comick1

Been awhile since I've had a chance to visit. Washtones are always amazing to see out there in the wild.

Speaking for me, myself, and I. I'm still collecting war. I still need tons of great issues. Got a lot of kewl ideas extending beyond my core collection from the folks in this thread.

Yes, I recall you standing next to me. It wasn't that same interaction. But at the very least, that B&B 52 traded hands at Dan's booth. . .and I wanna say you or Naiman brought it to my attention there at Dan's booth. I don't recall Fred. If Dan wasn't the owner of the B&B #52, he was the one I handed the $ to. If Fred was there, he wasn't the one that I handed the money to. Just to be clear. That was NOT a Shadow #1. It was a low-number copy. . .maybe #3 or #4. Easily a NM 9.4 copy. I had a $6 price on it at the time. He was sifting through some of my comics that I'd brought to try and flip (to pay for some of my purchases as we collectors often do) and the three of us were all just shooting the breeze. So, for a laugh, Dan pulled it out of the bag and just tore it in half while the three of us were casually talking. Note that he didn't pull my Our Army at War #151 dupe in VF+ that I had priced at $350. He pulled out a common comic. I recall being a bit sick about it. It didn't land on me all that well and I still look back on it as a stupid thing. He did it for a laugh and immediately handed me the $6.00. I can imagine a person who might do that for shock value, but it was a perfectly good comic. If he wanted to look cool, he might've given me the $6.00 and then told me to pass it to one of the many many students from low-income families that I have taught over the years. It would have gone to a good home. Instead, it was a cheap laugh. I have a sense of humor, but I won't lie. . .I don't think it was cool. I'm definitely not perfect. I've done bone-headed things in my lifetime. If I'd done THAT to anybody, I would have regretted treating anybody that way. It might not have occurred to me immediately. But, in time, I would have come to regret that as an asinine thing to do. All of my interactions with Dan over the years were positive except that one, so I'd like to imagine that he just had a moment of bone-headed grandeur. Whenever I see any copies of that run, I think of the kids in my classes over the years who would love to have read those. I still work with all kinds of kids all across SD Unified who would be thrilled to read comics of any variety and are super appreciative to be able to take comics home. There are former students. . .now in their 30s who reach out to me to let me know that they still love The Beatles and read comics to this day (and do I still have that Rube Goldberg contraption in my class for flicking the light on and off?). Comics are life-changing, transformative items. In that context, tearing even a piece of garbage comic in half. . .nope.

I stand corrected. Apologies for the confusion. Everything I said was correct except I misattributed the pedigree. It really WAS from the Mohawk Valley Collection. Sorry about that. I haven't owned any other copy that was even close to this one in grade (outside of a G/VG reader). I am recalling that it came from Dan Greenhaulgh (not sure if that's how to spell his name). I suppose he could have been a collector, but to me, he was primarily a vendor. Is that who you're referring to?

Brave and the Bold #52 in high grade was an early grail of mine for many years. I searched about 10 years before landing on the Savannah copy. I know what you're thinking. The Savannahs had mediocre page quality. Not this one. It was at least off-white. Pages were very supple. Prior to that, I searched for it in collections all the time. It's not like there were multiple collections of B&B 1-100 in high grade, but I'd see runs from the 45-100 range once in awhile. I say #45 because the cat had been out of the bag for awhile on the B&B #42-44 Kubert Hawkman run for awhile by this point in the late 80s and early 90s. But the rest of the run was not particularly coveted except maybe the #54. Anyway, I'd be looking through multiple copies and this is how it would invariably go as I was sifting through the B&B box at any given convention when a dealer landed on a nice new collection of silver age DCs. #45 NM- check #46 VF+ check #47 VF check #48 NM check #49 VF+ check #50 VF check #51 NM- check #53 (cue stylus needle scraping away from the vinyl sound) check #54 VF check #55 NM check There was NEVER a #52 in grade. Most of the time, it was just plain absent. The couple times it WAS there, it was the only one in the run that was a VG or had some technical problem that the other didn't have. A popped staple. A spine split. Something catastrophic. NEVER a B&B #52 This went on for nearly a decade. Finally that Savannah copy came along (Greenhaulgh?) and it's been in my collection ever since. I've seen a couple nice high grade issues here and there over the ensuing 25 years, but not quite upgrades to the Savannah. But I would have been on those like flies on $#*t if I didn't have this copy. Nobody else seemed to have quite the urgency of getting a nice copy of that. Often times, I'd see those couple high grade copies just sit and sit and sit. Nobody'd buy 'em. Haven't seen a high grade one for sale in awhile now, but the census is compatible with my experience, too. Only a single 9.2 copy as highest on the census. 4 in 9.0. 3 in 8.5 and 11 in 8.0. That issue, by the way, is an ALL Kubert issue with Sgt. Rock. There were very few of those in the OAAW run with the whole comic devoted to Sgt. Rock alone (with no backup story). It is the second meeting of Sgt. Rock and Mademoiselle Marie (the first is OAAW #115). It's also the first time all the major DC war characters teamed up. . .Sgt. Rock, Haunted Tank, Mademoiselle Marie, Johnny Cloud. It's just a fantastic comic all around. If you don't have a copy, I strongly recommend you put it on your list.

Invariably between a few different ones. . .changes every day. But EVERY day, this one's on my top 3 list. I remember seeing it for the first time on a wall behind the counter of a LCS back in 1988 and doing a double take. There was the familiar facial features and abstract figural work that only the Hawkman, Tarzan, Sgt. Rock, and Enemy Ace artist could render and it appeared to be "painted" which I'd never associated with Kubert's style or covers in the past. But there was something that was even MORE of a mindblower. This was NOT from Dell which was the publisher I was used to seeing painted covers from. Wait, was that a DC bullet in the top-left cover? That was the same DC bullet I'd seen on countless covers with Superman and Batman on the cover. These thousands of superhero covers had that same DC bullet, but nothing that ever vaguely approached the emotion of THIS cover with that same DC bullet. So it was from the same publisher--DC--but was just so so so very different than anything else by that publisher that I'd ever seen. Now we refer to this as a washtone cover, but it still carries that same sense of awe and raw emoton as the first time I saw it 35 years ago. Took me a long time to get a really sharp copy. Love this cover for its simplicity. Deceptive simplicity.

Lucjan was ultra-accessible and professional. Friendly communication. Solid shipping. One of the good'ns.

I don't have any of the SSS issues of B&B, but as memory serves, Infantino gets to ink most of [perhaps all of?] his own pencils. I remember thinking that if I liked sports more, these might be a bit more compelling to me, but I balanced that against the beautiful art inside. Wonder if any of the original art exists.

That's bad@$$ery every day of the year!

B&B 44 Washtone covers are little treasures all by themselves regardless of the artist, but even within this cover art genre, Kubert made criminally few contributions. Some really nice ones are Showcase 25, GIC 85, 88, 102, 109, OAAW 49, 124, & SSWS 45. But this B&B 44 washtone Kubert cover is in another stratosphere. I don't recall that level of urgency and outright ferocity on any DC comics of that time period or before B&B 44 with a couple notable exceptions. Maybe not an accident that 2 of my 3 fav Kubert covers of all time are washtones. . .this one and GIC 78 (the other one is OAAW 112--not a washtone, but indeed iconic) are examples of just how resonant Kubert's impact was. There's no mistaking it. Which one of the two entities on the cover of B&B 44 is going prevail? The Thanagarian humanoid with wings and just a mace on a chain? Or the might of a spaceship traveling at extreme momentum with laser beams blasting? If you answered that the laser shooting spaceship behemoth was the victor, you're wrong. Hawkman is going to pound his formidable adversary into space dust. That interior page ain't nothin' to shake a stick at either.

B&B 43 Holy frijole, I love this issue! The composition and the dynamics of the panels here are utterly mind boggling. Just check out the angularity, acrobatics, and majestry of the figures as they hurtle through the air. I WISH Kubert took up more real estate in the superhero genre because I'd have collected a LOT more of them if Superman, Batman, GL, Flash, and WW had interior stories that looked like these pages. They all had wonderful artistic contributions made by their own stable of artists, but the B&B Hawkmans are just unbelievable. Humminah humminah humminah, I'd love to own those two pages of original art side by side!

B&B 42 Again, some of the best pages in the comic do NOT have a lot of Hawkman/Hawkwoman. I always loved that middle panel with the thieves and the way they advance to the foreground. There's a sense of foreboding that Kubert pulls off with this that renders much of the dialogue and text boxes irrelevant. The flash of light and the deep shadows again accomplished by his dramatic inks.

B&B 36 The deep inks on the gaunt face of the Shadow Thief with those sideways glances deliver an impact that few other comics of that time period could achieve. There are pages with a LOT more Hawkman / Hawkwoman than this one, but those Shadow Thief panels are just spectacular. I had a friend who owned the original art to this page and I wish I'd tried to purchase it from him (he eventually sold it in service to a larger purchase but by the time I heard about it, this page was gone ).

Those Kubert Hawkmans in B&B are some of my favorite superhero comics ever. His work on those is just sumptuous. I completed them decades ago and have had thoughts of upgrading them on occasion but am pretty happy with my copies. Here are some of the copies as well as a page or two from each: B&B 35 I love the facial expressions on Matter Master's face. He's gotta be missing a couple marbles to be wearing that costume in the first place, but his smug glee juxtaposed against displays of introspection, reluctance, and aversion underscore MM's mercurial mood swings and simply put Kubert's brilliance on center stage. Also love the light and shadows that Kubert accomplished with his incredible inking and draftsmanship.

I don't recall a 1.5 as an option for purchase as this is the first time I've heard of that as a thing (although it's possible that I've bought a comic or two over the years that I removed from a bag that felt slightly more substantial than a 1mil and somewhat narrower than a 2mil. . .and even wondered where that even came from). In answer to your question--other than what I've said above re: 1.5--I've deliberately purchased 1mil, 2mil, and 4mil for decades and what I said above is based on my perception of ALL of those. I can imagine the perception that a 1mil will be more likely to split. . .but I'm articulating my honest perception based on my experience. To reiterate: 20-30 seam splits EVER in handling comics in mylites/mylars tens of thousands of times.

My experience is somewhat different. I think that it would be true that I do NOT receive most of my mail purchases through mylar, but I do for some. . .rough estimate 20%. In zero of those cases in 30+ years of mail order where I've received the comic in a mylar have I ever received it with a split seam. It just never happened. In 35+ years of collecting (my mail order activity started about 5 years after I started getting serious about buying older back issues at the local shops), it would be also fair to say that an overwhelming majority of the comics I've purchased (whether at a convention or via mail order) that I needed to remove from a polybag and place into a mylite/mylar have ALSO not had issues with splitting or tears to the bag or flap. If anything, I've found that the mylites/mylars are MORE durable than their polybag counterparts. It would be fair to say that in those 35 years, the majority of the comics' lives have been spent in a dark closet in a box neatly stored standing vertically with a bunch of other comics and not being disturbed; but I've bagged, unbagged, read/examined comics out of the bag, and rebagged them--on average 3-5 times per comic (I like to periodically read through my comics CAREFULLY to remind myself what's inside). This would amount to unbagging and rebagging comics tens of thousands of times over those past 35 years. And I would say that that I'm being generous if I estimated that I've had any more than 20-30 seam splits on mylite or mylar EVER. 20-30 seam splits EVER in handling comics in mylites/mylars tens of thousands of times. Seam splits or tears on polybags seem much more common in my less frequent handling of polybags, but because I don't handle polybags very much, perhaps that's a skewed viewpoint. My own experience with mylites/mylars is that they're the best thing on the market as far as durability. . . .and to be 100% clear, I don't work for and am in no way affiliated with any business that stands to gain from that kind of endorsement. Strictly an assessment from a consumer point of view.

Bad@ssery

Love this comic!

I always wondered if the cover to Robin Hood Tales #9 wasn't just the tiniest bit Kubert, but the GCD credits it to Andru and Esposito. So I scoured B&B issue #6 for a place where Andru might have "swiped" a Kubert panel, but to no avail. Still, that Robin Hood face and pose of the allegedly Andru/Esposito cover to #9 is decidedly Kubert-esque.

And before I pass out here, here's Kubert's singular entry to the Robin Hood canon happens in B&B #6. Russ Heath drew Golden Gladiator for the first 4 issues and then #6. But Heath still contributed to #5 with a Silent Knight story [which Irv Novick usually drew] while Novick drew the first Robin Hood story. Kubert sticks to VP. It's issue #6 where Heath continues with one final original glorious GG story (except some reprints in the 70s and maybe a mention in some revival stuff from the 80s/90s/modern?). In #6, Novick returns to Silent Knight and Viking Prince gets tossed in this one issue. But never fear. . .Kubert jumped to the Robin Hood art chores this once before returning to Viking Prince in B&B #7 and sticking with it til it ended in #24. Heath made some really nice entries to the Robin Hood canon over the next 15 issues and there are great things coming from the other war comics stable: Novick, Kubert, and Andru/Esposito.

Special nod to Irv Novick for the beautiful washtone cover on #18.

There're a lot of Kubert Viking Prince reprints that appeared in various titles (including but not limited to B&B 100-pagers from early 70s and DC Special Series). One of my fav VP stories is in B&B #18 where he looks less like an iteration of Tor or Tarzan and more like a Kubert vision of Flash Gordon or Prince Valiant. The art in the later part of the run is just nothing short of exquisite. Wish I could afford some of those original art pages that pop up every now and then. . .