underthebigw

Hey Jim, Just a tremendous batch of picture frames. Especially this one. Congrats.

Some odds and ends: Don't know how tough this is, but pickd up two nice copies for cheap. What the heck was this doing in a $5 bin. A beautiful copy, with most problems in the scan on the bag, not the book. Can't remember for sure, but I think this is a tougher Whitman DC variant. Never even saw this before And one lone Harvey

The thing about Charlton horror is that at least some serious collectors saw the appeal and quality, especially Ditko fans. Many actually took care of their Charlton horror books, even though they're still challenging to find in grade. Their animated and comic strip titles are another story. Virtually no one collected them and they were considered drek. The irony is that this was perhaps Charlton's best and most consistent output in the 1970's, with George Wildman and Ray Dirgo cranking out some truly entertaining work during this time. If I find one high grade Charlton animated book at a show, I'm thrilled. Needless to say, this show passed expectations. Again, the prices were outstanding. The prize of this batch: I wanna meet the man who thought anyone in the US would buy a Snuffy Smith book during the 1970's. Sweet anniversary issue that I've never seen in anything close to HG.

Here's where things get a little scary. Some Charlton romance is just truly horrible and was hopelessly out of date by the early 1970's, and some of it I just love the cover art for. Here's the good with the bad, all of it priced right and some of the nices copies I've ever seen.

And some sweet Charlton War, including my favorite war cover from the publisher, Fighting Army 124. First nice copy I've ever owned.

OK, here's the rest of my Chicago stash. What I found there was really pretty amazing--usually you see a couple of HG Charlton's at a show. At Chicago, I found tons. Horror, Romance, Cartoon. And the publisher does get a raw deal. There's some real quality stuff in with the rubbish. And, even the rubbish is so bad, it's worth collecting. First off, the horror. Chock-full-o-Ditko. Really tremendous copies, and the prices were outstanding, especially for the early 70's stuff, with some as little as $2. And from multiple dealers.

Thanks guys. Barely a dent in the pile. I'm giving up for the night. Just wait until tomorrow. I'm sure to offend someone with what I'll be posting.

Some DC War, Western, and Romance And this freakin' book. I have never come across a copy I wanted to add to my collection. This weekend, I found 3 that were nice enough to tempt me. I finally picked this one up on Sunday. And one Bat-book: Some nice Strange Adventures. I picked poorly on the first one--the dealer had about 8 copies, and I missed some flaws on this one. The second one is killer. And some sweet dollar size Unexpected's:

Some DC horror. These actually were sticker price, and came from a collection that on the surface, looked gorgeous--nice corner and edges, glossy colors, etc. Most of the books had been baked in an attic, though. I managed to pull out four that just had tremendous eye appeal and showed little signs of tanning.

Alright, let's get started. Remember, most of these books were nowhere near the price tag, and most far and away were in the $2-5 range. The occasional one broke $10, and none were over $15. I'm saying this not to brag, but to show the types of nice, HG BA deals are to be had at the Chicago show. I generally am trying for nice HG copies, but I've learned that on some of these books, especially the Charltons, no such thing may exist. So, I've become comfortable living with VF's on books I feel I may not see a better copy of in 5-10 years. Also, unfortunately, some of these left Chicago in better shape than they arrived. For example, I had a run of Marvel Tales from 1976 that easily ranged from 9.4-9.8. They're now mostly 9.2. This makes me sad. Finally, my apologies for the bags and stickers. I'm out of mylites, and don't have the time to deal right now, especially after being on the road 2 out of 3 weeks. Let's start off with the few Marvels I found. I've got 143ksk to thank for this gem. Somehow I missed it. He pulled it out and sarcastically commented, "I think this is Bronze, isn't it." I thanks him profusely. Sadly, this book suffered a spine stress on the trip home. I'm still pretty excited about it. Gorgeous. And some sweet Millies. And some Marvel horror.

March of Comics were giveaways made for retail outlets. Most had original stories, at least until the late 1970's or so. One of the main types of retail outlets were shoe stores, although other types of retailers carried them as well. My take on the shoe angle is this--shoe stores would do anything to make shoe shopping more enticing for kids and less miserable for parents. I don't know how it was in your house as a kid, but in mine, we hated shoe shopping. Let's face it, after you slid down the stool with the foot pedestal, it was all downhill. Shoes were an expensive item, even in the 1970's, compared to now, and I remember my parents taking all of us at once to try on shoes. Most of my friend's parents did the same. So, how much money do you think parents are going to spend while their brats misbehave and complain? Not much. Stick a book in their hands, and they might stay longer, resulting in a few more sales. Also, if the parents knew their kinds didn't mind going to a certain shoe store because they got free books, a store owner might have an advantage.

OK, you're all doomed. I've just scanned in almost 100 books from Chicago. I'll start posting them tomorrow. I'm intentionally going to leave out the DC's and Marvels we see all the time (actually, a bunch of them were damaged on the return trip), and you'll see why so many of us love this show. Just a tremendous selection of books to be found at bargain prices. Anyway, I'm going to start with this gem. Al Stoltz had this, and unless you collect either March of Comics or Kroft related books, you'll have no idea how incredibly tough this book is in any condition. It is just not out there. And when it is available, it is snapped up at premium prices. Another collector saw me holding it and was hoping I would put it down. No chance. One of the toughest BA books, period.

Amazing books!!! And not a pee-stain among them. Thanks, Brian.

Glad you like them. Just way too underappreciated. Here's my LT prize from the show.

Here's my Looney Tunes haul from Chicago. These all had outstanding page quality, cover gloss, and deep bright colors. I really can't believe how nice they are, and that they're mine. Another 4 checked off in my quest to finish a HG 1-100 run. I'll save the best for tomorrow.

2002 FlyingDonut, gman, ArAich, silverandbronze 2003 2004 2005 kingofrulers 2006 joeypost 2007 Count 2008 Comicopolis, Boozad, Nmtg9 2009

And, of course, a nice stash of Archies. I've only shown about 30 of the 100 books I picked up, and only made it 1/2 way through the Archies. Most of the HG ones are late '70's, but even then I've never seen HG copies of many of them. When it comes to Archies, there are definitely some issues that are much scarcer in grade--not sure why, but maybe it has something to do with multi-pacs. A nice 20 center to start the lot: This is one I have only seen beat up copies of in the past: One of the nicest copies of this milestone issue I've found-I've always loved this cover, but like a lot of collectors took Archies from this time period for granted. They are surprisingly tough to find, especially in grade. There are months where MH and Lone Star don't have certain Archie books from 1980-1983 in stock in any grade: And another touch of silver. Oh for the days when assault and battery could be the punchline of a funny-book cover.

The more I collect late-1970's Harvey's, the more I'm convinced that DIRECT DISTRIBUTION KILLED HARVEY COMICS. All through 1977-1980, Harvey was busy pumping out new titles. The market clearly supported these books, and Richie Rich alone spun-off every imaginable combination of leading characters (see below). Three or four years later, they were struggling to stay in business. I really believe that once Marvel and DC moved to largely direct distribution, even fewer outlets could justify carrying comics, depriving Harvey of their only way of reaching kids. Laugh if you want to, but this is the book I'm most psyched about in this batch. I have never seen a remotely HG copy of this book. I actually read some of it, and can see the appeal of the character in his early appearances. Here's a couple of spin-off issues I mentioned: Even as late as 1980, Harvey was even creating new Casper titles: And a sweet SA book thrown in for fun: And a few Devil Kids: I've looked for a super HG inexpensive copy of this book for a looong time. Now I have 5:

OK, more books no one cares about... OR My second trip to the "new" store with the bargain HG back issues. I made the trip, sans kids, and bought over 100 VERY nice HG books for less about 1.70 each. I went through the underappreciated stuff first, since I was clearly going to get more bang for the buck (time-wise, that is). The Marvel and DC boxes had a lot more mid and low--grade stuff to wade through and tons more un-boarded books damaged by customers, and although there were clearly gems in there, it will have to wait for another trip. Here we go: 9.6ish Super nice, with just the bindery tear: Some Charlton fun: And a Dennis:

Cross-posted in the the Funny Animals thread. Here's my Father's Day gift from my wife and kids. The best part about it is how proud my oldest daughter was to give it to me (nevermind how much she liked the cover). I'm still amazed at how inexpensive some of these early Looney Tunes and related FC's are, especially the ones with what I consider classic covers. This is one of many books I thought I'd never own back in the 1970's, largely because I couldn't dream of affording them. If you told me that uber high-grade bronze would cost more than a gem like this, I would have thought you were crazy.

Here's my Father's Day gift from my wife and kids. The best part about it is how proud my oldest daughter was to give it to me (nevermind how much she liked the cover).

Today's haul from a LCS. For about 2.50 each. These are super-sweet for Charlton's, with white pages, and super-nice gloss. I think everyone forgets #1 is a 20c book.

Another great cover Lucey is one of the greatest, and most underated, comic artists ever.

, of which one? The Jughead. Just classic.

Spandex-free zone. There's nothing I like more than finding a new store, with HG books priced to move. All of the below from $1.50-$4.00 a piece (most around $2 each). Unfortunately, I had my kids with me (4 and 6 years old), so I couldn't really spend more than 15 minutes scrounging through the boxes. Needless to say, I'll be going back. The Dennis' are sweet, and I've always had a hard time finding nice HG ones from the late '70's. This is only a F+, but has brilliant colors and is favorite BA cover of mine. I couldn't help myself. I've almost never seen the Charlton car books in HG. I'd say it's a 9.0 And some Charlton Romance. Found 2 copies each of the I Love You'sL: So bad, you've got to like it.. And two sweet copies, the second of which I've never seen anywhere near HG: