Terry E. Gibbs

Back in the late 40s or 50s DC allowed an Australian publisher to print DC comics. Back then it was Batman and Superman. (I actually have a very nice maybe 8.0+ first appearance of Mr Freeze - Zero at the time), then around 1956 Kenmure Press started to get these big bundles of stats. Usually it featured a modern story, Showcase 4, Showcase 22, plus GA, WW, MM, Challengers, and a collection of stuff going back to early 50s. Big Town, Foley of the .., Mr. District Attorney, plus stuff from My Greatest Adventure, and later into the 60s stuff from Julie's Mystery in Space. The rights to these characters continued right until the rise of independent comic shops in the early 80s. DC never distributed them here, but stuff they started with from 1960 (?) was sold here. I hear you say Yay ???, well not really. Basically all of DC's failed 60's titles. Metal Men, Metamopho, Hawkman. The only one sold here by DC and printed here was JLA. The fact we got the US art meant we had the alternate cover to 105 and Sc8, and many other covers were played around with so it would fit the page. As Australia has a much smaller population than most countries where DC comics were printed, Italy, Germany, and some Sth American countries, they tend to be much harder to find. The other feature is the paper. The story pages seem to age about the same as US but the covers are a lighter paper and almost never seem to oxidize. They are still nice and white on the inside, which is keeping their colours often quite bright.

Hmm before it disappears into a box, let's see. Pow Wow Smith - from 1952, John Jones, Roy Raymond from 1953 (great art by Ruben Moreira) Atom art by Kane & Greene), Hopalong Cassidy by Alex Toth from 1950, Jimmy Olsen by Swan, Wonder Woman from 143 by Andru. When you see Toth back then and later Infantino you can see the influence of Milton Caniff on both of them (not sure Toth ever admitted it but Infantino did) . If so inclined one day search google images for "Caniff Dragon lady". Not all the time but I can definitely see some of early Iris West in her.

I used to read these as a kid, but never saw this one. Back then I was very young, and just checked the newsagent every few days, and only one ever newsagent. My first experience with the "Temperature twins" was in an Australian version of 155 (complete with a Superman cover story !!!). I loved them both and they have been my favourite DC characters ever since. I did not read the 140 story until twenty years later when I got my first Overstreet update and started chasing US dealers. The two of them never disappoint.

It has arrived. I have been hunting a copy for over six years. I knew it was out there but very elusive. A few of these I have seen several times, including the 123 version (four times) but this one not until this month. Last two years faithfully checking ebay every night and morning and for basically maybe 9 months to a year nothing. Then boom last month four different Hundreds dropped. Had one of them and grabbed the other three. In the past I have paid insane money for these copies, and this one was an auction, so again I was expecting it to hurt. Don't know why but that week I was only bid. Honestly I could quit now. There are several others I want, but if I don't land them or the price is nuts I am okay. This one though, I had to have.,

They had a SA splash a few months ago that I think will seem cheap in a year or two, maybe as early as next month. Their stuff is never cheap but their best quality stuff is often just a little over current market, mainly due to lack of comparable sales. Not a site for total newbs but not everything is overpriced.

Probably that these would jump to maybe 10 times their purchase price in a matter of months. Hey it worked when they brought crypto and they knew zilch about that either.

To my mind it is the celebrities who got paid to hype something even they abstained from who may be the easy targets. " What do you mean I can't just open my mouth about stuff I have zero knowledge about just to make more than most people earn over many years !!!!!"

Won something I have chased for over 6 years now, first time I have ever seen it. Was only bidder (??), very strange but hopefully will have a photo up in a week or two.

146 has a story within a story. A chapter on how Iris and Barry develop which started back in 136. Iris knowing how smart Barry is, but feeling he is underperforming in his life (don't forget by 1960s standard Iris was very successful for a woman but clearly aspirational,) tells him last page in 136, that she has signed him up for a self improvement course and of course that sets the scene. Some of my favourite Flash stories have this Iris underlay.

I am in Australia so out of the question, but hoping someone here can help.

From the 40s I am always amazed how any art survived. The stories of it being burnt, given away, used as floor mats in the office. It wasn't until the rise of fandom that some sort of value was assigned to it, and it really took the NY Cons to make the publishers aware of what was happening.

https://comics.ha.com/itm/original-comic-art/complete-story/carmine-infantino-and-joe-giella-flash-148-complete-12-page-story-original-art-dc-1964-andlt-total-12-/p/7341-168001.s?ic4=GalleryView-Thumbnail-071515 I know this is a comic collecting forum, favouring slabs, but this has just come to market. This is regarded by many as one of the Flashes greatest stories. To be honest as a 11 kid when I read it I preferred space travelling boomerangs. Makes me realise how young I was. In the last 7 years 5 new stories / chapters have emerged as the original fans have moved to retirement. Here is hoping some of the others come out of there long resting places. Enjoy.

Did you follow Josh Williamson's development of the Trickster (James Jesse) in the last Barry Allen run. I thought it was one of the better story arcs in the run. Probably favourite Trickster story though was in Balent's Catwoman run.

Wait 6 months and save $4K, sometimes good to be the underbidder.

`DC is kind of a different market. Think that Flash 142 splash at 28.8K was right on the money, and the Hawkman splash for B & B 44 for 24K was stronger than I thought. These SA story splashes don't turn up often, so hard to benchmark, but think the Donnely's Flash 130 splash will now be over $40K. DC SA looks like still rolling forward.

A May-June will have to do

I plead life getting on top of me but here is one top keep it going

Beautiful raw book.

That cover grows on me all the time .. about the story I promised on that splash page. Back in mid 2018 a fellow boardie here and huge Flash fan told me someone was selling the entire first chapter to 140, which they had picked up as a young fan from Julie. Myself, my friend and a few others all expressed interest in certain pages. At that time a very large unbudgeted project at work was at mid billing stage and as I had not received any answer, (none of us had) I made him an offer for the lot. Costed out each page. After a little time he came back with a counter offer and we agreed. Problem was he is in Chicago and I am in Sydney Australia. For any art over US$2,500 the sender needs a special US export permit. That would have meant sending several packages at around US$100 each and/or undervaluing them for insurance. OR as I was in Seattle 9 months later taking a flight to Chicago to pick up. Luckily we had a mutual acquaintance in Harley Yee and by sheer luck the seller (Gary Calombaro) was meeting him for dinner that week (the timing of one of Chicago's big Con's). I offered Harley a delivery fee, and picked them up 9 months later from Harley's hotel room in Seattle. No-one ever said collecting comic stuff was easy.

Well now that you mentioned it .. and the story behind it is not bad either. (sprung from my black hole collection)

Putting Infantino in same bracket as the others is a bit harsh. Not sure how many of the others were guests at the NY Art Con in the early 70s or did a cover for the SDCC program. Like Kirby and Ditko his later work is not in the same class as his best, (but remember Kirby's Captain Victory, or Ditko's LSH run ??). I would take Cinfs bronze age over both of these other titans of comics any day, and given the right inker and subject matter Cinf (secret origin of the Flash) he was still right up there. But Heck seemed to suffer from toxic Marvel fandom in the 70's, .. and the Harlen Ellison interview. I have read later that Ellison who was prompted for the Heck answer apologised and said he had referred to the wrong artist. That Marvel fandom though was not pretty. Hope Heck's family gets from Disney what the man truly deserved.

Again that is long term. Since its peak it is down 27%, about same as SC4.( Since 2018 it is up 700%. "AMD" ..Hmm That is like the return on Eternals 1# before it popped). But the reality is that so much money is now locked in as people don't want to crystallise the loss. It will hurt everyone in the hobby to some degree eventually.

Yeah Stan created huge Fandom and made Jack the King. Cinf is not only under appreciated but for many Marvel fans he is the face of their hated enemy. As I always say, no Cinf/Flash no Spider-man, and dam knows what Kirby would have wound up doing.

Not sure such a boom and bust has ever happened before. Not good for the hobby. Not just AF15 but, FF 1# X-Men 1 ( a 1.0 in Oz went for A$10K - about US $7.2k back in the boom). Many of these books may (will) take years to get back. The owner can sell and burn money or hang on in hope. In the meantime there is a huge chunk of collector money just sitting, not moving around. These guys can't upgrade, or move to what they hope is the next hot book, or guess the next big Marvel movie debut. Big chunk of what moves our books along will now just sit. Keep remembering the old dealer cliche .. "buy what you love, you may have it for a long time".

Not three times but much more than FMV for talking faces at that time, but I was making the offer and I wanted the pages. I was a newbie and it was part of my learning curve. The thing is he stuck with me and my annoying questions and taught me a huge amount, and later helped me enormously in acquiring both grail pages some that he himself wanted and other pages at below FMV from someone moving a bunch of stuff. And finally he offered me a bunch of semi key pages at less than I had paid for the talking faces 5 years before. and of course he is a boardie here.