Zonker

Thanks to some recent sellers... drbanner blazingbob BassGMan ...and thanks also to buyer tilleycs ...even though you did bust me for trying to sell you the same book twice!

You know, I have no idea why this gets a notation in Overstreet (and hence on the CGC label). It`s not a meaningful distinction to any DC collector that I know. Now, "grey tone", on the other hand... The 5700 AD stories are also sometimes called the "Solar Director" series, since that was GL's other job when he traveled to the future. They're pretty cool, and an example of what Julie Schwartz liked to do in his books: create a running sub-theme that the strip could return to every now and then for fresh ideas. Kind of like the Atom's Time Pool adventures, or Hawkman's stories back on Thanagar, or the early Schwartz Batman "Mystery Analysts of Gotham City" running series-within-the-series. Other Solar Director stories were in #12, #47 and #51, though there were also several sequels by later creative teams in the post-Gil Kane era.

That is a nice cover, but CGC got it wrong. Look at the artist's sig next to the green-shirted boy's right shoulder (right at the book's spine). It's another Nick Cardy cover!

Andy, seems like we're likely the same age and have similar taste in comics. Check out the Toth web site I mentioned earlier-- it has a lot of the Toth backup stories from the early 70s posted verbatim, but with additional latter-day Toth commentaries.

It took me a long time to find its original appearance (this was long before the web). For a while I thought it was a back-up in one of the pre-Spectre issues of Adventure Comics. But no, it is found in an issue of Our Army At War, #241.

Yep, that's where I first read "The Demon Within" and "Dirty Job" (not to mention "Night of the Reaper") Here's the GCD cover scan... "Dirty Job" was drawn by Alex Toth. You can re-read it, including Toth's commentary here at the Toth fans web site.

3 worst: 183, 197, 198 best: 177, 179, 181, 189...

One of my very favorite Adams horror covers. Love the dramatic lighting from the bolt of lightning. Lots of Adams' bronze age interiors played with almost-monochrome sillouhettes like this.

Yep, looks like Cardy to me. In fact, these three Cardy covers almost tell a story of the red-head-in-distress!

Thanks to jeffreykli for a great Bronze Age deal on eBay. Accurately graded VF books arrived inside a week of auction's end, and that's with the cross-country trip from San Francisco! And thanks again to greggy for yet another excellent transaction. For anyone out there still not in the know, greggy's semi-sweet DC castoffs are some of the best values out there for forum members. (That is, unless you're a complete [embarrassing lack of self control]. )

If anyone hasn't read this story, is available on-line, along with Alex Toth's commentary: tothfans web page

Thanks to October for my share of his recent high-grade late Bronze DC stash! The books arrived Saturday. We all knew Oct could grade with the best of 'em thanks to Nikos' last contest. He's also an excellent shipper: books arrived solidly packed. Thanks again!

I realize a single data point is quite enough in the legal system but for those of us who spend most of our day in greater nerd-dom, how repeatable is this experiment? Seriously, no need for scores of reps, I would imagine 3 trials would be enough to get a feel for its consistency. And hats off for your initiative to go after the answer first-hand!

Me too! Wasn't that a great collection? An early Joker appearance by Bob Kane, a killer Jerry Robinson story, a mid-1960s Infantino, this Adams classic, and a Mike Friedrich/Irv Novick/ Giordano short to boot. Too bad most of the so-called Limited Collectors Editions weren't as tight-- they might have sold better if they'd taken better care in selecting the material.

I'm a huge Enemy Ace fan as well-- great, great series, if just a bit formulaic after a while. (Doesn't he go hunting between dogfights in most every issue with his sole companion, the wolf?) Other winners: Unknown Soldier series in Star Spangled War 183-203 written by David Michelinie. Art is by Gerry Talaoc, who I never really liked on Phantom Stranger, but is well-suited to this strip. The Losers strip in Our Fighting Forces 140 or so through 150. Killer John Severin art. Great backup strips commissioned by editor Archie Goodwin. The Alex Toth Flying Tigers short story "Burma Sky" is a well-remembered classic of the period. I scanned in a couple of interior pages from the Kanigher/Severin Losers for another thread. Just to give you a feel for the strip

I had my own GL 53 post composed a couple of days ago ready to hit 'enter' until I saw the cover sig. It is odd that Kane apparently picked up this mannerism after he left DC for Marvel at the close of the Silver Age. Maybe it had to do with the volume of covers he did for Marvel all of a sudden. Previously, at DC he normally did covers just as part of the completed package of interior art. Perhaps once he started routinely drawing covers divorced from the interior art, he started thinking in terms of big, poster-style art, and the close-up head-shot (noses and all) just became a shortcut for him? Or maybe DC editor Julie Schwartz just didn't care to look at the underside of all his characters' noses?

Anyone else here reminded of the much later (but better known) "Flash of Two Worlds" cover?

Here's my copy, nice enough, although well south of 9.0. But it is one of the Heroes Con pick ups that I scanned in some time ago and never bothered to post until now. Jim Starlin did some great covers for DC in the late 1970s, though not too many for the Horror line if I recall correctly. I think it was Shiverbones who previously pointed out who on the cover has the cameo as the fight referee.

Arch, stand by to delete the next several pages...

My wife was a Music major in college, but has zero interest/knowledge of horror films. When we were getting ready for the birth of our son in 2000, she was picking out the music she wanted us to take into the birthing room. One of her very favorite pieces is Carmina Burana. It fell to me to tell her that wasn't such a great idea, as I'd be completely creeped out during the birth of my son if what was playing in the background was the theme from The Omen !

fyi...Industry pros thought so highly of "The Demon Within" that they voted it best short story for the year in which it appeared. There's an old thread discussing these ACBA "Shazam" Awards.

Excellent! And these boards made it possible! Not just Scott / FFB's intervention, but also Shield's earlier efforts towards that once-elusive Buzzy #70. There are no doubt several others I've either forgotten about or went unsung all along. Congratulations and well-done, everyone.

I think you're correct about the lowered DC expectations, but just a couple of points... Sgt. Fury didn't get cancelled until 4 years after the last data available above. So we don't really know where Marvel's exact cutoff point was for dropping the hammer. I think the sales numbers I copied from the Standard Guide reflect paid circulation-- the print run minus the "returns." I say "returns" because there's a lot of speculation that a significant portion of today's back issue dealer inventory is actually third-hand books that should have been returned and destroyed, but instead fell off the truck (a la the Mile High 2 stash).

I've been trying to figure out how to estimate the circulation of ToD, since the Marvel horror series are not listed in the Standard Guide. What I was able to find was Sgt Fury, a genre series that was bi-monthly for most of the time in question. Based on the Fury sales figures, I think it likely the more-popular Tomb of Dracula outsold the DC horror books for most of its run. For reference, ASM had a paid circulation from 322,195 (1970) to 258,156 (1978) 1967 H o Mystery 165-171 158,500 1968 H o Mystery 172-177 156,350 Unexpected 105-110 165,195 1969 H o Mystery 178-183 173,206 Unexpected 111-116 155,110 1970 H o Mystery 184-189 180,642 Unexpected 117-122 159,390 1971 H o Mystery 190-197 187,408 Unexpected 123-130 178,578 Sergeant Fury 83-93 205,326 1972 H o Mystery 198-209 175,134 Unexpected 131-142 168,430 Witching Hour 18-26 168,005 H o Secrets 96-102 168,256 Sgt. Fury 94 - 105 176,011 1973 H o Mystery 210-220 178,025 Unexpected 143-153 164,344 Witching Hour 27-37 163,156 H o Secrets 103-114 160,154 Sgt. Fury 106 - 116 184,640 1974 H o Mystery 221-228 174,504 Unexpected 154-160 175,016 Witching Hour 38-49 175,787 H o Secrets 115-126 161,190 Sgt. Fury 117 - 123 163,913 1975 H o Mystery 229-238 146,000 Unexpected 161-170 141,000 Witching Hour 50-60 188,000 Ghosts (DC) 34 - 44 186,000 Sgt. Fury 124 - 130 162,894 1976 H o Mystery 239-248 124,000 Unexpected 171-176 131,000 Witching Hour 61-66 134,000 H o Secrets 137-142 116,000 Ghosts (DC) 45 - 50 135,000 Sgt. Fury 131 - 137 120,960 1977 H o Mystery 249-255 109,191 Unexpected 177-182 131,315 Witching Hour 67-75 115,151 H o Secrets 143-148 118,766 Ghosts (DC) 51 - 59 114,734 Sgt. Fury 138 - 143 112,882 1978 H o Mystery 256-263 75,650 1979 H o Mystery 264-275 85,569 Ghost Rider 34 - 39 135,107 1980 H o Mystery 276-287 88,876 Ghost Rider 40- 51 132,129 Ghosts (DC) 84 - 95 95,317 1981 H o Mystery 288-299 86,962 Ghost Rider 52 - 63 121,227 Ghosts (DC) 96 - 107 87,537 Unexpected 206-217 83,000

Sales tax was charged on everything where I grew up. At the time it was 6%. I believe it was only later when the state started raising the rate that they began to institute things like exemptions for food and such.