Steven Valdez

Yes. Again, that's the entire point. Because of that, it appeared to the bean counters that the affected books were not selling (in fact they were being stolen prior to distribution instead of being legitimately made available for sale to the public) and consequently some of them were cancelled.

Right. And that Conan #1 hoarder was just one of the people who were rorting the system.

It's not speculative. "One person I know acquired over 25,000 copies of Conan #1 when it came out. By early 1973 I was giving him $600 for a sealed case of 300 copies and selling them for $5 a pop." His price per case doubled to $1,200 in 1974." Bob Beerbohm, Comic Book Artist #6 (Feb 1999), Twomorrows.

Bob Beerbohm via Facebook: 'The perceived sales DC NPP Independent News was receiving was the sold numbers were actually going down. Neal Adams' GL/GA was one of the most heavily "hit" by affidavit returns fraud on that "honor" system mandated by the larger ID gigs around the country in order they would handle ANY comic books.'

It's weird that so many people are in denial this happened... they're probably the same guys who deny the Moon landings and think the Earth is flat. Then again, a lot of major dealers got their inventories started by being involved in this fraud, so it might be no wonder they want it hushed up.

The Spider-Man and FF cartoons were on here in the 60s, but not many adults seemed to watch cartoons back then. They only took note of live-action shows. Adam West Batman was huge here, like everywhere else... and in the very early '70s we had George Reeves Superman reruns for those who weren't around yet in the '50s. So that ensured Batman and Superman were household names. The 'mainstream' only seems to have become aware of Marvel when the Hulk live-action series began in the late '70s. Those lame Spider-Man shows were around then too, as theatrical releases.

Chuck Rozanski freely admits his Mile High II collection (of MILLIONS of books) consisted of the fruits of affidavit 'return' fraud. The co-owner of National Comics up to 1967, Irwin Donenfeld, also knew full-well that it was going on and is on the record as acknowledging it.

You really need to can it with your pedo 'joke'.

When I started collecting Marvel in 1976 it seemed the general public was aware of Batman and Superman, but the Marvel characters were practically unheard of. I recall a kid at school asking me if I was into that 'Captain Spider-Man garbage'. This was in Australia, may have been different in the US.

The guy on the left just needs to have the front of his right foot on the ground and it would make sense. Kid Colt should just be standing with both feet on the ground, turning to respond to his assailant. Would be better if he was closer up, so you could just seem him from the chest up. Just trying to think how Mr Kirby would have staged it. If only there'd been an art director! Talk about Monday morning quarterbacking!

Not a fan of it... the guy on the left looks like he's floating. The other guy kind of does too.

Thanks, makes perfect sense. My own father's family fled Germany after it was largely destroyed in WWII; they'd been wealthy but lost everything... another 'wrong side of history' story.

He also said his dad was an aristocrat back in Austria, but they seemed to have an austere life in the lower east side of NYC. Would love to know the backstory there.

Got the new issue of the Jack Kirby Collector last night. I was surprised to learn therein that Jack spoke German. Did not know that.

Same for Roy Thomas as well. He wrote so much better when Neal Adams or Barry Smith was illustrating, than say, Werner Roth or Don Heck.