Show me your Timely's and I'll show you mine. Have a Cigar... 30 30

[Frisco Larson]

I've been fortunate to be able to pick up some Brazilian comics that were more focused on printing Timely Comics content. This cover may well be a Blonde Phantom splash that was redrawn (I haven't looked yet to see if it matches any of her titles splashes or any from Marvel Mystery). The back cover for this book is outstanding and the image was taken from All Winners #17!!! VERY cool indeed!!! 

[Frisco Larson]

This cover is a redrawn splash page from the Blonde Phantom story in Marvel Mystery #90. This is the issue where the Blonde Phantom reveals her identity to her boss and love interest. No Timely back cover art on this one, but a cool back cover in it's own right.

[Frisco Larson]

Local copy shop pick up! It's just cool to see a Timely in the batch. They really ARE more uncommon than other publishers.  

[Frisco Larson]

Another Brazilian comic with lots of Timely content printed inside! Lower grade with a few repairs (tape & a lil glue), this copy being raw makes me VERY happy, as I can enjoy the interior so very much!!! This comic is dated November 1941 and so far, I've identified these stories: The Human Torch story is the lead story from Human Torch #1!!! The Sub-Mariner story comes from Marvel Mystery #19 and the Ka-Zar story comes from Marvel Mystery #19 as well. Several of the other stories look to be Quality Comics stories, but I haven't taken the time to identify them specifically. While I'm not positive, it COULD be The Angel on the inside back cover and most certainly looks to be The Blue Beetle on the back cover, with an alternately colored costume. So much fun for not a lot of money!  

Edited March 30, 2023 by Frisco Larson

[Robot Man]

I’ve been tempted to buying a few of these Brazilian Timely’s. A few have gone pretty cheap on the bay. But being reprints in b/w and not being able to actually read them as turned me off a bit.

They do appear to be pretty rare though. 

[Frisco Larson]

On 3/30/2023 at 10:46 AM, Robot Man said:

I’ve been tempted to buying a few of these Brazilian Timely’s. A few have gone pretty cheap on the bay. But being reprints in b/w and not being able to actually read them as turned me off a bit.

They do appear to be pretty rare though. 

Like many things I collect, they're not everybody's cup to tea for sure. Based on the cover date of November 1941 (Marvel Mystery #19 is May 1941), I'd guess it's a pretty safe bet that this is the first time those stories were printed in a Brazilian comic book, so while technically a reprint, it would be a first printing for that country, IF in fact it was the first time those stories were printed there. The new cover art and whatever new art is found inside intrigues me, as well as the combination of the characters found inside, especially when they're from different publishers. The rarity is a fun factor in that I doubt many other comic collectors have a copy in their collection. And finally, the price was a huge deciding factor! For the cost of this comic, I can't get anywhere NEAR a Timely from that period, even incomplete copies would likely cost more! To each their own as the saying goes. Thanks for the positive comments when I post them!    

[Frisco Larson]

On 3/15/2023 at 12:37 PM, MrBedrock said:

 

I've always LOVED the picture sidebars on early Timely issues!!! The Marvel Mystery #7 and the Mystic Comics #3 are the first issues of those titles to have them and both of them have the distinction as being the only two to include a little pic of that month's cover feature as the top sidebar pic!!! Also, very cool to see characters like Electro, the Ferret and Ka-Zar get a little cover exposure! You've collected some spectacular copies Ricky, a real batch of beauties!!!  

[Ameri]

With the overseas war won, our pals fought local criminals. Some post war books

[Cat-Man_America]

On 3/31/2023 at 7:57 PM, Ameri said:

With the overseas war won, our pals fought local criminals. Some post war books

Super kewl comics & all Schomburg covers except MM #70 which is by Vince Alascia if I'm not mistaken (one of his better ones). Nice control Torch uses to avoid burning up the satchel of money. 

[GreatCaesarsGhost]

On 3/31/2023 at 7:57 PM, Ameri said:

With the overseas war won, our pals fought local criminals. Some post war books

And with the end of WWII, thus began the inexorable slide toward Crime, PCH and Romance. . .

[Cat-Man_America]

On 4/1/2023 at 6:24 AM, GreatCaesarsGhost said:

And with the end of WWII, thus began the inexorable slide toward Crime, PCH and Romance. . .

They tried to establish super villains briefly in '46 & '47, around the time of the Marvel corner logos, but failed for two reasons (IMO): The biggest reason, after battling nazis and imperial Japanese soldiers ...monsters like Hitler and to a lesser degree Tojo and "Muscle-weinee" for four years and change, it was tough devising super villains that could hold up well on a smaller stage (even if it was big metropolitan city like NY) in comparison. Thugs and petty criminals had to be a let-down when contrasted with the Axis. Secondly ...and probably the real reason super-heroes were in decline with most publishers... the supervillains most publisher's came up with were often lackluster, lame and two dimensional.

DC ...which was engaged mostly in home-front activity... had better luck creatively with supervillains and interesting back-stories, which is why their biggest heroes lasted into the 1950's and with Superman & Bat-Man well beyond. Fawcett's Captain Marvel had an effective evil scientist ...even if he did come across a bit like a cranky older version of Lex Luther. Timely had the Red Skull occasionally cause grief for Captain America, but needed more distinguishable bad guys. Subby and Torch had very few familiar recurring evil characters which caught on. The swing to more sexually alluring eye candy femme fatales and female side-kicks, true crime and horror was a slow but steady process. The romance genre ...ironically... came along as a result of Simon & Kirby tapping into another under-exploited market in the late 40's, and competing publishers hopped on the bandwagon.

Sorry, wayyy too much caffeine today!

 

Edited April 1, 2023 by Cat-Man_America
Thinking about ale!

[plady69]

On 4/1/2023 at 10:21 AM, Cat-Man_America said:

They tried to establish super villains briefly in '46 & '47, around the time of the Marvel corner logos, but failed for two reasons (IMO): The biggest reason, after battling nazis and imperial Japanese soldiers ...monsters like Hitler and to a lesser degree Tojo and "Muscle-weinee" for four years and change, it was tough devising super villains that could hold up well on a smaller stage (even if it was big metropolitan city like NY) in comparison. Thugs and petty criminals had to be a let-down when contrasted with the Axis. Secondly ...and probably the real reason super-heroes were in decline with most publishers... the supervillains most publisher's came up with were often lackluster, lame and two dimensional.

DC ...which was engaged mostly in home-front activity... had better luck creatively with supervillains and interesting back-stories, which is why their biggest heroes lasted into the 1950's and with Superman & Bat-Man well beyond. Fawcett's Captain Marvel had an effective evil scientist ...even if he did come across a bit like a cranky older version of Lex Luther. Timely had the Red Skull occasionally cause grief for Captain America, but needed more distinguishable bad guys. Subby and Torch had very few familiar recurring evil characters which caught on. The swing to more sexually alluring eye candy femme fatales and female side-kicks, true crime and horror was a slow but steady process. The romance genre ...ironically... came along as a result of Simon & Kirby tapping into another under-exploited market in the late 40's, and competing publishers hopped on the bandwagon.

Sorry, wayyy too much caffeine today!

 

Good points.  America wanted to move on and romance, horror and western were the answer from all publishers.

[Ameri]

On 4/1/2023 at 1:21 PM, Cat-Man_America said:

They tried to establish super villains briefly in '46 & '47, around the time of the Marvel corner logos, but failed for two reasons (IMO): The biggest reason, after battling nazis and imperial Japanese soldiers ...monsters like Hitler and to a lesser degree Tojo and "Muscle-weinee" for four years and change, it was tough devising super villains that could hold up well on a smaller stage (even if it was big metropolitan city like NY) in comparison. Thugs and petty criminals had to be a let-down when contrasted with the Axis. Secondly ...and probably the real reason super-heroes were in decline with most publishers... the supervillains most publisher's came up with were often lackluster, lame and two dimensional.

DC ...which was engaged mostly in home-front activity... had better luck creatively with supervillains and interesting back-stories, which is why their biggest heroes lasted into the 1950's and with Superman & Bat-Man well beyond. Fawcett's Captain Marvel had an effective evil scientist ...even if he did come across a bit like a cranky older version of Lex Luther. Timely had the Red Skull occasionally cause grief for Captain America, but needed more distinguishable bad guys. Subby and Torch had very few familiar recurring evil characters which caught on. The swing to more sexually alluring eye candy femme fatales and female side-kicks, true crime and horror was a slow but steady process. The romance genre ...ironically... came along as a result of Simon & Kirby tapping into another under-exploited market in the late 40's, and competing publishers hopped on the bandwagon.

Sorry, wayyy too much caffeine today!

 

Great response. So true that DC only dabbled slightly in war content and for good reason. War is dirty business and DC was big on staying safe, and to prove that their content was safe for kids they created a bunch of phony advisory groups in the early 1940's to lead parents into believing they had the least harmful product, and that their content was safe because it was reviewed by so-called 3rd party experts. Timely didn't care and went for the jugular during the war, but it ultimately hurt them after the war ended by not building a base of non-war villains. In 1946, Timely also went the parent advisory route with statements from  psychiatrists that their books are good clean reading material, but that was a little too late in the game as Timely was already labeled as the naughty publisher. Same thing happened in cartoons. The two main animation competitors were Max Fleischer and Walt Disney. Max had the New York City mentality of giving kids naughty Betty Boop and a violent Popeye. Disney had the midwestern mentality of giving kids funny animals. Parent preferred Disney for their kids and Max lost his business.      

[Robot Man]

On 4/1/2023 at 8:08 PM, Ameri said:

Great response. So true that DC only dabbled slightly in war content and for good reason. War is dirty business and DC was big on staying safe, and to prove that their content was safe for kids they created a bunch of phony advisory groups in the early 1940's to lead parents into believing they had the least harmful product, and that their content was safe because it was reviewed by so-called 3rd party experts. Timely didn't care and went for the jugular during the war, but it ultimately hurt them after the war ended by not building a base of non-war villains. In 1946, Timely also went the parent advisory route with statements from  psychiatrists that their books are good clean reading material, but that was a little too late in the game as Timely was already labeled as the naughty publisher. Same thing happened in cartoons. The two main animation competitors were Max Fleischer and Walt Disney. Max had the New York City mentality of giving kids naughty Betty Boop and a violent Popeye. Disney had the midwestern mentality of giving kids funny animals. Parent preferred Disney for their kids and Max lost his business.      

Yeah, give me Timely and Fleischer any day. Much like The Rolling Stones over the Beatles and Rat Fink over airplane models when I was a kid. 

[Ameri]

On 3/31/2023 at 2:40 PM, Frisco Larson said:

Like many things I collect, they're not everybody's cup to tea for sure. Based on the cover date of November 1941 (Marvel Mystery #19 is May 1941), I'd guess it's a pretty safe bet that this is the first time those stories were printed in a Brazilian comic book, so while technically a reprint, it would be a first printing for that country, IF in fact it was the first time those stories were printed there. The new cover art and whatever new art is found inside intrigues me, as well as the combination of the characters found inside, especially when they're from different publishers. The rarity is a fun factor in that I doubt many other comic collectors have a copy in their collection. And finally, the price was a huge deciding factor! For the cost of this comic, I can't get anywhere NEAR a Timely from that period, even incomplete copies would likely cost more! To each their own as the saying goes. Thanks for the positive comments when I post them!    

Here's another mashup. Cover is based on Marvel Mystery 80, Torch and Submariner stories are from Human Torch 25 and they threw in Archie, The Spirit, and Captain Marvel Jr stories.

[Frisco Larson]

On 4/7/2023 at 1:49 PM, Ameri said:

Here's another mashup. Cover is based on Marvel Mystery 80, Torch and Submariner stories are from Human Torch 25 and they threw in Archie, The Spirit, and Captain Marvel Jr stories.

This is truly awesome!!! Thank you for sharing this!!! I might actually like the Brazilian cover better than the Timely original!!! SO much cool in these books!!! Time will tell if these ultra-rare foreign copies become more widely collected than they seem to be now. It DOES seem like a natural progression, given the rarity and uniqueness of many of them. Once someone gets all 400-odd Timely copies, this would be a sensible path. 

[woowoo]

On 2/23/2023 at 11:39 PM, Cat-Man_America said:

The toughest to find in grade or not is probably Daring Mystery #5, though 1-4 are all tough books. Marvel Mystery #8 (first HT/Subbbie battle book) is a bit rarer than #9 if gauging by CGC census; #8 has a pretty cool yellow cover featuring the Angel, but doesn't pop up in auctions much; more attention is usually given #9 because of the Torch/Subbie battle cover. Mystic Comics Vol II books can be tough; I don't see them pop-up that often.  USA #3-5 are tough, although I managed to acquire copies of 3 & 5 when I wasn't even looking for 'em (lol).  I agree with Primetime and Frisco-Larson generally though. Which Timelys do you consider scarcest?

I never collected Timleys. I had 3 copies of 8 and 2 copies of 4. I passed on a 9 since I was competing with Bob Overstreet at a convention to buy it. I recall him saying he wanted to collect all the Timleys and needed this copy. I got a coverless Marvel 1 missing last page on a trade throw in, and it went in my junk box intel it was not junk anymore had all of the Daring mystery's several times over along with All Select 1 young allies all these were my bread and butter to buy Actions and Detectives. Oh, did I mention this was late 70's early 80s and had a set of these.

[Ameri]

I have those too. The thing that always intrigued me about these is that the white inks have gloss but the colored areas (red, yellow, blue inks) have a dull, almost satin like finish. Not sure if this can be discerned from the attached, but the bottom corner where the the walls meet in the first scan shows the glow of gloss white and the glossy white shows inside the logo of the 2nd scan.      

[Ameri]

On 2/24/2023 at 2:39 AM, Cat-Man_America said:

The toughest to find in grade or not is probably Daring Mystery #5, though 1-4 are all tough books. Marvel Mystery #8 (first HT/Subbbie battle book) is a bit rarer than #9 if gauging by CGC census; #8 has a pretty cool yellow cover featuring the Angel, but doesn't pop up in auctions much; more attention is usually given #9 because of the Torch/Subbie battle cover. Mystic Comics Vol II books can be tough; I don't see them pop-up that often.  USA #3-5 are tough, although I managed to acquire copies of 3 & 5 when I wasn't even looking for 'em (lol).  I agree with Primetime and Frisco-Larson generally though. Which Timelys do you consider scarcest?

I agree 100%. Daring 5 is the toughest in that run. Had a nice unrestored one in the 90's, sold it and it took me forever to re-acquire one. I used to think it was the #2 but those popped up enough to change my mind. I used to see a boatload of All Winners 1, Young Allies 1 and Mystic 1s offered for sale but those have disappeared. Here's the current copy and I had to get it from a collector in Spain.

[Cat-Man_America]

On 4/7/2023 at 11:31 PM, Ameri said:

I agree 100%. Daring 5 is the toughest in that run. Had a nice unrestored one in the 90's, sold it and it took me forever to re-acquire one. I used to think it was the #2 but those popped up enough to change my mind. I used to see a boatload of All Winners 1, Young Allies 1 and Mystic 1s offered for sale but those have disappeared. Here's the current copy and I had to get it from a collector in Spain.

Yep, that's kinda where my thoughts were on this one. There are virtually no high grade copies (27 total in the census, none above 8.0 with only 22 Universal grades). I'm pretty sure this is a Schomburg cover too! Mike's Amazing World has Alex as the cover artist; it definitely has his slightly pulpish style from '39/40 (especially the villain's face which looks like a clever swipe); not sure why he isn't attributed on labels.