rodan57

Just in case you haven't lurked for a while, PLOD means Purple Label of Death -- restored.

I don't think it's unfair to claim that most collectors view staple replacement as restoration and undesirable in almost all situations.

Nicely put.

Category 7 is an interesting one. I wish that the CGC still did list significant (hidden) defects on the label (or, as has been talked about much in the past, on-line notes). These would probably go a long way to helping people understand the vagaries of grading and provide some additional security when judging a book by its scan.

Thanks for the quoted text. I love stories where the fantastic and safe build to become the real and dangerous.

Inquiring minds want to know ...

:applause:

Couldn't resist it. Do you have a search spider that sends you an e-mail when your name is mentioned here? Well, a day and a half later.

For Ditko -- all is forgiven.

Great cover but I don't like rusty staples.

The more I look at this, the more I think this may be one of the best Tales to Astonish covers: every element from the box in the top left cover, the "full impact" Kirby art, to the placement of text -- great design, great colour, great drama. TTA #52 February 1964 (November 1963 newsstand)

I am going to have to stand corrected on this. I was initially going to argue because I thought how could it be Kirby if Ditko signed the splash page? Of course, when I went back to check --no signature. And while the the layout "seems" typical Ditko "monster/fantasy" -- those hands are not Ditko hands. The more I look at the story, the more Kirby emerges from beneath the inks. Limbs extending beyond the panel borders -- Kirby. Good call to all who caught my mistake.

I've had this book on my want list for some time. Battle #70 was the last issue of this late Atlas/early Marvel title. It was cancelled in February of 1960, along with Wyatt Earp. In typical Martin Goodman style, they were replaced with two returning titles, My Girl, Pearl #7 and a revamped Rawhide Kid #17. This book attracted me most for the cover. I believe, whether through conscious or unconscious act, that the central character is a Jack Kirby self-portrait. Gotta love those eyebrows. Though Kirby has no interior art, there's a great Ditko yarn. The scan below underscores his talent. The man knew how to tell a story.

Very nice book and a good story. A two-parter that, if memory serves correctly, I also saw as a Marvel Superheroes cartoon back in 1967.

Nice. It's definitely Ditko inks -- Kirby pencils? (the way the Indians are holding the guns in the bottom panel).

#1s and 2s were often published in greater number than #3s as it would often take months to get back information on sales in the 1960s ... publishers would play it safe and ease off on #3s should the "still not-known" sales be poor (less returns for them).

Gil Kane cover. (thumbs u

Very nice -- Number one of a classic title. Do you know when CGC switches from Timely to Atlas?

They look like great fun.

#11 is one of my favorite FF stories. Congrats. 1st Impossible Man!! Ditko inks and the floating heads at the bottom become the images for the upper left corner colophon on issues 13-49 (though Sue gets a hairdo with issue 29).

When one views the original art, you can see the need for overlays. I am not much of a "floating head" fan in cover design, but I can see that without the heads, there is no connection to the story within. I can understand Stan's decision.

A recent CL purchase. I wouldn't normally go after a relatively common book with a bottom miswrap but I liked the idea of a pedigree book where I knew the name of the original collector. Perhaps, as with a lot of collectors who began first collecting in the late 60s and early 70s, I used to imagine what it would have been like to have started collecting just five years sooner in the early 60s. This type of pedigree, with a name on the front cover, provides that sort of link to the past. This is the book broken out of its tomb. The scan (or computer screen) doesn't do the colours or cover-gloss justice. The artwork by Kirby is on a grand scale. This splash to Tales of Asgard is impressive. Colletta is certainly not everyone's cup of tea but he provided a unique "surface" to Kirby's pencils and contributed an additional element of the "epic" in Kirby's work for JIM.

I think we need to post the Heritage scan. And Tom's copy again to compare. (thumbs u