cheetah and His Everything Journal

[adamstrange]

Thank you! I appreciate that. It at least gives me motivation to continue with my scanning.

It's no problem. We just ask for an occasional acknowledgement and a Church copy of our choice

[cheetah]

Acknowledging, fine. Free copies...

[Mr.Illmannered]

Cheetah...remember, if you are ever looking to rid yourself of dupes or undercopies of pre-code stuff ( especially Harvey ), let me know please!

[cheetah]

I don't have too much in the way of pre-code undercopies but I might have picked up a couple of extra Black Cat Mysteries recently. I'll check and let you know.

[adamstrange]

There are certainly worse things to impulse on and I'm guessing this didn't set you back too much. I had to take a second look as the CGC label calls it a Chesler publication and that didn't seem right as I was certain he'd closed up shop not long after the war.

 

Doing some research reveals the secret. The Canadian company Superior picked up his last titles (published by his son Harry Jr) and the Chesler company only continued to exist as a supplier of art/stories.

 

http://www.comics.org/publisher/112/

 

Chesler was an interesting character who did not always leave a positive impression on his employees. OTOH, he was a collector of comics and illustration art that he donated to Farleigh Dickinson Univ near the end of his life.

 

Dynamic Comics 24 - Another of those impulse bids when I saw it was a Mile High book.

 

[adamstrange]

Blonde Phantom - One of the few Timely books I own. It came with a certificate for the Big Apple pedigree but it's the first time I have ever seen one so I don't think it was originally from the run.

I was late to the game in noticing Big Apples. Your post made me look through my Christie's catalogs and there is no special mention of the collection. While you can see the occasional 'j' code in the pics, the lot descriptions don't indicate that the books come from a common source.

[adamstrange]

One of my favorite airbrush covers!

 

Exciting Comics 60

 

[cheetah]

There are certainly worse things to impulse on and I'm guessing this didn't set you back too much. I had to take a second look as the CGC label calls it a Chesler publication and that didn't seem right as I was certain he'd closed up shop not long after the war.

 

Doing some research reveals the secret. The Canadian company Superior picked up his last titles (published by his son Harry Jr) and the Chesler company only continued to exist as a supplier of art/stories.

 

http://www.comics.org/publisher/112/

 

Chesler was an interesting character who did not always leave a positive impression on his employees. OTOH, he was a collector of comics and illustration art that he donated to Farleigh Dickinson Univ near the end of his life.

 

.

 

Did FDU keep them or did they sell them? That would be an interesting collection to see.

[cheetah]

Blonde Phantom - One of the few Timely books I own. It came with a certificate for the Big Apple pedigree but it's the first time I have ever seen one so I don't think it was originally from the run.

I was late to the game in noticing Big Apples. Your post made me look through my Christie's catalogs and there is no special mention of the collection. While you can see the occasional 'j' code in the pics, the lot descriptions don't indicate that the books come from a common source.

 

I think I got the certificate through eBay. I'm thinking it might have been through Bill Hughes' ebay ID but I may be wrong on that.

[cheetah]

One of my favorite airbrush covers!

 

Exciting Comics 60

 

 

It is a really nice cover and I like the color and movement. I wish he had done some other underwater airbrush covers.

 

I've never seen or heard of the Mile High copy of this one.

[adamstrange]

There are certainly worse things to impulse on and I'm guessing this didn't set you back too much. I had to take a second look as the CGC label calls it a Chesler publication and that didn't seem right as I was certain he'd closed up shop not long after the war.

 

Doing some research reveals the secret. The Canadian company Superior picked up his last titles (published by his son Harry Jr) and the Chesler company only continued to exist as a supplier of art/stories.

 

http://www.comics.org/publisher/112/

 

Chesler was an interesting character who did not always leave a positive impression on his employees. OTOH, he was a collector of comics and illustration art that he donated to Farleigh Dickinson Univ near the end of his life.

 

.

 

Did FDU keep them or did they sell them? That would be an interesting collection to see.

 

They seem to have sent them on to other homes. I suspect you can probably arrange a visit to see the art at the LOC.

 

Chesler, whose studio churned out comic strips and books for publishers, amassed an extensive personal collection of popular art, original comic art and literature about the genre. Originally gifted to the Friendship Library at Fairleigh Dickinson University, the art was eventually sent to the Library of Congress and the books to Drew. Today the Rose Memorial Library houses the Chesler Collection of Studies on Cartoon Art and Graphic Satire, a valuable resource for students of cultural history. The collection, which centers on 19th- and 20th-century studies and compendia, holds some 3,000 items, from a 1890 edition of Thomas Nast’s Christmas Drawings for the Human Race and The Katzenjammer Kids: Early Strips in Full Color to the more recent Poison Maiden and The Great person_without_enough_empathy: Female Stereo types in Marvel Superhero Comics.

 

I picked up this catalog, which included pictures of just a fraction of the collection. http://boards.collectors-society.com/ubbthreads.php?ubb=showflat&Number=5233331

 

A number of impressive covers to Chesler comics are owned by Jon Berk -- he has posted a couple on the Boards but has a few more that I saw on my visit to his place.

 

http://boards.collectors-society.com/ubbthreads.php?ubb=showflat&Number=765933

 

 

 

[adamstrange]

It is a really nice cover and I like the color and movement. I wish he had done some other underwater airbrush covers.

 

I've never seen or heard of the Mile High copy of this one.

 

It's a very sophisticated color scheme and one, that, on the original airbrush art, would have been even more impressive. I'm not aware of any of the comic airbrushes surviving but there is other work by Alex or his brothers that has survived. http://www.comiclink.com/itemdetail.asp?back=%2Fsection%2Easp%3F%5FSORT%3DYES%26id%3D1398%26f1%3Di%2ELastUpdate%26ODire1%3DDESC%26f2%3Di%2EPublisher%26ODire2%3DDESC%26f3%3Di%2EIssueNumber%252C%2Bi%2EGenre%26ODire3%3DASC&id=895258

 

The other underwater scene was a cross-genre sci-fi used for the cover of Startling 52. I think it is the most impressive artistically of any of his airbrush covers, though the Startling 49 is the most striking.

 

I have not seen nor heard of the Church copy for Exciting 59.

[cheetah]

Jon doesn't mess around with his collecting, does he.?. Just like yours and MrBedrock's collections, I drool whenever I see him post something new.

 

I appreciate you sharing your knowledge on all this. It makes the books even more interesting.

[adamstrange]

Jon doesn't mess around with his collecting, does he.?

No, he doesn't.

 

http://boards.collectors-society.com/ubbthreads.php?ubb=showflat&Number=2788902Post2788902

 

http://boards.collectors-society.com/ubbthreads.php?ubb=showflat&Number=2813946Post2813946

 

I appreciate you sharing your knowledge on all this. It makes the books even more interesting.

It's a small "thank you" for sharing the books.

 

You've posted many of these over time in the GA Forum but it's nice seeing them all at once, especially when you are able to post substantial portions of these runs in high grade.

[cheetah]

I know how much a cherish my copy of Planet Comics 1. Jon's original cover art is just hard to imagine. And it's just one of hundreds of such pieces.

[cheetah]

Alright, no time like the present. I'll start my Jumbo Comics run today and it'll take two weeks to finish. This was the first GA title I started with the intention of completing the entire run. Jumbo started out as, well, a jumbo sized comic. The first eight issues are enormous and well beyond anything CGC will grade. They are also very rare and I've never actually seen any complete copies in person. RareHighGrade has the Mile High copies of the first 8 issues and they look to be amazing. I've given a lot of thought about how to go about collecting these issues but, since I've never seen any for sale, it's not really become an issue.

 

Anyway, my collection starts with issue #9. This one is also oversized but smaller than the first issues. It's one of two comics I have that are slabbed in the magazine-sized holder. After that, I have all but 24 of the regular-sized 159 issues. I really like the series because it takes you through such an extended period of the golden age and you can see the change in artistic styles as time progresses. Enough rambling.

 

Jumbo Comics 9

 

[cheetah]

Jumbo Comics 10 - one of the best sci-fi covers in the golden age.

 

[cheetah]

Jumbo Comics 12 - Did I mention how very hard it is to find these in high grade?

 

[cheetah]

Jumbo Comics 14 - A bit faded.

 

[cheetah]

Jumbo Comics 16