Robot Man

I wouldn't call either cover "classic". "Iconic" maybe on both. The first thing you see when you open a Bat#1 is "The legend of the Batman and how he came to be". Really starts the book and the series right. 

5 hours ago, N e r V said:

I don't know if I would have sold the getting a Corvette thing short though...

 

I'd be telling her to get her butt off my Vette!  

Was going through the horror boxes and doing some shuffling. I re-discovered this book. Forgot about it I guess. I remember getting it signed by Mr. Wood at one of the old San Diego Convention Center cons just before he passed away. I got this, Earthman on Venus and MAD #1 signed. He didn't even remember doing the book and was very surprised to see it. No doubt, because sadly, he was nursing a bad hangover. He didn't seem to be happy to be there at all. Very sad end for one of the most talented artists in the Golden Age. Nonetheless, I was honored to spend a few moments with him. RIP Wally!

On 9/13/2017 at 8:54 PM, Wayne-Tec said:

Cap #1, to me, is one of the most desirable GA books to own coverless. Like Action #1, the splash page kicks off the origin and first appearance of the character. Joe Simon's Captain America on the splash page (correct me if I'm mistaken) predates Kirby's classic cover. Like Action #1, of course you'd prefer to have the cover, but the book is chock full of content which enhances the desirability.

I would agree but I have to throw Batman #1 in there. What a book. Origin of the Batman, First Joker and first Catwoman. Just packed with great material. If I mention to my non collecting friends that I have a coverless copy, their first question is "What is it worth? Can't be much without a cover" When I tell them, they can't believe it. They have no idea what Action #1 or Detective #27 are until I tell them but they all know what a Superman or Batman #1 are. Has always been one of the biggest "holy grail" books.

Blizzard on eBay!

52 minutes ago, Sqeggs said:

Heck of a group shot, Bob.  Congrats on assembling them.

As with a lot of things connected with St John, I'm not sure which books should be included in this series and which shouldn't. For instance, are these two (you've got one of them in your group shot) part of the series? 

Yes, they are part of the series. They just never jazzed me enough to pick up. Neither did the Mighty Mouse ones mostly. Nice copies by the way. These giants are pretty hard to find above vg generally.

20 hours ago, Ricksneatstuff said:

I would say today was a good day at the office 

Thanks @szavisca for reminding me these were out there. 

 

Oh, so cool Rick. I think that is the last 3 I need for the set. I'm in no hurry though...

1 hour ago, SharpComics.com said:

Ok Hector...wheres the GOOD stuff?!???

Really, same old Silver Age swill...

On 9/3/2017 at 6:33 AM, n2wdw said:

Seduction of the Innocent

Recently I finally got an affordable copy of Seduction of the Innocent, complete with the bibliography (thanks @SOTIcollector!).  I have to say, after years of hearing about it, the bibliography didn't quite live up to my expectations .  But anyway, you need only look at some of the titillating and gruesome covers from the golden age, next to the tame and sanitized covers of today (by comparison), and you can see the huge impact of this book on the history and direction of comics.  I haven't yet read the book yet, but Wertham certainly picked good examples to make his point that comics were a bad influence on kids:

Here are pictures of the book displayed in my comic room:

SOTI is a must have for any serious comic collector. Back in the 1970's I was obsessed with trying to find as many books as possible mentioned in it. I sent a ton of info in in Bob Overstreet. You should also try to find a copy of "Love and Death" by Gershon Legman. Also this book. A lot harder because it was published in England. Well worth the hunt!

8 hours ago, Pontoon said:

Read the title about comic dressing and was expecting a different type of thread, something along the lines of this:

The messed up bed and Cheetos bags are a nice touch...

40 minutes ago, sacentaur said:

Sure does, it really is a stunner in every regard.

Got it long ago from Chuck Wooly, don't know if that name rings a bell to anyone but you he used to put out an auction catalog back in the day and he also did the pamphlet book on DC pre-hero (yellow binding with an image of the iconic panel from More Fun 14 on the cover).

I remember Chuck. I bought quite a few books from him in the day.

25 minutes ago, szavisca said:

My impression is that most people here treat brittle pages like kryptonite...and would only take something brittle if it were the only copy left on earth...

But maybe someone could start a "show me your brittle beauties" thread or something....

I'm pretty much in that camp. Along with rat chews and mold. Pretty much everything else is a case by case basis. CGC's brittle and mine are often quite different. Dark brown pieces in the bottom of a slab or mylar and I run run away.

3 hours ago, n2wdw said:

Yep, no doubt.  My wife doesn't get me comics, but she leaves me alone with my comics (even though many have pretty girls on the covers), so she's a keeper too!

So has this ever happened to you?  I posted that Rangers 25 CGC 1.8 but I swore I had bought a better copy.  Was I dreaming?  Or did I buy it and never get it?  For about an hour I had a major panic attack!  But then I found it.  Whew!  Talk about almost ruining your day!

My wife also gives me old "girly" and pin up mags as well as vintage nudie photos when she runs into them!

Yeah, I've bought books twice without knowing as well as misfiling books. Now is this horror? crime? GA? oh, and it's a Canada copy. Never a problem having two copies of a cool Rangers like that!

2 hours ago, Sqeggs said:

Strangely enough, I just bought a copy this morning.  Must be a pretty common book, I guess.

Nice one Tony! Those cool Raboy Masters have all but disappeared from shows and even the bay these days...

On 9/12/2017 at 4:10 PM, Sqeggs said:

The Heritage archives is also useful.  Although all the prices are, of course, included in GPA, you can still scrutinize scans of the actual copies to get an indication of why a particular book sold for more or less than you might have expected for the grade.

Browsing eBay and dealers' sites also gives you an idea of the max prices books are likely to sell for.

Until recently, I argued that except for hot books, Overstreet was in the ballpark for most GA.  Lately, though, it seems like almost across the board his prices are low compared with auction results. 

Trouble is, almost any book can get super hot very quickly. Real hard to keep up any more.

2 hours ago, n2wdw said:

Dastardly GGA Bondage -- Torture Wheels

I'm still giddy after winning Dark Mysteries #19 this week in the C-Link auction.  I missed out on all my other C-Link bids last night, and also struck out in the C-Connect auction, but with DM19 it's still a winning week for me.

Here's C-Link's description of DM#19. 

I'm fascinated with torture wheel covers.  What is the beautiful girl being wheeled into?  Water (pretty tame)?  Sharp knives?  Snakes?  Acid?  Or just being held to be tortured? They make the "dastardly GGA bondage" list in my book.  Here are some others:

 

My wife likes to roll her eyes and tell her friends. My husband loves to collect any comic "with a chick tied to a wheel". She's an antique dealer and has found me a lot of old comics and pulps. She's a keeper!

On 9/9/2017 at 3:15 PM, n2wdw said:

The Gallery and Dave Stevens

Outside the comic room is a hallway that I call the Gallery, where I display art.

Recently I picked up this signed and numbered Vampirella by Dave Stevens.  Here's it displayed on the right side of Gallery 1.

I got it for a good price because it was personalized.  But unfortunately, the prior owner's first name wasn't Mike.  After much thinking about it, I decided to cover up the name.  First I tried white out but that didn't work.  So then I turned to white tape.  I'm not real happy with the results so I might play around with it more.

I'm also thinking about moving this s/n print into the comic room, and displaying something else in the gallery.  This is, though, one of my favorite Steven's covers.  I've got it in 9.6 and also a signed raw copy.

And, I have this statue too.

I would carefully take the tape off and leave it the way it is. That looks funky.

I really miss Dave Stevens. He was a local boy. I remember going to a few parties at his house. A real "arty" crowd and a lot of fun. He had a great sense of humor and a real down to earth guy!

On 9/12/2017 at 11:13 AM, sagii said:

After i showed these two in the Census count Thread, i got to thinking: I know in the 30's -50's Movies and TV shows couldn't show a man and woman in bed due to the 'Hayes Code', that's why as an example on 'I Love Lucy' whenever there were bedroom scenes we see two separate beds for Lucy and Ricky. 

So i'm wondering what comics not yet under a 'code' dared wander into the bedroom on the cover? I'm sure @Jayman as well as others have some examples. C'mon, let's have some fun before auction time tonight with 'Boudoir Tuesday' 

On September 7, 2017 at 9:09 PM, Artboy99 said:

I agree, just awesome.

Makes me want to acquire a Planet Comics bound volume.

The guy who I got the Wings bound volume from also had Planet #13-24 bound volume but wouldn't sell it to me. He eventually sold it to somebody else. So it's out there some where...

3 hours ago, path4play said:

Hi Robot Man.  Yeah, that chew pattern - it's better than a fingerprint!  

Thanks for the headsup. Page counts check out, the FF does have two Jane Arden non-disclosed paper doll cut outs but I'm ok with what I got.

Curious one can profit from on a flip between Con to eBay?  Perhaps I need to start attending more. 

The Famous Funnies you got came from Ed Robertson who was having a half or less GA sale. The 3 Fawcett lot this seller has on the bay also came half sticker from Ed. Those are Ed's stickers on the bags. Contrary to what the seller says, these are not "original owner" books. He says that with most everything. Ed's stuff wasn't outstanding stuff but at half price, a lot of cool books and ones you could make money from if you wanted. I pretty much cleaned him out of pre-code horror, and other misc stuff before this seller got there. 

The National came from a small seller with maybe half a dozen GA books. I got the #9 I posted in the Quality thread last week. Also got that weird Diary Secrets #10 from him. They were priced lower than guide and since he wasn't doing well, he discounted them well. I always look for "that guy" stuck in the back with a few nice books and having a lousy show. 

It's possible to box dig and find hidden gems if you are willing to work for them. Not many buyers attended this show as bad weekend and few dealers. I got in early and dug deep.

2 hours ago, jimjum12 said:

It kind of makes sense..... especially if, as has been assumed, that the books were at least partially intended as a reference library(... gone wild). If Edgar entertained ideas of ever working in the medium, it would have been prudent to separate the humor from the dramatic. Some people have wondered if the funny stuff may have been given away.... but if that were true, I would think coded humor books would have surfaced by now.... so likely they hit the dump. GOD BLESS...

-jimbo(a friend of jesus)

Nothing against humor fans (I'm one of them), but if a large part of them ended up in the dump, at least I'm glad they started in the other closet...

9 minutes ago, Sqeggs said:

Is that a dust shadow along the spine, or tape residue? 

Who cares, he said it was under $50.!!!

On 9/11/2017 at 7:23 AM, Sqeggs said:

Very nice.  Edgar didn't have many Four Colors, did he?  Or were they dumped by his family before Chuck bought the collection?

I tend to think Edgar didn't buy many Dells or Funny Animal books. If he had, they probably would have been mixed in randomly in the piles as Chuck told me he found them. I suspect what the family might have pitched first were random magazines and maybe pulps.

Don't you just wish Chuck had taken a few pictures of the collection in it's undisturbed state? Must have been like going into King Tut's tomb... If you ever bump into him some where, ask him about it. He loves to talk about it and has a real good relection about the experience.