Hepcat

Does anyone know the Mike of the Mike's Amazing World of DC Comics website? Why has he let his superb site lapse?

World's Finest 83 featured a bold new direction for DC's flagship heroes:

You seem to imply that the typical Superman only collector is uninterested in World's Finest as is the typical Batman only collector. Is this the case? You've focused in on the demand end of the equation. As a collector, I'm willing to pay for short supply but I'm very reluctant to pay for high demand. How plentiful are Silver Age World's Finest comics relative to Superman and Batman comics?

But those are some of my favourite characters, with Bat-Hound too of course!

Second string indeed! Space Ranger just gets no respect! I'm always interested in high grade mags with Space Ranger or Mark Merlin covers.

Good luck. Hopefully you're not holding out for NM copies....

Given the Curt Swan artwork, perhaps it's not surprising that World's Finests in the late fifties and early sixties looked more like the Superman rather than the Batman titles. But the editor was Jack Schiff of the Batman titles so they read more like the Batman titles.

Is that your DC comic collecting order of priority?

But to a hard core collector "keys" are just a nuisance. He wants all the issues to complete his collection and the keys just make it more difficult to achieve his objective since they're more expensive.

I am. I thought the New Look Julius Schwartz Batman lost the charm he got from his far out adventures and added nothing, until Neal Adams gave him a measure of edginess in the late sixties. Part of the reason is that I was no fan of the way Carmine Infantino drew Batman. I loved his work on Flash and Adam Strange but his Batman looked somehow wimpy.

I've compared the NM- Overstreet price for the last ten cent issue of the five mags below: Batman #143 - $275 Detective - #297 - $200 Superman #149 - $265 Action #282 - $200 World's Finest #121 - $190 The World's Finest is about 30% less expensive than the Batman or Superman mags despite the fact that it contains both characters and should therefore appeal to both Batman and Superman collectors and fetch higher prices than the Batman and Superman comics. Yet it clearly does not. Why then do many/most Batman and Superman collectors shun World's Finest? Is it because Batman collectors basically try to finish off their Batman & Detective runs first before tackling World's Finest but they never finish the daunting task? And similarly Superman collectors never finish their Superman & Action runs? Or is it some other factor that's specific to the World's Finest title?

I'm surprised that Black Canary, DC's answer to Black Cat, has not yet been mentioned.

A couple more takes on Black Cat:

I've now decided that my JLA 3 isn't up to my quality standards and I "need" a better one with less spine wear. I'm not willing to sacrifice whiteness though. I'm driving myself so crazy....

I like minks.

Wildcat is my favourite men's sweat magazine! I've found none better. I only have a very few though since they're so tough to find. Here's a particularly good cover:

Rick: I agree. As a kid I wanted my superheroes to be heroic.

Those aren't actually my copies. They're just pics I got off the web. I'm one of these Stone Age fellows without a scanner. My copies are very much comparable though. Who's Andy? Nice books indeed - but you seem to like them all slabbed. What do you do for storage, devote a whole wing of your house to your comic collection?

Although I was already aware of superhero comics through casual exposure to Superman, Batman, Fly, Jaguar and Captain Atom, it was Green Lantern who truly sparked a lifelong interest/fascination with comics for me. The specific issue was Green Lantern #11 which I read at a friend's house. My impressionable young mind was drawn by the sense of interstellar mystery that pervaded the comic book. Finding that Green Lantern was a part of the Justice League in JLA #8 at summer camp a month later prompted me to actually buy my first superhero comic, JLA #14, as soon as I got back home. The Green Lantern #24 that I bought a year later remains perhaps my favourite comic cover of all time. I'm still trying to complete a run off Green Lanterns up to my quality standards. I'm missing Showcase 23 and Green Lanterns 4 6 14 15 47. (I am, of course, driving myself crazy by constantly finding flaws in copies with which I was perfectly satisfied ten years ago....)

Conan: I don't have the Godzilla yet. Not only is it among the more expensive kits, but it's not as high a priority for me as the Aurora Wolfman's Wagon or the Revell "Big Daddy" Roth Scuz-Fink. I'll spring for it one of these days though. Nonetheless, my collections keep growing.

Hmmmm. I've had sizing problems ... but I seem to have introduced another problem during the downsizing process. There! Mission accomplished.

Here's the cabinet with the best of my model kits, including the slot cars, on the opposite side of the same room from my comic cabinets. I've just acquired another similar cabinet into which I plan to put more kits plus some other neat kid stuff including board games and bagatelles.

I'd bought a Brave & the Bold 35 (second Hawkman) with a great Joe Kubert cover in an auction a few weeks ago. I'd been looking for one that was up to my quality standards for the last fifteen years or so. Just to annoy me though, some jerk had encased the mag in plastic. I believe it had something to do with showcasing the number 8.5. After I freed it from its plastic tomb, I was delighted to discover a coupon providing the lucky bearer with free admission to the Palisades Amusement Park in New Jersey, complete with a free ride on the Caterpillar! I can hardly wait for spring now! I'm wondering though whether I should also send in the coupon for Joe Weider's muscle building course. Will it really help make me a man, at my age and everything, - or is this another one of those frauds? Nonetheless, the B & B 35 is now bagged in Mylite and filed safely in the cabinet with my other comics. http://boards.collectors-society.com/ubbthreads.php?ubb=showflat&Number=1623360&page=1&fpart=61

Ringfinger: About 3500 Silver Age size comic books will fit in the cabinet. It's a 42" wide, five high lateral filing cabinet. Right now, I have over 2100 comics stored in it plus the magazines. Given the fact that I now have two of the monsters sitting side by side, I should be good for another thirty years or so.

I'll check that detail this weekend.