tth2's trip down memory lane

[tth2]

Moving on to the Bs (I might go back to the As if I can retrieve a couple of scans of the Aquamans that I've sold), I'm actually going to start with an "H" since Hawkman ties into "Brave and the Bold".

 

Hawkman #2. Northland goodness. My impression of the Northlands that I've owned (and I have to admit I haven't owned that many) is they feature great structural integrity but don't pop like other pedigrees like Western Penn, Curator or Pacific Coast.

 

I acquired this along with a 9.6 Northland Hawkman #5 from Jeff Williams off eBay back in 2002. Unfortunately I sold the #5 years ago when I still didn't keep copies of scans of books. Those were actually the only Hawkmans I've ever owned, as they were always lower priority for me since they're relatively easy to find in high grade. My one regret was passing up on getting the 9.8 Curator Hawkman #1, which was incredible. But the asking price was simply too high.

 

 

 

And now we get to the Hawkman run in Brave and the Bold. Comprising 6 issues in total (34-36 and 42-44), of which unfortunately I only was able to acquire 4. Truly a great run and featuring great Kuber art, particularly on the covers. I might take some flak for this, but in my opinion, the only 2 artists at DC in those days who could match Kirby and Ditko for creating really dynamic covers were Kane and Kubert.

 

First up from this run is B&B #43, and the first appearance of the White Mountain pedigree in this thread. I've only ever managed to acquire a few WMs in my collection, and the apparently totally random nature of the few DCs that were in the collection always mystified me, until ASertain boardie clued me in to the fact that the WM OO was only into DCs with a sci-fi theme. You could argue that many DCs had a sci-fi theme, but in any event I could then see a pattern in at least the few WM DCs that I had seen.

 

[tth2]

As a fellow DC collector I am fascinated by the choices of titles you collected. What led you to these?

Thanks for your kind comments, Ian!

 

Basically, I was into everything except Batman and Superman titles, and then further narrowed my focus to pre-1965 books. Then, it just became a matter of opportunistic collecting--whatever came up in NM or better, I tried to get. I even picked up War books on the odd occasion when NM copies came up.

 

Even more so, with such a stunning collection what made you decide to keep your Legion books over the rest? Was it simply because you own the Bethlehem #247 or do Legion books have some greater significance to you, say, from your childhood collecting?

Part of it is that I really enjoy the Legion, more than any other DC series. The other part of it, quite frankly, is that they've remained relatively affordable, even the issues in the early 300s, whereas many other DCs got beyond what I was willing to pay.

[tth2]

I might take some flak for this, but in my opinion, the only 2 artists at DC in those days who could match Kirby and Ditko for creating really dynamic covers were Kane and Kubert.

To preempt a flood of angry posts from DC War afficionados, I was really just referring to superhero books in my comment above!

[tth2]

Since I was actually organized enough to do a group shot of the Atoms before I sold them, here's what the books look like all in one place.

 

But what made you sell them so soon after going through all the effort of acquiring them?

 

Lots of different reasons, some because of practices that have become prevalent in the hobby which I don't agree with, others purely personal. I'd prefer not to derail this thread with discussions of those issues, and at the end of the day, does it really matter why I sold them?

[kimik]

Will the B&B #28 be posted tonight?

[paperheart]

And now we get to the Hawkman run in Brave and the Bold. Comprising 6 issues in total (34-36 and 42-44), of which unfortunately I only was able to acquire 4. Truly a great run and featuring great Kuber art, particularly on the covers. I might take some flak for this, but in my opinion, the only 2 artists at DC in those days who could match Kirby and Ditko for creating really dynamic covers were Kane and Kubert.

 

First up from this run is B&B #43, and the first appearance of the White Mountain pedigree in this thread. I've only ever managed to acquire a few WMs in my collection, and the apparently totally random nature of the few DCs that were in the collection always mystified me, until ASertain boardie clued me in to the fact that the WM OO was only into DCs with a sci-fi theme. You could argue that many DCs had a sci-fi theme, but in any event I could then see a pattern in at least the few WM DCs that I had seen.

 

 

hey, that looks familiar. yep, in my closet. did you buy this from Jaster? i didn't pull the trigger the first time i saw the book then bought it years later for 1.5x

[TheShadowKnows]

Thanks guys. I don't want this to be a monologue, so comments are welcome! If you think some particular book or pedigree that I wax eloquent about is overrated, if you thought I was stupid to make so-and-so purchase, if you want more detail about something, say your piece (in a civil manner, of course)!

I always wondered why you sold your collection.Was it just time?Your books were/are beautiful.

I also admire you sticking to your guns and not pressing anything

[TeddieMercede]

Continuing on, here are the rest of the Showcase Atoms.

 

Showcase #35. Another Western Penn beauty. This is one of my favorite SA DC covers and totally underrated in my opinion. Gil Kane was definitely one of the best at DC when it came to drawing dynamic scenes.

 

 

 

And now here's Showcase #34, a biggie and generally a real crowd pleaser. I picked this up in 2003 from Mark Wilson. The colors on this copy just pop, and in my opinion is structurally better than the Western Penn copy (also CGC 9.4), which I passed over when Tom Hanlin offered it to me and then when he put it up on Heritage. The interesting thing is that it was never identified as coming from any known collection or pedigree, but I noticed that recently it came up for sale on Pedigree and was identified as the Slobodian copy. How it was identified as such, I don't know.

 

 

 

Just as an aside, 2003 was a phenomenal year collecting-wise. In that single year, I acquired the Showcase #34, a 9.4 GL #1, a 9.4 Adventure #247, the first three issues of the Western Penn B&B Hawkman run, and a big chunk of the Western Penn Flash run. I've never had a year like it since.

 

- seen them before but still

 

Ok I feel kinda bad quoting this whole thing but the Atom Showcase books are incredible so not really... I still think Showcase 34 may be the best DC cover in the Silver Age, just incredible stuff.

 

About your former copy Tim being dubbed the "Slobodian" by Pedigree/Schmell.... I actually spoke to Calvin Slobodian about this specific book and he didn't have any recollection of it. It could very well have come from his collection as he sold many of his books a long time ago but I have my doubts on how the book suddenly gained the provenance to be a Slobodian without his confirmation. It obviously also wasn't sold to you or by you as a Slobodian. The Slobodian books do not have any distinguishing marks either which would make identifying one possible.

 

Anyway I hope nobody pays a premium for the book based on that, an incredible copy regardless.

[tth2]

hey, that looks familiar. yep, in my closet. did you buy this from Jaster? i didn't pull the trigger the first time i saw the book then bought it years later for 1.5x

You must've bought and sold it quite a while back! I don't have the records from my purchase, but I'm pretty sure I bought it from Steve Lauterbach either on eBay or off-line back in 2000 or 2001. Definitely one of the earliest CGC'd books that I ever bought.

[tth2]

About your former copy Tim being dubbed the "Slobodian" by Pedigree/Schmell.... I actually spoke to Calvin Slobodian about this specific book and he didn't have any recollection of it. It could very well have come from his collection as he sold many of his books a long time ago but I have my doubts on how the book suddenly gained the provenance to be a Slobodian without his confirmation. It obviously also wasn't sold to you or by you as a Slobodian. The Slobodian books do not have any distinguishing marks either which would make identifying one possible.

 

Anyway I hope nobody pays a premium for the book based on that, an incredible copy regardless.

Thanks Eric, good stuff! (thumbs u

 

Yeah, I have no idea how it got designated as a Slobodian and I don't think people pay a premium for the Slobodian name (just for the pristine condition of many of his books), but just thought I'd mention it as an interesting factoid.

[benz]

Will the B&B #28 be posted tonight?

 

Nice books Tim, (thumbs u

[Zonker]

I might take some flak for this, but in my opinion, the only 2 artists at DC in those days who could match Kirby and Ditko for creating really dynamic covers were Kane and Kubert.

To preempt a flood of angry posts from DC War afficionados, I was really just referring to superhero books in my comment above!

 

Actually, I doubt many of us DC guys would dispute that. While guys like Curt Swan and the Infantino/Anderson team certainly produced their share of striking covers, I don't think DC cover policy in those years was really shooting for "dynamic." (to their later regret!)

 

Instead DC covers then seemed to trend towards either teasers for the 8-year old target audience ("OMG! How come Superman is beaten/afraid/evil/dead this month?") or else puzzle covers drawn first and then given as a challenge to Garner Fox or John Broome to try to write a story around.

[Silver]

I might take some flak for this, but in my opinion, the only 2 artists at DC in those days who could match Kirby and Ditko for creating really dynamic covers were Kane and Kubert.

To preempt a flood of angry posts from DC War afficionados, I was really just referring to superhero books in my comment above!

 

Actually, I doubt many of us DC guys would dispute that. While guys like Curt Swan and the Infantino/Anderson team certainly produced their share of striking covers, I don't think DC cover policy in those years was really shooting for "dynamic." (to their later regret!)

 

Instead DC covers then seemed to trend towards either teasers for the 8-year old target audience ("OMG! How come Superman is beaten/afraid/evil/dead this month?") or else puzzle covers drawn first and then given as a challenge to Garner Fox or John Broome to try to write a story around.

 

I would have to say that while the "Superman Family" of titles probably didn't have the best covers month to month in the early silver age, there were plenty of good ones.

 

Tim's decision to not collect those titles isn't uncommon. I decided not to collect anything else but those books because the task of completing them seemed so daunting. I have since added a couple of additional titles to my want list, such as Brave and the Bold which has long been a favorite title of mine due to the variety in the books.

[tth2]

I might take some flak for this, but in my opinion, the only 2 artists at DC in those days who could match Kirby and Ditko for creating really dynamic covers were Kane and Kubert.

To preempt a flood of angry posts from DC War afficionados, I was really just referring to superhero books in my comment above!

 

Actually, I doubt many of us DC guys would dispute that. While guys like Curt Swan and the Infantino/Anderson team certainly produced their share of striking covers, I don't think DC cover policy in those years was really shooting for "dynamic." (to their later regret!)

 

Instead DC covers then seemed to trend towards either teasers for the 8-year old target audience ("OMG! How come Superman is beaten/afraid/evil/dead this month?") or else puzzle covers drawn first and then given as a challenge to Garner Fox or John Broome to try to write a story around.

Yup, you hit the nail on the head, at least for the Superman family of books.

[namisgr]

These are stunning examples of some seriously hard to find early SA books.

 

In addition to Kubert and Kane, got to put in a good word for Infantino covers, which on Mystery In Space were often dynamic, beautifully composed, and gorgeously colored.

[Silver Surfer]

Will the B&B #28 be posted tonight?

That reminds me, I feel like having calimari tonight.

[Hepcat]

Instead DC covers then seemed to trend towards either teasers for the 8-year old target audience ("OMG! How come Superman is beaten/afraid/evil/dead this month?") or else puzzle covers drawn first and then given as a challenge to Garner Fox or John Broome to try to write a story around.

 

I'm not quite sure precisely what some posters mean by dynamic, but I agree that DC's covers through the first half of the Silver Age tended to be "teaser" situational covers. To this very day though I regard covers that aren't situational as uninteresting. "How's this cover going to get me to buy the book?" I always think.

 

[tth2]

Next two issues are Western Penns from the classic first Brave & Bold Hawkman run. I love these books.

 

How I got these is an example of how important it is to network when collecting early SA DC. Although of course it's important to follow the likes of Heritage and Comiclink and talk regularly with dealers, if that's all you do then you're only ever going to get so far. I got onto these books, as well as the vast majority of Flashes that I'll be displaying later, when a fellow JLA collector passed on some PC JLAs that another collector was selling and put me in touch with that collector as he thought I might be interested. I ended up buying some of the JLAs from him, and as we exchanged emails over the course of the next few months it slowly emerged that the JLAs were just the tip of the iceberg and this guy had a DC collection beyond belief. When this guy later on went through what I can only surmise was some sort of mid-life crisis and decided to sell many of his material possessions, he gave me first shot at many of his books, which included the fabulous Western Penn books that I'll be showing the course of this thread.

 

As I later found out from these boards and "meeting" Tom Hanlin here, it turned out Tom was the previous owner who had slabbed the Western Penns (and the PC JLAs, but more on that later) and sold them to this collector. And as he has said, they weren't pressed.

 

Anyways, I digress. On to the books themselves...

 

Brave and Bold #36, Western Penn copy. One of my very favorite SA DC covers and vastly underrated in my opinion. Murphy Anderson kind of riffed on this cover when he did the cover of Hawkman #5.

 

 

 

Next is Brave and Bold #35, also the Western Penn copy. Now residing somewhere in England.

 

An interesting observation on the variability of page quality, either because of the variability of the paper stock itself, because of CGC's own inconsistency or just from happenstance of sitting in slightly different places in the same collection, or maybe a combination of all of the above, but the PQ of the Western Penn B&B 34-36, which presumably sat very close to each other in the same storage conditions for decades, were rated by CGC as Off-White, Cream-to-Offwhite and White, respectively.

 

 

[Hepcat]

Brave and Bold #36, Western Penn copy. One of my very favorite SA DC covers and vastly underrated in my opinion. Murphy Anderson kind of riffed on this cover when he did the cover of Hawkman #5.

 

 

I agree! Brave & the Bold 36 has one of the very best covers of the Silver Age.

 

(thumbs u

[Silver]

I am a big fan of these two trilogies; I personally like the cover to 36 better, not that I dont also like the 35...as good as these are, I love the 43 and 44 even better