Gallery 26: The How & The Why

[BradleyX2]

Fresh from the new May 2010 CGC newsletter, here's Quality Control expert Michael McFadden with some interesting books and lots of cool information!

 

 

 

Salutations, frantic fen. Michael McFadden at your service with my monthly DigiGallery rap.

 

So just HOW and WHY do we pick the books we select for the Fandom-famous CGC DigiGallery? That’s a question that I, the mysterious QC Doctor of CGC, hear from time to time when I escape the pulp paper-filled sanctuary of the Fortress of Qualitude. Well, my fellow compulsive / obsessive collecting carbon-based life forms; there is no great mystery here. It starts with the luck of the draw. We can only image what we see. We are inexorably tethered to what you, comic collecting fandom assembled, send us. During convention season, we see a lot of great books submitted, and we have very little time to image them. Obviously, our prime directive is to get those books back into the hands of the submitters as quickly as is feasible. So your QC Doctor has to make a judgment call on how much of Gemma Adel’s time we can petition to scan these things. There are often books that I would love to put on our Internet show-and-tell that are simply trumped by the sheer quantity of other books or by our primary responsibilities that particular day. In off-peak times, we see fewer books, and I have more time to research and select and Gemma has more time to image them.

 

Has a dealer ferreted out a painstakingly constructed Silver Age collection? Are we inundated by them now because we have a deadline and yet… they are all gorgeous? Was Strange Adventures or Timmy the Timid Ghost his most beautiful run? Do we have examples of either title already on the DigiGallery? Any anticipated movies coming out? A bump in Green Hornet is currently evident, though I hardly saw them two years ago. Did I see 50 imagable books today and we only have time to process 20? If I try to squeeze 30 in, how soon before Gemma starts speaking to me again? Gee, she slaps hard!

 

The QC Doctor’s instinct and perspective comes into play, too. I’ve been a comic book fan for five decades. I’ve been around the block. Is that Mysteries of Unexplored Worlds in 9.6 the best we’ll ever see? Will I see it again in this shape? Experience says probably not. But is that Brain Boy in 9.4 also stunning and is it a book that my perspective suggests is an overlooked classic that a well-rounded comic fan SHOULD know about? Brain Boy it is. Is an 8.5 on a 1958 Batman tougher to see than a 9.4 Batman from 1962? Yes. Does that issue of Horrific at only 6.5 have a shot at highest certified? Worth researching. Is this Blue Beetle a Mile High and in all likelihood I’ll never have to worry about ever even thinking about a better copy for the DigiGallery? Easy call.

 

Do I really want to image that modern New Mutants #98, the one I never want to see again after 3,000 copies? Oh, it’s 9.9 and worth five figures? Suddenly, I love it, but it bumps a cult-beloved, John Stanley-written Little Lulu that I really wanted to image so very much more. A necessary ouch. While I do enjoy the obscure stuff like Nature Boy, I do try to build runs of mainstream titles like Amazing Spider-Man as much as I can. For instance, all factors equal, an Amazing Spider-Man will beat a Spectacular Spider-Man to the DigiGallery. Will Mark Haspel fire me if I image this Atomic Mouse #1 instead of this Action Comics #1? Guess you’ll find out next month if Bradley Bradley, the fan with a name as fascinating as his personality, is writing this column instead of me. These are everyday issues for our DigiGallery. Fan response suggests we are doing well and for that, Gemma, the CGC team and I thank you for your appreciation of our humble and most heartfelt efforts.

 

All this brings us to this month, a Silver Age DC-heavy month. Luck of the draw, boys and girls. Let’s start, though, with a few pedigree copies. The Mile High/Edgar Church copy of All-Flash #23 at 9.6 is… is…yeah, yeah, you know, “in all likelihood I’ll never have to worry about ever even thinking about a better copy for the DigiGallery.” Don’t get ahead of me here, OK? That imposing 9.6 was matched by a copy of #15 from the Pennsylvania collection. As did copies of Incredible Hulk #2 (White Mountain) and X-Men #44 (Pacific Coast) from two decades later. The Pacific Coast Tales to Astonish #39 certified 9.8. Why not a 9.8? Really, who wants to crack the cover on a book that features the diminutive Ant-Man squaring off against a giant, talking cockroach with designs of world domination? Was the bizarre Polka-Dot Man (Detective Comics #300, 9.2) unavailable for a guest villain gig that month? Still, it took the ever-hapless Ant-Man 10 pages to dispatch this felon to the roach motel. Giant-Man could have simply stepped on and squashed him inside of two pages. Even Triplicate Girl, armed with a can of Raid Ant and Roach Killer, could have ended this melee by the first ad for Grit. So, almost 50 years later, it’s still quite obviously a 9.8!

 

 

 

 

The Don Rosa Howard the Duck #1 proved as good as it was quacked up to be at 9.8. The River City Mystery in Space #4 was 9.4 and 9.8 was the call on the Curator Tales of Suspense #62. 9.6 was the grade on both the Western Penn Tales to Astonish #95 and the Boston Detective Comics #366. The Rocky Mountain Amazing Spider-Man #112 earned a 9.8. What a nice run of Tales of Suspense we added from the Rocky Mountain collection. Issues 87, 93, 94, 96, 97 and 98 are all either 9.6 or 9.8. We follow that with non-pedigreed but equally impressive copies of Tales of Suspense #s 41 (9.6) and 42 (9.4), Iron Man’s third and fourth appearances, and #64 at 9.6.

 

 

 

 

Here’s something noteworthy. X-Men’s storied death of Phoenix issue, #137, has had 1664 copies certified by us. According to our modern guru, Sagacious Shawn Caffrey, a 9.9 has never been offered for sale. So start saving your lunch money, because one finally came through the office this month. Check our online census and see how rare this puppy really is! Life at CGC offers some rewarding perks and one of them is seeing some undeniably obscure yet engaging artifacts of the rich history of American comics. This month we saw something we’d never seen before, ’Erbie and ‘is Playmates, a 1932 comic pamphlet published by the Democratic National Committee prior to the presidential election. The ’erbie of the title is the unpopular incumbent, Herbert Hoover. A few of us on staff immediately recognized the name of the cartoonist, F. Opper. Frederick Burr Opper was a giant of cartooning in the late 19th and early 20th centuries and in addition to his important political cartooning for Hearst papers, his newspaper strip creation, Happy Hooligan, was a national sensation. A couple of our graders who scored on this one were Vince Oliva, a vintage original art collector, and Josh Hanin, an American history buff and Puck collector. Hey, we don’t get paid just because we can tell the difference between John Romita and John Romita, Jr.! This rarity garnered a 9.0. Also cool this month were copies of Dark Horse’s Aliens #1, both “night” and “daylight” versions, signed by the acclaimed actress and Hollywood luminary Sigourney Weaver. Nice.

 

 

 

 

We saw a nice run of Mickey Mouse Magazine, the ’30s precursor to Walt Disney’s Comics and Stories. We have discussed their gorgeously drawn and colored covers in past columns and you ought to check out our selection of high-grade issues. This batch included a 9.2 copy of Volume 4 #10, the classic, oft-reproduced “Spirit of ’76” cover featuring Mickey, Donald, Goofy and an American flag with a 13-star canton. Issue #2, October 1935, offers a charming cover illustrating Mickey Mouse as a freewheeling buckaroo, back from the days when he was carefree and fun, before Mickey became Disney’s biggest stockholder and their leading corporate shill. The beginnings of Mickey’s fall are rumored, like the time he ratted out Clarabell Cow to Walt about her tragic addiction to grass. Her stardom was quickly put out to pasture. Speculation? Cud be true, folks!

 

 

 

 

Among Golden Age confections, we have a MLJ Top-Notch #2. While only 8.5, only two copies certify higher. On newsstands in late 1939, this comic is the first with a Nazi swastika on the cover, as the Wizard is pretty thoroughly destroying a German bomber. For your reference, World War II began in Europe three months earlier. We are most jazzed to present a 4.5 book, one highly sought after and tough in ANY grade book. Marvel Mystery Comics #nn is an “annual” with at least one other known interior. This edition reprints Captain America Comics #22 and Marvel Mystery Comics #41 in black and white. CGC is 10 years old, we’ve certified a million comics and seen even more, and this is only the second one of these we’ve had the opportunity to grade. The other was a 3.0, incidentally. Captain America Comics #54 ties for the top spot at 9.2. Human Torch #27 at 9.0 is surpassed by only one other graded copy. DC’s All-American Comics #53 at 9.4 stands alone at the summit, even with an 8.5 grade on its exterior double cover. Detective Comics #2 impressed at 7.0. Other DCs: Adventure Comics #56 (Hourman cover, 7.5, only three higher), Star-Spangled #2 (Star-Spangled Kid cover, 8.5, two higher) and #10 (Kirby / Simon Newsboy Legion cover, 9.0, only one higher). Any of the rare, last few months of Flash Comics on my desk in the Fortress of Qualitude are exciting; more so if they are the second-highest-graded copy like this 8.5 copy of #101. With a story by Robert Kanigher and art by Carmine Infantino and Joe Kubert, this trio would collaborate for editor Julie Schwartz eight years hence for the Silver Age Flash’s debut in Showcase #4.

 

 

 

 

From the 50s, we offer the last two issues of Charlton’s The Thing. No source I can find seems to credit a cover artist on #16 (9.2), though I’m positive this excellent illo is the work of Howard Nostrand. #17 is another example of Steve Ditko’s fine cover work for the Connecticut publisher’s crime and horror titles of the period. We have Archie’s Rival Reggie #s 4 and 5, both 8.0, and Archie’s Pal Jughead Annual #5 and Archie’s Joke Book Magazine, both 8.5. I don’t need to tell you that Archies from this era in anything resembling high grade are tough because they got passed around and read to death. However bland these titles were, parents could bring them home to their kids because these were considered “wholesome” comics in those Wertham-influenced times. Flash forward to today and I hear Archie’s going to introduce a gay character to the Riverdale gang. No, it’s not Jughead… if you question his antipathy toward girls on Annual #5’s cover, rest assured that his real genetic disposition is eating burgers and imbibing malteds. I think I could subscribe to that lifestyle.

 

 

 

 

Instead, my genetic predisposition is to drool over cool #1 issues of comic books. And to think Dave Couillou thinks that drooling is senility because I’m older than everyone else here… put together. We did another Batman #1 in 9.0, the top certification for that book. Timely’s All Select #1 was also nine-0. Incredible Hulk Annual #1 with that dynamic Jim Steranko cover hit 9.8. Check out the Marvel house ads of the period for the complete original cover; Marie Severin redrew the Hulk’s face before this cover hit the press at World Color in Sparta, Illinois. (Do check out Steranko’s fabulous X-Men #49 cover on a 9.8 we posted, too.) DC’s late-60s toy tie in for Ideal, Captain Action #1, was 9.8. Coolest of all, though, is Atomic Mouse #1, with story, cover and art by the excellent and overlooked Al Fago. At 6.5, it ties for highest-certified copy. Of course, since we’ve only done one other copy, it also ties for lowest-graded copy. How the first appearance of Count Gatto makes me drool in anticipation of my own copy one day!

 

 

 

 

This month, though, Silver Age DCs were in abundance in the DigiGallery. That’s a pleasure for a fan like me. Silver Age DC was the first comic book neighborhood I called home. I may be CGC’s Charlton guy, their EC guy, their Dell, Gold Key and Disney guy today, but DC was the outfit where, as a kid, I imprinted what a comic book was supposed to look like. Their cadre of editors were all writers; artists, paid well, held no power. Each one managed their fiefdom almost as their own company, within the parameters of conservative DC company policy. Senior editor Jack Schiff handled the once-powerhouse Batman books and titles like House of Mystery. The most powerful editor, Mort Weisinger, ran the insanely profitable Superman franchise and nothing else. Robert Kanigher, the war books and Wonder Woman, was his own chief writer. Julie Schwartz, Weisinger’s old friend from the formative years of science fiction fandom, directed their profitable superhero revivals and their not-so-profitable science fiction books. George Kashdan and Murray Boltinoff assisted Schiff and Weisinger with back-of-the-book features like Aquaman and Green Arrow. Each main editor jealously protected their own writers and artists, so you almost never saw a Schwartz writer or artist working in a Schiff or Weisinger book. And if you freelanced at Marvel or Gold Key, best to use a pseudonym or work anonymously or the flow of DC freelance assignment money would stop. With tight controls, DC produced unerringly professional looking comics. DC was the biggest and the best bully on the block.

 

As the Marvel Age of comics dawned, Marvel went back to the Timely model of comic book covers, action-oriented, violent fights, even between heroes. Jack Kirby became their new Alex Schomburg. DC, still smarting over the Wertham era’s depressing effect on comic book sales and bad publicity that almost wiped out the industry a few short years earlier, usually shied away from anything stronger than a staged, roundhouse punch (Flash #158, 9.6). And even those were uncommon. A real punch could hit an inanimate object (Action Comics #298, 9.4). At DC, editor-driven plots dominated stories. Covers reflected this, usually utilizing a situational device (Superman #141, 9.4) with a strong visual hook (Mystery in Space #77, 9.4). A word balloon (remember those on covers?) or two was needed to explain the situation to the reader. Batman #152 (9.6), Action Comics #262 (9.4), Flash #136 (9.6), Mystery in Space #76 (9.0), Justice League of America #6 (9.2) and the classic Wonder Woman #108 (9.2) all illustrate this principle. I cited more Julie Schwartz examples here because I believe he was the strongest at this approach. Symbolic covers were usually reserved for significant books like Superman Annual #2 (9.2).

 

 

 

 

Added among the high-grade DCs of the era are Action Comics #s 286, with its Adolph Eichmann-inspired cover, and 303; Adventure Comics #293; Superboy #86; Superman #s 147 (an Adventure Comics #247 swipe) and 197, all Weisinger-edited. From Jack Schiff and assistants, we have a run of the DC-ized Blackhawk, #s 110, 111, 113, 114, 117, 128, 136, 139 and 140. Look at the 50s Quality Blackhawk covers, drawn by the same artist, Dillin, for the remarkable editorial difference between the two publishers. More Schiff: Detective Comics #s 235, 304 and 325, Showcase #26 and World’s Finest Comics #118. From Kanigher, Wonder Woman #152, one of three Wonder Girl “tryout” issues in the flagging title. Atom #4, Justice League of America #12, Showcase #61 (great cover!) and Mystery in Space #s 73, 78 and 86 represent fan favorite Julie Schwartz.

 

 

 

 

Now let’s put a smile on the face of CGC Vice Prez Paul Litch, our resident Green Loser, uh, Green Lantern groupie, who is no doubt wondering how I can write at length about Schwartz Silver Age superheroes without mentioning his beloved Emerald Crusader. Actually, we saw a magnificent run of this title, beginning with 9.4s of GL #s 4 and 7. The Pacific Coast copy of #19 is 9.6, a cover that shows that Green Lantern and his power ring can draw almost as well as Gil Kane and Murphy Anderson combined. Wow! That ring really can do anything. Issue #s 23 and 39 notched 9.6; #63 earned 9.8. Rocky Mountain copies include #s 50, 55, 58, 65, 66 and 68, all 9.6 or better… mostly better. St. Louisan Denny O’Neil and Neal Adams latter-day issues are #s 78 (9.8), 82 (9.8, Rocky Mountain) and 85 (9.8), one of the most important covers, and issues, of the Silver Age. And from when things eventually loosened up at DC after artist/art director Carmine Infantino was elevated to publisher (What? An artist in charge at DC?!?), we offer examples of the fabulous Spectre run in Adventure Comics, edited by artist Joe Orlando, #s 438, 439 and 440, a robust and uncommon 9.8 all.

 

 

 

 

My favorite books this month are from the inventive mind and diseased imagination of Lev Gleason’s stellar editorial director, head writer and cover artist, Charles Biro. First, an 8.5 Daredevil #11 from 1942, no relation to Marvel’s familiar hornhead of today, is described by our key comment as a “classic bondage torture cover.” Really, aren’t they all classic? This illustrates that the simple tortures are the most elegant. A comely young lady is tied up in what appears to be an insane asylum, her bare feet immobilized in a wooden stock. A torturer reminiscent of Charles Laughton in Hunchback of Notre Dame is using a single feather to tickle the sensitive soles of her touchy tootsies. It must be effective, because the blood dripping from his gaping, misshapen, gnarly-toothed mouth onto her bare feet seems to have no calming effect on her at all. Cute. One does hope Daredevil arrives soon as he is her…sole hope. I wonder what would be worse, more of this torture or more of my puns? Let’s not find out, shall we?

 

 

 

 

Which brings us to an 8.5 copy of Biro’s Crime Does Not Pay #33, where another spinally challenged fellow is discussing his peculiar needs with yet another lovely young lady. While he is a sharp-looking chap, his meat cleaver seems disturbingly sharper. There is no good noose for her would-be rescuers, either, who all seem disinterested, perhaps emotionally strangled by their various hang-ups. And while it may look like he’s about to take her to the butcher shop for a chopping trip, I’ve got a hunch(back) that this guy’s not so bad, after all. He’s clearly a guy looking to axe-centuate the positive.

 

Biro rules!

 

 

 

 

Comments and questions regarding the gallery? We’re fans, too. We enjoy hearing from you, unless we don’t. You can contact me at mmcfadden@CGCcomics.com. Thank you for your time and do remember — enjoy a free bottle of Kooba by just narcing on 10 newsstands or confectionaries who don’t stock it. A giant bottle of this delicious soda pop is big enough for two, kids! Yummo! Be good to yourself and be CGC-ing you!

 

[DiceX]

Another Batman 1 in 9.0.

If these keep turning up, I might be able to acquire my very own copy someday.

 

 

[BradleyX2]

 

The Pacific Coast copy of #19 is 9.6, a cover that shows that Green Lantern and his power ring can draw almost as well as Gil Kane and Murphy Anderson combined. Wow! That ring really can do anything.

 

 

 

 

 

If only it could produce better DC Silver Age stories!

 

 

[BradleyX2]

So, I just figured I'd ask, are you board members out there finding Michael's reports on the Gallery informative? Interesting? Amusing?

 

Any feedback would be great!

[Silver Surfer]

I think its great. When did you guys start to slabb Marvel Mystery Annuals?