Primetime

Congrats! Is this the same copy on CL last year or a new one? no, this copy has been in private collections the past 6-7 years at least. A lot of 3.5s coming to market lately have looked similar Thanks, wow that's like five copies in the 3-3.5 range in the last 12 months. Lots of volume and support for the book. yep and 29s tougher than 31s but in last year more 29s have been available public and privately. Let's see if these 29's are in strong hands now. my hands were for 2 years

Congrats! Is this the same copy on CL last year or a new one? no, this copy has been in private collections the past 6-7 years at least. A lot of 3.5s coming to market lately have looked similar Thanks, wow that's like five copies in the 3-3.5 range in the last 12 months. Lots of volume and support for the book. yep and 29s tougher than 31s but in last year more 29s have been available public and privately.

Congrats! Is this the same copy on CL last year or a new one? no, this copy has been in private collections the past 6-7 years at least. A lot of 3.5s coming to market lately have looked similar

I love that "Here is a small reproduction of the cover" line... also used in the house ads for Batman #1. Because superhero comics were so in their infancy, they were seemingly afraid kids might be on the lookout for a digest format rather than the standard one. setting time machine back for May 18, 1939 flux capacitor flexing You're lucky. All I could do was 'right click-save'... copies were already sold out but ran into some nice kid in Nebraska who gave me his extra barn copy

I was wondering about this as well... I wonder if they were initially worried that having the Superman comic AND regular Superman-covered Action would be too much...? But thinking about it further... look at what happened around Jan-Mar 1939: The newspaper strip launched, they moved to squash the competition with DC v Bruns, and they were prepping for the Superman comic -- and of course, by the end of the year there were monthly Superman Action covers. So that fits with the all sail and no anchor quote for fall '38. They were preparing to blow things up in '39, and they did. The machinations are fascinating, but looking at DC titles by month and year, it shows that Action wasn't the only title with alternating hero covers. January 1940 is the defining month where all titles switched to superhero covers with Detective 35, Adventure 46, and Action 20 starting that trend. If the Spectre had already been created, we would include the More Fun title, but his first appearance wasn't till Feb 1940. At any rate, there were no alternating covers on More Fun after 51. Same with Green Lantern as he simply didn't exist till July 1940 (although there was Ultra Man before him, but not technically a costumed hero). The last pre-hero cover or last gasp might well have been More Fun 51 or even Double Action 2, unless we consider an All American before #16. So it seems like an intentional effort for DC to go all hero, regardless of title, starting with Jan 1940. DC certainly was in the drivers seat, with Timely barely into their third issue of Marvel Mystery and Cap still about a year away from being created.

I love that "Here is a small reproduction of the cover" line... also used in the house ads for Batman #1. Because superhero comics were so in their infancy, they were seemingly afraid kids might be on the lookout for a digest format rather than the standard one. setting time machine back for May 18, 1939 flux capacitor flexing

Fascinating observation. (thumbs u

I was wondering about this as well... I wonder if they were initially worried that having the Superman comic AND regular Superman-covered Action would be too much...? But thinking about it further... look at what happened around Jan-Mar 1939: The newspaper strip launched, they moved to squash the competition with DC v Bruns, and they were prepping for the Superman comic -- and of course, by the end of the year there were monthly Superman Action covers. So that fits with the all sail and no anchor quote for fall '38. They were preparing to blow things up in '39, and they did. Keep this quote from David Bachman in mind... Superman #1 was not, in fact, Superman #1. It bore no number and no date (except a copy-right date), either on the cover, or in the indicia. More significantly, it bore no notice of second-class mail permit in its indicia, an item that must be carried by any publication that will be published periodically and sent to subscribers via second-class mail. The house ad in Action Comics #13 referred to it as "a big complete Superman book" rather than as a new title. And the house ad for Superman #2 in Action Comics #17 stated, "Your overwhelming approval of the first magazine has prompted us to publish this second one...." Cumulatively, these items convince me that the publication we refer to as Superman #1 was actually intended to be a one-shot publication. Its "overwhelming" success, then, apparently prompted two reactions by its publisher: (1) publication of a second printing, and (2) a decision to initiate a new quarterly title featuring only Superman stories. excellent work Batman . Ah, I mean Jeff that is something I forgot about that Supe 1 was really a one shot book and due to popularity became a new title. Would make sense then that perhaps the ad for Supe in Action did surface post Supe 1 but pre Action 20 era. Although, the ad clearly markets Action Comics---makes me think that the ad was out pre Supe 1...

Quite possible from these findings and comments from you all that this ad might as well had its infancy beginnings as far as Action 7 and could have been out in a drug store as early as Action 11 (April 1939) or Action 13 (June 1939) to cross market the new Supe title and continuing appearances in Action Comics...still curious if the popularity was a hit in late 38, why the supe consecutive covers didn't start til 19--even with slow gathering of sales data. Fun stuff to investigate. Would be cool if anyone could find a real drug store pic with this ad next to the comics

actions 18-23 would be my approx time guess

quite a time capsule of coolness

Me too. Love the kid dashing with his dime wanting "Superman". Is this a late 1930's early 40's memorabilia? I'd say pre action 20 maybe as the triangular S on supe suggests pre 1940. Perhaps after issue 19 when he was on the cover every issue. That would makes sense. I see the slick, that Superman sales demand front display for Action Comics. I guess this could mean he should be in front of a display rack before the other titles or just starting on the cover of Action 19 as you mentioned. or it could be post Action 13/Supe 1 era because at least Supe had his own title by then. It would seem DC would have started the consecutive Supe covers in Action at that point--why they waited til Issue 19 not sure as high sales data and a Supe titled mag would have made sense to throw him on every cover at that point. It would be cool to walk into a drug store in late 39/early 40 and see this sign posted near a comic rack the power of a dime back then I'm wondering if this ad was originally a poster or metal sign of some sort? Unless it was a DC house ad in a comic? I've never seen it in a comic..

Me too. Love the kid dashing with his dime wanting "Superman". Is this a late 1930's early 40's memorabilia? I'd say pre action 20 maybe as the triangular S on supe suggests pre 1940. Perhaps after issue 19 when he was on the cover every issue.

(thumbs u While Action 1 and Detective 27 remain out of reach, I'll make do with Superman 1 and Batman 1. plenty in that camp; myself included

low grade is fine (thumbs u 8.5 far from low grade

[font:Times New Roman]That's beautiful. Alas, it's easy to get carried away with Schomburg's art. [/font] (thumbs u

I've got one of the signed schomburg lithos framed..I've never owned the book..

I was following that one as well. I actually sold some nice books to fund the purchase. Very annoying. How nice was it? That's a bummer b/c I was watching that book to see what the final strike price was going to be. Absolutely love that cover... Here's the link: Cap-37. Hope that link works... The response that I received from the seller... Had an unexepected family medical emergency and am a bit overwhelmed with that right now to deal with the auction. Will try to relist the book in a few months. my apologies, - vaultkeeper777 I suppose it's possible, but when you're 8 days into a 10 day auction that's been bid up to $3850, there's not much to deal with other than shipping the book out to the winning bidder. yah I noticed it got pulled too. I thought he might have taken an absurd offer offline. Perhaps it will resurface. White pager 9.0 really nice. Jeff/Dave, where either of you going after it? I was. One of my top GA covers of all time. I suspect he did accept an off-eBay offer. Cap 37 is the first in the run for down sized books..which has been the only neg for me on that book. What's GPA on highest recorded sale?

I was following that one as well. I actually sold some nice books to fund the purchase. Very annoying. How nice was it? That's a bummer b/c I was watching that book to see what the final strike price was going to be. Absolutely love that cover... Here's the link: Cap-37. Hope that link works... The response that I received from the seller... Had an unexepected family medical emergency and am a bit overwhelmed with that right now to deal with the auction. Will try to relist the book in a few months. my apologies, - vaultkeeper777 I suppose it's possible, but when you're 8 days into a 10 day auction that's been bid up to $3850, there's not much to deal with other than shipping the book out to the winning bidder. yah I noticed it got pulled too. I thought he might have taken an absurd offer offline. Perhaps it will resurface. White pager 9.0 really nice. Jeff/Dave, where either of you going after it?

(thumbs u and you have put together a nice sig line of treasures