tth2's trip down memory lane

[adamstrange]

140 is an Infantion/Anderson production -- must be a labeling error by CGC. Anytime you use the word "dramatic" to describe the cover you know someone other than Anderson penciled it.

 

It looks more Anderson than Infantino to me.

 

It looks more like an Anderson than an Infantino to me as well. Nonetheless, the cover pencils for #140 are attributed to Infantino and the cover inks to Anderson by DC in Flash Archives 5. Amazing Mike agrees in his DC Database.

 

 

Grand Comics Database has it Inf/Anderson as well.

 

 

One of the Infantino aspects that really glared was the line work on Heat Wave which was much more angular than it should be in real life. Infantino would draw to achieve a desired effect or to preserve a design consistency even at the expense of realism.

 

This is not Anderson's style at all and, at times, he would erase Infantino's pencils and re-draw a figure more realistically. This would tick off Infantino and result in there being more "Anderson" in a cover than you might expect there to be for an inker. I suspect the central Flash figure was partially redrawn by Anderson.

[tth2]

I suspect the central Flash figure was partially redrawn by Anderson.

That's the part of the cover that I focused on in agreeing with CGC that it was an Anderson cover. I agree that the 2 villains are most likely drawn by Infantino.

[tth2]

Sorry about the brief hiatus, I travel a lot more in my new job and it's a bit difficult to do this thread from the road.

 

Now we get into the 130s, led by a real gem, featuring probably my favorite Flash cover of all. This book ended up selling on Heritage for 38 X Guide, and is therefore a poster child for why selling at auction is a good thing because sometimes it turns out there are dynamics at play that a seller has no idea about! When I bought it, I paid the same multiple for the book as all the surrounding issues. While I knew it was an exceptionally tough book to find in NM or higher, and had a great cover, if I had sold it in a private deal it would never have occurred to me to break it out either. But apparently the first Reverse Flash/Dr. Zoom thing was a really big deal with some collectors! So thanks to all the Reverse Flash fans out there! (thumbs u

 

 

 

The next book is #138. The only thing I have to say about this book is I can't understand to this day why it wasn't graded as a 9.8. The book is immaculate and has a great, bright yellow cover.

 

[kimik]

Gorgeous copy of Flash #139, Tim. That is my favorite early Flash cover as well. The best I could find was only a lowly 9.0 or 9.2.

[TeddieMercede]

Prof. Zoom = DC's Wolverine.

[linmoth]

Tim: I know I've said this before but for the life of me I believe 139, 140 and 141 were going to grade 9.8 when I submitted them. I thought the 139 had a chance at 9.9 that is how beautiful that book was raw. The scan doesn't do it justice.

 

Compared to some of the books I've seen graded 9.6 and higher recently these should have been 10's. IMHO!

 

Well the 140 did reach 9.8.

 

Best

[october]

Gorgeous copy of Flash #139, Tim. That is my favorite early Flash cover as well. The best I could find was only a lowly 9.0 or 9.2.

 

I sold the other 9.6 white copy, that I slabbed myself, on the boards recently. One of those books that I was almost hoping came back a lower grade so I could justify keeping it.

[Jeffreykli]

Gorgeous books, as usual, Tim. But seriously, the #139 and #140 are amazing. Perfect centering.

[Hepcat]

 

The book is immaculate and has a great, bright yellow cover.

 

 

I'm not a hair splitter. Both those books are immaculate, as are most of the ones you've posted in this thread. They all look as if they just came off the newstand!

 

[tth2]

Gorgeous copy of Flash #139, Tim. That is my favorite early Flash cover as well. The best I could find was only a lowly 9.0 or 9.2.

 

I sold the other 9.6 white copy, that I slabbed myself, on the boards recently. One of those books that I was almost hoping came back a lower grade so I could justify keeping it.

Congrats on the find and the sale. I was happy to hear that it now resides in safe hands (who also happens to own (or owned) at least a couple of the books that have been displayed in this thread).

[tth2]

Perfect centering.

Great point, Jeff.

 

I think that's one aspect of the Western Penns that is underrated--how well centered many of them are. While I don't think they are quite as uniformly well centered as the Pacific Coasts (particularly when it comes to Marvels), they are still exceptionally good. As I've mentioned previously, the Western Penn B&B 34 is almost freakishly well centered considering how badly miswrapped that book usually is.

[JLA Brad]

C'mon Tim!

 

Let's see the 137!

[tth2]

Okay Brad, here is the Western Penn Flash #137. Talk about perfect centering, the black line runs almost perfectly down the spine. Admittedly, I tried to do a deal with Roter for the longest time to get the 9.6 PC copy, but the numbers he was throwing around would've caused even MM's head to spin. The Mass copy is also a 9.6.

 

 

 

And then skipping a few issues that I didn't purchase, next up is #134. A really sharp copy.

 

[silverseeker]

Okay Brad, here is the Western Penn Flash #137. Talk about perfect centering, the black line runs almost perfectly down the spine. Admittedly, I tried to do a deal with Roter for the longest time to get the 9.6 PC copy, but the numbers he was throwing around would've caused even MM's head to spin. The Mass copy is also a 9.6.

 

That's a beautiful book...the colors just pop!

[tth2]

Here's the Western Penn Flash #133. A surprisingly easy-to-find book in NM, considering it's from 1962.

 

 

 

Sorry to jump out of order, but I just remembered I owned another Western Penn Flash, featuring DC's Wolverine, Prof Zoom. I forgot to include this earlier because I didn't acquire it with the other Western Penns. I tend to forget I even owned it because I picked this up on Heritage (I think the guy that I bought the Flashes from sold whatever was left after various private sales on Heritage) and then sold it to our own Flash105 about a year later.

 

[kimik]

Very nice!

 

Unfortunately, it looks like there could be the start of some SCS damage in the bottom right corner of #153.

[jimjum12]

Here's the Western Penn Flash #133. A surprisingly easy-to-find book in NM, considering it's from 1962.

 

 

 

Sorry to jump out of order, but I just remembered I owned another Western Penn Flash, featuring DC's Wolverine, Prof Zoom. I forgot to include this earlier because I didn't acquire it with the other Western Penns. I tend to forget I even owned it because I picked this up on Heritage (I think the guy that I bought the Flashes from sold whatever was left after various private sales on Heritage) and then sold it to our own Flash105 about a year later.

 

 

Beautiful 133.....one of my favorite of the Flash run for some reason....the splash is awesome. GOD BLESS...

 

-jimbo(a friend of jesus) (thumbs u

[Hepcat]

Here's the Western Penn Flash #133. A surprisingly easy-to-find book in NM, considering it's from 1962.

 

 

I've not actually found the #133 to be that easy. I've upgraded my copy once already 12-15 years ago but now I find that I'm still not entirely satisfied with my current one due to centering issues.

 

 

[tth2]

Here's the Western Penn Flash #133. A surprisingly easy-to-find book in NM, considering it's from 1962.

 

I've not actually found the #133 to be that easy. I've upgraded my copy once already 12-15 years ago but now I find that I'm still not entirely satisfied with my current one due to centering issues.

 

I've got another 9.4 copy if you're still looking.

[tth2]

I apologize if the narrative has been a bit boring lately. Most of the Flashes came from one collector and they're Western Penns so there are only so many things one can say about them.

 

So a bit of a change today, as not only are the books not Western Penns, but it's 2 pedigrees for the price of one--one issue that is.

 

First up is the White Mountain Flash #131. It's still the only WM Flash I recall seeing. If it's true that the WM owner only collected DCs with sci-fi themed covers, which was not too common with Flash, that may explain the paucity of WM Flashes.

 

I got this in a trade with Metro when I visited their offices while I happened to be in the US, after I had just received some slabbed Marvels back from CGC. I traded some sweet sweet Marvels that I had just gotten graded and got some sweet sweet DCs and Duck books from Metro. Unlike all of the other books I've showed in this thread, this book is actually still in my collection, after a couple of trips across the Pacific. I sold it on Heritage in 2006 along with the rest of my Flash collection, and then picked it up when it came back up on Heritage in 2010.

 

 

 

I'm trying to remember what the grade of the Western Penn copy was, and whether I passed over it because it was below 9.4 or because it was a 9.4 and I already had the WM copy at the time. I remember Tom sent me a list of the grades of all the slabbed Western Penns, but for the life of me I can't seem to find it. Hopefully will find it by the time I finish posting the Western Penn Flashes so you guys can see the grades of all the slabbed run, not just what I bought.

 

Anyways, now we have the Pacific Coast Flash #131, which graded out a bit higher than the WM copy. I have to say this was a classic case of bottom fishing, as it was auctioned by Heritage in August 2006 and I won it with a "wishin' and hopin' bid" that I never expected to win, since I was planning on auctioning off my Flashes in the November 2006 auction. But win it I did, and very happy I was, particularly when I was able to sell the WM 9.4 copy for about the same price I paid for the PC 9.6 copy.