AtlasFan

Ditko is truly one of the giants of the Silver Age. His pre-hero Atlas work and his early Charlton work are revolutionary. With his pre-hero tales, he established the mood of the story and gave the characters depth. His early Dr Strange and Spidey art put him on par with Kirby. However, near the end of his run on Spidey and Doc, the art reminded me of some of his lackluster work at Charlton. I thought Ditko seemed to loose interest in the characters ...or wanted to start inserting some of his own beliefs into the stories that Marvel balked at. At any rate, at his prime, Ditko was as good a storyteller as Kirby, Wood or Heck. Bill

Wow, those are so berry, berry nice!

This is one of my favorite WW covers. I love the angle of perspective here...a bit dizzying...with Diana saving a cute blonde! ..and notice the favorite Andru-Esposito signature "lady in peril loosing a heel" motif...this occurence appears on a number of their WW and Suicide Squad covers!

I think I agree! Mmmmm Frogmen covers...

Very interesting...I just learned something today. It is interesting how these techniques are very previlent in Ditko's detailed work (his pre-hero Atlas, his early Charlton stories come to mind). Flipping through the TTA18, there is a wonderful robot story that makes use of this technique ... with Ditko's signature over-sized drops of water dripping off the robot has he enters a flooded mine. Do you follow Blake Bell's very informative "Ditko Looked Up" blog? You have to be careful on that site, or you could get a "Ditko overload"! As much as I love these pre-hero Lee/Ditko stories, I often wonder what would have been the results if Ditko had gone to work for EC... Bill

Make that NEXT to almost impossible...

Book is impossible in grade + this is the HGC. Also features a rare grey monster, instead of all the orange + brown creatures that seem to dominate. Nice book! KRAA is actually a pretty good story..Psst. Its really a HULK prototype tale. Hey Adam, What exactly did you mean by Ditko using the "feathering" technique? I dont belive I have heard that before. thanks, Bill

Thats a great book! It looks so nice next to this Maneely one, doncha think?

Hey Keith, glad you found this thread. Maybe you can fill in some of the more obscure issues. I've been keeping up with our list. Here's what I have to date. Note that I don't havet the Peter Panda numbers, and I haven't spelled out the Seadevils issues (they're not all greytones, although most are): Adventures of Rex the Wonderdog 31, 38, 39, 42 All American Men of War 35, 81, 100, 110, 111 All Star Western 96, 102, 103, 109 Big Town 46 Brave and the Bold 18, 21, 22, 23, 44 Challengers of the Unknown 11 Detective 239 GI Combat 44, 51, 69, 75-104, (!!!!!!!!!!!!!) 109, 113, 119 Green Lantern 8 Hopalong Cassidy 124 House of Mystery 92, 93 My Greatest Adventure 17 Mystery in Space 36, 40, 45, 46, 55 Our Army at War 45, 49, 57, 60, 124, 126 Our Fighting Forces 20, 71 Peter Panda ? Sea Devils 1- Secret Hearts 59 Showcase 3, 25, 27, 28, 29 Star Spangled War Stories 45, 122,130 Strange Adventures 80, 110, 143, 151 Tales of the Unexpected 15, 17, 43 Three Mouseketeers 6 Tomahawk 65 Western Comics 64, 69, 71, 81, 82 Lets not forget these contenders:

This cover would be something you might expect from a (yeesh..) Charlton book, but inside are some great stories by Kubert and Cardy!

I really like this version of Diana (WW 103). Andru & Esposito's early version of WW, with her high-cheek bones, had kind of an earthy Mediterranean look that I wish had lasted longer!

He should have been called the "Gill-Man's big brother"! Goliath's face is a dead-on ringer for the Creature from the Black Lagoon (one of my favorite films, by the way)! Bill

Here is another saturation bombing of pre-heros...this time JIM:

Grogg looks way cooler IMO These are all the Grogg appearances. Grogg looks like FFF (maybe he's a FFF prototype???), but rather than being a mystical dragon like the Foomster, Grogg is just another big scaly alien invading earth...but I bet they both buy their shorts from the same Big Mens..er .. Monster Shop.

I think you make a very good point! Nice set!!!! Thank you gentlemen! ST covers do have some of the best monster covers of the pre-heros. But, I would say the TTA 4-20 is THE best run!

Here is a nice run of my 80s Strange Tales...Enjoy!

A great Moreira cover!

Another MGA joins my ranks...these early issues are as rare as hen's teeth in the VF range..Great Moreira cover and art!

Fantastic books cheetah-man! Korvac and I love those brown covers...if your TOS 11 came in at at least 9.0 it'd be the highest graded! The cover story is quite above par as well. The castle where SPORR is created was once owned by none other than Dr. Frankenstein himself -- and the birthplace of the original Frankenstein Monster!

Fantastic books Cheetah! That Heck cover on TOS #1 is one of my favorites. Its a shame there were'nt more of them in the pre-hero run. Bill

Curious..by fluid, do you mean more action based humor -- ala Tex Avery, for example? A lot of the Jones Bugs cartoons are very talky and much of the humor is verbal. Jones took Bugs to levels of humor that none of the other Warner directors ever did. The man was a true comic genius. Bill

I've been looking for a nice copy of this book for quite a while...

Just got this in this week. A nice copy of a tough book.

Y'know, I dont think we have really displayed the greatest graytones of all - THE SEADEVILS

Agreed, grades like those just dont pop up to frequently. Most are in the VG/F range, and most of the ones on E-Bay look questionable. I can remember backin the day when dealers tables had stacks and stacks of the pre-hero books. Those days are history sad to say. Again, great looking books! DRX There may have been stacks but they probably weren't high grade. There are definitely more out there than on the census, which I'm confident will be revealed if prices rise. I remember a show in 1974 that I attended locally.....there were runs of many of the pre-heros in VF or better @ $ 5 each...which was very expensive back then. To put it into perspective....I ended up spending my paper route money on Hulk 2-6 @ $ 30 ( $ 6 each ) and VF+ copies of JIM 85 and X-MEN 1 @ $ 15 for BOTH books. Man I MISS THOSE DAYS.....but I;ll never forget that ST 89 that was there in newstand condition....the one that got away. The X-MEN 1 was purchased at a discount at the end of the show. GOD BLESS... -jimbo(a friend of jesus) (thumbs u I got quite a few of my pre-heros that way Jimbo. Maybe this was the one that got away?