bigfiver69

Hey Rip and all, Rip and all, SSWS #144 is one of the nicest Enemy Ace tales of that run, and one that has a sad, unfortunate story to it. You may all have heard this, but here it goes anyway. Kubert had written the -script for that book, and gave Alex Toth the chance to do it. Apparently he drew it up, inked and lettered it and brought it in. Kubert looked at it, and HATED IT. Instead of making changes, Toth apparently walked off in a huff and tossed the boards. I hate to think that's true, but I find it hard to believe that if they still existed they wouldn't have made it out into the public eye by now. So anyway, here's Kubert with a deadline and no artwork. He calls Neal Adams (at this stage still something of an up and comer) and he and the Kube pound out the art. If I'm not mistaken, that's a full-length book, so that was something of a coup. The only vestiges we have of Toth's involvement in that issue come from a strange source. Back in the late 60s or early 70s, there were a set of trading cards or stickers (printed by Topps I believe) that featured comic book covers. They're pretty rare, but I saw an uncut sheet of them on display at the San Diego con a few years ago. The box in the lower right corner say 'Alex Toth' instead of Adams. So the cover must have been colourproofed before the interior art was changed. It's a shame. My undertanding is that Toth and Kubert have been at odds since. Shep

Hey guys, New fella here. Just found this list, and I'm jumping in to say hi. My name is Brian Sheppard, and I live in St. John's Newfoundland. I'm a HUGE fan of bronze age DC war (and horror, but mainly war) and I was fortunate to have been able to have bought a lot of books off the racks as a kid in the late 70s and early 80s. My collection of DC War 1968-88 is complete, with about 90% of the books in sharp VF or better (I'd say half the collection is NM) and it has taken years to get this far. Interesting to see the nice scans of other some of the high grade books belonging to people on this list. ANY of the over 800 issues that DC produced in this period in true 9.0 or better are rare gems indeed. Along with DC romance titles, I think the war titles are the hardest bronze age genre in grade. They really can be brutal. I've also been very lucky to find some excellent original art from this era, with great pages by Russ Heath, Ric Estrada, George Evans, Ken Barr, Sam Glanzmand and Jack Kirby. When I figure out how to post images, I'll throw a few on. That said, if anyone has any nice Glanzman Battle Album pages or any USS Stevens pages, I have stuff to trade against. There's been some talk about which books ar hardest to find from this era (in high grade). Here are my votes: OAAW #256 - Awesome book, and near-impossible in NM. Finally got one four years ago, and never letting go. OAAW #286 - Not a great issue, but strangely a tough one. Ruben Yandoc art on the Rock story, with a heavy Kubert assist. Decent Estrada Gallery of War tale. SSWS #154 - Easily the toughest book from this title. Very rare above 9.0, but what an incredible Kubert cover. WWT #10 - Super Toth art on a rare Sheldon Mayer story. Killer hard in grade. WWT #12 - Kaluta cover makes it a true must have for horror collectors too. WWT #60-#80 - Just a painful, difficult run to find in grade. Some real gems in there, though. GI Combat #141 - Just a horror to find in grade. Perhaps Russ Heath's finest moment on Haunted Tank. If you've got a true NM copy, please contact me. GI Combat #201-213. Early dollar-size books. Tough, and just beautiful books. #207 with the Heath art inside is probably the worst to find. Our Fighting Forces - Happily, they're all readily available in decent shape. Some of the issues before #123 are tough, but they're for completists only. Blitzkrieg #2 to #5 - All much harder than #1 to get. Anyway, just a few observations. The digests in NM are scarce too, as are some of the DC specials. Hopefully we'll see some action on this thread again soon. Anyone else finding any particular DC war books hard to find in grade? Love to know. Thanks Shep