Readcomix

38 minutes ago, Terry E. said:

Yeah I know this is very old (but so is the start of the Silver age), but as a Flash tragic, just wanted to post my thoughts. I went for SC8 when I was into it back in the 80s. Hard to find then (especially in Australia) and harder to find now in decent grade, (or shall I say more expensive than I like). Reason back then was Captain Cold. This was long before John's raised him in the DC universe when in the Wally run he had no friends. Simply is a key book in comicdom. In 1957 superheroes were dead. Just ask Stan. It was detectives, westerns, war, adventure, Sci-Fi, romance, monsters (guide friendly of course). No one believed people in funny costumes could make a come back.

Broome invented Cold and Infantino made sure that no one would miss him. Back in the Golden Age there were Nazi's spy's on every corner, gangsters, mad scientists and the occasional super villain. The villains of that era were drab and functional for the most part. Not Cold. I would be happy to argue that Kanigher's writing although adequate in the origin was not enough to sustain the interest and turn the market 180 degs. (read any early 60s WW lately). If there was no Cold, then maybe no Flash reboot, then no Spider-man, no FF, no X-Men, no Hulk, well maybe Hulk, he is a Monster which was Marvel's bread and butter. We will never know but I think it is more than just a second appearance.

I like this....while the extent of the book's impact is speculative, at the very least the argument that Cold is the first significant Silver Age villain creation is a significant point. At the very least it's a great argument that the book is still underrated.

I'm not sure that Marvel doesn't happen though; when you look at the Challs then look at some of Stan and Jack's early efforts (Dr Droom, TTA27, TOS 32, Two-Gun Kid 60, first two costume-free FF's) the idea of uncostumed sci-fi type heroes with regular guy lives seems to be percolating for a while. The Spidey of AF15 isn't much beyond this; the costume is a vehicle Peter's efforts at celebrity. Things moved quickly, and he was the turning point, but the same seeds were there.

I also like the argument for the impact of Flash 123; this the Avengers 4 of the DCU. While Showcase 4 and 8 and FF1 may have birthed the silver age, the role of Avengers 4 and Flash 123 in ensuring the momentum is sometimes overlooked. Through two different routes, these books bring the Golden Age into the Silver Age, and the concept of continuity is brought to the forefront. 

38 minutes ago, Terry E. said:

Yeah I know this is very old (but so is the start of the Silver age), but as a Flash tragic, just wanted to post my thoughts. I went for SC8 when I was into it back in the 80s. Hard to find then (especially in Australia) and harder to find now in decent grade, (or shall I say more expensive than I like). Reason back then was Captain Cold. This was long before John's raised him in the DC universe when in the Wally run he had no friends. Simply is a key book in comicdom. In 1957 superheroes were dead. Just ask Stan. It was detectives, westerns, war, adventure, Sci-Fi, romance, monsters (guide friendly of course). No one believed people in funny costumes could make a come back.

Broome invented Cold and Infantino made sure that no one would miss him. Back in the Golden Age there were Nazi's spy's on every corner, gangsters, mad scientists and the occasional super villain. The villains of that era were drab and functional for the most part. Not Cold. I would be happy to argue that Kanigher's writing although adequate in the origin was not enough to sustain the interest and turn the market 180 degs. (read any early 60s WW lately). If there was no Cold, then maybe no Flash reboot, then no Spider-man, no FF, no X-Men, no Hulk, well maybe Hulk, he is a Monster which was Marvel's bread and butter. We will never know but I think it is more than just a second appearance.

I like this....while the extent of the book's impact is speculative, at the very least the argument that Cold is the first significant Silver Age villain creation is a significant point. At the very least it's a great argument that the book is still underrated.

I'm not sure that Marvel doesn't happen though; when you look at the Challs then look at some of Stan and Jack's early efforts (Dr Droom, TTA27, TOS 32, Two-Gun Kid 60, first two costume-free FF's) the idea of uncostumed sci-fi type heroes with regular guy lives seems to be percolating for a while. The Spidey of AF15 isn't much beyond this; the costume is a vehicle Peter's efforts at celebrity. Things moved quickly, and he was the turning point, but the same seeds were there.

I also like the argument for the impact of Flash 123; this the Avengers 4 of the DCU. While Showcase 4 and 8 and FF1 may have birthed the silver age, the role of Avengers 4 and Flash 123 in ensuring the momentum is sometimes overlooked. Through two different routes, these books bring the Golden Age into the Silver Age, and the concept of continuity is brought to the forefront. 

While I understand the acquisition perspective of those who find it better to have a piece of an iconic and historical book, I just fear that slabbing them creates incentive to dismantle low grade or even complete coverless copies.  Other than that fear, I have no issue with it. To each his own as collecting goes; I just hope no one is destroying history to parse out pieces of it. That said, if someone has an incomplete copy of a major key that is starting to turn brittle, perhaps in a case like that it is the best way to preserve history. I guess for me, how the page is parsed out very much matters. Not that I get to be the arbiter, but that's my logic and my perspective as a collector: we are stewards of these rare things our hobby prizes; try to make the best long-term decision as well.

On August 7, 2017 at 11:28 AM, Patriot6 said:

Thanks Gene!

So worth it, but I have to say, I didn't wait that long  maybe a month and a week ?

Have you at least seen the grades on your books?

I haven't; maybe my LCS has peeked, but I haven't been in.

8 hours ago, Patriot6 said:

 

Part of my box from Friday  

Nice, JF! It's a long wait, but worth it! 

I'm still waiting myself 

Giving the eye to losing an eye

I've got to recommend the market report from Jamie Newbold of Southern California Comics. Newbold spends about half the column by providing us an enlightening article on the pitfalls of shipping insurance and how difficult it can be to collect, whether from USPS or private collectibles insurance. Well worth the read; deserved to be a separate article on its own, under its own headline. 

7 minutes ago, sacentaur said:

There you go!

I really do think this one's underrated....wartime villain caricatures aside, is there another major Golden Age hero cover with a caricature like this one? I'm sure I could be missing some, but I cannot think of any other where the character is of such central prominence to the cover image as in is case. 

By OP request...

1 hour ago, Sqeggs said:

Could also be posted in the African-American comics thread. 

Comin' up!

Just picked up an OO SA collection earlier this week. Would appreciate any thoughts on a couple examples from the collection. I'd like to start with JIM #85 below. Thanks in advance!

Been chasing this for a while...people don't seem to part with these too often.

Happy to be able to bump this thread!

This has eluded me twice in the past couple years...third time's the charm 

Green Terror to Green Turtle

9 minutes ago, FineCollector said:

I don't believe there was intent when they wrote this book.  There's nothing subtle about it, the guys clearly got beat up, and that's all there is to it.  it's right up there with Batman's boners as an excessively infantile reaction to a common figure of speech of the time.  However, if someone wants to waste their money paying a premium for this cover, the Alf cover, the Rifleman cover... have fun.

I'm not sure. On the one hand, all that is there. On the other, the words are selectively bolded and colored. Consider that if the elements for the visually obvious meaning were not present (bruised eyes) they would not get their double meaning through the code. 

As to whether the collecting strain is ridiculous, some people pay more for comics with writing on them, copies where a few copies had a different price, etc.....our hobby is full of niches besides the stories and art that got us all started. I don't get half of them myself. But in this case, I don't assume people are collecting the niche for the sophomoric humor of double entendre covers but for the fact that they are a strain of books that creators snuck by the comics code. It's really at root the same appeal as the new X-Men -- the rebellious teen outsider thing, except in these cases the creators not the characters are the rebellious teens.

Much cooler to me than the fact that Star Wars 1 cost a nickel more in parts of Ohio. 

This thread is closed. It may re-open at some point, but it is at least temporarily, if not eternally, closed. Thank for looking! 

7 hours ago, Sqeggs said:

One of the coolest GA books there is.

Completely agree, Sqeggs....Been wanting one, but Roy said there's brittleness, and I think I'd cry if that centerfold split on me, so I told myself I already swallowed an OO SA collection this week and talked myself out of it....I will sit finger on trigger for a copy for a few more years now, I suspect....congrats to both buyer and seller for stewarding an exceptionally important piece of GA history 

Love this guy! Aparo, Dillon, Garcia-Lopez et al were to DC bronze what the Romita/Buscema/Trimpe crew were to Marvel -- the solid sometimes spectacular workhorses who gave the titles of the era a cohesive "house look" to some degree. 

2 minutes ago, frozentundraguy said:

Very nice placement of those date stamps in unobtrusive places on the covers.

Obvious as it is in the middle there, I kinda like the Valentine's Day '64 on there.

Also, about 40 years ago, he gave away his ASM's (beginning with #4) and FF's (beginning with #12) for a cystic fibrosis charity fundraiser, so if you find any with "M.R." In the splash margin, they are part of the same collection.

4 minutes ago, frozentundraguy said:

 

Great story!   Would it be possible to get a close-up of one of the books to see the distinguishing marks?

 

I recall a few years ago my neighbor let me know of relatives that had about 50 G.A. comics for sale. It turned out to be 45 comics and they were all in LG, and were not an original owner collection, but still there were a few that were pretty cool books (Firehair #6 comes to mind) .  The one regret I now have is trading several of them at a con for a Tales of the Unexpected book. I now wish I had kept the Disney book that has the Shark chasing Donald in circles on the cover. It was also an "action" cover where one could make a few cuts and have the jaws of the shark move.  The cut had not been made, however.

Sure....here's his initials on the splash from DD#6, and the DD1 cover which is exemplary of how his local corner store date stamped it's books, as they are all prominent/easy to see but not over the action or characters.

20 minutes ago, Sriz said:

That is just too awesome.

Thank you; I'm still tired from the rush of closing the deal after a year. I should be downstairs flipping through each one and enjoying them; that was my plan tonight. When I first saw them over a year ago, I told myself it would be nice to buy them (he of course wanted to move it all together) and keep the DD1 and TOS 52, which I did not have, and maybe pick a few others if they are upgrades over mine and sell the rest. Seeing them together though, almost all with similar, distinct date stamping and original owner initials, is just a very cool thing. I can only imagine how someone feels discovering a collection that is bigger and higher grade, destined for pedigree. This is 79 books, mostly lower grade to VG/F on average I would say without carefully grading each one yet, but the provenance is a very cool thing.

The guy brought them in a Brooks Brothers suit box (1st pic) and when I walked in the door that night, my wife said, "You bought a sheet cake?" I said, "Nope. (Name's) childhood." He said he had no attachment to them any longer, but when I arrived to meet him at the public library, he was showing the DD1 to a couple guys playing chess. I think about it trying to understand what it will someday be like to part with my collection. I guess you turn over stewardship of the books to someone else at that point, but the child who loves comics is always a part of you. 

11 hours ago, Straw-Man said:

pedigreed #1's deserve double-posting.

MORE than double! Find more places around here to post that beauty, Billy! Congrats! 

Terror in the tunnel to more tunnel trouble

2 minutes ago, Hudson said:

Not me IF that key was an AC1.

Ok, I'd probably make that exception too