Hepcat

I'd bet on it.

One of mine:

Yes, that's a good one. While it didn't make my top thirteen, it would make my top twenty from the Silver Age. What's also interesting is the addition of all those messy Marvel style blurbs beginning with issue #36 forced a reduction in the style and size of the "Justice League of America" logo beginning with issue #43. More background canvas space was needed for Mike Sekowsky's cover art! The single worst Bat-craze cover abomination may have been this one:

It was at a Lithuanian kids' summer camp in July of 1962 that I read my first Justice League comic: It not only left me craving more DC superhero comics but had me wondering where Tootsie Roll Ice Cream Bars were sold and whether they were any good: So does anyone here remember Tootsie Roll Ice Cream Bars from your own neck of the woods? Were they as good as advertised?

Geeee, I dunno.

Astonishing! I only like Ant-Man with the Wasp. My stepping off point from Tales to Astonish is when Ant-Man evolves into Giant-Man.

Here though is the Mastronet case: https://www.justice.gov/usao-ndil/pr/former-owner-mastro-auctions-sentenced-20-months-federal-prison-shill-bidding-scam

No, I'm a Canadian. Truthfully I think it was a case of Heritage employees not even knowing the rules of their own auction, i.e. that the first bid automatically shows up at the price of the minimum bid specified. Either that or poor communication resulting in dumb and clumsy computer programming on the part of whoever they hired to do the job. It was a moot point anyway since my initial bids were all blown out of the water.

I believe the #3 is a lot more common than the other issues from #2 - 9. It was an Aquaman comic sold in the Comicpacs.

I was also well aware of the Hawk Weird-Ohs model kits as a kid. I don't remember how and where I first learned of them, but it would not have been long after Hawk first started releasing them in 1963 because they were very widely sold. Here's a picture of the poster that went out to retailers in conjunction with the release of the first three Weird-Ohs: And here's a poster from 1964 displaying them all: I particularly remember gazing upon a Huey's Hut Rod kit in the downtown Coles bookstore. Here's the one from my present day collection: I also admired an Endsville Eddie kit at Coles: Moreover Steve's Variety & Gift Shop seemed to have one of the two smaller Weird-Oh kits that had a retail price of $0.50, Sling Rave Curvette or Wade A. Minut, on display in their front window for several years. These of course caught my eye every time I passed (as did the chocolate cream puffs priced at $0.15 in the window of the Bell Noll Bakery next door): I also still remember Mike M. just down the block from me proudly showing me the Francis the Foul kit he'd built but left unpainted: For Mike and his older brother Fred to beat me to the punch when it came to getting things though was par for the course. They were a lot more sophisticated and cooler than I was since even Mike was a year older than me. I never bought and built any of the Weird-Ohs though. Quite simply I didn't have the spending money to indulge my every whim and I could see that the Weird-Oh kits simply weren't as good as the Revell Roth finks or the Aurora Universal monsters when it came to quality. But I have them all in my present day collection because they're plenty cool enough for me these days! Here then are more shots from my present day collection: Plus I have a bunch of ancillary Weird-Ohs items including a Fleer Weird-Ohs card set and wrapper from 1965: A couple of Magic Slates: And five sets of the decals (I sold one set) in the display box plus the shipping box which I bought at a vintage model shop over 35 years ago!

There! That'll fix the fat old fart!

I suspect the item was "sold" to a shill bid. The seller was just trying to bid up the GPA for a comic in his possession that he hopes to sell in the next few months. But who was the big name dealer of CGC comics whose account was briefly (all too briefly!) suspended by Ebay for shill bids some twelve years ago? And was it Mastronet or Heritage who argued in court that they shoudn't all be jailed for shill bids because the practice wasn't illegal in Texas? Do they still do it all the time? I recall back in 2005-06 Heritage had listed minimum opening bid levels for the comics in their catalogue. I pecked in my maximum bids for about six comics. Well guess what? The bid prices posted the next day were all at my maximum instead of at the minimum in complete defiance of the laws of probability. When I phoned to "inquire" as to how this happened, they were confused. They had trouble even understanding my inquiry.

Those are nice. Soaky and Pez are a tough combination to beat for a kid of any age! The Holy Grail of most Creature collectors though is the Bally pinball machine: (Not mine.)

Five more of my World's Finest Comics:

Well since we're now curious to see what you think fits here, show us!

The comics such as this Flash which had the "Tomorrow's Stars Appear Today" ad: Also ran this ad with Superman himself inviting readers to visit Palisades Park: It ran in DC comics through the warm weather months including in the first DC comic I ever bought: But it was of value to only certain lucky Americans living in and around New York City in the days when New York was the place to be. Did any of you other comic fans here get to visit Palisades Park? Did any of you actually clip the coupon from a comic for your free passes? Me I could only envy those big city American kids because my sleepy old London town had only the Western Fair and that was for just ten days every September: The Western Fair though compares very favourably to most American state fairs in size. Quite simply I didn't realize that I was growing up in both the best of places and the best of times. Not only were stores chock full of everything from penny bubble gum to returnable bottles of soda pop in ice water coolers to potato chips with coins free inside to scoop ice cream for even a nickel, but of course there were the comics, Mad magazines, hockey and other bubble gum cards and model kits. And best of all, there was no helicopter parenting back in those days. A kid was free to be a kid. Out you went in the mornings on non-school days to play all day returning only when it started to get dark. Once again you never know what you've got till it's gone.

Wow! How long have you been collecting Casper comics? Do you collect Spooky, Wendy or any other Harvey titles?

The top one looks better to me but I'm put off by the outrageous shipping charge.

Is it politically incorrect and/or even racist to have a preference for Black Cats these days?

Newsrooms? You mean stores dedicated to selling newspapers, magazines and paperback books (maybe)? Can you name some examples of such from the old days? Any pictures? Lichtman's News and Books in Toronto may I guess have been a good example of a newsroom but by the time I became aware of it in 1981 the heyday of comic sales on newsstands and in corner stores was a thing of the past.

Ebay, the new fence of America! Even if the goods aren't in the seller's possession....

Conan I overlooked. As for the others, there's a world of difference between having an owner and being in regular publication/use. Reprints don't count for nearly as much as steady publication of new material. New material is worth perhaps 3x to 5x as much.

A Charlton!

Rather than trying to determine which of my 10 cent comics I've not yet posted in this thread, I thought I'd first list the titles in which I have the most 10 cent issues. I drew the line at five: Archie Adventures of the Fly: 14 DC House of Secrets: 12 Tales of the Unexpected: 12 Detective Comics: 11 Batman: 10 Brave and the Bold: 10 Flash: 10 Wonder Woman: 10 World's Finest: 10 Showcase: 9 Challengers of the Unknown: 8 Superman: 8 Green Lantern: 7 Action Comics: 6 Mystery in Space: 6 Justice League of America: 5 Dell Lone Ranger: 19 Tom and Jerry: 17 Daffy Duck: 12 (White Eagle) Indian Chief: 9 Spike and Tyke: 8 Walter Lantz New Funnies: 7 Goofy: 6 Howdy Doody: 5 MGM's Mouse Musketeers: 5 Harvey Felix the Cat: 35 Playful Little Audrey: 27 Black Cat (Mystery): 26 Spooky: 12 Warfront: 9 Inky and Dinky: 5 Wendy: 5 Dell comics were ten cents prior to those hitting newsstands in December 1960 while DC and most other publishers kept the ten cent price up until the start of October 1961.

I still clearly remember the day I bought the comic that introduced me to Adam Strange particularly well. It was the day in October 1963 of the annual charity bazaar in the basement of St. Martin's church which was adjacent to my school. Included among the attractions were some designed to coax the nickels and pennies from kids' pockets such as a "fish" pond. I clearly remember standing in the outside entrance alcove at the side of the church admiring the copy of Mystery in Space 88 that I'd just purchased at Les' Variety: Up to that point Mystery in Space had not been among the titles I'd been buying because my focus at the time was on superheroes and I thought Adam Strange was one of those future spacemen like Flash Gordon, Buck Rogers, Space Ranger and Tommy Tomorrow. It was the cover blurb promising a Hawkman thriller that actually prompted me to buy the issue. Hawkman was a mysterious hero who I only knew from house ads such as these up to that point: But that issue of Mystery in Space acted to make me a big fan of Adam Strange as well. Unfortunately Adam Strange stories illustrated by the old master Carmine Infantino continued to only issue #91. When Julius Schwartz took over the Batman editorial bailiwick from Jack Schiff in 1964, Infantino was assigned the artwork on Detective Comics and he had to give up illustrating Adam Strange stories.