Hepcat

A poster might be tough given the size of the paper needed, but you can easily get that ad printed on a T-shirt in one of those custom T-shirt shops. I have a t-shirt with the house ad for The Flash 106 on the front and a scan of the cover of my copy of The Flash 106 on the back: I have a total of seven(?) custom T-shirts with imagery from my collections including this one for Sea Devils 2: Just make sure you don't give away or even lend the resultant T-shirt to anybody else. That would constitute distribution of reproduced copyrighted material which is a felony under the law.

A couple of Bantam paperbacks with cover art by the incomparable James Bama: The Frankenstein that Bama painted for that Bantam cover is the best I've ever seen. It's even better than this one that he painted which eventually became box art on the Aurora Gigantic Frankenstein kit:

Absolutely true! And it was even tougher to be a DC comic collector prior to CGC arriving on the scene circa the turn of the millennium. I used to look at the prices listed for DC comics in the Overstreet Guide and think "Yeah, I'd buy those comics at that grade in an instant but who's got them for sale?" Truth! Comic collectors born after about 1952 who are first and foremost DC fans are a rare breed.

I would, I would! I'd do it better though. I'd have the Flash going up against Captain Cold and Heat Wave or maybe the Weather Wizard.

I've now beefed up the Flash's Rogues Gallery skit I wrote up a few years ago: A gathering of Flash's Rogues Gallery in the dining room of the Central City Jail circa 1965: Weather Wizard: "You Piper are so pathetic. A whopping 32 issues four years and four months apart before you got a return appearance in The Flash! Pied Piper: "Yeah, but I was in Justice League 14 in the interim though!" Weather Wizard: "Fffffttttt!!!! You had nothing but a bit part so that hardly counts as a proper appearance. Worse yet you were just a lackey of Mister Memory, who himself turned out to be the mind wiped stooge of Professor Amos Fortune!" Heat Wave: "Yeah, heeeee, heeee! Just the lackey of a mindless stooge!" Pied Piper: "I'd be careful of breaching the subject of reappearances were I in your shoes, Wizard. I just looked through my collection of Flash comics and you didn't get a return engagement with the scarlet boy scout for a colossal 35 issues spanning four years and five months!" Weather Wizard: "Did too! I had a whole story in Flash 130!" Pied Piper: "Hah! You didn't even go up against the Flash though! You were beaten by a little kid and some two-bit superhero with stretching powers who wasn't even good enough to be a member of the Justice League." Weather Wizard: "See! It was two against one!" Pied Piper: "What did the Elongated Man have to stretch to put you down? His nose, his ear?" Trickster: "Giggle! There's only one body part I want stretched." Top: "Me I wouldn't need no secret potions either. That Sue babe of Dibny's could sure stretch it for me." Weather Wizard: "I tell you, it wasn't fair! I was double teamed." Pied Piper: "You couldn't even beat Aquaman or even Batman let alone the Flash. You're more pathetic than I could ever be." Weather Wizard: "Am not!" Heat Wave: "Well you're both beyond pathetic in my book." Pied Piper: "Look who's talking! The johnny-come-lately who didn't even appear on the scene until I had three appearances under my belt!" Captain Cold: "Yeah, the kids who were buying my first appearance in Showcase 8 in 1957 had all graduated to Playboy before hot head here arrived on the scene." Weather Wizard: "Yeah, junior here wasn't even around when DC comics were still a dime." Heat Wave: "You should talk! I still beat you onto a cover by five issues." Weather Wizard: "Not true! I was there on the cover of #110. You just couldn't see me for the flood I was stirring up, that's all." Captain Cold: "It was my appearance on the cover of The Flash 140 that made it an item on newsstands anyway." Heat Wave: "Yeah sure, pops." Captain Cold: "Speaking of which everybody knows I'm the greatest Flash villain of them all! I've been around since the Flash's second newsstand appearance way back in 1957 and I've plagued him ever since." Mirror Master: "Well you got the plague part right anyway. I'm the one who got the first cover though, and it was for issue #105 the one that relaunched the series! None of you can come close to matching that." Captain Cold: "Fffffttttt! You play with mirrors like a woman!" Mirror Master: "Yeah well I still had two cover appearances under my belt before you got your first!" Albert Desmond: "Can anybody tell me who I am today?" Grodd: "All nonsense! Everybody knows that I'm the greatest Flash villain of them all!" Mirror Master: "Hah! Your waistline may be the greatest, but you're nothing but a big hairy ape! You're so ugly that Julius didn't put you on a cover until your fifth appearance in issue #127." Grodd: "Lies! I was on the cover of #115." Mirror Master: "Doesn't count. You weren't your fat hairy self on that cover. Like I say, you were too ugly to get a cover yet." Trickster: "Hey, who ate all the bananas?" Abra Kadabra: "It was the overgrown ape again." Top: "You're all pathetic. Except for the hairy ape and he doesn't count, all any of you losers ever did was rob banks and jewellery stores. I was going to blow up half the world in issue #122 until that meddlesome do-gooder interfered." Trickster: "Could have, would have, should have!" Top: "Huh?" Trickster: "The world's all still here, isn't it? The point is you didn't get it done. The only thing you got done was a fast trip to the hoosegow." Heat Wave: "Yeah! What a loser." Albert Desmond: "But why am I here?" Captain Boomerang: "It's elementary my dear Doctor. You've been a very nasty boy starting way back in your Showcase 13 and 14 appearances before the Flash even got his own title, so nasty in fact that most people haven't forgotten." Weather Wizard: "Yeah, but despite his multiple IDs it took Desmond here a whopping 44 issues and six and a half years before he got himself onto a cover! Now that's really pathetic." Professor Zoom: "Actually in defence of my sometime partner he was on the cover of the Flash Annual from the summer of 1963." Pied Piper: "Annuals don't count though because they're just reprints. Everybody knows that." Abra Kadabra: "I'm #1 though! My collection of The Flash ranks above any of yours in the CGC data base." Heat Wave: "Huh? CGC? What's that?" Abra Kadabra: "You wouldn't know. That's in the future. I've had the top ranked Flash collection at CGC since 6349." Captain Boomerang: "Well that won't be for a few years anyway and I'll match my issues #117, 124 and 148 up against anybody's in the right here and now!" Trickster: "Hmmmppphhfff! Nothing but your own appearances, if you can even call them that. Talk about pathetic. I don't know what's more pathetic, you or your comic collection." Captain Boomerang: "Yeah well you've never done anything cooler than run across floating soap bubbles or ride around on a tricycle. Me though I sent Flash to the Moon and back! Trickster: "Well why did you bring him back though?" Heat Wave: "Yeah, that's what I'd like to know too. Why did you bring him back?" Captain Boomerang: "Wasn't my fault. I use boomerangs and they always come back." Top: "Ffffttt!!!! A feeble excuse if I've ever heard one." Professor Zoom: "Well I'm going to be badder than any of you saps, just you wait and see!" Abra Kadabra: "Yeah, sure. What do you want from us? Applause?" Professor Zoom: "Just wait I say. I'll show you the meaning of the word 'dastardly'!" Top: "Is that true, Kadabra?" Abra Kadabra: "Don't know. My comics are all sealed in plastic slabs so I haven't read any of them." Captain Boomerang: "Huh?! But that doesn't make any sense. Why would you or anybody want comics you can't read?" Abra Kadabra: "You'll have to wait 35 years before you understand." Albert Desmond: "But I just wish I knew who I was this week." Top: "Somebody here could certainly use some more electro-shock therapy." Captain Boomerang: "Look who's talking. The failed half-a-world destroyer! Hey, who farted?" Professor Zoom: "I think it was the hairy ape again." Trickster: "Well that's my cue to run. Hey! Which one of you crooks stole my shoes?"

Here's another great paperback cover (not mine sadly):

Mmmmm, great girl art!

Another strip that I always really enjoyed was Archie which the London Free Press only started carrying in 1965(?): I've not collected any of the comic magazines featuring Archie Andrews and company though. Quite simply with runs numbering in the hundreds extending back into the 1940's collecting even a single title is far too daunting a prospect. Pep Comics 1 (January 1940) - 411 (March 1987) Laugh Comics 20 (Fall 1946) - 400 (April 1987) Archie (Comics) 1 (Winter 1942-43) - 666 (July 2015) (Archie's Pal) Jughead 1 (1949) - 352 (June 1987) Archie's Girls Betty and Veronica 1 (1950) - 347 (April 1987) Archie's Pals 'n' Gals 1 (1952) - 224 (September 1991) Moreover in comparison to most other comics, Archies weren't collected and saved. Finding copies from before 1975 or so that haven't been read to death is nearly impossible. Incidentally, does anyone remember or even collect the Archie and his Pals comics that came with Blony bubble gum in 1957-58? About 100 different Archie and His Pals comics may have been produced in all. The Blony name brand was at the time owned by Topps which had obtained it by acquiring Bowman in 1956. Incidentally, is Blony bubble gum still available in the States? When was the last time anyone has seen Blony bubble gum in stores? I've never seen it.

Here from Famous Monsters of Filmland are a couple of variants of the very cool ad for my all-time favourite toy, the Mad Mad Mad Scientist Laboratory: The second one I scanned from my own copy of the 1966 Famous Monsters of Filmland Yearbook. Here's a picture of the set itself:

It's the old "tail wagging the dog" thing. As a comic fan instead of a movie fan, I find it annoying to beat hell.

Actually it makes quite a bit of sense for two very compelling reasons: A) Whether rightly or wrongly, many/most comic collectors date the start of the Silver Age from the day Showcase 4 hit the stands. The Overstreet Price Guide is among those that does so. This exponentially increases demand for Showcase 4. B) DC comics from 1959 are at least three times easier to find than are DC comics from 1956.

Norm Saunders also did the art for the jackets of these two excellent books on the sweat mags:

Hmmmmm. The scans of the two I have somehow disappeared from my initial post. Here they are again: The women are flabby and out of shape by modern standards but the cover concepts are great!

Here are three by the legendary Norm Saunders (not mine sadly):

Will do!

Three by the legendary Norm Saunders (not mine sadly):

Hmmmm. Now that's a New Year's sentiment that merits some consideration:

No you didn't. That though is boss cool! I wonder how many copies still exist in any condition? Are there any at all in this "census" of CGC's?

I'm very, very sad to hear that Dee Dee died. I've experienced the heartbreak and grief myself following the death of cats on seven occasions in the last thirty years. All I can say is that I feel for you.

The strip that in 1961 or so replaced The Lone Ranger in the Saturday London Free Press was Tarzan. John Celardo who drew the strip from 1954-67 was the artist at the time: Russ Manning took over in 1967 and did a fabulous job on the strip until 1979: The publishing history of Tarzan comic magazines included these runs: Dell 1-131 (February 1948 - August 1962) Gold Key 132-206 (November 1962 - February 1972) DC 207-258 (April 1972 - February 1977) Issues #207-249 and 253 feature covers by Joe Kubert while issues #207-225 and 227-235 also have interior artwork by Joe Kubert. Taking on the task of collecting all the Tarzan issues is far too daunting a task for me to consider. I've therefore limited myself to picking up the issues featuring Joe Kubert art. Here are scans of two of these:

Another newspaper strip that influenced my present day taste interest in comics was Milt Caniff's Terry and the Pirates strip. It was not within my memory carried in the London Free Press or any of the Toronto newspapers since I moved to Toronto in 1977. I may have first encountered it as a kid sometime in a copy of the Detroit Free Press or Toronto Star. At some point about 25 years ago however I realized that the strip was very cool: Harvey published 23 issues of a Terry and the Pirates title beginning with #3 from early 1947 to early 1951. Here are scans of the three I have in my present day collection: Incidentally, the first comic shop I ever patronized back in 1979 was Dragon Lady on Queen Street West in Toronto. Here's a picture of the more recent College Street location to which Dragon Lady moved in 1996: I didn't learn until about fifteen years ago that the shop was named after a character from Terry and the Pirates: Too cool!

Hey! That looks to be a nice white copy with only a very minor miswrap. Aquaman 29 is really tough to find completely free of miswrapping and with a bright checkerboard.

Always nice when something stays within the bounds of reason pricewise. But then again Showcase 22 was never one of those comics collectors could find offered by dealers in VF or better condition before around 2000 and the advent of CGC. And it's still pretty hard to pry copies of Showcase 22 in 8.5 or better condition out of the hands of collectors at less than stratospheric prices.

Huh?! What makes you think Showcase 22 somehow lacks "shine"?