What three books in your collection have stood the test of time?

[BangZoom]

Well, thank you BZ!

 

Just for that, here's a tip to a pulp you would like: Popular Detective, June 1945 ... but I have to guess you already have a copy? Care to scan it if you do

 

 

I actually own very few Popular Detective pulps but that's one I definitely would like to add to my collection.

 

 

However, I do own the first issue which is dated November, 1934.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[Scrooge]

While not trying to derail the thread, I thought you wouldn't have it considering its pub date. When you were building your collection more actively, did you have a cut-off date for pulps since 1945 is long in the tooth for a pulp, i.e., quite a few years removed from their heyday?

[BangZoom]

While not trying to derail the thread, I thought you wouldn't have it considering its pub date. When you were building your collection more actively, did you have a cut-off date for pulps since 1945 is long in the tooth for a pulp, i.e., quite a few years removed from their heyday?

 

I generally preferred issues published pre WWII, but I was always pretty flexible about what I collected. If I liked the title, I'd save it no matter what the date.

[skybolt]

I've posted the same scans a zillion times, so I won't bother doing that now, but the three most enduring books for me are:

 

 

I think you should post the scans. As with any collection, how you put the books together will mean more than the individual books. (thumbs u

 

Well, this is the only one I have a scan of right now(and it's been posted a lot):

 

 

 

 

I do need to upgrade this puppy. That spine roll is starting to annoy me.

 

That's my old copy. I bought it raw in 2003 and had it slabbed. (thumbs u

[Larryw7]

I've posted the same scans a zillion times, so I won't bother doing that now, but the three most enduring books for me are:

 

 

I think you should post the scans. As with any collection, how you put the books together will mean more than the individual books. (thumbs u

 

Well, this is the only one I have a scan of right now(and it's been posted a lot):

 

 

 

 

I do need to upgrade this puppy. That spine roll is starting to annoy me.

 

That's my old copy. I bought it raw in 2003 and had it slabbed. (thumbs u

 

It's a small world!

[Pat Calhoun]

These 3 are all second copies of books I had in the GA collection I assembled in the 1960s. why they sold in 1969- long story for elsewhere. But started up again in mid-‘80s aided by #1 son Crane- a great way to come back!

 

Got my first copy of Strange Planets on one of my first trips up from San Diego to Cherokee Bookshop in LA. The hallway leading to the inner sanctum where 1930s-1940s comics lurked was filled with ‘quarter boxes’ of 1950s books. This has an EC Incredible SF interior- I had never heard of EC (prehistoric to the max + they kept the EC’s in sanctum) but knew not only that this book was strangely superior (Wood, Krigstein, Orlando, Davis) but also that the packaging was ‘suspect’ in that it was just too darn good to come unballyhooed from some fly-by-night publisher. Glad I bought both copies…

 

Weird Tales- first copy of this ish was a VF from the downstairs pulp room at Cherokee (another quarter). Jirel and Conan- ‘nuff said.

 

Even though LA was the great treasure trove Dago had one thing. ‘bout 2 blocks from Mitch’s office – Ninth & Broadway- Lanning’s Book Shop had- almost out on the sidewalk- the magic shopping cart- filled (and refilled) with coverless 1950s comics for a penny apiece. Re-collecting some of the titles I’d liked I wouldn’t know when mail-ordering an issue –even seeing the cover- that it was one of my old faves. But ‘World of Monsters’ the 13 page Frankie novelette in here surely was and is still.

 

 

 

 

 

[adamstrange]

Excellent thread, alanna. It's fun reading the personal stories behind the picks. (thumbs u

 

 

[adamstrange]

When I was kid I managed to pick up a coverless copy of DC Special #15, the Plastic Man issue. I read and re-read that issue countless of times as I really appreciated the wacky stories and wildly creative art of Jack Cole. When I decided to collect comics after my college graduation I put Plastic Man near the top of my comics want list but never made much progress chasing down nice copies, nor finding out even what the issues looked like.

 

The arrival of the Gerber Guide in 1989 revealed the wonders of Cole's cover art for the entire Police and Plastic Man run, with Police 25 standing out to me as the most appealing of his covers. The theme of Woozy escaping into the dream-like world of a reader mirrored my own love of books and the colors, design and action scene were first-rate Cole.

 

Unfortunately I had no luck in finding any decent copy until I saw the Church copy in one of Comic Heaven's annual auctions. That was both exciting and disappointing. Exciting because it was the copy pictured in Gerber and disappointing because I could not reconcile myself to agreeing to the terms of the auction (it required 10% of your bid to be paid in advance of knowing whether you won or lost). I gave up on getting that copy.

 

Later that year at SD Con I dropped by the Comic Heaven booth and there was the Police 25 Church copy as it had not sold in the auction. There was no price on it, which made me a bit nervous as Verzyl sometimes comes up with extremely large numbers derived from arcane formulas related to sunspot activity or the intensity of the Santa Anna Winds. In this case, however, we worked out deal that I was very happy with.

 

There is no book in my collection that gives me more satisfaction to own -- I even had a poster made of the cover and hung from the wall across from desk. I see it every day and have never grown tired of it.

 

 

There is a story that matches that cover and, not content replicating the cover, creating an entirely new interpretation for the splash page that is every bit as inventive as the cover.

 

[adamstrange]

My second pick is the book I've owned the longest of the three, yet was the most difficult purchase of the set. I'm huge Alex Toth fan, being both impressed by various works of his I read as a kid as well continued appreciation for his virtuoso ability to distill images to their simplest and purest graphical representation. All-American Western 121 is a beautiful example of this, especially with the his deft use of shadows to minimize unnecessary details.

 

This next copy is also from the Church collection, and you might think that would have been an easy pick up. However, most long-term collectors go through periods where their interest wanes and I am no exception. One such period coincided with a bit of a slump of the GA market further dampening my enthusiasm for making any purchases. It didn't help that the copy had sat for at least a couple years at a price that seemed high for the unloved Western genre.

 

Even so, I did at least take a look at the copy in person and, confirmed, as it often the case with Church books, that it looked pretty much off-the-presses fresh. That was not enough to sway me. I still took a couple weeks before I finally, and without much enthusiasm, made an offer. I've no regrets and still am very happy with this book.

 

[Ted Knight]

That's a great book and an even better story, Mr. Strange. I've never gone after one of the Comic Heaven auctions for the exact same reason. Very archaic and eccentric in today's world.

 

Good stuff! (thumbs u

[adamstrange]

I've known about Jimmy Thompson for a long, long time and always enjoyed his work. Many moons ago, Ron Goulart put out his book on the The Great Comic Book Artists which didn't say anything about Jimmy Thompson. Russ Heath wasn't included either. So Goulart fixed that with his The Great Comic Book Artists v2, which did include some info about JT and what Goulart thought was his best work, Red Eagle. I liked the page of Red Eagle art Goulart provided and so duly noted what issue it came from and have been looking for it ever since. Not that I expected to find it in a grade I like, mind you, as it's from 1938. Generally with this type of book you have to be vocal that you are looking for a copy as they just don't come around every day, nor is someone likely to mention it to me as I collect very little from that time period.

 

In August 2006 I'm scanning the Heritage Weekly auction and there is Red Eagle, Church copy, from the McLaughlin collection. I won the book for peanuts without even bothering to check whether it was THE Jimmy Thompson book I had on my wantlist, as I hadn't managed to purchase any JT book by that time. Then, in doing further research, I find that it is the only cover appearance of Red Eagle, the only book devoted to Red Eagle (the rest are just single stories within other issues in the Large Feature Series), the only cover drawn by Jimmy Thompson, and the only book that is cover to cover by Jimmy Thompson. (There are a couple text features which are quite cool about Native Americans but I don't count those because they were probably included to secure cheap postage rights for subscriptions.)

 

As I was thinking about it a little more, it seemed unusually early for a comic to be focused on a single original character. Having a comic focused on an established strip character (ala Skippy's Own Book of Comics) isn't that big a deal to me because there had already been single-character focused strip reprint books from Cupples and Leon. So I went through the list of the first 1000 comics looking for an earlier example of a comic focused on an original character and couldn't find one. I was even checking on the boards here about Detective Dan and the like but those comics contain stories about multiple characters.

 

Not only is the issue focused on a single original character, but the entire book is one long story about the character -- again quite unusual as most publishers felt they had to have multiple stories to attract/retain readers. Is this completely new? No, syndicated strip stories often ran for weeks at a shot and had, I think, been previously collected into a single publication.

 

So, Red Eagle represents several very tiny steps in the evolution of the comic book. Nothing major like Action 1 or Superman 1 that we know influenced other comic book publishers, but tiny steps nonetheless. It was certainly risky for the publisher to give Red Eagle a shot given that the rest of the Large Feature series was devoted to established newspaper comic strips like Terry and the Pirates and Tracy but perhaps they were thinking that Red Eagle was syndicate material. The quality was certainly there, as Thompson did not draw the story like a daily or Sunday strip. Instead he drew it for the newstand comic magazine format, even including a couple 1 page splashes and even a gorgeous double-page splash that was the first in comics that was integral to the story. Even more unusual was that they gave that shot to Thompson, one of the first African-American comic book artists. So far as I can tell, this is the first comic drawn entirely by a single or group of African-American artists.

 

To top it off, when the book arrived I was even more stunned as it's oversized 8.5x11 and the condition was superb -- nicer than the stated grade in the auction. When you see an oversized Church copy from 1938 in that grade you know that you are looking at something special. So after searching for 12+ years for any example of Red Eagle art by Jimmy Thompson, I luck onto this book, the only copy of the only issue that I would ever want to own.

 

 

 

Interior scans courtesy of buttock:

 

 

[Pat Calhoun]

Red Eagle looks GREAT !!!

[Larryw7]

This is an amazing thread!

[MrBedrock]

Beautiful books and great stories Adam (thumbs u

[tb]

Beautiful books and great stories Adam (thumbs u

 

+1

 

A great story is worth a 1000 pictures.

[BangZoom]

 

 

Jimmy Thompson also drew the cover and all the interior illustrations to Gang Busters (Feature Book #17).

[Flex Mentallo]

Alan, thanks for the three great Mile High posts!

 

Too often we post the books and let them do the talking, but it's so much more interesting when we know the back story as well.

 

I hope others will be inspired by your posts - and the other great posters here - and we will see more in a similar vein!

 

Of course I realise that everything's been done before, and long before I ever got here - but I'm sure everyone has figured out by now that the three threads I've started recently are meant to get us back to something like our best - which I think we are when we are actively discussing our love of the books in our collections and sharing knowledge of them - and I think this thread is actually the one out of the three with the most potential to do so.

 

...and it helps me feel that I actually know you guys, even though I'll most likely never meet you!

[adamstrange]

Jimmy Thompson also drew the cover and all the interior illustrations to Gang Busters (Feature Book #17).

Thanks for the tip! (thumbs u

[Timely]

When I was kid I managed to pick up a coverless copy of DC Special #15, the Plastic Man issue. I read and re-read that issue countless of times as I really appreciated the wacky stories and wildly creative art of Jack Cole. When I decided to collect comics after my college graduation I put Plastic Man near the top of my comics want list but never made much progress chasing down nice copies, nor finding out even what the issues looked like.

 

The arrival of the Gerber Guide in 1989 revealed the wonders of Cole's cover art for the entire Police and Plastic Man run, with Police 25 standing out to me as the most appealing of his covers. The theme of Woozy escaping into the dream-like world of a reader mirrored my own love of books and the colors, design and action scene were first-rate Cole.

 

Unfortunately I had no luck in finding any decent copy until I saw the Church copy in one of Comic Heaven's annual auctions. That was both exciting and disappointing. Exciting because it was the copy pictured in Gerber and disappointing because I could not reconcile myself to agreeing to the terms of the auction (it required 10% of your bid to be paid in advance of knowing whether you won or lost). I gave up on getting that copy.

 

Later that year at SD Con I dropped by the Comic Heaven booth and there was the Police 25 Church copy as it had not sold in the auction. There was no price on it, which made me a bit nervous as Verzyl sometimes comes up with extremely large numbers derived from arcane formulas related to sunspot activity or the intensity of the Santa Anna Winds. In this case, however, we worked out deal that I was very happy with.

 

There is no book in my collection that gives me satisfaction to own -- I even had a poster made of the cover and hung from the wall across from desk. I see it every day and have never grown tired of it.

 

 

There is a story that matches that cover and, not content replicating the cover, creating an entirely new interpretation for the splash page that is every bit as inventive as the cover.

 

 

I find it interesting that this MH had a "2" that was overwritten with a "4" on the right side. I've seen very few MH code errors, less than 10 for sure!

 

Great book btw! I had the MH copies of Police #26-28 & they were amazing!

[adamstrange]

I find it interesting that this MH had a "2" that was overwritten with a "4" on the right side. I've seen very few MH code errors, less than 10 for sure!

It cost me 50% more because of that!