I'll pound you to a "Pulp" if you don't show off yours! 23 23

[Robot Man]

15 hours ago, RedFury said:

Happy St. Patrick's Day!

This is the only St. Patrick's Day pulp cover I know of.

Love Story, March 18 1939

Very cool one! Halloween covers are few and far between too.

[RedFury]

49 minutes ago, Matthew42383 said:

There weren't that many in the pulps. But Love story had two more mid march issues from 1940 and 1941 as well that had a Paddy's Cover.

Thanks Matthew.  I'll keep an eye out for them. 

[RedFury]

The last issue of a cool little run, only 6 issues.

Pirate Stories, Aug 1935

[Hap Hazard]

This sunday I was at the LA Vintage Paperback and Pulp show, had a fun time just a couple of the books I pick up.

The first issue of Complete Detective I had for a while but had to show it with the nice August copy, Red Circle Goodness.

[HRCostigan]

Saunders

[CrazyQuinn]

37 minutes ago, Hap Hazard said:

 

 

 

LOVE this!!!!!!

[detective35]

Picked up these two:

1). Thrilling Detective:  from the Strasser collection.

2). The Shadow:  The Death Triangle (1933)

(no colour enhancement...this bright)

 

 

[comicjack]

Stunning copies!

[Black_Adam]

15 hours ago, detective35 said:

 

Love this Thrilling Detective cover, it's like a pulp fiction Betty and Veronica!

Great pickup!

[RedFury]

19 hours ago, detective35 said:

Picked up these two:

1). Thrilling Detective:  from the Strasser collection.

2). The Shadow:  The Death Triangle (1933)

(no colour enhancement...this bright)

 

 

Beauties, Dwight!  

[Arkadin]

I guess the Strasser collection is the Mile High of pulps - I'd love to hear more about the backstory of the collection if any of you pulp guys feel like spinning the tale! 

[Robot Man]

Me too. I've seen a lot of nice books from that collection but never knew the back story. There are two pulp "pedigrees" I know of the Strasser and the Yakima collections. I have some of the Yakimas that I bought from Dave Smith many years ago. Here are a couple.

 

[detective35]

A few more Strasser's.  

I have 105 Shadow's from the Strasser collection.  This is been quite a challenge as I have spent years hunting them down and pulling them out of private collections all across North America.

Tonight I will explain the history of the Strasser collection.  Strasser's in general and much earlier than the Yakima's. Yakima's were predominantly 1938 and up where the Strasser's started in 1934 and up and are easily documented with their markings.  They have a beautiful newsstand quality look with off-white to white paper.

Most of the Yakima Pulps that Dave Smith had were in the 1940s, and it is easier to  find sharp pulps in this era.  Nevertheless the Yakimas beautiful  are Newsstand fresh  books with bone white paper.

I have around 35 to 40 shadows from the Yakima collection starting from 1937 and up.

 

Edited March 23, 2017 by detective35DF

[Scrooge]

[detective35]

 It becomes a little bit tricky when you talk about pedigrees and pulp magazines because the old-time pulp collectors do not want anything call the pedigree

In comics, the Mile High/Church collection  set the standard for golden age as far as the size, condition,  and Cover gloss, ink reflectivity, page quality, and of course they have the identifying marks,  the "D code" or "C code", etc.  There is the odd book here and there that can match them;  San Francisco's from the 1942 to 44 are certainly as sharp,  and some Allentowns, etc.

 In pulp magazines,  I do know of some file copy runs and other ultra sharp large collection of pulps that have surfaced, so the Strasser's and Yakima's are not the only ultra high grade pulp collections out there.

The one thing that makes the Strasser's identifiable and certainly worthy of being a pedigree is the size of the collection, and the identifying marks in the first letter in the title on the front cover.   This is usually an code "A123".  In the table of contents there usually multicoloured checkmarks beside each of the interior stories and their authors.  The Strasser's were also a single owner collection.  

The Strasser collection surfaced in the late 1980s.   A gentleman named Von Crayville bought a farm house in Ohio, and in the basement there were shelves loaded with pulp magazines stacked with wax paper covering them.  

He asked the owners if they wanted them back, and they said no, so eventually he decided to sell them at the Pulpfest.  He was asking about 20% over the going prices, and at the time I'm told that many pop collectors refused to pay the premium,  and some of the Strasser runs sat for a couple of conventions before they started to sell.   Von Crayville would only bring out many titles and maybe only one or two years of that title,  to each pulp convention.   I'm told that he would just bring out an entire years worth of let's say; Spiders from 1936, put them on a table without any bags, and sell them either is a run, or individually.

 The Strasser's are high-grade newsstand quality pulps  with off-white to white pages,  and had newsstand fresh look to them.  

It seems that the  collection started in the late 1933 as a number one on the "A code" was on a Shadow from 1933,  but like some early mile high copies,  the first few books in this time period, were not  high grade, they looked like used copies (low to mid grade at best) from the late 1933's up until around March 1934.  From all the research I've done, it looks like March 1933 is the time when the Strasser's were bought new off the newsstand in a number of titles and stored away.  

The 1934 issues had the A code,  plus "Robert Strasser" written in fountain pen in the first letter of the title.  After 1934 they just had the code written on them in fountain pen.  Later on throughout the years some of the Strasser's had a scribed "D" in the first letter of the title,  and then he a C code in either that first letter,  or the second letter of the title.

 I've seen the Strasser's in the Shadow, Doc Savage, Spider,  Operator 5, Wu Fang, Yen Sin,  Pete Rice, Phantom Detectives, Argosy's, and many, many other titles.  However, I have not seen Strasser's in the Weird Tales, Black Mask, Horror Stories, Terror Tales, or the Spicy titles.  That does not mean that he didn't sell them privately to people as an entire group, but I've never heard of them being out there!

It eems like the Strasser's kept their identifying marks until about August 15, 1939, as  that is the latest Shadow that I have, from the  collection. 

 

Dwight

 

 

 

 

[Scrooge]

Thanks for the backstory Dwight 

Edited March 24, 2017 by Scrooge

[Robot Man]

Thanks Dwight. I've always been curious about this collection. You have some pretty amazing pulps there!

[Black_Adam]

Fascinating info and stunning covers. Congrats on the amazing collection, detective35!

 

[detective35]

A few more:

 

 

 

 

 

Edited March 24, 2017 by detective35DF

[comicjack]

Thanks for the history on the Strasser collection what amazing condition and colors .