Kakapo

Dear G.A.tor, I was looking at date stamps and realised that books would have taken time to distribute across the US, and therefore there would be several possible dates stamped on a given issue. How big do you think the range of dates would be? A week? Two weeks? How long would it have taken to get a batch of comics to a gas station in the middle of Wyoming? Inevitable follow-up question: since newspapers are printed in several cities precisely because they need to be on newsstands quickly, were comics ever printed in multiple places? Thanks in advance for your insight into these questions that clearly do not merit a separate thread, Andy

Beautiful books!

"Unbelievable!" "I can't believe it, Cotton!" Now where did I leave that adoption paperwork?

For post #400, I'd like to share two of the new keepers in my small but adequately formed Archie collection: The scratches on the case are a bit distracting, I know, but hey, the book within is delightful, and compares very favourably with the 8.0 Crippen copy on comiclink. My third Crippen book, but the first in high grade! Note that Archie and Jughead are being taught the Pythagorean Theorem again at the age of 17...They'd be in pre-calc if only they'd stop thinking about girls and food and just do some work...

Among the four of us, he is, yes. :thumbsup: Nice books!

I don't know, the Fantastic 9 is pretty bad, but there are just so many things wrong with the Funny Pages 41...the more I look at it, the more appalling it becomes! Thanks for all the contributions thus far!

Long before the birth of Rob Liefeld (b. 1967), panels such as the one below appeared in print (Pep 40): Sorry for the blur, but I'm probably doing the artist a favour. My legs certainly can't do that, but read the dialogue - he's running really fast. Let's see some more contenders! Covers are the obvious place to start, but the moral of the post is that greater horrors can lurk within...

Fixed that for you! (thumbs u Beaten to the "nice pair" gag! Great books! :thumbsup:

Thanks for the kind words, gentlemen. I only get to post a couple of group shots a year due to my laughably narrow collecting focus, but when I'm finished with Archies I'll diversify into GGA, promise...Phantom Lady, Blonde Phantom...I'll probably not bother with The Phantom, though. As for the Archie 6, it's even cooler than you think, the cover is actually attached!

After that little snack, here's the main course: Most of those were acquired this past year, but if I'd kept it to 2008, the first 3 and 36 wouldn't have been pictured, and then I would have been sad. If anyone has any issues that I don't have, and you're just going to throw them out, I'll buy 'em...

The 2008 acquisitions thread finally motivated me to do a little reorganising (yes, that's how I spell it). So, presented for your consideration, some Golden Age Archies: And more! Issue 52 is not pictured, due to human error (some would say "incompetence", you could spin it either way) on my part. This group shot was made possible by 143ksk, Inaflash, The Black Hand, GA Collectibles, a few sellers at Wizard World Chicago, and of course, some guys selling comics found in their mom's attic on ebay.

Thanks! Speaking of tough books, thanks for not pointing out the mysterious gap between 40 and 50...I wonder why those are so scarce. Paper recycling drives during WWII? Anyway, this was my one chance to make a substantial post in this thread (don't have that many Archies from 1-100), so thanks for your attention! Great Startling Comics run, too! When I'm done with Archie, I think I'll move onto GGA - as if Betty and Veronica aren't that already... Andy

Here are 2007's additions to my Pep run - though to be fair, I didn't have many before this year: Methinks I have overspent of late...I really thought #22 would be the last one I'd have on my want list, but there we go. If we kakapo were clever, we wouldn't be so endangered. Ah well. Pictured are 22, 23, 24, 36, 39, 53, 58, 60, 63, 67, 70, 71, 80, 81 and 82. The eagle-eyed among you will see 2 #60s, the one on top is the Ohio copy. There are two Crippens there as well: 63 and 70, although on the mysteriously lower-grade side.

BH; Love this cover, It's a classic. Saw it for the first time only about a month ago!!! Great stuff!!! The Suzie image is great, but what really makes this cover for me is Mr. McFoof's tongue and the look on Mrs. McFoof's face... Mr. McFoof is clearly no fool - he's lived a long time and has learned a few tricks along the way. Imagine Mrs. McFoof's fury if her husband had been foolish enough to stick his tongue out on the other side of his face...doesn't bear thinking about. And thanks for all the great covers in this thread - some of these are rarely seen, at least by me. :thumbsup:

That Little Lulu is great! I really should get into those, but I keep throwing my money at books like this one. I scanned the back first, which destroyed the scanner. As if I didn't hate HP enough already...So here it is, in digital Flash-Off-O-Vision: But look! An acid vat! A villainous 1941 Japanese soldier! A flying, patriotic superhero saving his relaxed sidekick! A man being cast to his death in the conflagration below! And another about to join him! Crikey, these books were violent. Archie was still getting no respect whatsoever. But the ginger buffoon would have the last laugh... This book also doubles my personal best in that great national pastime "Most Expensive Ebay Purchase Shipped Without Cardboard In A Paper Envelope". Honestly, some people. Anyway, it will come in handy should I decide to decorate my nesting burrow. Squawk!

Thanks to the man I can only assume is the nicest comic collector there is: I believe this to be the copy that sold on comiclink either at the start of this year or at the end of last year - time flies and the years all blur together for me. I did bid on it then, but went out for dinner instead of sitting hunched over my computer in the auction's final hours. Luckily for me, it resurfaced at Wizard World Chicago, and my noble ally 143ksk purchased it, and was then kind enough to sell it on to me. And jolly nice it is, too. Thank you, Sir! Additionally, he was burdened by owning two Pep 23s, the poor chap. My attempts to scan it have been in vain, as I have one of those "doesn't do slabs" scanners. Anyway, you blokes have seen it before: it's Steve's old 4.0. I shall try my best to live until 2060 or perhaps 2070, so look for them to come back on the market around then. Or sooner, should I be financially ruined by an elaborate conspiracy, a la Dan Aykroyd in "Trading Places", which possibility I consider remote.

Fair comment, but there are only 5 nicer blue label copies of Archie 1 (2x4.0, 2x5.0 and a lone 6.5, and the copy in question here is 1 of 5 in 3.0). I'm no fan of tape or extra staples, but if and when one of the nicer 5 did change hands, I am sure there are plenty of people out there with a lot more disposable income than I would be able to throw at the book. Also, I get the impression that collecting Archies is such a long-term project that these are not books that change hands very often. It doesn't take a lot of imagination to think that the owners of the 3.0s would be looking to upgrade, too. Getting back to the GL, perhaps that is a high price for that title, but it doesn't seem that much for a genuinely scarce item, especially when you look at what early Marvels can bring in 9.4 (higher supply and yes, higher demand, too). I just checked the census and there's actually a 9.6 of GL 9, so the lucky buyer didn't even get a top of census copy for his 6 grand. Oh, and there are 6 slabbed copies that are 7.0 or higher, in other words nicer than any slabbed Archie 1.

If for no other reason than to tie-break, I'll chime in to choose the Archie 1. Yes, I'm choosing a 3.0 over a 9.4, but for Archie 1 that's practically high-grade. Admittedly, the GL seems cheap for the quality, and the Archie 1 expensive for what you get, but The Black Hand makes a good point above - one day I will have to find that kind of money just to have the book, irrespective of condition. And GLs not drawn by Adams don't really do anything for me.

It's good to know that they still exist in that kind of shape. Congrats!

I was going to, but you posted all the exact same issues just the other week - plus yours were Crippen copies; mine are just from the Minnesota Undercopy pedigree... ...of course you did sell me some other books, and here they are:

It's about time Betty got some lovin'. Honestly, I don't know what he sees in Veronica. Well there is the wealth, I suppose...

I had no idea there were so many esoteric humour titles out there...never even heard of any of these before. It's nice to see something new!

Wikipedia, that font of all truth in the world, does indeed say: Sekowsky began working in the comics medium in 1941, as an artist at Timely Comics in New York City. There, he was initially employed on various humor features such as "Ziggy Pig and Silly Seal". No mention of Millie, although obviously it was a humour title, so maybe. Sekowsky's 1960s work is so notorious that it has honestly never occurred to me that he might have done anything good. He's better than Frank Robbins, but not by all that much.

Well, whoever it was, it looks like they drew issues 26-34, with Basil Wolverton doing most (all?) of the earlier issues. 36 could be the same artist, 37 definitely isn't, 38 might be. http://www.comics.org/covers.lasso?SeriesID=298 I thought it might have been Bill Ward for a second, but Millie's bust is only half the size he would have drawn it. It's annoying me because I'm sure I've seen that style before, but I can't think of the guy's name... I repeat my astonishment that a character was named Flicker, what with the old LI = U equation. Oh, and I just noticed, apparently the extra "of" hadn't yet crept into sentences like "take these handcuffs off (of) me". See how much comics can teach us? Nellie the Nurse 12-16 look like the same artist: http://www.comics.org/covers.lasso?SeriesID=418 This is the Millie 2 scan at the GCD: http://www.comics.org/coverview.lasso?id=111445&zoom=4 Looks like our mystery artist again! Although Millie has more makeup on in the Joker 30 cover...

You're a man of excellent taste, sir! I've intended to collect the first 24 B&Bs for about 10 years now, without buying a single one If only I could find them in FN-ish shape (oh, and on sale)...superb covers! BTW, how do you rate the interior stories? I find DCs veer wildly between unreadably childish (Superman) and hugely entertaining (B&B 61, 62 for example).