rodan57

A pretty one. On the newsstand back in May of 1966. Just freed from its CGC tomb, I am looking forward to reading this when work and time permit.

Great books in wonderful condition.

Nice Ditko inking.

If the 3% is such an issue to the seller how can I ever negotiate a 10% discount?

+1 +2

Sellers should welcome the security PayPal provides for buyers. It adds to the security of the purchase and encourages buying. If the seller is unaware how asking for fees affects buying decisions, what else are they unaware of? If a seller wants me to cover PayPal fees, I skip the thread.

Loved these books as a kid, especially the H.G. Wells and Jules Verne titles. I keep an eye out for them today ---- but paper quality is such a killer!

A very nice copy of ASM 39 just made its way successfully to the Great White North. Well-packaged, it suffered not even a bruised spider-web, and now sits free of its slabbed prison, safe and sound in mylar heaven. Thanks, Adrian

I like to hear people complain who share the same point of view that I do.

From Nick Caputo's site: Marvel's Western House Ads

Very nice, Brian. Great purchase. I am sure it looks great in the collection.

I see this a lot in OA collecting. As a buyer, if you are in a "best offer" situation the last thing you want is your offer being shopped around to death while you are used as leverage. So you see this a ton. This is my offer, it's good for 24 hours (or whatever limited time), just give me a yes or no. I wouldn't be offended by a window. Opportunity knocks.

The rationalization bothers me, too. It's a defensive action that I would like to think is generated from embarrassment rather than seeking to justify an unjustifiable position. I am glad to see a mostly general condemnation of what I hope was a "What was I thinking?" moment. But then again witness the responses if one draws attention to a sexist or homophobic comment or photo. It's still generally open season for posting a picture of a real woman and insulting her based upon her physical appearance -- usually through the approval or condemnation of her body parts or through the use of ephemisms for a poster's fantasy of having sex with her. The defences are usually something along the line of lighten up or that she was asking for it for being out in public and letting her picture taken. There are still those that have a difficult time understanding that they are degrading a real person for their own amusement -- someone's daughter or sister or mother.

The seller does not owe you taxes paid on the transaction. The government will refund your duty and taxes. They may be aspects of handling that cannot be refunded. http://www.cbsa-asfc.gc.ca/publications/dm-md/d6/d6-2-6-eng.pdf "2. An importer may request a refund of duties and taxes using Form B2G for non-commercial duty and tax paid importations brought into Canada by mail, courier, or carried by the traveller. Copies of the form are available at customs offices or can be found on the reverse side of Form E14 for postal importations. It is also acceptable for the importer to write to the CCRA requesting a refund or adjustment and giving the reason for such a request."

Just mentioning this song brought back comic book memories.

I find this to be an very interesting period of Marvel history to think about and, every time I comment on it, I find myself going back and cribbing/refining from my earlier thoughts --- so this is going to be a bit long-winded. Goodman's comics were a small part of his larger publishing empire, Magazine Management. Goodman made a lot of money from his sweat magazines, in particular. Goodman liked the name Marvel and used on many books in the forties, but according to a source that I don't have right at hand, artists called the firm, Timely, right into the early Marvel era. The name, Atlas, was the name of Goodman's own distributing company up to 1956. Its logo on the books became the de facto brand name. All the different publishers for the individual titles just reflected Goodman's fear of lawsuits.* At this same time, upon the advice of a business manager, Monroe Froelich, Goodman folded his comic distribution company and signed with American News in late 1956. American News, though a giant in comic book distribution industry, suffered greatly as publisher after publisher withdrew from the comic book market at a time of intense comic book criticism. American News collapsed in early 1957 and Goodman was forced to make a deal with Independent News to distribute his comics. Independent News referred to what was Timely/Atlas as Goodman Comics in 1960. I tend to think that think that Goodman's comics had little or no brand identity at that time. In July and August 1958, Timely/Atlas did not even have a logo for its comic books or a collective name for its publishing company. Its publishing schedule consisted of the following books: July 1958 Homer the Happy Ghost #22; Kid Colt Outlaw #81; Millie the Model #87; Miss America #93; Navy Combat #20; Two-Gun-Kid #44; Patsy Walker #79; and, World of Fantasy #14. August 1958 Battle #61; Gunsmoke Western #49; Journey into Mystery #49; Love Romance #78; My Own Romance #66; Patsy and Hedy #61; Strange Tales #66; Wyatt Earp #20. The company's output was sixteen bi-monthly titles due to a rather restrictive distribution contract and a weak marketplace. Their premier artist, Joe Maneely, was killed in a subway accident on June 7th and the next month Kirby walks into the Timely/Atlas office. A great number of new books and scheduling changes took place before August 1961: Strange Worlds, Tales of Suspense and Tales to Astonish hit the newsstand in September 1958, replacing Homer the Happy Ghost, Miss America and Navy Combat. Strange Worlds and World of Fantasy are replaced with A Date with Millie and Kathy in July 1959; Battle and Wyatt Earp are replaced with the revived titles, My Girl Pearl and Rawhide Kid in April 1960; The title of My Own Romance is changed to Teen-Age Romance and Kid Colt Outlaw and Tales to Astonish go monthly in June 1960; Journey into Mystery and Strange Tales go monthly in July 1960; A Date with Millie becomes Life with Millie in August; Kid Colt Outlaw goes back to bi-monthly and Tales of Suspense goes monthly in October 1960; Atlas/Marvel does not publish any books in December 1960; My Girl Pearl is replaced with Amazing Adventures in March 1961; Two-Gun Kid is cancelled to allow Amazing Adventures to be published monthly in April 1961; Linda Carter, Student Nurse begins in June 1961; Fantastic Four #1 is released in August 1961. This a lot of genre, title and content manipulations at the hand of Martin Goodman. But it wasn't unusual for him. The company see-sawed back and forth between fantasy, western and teen books. Viewed collectively, I don't see this as the result of a new age of comic books but the result of perceived market trends and a new concentrated pool of talent. Though this company was not the same company that had the Atlas logo in the top left corner of its comics -- there was definitely a new flavour to the Lee, Leiber, Kirby, Ditko, Heck, Ayers books. Even given the talent at "the company with no name", it was three years before the release of the Fantastic Four. What I conclude from all this is that 1958 was the beginning of Marvel Comics, but the three years between 1958 and 1961, were not Silver Age books. If Lee had never moved into superheroes, I could see the output of those three years sitting very comfortably with an Atomic Age designation --quirky monster/fantasy stories. In April of 1961 the little MC begins to appear on the cover. While I don't believe that any fans knew what this meant --- though I suppose the most astute and long term of comic books detectives could guess -- internally Lee was thinking in terms of a new image. Fantastic Four came out that August and with ensuing titles within a shared continuity Marvel became distinct from what existed only a year before. The appearance of those little corner boxes was more than a marketing device -- they were symbolic of Lee's self-awareness that something kind of special had happened. *I am sure he saw lessons in what happened to Donefeld's "Spicy" magazines in the 1930s and by the mid-1950s was becoming concerned with distancing his other publishing endeavours from his comic book line. Comic books were undergoing a lot of negative publicity (Senate hearings, comics code, Seduction of the Innocent).

The Ditko-designed corner box (colophon) starts with most February 1963 newsstand books (April/May cover dates). February 1963 Newsstand Releases Apr/May 63* Amazing Spider-Man 2 (Feb.12) Fantastic Four 14 (Feb.12) JIM 91 (Feb.5) Millie the Model 114 (Feb.12?)** Patsy Walker 106 (Feb.5) Strange Tales 108 (Feb.12) TOS 41 (Feb.12) TTA 43 (Feb.5) Four exceptions that month:*** Modeling with Millie 22 (Feb.5) Kathy 22 (Feb.5?) Kid Colt Outlaw 110 (Feb.5) Two-Gun Kid 63 (Feb.5) Therefore given newsstand arrival dates that month, JIM 91, Patsy Walker 106 and TTA 43 would be the earliest newsstand appearances of the corner box on Feb. 5. *All Marvels, until they went 20¢, had two or more cover dates for any one newsstand release month. **The release dates for the teen titles are not easily found. Most of the above information was cribbed from the GCB Database and the Marvel Comics Group 1939-1980 websites and the latter site notes that a copy of Millie the Model #115 has an April 16 datestamp, so we can probably assume that 114 came out on Feb. 12. ***Probably these four were the earliest designed/printed for that month.

The GCB Database says no to the reprinting.

The Living Eraser takes a lot of flack as a lame villain, but I have fond memories of this story. I thought the eraser process to be rather creepy and the Don Heck art to be extraordinary. And .... the first Giant Man. (thumbs u Great book.

Just like to congratulate you on your collection. It has undoubtedly taken a lot of time, effort, money and dedication towards your collecting goals to assemble such a collection at this level of preservation. If a Silver Age book isn't DC or Marvel, it has effectively disappeared from the collective sight of the hobby. Many of the books you picture are books that would have been on the newsstand shelf when I was a kid. After 1970, I tended only to see Marvels but, when very young, Dell, Gold Key and Classics Illustrated very much caught my eye. Especially TV tie-ins -- once a show was broadcast, it was effectively gone unless syndication resurrected it --- the comic book gave the show a concrete existence and permanence beyond just memory. (Viewmaster Slides and collector cards had the same appeal.) In particular, it's great that you are so willing to post your books. So a general thanks is very much in order. (thumbs u Keep them coming.

Good advice. From what I've read here over the years, 9.9s tend to be a bit random.

The pictures are also of excellent quality.

Agree on this one, especially the bolded part. I've always thought boardies should be more protective of their playground and call out overgraders when they see them, thread-krapping be damned. I'm in the minority on that one. Unfortunately, one of the results of the "just don't buy it and move on quietly" policy is that third-rate sellers (or graders if you will) are plying their over-graded wares on the backs of the sound grading reputations of the other members of this board. The end result being that trust is placed where it shouldn't be by some boardies. Oh well. It becomes tricky. I don't mind taking a pass on overgraded book. But I bite my tongue when such book are complimented by other posters.

i think it's a great experiment. There's lots about the comic collecting hobby that doesn't involve money. Please keep track of your project and share your story. (thumbs u

Props! The Ditko Dr. Strange are a highlight of Silver Age Marvel.