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Lily Renee passed away 3 days after this topic was created, ironic. She was fantastic.

Thank you. I referenced previously that I thought it might be based on an interview I saw, and it was confirmed by a boardie that I know is informed on everything GA Batman. That said, you could certainly be right. The interview refers to the Superman 1 7.0, and the first appearance of Batman. But he may have meant the Batman 1. …boardie mentioned that he spoke with Heritage to confirm.

I can see this as a tough situation that an auction house like Heritage would have experience with, and have to have a plan of what to do if/when. I don’t know all of the details. But the 7.0 was in previews before the 8.0 came along. The 8.0 was from the Fanfast collection from Detroit, which may have been as big of a find as the Promise Collection. The Tec 27 was from the same collection. If part of that collection comes to your doorstep, you need to thread the needle where both conisgnors are happy. What you can’t do is alienate the whale, while also not treating the consignor of the 7.0 like they’re not valued. If it were me, I’d probably make both consignors aware, and offer both the alternative of being in the following signature auction 3 months later. Inform consignor #2, the 8.0 upfront, offer placement of their copy in either. Then inform the 7.0, and perhaps offer some concession to the 7.0 of a percent take or placement later. In the end, there’s no perfect answer. Supply and demand, but supply is what it is. What they couldn’t do is turn down either book.

I guess the Detective 27 is from this collection. Might qualify as a pedigree down the road if so?

I don’t own one, but have always thought this to be undervalued…

Exceptional work, thank you for sharing this with us.

Great job!

Anyone aware of a high grade copy of this book anywhere on the planet? I believe the highest graded is an 8.0, then a 7.0. But my guess is one or more of the forever raw collections out there has a minty copy

My understanding of their grading process is they have three graders that give it a grade and not defects, but there is one primary grader that assigns a final grade. He/she doesn’t average anything. The final grader chooses the number.

AAA

Can’t go wrong with Mr. Baker

Snagged these two

I get it. I was needling a little, didn’t take the time to read that others had already. I don’t think you even intended it exactly as it’s written. Kamen was prolific. And yeah, they knew each other. Much of their art is similar enough to where they can be mistaken for the other. CGC gets their slabs wrong consistently, attributing certain covers to one when it’s the other. And in some cases, nobody knows which of the two it was. To your point, much of Baker’s best was the St. John books in the early 50s. The cover that I’m most curious about is Jo-Jo 25. If I didn’t know the history and was purely guessing based on other work, I would guess Phantom Lady 17 was Jack Kamen and Jo-Jo 25 Baker. Kamen was very good. Thanks for the thread.

Of note, the covers HG Peter did in the early 40s of Wonder Woman were anything but attractive. Something changed in the late 40s About 5 years after she was introduced, she was being drawn much better in every aspect. I guess a lot changed during that time. The war had ended among other things. There were damsels in distress drawn “pretty” among many publishers, Fiction House being an obvious one. Pulps too. Comment from an earlier post, Tiger Girl is a good example of a well drawn woman, not in distress, and likely similar to what Baker would have done with Wonder Woman or perhaps Supergirl (blonde). Can’t remember her name, but Seven Seas Island girl and Phantom Lady are good examples of what we might have expected from Baker with Wonder Woman. She was drawn well consistently by 1950. Catwoman suffered the same. It took some time before she was drawn well for whatever reason.

I agree

Bro, you lost me with one comment. Baker was not the Greatest Good Girl Artist in the history of the medium other than Jack Kamen. He was better than Jack Kamen. Jack Kamen would have told you he was better than Jack Kamen. You’re not wondering how Jack Kamen would have drawn Wonder Woman or Supergirl. That’s not an accident. Nobody collects Kamen. Baker is the preeminent dude. Not the other way around.

I think we may agree on this. Baker was freelance. If memory serves, his early work was Fiction House, mostly uncredited, and not covers, or at least not complete covers. And Fox. Fight Comics, Phantom Lady, Jo-Jo, etc. And then whomever the publisher of Seven Seas was. Kamen and Baker knew each other, worked together. Many were inspired by, and mimicked Baker. Kamen particularly, and on Fox and Fiction House, their art is so similar, you can’t really tell them apart. This was circa late 40s. St. John was mostly early 50s. These books are so distinctly Baker, there is no one else many of them could possibly be. Cinderella Love 25 couldn’t possibly be anyone else. Giant Comics Edition 12 and 15, True Love Pictorials, Pictorial Romances, Teenage Romances and Temptations, Authentic Police Cases, Canteen Kate, Flamingo. The women are unmistakable. Kamen could draw Phantom Lady all day, and you couldn’t tell them apart. Or if you could, you found some small tell. They’re virtually identical. Seven Seas, I’d guess Kamen could come close, but couldn’t copy completely. But the St. John Bakers is what makes Baker special in my opinion. Phantom Lady and Seven Seas, and others came first. That matters. But the craftsmanship from later Baker is Schomburg or Frazetta in its unique quality of a preeminent artist that no one compares to. In my opinion, that is what makes Baker singularly special. And it’s the women, not the men. Are the men distinct? I don’t know, probably. But it’s the way he drew women for St. John that is his standout quality above the rest.

I have a different tell. Many of the women he draws, their faces. I can’t tell 100% every Baker from every non-Baker, but there are 100+ Bakers where the rendering of the woman’s face is unmistakable. It’s as clear as the way Frazetta drew a woman’s body. Probably more so. Not all women, not Fox. St. John in particular. I’d guess if I didn’t know the catalog, I could guess perfectly whether it’s Baker or not, if there’s a woman’s face on the cover. I’ve never seen anyone else draw them remotely similar. Feldstein was closest, but not close. Kamen could mimic Baker and/or Vice-versa on a lot of stuff, but not St. John books. Those are all unmistakable.

There’s no chance that’s not Baker. It couldn’t be anyone else.

I don’t know how many books they grade on a daily/weekly/monthly basis. I’m sure they grade many many times more modern books than Gold. Perhaps 5,000 books is a big overwhelming wave of GA over a short time, in relatively high grade, and they don’t know how to handle it.

Can I crack this book and ask for it to be regraded by the same grader that graded those two books. I don’t expect a 9.9 or anything. 9:8 is all I’m asking for. Top left corner knocks it down from a 10 to a 9.9, maybe 9.8

There’s sometimes a fine line between knit-picking and an actual issue. This isn’t anywhere near fine line. Those books are pretty, but those flaws definitely knock a book down to lower than a 9.4, even if the books are perfect otherwise. It’s probably okay for quality control to be imperfect for a short time, but they better fix it quickly. CBCS doesn’t suck. CGC has brand name recognition for a reason. But if they’re going to mail it in, there is an alternative. It’s like Coke introduced New Coke. If they don’t go back to the same level of quality grading they had before, Pepsi is waiting in the wings. I wonder what the issue is. Covid? There’s something way off. I’ve never seen them anywhere near this inconsistent.

Great book for Baker fans. I’ll have to revisit for that interview...