1939 NEWSSTAND PIC TIME MACHINE JOURNEY INTO THE PAST 18 18

[ajaxfarrell]

It's photoshopped.

 

Look at the different levels of pixelation.

It's a pretty good photoshop job if that's true. It might just be that the camera was focused on the Marvel Comics #1. And all the other books were not as sharp in the photo.

 

I tend to agree with this.

 

 

Where did you find the picture ? Online, or do you own the original copy ?

[rodan57]

It's not a matter of focus but the different size of pixels indicating that they came from different images.

[jpepx78]

It's photoshopped.

Look at the different levels of pixelation.

It's a pretty good photoshop job if that's true. It might just be that the camera was focused on the Marvel Comics #1. And all the other books were not as sharp in the photo.

I tend to agree with this.

Where did you find the picture ? Online, or do you own the original copy ?

i found this image on ebay and i don't believe it has been altered. it is an amazing image that looks almost too good to be real with that many key golden age books.

here's the listing and the sellers description:

Type I. New York Times News Press Wire Photo. Measures 8x10". This is part of a collection from a former employee of the UPI in Tribune Towers before this collection was moved to New York. These photos have been part of a working archive for many years and have had many different people removing them from folders. So there are varying degrees of wear on the photos.

 

there's not much description on the back of the photo except the new york times stamp so i think this photo may not have been published.

it would be interesting to know the background on this photo. could this photo be worth more than what it sold for?

 

[Junkdrawer]

It's not a matter of focus but the different size of pixels indicating that they came from different images.

The pixels on the comics are larger than other pixels in the photo I think your right.

[buttock]

It's not a matter of focus but the different size of pixels indicating that they came from different images.

The pixels on the comics are larger than other pixels in the photo I think your right.

 

No they're not. It just looks that way because the comics have more variation in contrast.

[markseifert]

It's not a matter of focus but the different size of pixels indicating that they came from different images.

The pixels on the comics are larger than other pixels in the photo I think your right.

 

No they're not. It just looks that way because the comics have more variation in contrast.

 

I agree with this. In the enlarged version of the photo, look at the pixels in the boy's collar. Some of them look like that too.

 

Looking at ebay, the seller specializes in vintage photographs and appears to sell quite a lot of them. To pull off a fake here (and not have the buyer neg you when he gets something different than what was shown) they'd have had to recreate an authentic looking and feeling vintage photo to sell as well. Seems like a lot of work with a high risk of getting called out on it. I'm sure there's a forum full of vintage photo experts out there similar to the level of expertise in this forum.

 

I think it's legit.

[markseifert]

So, more interestingly... is the seller's "pre-1950" estimate based on the methods and material used to make the photo I presume? Any other indicators this might be right?

[AJD]

So, more interestingly... is the seller's "pre-1950" estimate based on the methods and material used to make the photo I presume? Any other indicators this might be right?

 

Weird Science 11 was Jan/Feb 1952

 

[markseifert]

So, more interestingly... is the seller's "pre-1950" estimate based on the methods and material used to make the photo I presume? Any other indicators this might be right?

 

Weird Science 11 was Jan/Feb 1952

 

Ah, of course. Thanks.

 

Still, it's tempting to take this as confirmation that Marvel 1 Octobers were indeed sold in NY (none of the Octobers have publicly known provenance that I am aware of) based on the idea that comics probably moved around a lot less during that era.

 

But you can't say that for certain here regardless of the exact date. Ah well.

 

Still an endlessly fascinating photo. Thanks again jpepx for your tireless efforts in this area.

[krighton]

the ebay photo sure makes it look like the real deal, pixel inconsistency or not.

[sfcityduck]

I would bet money that photo is from a mid-late 60s comic convention. The way to confirm that would be to just run a search on the NYT archive.

[Transplant]

 

No. Not really. The simpler explanation is that this an authentic vintage photo.

[Bronty]

I would bet money that photo is from a mid-late 60s comic convention. The way to confirm that would be to just run a search on the NYT archive.

yeah, you're right. that just fits.

[sfcityduck]

I wish I could post the picture, but all I can do is link the image of the newspaper article and photo. Click here:

 

http://news.google.com/newspapers?id=YWQhAAAAIBAJ&sjid=DYcFAAAAIBAJ&pg=751,1260704&dq=comic+book&hl=en

 

If you clicked, what you see is a February 9, 1966 article about Leonard Brown bidding less than $5 on a trunk in a storage locker auction that yielded what he estimated to be $10,000 worth of comics. The accompanying photo shows Brown holding Batman 1 and Superman 1. A related LA Times articles quotes Brown as stating that the collection was "mint" and included complete pre-1943 runs of Batman, Superman, Captain Marvel and "Flash Gordon" (?). Brown was planning to sell the run of Batman 1-30 for $1,000.

 

http://news.google.com/newspapers?id=Q2hkAAAAIBAJ&sjid=oXwNAAAAIBAJ&pg=1097,2422946&dq=comic+book&hl=en

 

The first comic pulled from the trunk was Hi-Spot 1 which Brown pegged as being a $100 comic, on par with the very best of the other issues in the trunk, because it contained an ERB story.

 

Times have changed. But the dream remains the same.

Edited January 27, 2012 by sfcityduck

[krighton]

hope he got that grand for Batman 1-30. He's probably on easy street today.

[Junkdrawer]

 

now this picture looks real

http://media.merchantcircle.com/109494/comicsonsteps_full.jpeg

[adamstrange]

Thanks for digging up the stories, sfcityduck (thumbs u

 

 

[nearmint]

now this picture looks real

http://media.merchantcircle.com/109494/comicsonsteps_full.jpeg

 

Yes, that one's been posted in the thread several times. Lots of great comics.

[John R]

hope he got that grand for Batman 1-30. He's probably on easy street today.

 

Here's an interesting article about him. from 2008

 

----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

 

Last hurrah for Hollywood memorabilia

Collectors Book Store packs up its collection of 3 million items for storage before auction.

 

They are packing up Old Hollywood and moving it to Newbury Park.

 

That's where about 3 million film studio publicity stills, 50,000 original movie posters and 20,000 vintage fan magazines will be stored until they are auctioned off six months from now.

 

The huge cache of movie memorabilia, gathered over the last 43 years by film fan and collectibles dealer Malcolm Willits, includes original scripts and studio contracts signed by such actors as Boris Karloff, Frank Sinatra and Vincent Price, and one that was signed by Elizabeth Taylor -- and her parents.

 

The collection, housed in a storefront on Hollywood Boulevard near the Pantages Theater, is considered by some experts to be second in size only to that of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences.

 

"I have a huge respect for this," said collection manager Craig Gilbert as he worked Wednesday to catalog the contents of large envelopes stuffed with movie publicity photos, press kits and other original materials.

 

"I've worked here six years and I've barely scratched the surface of what we have in here. The owner couldn't know what was in every envelope. Actors and studio people would sell their entire estates to him."

 

At the front of the sprawling shop, which bears the name Collectors Book Store, Willits' partner Mark Willoughby leafed through large movie posters -- some bearing the autograph of local studio artists who created the colorful ads.

 

Willoughby, 51, has worked with Willits for 30 years. He recalled how stars such as Mae West would come in to inspect the still photos of her that were stored in Willits' steel file cabinets.

 

"Mae was so nice. She would trade us better pictures of herself for the ones that she didn't like. Janet Leigh was another one who was always nice. She would come in and sign things for fans."

 

The star of "Psycho" balked only once at an autograph request, Willoughby said. "A man said, 'I hope you don't take this the wrong way' and unwrapped a butcher knife for her to sign. She said she was sorry, but she wouldn't autograph that."

 

Some Hollywood figures were less appreciative of the memorabilia. Willits ran afoul of Academy Awards officials in the 1980s when he auctioned off Marlon Brando's Oscar from "On the Waterfront." He has sold about half a dozen of the statuettes over the years.

 

Younger actors sometimes objected to their likenesses being sold and demanded that glossies of them be removed from the collection. Actor Sylvester Stallone complained when he heard that a copy of the -script from "Rocky" was in the collection, Willoughby said.

 

Willits, 74, now retired and living in Palm Desert, was a Washington Preparatory High School history and English teacher when he teamed up with a friend, comic book collector Leonard Brown, to open Collectors Book Store in 1965.

 

"The big studio system was collapsing right when we opened. They were closing back lots and moving out of Hollywood. They were throwing things away. We were able to buy some excellent material. We could buy a poster for $1 and sell it for $20," Willits said Wednesday.

 

One poster -- for 1924's "Alice in Wonderland" -- sold for $5,000. "It went for more than the film cost to make. It only cost $3,000 to make the film," he said.

 

The shop moved several times before landing in its Hollywood Boulevard location 10 years ago. Six years ago the store was closed to the public, and sales of photographs and posters were switched to the Internet.

 

Liquidation of the entire collection will take place at an auction planned for mid-December in Calabasas, said Joe Maddalena, president of Profiles in History, a firm that specializes in the sale of authenticated historical documents and Hollywood memorabilia.

 

The rarest and most valuable items -- things like formal, 11-by-14-inch studio portraits of stars of the 1930s by photographers such as George Hurrell -- will be sold separately. But much of the material will be sold by the file cabinet, Maddalena said.

 

"Each drawer holds 5,000 stills. This one has movies starting with the letter 'F,' running from 'Fame' to 'Fort Apache,' " he said, picking one filling cabinet at random and pulling open drawers filled with well-preserved 8-by-10 glossy photographs.

 

In an upstairs storeroom, Maddalena, 47, of Topanga Canyon walked along rows of orange crates crammed with fan magazines. Even titles dated 1919 remained in remarkably good shape.

 

The magazines will be sold by the complete run, he said. The room next door to them houses 150,000 original photo negatives and 50,000 color transparencies of actors and film scenes.

 

Downstairs by the front door, Willoughby was remembering how tourists once snapped up movie posters for as little as $25 a pop -- and how a king-sized "Casablanca" poster went to a collector for $300,000.

 

Willoughby, who lives about a mile from the shop, plans to do volunteer work with Hollywood's Blessed Sacrament Catholic Church once the last of the Tinseltown trove is carted off. He figures that Collectors Book Store was done for when it became clear that rent on its storefront would soar once the W Hotel being built across the street is finished.

 

Hollywood is changing, he says. And it's time to go.

[ciorac]

I won the lone comic lot at that auction