jbcomicbox

Haven't posted this before - a high-grader that's never been slabbed (poor camera shot, I need to re-scan this).

 

OOPS FOR ME.....WHILE FOUR ARE MINE, STEVE, HAS THAT FANTASTIC FANTSTIC THAT I HAVE NOT SEE BEFORE BEAUTIFUL, STEVE

 

THE OTHER STUFF IS STUCK IN HERE FOR YOUR REVIEWING

I find it interesting that Rotten Tomatoes shows that only 29% of the reviewers liked the film while 73% of the audience liked it. Clearly the critics missed something that most of the audience was seeing. Perhaps if they had bothered to actually go to the theater, they might have gotten it.

 

 

Because it's a different film in the theater?

Went to see the movie, figuring it cannot be as bad as the movie reviews and based on some feedback here one the boards.....and that it had one of the largest opening ever.....

WRONG! ARF! ARF!

The one interesting juxtaposition is comparing the last scene of the movie to the fact that today is Easter.......

jb

Happy 88th Birthday to Lamont!

 

 

 

His anniversary is 2 days after mine and the same day as my wedding anniversary.

 

to a fellow Cancerian.

Lamont and family....best wishes from Jon Berk

i have only this one book, and it took me a long time to find it.

 

 

Ralph had it

Here are some Prizes you have displayed...jb

Man, those look great! Never saw that first Super-Mystery before; that's a real classic.

 

Jim Mooney did some nice work on these title covers. Some pedigrees sprinkled in. jb

If anyone could post the covers for the Fox Science Comics books, I'd love that. Most of my searches turn up the wrong version of Science Comics

 

 

 

 

Here are a number of Sciences with several pedigrees......jb

 

Here are some others which I have posted before.........the runs for the older ones are plain nice books to have.........enjoy jb

If anyone could post the covers for the Fox Science Comics books, I'd love that. Most of my searches turn up the wrong version of Science Comics

 

Here are a number of Sciences with several pedigrees......jb

Some interesting covers or recreations--------jb

Last one I needed for this little run. All are in (at best) mid-grade.

 

Great little run. It does not get any better than cowboys fighting Nazis on Mars!

Here is my CBM article on it

SPACE WESTERN COMICS

The wonderful thing about comics is that their content and substance is unlimited. Occassionally, the “willing suspension of disbelief” gets pushed to its limit. Certainly that is the case with

Space Western Comics, a shortlived comic published by Charlton Comics from 1952 to 1953.

The late 1940s saw the demise of superheroes as the mainstay of comics. Crime, horror, war, western and science fiction were genres that were in vogue as the 1940s ended and the 1950s began. Charlton Comics took the popularity of two of these different genres and combined them in a uniquely bizarre comic whose lead feature was Spurs Jackson and his Space Vigilantes. This title combined six-shooters with spaceships to create what has to be one of the all-time esoteric comics.

Spurs Jackson was a cowboy living in Arizona who also happened to be an electronic engineer. His Arizona homeland, over the course of six issues, was invaded by all sorts of strange creatures, ranging from the Sun People and the Meteor Men to the Artopods from Neptune (affectionally dubbed “Bems”- standing for “Bug Eyed Monsters”, of course). Aided by his two companions, Hank Roper and Strong Bow, Spurs Jackson kept Earth safe from all sorts of devilish plans of space invaders. Their weapon of choice, beyond the six-shooter and bow and arrow to thwart these alien efforts, was the ever-available atomic bomb. Additionally, many adventures would have this cast of characters whisk off to the moon, Mars, Mercury or Venus to foil various nefarious plots.

The “plot” and “story” were at best thin, and were at some times so bad that they were good. Take, for instance, the story of “The Saucer Men” from Space Western Comics #40 (issue 1) which first introduced these characters. Spurs is minding his own business when his attention is drawn to a flying saucer landing in the Arizona desert. Sauntering over to the spaceship as figures emerge, Spurs says, “Well, well don’t tell me. You are from Mars”. To which the leader of the spaceship snappily replies,

“Naturally we are from Mars”. Informed by the Martian leader, Korok, that he wishes Spurs and his men to accompany him back to Mars to prove that they had visited Earth, Spurs is given one “zuba” to pack (which packing includes a plutonium gun capable of shooting minature atom bombs). Well, as it turns out, Korok is a bad guy whose return with the earthmen supports his claim that he has conquered earth, thus triggering the overthrow of Queen Thula. Spurs and the boys make short work of Kurok and his henchman and have Queen Thula returned to her throne in no time

(two pages to be exact). A grateful queen appoints Spurs the prime minister of Mars, to which Spurs remarks, “This could only happen on Mars.”

However, so this title could continue, by the second story Queen Thula releases Spurs from this position so he can be ready to meet all future threats to the earth. These include the threat of Vodor and “The Green Men of Venus” (issue #41) who disguise themselves as cactus (yes, cactus), “The Sun Masters” who attempt to drain the sun of its energy (Spurs, as he shoots an alien sentry who points a ray-gun at Spurs, remarks, “Skip it buster. I don’t wear these six-guns just to hold my belt down.”), various rematches with Korok and Vodor who join forces to defeat Spurs, including shooting missles which contain moon borers from the moon to the earth, “Menace of the Meteor Men”, “Battle of Spaceman’s Gulch” with the Artopods from Neptune (who are defeated by members of the local science fiction club with mosquito spray) and other equally heart-stopping conflicts. But it is, perhaps, with “Trip to Mercury” (issue #43), wherein Strong Bow flys to Mercury in a rocketship contained in an Aztec Temple, fights ancient Aztec warriors and rescues a princess thought dead for 400 years, that it is realized that this is no end to these multi-genre stories. The very next issue contains a story that has to be the best of the best, the worst of the worst. It is a story that could not be contained in just one issue. In issue #44 is the beginning of the two-part story, “Madman of Mars”. This is a story that has cowboys fighting Nazi soldiers on Mars-

A hydrogen bomb rocket destroys Paris, soon to be followed by other rockets that destroy Moscow, Honolulu and New York. It is up to Spurs Jackson and his Space Vigilantes to put an end to this nightmare. They track the source of the rockets to Mars, where they are attacked by Nazi soldiers. We learn that in the closing moments of World War II the “leader” and nine of his followers escaped in a rocket ship to Mars, where they have been planning their revenge to destroy their enemies. In a swift and deadly fight, Spurs and the boys are able to overcome these Nazi devils and to destory the rocket launch area. However, they are too late to capture the “leader” and the last two of his men.

Undaunted by the 900,000 mile lead the Nazis have, Spurs relentlessly pursues, in issue #45, “the greatest living menaces to decent mankind the world has ever known”. Yes, boys and girls, Spurs is hot on the heels of Adolph Hitler! Hitler crashes his rocketship on an inhabited asteroid. Blaming his companion Richter for the crash, Hitler shoots him and leaves him for dead. Hitler takes over the asteroid from its “simple people” when Spurs shows up. A deadly impasse ensues between Spurs and Hitler, which is broken when the severely wounded Richter appears and puts a final end to Hitler.

It is perhaps fitting that this story is contained in the sixth and final issue. Although short-lived, Space Western Comics will always be, in the grand history of comic books, one of the most bizarre titles ever to have been created.

10/31/93

Welcome to the boards! Any pics are always appreciated. I know it's in a fortress, but whatever you can spare would be awesome.

The covers for the 4 covers exist. The #1 is a special book to me. jb

Typo there, rick - Star Comics 1-6 are all oversized.

 

There are worse books to have dupes on other than Star 2.

 

Star #9 is a tough book (New Year issue, 1938) - mine is a raw 5.0 and I'm lucky to have it.

Weird. I had star 6 in my reg box , just realized it is a second star 8. So, add star 6 to my want/need list

I will keep eyes open for a #6......bad pix, sorry

thank you for the kind words.....I always felt this stuff should be shared with fellow collectors....just plain fun....jb

I never visited his shop but I visited Bell at his house once to pick up a TOS 39 because I didn't want to wait for it in the mail. The only thing I remember was that it was a lot hilly roads going through a quaint suburb. Richard Muchin recently told me that Bell is retired in Miami.

i was at his house also to nail down some silver age purchases.....i had just got back into collecting ("you mean you can get old copies of Spiderman"........!!!!!! Geez and I also like Daredevil".......huh buying old comics, who would have thought....jb

Jb. Can you post star ranger 7.

yup

Jb. Can you post star ranger 7.

I can but I gotta dig it out this weekend.......jb

just need the 7 to close that super tough run out.... still need the 14, but that is actually titled cowboy comics, then star ranger funnies starting with issue 15, I believe...

....another example of the books I found in acquiring the Cowboy run was the Larson......helped to buy directly from Joe T. ......jb

Yes indedddy....when in the beginning of getting stuff in the early 1970s, I rezlizedd you could actually buy old comics $7 for Conan one....He had a place on Long Island. Got my Avengers 11 from him......Bob Bell bags were ubiquitous (hey, good use of vocab) I even have his check list sales list with the stuff he had.......Long time ago.....

DC giveaway of an earlier Superman issue.....

OK, here's the original Space Patrol cover art submitted to Centaur by ...Basil Wolverton!

 

 

Unfortunately, Wolverton lived in California while his publisher was in NYC. Apparently Centaur's editors preferred in house cover submissions because it made it easier getting revisions on tight deadlines, so none of Basil's covers were accepted. Since he submitted finished pieces rather than pencil layouts it's that much more of a tragic loss for fans of Wolverton's unique style of art.

 

We can only imagine what Basil's color covers might've looked like if Centaur had been more open to publishing his unsolicited cover work, then again...

 

 

 

Stunning....truly an Amazing recreation of mystery that don't look like no funnies I have seen. Well done sir!! jb

 

 

Actually the problem isn't money or even the writing. Gathering the stories from people involved became the most time consuming thing, requiring a lot of coordinated schedules and hours of phone conversations.

 

This was no problem when Steve was still in the Air Force and Classics was just starting to grow. But once worldwide started, everything snowballed from there. Time got scarce. It only made things more difficult when we moved apart.

 

I logged all of the original lists and CGC data years ago. About 1/3 of the stories are completed. The website is up. There is an end in sight, but there is still a lot of work to do.

 

One advantage of the time lapse is that both of us now see new ways to streamline the book that will make it more relevant and well put together.

Hi Matt......I know one story is written..ho ho.....As some have intimated "less may be more" depending the info you want to impart.

I thank you for your efforts and hope yer git her done.... Best to you......Jon

Hey Jon, did you ever pursue the CMO giveaways? I'm aware of 4: Popular American Heroes, Khaki Wacky, and 2 AMF with Amazing Man covers. Do you have/have you seen any others?

I have not seen the covers except for Amazing Man.....very esoteric....

Not a ped. Just a pretty copy

here are a couple of them.....from CMO......

Just love that Simon book colors used and all.

 

Really tough book in any grade. Billy's 5.0 with nice PQ is the second highest graded unrestored copy (CGC).

 

Only 8 copies total currently in the CGC system. My HGC is just 6.5 ...

 

 

Simon did a great string of covers....jb In fact each "section" of cover artists from Fine to Patenaude did wonderful work.....

 

Very nice. I really like the covers Simon did a lot. I'm repeating myself here, but it's his best work for me.

 

 

 

Got several recreations of Joe's Fox books.......Fox are alot of fun. Narrow period of great covers 1939-42 (of the GA Fox stuff)

......and here is this article that is presented to you from time to time...

http://www.comicartville.com/victorfox.htm

 

Very nice. I really like the covers Simon did a lot. I'm repeating myself here, but it's his best work for me.

Got several recreations of Joe's Fox books.......Fox are alot of fun. Narrow period of great covers 1939-42 (of the GA Fox stuff)