comick1

Definitely. Kanigher even admitted to blowing it with Drucker (and Kanigher wasn't a guy who was predisposed to making missteps) by not recognizing how great he was. By the time he started to realize, Drucker'd bailed the war stable for MAD. A good portion of Drucker's and Colan's stuff was virtually interchangeable in the 1953-1958 time period. What's REALLY confusing to me is the Hopalong Cassidy's that are attributed to one or the other. I think there's an inker in some of those that stuck to a house style that made their work very difficult to differentiate from each other.

Speaking of Drucker, I traded him a bunch of his war comics for a sketch of Mlle. Marie. Super stoked that I had the wherewithal to do that. It was cool to connect with these guys over the years. The fanboy that I was, I commissioned most of them to draw a sketch of something war comics related. Here are a few cool ones. (Apparently, that wasn't the first time I'd gotten a sketch from Kubert. . .busted! I like the look on Rock's face. And then Glanzman's comment afterward. Quintessential Glanzman!!!!!!).

Definitely sad about Drucker's passing. He was one of my favs for DC war and definitely for his MAD stuff. He came to our 2nd DC War Comics Banquet in 1996. Wish I'd gotten my act together with auctions by that year, but we started doing that in 1997 when Kubert and Heath attended. Here are some pix of him interacting with some fans. I threw in a picture of Russ Heath having a conversation with a very young Buttock. Also including a picture of the banquet lineup from 1999. There some major powerhitters that year!! From left, Walter Simonson, Angelo Torres (never did any DC war, but he slid by as an honorary guest because of his considerable and killer work in Atlas), Ric Estrada, Sam Glanzman, Russ Heath, and Gray Morrow. I kinda look back on it and can't believe that I was so lucky to meet all of these guys!

In that first spectacular box of Salidas that Bruce sent was this. Up until that point, the best I could find of an OAAW 88 was a VG and even THAT was an anomaly. Not counting the prototypes, there are thirty 10¢ issues of Our Army at War that feature the definitive Sgt. Rock. Those and the early 12¢ issues comprise one of the great treasures that DC released during that time period. The Kubert art alone is just that perfect sweet spot that showcased his genius better than anything else. This is and has always been one of the three most difficult to find in high grade. When that box arrived with this in it, my jaw dropped. Just bone-white pages. Staggeringly bright colors and fresh like it was printed yesterday. Like the OFF 51 which came out the same month, it has no distributor mark. I've always felt that THIS is the actual first cover appearance of Sgt. Rock. He doesn't have his helmet with the rockers nor does his battle-shredded outfit reveal his rank, but that face is Sgt. Rock. The thing that people get hung up with is that the story sequence inside has a soldier who stays behind to sacrifice himself for Easy and that soldier is NOT Rock in the story. But it was a very common practice to alter components on the cover that don't align with the story inside in order to maximize impact and grab the readers' eyes. Kids had a LOT of competing interests for their dimes. This was Rock's 6th appearance. He'd been appearing for half a year and the fan mail was likely piling up for this new Rock guy. Kanigher was notorious for bending continuity and I'd bet your bottom bippy that he just told Kubert to put Rock's countenance on the cover. . .interior story be dåmned. If you don't consider this the first cover appearance, and opt for the #90 instead, that's cool. #90 definitely is more definitive. Like so many of the war comics stable for all the prototypes, 1st appearances, and keys, there's not always a linear clear-cut answer. But that face is Rock.

Definitely GIC 97 is a washtone. One of the Perty Thirty!

The House of Mystery is not a washtone in my opinion. It has some inking and coloring effects that make it appear so. The Sea Devils has some effects that make it appear washtone-like. The greys in her wetsuit in particular. I think it slides by as a "washtone light." I've always considered the Weird War to be a washtone for the giant in the background. That's washtone every day of the week.

Take per PM

Humminah humminah humminah

I'm relatively sure those are the freshest copies on the planet.

What the hayle!

as per PM

Oh man, those are nice. Where to begin. . . That Fightin' Marines might be my fav so far. The dark greens with that washtone effect. Cuhrayyyzeeeee nice! Ziff-Davis GI Joes are tough in grade and unheard of in THAT kinda grade. Again, the colors. Such a pleasure to see them as they were meant to be seen in the wild. The Battles are just truly beyond belief. That #40 is one I've never seen before (pretty sure). The Heath signature threw me off, but it looks like it's Heath doing the ENTIRE cover except the guys face. I swear that's Maneely doing the guy's face. What do you think?

Fixed that for you.

BLINDING colors, I tell you. . .BLINDING!!!!!

Ron, that is just. . .terrifying.

Yes, it's ironic that my remaining Salidas should be pictured on top of that. . .in a way, over the years, there were at least a few Salidas [and other killer books] that covered the cost of that and the new kitchen around it. Ah well, it was overdue anyway. Good eye, there, Dan.

It has some elements (mainly chiaroscuro) that make it appear like a washtone. I have to concur, though. It's not a washtone. It's definitely a cover that I have loved forever and ever. Kubert every step of the way!

Our Army at War #85 These next two were part of the first package that Bruce sent after the initial phone call. When I ordered them, I only ordered about 15 comics. To my eternal chagrin, I didn't order more. But I'd ordered from Bruce in the past and, although he honored returns with me, I had learned to gauge my grading against his. . .let's just say "I'd believe the conditions when they arrived in hand." So when he mentioned that he had the 2nd Kubert Rock (1st Ice Cream Solder) in NM and a host of other copies in conditions ranging from VF to NM with white pages, I had to balance that against the grades I expected the comics to actually arrive in. When they arrived in a package from Bruce a few days later, this was the first one I set eyes on. I didn't even look at the remaining comics in the package before I picked up the phone and asked Bruce what was left from the larger list of books that I passed on. Alas, it was too late. All DCs were gone by the time I made that second call. I was on an extremely limited budget AND I was an Atlas newbie and didn't know one cover or interior from another (no GCDB. . .no internet at all, scant few pictured in the Gerber Guide, spotty info in the OPG). And I wasn't into the Disney or other non-DC titles he mentioned; so I passed on everything that was left. Back to the OAAW #85. Even in 1994, I had a decent idea that that comic was impossible in high grade. ALL of the early Rocks were elusive in grade. I'd spent about 6 years trying to pick ANY early Rocks up and had only about 5 to my name between #83 and #112. This was after PERSISTENT searching, scrounging, trading, begging, and so forth. This copy was so much nicer than ANY issue I'd seen previously (not hard to do since NOTHING I saw broke past G-VG). I nearly sobbed when I first really took a moment to look at it. I STILL look at it and can't believe how crazy this copy is.

Here're a couple more. Bill Battle #3 Just couldn't resist the rhetoric on the cover of this one. The pages on this are nuclear white.

I never get tired of seeing those. Just beautiful stuff all the way!

OAAW 72 The stamp on this one doesn't really appear to be purple. . .more of a blue (maybe lightly stamped purple?). Either way, the blue effect rather nicely matches the color scheme of the cover. Hmmmm. . .I wonder if the guy stamping them made decisions like that. I have another one with a pink cover and a pink (or faded red?) stamp. No original Brucey price sticker for this one.

There were a few Salidas that I got directly from Bruce that had no mark on them and this is one of them. I feel that it's possible that the ones with no marks were represented as Salidas, but actually aren't from the Blankis-Salida collection; but the freshness and telltale pages of the ones I have are just off-the-charts so I believe them to be non-stamped Salidas. That said, I stand by my earlier post about the GIC 75 (re: what IngelsFan Dan said). Anyway, here's one with no stamp. If it's NOT a Salida, it's a kick@ss imposter of the first order. November 1959 is somewhat late as 10¢ Salidas went. (The only other book I have that late [and that I'll post later] is ALSO unstamped. But unlike this one, it came from the very first group of comics that he sent me in the mail sometime around April 1994 if I have my chronology right). [November 1959 is when GIC #79 came out so it IS plausible that there were washtone GICs (Perty Thirty) that he held back, but I never saw any evidence of them. There're four possible reasons I saw no evidence of the Perty Thirty. 1) That he genuinely had them set aside and they're still at his mom's house or with a family member even after his death. 2) That he had them set aside for an undetermined time, but had to eventually flip them to an unknown collector who remains a mystery to this day. 3) That he sold them BEFORE he ever gave me "first right of refusal" (believe me, I asked) and they were already gone forever to a mystery collector before I got that fateful call. 4) That he never had them in the first place. I find #1 least plausible and #4 most plausible but I've been wrong about stuff more than I've been right.] In this particular case, I got this next copy almost by happenstance. In roughly March of 1995, Pam & I happened to be on a road trek across the SW in search of teaching prospects in different school districts and we went as far East as New Mexico. At the time, the collection had pretty much been dispersed to the wind and I thought Bruce had nothing left but we were in Albequerque and we decided to check out Santa Fe while we were nearby; so I gave Bruce a call and he told us to meet him at his store. Bruce was getting ready to clear out of his Santa Fe digs at the time. . .and--unbeknownst to me--sell the store. I went to his store in Santa Fe where there was a nice fellow called Sparks (hard to forget a name like that) who told us about a couple good food places in Santa Fe while I waited for Bruce to drop by. Bruce never showed up but called the store (we didn't have cells at that point) to have Sparks relay that he couldn't make it to dinner, but we could meet him at his place. His place was full of boxes and junk for the move. I didn't want to distract him too much but he was patient enough so we chatted for about an hour before I said we needed to get back on the road. I almost left without asking, but on a lark, asked him if he had any leftover Salidas. He almost robotically heads over to one of many boxes (most of which didn't have comics in them) and said that THIS was the only Salida war book he had left. I didn't look a gift horse in the mouth, but have subsequently wondered if this WAS a book that he'd intended to squirrel away for himself (like the aforementioned fabled Salida Perty-Thirty GIC run that he claimed to have held back from the original sale). . .but then decided that he needed the money more than the book. Or maybe it was a return from a customer who wasn't happy with it for some crazy reason? Either way, we drove out of Santa Fe with this in the car. OFF 51

AAMOW 56

Sorry for lack of proper scans: AAMOW 55 On a couple of these, I kept the mylar that they came in with Bruce's original scrawl for grade and price. Unfortunately, I wasn't terribly consistent with that, though.

Dan (Buttock), Favorite thread ever, sir. You get major kudos for that kinda research! Adds a certain mystical aura to the books when I break 'em out. Dearly love 'em. I had about 30 at one time or another, but am down to about 15, m'thinks. To follow are a few of my favs: