flashlites

I love MyComicShop! They keep sending me notices (I have Vampi 1 on my wish list but alas they have all been out of my price range ) Nice pick ups there! Congrats!

WOW! Score of 2? I wish it were me!!! Maybe it is!

Grades in---

This is going to be great! Thanks Mike for doing this for us!

So nice to see those 9's above! Just beautiful copies! As if they were fresh off the newsstand just like I remember them . I will have to settle for something in 3.0 range I'm sure but I will be happy. I love those campy little short stories inside and of course all that wonderful B&W art work!

Maybe so... cover says Oct 1956 I believe they published 3 months in advance so I think it would have been on news stands in July? But yeah any DC comic with a Sept. 1956 date you would think at least one of them would would have it?

Just checking in Flash fans! Did anybody figure out which titles carried the house ad for Showcase #4?

I believe it did but I will need another Flash fan to confirm which titles SC4 was advertised in. Maybe SC#3? Challengers of the Unknown maybe?

This is very strange to see such a wide variation on these colors. Most of these variations can probably be explained by color fading over the years and exposure to light. But it does seem as though there may have been a color issue at the press when printing some of these issues. Typically in the four color process it takes some time to get the colors balanced correctly. The pressman will run the covers through, pulling out a few here and there, look at them with his loop, checking carefully against a mock up until the right balance is achieved. All those should be thrown away as spoilage, but some may have been used that were out of balance. Also, during the run if one of the 4 colors is running low, new ink may be added and this too can cause an imbalance as a flood of fresh ink (say magenta for example) runs over the plates. Conversely if say yellow started to run low the cyan and magenta colors would start to look richer. The pressman should be watching for these imbalances and discard these as spoilage until balance is achieved again.

This is a very impressive collection to say the least! Even if you don't get the 112, 121 and 174 you have truly accomplished great things my Flash friend!

Love this issue! For a while there 109 was my lowest number Flash. I remember celebrating over on the 10 cent thread when I first got it. I was new here and I don't even think I had found this thread yet. I believe I posted a photo of it with me and a congratulatory cigar in my mouth.

Count me in if there is still room!

Nice one! The last of the 10 cent issues I believe

I'm sure many are slabbed just because its a 106 and a very valuable book. Mine is not slabbed because it would probably grade at 1.5 so....and I would never sell it so....it is less likely to get slabbed in my life time. 2nd issues (106 is technically a 2nd issue) sometimes had smaller print runs than the first issues. I know that data is out there so we could compare with 105 that would be interesting. I had a general calculation of my own we can try it here but its really just a wild guess. It goes like this: with 400 slabbed multiply that by 7 and you get 2800 surviving copies of 106 potentially?

Even into the 1970's most towns did not have a comic shop. In my home town I dont believe the first one opened until 1979. So when hunting for back issues there were a few methods we employed: The ads in the OPG Used book stores/Paperback book exchange Flea markets and garage sales You really had to get lucky back then! In my home town there was a huge collector that held a comic book flea marked every month. He ran a karate studio and would open it up to all collectors. They would come in set up and sell their collections. He had thousands himself. I bought many back issues from him and his vendors. It was a real treat to go there. I bought a Flash 106 there and a Sub-Mariner #1 there, those were very special moments. It must be strange as a new generation of collectors to try and imagine what collecting was like before the internet, comic shops and eaby. But we found a way and it was hard work but it made it even more special when you came across those books. Try to imagine a world where you knew you needed #112 or something but you had never even seen the cover. So imagine now you are seeing that 112 for he first time!

That is so awesome! Anytime a Flash Collector gets a Showcase issue it is a special moment!

It has been listed that way since the 1970's. I believe at that time it was rarely seen. Over the last 40+ years many more copies have surfaced, still many Flash collectors feel it is hard to find especially in mid grade or above. Scarce use to mean 20-100 copies known to exist. Currently there are 400 in the census so we are well past 100 copies at this point and then there are all the raw copies out there like mine .

Great copy!!! also worthy of the triple dancing bananas I assume this in a new pick up? Tell us more! (even if its not, still worthy - and tell us more! )

That is worthy of the rare triple dancing bananas!!! congratulations!

Action 214 'Flasherman'!! or 'Superflash'!! Wait, SuperFlash sounds like a 70's Funk band. Right?

That Vampi has a perfect looking backside!

Are you guys aware of an ink transfer issue with Vampi #5? On the backs of some of these it looks as though they may have been stacked wet after printing? The back covers of a few I was looking at today look dirty. But then I looked at the back of my copy and its kinda the same. Looks more like ink than soiling.

It would be really cool to own a Golden Age Superman (its on my comic book bucket list)....but there is one Superman comic we Flash fans just have to have and that is Superman 199. Still dreaming of getting that one one day