react is trying to compile an updated list of Church books. Maybe your purchases from Casual Con could be included.

Yeah maybe. The problem I have is most all of them are later books that are un-marked.They don't have any "smell" that stands out either. Probably because they were probably the later ones that were stored in the basement and not in "the closet". I have them all raw because they are much more enjoyable to me that way. You really can't see the bone white paper ot the intense gloss on some of these inside a slab. There is really something holding one in your hand that you simply miss slabbed... Now I know exactly where and when I got them. They are without a doubt Church copies. The problem is convincing someone else if I ever decided to sell them. How good is the current CGC staff at detecting pedigrees like this? I know they go by the list but it is widely known that Chuck sold a lot before he did the list. These are some of those copies. I know Chuck would be of no help and I could't really blame him after 40 years.