GA books from the *spoon* Winters collection...

[BangZoom]

I think we compared signatures already, and made a definitive determination it wasn't the same Winters.

 

 

It's always possible that the name written on the cover was put there by the store which was putting them aside for D ick Winters and not Winters himself.

 

Isn't that the story with Lamont Larson's name which was written on many covers?

[nearmint]

Yes, Lamont's name was written by any one of three people at the store.

 

And considering the very poor placement of some of the signatures on the Winters books, I think it's very possible that your theory is correct.

[JiveTurkeyMoFo]

I think we compared signatures already, and made a definitive determination it wasn't the same Winters.

 

 

It's always possible that the name written on the cover was put there by the store which was putting them aside for D ick Winters and not Winters himself.

 

Isn't that the story with Lamont Larson's name which was written on many covers?

 

I think we also discerned Mr. Winters would have been in his fourth year of college and 21 when many of these books were purchased. Hard to imagine he would've been buying them at that point....

[BangZoom]

I think we compared signatures already, and made a definitive determination it wasn't the same Winters.

 

It's always possible that the name written on the cover was put there by the store which was putting them aside for D ick Winters and not Winters himself.

 

Isn't that the story with Lamont Larson's name which was written on many covers?

 

I think we also discerned Mr. Winters would have been in his fourth year of college and 21 when many of these books were purchased. Hard to imagine he would've been buying them at that point....

 

I dunno about that.

 

 

 

 

 

[JiveTurkeyMoFo]

Would be nice to find out something definitive. The seller only said the books came out of central Penn, did he reveal something else telling that I missed?

[dizzyfoxx]

Would be nice to find out something definitive. The seller only said the books came out of central Penn, did he reveal something else telling that I missed?

 

Can anyone chime in with any definitive info regarding this???

[User 01001010]

Would be nice to find out something definitive. The seller only said the books came out of central Penn, did he reveal something else telling that I missed?

 

Can anyone chime in with any definitive info regarding this???

 

 

this is not the same richard winters, the former major in the us army that band of brothers was based on is still alive and kicking in hershey pa, .even given that the superman cover is from the fourties and these sigs were within the past ten years or so, the difference is obvious, yes soldiers did read comics, what else were they supposed to do in between the whole "staring death in the face", hell those are some of the most requested comfort items for the current military as well...

 

http://members.chello.nl/~p.vandewal/1%20dick%20winters%20interview%20engels.htm (sorry i can't get the pictures to save so i can post them on here...

 

 

j

[dizzyfoxx]

Would be nice to find out something definitive. The seller only said the books came out of central Penn, did he reveal something else telling that I missed?

 

Can anyone chime in with any definitive info regarding this???

 

 

this is not the same richard winters, the former major in the us army that band of brothers was based on is still alive and kicking in hershey pa, .even given that the superman cover is from the fourties and these sigs were within the past ten years or so, the difference is obvious, yes soldiers did read comics, what else were they supposed to do in between the whole "staring death in the face", hell those are some of the most requested comfort items for the current military as well...

 

http://members.chello.nl/~p.vandewal/1%20dick%20winters%20interview%20engels.htm (sorry i can't get the pictures to save so i can post them on here...

 

 

j

 

Still not convinced. This info is not definitive or conclusive.

[Mac Man]

Seems like this topic was never truly put to rest and it was one I was curious about. SO, I did a little digging, and heere are a few pieces that we can look at to consider:

 

1. Signed in approx. 2000:

http://www.majordickwinters.com/phpBB3/download/file.php?id=545&sid=3a1c24a10a4b1233fc3edeaf81f50b8a&mode=view

 

2. Signed in 2003:

http://members.chello.nl/~p.vandewal/1%20dick%20winters%20interview%20engels.htm

 

3. Date Unknown (sold in 2006):

http://www.worthpoint.com/pmimages/images1/1/1106/28/1_66faacab53a68f754ecc39c51002d418.jpg

 

If we consider MAJ Winters was a Lieutenant initially at the onset of the US involvement, that would place him in his early 20s. His signature should have been fully developed and consistent by this point (for the most part). Therefore, it isn't unreasonable to assume the signatures of the D ick Winters on the comics should resemble that of the signatures by the retired MAJ Winters fairly closely (even if we allow for some variance over time and due to aging).

 

Looking at these samples of D ick Winters from the comics and MAJ Winters, I think it appears fairly conclusive that these are two different people. Furthermore, after doing a brief hunt on Google, there are 2,655,622 people in the U.S. with the first name Richard, 50,475 people in the U.S. with the last name Winters, and 431 people in the U.S. named Richard Winters (http://howmanyofme.com/search/). Suffice to say, I think it's probably a long shot that we're dealing with the same person.

[buttock]

431 people, how many of the same age & location? I'd say it's a long shot that it's NOT him.

 

On a sadder note, looks like he passed away.

 

 

[Paratrooper]

Ha, only 9 people in the United States share my name. I'm Semi-Unique!

[Mac Man]

431 people, how many of the same age & location? I'd say it's a long shot that it's NOT him.

 

On a sadder note, looks like he passed away.

 

 

Scanning the thread though, I didn't see anything other than an unsubstantiated claim of the OO living in Ephrata, Lancaster, or Hershey, PA. :shrug: It'd be plenty interesting though if the connection was there.

 

And I agree--very sad considering he passed only a few days ago. A true American hero.

[Mac Man]

Ha, only 9 people in the United States share my name. I'm Semi-Unique!

 

Gotcha beat--there's only one other person with my name (and we have different middle names) in the whole country. I only know this because he's a very distant relative.

[nearmint]

Jive posted this a few years ago in another thread...

 

The information we have gathered so far:

 

- The books were purchased from an OO in his early 90s out of Central Penn, specifically Lancaster Co. Pennslyvania. This information was provided by the seller when buyers began to inquire about the signature and the OO, but only well after he started selling the books off, and NEVER as a ploy to actually market the books. That makes it a lot more credible in my opinion. Assuming this information is factual , and its a big IF, how many 90+ year old Richard or *spoon* Winters could there possibly be in Lancaster County, PA?

 

- The signature thing is a non-starter, it proves or disproves nothing. The Larsons have as many as three distinct signatures, all written by three different store clerks. There is no indication the signature was by the owner, his neigbor, a store clerk, anything....so, until we have more concrete evidence, the theory that it was a store clerk writing the name of the person it was reserved for is as good as any.

 

- Major Winters was in fact in his early 20s, and in his final year of college when many of the early books in the collection were purchased. This was my point as well. However, we also know that reading comics back then didn't have quite the stigma it would later on if you were a young adult. Major Winters admitted his inspiration for becoming a paratrooper came from a Life magazine article, so we know he read contemporary publications. So, again, this really doesn't prove or disprove anything. I think the fact that many of the books are solid 6.0s-7.5s is a likely indication that they were adult owned.

 

I'm on the record as a non-believer, however, there is enough evidence to suggest it is possible. As such, I'm not willing to dismiss it until we have more facts one way or another.

 

What I would love to see is a comprehensive list of all the books in the collection, and see how they compared to those times we know Major Winters was away training for and fighting the war. The books sold on ebay earlier this year were mostly from 1940-1941, which would have been during the time he was still in college. If there was an abundance of books from 42-45, then I would be a lot more skeptical.

[Mac Man]

Jeff--thanks for posting this. I probably didn't expand my search quite enough to catch this post from Jive. Like you, I think in order to conclusively determine ownership of these books to MAJ Winters, we'd need to be able to line up the timelines. I have no qualms with college students of the time (or even if he was stationed stateside at the time) reading comics. My only thoughts are if he was training / overseas, the likelihood would diminish significantly.

 

Additionally, do we know who made the purchase from the OO and brought this collection forward? I bet that would shine some light on where exactly this collection was purchased and if they had any added info about the OO they bought them from.

 

I know there are a number of West Pointers who followed the MAJ's career and have a number signed items from him. I wonder if we couldn't somehow get access to a signature from him that is more in line with this time period and compare them. As I noted, the signatures I found were all much more recent than these books. Unfortunately, I simply don't buy the notion of discounting signatures altogether. Since we're talking about provence, it is the responsibility of the owner to exhibit proof that the connection IS there; the name alone doesn't work. While lack of substantial similarity between the signatures doesn't completely disprove the connection (as Jive points out with the Larson books), it does work against the chances of it being the same person making it a point worth considering all the same.

 

I thought I recall Matt Nelson and Stephen Ritter were planning to do a book on famous comic pedigrees and collections. Seems to me that this would be a fantastic candidate and one well worth researching.

[MrBedrock]

I thought I recall Matt Nelson and Stephen Ritter were planning to do a book on famous comic pedigrees and collections.

I think that project is only in the initial planning stages. It could be years before it sees print.

[tth2]

I thought I recall Matt Nelson and Stephen Ritter were planning to do a book on famous comic pedigrees and collections.

I think that project is only in the initial planning stages.

[Tsp99]

Richard "" Winters, a decorated hero of World War II and the central figure in the book and miniseries "Band of Brothers," has died. He would have turned 93 years old in February.

 

Winters died January 2 and was buried after a private funeral Saturday, according to retired Army Col. Cole Kingseed, a close friend and co-author of Winters' memoirs

 

 

http://www.cnn.com/2011/US/01/10/obit..winters/index.html?hpt=C2

[Tsp99]

Or try....http://www.cnn.com/ in the "Don't Miss" section......

[Paratrooper]

It was Colonel Winters