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Valiantman updated my list of most graded pre-1955 CGC books in census in 2018. https://www.cgccomics.com/boards/topic/435137-most-graded-pre-code-golden-age-books-in-cgc-census/#comments

The "GIVEN" on the front cover is ink transfer from the back cover of Tec 37 stacked on top of each other. The red stains match from the back cover.

Well, British kids probably wanted any comic instead of a particular new comic during WW2. When England declared war against the Axis Powers there were voluntary civilian evacuations to the countryside or other countries from high risk British cities beginning in September 1939. Only about half of all school-aged children were evacuated initially but the evacuation levels increased with the threat of invasion with the fall of France to Germany and the bombing of London (the Blitz) in 1940. 3.5 million people, mostly children were evacuated but there were some children that did not evacuate. In this first picture, kids in the Eltham district in southeast London were queueing up and waiting for the newsagent to open to buy comics in August 1943. Rationing was a part of everyday life during WW2 so people had to wait in lines for many items. Comics would be very popular and cheap entertainment since playing outside could be dangerous with the threat of bombings and V-2 rocket attacks in 1944. In 1992, people lined up to buy Superman #75 where Superman gets killed off by Doomsday. In the second picture, buyers lined up to buy Superman 75 at Beachead Comics in Allentown Pennsylvania on November 20 1992. The store’s order of a 1000 copies of Superman 75 was sold out in a few hours to several hundred buyers. I wonder how many people made money selling their copies?

Well just in case people didn't notice the photo location, if you were really there, you and your family would be locked up in an internment camp for a couple more years. Wonderful stacks of comics though. I believe one kid in this pic was also seen in that other Tule Lake camp newsstand photo. It was in one of my posts on Japanese internment & comics.

How about this Soviet T34-85 tank from the Blackpink music video?

Yes it is De Carlo. When linking the thread, a random picture from within all the posts is loaded. Unfortunately I don't know if the picture can be set.

My guess is that not many comics were actually thrown away (by kids) since there were plenty of other kinds of scrap paper to be tossed. Here is a second picture of the same paper scrap drive where these Norfolk Virginia kids collected 13965 pounds of scrap paper in one day. Notice one kid is proudly showing one of the items he saved- a pinup poster from either a soda or beer ad. Photos were taken on May 10 1944.

Alice Ann Kelley actress/cover model

A tribute to Lubbers should at least have a picture of Bob. Here is Bob in May 1954 working on the "Long Sam" comic strip that was created by Al Capp and lasted from 1954 to 1962. Long Sam was about a naive mountain girl and her experiences in the big city. Here is a Sunday strip from 1955 that has caricatures of Gina Lollobrigida and Marilyn Monroe.

I found the ad below in the 1995 Price Guide. I wonder if the above comic ad was a reason for NE Comics to offer 5 times guide price for a copy of Police Thrills? It was listed in the guide as GD/FN/NM 6.70/20/40 and noted with an unknown existence. 5X guide was a lot to offer back then for the other books too.

I know it’s been a long time since I have requested scans of Okajima signed books for an article for the 50 Objects/50 Stories project. I have spoken to the project director and she feels the article is not complete so far since there is still lot of missing information on Okajima. There is not much information online and it is difficult to find people with information about Okajima or about a somewhat trivial matter such as comics from so long ago. It takes time to search leads and to talk to people. Meanwhile they are working on several stories at the same time. I don’t know the timeframe for publication however I believe the article will come out before the book about comic book pedigrees. Although all the Spirit newspaper stories were indexed, the backup features were not completely indexed. Guardineer drew Mr Mystic from 10/10/43 to the end of the run on 5/14/44. After looking at some of the public domain Spirit sections, I determined that the above story did not run on the following dates; 10/10/43, 10/17/43, 10/24/43, 10/31/43, 11/7/43, 1/2/44, 2/13/44, 3/12/44, 4/9/44, 4/23/44, 4/30/44, 5/14/44. The story may be from late 1943 or 1944 since the 100th battalion of the 442nd Regiment consisted of primarily Nisei from the Hawaiian National Guard entered combat for the Italian campaign on September 29 1943.

February 19th is a National Day of Remembrance to acknowledge the wartime treatment of Japanese, German and Italian Americans in World War 2. This story about the Japanese-American 442nd Infantry Regiment was a positive portrayal of Japanese-Americans during World War 2 and recently archived online. This comic story was from a backup Mr Mystic feature in a 1944 Spirit newspaper section. Although the 442nd Infantry Regiment was not mentioned by name in the story, there is no mistaking the reference of a Japanese-American battalion who fought against the Germans in the Italian campaign. The story is drawn by Fred Guardineer who took over the strip from Bob Powell when Powell enlisted in the Army Air Corps in 1943. Guardineer took over the strip with the October 10 1943 section and stayed on Mr Mystic until its cancellation on May 14 1944. A group of Japanese-American soldiers training in the countryside are mistaken for enemy soldiers invading the country by a girl friend of Mr Mystic. Mr Mystic is assumed to be a traitor since he is friendly with one of the soldiers. Panic ensues and Mr Mystic defuses and clears up the situation with some magic.

I believe the Katzies are the Katzenjammer kids since they were syndicated by King Features.

I don't think it is a printing defect. I think those missing pages correspond to missing centerfolds for both books since the books should have 60 total pages. I found a pic of the inside front cover for Commando 5 and there is a form for free comic character sweater crests. Don't pay attention to the politically incorrect cartoon. Since you needed 12 coupons from the centerfold to get one crest, I can imagine there might be many missing or cut-out centerfolds for books that had the coupon. i couldn't find a pic of the centerfold but a raw intact copy of Commando 5 was sold on the boards in 2016. Maybe someone could post the missing pages.

Yes that is definitely Alice Kelley since she is known for her dimples. Comics with the “ore” stamp were probably sold in Sweden or other Scandanavian countries. There were some warehouse finds of 50-60s leftover American comics for distribution to American military bases with the "ore" stamp. The Four color 195 posted by Sqeggs has an 85 ore stamp. 85 ore was about 13 cents United States in 1948. 50 ore was about 10 cents American in 1952. Here are some other stamped books: Tonto, Cisco Kid & Cowgirl Romance (posted by Scrooge) The Bobby Benson 14 has a stamp in the upper right corner (posted by Tri-ColorBrian)

I don't recall anyone posting this book but this isn't a popular title. (not my book)

Hi Marty When you were buying comics in the 40s & 50s were you aware about the debate about the contents of comics? Did your parents, friends' parents or other adults show concerns about the contents of comics affecting kids? If there were concerns, did you notice any actions like comic buying restrictions, trashings, burnings, protests or newsdealer restrictions? Thanks.

Picture time! There is a saying that a picture is worth a thousand words. When I saw this photo I believed I could write a thousand words about it since I could see so many details. When this photo was taken, World War 2 was coming to an end since fighting in the European theater ended when Germany surrendered in May 1945. Japan was severely weakened militarily but many people believed it would require a land invasion to defeat Japan. The dropping of atom bombs on Japan in August 1945 to shorten the war in the Pacific would usher in a new era. The end of the war would change the demographics of comic readers as veterans return home and storylines about fighting war villains would start to disappear. This great World War 2 era picture of the Readmore newsstand in Evansville Indiana was taken around July 1945. This high quality wide shot has the most number of identifiable comics I have ever found in a vintage newsstand photo so far. I have identified 80 different issues but there are 6 or 7 comics that I can’t identify yet. I marvel at the variety and number of comics, pulps and magazines shown here. There are probably a lot more comics not seen to the right of the photo. Just look at the stacks of comics! Some issues have up to 20 copies all minty fresh. One could spend hours browsing at this newsstand. Here is a challenge for you guys- see if you can identify all the comics or the ones I missed and how many of these do you have? I notice there are many western, detective and romance pulps but I don’t see any sci-fi or fantasy pulps however there might be one Weird Tales pulp. I want to comment on some of the unusual comics seen on the racks. Shortly after Canada declared war against Germany in September 1939, the Canadian government imposed foreign exchange controls to conserve Canada’s reserves so they might be used for purposes in the national interest. Another objective related to wartime financing was to prevent panic sales of Canadian securities by non-residents in moments of crisis. In December 1940, as Canada’s trade deficit with the US grew and British gold shipments were curtailed, the Canadian government introduced the War Exchange Conservation Act to conserve American dollars by restricting the importation of non-essential goods. Among the items banned were fiction periodicals such as pulps and other newsstand magazines including American comics. This allowed the growth of the World War 2-era Canadian comics industry and these Canadian comics called Canadian Whites had non-glossy color covers and black and white interiors. When Germany surrendered in May 5 1945, Canadian comic publishers were anticipating the lifting of government restrictions on the importation of American comics which would end their Canadian monopoly and greatly affect their sales. As the war ended, some publishers closed up shop but a few like Anglo-American adopted US production values, switching to color interiors and glossy covers to try to penetrate the lucrative American market. Anglo-American merged two of their titles Grand Slam and Three Aces to form Grand Slam Aces and numbering started after the Grand Slam title with number 44. What you see on this newsstand are the first two issues of Grand Slam Aces 44 & 45. Since the publisher had unfamiliar characters and limited selection of titles, they encountered poor sales in America and titles were discontinued in 1946. Anglo-American became a reprint house of American comics for the Canadian and British markets. The Grand Comics Database says Spiritman was a promotional comic but here it is sold next to the regular Spirit comic. It contains Spirit strip reprints and lasted 2 issues. There was paper rationing during WW2 affecting book, magazine and newspaper publishers. Comic publishers were forced to reduce the number of pages and used only one staple. Around August 1945 paper restrictions were lifted and publishers were able to print more titles or copies. A few publishers used their increased paper allotment to print some short lived or oddball titles with unused material or reprints to capitalize on the comic demand. Grit Grady (Holyoke reprints from Capt Fearless) and Witty (Chicago Nite Life News) are a few of those short lived titles that appeared in 1945. It is unusual to see these jumbo sized comics like Everybody’s Comics, Book of All Comics & Ribtickler on the rack. These jumbo sized comics probably were not good sellers since they may not be a good deal at 50 cents per copy with second or third rate characters. One could spend 50 cents on five other comics with better characters and get more pages. How about a comic that is not in the price guide? At the right of the picture is Western Thrills with Billy the Kid from Fawcett. Billy the Kid is a horse in a cowboy outfit. From a Google search one copy was sold on eBay but there was no picture. Does anyone here have a copy of this? word count: 1083

Here is a photo from the past for the new year. How many of you remember the old days of box diving for comics that had no bags or boards in packed orange boxes? This is a photo of kids box diving for comics at a California flea market from the late 70s or early 80s. Could this be at the Rose Bowl flea market? Maybe Robotman or members from southern California might recognize the background. I don’t think you’ll find too many 9.8 books in those boxes. Look at those magazines, Treasury editions and mid 70s DC & Marvels. I hope all of you will find what you are looking for in the new year like these kids and have a safe and happy new year!

Photo is from library of congress photo archive http://www.loc.gov/pictures/item/2017728758/ photo taken in sept 1937 in Manchester New Hampshire

I think it is pretty cool to get comics from Santa for Christmas. Even cooler to have George Reeves help pass out comics. The girl seemed only moderately pleased. I don't know if kids today would be satisfied enough to get just comics for Christmas. Have a nice Christmas to everyone!

While doing research at the library, I came across this Edgar Church artwork in the 1925 University of Colorado yearbook "The Coloradoan". He was credited with all the art mountings in the 456 page(!) yearbook.

This pin is slightly different but I guess it is real since it was on ebay... https://www.worthpoint.com/worthopedia/phantom-creeps-adventure-club-robot-1786475813

An Appreciation for Marked Up Comics with Owner Names Here is an example of how a name written on a comic can lead to a biography of the comic owner. It was common for kids to write on their comics to mark ownership and they probably couldn’t imagine their cheap throwaway entertainment would become valuable collectibles many years later. Many collectors don’t like any writing on books from as small as a date to a name or other scribbling since it can be unsightly and devalues the book. Personally I don’t mind a little writing such as a neatly written date or a name since I think the writing adds provenance and character but I normally avoid heavily scribbled books. I don’t collect teen humor and I initially didn’t care for the amount of writing on the cover when I saw this Patsy Walker 20. The owner wrote her name, address and a list of her friends. I became intrigued when she wrote “Patsy Walker my favorite book”. I did a Google search and was surprised by the amount of information I found on the owner Shirley Kutina. She was in the 1940 US census, a high school yearbook and sadly in an obituary. From the 1940 census, Shirley was 3 years old and lived in Cleveland Ohio with her parents Fred and Helen. Her father was a machinist and her mother did wire work which I think is jewelry making. When Shirley had this book in 1948 she wrote her address on the front and back covers and the names of her best friends Alice Sluko, Arlene Czaplenski and Claudia Oney. front & back cover I found Shirley’s South High School yearbook “The Southernaire” from Cleveland and she was a senior in the January 1955 class. We get an interesting look at Shirley’s time at school from the entries in the yearbook. From her picture and profile, she still lived at the same address on Independence Road as written on the cover and we see a list of her school activities. Her best friends from 1948 did not attend her high school since none of them were in the class roster. Her high school boyfriend was Andrew Alli. pictures of Shirley & Andrew Here are some humorous entries about themselves and their future predictions. Andrew Alli- Ambition: own a model agency, Prediction: head plumber at White House Shirley Kutina- Ambition: secretary, Prediction: detective Senior Personalities: Andrew: sports man, Shirley: Andy’s gal Shirley eventually married her high school sweetheart Andrew and lived in Strongsville Ohio. She passed away in January 2010 at age 73 and was a member of the Red Hat Society, Strongsville Eagles Auxillary and Deaconess United Church of Christ. She was the wife of the late Andrew Alli, mother to Arline and Alan and grandmother to Brandon and Kaitlyn. I would like to thank Shirley for leaving an informational bread crumb to discover her life and sharing her common interest in comics and honor her memory. I am happy to own her copy of Patsy Walker 20 since it was enjoyable to read and contained Al Jaffee and Harvey Kurtzman art. I wonder if there are more of Shirley’s books out there with her name? We know some of the history of comic owners such as Larson and Okajima who also wrote their names on covers and I know there are many other books with written names awaiting discovery of their former owners’ lives. Thanks to fellow forum member mustang33guy for selling the book to me.

More video of the 1954 hearings exist somewhere but here is a 54 second clip of Gaines' testimony. http://www.budgetfilms.com/clip/19513/