BGPhilbiln

Are these yours? Those could be restored with a bit of elbow grease.

For those of you interested - I started a webpage for my digital restorations, showing before & after images. https://www.metropolisplus.com/ComicRackSigns/ I loved doing this project because it's pretty much like occupational therapy for me. Very peaceful. All of the images are reduced from extremely large files, which I store uncompressed for my future use (if I can ever get hold of any version of my favorite comic rack). If anyone would like to use any of my original files for reproduction purposes (you can get an online service like VistaPrint or a local printer to screenprint on sheet metal), I'm happy to share my work. Pax, harmonia, Brian G. Philbin PS - My favorite comic rack:

@archiecomicscollector - How's this look (above)?

UPDATE - Jughead's ears were bothering me. I realized that I'd used original art from the cover of Archie's Pal, Jughead #59, which was from 1960. Looking at an almost identical Jughead facial expression from years later (Archie's Pal Jughead #101), I realized that they had not exaggerated his ears like this on anything resembling a regular basis. The old cover had Archie and Jughead's faces taking up more than 1/3 of the cover, so I think this may have factored into the artist (Samm Schwartz) having added more detail than necessary. Here are the new signs again with normal ears for Jughead.

Okay, here's what I came up with. I used as much original art as I could resource and kept the period to around 1968-1972, which is when this rack topper was first made. I did one with blue as an added color (when silkscreening onto steel - which is what's necessary to reproduce these faithfully - that adds another entire screen and increases cost of reproducing it) and one with only the original colors. Let me know what you think! If anyone wants a large TIF version, let me know and I'll set up my DropBox for guests to come get them.

Thanks! I'll see what I can do about putting a placard together with a few of the gang, say, Archie with Bettie, Veronica and Jughead, perhaps?

Grease is the way to go with the bearing, but you have to be careful to clean it up a lot if you're going to use the rack on carpet as pictured. You don't want any grease getting away from you. The other culprit may be contact surfaces. This is something that would require you to disassemble the rack from the post and stand. It's a job I'd do in a workshop/garage/driveway. I'd recommend inspecting all of the components that contact each other or rub against each other and cleaning them or perhaps polishing those with wear (using metal polishing compound). To lubricate these contact areas, you might be able to use a dry silicone/graphite or Teflon lubricant. DuPont makes a Teflon Non-Stick Dry-Film Lubricant in a squeeze bottle, which you could apply to the affected areas with QTips. Same with, say, 3-IN-ONE Dry Lube. Make sure it's dry to the touch before bringing it back in. After that, take the balls out of the bearing well. I'd clean up all of the components, making sure to remove all grease and dirt, inspect all of the bearing balls and replacing any that are mishapen or worn out-of-round. Then, pack the bearing well with grease, grease up the bearing balls and put them back into the well (this can require some patience to fit them all back in with the slippery grease). Clean up the outside, reassemble, spin it for awhile with some weight on it, re-clean any areas with squeeze out and Bob's your uncle.

Was browsing the Internet about this issue and came across this thread. I *adore* this cover. Not in any small part due to it being Neal Adams inked by Murphy Anderson - which didn't happen all that often. It's a great pairing. Plus, Canada made the Superman figure into a coin a few years back (it's beautiful, as well). The reason I was looking around about it was because the story features the launch of the Large Space Telescope (LST) by Grumman Aerospace (for which Pete Simmons, Director of Space Astronomy at Grumman, is credited for technical assistance). This, of course, decades before it actually launched as the Hubble Space Telescope (HST) after the project had been given to Lockheed-Martin. Grumman and Northrop provided the solution to the Hubble's lens problem in 1993. Grumman and Northrop combined in 1994 to become Northrop Grumman, which is currently readying to launch the James Webb Space Telescope. The reason I mention all of this is because the splash page features an extremely accurate (*particularly* for 1972) visual portayal of a space shuttle and the LST - 10 years before operational flights of the shuttle and almost 20 years before a space telescope made it into space. Even today, after the familiarity of the shuttle and space telescopes, it looks super accurate. Later, in Action Comics #423, they featured a half-page showing Pete Simmons and staff all enjoying the comic with the cover facing the camera. We have a family friend who is working to finalize the James Webb Space Telescope as an engineer with Northrop Grumman. It's amazing how all of this stuff touches your life in little ways. Based on the age of this thread, I have no idea if anyone will see this, but I had to share. (EDIT: Whoops! I see that a follow up was posted with the Grumman ad, but I think the splash from the issue and the Canada coin add a little value, anyway)

I note that this topic has lain fallow for quite awhile, but I wanted to check in to see if there is more knowledge concerning the Spinner Rack and its history. I used to own a non-branded, no-signage spinner rack, but I don't think it was necessarily for comics. Found it in the trash behind a convenience store, brought it home, cleaned it up nicely and the comics fit quite well, but the pockets were *deep* - could hold about 30-40 comics in each. Sold it when I was 13 (along with the bulk of my comics at the time). In the late 1980s and early 1990s, both Borders and one of the mall booksellers (B.Dalton or Waldenbooks, I'm not sure which) had a particle-board and plexiglass spinner rack that kept the comics in very nice shape while in the rack. The cover was against the plexiglass, leaned forward like in the old racks, but no wires to allow kids to bend the comics over while looking through them. At any rate, I'd *love* to find one of those. Further, I've been restoring general comic rack signage for several years now (not just spinner racks), but haven't had an opportunity to create a full website just yet, as I'd like to impart to readers their history. Biggest issue is finding information on the first spinners. Comics Racks were sold cheaply to newsstands and other outlets during the golden age, and I expect that spinners came about in the 1950s - but the question is when, and who did it first? Here are some of my restorations (before & after photos):

@Bosco685 Yup, I did see during my research that his search paralleled my own & he's almost as close as I am. I tweeted to him about a month ago that he is missing Captain Marble and Billy Battyson (Billy takes "Old Doc Shazam's Elixir" containing "Smaltz herring, Hedgehog quills, Axel grease, Zebra livers, Avocado seeds, Mashed garlic) - cowering behind Kingdom Come Captain Marvel's leg - a parody by "Get Lost" magazine, drawn by Ross Andru. But other than that, he's got the same problem as I do. No response to my tweet during the past several weeks. In the link from The Comic Forums that I listed above, you'll see that the first comment shows my list, which I've ordered with regard to their groupings (as loose as those are - I was planning to number them when I was done). Sadly, I'm still searching and anyone I've been able to find who was interested at one time is either not paying attention to my assistance, requests or has simply lost interest.

Thanks, @Bosco685 - I've scoured this video and every article, image and every other resource for the past couple of months. I've posted on several other boards (Comic Geek Speak, Comic Book Resources, etc.), including all of my Shazam!/Captain Marvel groups on Facebook, but to no avail. As far as I can tell, no one except Alex seems to know. If there's someone more knowledgeable than myself who has the answer, I've apparently not been able to raise their attention. If you're interested in seeing the key (so far), here's a link to my list, which I posted on the Comic Forums (Comic Geek Speak's forum): https://bit.ly/2Z28jyN Pax, harmonia, Brian

LOVED this movie - glad it's finally out on DVD! I haven't purchased a DVD in quite a while, but this one's going on my shelf, for sure. On a similar note, have you all seen Alex Ross' timely tribute, "Echoes of Captain Marvel", that he released just as this movie was coming out? I thought it was awesome that he decided to help clear the air on how very many comics, TV & movie properties had based their basic concept on the Shazam! premise. It's really beautiful, particularly considering that he drew it on a regular 11"x17" piece of paper. Here's an example of the piece (you can see Zachary Levi to the right of the CC Beck version (front & center) - I'm working on a key to the characters, but I'm missing 3 of them so far: And if anyone knows who the red, fire-haired giant is (and the two guys on his shoulder), I'd be grateful for the information. Pax, harmonia, Brian G. Philbin

I'm curious - and I understand if everyone's tapped out on this subject, being that it's been 3 years since the last posting. But I have a question and was hoping someone here could help: I know it's not one of these cool, classic racks, but does anyone remember a wood and plexiglass spinner rack that used to be used to display comics at - I want to say - B. Dalton Bookseller or Waldenbooks? It might also have been Crown or Borders, but I'm pretty certain this particular rack was specific to one of the two latter stores. The reason I remember this rack is because its plexiglass kept the comic flat against the front, unencumbered by anything else for display, while also not allowing the book to deform unless removed roughly. I'd like to make one, but I can't find a photo of one anywhere. And I know they were in use for at least 15-20 years, because similar versions were definitely found at Borders in the late years before their closure. Anyone with knowledge of such an image would have my gratitude. Let me know - thanks!

Regarding reproduction covers - I've seen and responded to a thread on this already, but it was an old thread, so I thought I'd post here, instead. I do seem to remember that someone had also done repro versions of dust jackets for the hardcover reprint books from the late 60s & early 70s. Been looking for them, but have come up empty. I've been working on just such a project for a couple of my books, but will probably stop after this most recent project. I'm curious if anyone else is doing this - it's such a niche market (since the books back then were so scarcely published) I haven't been able to find anything online. As for my own projects, I've made my repros significantly different enough to be spotted as repros, but I also added "Reproduction by Brian G. Philbin" to the inside for noobs (an advantage of having a two-sided piece which is blank on one side). My current project (which will likely do me in for this in the future) is a repro of "Secret Origins of the DC Super-Heroes" dust jacket. It's *super* difficult, as I'm nowhere near the artist that Neal Adams is. But what I do is scan at the highest resolution possibly, then blow up specific portions to work with the lines that were too small to reproduce properly (or were distorted by the zip-a-tone style coloring in some areas). With this, I've been able to enhance some of the details lost to the limitations of the printing process of the time, such as Wonder Woman's eyes on the front cover, the linework of the Batman logo on the back (of which there are two) and ensuring that all the blacks are as robust as possible. Mostly, though - outside of color enhancement required due to fading of the scanned source material - I just try to leave alone the actual ink artwork so as to reproduce the intention faithfully. These projects (the other is Shazam! from the 40s to the 70s) are really for my own pleasure, but if someone else were interested, I wouldn't be adverse to making additional copies available for sale to those who might be interested. For examples of my reproduction/enhancement work, see the Legion or 100 Page Super Spectacular images on my website: http://www.metropolisplus.com/LOSH/ http://metropolisplus.com/dc100page/ Please allow for the fact that these reduced-size images on the web do not represent the crispness of the actual work, as they are JPEGs and only about 8% of the size at which I edit & print. And if any of you does know of someone providing this service, *please* tell me - I'm feeling very done with this at the moment and would love to have repro dust jackets for my other hardbacks - Thanks! Pax, harmonia, Brian G. Philbin

So - these are super cool! I do seem to remember, however, that someone had also done repro versions of dust jackets for the hardcover reprint books from the late 60s & early 70s. Been looking for them, but have come up empty. I've been working on just such a project for a couple of my books, but will probably stop after this most recent project. I'm curious if anyone else is doing this - it's such a niche market (since the books back then were so scarcely published) I haven't been able to find anything online. As for my own projects, I've made my repros significantly different enough to be spotted as repros, but I also added "Reproduction by Brian G. Philbin" to the inside for noobs (an advantage of having a two-sided piece which is blank on one side). My current project (which will likely do me in for this in the future) is a repro of "Secret Origins of the DC Super-Heroes" dust jacket. It's *super* difficult, as I'm nowhere near the artist that Neal Adams is. But what I do is scan at the highest resolution possibly, then blow up specific portions to work with the lines that were too small to reproduce properly (or were distorted by the zip-a-tone style coloring in some areas). With this, I've been able to enhance some of the details lost to the limitations of the printing process of the time, such as Wonder Woman's eyes on the front cover, the linework of the Batman logo on the back (of which there are two) and ensuring that all the blacks are as robust as possible. Mostly, though - outside of color enhancement required due to fading of the scanned source material - I just try to leave alone the actual ink artwork so as to reproduce the intention faithfully. These projects (the other is Shazam! from the 40s to the 70s) are really for my own pleasure, but if someone else were interested, I wouldn't be adverse to making additional copies available for sale to those who might be interested. For examples of my reproduction/enhancement work, see the Legion or 100 Page Super Specacular images on my website: http://www.metropolisplus.com/LOSH/ http://metropolisplus.com/dc100page/ And if any of you does know of someone providing this service, *please* tell me - I'm feeling very done with this at the moment and would love to have repro dust jackets for my other hardbacks - Thanks! BP