jimbo_7071

Dummies to dolls.

Japanese flag on a wall to Japanese flag on an arm band.

Even though I don't have the numbers memorized, I immediately knew which one you meant! I just checked to confirm.

I like over half of them, and there aren't many titles I can say that about. I probably like the Joe Doolin covers the least, but even he had some good ones. I'm especially partial to the Lily Renee covers in part because I dig the idea of a female artist drawing covers in the boys club that was GA comic publishing.

Oh my!

Enveloped by a serpent to enveloped by a plant.

This is completely off topic, but I remember @catrick339 referring to Richard as a "tall Texan, so I just googled Claude Gray, the original "Tall Texan," and I found out that he died on April 28 of this year. RIP Mr. Gray!

You may be on to something. It could be that comic book collecting will give way to something like "20th Century American Pop Culture Memoribilia" collecting—so that the typical prospective buyer for a comic book will be the same guy who might buy a Perry Como 8-track tape or a Doors poster or some Garbage Pail Kids stickers as opposed to someone focused on comic books. I'm not sure a collector like that would have "grails" the way some of us do (or even a want list). All of the "cool old comics" could become somewhat interchangeable. When I was younger, I would sometimes find GA books at antique shops, and everything was typically priced about the same (say $10 or whatever). Books that would be worth $2 to a collector would be priced at $10, but so would books worth $50 to a collector. Since most of the buyers weren't comic book collectors per se, they valued all old comics about the same, and the shop owners priced them accordingly. I could see those future memorabilia collectors being a little like those antique shop customers in terms of their buying habits—willing to pay a given price for a strip reprint book and willing to spend the roughly same amount on a Timely with a Schomburg war cover. I'm sure there would be some price differentiation based on the quality of the artwork or the presence of a recognizable character on the cover, but it could be slight compared to what we have now. (I'm not sure that sort of collector would focus on the grade the way we do, but surely eye appeal would still be a factor, and there's some correlation between the two even though exceptions abound.)

The Flintstones in Viva Rock Vegas was pretty bad. Stephen Baldwin was in that one, and his Barney Rubble looked like a cognitively impaired guy stoned on pot.

I've heard people say that vinegar on a Q-Tip works, but I've never tried it. You could try taking a piece of Mylar and making two slits in it and then sliding it underneath the staple. Then you could put a piece of packing tape over the slits so that you had a layer of protection all around the staple. But I would still make sure that the Q-Tip isn't dripping wet but rather just slightly moistened.

Subby in an anthology book to Subby in his own book.

Deadly sea creature to deadly sea creature about to enjoy a yummy snack.

Fortunately, strong colors are the norm for many GA publishers. FH seems to be the exception. This one has pretty good colors for an early 40s FH book. Good colors are the norm with Atlas horror books, but this one stood out to me nonetheless:

Deadly sea creature to deadly sea creature.

Bullies attacking a defenseless sea creature with firearms to bully attacking defenseless sea creatures with a closed fist.

Famous Funnies publication to Famous Funnies itself.

I think that this counts as GGA for guys who like to be manhandled. I'm sure it plays into someone's fantasy . . .

Younger people are aware of WWII just like I'm aware of WWI and the Civil War, but the personal connection won't be there. My grandfather served in WWII and I grew up around my grandfather; one of my substitute teachers in high school had served in the Pacific theater and told us his first-hand account of liberating prisoners who had been part of the Bataan death March, etc. I'm not convinced that just "knowing about" something translates into the kind of fervent interest that Boomers and Gen Xers have had. Heck, some guys here in the GA forum may be old enough to have had fathers who served in WWII, mothers who were in the USO during the war, etc. Comic book collecting may give way to other hobbies eventually, but it will occur slowly. I'm 49; my feeling is that I could live long enough to see my GA collection lose quite a bit of equity if collecting comics becomes more of a niche hobby some years down the road. We have a few guys here who are over 70; I don't think those guys need to worry.

Medival architecture to medieval architecture.

This comic reminds me of an unfortunate even from my younger days. My uncle Jack owned an Arabian that he liked to ride, but my uncle had bad knees and hips, so he needed help getting into the saddle and dismounting. One time he had just come home from an early-morning ride when I had just walked out the door to leave for work. He asked me to help him down, so I followed him to the corral at the back of the property where he kept the horse and then helped him down. It was no big deal, but traffic was on the heavier side, so I ended up being two or three minutes late to a department meeting. When the director asked me why I was late, I told him the truth. I said, "I had to help my uncle Jack off his horse." I got fired the next day. Go figure.

I'm stunned that someone accepted your counter! I don't understand the thinking of someone who would pay that kind of premium for a mid-grade, non-key book. "I want it NOW and money is no object" must be the mentality—not very intelligent, but there are plenty of people with more money than brains.

Harley looks the same as he did back in the 80s. (I used to see him at Mike & Marsha Lester's Encore-cons and Xtrava-cons here in the Detroit area.)

Wild cat to domesticated dog.

43 to 42.

I've never thought that Kamen was an especially good artist. I more or less agree about the female faces, but I think that he had two rather than one: the wide-eyed angry face and the wide-eyed surprised face. And I don't disagree about the writing. Newspaper serial strip writing crushed the material written for comic books in that era. Many of the PCH covers are overhyped right now, but the high prices are bringing more copies out of the woodwork, so you should see some leveling off of prices. (I think that you already have seen it to some extent with the exception of highest-graded copies.)