bluechip

I bought a Peanuts daily when they were just a couple grand, thinking my wife would like it and I'd buy a lot more for investments that she would also enjoy. But she shrugged it off and I didn't buy any more.

Fan disputes about who-did-what are sometimes very interesting, especially when they show the attention to detail this one did. As for repeating stories, that was done all. the. time. If you look at the Archie titles plots were recycled so much you had to wonder if they were simply reusing the scripts and changing the names -- or not, changing them and just drawing it all over again. Marvel and DC would use the same superhero plots not just within a short window but often simultaneously. Sometimes they are a good peek into the process and the give and take between artist and writer. Ditko prevailed over Lee with his insistence that the bird-based villain in Spidey 2 be a thin vulture, while Stan, who'd wanted it to be a fatter bird, simply did so with the Owl in Daredevil. What I find most interesting in fan disputes is how the arguments can go reasonable to batsj#t looney within a heartbeat. Like the one that started this thread. Guy makes some interesting and thoughtful points but also goes off into a histrionic ditch with the assertion that Lee's entire reputation rests upon the story in FF51. The same people who insist that Ditko actually did more to create Spider-man than just "the original idea" will say that the Silver Surfer is "100% Kirby" because he had the original idea. Yeah, he also drew it, but in FF48 the surfer was just one of the alien minions who worked for Galactus. Lee latched onto him and insisted on fleshing him out, giving him character motivations and a back story, etc. Basically, people embrace a contradiction and want to have it both ways when they say the original idea means nothing (or close to it) when it's known Lee had the original idea but it means everything when it's known Kirby had the original idea. And of course the biggest reason everybody knows the surfer was kirby's idea is that Stan immediately told everybody they hadn't talked about it before showed up, and he repeated that story many times over the years. Yet people who repeat the story also repeat their assertions that Lee never gave kirby credit for his story/plot/character input. Reminds me of the guy who is on such a holy crusade against Bob Kane that he is unable to acknowledge that Kane did anything. Anything. at. all. in the creation of Batman. He cites the story of Detective 27 as being copied from an earlier source and says it was Bill Finger who stole the idea -- ironically saying that Bill Finger's theft of the story is proof that Kane, not Finger, was a plagiarist. Fandom is great, but sometimes a chill pill is in order.

Rather than disincentivizing by punishing folk who break them up I would prefer to see people incentivized to keep stories whole (or making them whole by assembling all pages) because the biggest players put more value on them. But so far they haven't. We see the same thing happening with the biggest key comics. If it's at all incomplete or tainted by resto, the market hammers the value so much that if you're motivated by what you can get from it you may as well tear apart what you have, be it incomplete or restored, because the parts will be worth more. If that happens in the comics market, then it's all the more likely to happen with art, because a complete comic you can hold and appreciate in one hand. People appreciate art mostly by displaying it, and few people have the room as well as the desire to put an entire story on the wall. I would be inclined a bit toward the whole story thing because I like to see a completed thought in a display. So pages that are, for lack of a better word, self-contained, appeal to me more. Not necessarily an entire story but a whole "beat" of the story. Artists often do break up their story beats, sometimes all on one page and more often on several pages. (Though I've noticed Kirby, more often than others, would sometimes carry the final panel of a particular "beat" or sequence into the next page). It seems to be something Kirby did instinctively, if not deliberately, to set up the next beat. He would do this not just with a sequence within a comic but sometimes with the whole story. Many artists and writers would "tease" the next week's story, like having a villain appear in the final panel or page. But Kirby would sometimes wrap up the main story well before the book was over and present several pages of the next story (or even half the story) in the final part of the book. I got off on a tangent there, but I guess my rambling sort of makes the point that even if you have all the pages to an entire book, when you're talking about Marvel pages and KIrby in particular it doesn't necessarily mean you have an entire story, or even a self-contained chapter of a story.

I have a few pieces rescued from the chop shop

I am impressed that you have the splash page art. That has to be a Grail for most original art collectors!

Incorrect. (Stan) Lee's reputation rests mostly on "Millie the Model #117".

I can tolerate Colletta's inks more than most, but when I see the issues he did of Fantastic Four I want to cry.

JACKPOT COMICS #4 FIRST ARCHIE COVER APPEARANCE! 3rd Archie appearance (on stands a couple weeks after Pep 23) First appearance of Miss Grundy. Predates Veronica, Reggie and many others. Only the 2nd issue in which Archie, Betty and Jughead are actually teenagers. In Pep 22 they are much younger, prepubescent. In fact Archie is younger in this image than he is inside the book (the image of Archie is based on a moment in Pep 22, so it's possible they originally intended this cover inset to accompany his first appearance and then misplaced it. Cover is a very nice looking restored copy, originally from John Berk's collection (he had the wrong book inside, and I had a coverless Jackpot 4, so I married them). Cover is loose and the interior is in not the best shape. Would be labelled brittle in a slab, and it's fragile on the edges but you can turn them bend and read them, as seen in the pics. Asking 3895

It has ever been thus, long as I can remember

...until it does.

So what happens to the pencils when the inker lightboxes it for the final. I could imagine that the inker, being only obligated to deliver an inked cover, might want to keep the pencils. And I could also imagine the original penciller thinking they should be returned to him. And I could also imagine Marvel, upon learning that you lightboxed a cover they paid you to ink, would insist on having both the original pencil piece as well as the inked version.

Action Comics #19 "Superman covers begin" (so says Overstreet, though it could be argued that he was on every cover at least in miniature beginning with #12) Very classic war cover. Reused many times in merchandise beginning with a puzzle in 1940 No Back cover. Front cover detached and married. Paper tanning (little darker than it appears in the picture) I don't know GPA on this book and with no back cover books can go for half to 2/3 of good. But this looks so beautiful. It has problems but the part that gives this its value -- the cover -- is about as nice condition as it can be. In the mylar you could mistake it for a Mile High. So I am pricing this a few hundred below Overstreet good (and I'm not sure how that corresponds to GPA). Open to reasonable offers, especially if you're buying multiple items $1200 REDUCED

NEW YORK WORLD'S FAIR 1940 Undervalued considering it's the first Superman/Batman/Robin cover. Looks pretty solid but cover is detached. Back page also detached and stained from tape, with no residue on cover so it could be from a different copy, though it matches (no staples; these were glued). Other pages all tight and solid off -white $975 Shipped REDUCED.

HIT COMICS #1 Covers split at the spine. Little known: this issue featured the first of a Horror anthology in which an "Old Witch" narrates, much as EC would do a dozen years later. $700 REDUCED

Superman 100 265 in good Price: $195 shipped REDUCED

I've never offered books through the board before so bear with me if I trip once or twice. ALL REASONABLE OFFERS CONSIDERED Trades considered but mostly looking to sell right now, so it would have to be something I really wanted, as opposed to somethings I could resell. Can be paid via paypal or check (needs to clear), please pay within 3 days or email with other plans. If you're in LA you can do local pick up. I see people saying "no probies" so I will say that, as well. Assuming that means "people on 'probation' or people who stick you with medical probes. Whatever it is, I'm against it. Mail by USPS with signature and insurance required. Full price includes shipping/ins and negotiable otherwise (if you have your own insurance, for example) Earliest post or message saying "I'll take it" gets it. Feel free to Private Message with questions and/or offers. Returns accepted within 7 days in same condition Money back guarantee everything's authentic and as described References provided upon request ALL STAR 3 no back cover As you can see there's restoration which involved removing tape from the front cover. The cover could use some color touch. This goes for 6Kish in good or restored. Asking half that -- 3K (removed the Action 2 and 10 and sent the to bay. Still cannot figure out how to remove the pictures. If anyone could advise, I'd appreciate it. Okay there's excess pictures here of a book (Action10) I've moved to ebay. I deleted them (or thought I did) but they are still here, and I cannot get them to go away. Not trying to violate the rules here, but I cannot get rid of these pix

It's the best time to buy stuff that's undervalued and sure to rise. It's the worst time to buy stuff that's overvalued and sure to fall.

A great artist and storyteller.

What he said. Please excuse me, those for whom this is painfully, incredibly obvious...... NOSTALGIA is about the time you FIRST EXPERIENCED a thing -- NOT about the time that thing was created! If you are a kid into superheroes today you will see, in a comics shop, on the interwebs, and on merchandise, many comics covers printed long before you were born. You will be more likely to recognize Action Comics #1 from 1938 than most comics fans who were actually of reading age in 1938. Hel, you will be be more likely to recognize it than virtually any comics fans who came before you, because you're seeing it in reprints, comic shops, on the interwebs and t-shirts and all sorts of merchandise, And Action 1 is just used as the earliest example. The same applies to covers to (and certain drawings from) many other books published decades before you were born. A few months back, my son and his friends were talking about a sequence from "The Killing Joke" which they had read with no prompting from me (I hadn't read it when it was published). It was published several decades before they were born. There was a phrase briefly used by a network in the marketing of repeat episodes. The announcer pitched the reruns as "new to you." The same is true with all forms of popular entertainment. When kids read or see something they like, it creates a happy memory that can lead to later nostalgia for the time they discovered it. Makes no difference to them whether it was created that month or 70 years before they were born.

A few Hollywood notables have predicted that comic-based movies would eventually fade as a genre the same way that Westerns did. While I respect the folks who said that, I would also point out that comics aren't as similar to one another as Westerns were. Westerns included a wide range of stories, from kid stuff to adult fare, but a limited time frame and settings. Comics, on the other hand, have a much wider range and encompass many genres -- including Westerns. And if you limit your label of comicbook movies to superhero movies, they are still much more varied and variable than Westerns. But, even if you do confine comics movies to those about superheroes, and you are correct in saying they will dominate culture only so long as Westerns did,you might want to remember that Westerns were a huge and often dominant factor in American movies for more than 70 years -- from 1903 ("The Great Train Robbery") to the mid 70s.

Time for that big budget Howling Commandos pic.

If it's about whether a Netflix show was cancelled, then you better dump anything you've got which involves Daredevil or the Punisher.

Because only boomers know who Luke Cage is. My kids tried to watch the series on Netflix and they were not allowed because they couldn't pass a 1970 trivia test.

He wins the logic award, but this hobby is not always logical.