David Stone

Does anyone have information on an EC fanzine titled Potrzebie, published around 1955-1956? I have read John Benson's article in Squa Tront #7 and a few other mentions, but information on rarity, number of issues published, etc. is hard to find.

I recently got in touch with Bernie Bubnis, who was one of the main organizers of the first ever comic book convention, the 1964 New York Comicon. Bernie was only 16 years old when he accomplished this feat, along with his friends Ron Fradkin, Art Tripp and Ethan Roberts. Professional guests were Steve Ditko, "Fabulous" Flo Steinberg (Stan Lee's secretary), Marvel intern David Twedt and Tom Gill (artist on the Lone Ranger for Dell and Gold Key). Dealers like Bill Thailing, Phil Seuling, Howard Rogofsky, Malcolm Willets, and others came from as far away as California to attend the convention. Bernie produced a program of the convention to send to attendees after the event (see attached). Comic fandom historian J. Ballmann wrote a book on the convention in 2016 (see attached). Bernie is still going strong and has a remarkable memory for early fandom events. It's great that he is so open and willing to talk about the events of those early days, which would otherwise be lost to present day collectors.

I Wasn't there, but I sure envy you getting to participate in such a seminal event in comic book history! Attached is the program for the August show.

My first convention was the 1996 San Diego Comic-Con (see program attached). The Con was wonderful in those days, big enough to have everything, but not unmanageable and still relatively affordable. I got Stan Lee to sign a few Marvel comics, Dave Gibbons drew a Rorschach caricature in my graphic novel of The Watchmen, and science fiction author David Brin signed one of his books for me. Saw a copy of Action #1 for the first time at the Metropolis booth. Really a great time!

That is really awesome (like your articles)!

Here is another, even more elusive issue - the first Publisher's Presentation Volume. These were bound copies of the first 13 issues of CBM that were presented to contributors by Gary Carter. Only 25 sets were bound and presented in September 1992, This one is #22 of 25.

Here is one of the real rarities of the series - Special Edition #1. It featured the same cover as regular issue #14, but the issue number was printed as1. The contents consisted of features and columns reprinted from earlier issues of CBM. Apparently, 10,000 copies were printed with the intention of sending them to Sears in Canada for inclusion in comic book collecting kits. Something went wrong and the great majority of the print run was pulped. Gary Carter said only 57 copies survived.

I agree the first issues were definitely the best! I knew Eric Andresen, who contributed several articles to the early editions, from my college days at the University of Arizona where he had a cartoon strip in the school newsletter. I still found some good things in the later editions, as well. I liked the sets of Gerber White Space Stickers they published in four or five of the later issues. They featured some of the covers Ernie Gerber had been unable to find for his Photo Journals. Here is the set from CBM Special Edition #4.

Here is the white cover special edition of CBM #61 that was given to attendees of the dinner for the American Association of Comicbook Collectors at the San Diego Comic-Con in 1998. John Severin was the guest of honor. Inside the cover was was the Stan Lee edition, CBM #61. I think they did this for several years in the '90s.

Really wish things had gone smoother for this book! Here is the update from the Gemstone website with the shipping date for Overstreet @ 50: Overstreet @ 50: Five Decades of The Overstreet Comic Book Price Guide, originally set to be released during what turned out to be the heart of the COVID-19 shutdown, has been rescheduled to arrive in comic shops on Wednesday, November 4, 2020. This companion book celebrates and documents the 50-year history of The Overstreet Comic Book Price Guide with an extensive interview with Bob Overstreet, commentaries from Paul Levitz, Maggie Thompson, Beau Smith, David T. Alexander, Buddy Saunders, Matt Nelson, Steve Borock, and others. There’s also a behind-the-scenes look at the development of the Guide, a cover gallery, the Overstreet Hall of Fame, and more. Overstreet @ 50 clocks in at more than 400 pages. It features an Incredible Hulk cover by Joe Jusko and will be available in hardcover ($30) and soft cover ($20) versions. The hardcover is exclusive to comic shops. Since the book is more than 400 pages long, I can understand why they decided to publish this in a separate volume. Just too much material to squeeze into the regular Guide. I contributed a few articles on the OPG to this volume, so I may be biased, but I think the book will be worthwhile for people who are interested in the history of the Guide. Like you, I wish they could have promoted it better, but they were blindsided by Covid-19 shutting down Comicon and so much of the economy. I think the Guide is printed in Canada, Gemstone is in Maryland, they had to publish the Facsimile edition of OPG #1, the three cover versions of the regular Guide, the Big! Big! version, coordinate with the Hero Initiative to get that book printed, and publish this book all while dealing with different government shutdown orders, shipping schedules, etc. That is really a lot to do, so I am inclined to be forgiving about the extended schedule. It has been a hard time for everybody!

Thanks Johnny! From what you have told me, I think you must have a really world class collection of Overstreet Price Guides. I agree with you about the importance of the OPG and its place in comic book history! I talked with Lou Fine a lot about my article on the softcover OPG #2 in the post above, but the other articles have some worthwhile information and some surprises, as well. The OPG is much more complex and diverse than people realize. Even the later, more specialized versions, like the Big! Big! issues have some eye openers. Did you know there was a hardcover edition of Big! Big! #34? See image below. Only six copies were made, as a feasibility study to see if a hardcover version could be produced cheaply enough to market them to collectors. Sadly, they cost too much to produce at the time. I don't think one of these has ever been publicly offered, but if you see one, grab it!

Yeah, the back-issue section does not mention a lot of early varieties. Are you aware that Overstreet published some rare softcover Canadian versions of the OPG for editions #3, 4, and 5? The back-issue section notes, "Canadian editions exist for a couple of the early issues" but gives no more information. The Canadian editions are easy to recognize because they have blank back covers (see image of #4 below). I like to page through eBay listings of these three issues to see if I can find one with a blank back cover. About once or twice per year I find one. In almost all cases, the person selling the book doesn't realize what it is, so it sells cheaply, as a regular U.S. version. Even Gemstone undersells the Canadian editions. Miraculously, a few weeks ago an unopened box of Canadian OPG #4s was found in the Gemstone warehouse (I have a mental picture of the Gemstone warehouse that looks a lot like the last scene in Raiders of the Lost Ark). They are currently offering pristine copies of this rare Canadian edition on their website for a price that is less than they charge for the regular U.S. edition of OPG #4. If collecting the Guide ever really takes off, these books should be worth much more!

I believe the first two varieties are much harder to find in high grade, so they should be worth more when (and if) people become aware of the different varieties. Of course, this research is really in the preliminary faze. Nobody, except maybe a few of the biggest dealers, has a chance to really compare and contrast a large number of softcover OPG #2s. That makes it difficult to even identify the different varieties and there may be even more that we haven't seen yet. My estimate of their relative rarity is based on a limited number of books I have personally examined, so there may be some surprises in the future there, too. Pioneering research is a lot of fun, but certainty is elusive!

Yeah, that was an interesting post on the hardbound OPG #2 that you and I both participated in. There are three varieties of the hardbound OPG #2 that I know of, but one is just a minor positional difference in the placement of the text on the spine. The major difference was between the two printings, one in May and the second in June, with a different arrangement of the text on the cover and different binding stamps inside the books. I wrote an article on this in the Heritage Comics Newsletter and an updated version of that article will be included in Overstreet @ 50. The Message Boards discussion was here:

Sure. Briefly, I have found four different varieties of softcover OPG #2. The first variety has a darker red cover, with a pagination error (back-to-back pages both numbered 65), 32 pages of ads, split into four 8-page signatures spaced throughout the book. The ads are all printed on yellow paper and the ads for Harvey Schein and Buddy Saunders are duplicated. We know this was the first printing because it is the variety included in the hardcover OPG #2, which was bound in May and June. The second variety has a lighter, orange-red cover, with the pagination error corrected and all the yellow ad pages in one section at the back of the book, The ads for Harvey Schein and Buddy Saunders are not duplicated. Note: This is exactly what Bob Overstreet did when he published the blue cover second printing of the first edition - he corrected a few mistakes, consolidated the ad copy, and changed the color of the cover. The third variety has the lighter orange-red cover, no pagination error, and all the ad pages in the back of the book, like the second variety. However, 16 of the ad pages are printed on yellow paper (like the previous printings) and 16 of the pages are printed on blue paper. The fourth variety has the lighter orange-red cover, DOES have the pagination error, with the ad pages all placed at the back of the book. Like the third variety, 16 ad pages are printed on yellow paper and 16 are printed on blue paper. It is worth noting that the blue ad pages in varieties 3 and 4 are printed on the same blue paper that was used for all the ad pages in OPG #3. Jack Mallette told me that the softcover OPG #2 was heavily used from the first, and it wasn't long before the first and second printings were exhausted and no NM copies were available on the secondary market ( I personally have never seen a NM copy of varieties 1 or 2). Jack also said there were some collectors who later wanted NM copies of the book for their collections. Apparently, Bob had some leftover interiors of both of the first two varieties, but only had extra signatures of 16 ad pages. I think he had the missing ad pages reprinted on blue paper at the same time he had the third edition printed and combined them with the leftover interiors and lighter orange-red covers to satisfy collector demand for NM copies early in 1973. Remember, Bob and his family glued all the covers on the softcover OPG #2 themselves, so he would not have had any extra binding expense in producing these books. I have seen a few copies of variety 3 and 4 in NM condition in today's market. That is my theory, anyway. I would not be completely surprised to see another variety turn up some day with all blue ad pages, but I have not seen one yet. Hope that helps!

That is great, thanks! I think the book will be worthwhile for anyone who collects Overstreet guides. I think my articles are just kind of side-bars to the section on the history and development of the OPG. The book is 400 pages long, so they must have a lot to say, beyond the articles and Bob Overstreet's interview. I think the cover gallery will be especially interesting.

Thanks for asking! Gemstone is planning to include updated versions of my eight previous articles on the OPG (with some new information) in Overstreet @ 50, along with two previously unpublished articles. One of the new articles describes the four different varieties of the softcover OPG #2 I have documented and the other covers the Big! Big!, Hero Initiative, and Hall of Fame editions.

A couple more early price guides. The Argosy Comic Book Price Guide is a rare one-shot issue that came out in 1965, five years before Overstreet #1. Bob may, or may not, have been aware of it when he decided to publish his price guide. The SFCA guide was a true copy-cat edition, published by the same organization that published the Rocket's Blast and Comic Collector, the main adzine for comic fandom in the 1960s, before being overtaken by the Buyer's Guide, in the 1970s. Bob seems to have resented this invasion of his territory, as he advertised heavily in the RBCC in earlier years, but stopped cold when this price guide was published.

Hard to keep things straight, with all the different issues released on a staggered schedule due to Covid 19! I think the real interview with Bob Overstreet is coming out in Overstreet @ 50, which is being released in November. From the Gemstone site: "The 50-year history of The Overstreet Comic Book Price Guide is documented and celebrated in this lush history of the book collectors and dealers alike have called “The Bible” of the comic book industry. This volume features an extensive interview with Bob Overstreet, commentaries from Paul Levitz, Maggie Thompson, Beau Smith, David T. Alexander, Buddy Saunders, Matt Nelson, Steve Borock, and others, as well as a behind-the-scenes look at the development of the Guide, a cover gallery, the Overstreet Hall of Fame, and more. Cover by Joe Jusko. Available in both softcover and limited edition hardcover versions."

Thanks for the question! For regular editions 1 through 26, the Overstreet Comic Book Price Guide featured just one cover design. For edition 27, they began producing two different cover designs for the yearly edition, a practice they continue today (for the most part). One design for the 27th edition featured the Flash and the other show-cased Green Lantern (see images below). The two versions of the deluxe leather-bound edition had one of the softcovers bound-in with the text and the featured character's name embossed in gold on the cover. Hence the "FLASH" or "GREEN LANTERN" inscription. Deluxe leather-bound editions were produced for editions 14 through 21 when Bob Overstreet owned the Guide. In those years, purchasers of the deluxe edition could have their names embossed on the cover to personalize their copy if they ordered ahead of time. You may see copies from this time frame with the owner's name, like "STAN LEE", embossed on the cover. Gemstone Publishing purchased the Guide from Overstreet in 1994 and revived the deluxe leather-bound editions for editions 25 through 27. I have never seen a personalized copy of any of the Gemstone-era editions and I doubt the service was offered for those books. I realize these are not actually comic books, and with a print run of 25 copies each, they certainly qualify as rare, but I would expect their main appeal to be to comic book collectors, rather than collectors of rare first editions, etc. That is why I was surprised to find them offered in weekly internet rare book auctions, rather than comic book auctions. I think they would do better in comic book-related offerings (Green Lantern sold for $62 on 12/5/2013 and Flash realized $30 on 11/27/2013).

The final deluxe leather-bound editions of the Overstreet Comic Book Price Guide were produced in 1997, with a print run of 25 copies of each cover variant. The two books pictured were offered by Heritage, but in a rare book auction, not a comic book auction. This is the only public offering of these books I have been able to locate. For many years these editions were available on the Gemstone Publishing website for $125, but they have recently sold out of both varieties of the #27. I wonder how many copies are extant. Does anyone have any information about auction appearances or purchases from Gemstone, etc? Thanks if you can help!

Really cool! Is the text on the spine spaced like this Or like this FYI, the May binding looks like this

What you say about the pricing makes sense to me, at least in the abstract. Not only is the May printing the earliest, it seems to be more elusive, as well. So far, I have only identified one copy of the May binding variant. Of course, as you say in your other post above, it is likely some more examples of this issue will surface as time goes by and knowledge of the books spreads. In addition to the six examples I mentioned in the article, I have now learned about the June binding example blue808 exhibits in this post, and both moon dog and bronze johny say they own, or once owned, other examples of the #2 hardbound (binding date not specified). If they are all different books, that would bring the known total up to nine. In addition, Gary Carter identified six examples in the 1990s which, if there is no overlap between the groups, could bring the surviving population up to 15 copies. Bob Overstreet told Gary Carter only 75 copies were printed, so that would be 20% of the total print run, a fairly reasonable estimate of the surviving population. So far, knowledge of the different printings has been so limited that it has not been a factor in pricing. I have never seen a public offering that even mentioned there were different print runs. Additionally, the only offering of a first printing I have seen was for a copy I would grade VF 8.0, while at least two of the June printings are solid NM 9.4s, so condition would definitely favor those books. I think we are still in the early learning phase about this issue and I for one, continue to be surprised by what turns up!

Interestingly, the hardbound #2 in the ad appears to be the first printing, May binding variant. You can tell by the arrangement of the text on the front cover. Your father actually received the June binding variant, so maybe the ad was repeated later and he ordered from that one,

I think this must be the ad your father ordered the book from. It was in The Buyer's Guide #22 from 1972.