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Rusty staples and sunken treasure! by Hibou

Started by CSJournals-migration,

360 posts in this topic

vaillant

vaillant

Posted
Posted

I have never read Superman, and never got much affectioned to the DC characters, but I like mostly Schuster (of course), Wayne Boring, Neal Adams and… Jon Bogdanove.

The only time I bought and read Superman with continuity has been in the late 1980s (early 1990s?) with the "Death of Superman" storyline. :sick:

 

I was a big fan of Bogdanove since I discovered him in Power Pack, and to me he draw a very nice and convincing Superman – adding Louise Simonson was writing the book, it was the same creative team of Power Pack, so I had my brief Superman reading experience… :D

 

As far as Spidey, I guess I am a Ross Andru/Gil Kane type of fan… With Romita inking, thanks. :)

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Hibou

Hibou

Posted
Posted
Love reading your journal! I enjoyed reading how you figured out the boundaries around your collecting goals.

 

Here's something to consider -- current bid only $25!

 

http://comics.ha.com/c/item.zx?saleNo=121411&lotNo=10591

 

$382.40 :(

 

Beautiful book but not the right time for me...

 

Again, thank you for pointing that one out to me!

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Hibou

Hibou

Posted
Posted
I have never read Superman, and never got much affectioned to the DC characters, but I like mostly Schuster (of course), Wayne Boring, Neal Adams and… Jon Bogdanove.

The only time I bought and read Superman with continuity has been in the late 1980s (early 1990s?) with the "Death of Superman" storyline. :sick:

 

I was a big fan of Bogdanove since I discovered him in Power Pack, and to me he draw a very nice and convincing Superman – adding Louise Simonson was writing the book, it was the same creative team of Power Pack, so I had my brief Superman reading experience… :D

 

As far as Spidey, I guess I am a Ross Andru/Gil Kane type of fan… With Romita inking, thanks. :)

 

Here's a fun page I found showing a lot of the different looks of Superman through the ages...

 

http://fanbros.com/art-superman-75th-anniversary-sketches/

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n2wdw

n2wdw

Posted
Posted
Love reading your journal! I enjoyed reading how you figured out the boundaries around your collecting goals.

 

Here's something to consider -- current bid only $25!

 

http://comics.ha.com/c/item.zx?saleNo=121411&lotNo=10591

 

$382.40 :(

 

Beautiful book but not the right time for me...

 

Again, thank you for pointing that one out to me!

 

Ouch! More popular than I thought.

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Hibou

Hibou

Posted
Posted

A 'Mini-Grail' acquired!

 

Just a short while ago, I stated on here the following...

 

"Why I love this place...

 

Today an underwater 'Mini-Grail' sort of fell into my lap courtesy of a fellow boardie. I put a down payment on the book and it'll probably take me 3-4 weeks to pay it off but it was one that I thought would be very tough to get when I started to realize what I was doing with this collection."

 

Well as it turned out, it was more like 4-5 weeks but I finally have a key book that I had targeted early on. I have a list of around 3-4 books that I knew would be difficult to obtain when I decided I would be going 'all-in' on this underwater themed collection.

 

This book was one of them...

 

It might be a little rare as the CGC census shows only 15 Universal copies and 20 total copies. As of now, it's (tied for) the oldest book in my collection! I came across this book and this opportunity purely by luck! I have to go back to that decision to upgrade my Detective Comics 70 and my purchase of it from board member, goldenacase of Canada.

 

Within that sales thread of his, I noticed a common theme... or rather a common title being sold along with that 'Tec 70. That book was a big purchase for me and a big decision as well but something told me that I should check on something 'just in case'.

 

And so I checked.

 

I sent a PM to Bill asking if he, by some chance, had a lower grade copy of this key book that I had targeted. I guess you could say that I just had a feeling.

 

The response I got was more sunken treasure.

 

I think the PM I received back was something like "Yes, I have a 6.0 for sale".

 

I knew without a second thought that I would never be able to afford a 6.0 of this book. :(

 

...

 

Superman-getting-drunk-GIF_zpsc212f4c1.gif

 

...

 

But wait!

 

I received another PM from him just a short time later in which he apologized but it wasn't a 6.0 but rather a 4.0!

 

:o

 

... anxiously waiting on his price...

 

mickf_zps69e3d5bd.jpg

 

And that's when I realized that this was going to be a one time moment. Meaning, that if I passed this up, I most likely would not have this book in my collection.

 

After Bill told me his price, I asked if it would be possible to do a time-pay on it and explained my proposed payment schedule. He accepted the terms and I am so grateful that he did that for me. Two fantastic books from him in two months!

 

Thank you, Bill! (worship)

 

So...

 

What was so special about this book?

 

Well, for one it's my first (and probably only...) Leo O'Mealia.

 

561980-1_zpsfc92c377.jpg

 

Leo O'Mealia was born in 1884 and died in 1960. He began his career as a political / sports cartoonist in Rochester, NY.

 

He was actually born in LeRoy, NY... a place I'm pretty familiar with because of my job over the years.

 

Through the late 30's, his work is featured on early copies of Detective Comics and Action Comics from DC. His work was also featured on another title too...

 

Adventure Comics.

 

I've never owned one so this will be my first...

 

Adventure Comics might be known for Superboy and other characters but this title introduced the world to another character.

 

The Sandman.

 

No, not Morpheus. This guy...

 

Sandman1-1-_zpsfbc9aae7.jpg

 

Adventure Comics 41... the second appearance of The Sandman (in Adventure Comics - third overall) and a killer Leo O'Mealia underwater cover!

 

I've gone through the story lines trying to decipher which one is depicted on the cover and it could be a couple of them. I have a feeling the art director simply asked for an 'underwater peril' cover for this issue as a couple of the stories seemed to involve that.

 

Yeah.

 

'By Leo'...

 

:cloud9:

 

 

 

ac41_zps776fa091.jpg

 

...

 

doh! ... I almost forgot!

 

This cover ranks as an 80 on my scale!

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Hibou

Hibou

Posted
Posted

I think I was a little too excited about talking about the Adventure 41 that I forgot to mention the details in the O'Mealia piece!

 

I think what I find really unique about this cover is the composition and placement of the subjects.

 

In this piece you find the world turned upside down, unlike so many other covers where the focus of the subject matter is usually presented on a normal horizontal or linear plane. This is a great departure as O'Mealia really forces you to feel the intensity of the situation... he positions the main figure upside down as a shark approaches in a similar manner. It's almost as if the main character is doing all he can to make it easier for himself to target the underbelly of the shark!

 

The details and colors in this piece are remarkable...

 

The coral and vegetation, the small schools of fish as well as the movement of the water flows creates a beautiful otherworldly 'diorama'!

 

I hadn't noticed this at first but there is a sunken ship incorporated into the composition!

 

I just simply find this to be a great cover as are so many of his pieces! :)

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Hibou

Hibou

Posted
Posted

Very much so, Griff... thank you for pointing that one out to me!!

 

I have a Nyoka at CGC right now being graded but I haven't seen that one before.

 

Another one added to the list! :)

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Foxtrot70

Foxtrot70

Posted
Posted

Great thread and fwiw - your sig line was one of the most memorable since my time on the boards... certainly helps that I also share a passion for underwater stories and art. One of the first comics I bought as a kid rediscovering collecting was Iron Man 175 w underwater cover.

 

-Scott

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Hibou

Hibou

Posted
Posted

EDIT- Book was sold in the 2014 summer sale.

 

 

meanwhile_zps2ac17355.jpg

 

When we last saw Captain America in May of 1943, he had his hands full with the Nazi underwater saboteurs, determined to decimate America's naval force.

 

Against, amazing odds, Captain America was able to thwart the Nazi's efforts, dismantle all the surrounding explosives, survive the shark infested waters and save Bucky from drowning.

 

Unfortunately, one saboteur escaped...

 

cap26B_zpsc144dc9f.jpg

 

...

 

This next book, I stumbled upon by chance as I was looking for another issue from this title.

 

I have to admit... I wasn't familiar with the Fawcett series, Don Winslow of the Navy but I have to thank Miraclemet for introducing me to it and to Griff for making the series look appealing!

 

It was back in December (2013) that Miraclemet bought me my first Don Winslow book as a Secret Santa. That book was issue 48...

 

That particular one is being graded at CGC at the moment, but the book was wrapped in this custom paper that made a collage of these great underwater cover books. I think I now have 7 of those books that were featured on this paper. I discussed that originally here: http://boards.collectors-society.com/ubbthreads.php?ubb=showflat&Number=6900799&fpart=8

 

Anyways, aside from #48, there were three other DWotN books shown on those papers and two of those really appealed to me!

 

One of the two, I figured would be hard to come across because it was an earlier issue so I focused a bit more on the later issue... number 35.

 

My search for this issue wasn't turning out so good but then, just a few weeks ago, I decided to check the Heritage website.

 

Again, no luck but they did have the earlier issue that I really liked.

 

It was listed as a Buy it Now book. I figured I would think about it a little and check GPA which is a really nice tool for researching CGC realized prices.

 

http://comics.gpanalysis.com/

 

So after seeing that the asking price of the book was in line with what I thought was fair, I took some time to go through some recent entries of another great journal here on the boards dealing with just this title.

 

Griff's Don Winslow of the Navy journal is a great read and has made the series pretty interesting to me!

 

His journal can be found here:

 

http://boards.collectors-society.com/ubbthreads.php?ubb=showflat&Number=7352278#Post7352278

 

I should also mention that before I sent issue 48 in to CGC, I did read through it and actually liked it!

 

Anyways, as I was reading through Griff's journal, I saw an entry he made in which he pointed out that he was saving up to purchase this issue that I just found on Heritage.

 

I sent him a PM, telling him that I was thinking of purchasing this book but didn't want to do that if that was the one he had targeted to purchase himself. Through some friendly PM's, he informed me that the copy I had found was not the one he was looking at...

 

In fact, I believe the recommendation he made to me and the words he used was "Go for it!"

 

And so I did! :banana:

 

This would be my first experience purchasing anything through Heritage. I've bid on a number of books on their auctions but never won anything. And so I went ahead and purchased the book.

 

The checkout procedure was a little confusing as it seemed to indicate that I would not be able to use my debit card or Paypal for payment but I would have to send in a money order or check. I carefully read through this and for some reason, I thought that it did not mention anything about not being able to pay with a credit card. Within the checkout process, there was a place to enter the card information, so that's what I did.

 

The next day, I was looking around the internet and saw this same book being sold on two other sites. It had been taken off of the Heritage website but I saw it on eBay (being sold under lewiswaynegallery) and then on their own website as well: https://www.lewiswaynegallery.com/

 

So I sent a message to them, telling them that I had purchased the book off of Heritage and wondered if maybe I should've gone through them directly.

 

I received a nice email back telling me that for some reason, they weren't notified by Heritage, but they would take the book off the web.

 

Another day passed and I decided to give Heritage a call because my order was still being listed as 'pending' on their website. I thought that maybe there was a problem with my card or some other hang-up.

 

I'm not sure what exactly happened in the purchasing process but through the aid of their customer service staff (Shaun and Jessica, I believe) they were able to manually complete the transaction for me and I received the book a short time later. Overall, I thought the service was very good for my 1st experience with them.

 

So this is officially my first graded Don Winslow of the Navy as the #48 is still at CGC, like I said earlier.

 

meanwhile_zps2ac17355.jpg

 

Yes, one lone Nazi underwater saboteur escaped Captain America in May of 1943, but here comes Don Winslow to clean up the job just a month later!

 

 

dwotn4_zps052f200a.jpg

 

Looking at the census information, there are only 5 graded copies... a 3.5, this 8.0 and then three nicer copies... a 9.0 and two 9.4's.

 

This is also my first Crowley book!

 

"Although he didn't keep 12 copies as Bill Gaines did with his ECs, William Crowley still managed to sock away two copies of nearly every Fawcett produced during his tenure as editor. In addition to the runs of Captain Marvel, Whiz (three #2(1) copies!), Master and Wow, the collection also contained several classic non-Fawcett comics, including Timelys, Superman and Batman titles, and many esoteric comics high on collectors' want lists.

 

Being a newer collection to surface in the past seven years, and because it contains many high grade books, a large portion of the Crowley collection has been CGC certified. In fact, only the Mile High collection has more books in holders, with Crippens close behind. Crowleys also rank 2nd on our list of the highest graded '50s comics with a median grade of almost 9.4, although the page quality is not as high as its counterparts."

 

 

The above information was taken from:

 

http://www.comicpedigrees.com/pedigrees.php#CROWLEY

 

On my scale, this one ranks as a 70.

 

Although the book is from the early 40's, there's a certain psychedelic feel to the background scenery with the various forms and colors. The scale and perspective is a little confusing for me but the figures are terrific as is the whole composition in general.

 

I haven't been able to find out who did the work on the cover to this or any of the other early DWotN issues.

 

:(

 

 

 

 

 

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