Zolnerowich

Thanks Mike! It has been a fun ride!

Agreed!

And for the very last book... ... ... nah, let's wait one more day! But here's a nice little nugget from Planet #37:

Second to last book. PLANET #65 This cover usually ranks in the top 3 for many Planet-minded folks. I wouldn't necessarily disagree, though have a soft spot for the Rivets. It's very hard to find this book, especially these days, and especially in higher grade. I'd owned a lower-grade copy of this issue for a few months before snagging this copy as an upgrade. As per comics.org, the identity of the cover artist is "Joe Doolin ?" Well, whoever drew this cover had a fine appreciation for curving lines!

You have impeccable taste! But be warned, Planet Comics are highly addictive. There's no going back to the Land of Tepid Comics once you buy your first Planet.

OK. In position three of the last 3 books: PLANET #63 Also courtesy of Ricksneatstuff. The penultimate issue prior to the reprint run of #65-70. Some strong artists in this issue, including George Evans, George Roussous, and Enrico Bagnoli. Another rehash of Freudian Earth borers. Editor: "The cover looks good. But I think it needs a dinosaur, Yes, put in a dinosaur."

Ever closer to the finish line... PLANET #36 This was another book that suddenly became hard to find, at least in my myopic OCD frame of mind. eBay had been carrying a few copies of this issue, and then it just dried up. This copy came from Ricksneatstuff, and while I'd been holding out for a stronger color strike, this copy satisfied my criteria to Get The Run Done. As those with an eye for naked people, it turns out that the tiny people in the glass sphere that the jolly green giant is holding, are actually naked. How dare they! Incredible Hulk underpants prototype?

Well, the thread ain't over just yet! Only one book tonight... PLANET #66 In my increasing desperation to fill in the last few gaps in my run, I found a low-grade copy of #66 on a dealer's site. It wasn't half bad. And I might have kept it, had I not seen a nicer copy come along about 6 weeks later. Moral of the story: nicer copies do come along, sooner or later. Pictured here is the upgrade. For all my grumbling about those "reprint' issues, I am rather in awe of this cover and those purples. Another one of those classic 50's sci-fi covers that must have inspired countless B-movie directors and set designers.

I like the way you're thinking!

Is a gadzillion more than a squintillion?

Tune in for the last five books tomorrow! But as a nighttime bonus, here's a book whose cover is said to have been originally slated for Planet Comics #1...

PLANET #32 As I was getting closer to the end of the run, I couldn't find a copy of #30 anywhere. Nothing, nowhere. And then I missed out on a cool double-cover copy on the boards, which the wise @SuperGrover snatched up. As time went on (to be honest, it was probably only 2-3 months I'd been looking for a copy, though it felt like years), in my mind the #30 had become THE MOST RARE PLANET ISSUE OF ALL TIME. Then one day, I was looking at the Planet #30 data on GPA, and the site indicated there was copy for sale on MyComicShop. (Maybe from a fellow boardie??) I snapped up the book as fast as you could say "Gale Allen". The best kind of 3.0, with vibrant cover colors.

Just a couple 2018's for tonight. We're nearing the finish line... PLANET #60 Not high grade, but for many Planet Comics junkies, color trumps grade, and I liked the purples and reds on this one, and the greens, and the yellows.

PLANET #70 One of the more classic, highly stylized sci-fi covers from the 1950's pre-code era. Covers like this really captured the menace of "otherness". The film studios were doing much the same thing stylistically with their advertisements for B movies involving weird sci-fi themes. See below for an example released by MGM (1956), which shares a lot with our #70.

PLANET #43 This issue isn't super hard to find, though the cover often looks a bit washed out. Thanks to Ricksneatstuff, I was able to land a nice copy with pretty vibrant colors. Looks like most of North America is on fire. I'm sure Flint Baker and Reef Ryan (aka The Space Rangers) have it all under control.

PLANET #67 One of those Circe "come hither" set-ups. Don't fall for it, boys! Wow, just had another one of those I-never-noticed-that-on-the-cover-before moments -- from the woman's mid-thigh, look to the right, towards the right edge of the cover. You'll see that one of the spacemen has already become fatally entangled in the monster's scabby tentacles.

Thanks Jason! Feel free to post some of your Rivets here for some "contrast and compare" banter!

PLANET #71 This one's got it all: spectacular space babe taking care of business, a floating upside-down city, and down below in the flying saucer, little egg-brained creatures doing the evil bidding of their harsh mistress.

PLANET #61 Another molten space ship hull! We've seen this before. See: Planet #7, on page 5 of this thread. Almost a spitting image. (I prefer #7.)

Nine of the last thirteen books I needed were late issues, between #60 and #71. As I mentioned earlier, my initial goal of just collecting the issues through the 1940's ended up coming back to bite me, as many of these had climbed in price over the years I had ignored them. PLANET #69 Nice dramatic tension in this one. Who will prevail? The red-winged harpy and her green minions, or the hapless space men? Or maybe it's all an innocent mix-up!

Continuing with the 2018 books... PLANET #24 Nice color palette. I could do without the dust shadows on this one, but there's not many copies out there, and who knew when another nice mid-grade copy would surface!?! With this book I now had all issues between #1-31.

Now the year is 2018. It's been 10+ years, on and off, in pursuit of Planet Comics. At the beginning of this year, I'm still in need of fifteen issues. A bit of pseudo-philosophy here, which I'm sure has been said before: When a collector decides to complete a run, there comes a point when it becomes a VERY difficult job. Imagine, when you first decide to collect Planet Comics, you own none of them, so any issue you come across is an issue you need for the collection. You can cruise along like this for a good long while; after all, there's a heckuva lot of issues you need to find, and as long as a given book fits within your price range and grade range, it's all good. But then the time comes when you're close to completing the run, and that's when it becomes a huge challenge. It's all about the statistics: the chance of finding a Planet book is very high, but the chance of finding a specific Planet book is much lower, especially when there's only a handful of specific Planet books you need to complete the run. Sort of like, the chance of someone winning the lottery is high (since after all, someone will win), but the chance of a specific person winning the lottery (let's say, Sqeggs for example), would be extremely low. This can lead to one of three outcomes, some involving more questionable judgment than others: Abandon the quest to complete Exercise extreme patience (knowing this might take another few years) Make rash and costly purchases to complete the run whatever it takes Well, I went with option #3, mostly. I'll make note of some of those books that -- if I hadn't felt so compelled to complete these Weird Adventures on Other Worlds -- I might have made different choices, mostly in terms of grade/quality. But first up, a very tough book, and my last Rivet: PLANET #17

Maybe I should find a publisher! Clearly Pulitzer Prize-winning material!

Yes. There is a lot of luck in this funny books business. But patience also counts. So is that copy of Planet 15 yours, Jack? Color strike is pretty close to my copy.

Yep, Soft-Serve was a class act.