Another SOTI thread, starting with Blue Beetle 54, low grade $250

[airwalker]

I always wanted a copy of SOTI. How tough are the 1st prints with bio pages?

[SOTIcollector]

I always wanted a copy of SOTI. How tough are the 1st prints with bio pages?

 

Scarcity is such a tough thing to measure. Perhaps this will give you some idea.

 

At AbeBooks, there are 13 copies available of US 1954 editions. Of those:

 

1 is a first print without bibliography ($250)

1 is a second print without bibliography ($250)

7 do not state which printing they are, and have no bibliography ($30 to $400).

4 state that they are first print with bibliography ($1,000 for the cheapest, $2995 for the most expensive, which is autographed).

 

You can't extrapolate directly from this list and say that 4 in every 13 copies has a bibliography, but this is the closest thing to hard data I could think of.

[SOTIcollector]

Next up, a low-grade copy of Seduction of the Innocent. This is a 1954 second printing, and it's all there but in rough shape. If you'd like it, all you need to do is find an old GA comic book. Sound easy? Well, here's the scoop.

 

Scores of comics were referenced by Dr. Wertham in SOTI, but almost none were sourced. Over the years, collectors have discovered many of the books to which Wertham referred, but many of his references remain unidentified to this day. One of my hobbies is hunting down these "Lost SOTI" books.

 

Below is a list of a bunch of comics that are mentioned in SOTI, but which have not yet been identified by the collecting community. Just find one of these books. Prove to me (via photos or scans) that you've found one of these books. If you're the first one to do so, you get a free copy of SOTI. I'll even pay for shipping within the U.S. (sorry, outside the U.S. the shipping's on you).

 

Sound intriguing? Got a large collection of, say, GA crime or horror books? Well, get reading! The first person to notify me of a new find (based on timestamp of post or PM) wins SOTI.

 

The comic book you find must be an unambiguous exact match for the description provided. If the description seems that it could reasonably apply to more than one distinct comic book or story, then it's not an unambiguous match. If there are no winners after a while, I may choose to end this little contest and just sell the book outright, so get going! Happy hunting!

 

Lost SOTI Crime Comics

 

C1 Here is the lecherous-looking bandit overpowering the attractive girl who is dressed (if that is the word) for very hot weather ("She could come in handy, then! Pretty little spitfire, eh!") in the typical pre-rape position. Later he threatens to kill her:

"Yeah, it's us, you monkeys, and we got an old friend of yours here... Now unless you want to see somp'n FATAL happen to here, u're gonna kiss that gold goodbye and lam out of here!" (p. 8)

 

C2 One man kills his wife with a poker (p. 389)

 

C3 One of the worst crime comics boasts: "Distributed in over 25 countries throughout the world!" - while a picture on the opposite page shows a U.S. Federal Agent knocking a man down with a rifle butt to the words: "Boy, that's the sweetest sound on earth." (p. 284) That sounds like an issue of Crime Does Not Pay.

 

C4 Another comic book shows how a youngster can murder for profit. He gets a job as a caddy, loses the ball, then kills the player when he goes searching for it. (p. 160) In searching for Golden Age stories about golf, we found that this is not from Journey into Mystery #13 "Keep off the Grass"; Tales from the Crypt #36, "How Green was my Alley"

 

C5 The girls living with the criminals are featured, two of them hiding behind a shower curtain. There are seventy-six pictures of exploits; in the seventy-seventh picture the police take over with a cheap wisecrack. (p. 163)

 

C6 A man's pocketbook is stolen on the subway. Millions of little boys learn how to do that: "Did someone shove a newspaper in your face? And were you shoved from the rear at the same time? I can see that's what happened. The pickpocket got it while you were upset by the shove." Lesson completed. (p. 162)

 

C7 Often comic books describe real crimes that have been featured in the newspapers. In adapting them for children the following points are stressed: the daring and success of the criminals is exalted; brutal acts are shown in detail; sordid details are emphasized; if there are any sexual episodes they are featured. In 1952 three men escaped from a penitentiary. They stole cars, evaded the police, kidnapped people, held up a bank, and were finally caught in New York where they were living with three girls. A real children's story! In the first picture there is an unmade bed, a half-nude man and a girl. The prison break is described like a heroic feat. The ease with which you can steal cars in the country from a farmer is pointed out to youngsters who do not know that yet. One of the criminals boasts to a little boy that he has killed fifteen or sixteen people, "I lost count." (p. 162-163)

 

C8 How to steal a woman's pocketbook is outlined, too. According to the stories it may be done skillfully and peacefully, but if that does not work, just hit them over the head. (p. 162)

 

C9 In another comic book the murderer says to his victim: "I think I'll give it to yuh in the belly! Yuh get more time to enjoy it!" (p. 111)

 

C10 I can match this almost verbally [Note: Did Wertham mean 'verbatim'?]: "Let's see you try to take me, you big brave coppers!" says a comic book on my desk. (p. 137) This quote sounds like a paraphrase of the most famous quote from real-life criminal "Two-Gun Crowley". His story was told in Hunted #13, Justice Traps the Guilty #4, Justice Traps the Guilty #59 and War Against Crime #2 (although E.C.'s story is about "Hank 'Two Gun' Corley" rather than "Frank 'Two Gun' Crowley", it's clear who the protagonist is). This quote comes from none of those comics. Crowley's story is also told in Crime Does Not Pay #46, Murder Incorporated #10 and Sky Sheriff v1#1.

 

C11 "Fixing" of sporting events has recently been front-page news. I have one accused boy under psychotherapy right now. In comic books that is old stuff: "Here's 500 now, and you'll get 500 when it's over!" (p. 160) Although this could be a reference to any sporting event, it seems most likely this dialogue comes from a "fixed" boxing match. According to eBayer Habib, this is NOT in the boxing story in Racket Squad in Action #9. David T. Alexander was kind enough to point out that although DC's Mr. District Attorney #3 does contain a line about the "fixing" of a boxing match, it is not the book referenced here. Shock SuspenStories #4 also contains a boxing story, but not this one. Man Comics #6 contains a boxing story which has not been checked for this reference, but seems unlikely to be this one since the Man #6 story is about murder in the ring. Crime Must Pay the Penalty #31 has a story about fixing a boxing match, but it's not the story to which Wertham was referring.

 

C13 In a recent comic book which has the "Seal of Approval of Comics Magazine Publishers," and is sold in New York subways, you learn that after a robbery you can escape more easily if you shoot out the source of light; you learn how to trade in guns; how to hijack ammunition; how to impersonate regular soldiers (I have had several cases of young people doing just that); and, of course, how to torture and kill a "squealer." (p. 159) A search of GCD for hijacking stories returns a number of crime comics, but the only one with the ACMP seal is Justice Traps the Guilty #11. However, that comic does not contain this lost SOTI reference. GCD also shows several comics with a title that involves squealers. Based on that search, this reference is not in Crime Does Not Pay #89, Complete Mystery #4 or All True Crime Cases #34.

 

C14 Forgery is, of course, also described in comic books. The preferred method is to pick up a blotter which has been used and copy the signature with the aid of a mirror. (p. 161)

 

C15 From one book you can learn how to cut through the glass and break into a store and how to stop the noise when you do break in: "Pile the blankets on to smother the noise!" (p. 161)

 

C17 Here is violence galore, violence in the beginning, in the middle, at the end:

ZIP! CRASH! SOCK! SPLAT! BAM! SMASH!

(This is an actual sequence of six pictures illustrating brutal fighting, until in the seventh picture: "He's out cold!") (pp. 8-9)

 

Lost SOTI Horror Comics

 

H1 A man provides murder victims for his wife, who drinks their blood. He grabs a newsboy for her and she says over his bound body: "His throat is as white and soft as a swan's! So tender and youthful!" (p. 388)

 

H2 In a typical specimen a man-eating shark changes into a girl. You are shown the gruesome picture of an arm bitten off by the shark with blood flowing from the severed stump. And the moral ending? "No one would ever believe . . . that the ghost of a lovely girl could inhabit a shark's body..." (p. 106)

 

H3 "His body was torn to shreds, his face an unrecognizable mass of bloody and clawed flesh!" (p. 111)

 

Lost SOTI Jungle Comics

 

J1 …graphic pictures of the white man shooting colored natives as though they were animals: "You sure must have treated these beggars rough in that last trip though here!" (p. 9)

 

Lost SOTI Romance Comics

 

R1 In one love comic a demonstration is given of how to steal a "very expensive gown, Paris original" from a department store:

"I'll slip it on in the dressing-room. They won't notice me! I'll put it in that box and walk out, while the saleslady is busy with someone else! ... I walked out, trying to keep calm, trying to look and act natural ... Nobody has seen me! Ohh! If I can only reach the door!" (p. 40)

 

The Fox romance comics seem like a logical place to search for this. It hasn't been found there yet, though.

 

 

R2 The youthful reader can also acquire the technique of how to seduce a girl. First you get her boy friend away on a fictitious errand, "knowing it would keep him for most of the night." After a dance you invite the girl for "a little bite" at "a road house just over the state line":

NICKY: Here we are, Gale! A nice little private booth! Like it?

 

GALE: Yes' - (I wouldn't for the world let Nicky think I wasn't sophisticated enough to appreciate it!)

 

Then you make love to her.

 

GALE: Nicky! Let me go! All these people!

 

NICKY: You're right, honey! What do we want all these people for? Let's go upstairs to the terrace!

 

"Upstairs was a long, narrow hall with five or six doors! Nicky opened the nearest one and I found myself in a small, shoddy- looking room!"

 

NICKY: I think we'll be much more comfortable in here, don't you, honey?

 

GALE: Nicky! I want to go home! Please let me go!

 

NICKY: Home was never like this, baby! Come on, give papa a kiss! (p. 40)

 

 

R3 Adolescent girls are not helped by this bit from a love comic: "How long can a beautiful woman wait for love? Is it a crime to take passion where it is found - regardless of mocking faithfulness? (For the thrilling answer see page 17.)" (p. 185)

 

Lost SOTI Western Comics

 

W1 A ten-year-old boy was found hanging from a door hook, suspended by his bathrobe cord. On the floor under his open hand lay a comic book with this cover: a girl on a horse with a noose around her neck, the rope tied to a tree. A man was leading the horse away, tightening the noose as he did so. The grief-stricken father said, "The boy was happy when I saw him last. So help me God, I'll be damned if I ever allow another comic book in the house for the kids to read!" (p. 231) It would seem that the most likely candidate for this would be a Fox western. However, this is not an issue of Hoot Gibson, Western Killers, Western Outlaws, Western Thrillers, Western True Crime or Women Outlaws. The Lev Gleason books might also be a good place to check, but this is not an issue of Desperado or Black Diamond Western. A text search of Overstreet for books with "hanging" in their description also turns up no match to this description from SOTI.

 

W2 In a Western comic book the "Gouger" is threatening the hero's eye with his thumb, which has a very long and pointed nail. This is called the "killer's manicure." He says: "YORE EYES ARE GONNA POP LIKE GRAPES WHEN OL' GOUGER GETS HIS HANDS ON YOU!... HERE GO THE PEEPERS!" (p. 112)

 

W3 One Western comic gives an illustrated lesson in foul fighting (he "chopped a powerful rabbit punch") and brutality (he "rammed his knee into Mossman's face with a sickening thud" and then, when his victim was on the ground, kicked him in the face). (pp. 159-160) With an unusual name like "Mossman", it seems likely that this could be a Western "true crime" story about Burton "Cap" Mossman of the Arizona Rangers. There is a story about Mossman in Lone Ranger #10, but it's not the one to which Wertham was referring. A character named Mossman appears in Adventure Comics #68, but it's unlikely that Wertham referenced this because it was published a full seven years before Wertham's first anti-comics writings. Western Fighters v3#7 includes a story about Cap Mossman, but this is not the story to which Wertham was referring.

 

Lost SOTI comics- Genre Unknown

 

U1 Where in any other childhood literature except children's comics do you find a woman called (and treated as) a "fat slut"? This language seems awfully harsh for the late 40's or early 50's. This would most likely not have appeared in a Marvel/Atlas or DC book. Perhaps a Fox book?

 

U2 In one comic book with a story on "the man who shanghaied more than 1,000 men from the San Francisco docks," there is suddenly - unrelated to the story - an illustration showing large in the foreground only the lower part of a girl's legs, in net stockings and very high-heeled red shoes. (p. 182) Although the following contain stories of shanghais in San Francisco, they do not fit Wertham's decscription: Buccaneers #23, Famous Crimes #8, Inside Crime #3, Outlaws #12 (which is a reprint of Western Killers #61), War Against Crime #3, Western Killers #61, or Women Outlaws #3. It could be Prize Comics Western #v9#2 (#81), which features the story "Bandits of Barbary."

 

U3 A four-year-old boy in Florida looked through his brother's comic books and his mother found him under a tree stark naked, with a long knife in his hands. Stunned, she asked him why he had undressed himself, and what he was doing. He replied, "The man in the comics did it." Later he showed her pictures where some Mongols" had a white man stripped naked and one of them had a long knife to cut out the American's tongue. (pp. 114-115)

 

U4 In one which has the "Seal of Approval of Comics Magazine Publishers" young men fake disease to get out of the army. (p. 159)

 

U5 "Didn't I bluff my way out of the army?" says the hero-criminal. "Got a medical discharge without having anything wrong except indigestion! If you work it right, no doctor in the world can prove you're bluffing!" (p. 159) This could be the same one mentioned in the prior reference.

 

U6 In some comic books it is shown how the youngest tots are picked up bodily, held upside down and shaken so that the coins will fall out of their pockets. It could be this was a scene of comic relief in a GA Daredevil book; that's one place to look, anyway.

 

 

 

[SOTIcollector]

Here's another first print of SOTI with the bibliography. If you've been looking for one but are reluctant to spend many hundreds of dollars, perhaps this is the copy for you.

 

This is a low grade copy with no DJ. Splits at front and rear boards, repaired with large piece of black tape on spine. Former library copy with typical stamps, card, due date slip and identifying markings. A few small notations in the book, and one page has a tear. Bibliography is present, and all 16 illo pages are present. Photos to come soon (probably tonight).

 

$125, or FREE with the purchase of Parade of Pleasure earlier in the thread.

 

 

[SOTIcollector]

This is the copy of SOTI first print with bibliography. $125.

 

I apologize for the delay with the photos. Here they are at last, now that my digital camera is cooperating. I've inspected every page, and photographed every significant defect I could find. This is not just a random sampling of defects; these pics show all interior marks, stamps, the spine split and the one page with a rip. A low grade copy, but an affordable copy of SOTI with the bibliography intact.

 

 

[SOTIcollector]

And here's another of the Evil Three. There are three non-comic books that you'll find are listed in Overstreet because of their importance in the anti-comics crusades of the 1940's and 50's. This is one of them: Love and Death by Gershon Legman. Of the three (SOTI, POP, and L&D) this one was published first (1949). The edition I'm offering is the second edition, which was published in 1963.

 

This is a great looking copy, with really sharp corners and virtually no wear. Looks NM at first glance, but: There's a lower left corner bump, evident in the scans, and some pages have pencil underlining.

 

$20 for this puppy, plus $5 shipping.

 

 

 

[DCman]

And here's another of the Evil Three. There are three non-comic books that you'll find are listed in Overstreet because of their importance in the anti-comics crusades of the 1940's and 50's. This is one of them: Love and Death by Gershon Legman. Of the three (SOTI, POP, and L&D) this one was published first (1949). The edition I'm offering is the second edition, which was published in 1963.

 

This is a great looking copy, with really sharp corners and virtually no wear. Looks NM at first glance, but: There's a lower left corner bump, evident in the scans, and some pages have pencil underlining.

 

$20 for this puppy, plus $5 shipping.

 

 

 

Ill take

[SOTIcollector]

And here's another of the Evil Three. There are three non-comic books that you'll find are listed in Overstreet because of their importance in the anti-comics crusades of the 1940's and 50's. This is one of them: Love and Death by Gershon Legman. Of the three (SOTI, POP, and L&D) this one was published first (1949). The edition I'm offering is the second edition, which was published in 1963.

 

This is a great looking copy, with really sharp corners and virtually no wear. Looks NM at first glance, but: There's a lower left corner bump, evident in the scans, and some pages have pencil underlining.

 

$20 for this puppy, plus $5 shipping.

 

 

 

Ill take

 

 

[RareHighGrade]

SOTIcollector, Where in SOTI is Blue Beetle 54 pictured? I have a complete copy of SOTI with all 16 pages of illustration, but they do not include BB 54. Am I looking in the wrong place to find the reference?

[Wipple]

SOTIcollector, Where in SOTI is Blue Beetle 54 pictured? I have a complete copy of SOTI with all 16 pages of illustration, but they do not include BB 54. Am I looking in the wrong place to find the reference?

 

llustration #5 with caption, "Children call these 'headlights' comics."

[RareHighGrade]

SOTIcollector, Where in SOTI is Blue Beetle 54 pictured? I have a complete copy of SOTI with all 16 pages of illustration, but they do not include BB 54. Am I looking in the wrong place to find the reference?

 

llustration #5 with caption, "Children call these 'headlights' comics."

Interesting. My copy of SOTI has a different image for that quote. It's a picture of a well-endowed woman being assaulted by two men. This image and the children/headlights quote are on the same page as the Phantom Lady 17 image. I didn't realize that different editions had different illustrations.

 

Has anyone else noticed this disparity?

[SOTIcollector]

SOTIcollector, Where in SOTI is Blue Beetle 54 pictured? I have a complete copy of SOTI with all 16 pages of illustration, but they do not include BB 54. Am I looking in the wrong place to find the reference?

 

llustration #5 with caption, "Children call these 'headlights' comics."

Interesting. My copy of SOTI has a different image for that quote. It's a picture of a well-endowed woman being assaulted by two men. This image and the children/headlights quote are on the same page as the Phantom Lady 17 image. I didn't realize that different editions had different illustrations.

 

Has anyone else noticed this disparity?

 

The only disparity is an error I made in my first listing in this thread. The image on the SOTI page with PL17 is from the interior of BB54.. Although the cover of BB54 is indeed an iconic one, this is not because the cover was pictured in SOTI. BB 54's interior was pictured in SOTI. I apologize for the error in my listing.

[SOTIcollector]

Here's a quick recap:

Blue Beetle 54: SOLD

World of Fanzines $40

Seduction of the Innocent with dust jacket and bibliography $595

Parade of Pleasure with dust jacket $595

Seduction of the Innocent with bibliography, rough shape. $125 sale possibly pending SOLD

Seduction of the Innocent, no DJ or bibliography, rough shape but FREE (see above)

Love & Death SOLD

[catrick339]

Rough copy of SOTI with bibliography page

 

 

 

per PM

[SOTIcollector]

Price drops!

 

World of Fanzines $32 PRICE LOWERED

Seduction of the Innocent with dust jacket and bibliography $545 PRICE LOWERED

Parade of Pleasure with dust jacket $495 PRICE LOWERED

 

[SOTIcollector]

Final drops!

 

Wertham's World of Fanzines $29 PRICE LOWERED

Parade of Pleasure with dust jacket $395 PRICE LOWERED

[goldust40]

Parade of Pleasure with dust jacket $395 PRICE LOWERED

 

[Twistty1]

Wow great pick up... You honestly don't see that book very often let alone in that condition with a very nice DJ.

[goldust40]

Yeah, SOTIcollector had a POP in a previous sale that I didn't take, and I've been waiting for another decent copy since. Figures he'd be the man with another copy.

[SOTIcollector]

Parade of Pleasure with dust jacket $395 PRICE LOWERED

 

Thanks for the pickup!