Zonker

Looks like Kurt Schaffenberger.... Jim or Giordano maybe?

As beautiful as greggy's copies are, I've seen (and own) less-than-perfect copies of all those HoM 174-200 and HoS 81-100. But I've never seen that HoS 123 before. I still say Robbins gets a bum rap. He never should have been given Captain America, and he should have always inked his own stuff. I really like his solo work on Batman/Detective, and on the Shadow (once ya get over the disappointment of losing Kaluta on that title). He had a cool Milton Caniff-school thing going on when he both pencilled and inked, and it was I thought a welcomed retro style by the early 1970s.

I'm not even sure how to start compiling a Best 25 list. Maybe set it up as categories? Kids-in-danger motif: HoM 174 HoS 96 Damsels in distress: HoS 92 (of course!) HoS 88 HoS 89 Latter day discoveries (this is where I'm really looking forward to your website; in the pre-CGC prehistory, many collectors stopped paying attention to the horror books once Adams, Wrightson, Kaluta stopped doing the interiors : we missed a boatload of classic covers!) the Wrightson Halloween HoM Dollar Comic the Kaluta mermaid cover the Kaluta Dracula cover to HoS 151 virtually Kaluta's entire run of Doorway to Nightmare covers! ...and then there's the black cover to HoS 103...

Abel (House of Secrets' host) spoke to Goldie, his gargoyle. (Though I think Neil Gaiman or one of his followers later showed us Goldie was in fact "real")

You should be-- it was an outstanding suggestion! Clever, fun-poking, yet completely un-cruel, and one Ian himself acknowledged fit him to a T. I've always heard ya gotta be careful what you ask for. People were lobbying Arch to give Ricky Dogg some title like McGruff the Crime Dogg or somesuch for his eBay anti-scammer activities. So Arch twisted it around to be Vigilante Dachshund.

D'Oh! I coulda voted for 4?! I'm still not up to speed on the new feature that allows multiple votes-- it's a great enhancement, I'm just slow to catch on. You might want to edit the thread title to highlight the Choose 4 option. For those who collect/like the Ghosts series: Are you voting for it based on the covers alone, or are there memorable stories in it as well? The few I sampled seemed second or third tier DC, about what I'd expect from Murray Boltinoff's shop. Contrast that with the Giordano stable (early House of Secrets, Witching Hour) or Joe Orlando's (HoM, latter-day HoS, Witching Hour, etc. etc.) I'm aware of a Wally Wood story in Ghosts #2 and a Mike Golden story somewhere around the #80s. What else am I missing?

I usually post my contributions in the main Have a Cigar thread, but no way anybody outside the GA fraternity will understand this one-- the Flash Comics Wheaties giveaway, with chunks missing where the tape was removed. Won off eBay for a third of OPG "Good!"

"Geez, even I was affected and I don't swing that way!" says the disembodied voice. Could it be? Has he finally arrived? The beautiful owner laughs, the sound both exquisite and eerie. "Works every time," she says, withdrawing a large butcher knife from under a napkin on her snack tray. Brrr. (Beyonder, surely you have a shivering emoticon?) Ya nailed the Horror Comics genre, J!

Thanks drbanner for some sweet, sweet Bronze Age DCs! Now I have some gold-standard NM examples from CGC 2004's Most Accurate Grader nominee! Between you & Greggy, y'all may turn me in to a high-grade collector yet. But dammit, I want my deli box back!

Got my package from Vancouver BC tonight! Monster kudos to our forum legend: you da man! But why tell, let me show you all...

What? "Joanna" is also Chuck Rozanski? Why am I always the last to know?

I love how the boards mask Besides, thrusting is soooo [!@#%^&^] erectus (homoerectus) The PC police stepping on a funny line just makes it funnier! I can't decide Joanna in the context of the story is that a double or a triple pun?

Well, yeah, solo Adams is sweet sweet stuff, but I'll echo the appreciation for Giordano on Batman & GL/GA and Tom Palmer on Avengers (Silver Age X-Men too, if I remember?). The only inker I recall that really spoiled Adams' pencils was John Verpoorten on the Inhumans strip in Amazing Adventures. And Joe Sinnott wasn't a really comfortable mesh with Adams' pencils on Thor either.

Oh, good call Bonds! Forgot all about those World's Finests! So I'd've been wrong to cite B&B 79 as the first Adams story. Still, one of my all-time faves, though: What did you think of the Batman Illustrated book? I never got it, and I've read mixed reports about Adams' touch-ups of the original stories (I really disliked what was done to that story in the Deadman volume).

OK, I don't think we've done this one before... I was recently surprised to find what I consider to be Neal Adams' first published Batman work. Up until a year ago, if anyone had asked, I'd have said Brave & Bold 79, the first story Adams illustrated with Batman in it. (The classic first Batman/Deadman x-over). That was dated August/September 1968. But that was in the days when I felt like cover-appearances "didn't matter." Since hanging out around here, I'm getting much more cover-conscious. So the first Neal Adams Batman artwork, including covers? Well, the first one in the main title is Batman #200 (March 1968). The first one in Detective Comics is #370 (December 1967). But look again, that issue only has Adams inks over Carmine Infantino pencils, and the Batman figure is almost unrecognizable (either as the Batman or as Neal Adams!)... The book I consider the first full Neal Adams art on Batman is the little-known Brave & Bold 75 (December 1967/January 1968), including the classic Neal Adams Spectre treatment as well... Anyone else with me on this? (i.e. should inks-only count?) Anyone know of any earlier candidate? Anyone wanna help me corner the market on B&B #75?

Oh. I get it now. So, what you're saying here Joanna is that at some point in the indefinite future, you reserve the right to possibly begin to introduce some less-than-strictly-realistic details into your narrative? And this is a heads-up so we'll be prepared for that jarring change in the style of this piece? Thanks, because up until now this has been a meticulously-detailed, deeply-researched investigation into the human condition. In fact, whole schools of metaphysics have been spawned from this very thread. Preparing us for the eventual introduction of some possibly-- shall we say-- fanciful embellishments is most noble indeed. Thank you.

Right back atcha, J! A thrill bid is on the way for that LL 122!

Everything you say is true, Zilla. I had forgotten that Supes #1 is a virtual reprint of the first five Action Comics stories. Batman #1 is the real deal in terms of story content, and I remember it was the only one of all the DC Famous First Edition reprints I bothered to pick up brand-new off the stands back in the day.

Cool! The Superman cover is from #31, Nov/Dec 1944. I never realized Daredevil Comics did it first!

I agree with others on the coolness factor of Golden Age Batman over Superman. And the first Batman movie spiked up lots of Bat comics in the Guide, and as we know, Overstreet valuations for the older books seem to take on a life of their own. As far as the valuation of the first few Superman vs. the first few Batman, ya gotta remember Superman #1 is a year or so older than Batman #1. Superman #1 was the first single-hero comic. We recently learned on these forums that Superman #1 had 3 separate printings the demand was so high. I don't recall a comparision to the print run of Batman #1, but I'd be willing to bet that by 1940 National Periodical Pubs realized they had a tiger by the tail and really printed a ton of the early Batman comics. So I'd argue that, yes, Golden Age Batman "ought to" be worth more than Golden Age Superman, with the first few Superman issues being the exceptions due solely to age and historical importance.

If you really don't have a personal favorite, I would go with books that fit the following criteria for a combination of investment and an enjoyable introduction to Golden Age collecting: - iconic characters - Timely or DC - I'll second the idea of going for anthologies vs. solo books - "good" (collectible or potentially-collectible) artists So, I'd steer you towards the early cardboard covers (up to #17) of Worlds Finest Comics-- ya don't get more iconic than Superman / Batman, and many of the books from #5 to #11 have WWII patriotic covers. And as mentioned in this post on another thread Overstreet hasn't gotten the correct notations for Jerry Robinson art. Robinson is in my opinion, one of the overlooked geniuses of the Golden Age. Good Luck! Z.

Don't have a digital camera, but I finally stumbled upon how to get my scans down to a post-able size. Save As jpeg, and with jpeg you have various compression options. My scanner software's (Picture It Express) default was something like 10% => changing it to 70 to 80% dramatically reduces the file size while keeping good quality. So you might want to try reading your digital pictures into some scanning software on your computer, and then playing around with various Save As options. G'Luck, Z.

I wonder if it makes a difference whether the books start out in supple Mint (like the Church copies or the case of moderns) versus us latter-day collectors now stacking 40 to 60 year old paper? I'd be worried about spine cracking on the bottom of the stack in the case of books of less than perfect paper quality. Anyone got any first hand info on this one?

Double cool, I got to see the now-legendary ultra-rare uncensored first edition of issue 10 part 3!

Chromey crouches in the tall grass, easing his way toward the sparrow. He [!@#%^&^] his head to listen Trying to figure out what the filters didn't like about that line? (a typo?) Oh waitasecond... he "[!@#%^&^]**" his head, right? Bwaa-Ha-Ha! "I've got shotgun!" "You've got cup holder." ** "C0CKS" (do I get a strike for that one?)