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Sci-Fi before the Space Age
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95 posts in this topic

Time for another cover.

 

This is Planet #71 with a Maurice Whitman cover.

 

It is the best.

 

Planet Comics in general are awesome, but #71? It looks like some combination of Steranko, Dave Stevens and Heaven.

 

I don't even understand everything that's going on with that space suit, but it's awesome. Like best space suit from the 50s awesome. The mix of colors on the suit, that contrast with the colors of space. Knee pads, Self Propulsion, a ray gun. Air tanks, some sort of hand held rocket to throw/aim at people.

 

There's great detail in the spacecraft below (see the guy in restraints on the examining table?

 

Is that New York City being towed into space off on the right? It looks like someone wrapped the Statue of Liberty for transport!

 

I wish my work scanner was better... After buying a few CGC 2s and a few 4s, I definitely think 4s are my threshold. Less than that and the condition is distracting from the book/cover image. Lesson learned.

WOXUYWe.jpg

 

 

 

One of my all-time favorite covers. I need to get a copy of this. Such a great book.

 

:applause:

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Man the market has been dry... a few books have come up that I passed on for other books, but either books are bidding high or they are to low grade...

 

 

Was in the running for this nice copy, but in the end Im more interested in people in space, and less interested in the aliens... and this one is ALL aliens...

147105.jpg.b4f286b7a2aac6b3b3be3d897272f727.jpg

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Here's one that might be of interest with a wrap-around cover.

 

8697828989_a709893765.jpg

8698957076_9c5cee2b68.jpg

 

One of the few comics that I have two copies.

 

mm

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Oh man ComicLink was tough this month. The coffers were full and I had a few books in my sights.

 

p6vYI10.jpg

 

 

I've never spent 4 figures on a book... and both of these looked like they would require 4 figures to win it. The Venus ended up going for just over $1k (which seemed to be in line with GPA sales), while the Spaceman went for $1700... ($500 lower than GPA). Even though the Spaceman went for a good price, I dont like spending "top of census" prices for a book... cause the day one shows up in higher grade, my book's value takes a drop. So I had to walk away from bidding on both in the final minutes/hours.

 

I was able to win one nice sci-fi cover. A Wally Wood cover, with plenty of GGA!

It's my favorite Strange Worlds cover. And while I paid slightly over GPA for it in this grade, recent sales of lesser grades (6.0 and 5.0) helped me justify it (plus the next grade 7.0 had a bigger price jump than I'd want to pay).

 

So While I didnt go 3 of 3, I did get one and lived to fight another day (or another auction)...

 

Here's the winner.

JxB0BeE.jpg

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Wow!!

 

Congratulations on a very nice book! I love that cover and it seems like a very sharp copy for a 6.5.

 

How's the BC?

 

We'll see... I bid blind, and am waiting for the book to ship from CLink.

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Just for your curiosity, here’s a very unusual example of italian science fiction from the 1940s: it’s landscape format from a small publisher which usually did not print comics, and it is from 1946. Insides are in black and white, as after the war, as you can guess, there wasn’t much money to be spent…

 

Pretty rare, I just bought it because of its unusualness.

 

fOp6v9th.jpg

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I saw you post this in CG when we were talking about how to price a "one of a kind" item... .I was jealous then... Im jealous now.

 

Where did you dig it up? I'm moving to the EU (Brussels) in a few weeks and will have to modify my collecting style to accommodate my new location

 

 

Just for your curiosity, here’s a very unusual example of italian science fiction from the 1940s: it’s landscape format from a small publisher which usually did not print comics, and it is from 1946. Insides are in black and white, as after the war, as you can guess, there wasn’t much money to be spent…

 

Pretty rare, I just bought it because of its unusualness.

 

fOp6v9th.jpg

 

 

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I saw you post this in CG when we were talking about how to price a "one of a kind" item... .I was jealous then... Im jealous now.

 

Oops! Sorry – I did not recall I already posted it in another discussion.

 

Honestly, artistically speaking it’s nothing special (except the cool cover) although it is very interesting. Mostly, it’s super-rare because very likely it had a ridiculous print run (published in Bologna, near Modena where I live, from a books publisher).

I scored it purely by chance on eBay.it and I am keeping it as trading material, but I quite paid for it. It is a perfect example of a book with no collecting market, but pretty rare.

If you want to have a look at the interiors, I took some pictures that I showed to the folks of an italian forum where I participate (my nickname is different but you can recognize my posts from the avatar):

http://vintagecomics.forumcommunity.net/?t=55714889&st=75

 

A thing which inversely is entirely worth having (even in italian) is "Saturn against the Earth": in Italy it has been reprinted several times, here’s a 1969 hardbound edition of the whole saga – if you want I can try to dig out for you a chronology of the various editions.

 

y3YX8BNh.jpg

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I'd like that old Flash Gordon stuff a lot more if the aliens didnt look like chickens...

 

The "chicken headed" martians are a landmark feature of "Saturn against the Earth", and one of the most loved things from these stories, which represent some of the more accomplished early italian comics (it started in the late 1930s).

The Flash Gordon influences happen to be mixed with those in the odd book I have found, but Scolari’s art has little to to with Gordon – one may or not like it but it is pretty unique. :)

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Ok, well now that I've finished the move across the pond I can get back to collecting...

 

or can I?

 

Belgium (where I moved to) has some crazy import taxes and fees, so shipping a book from the states tacks on about 33% to the total cost of the book

 

So a $500 book ends up costing me $675, kinda hard to try and get books for their "market" price, when I know Im having to pay a big markup for importing.

 

I've already got a plan to buy and hold books in the US to avoid this, but that means fewer books being in my hands as I work on my collection, which sucks.

 

So on to my tale of Venus #10. One of my favorite Golden Age Sci-Fi covers, the black border is striking, the GGA, the "hero" in his space suit, the alien landscape.... it's just great. Venus went from being Romance, to Sci-Fi to Horror as it tried to survive as tastes changed with readers.... and their Sci-Fi cover is great.

 

So a few months back one of our boardies posted a low/mid-grade copy for a good price, but it had restoration. But it's restoration (tear seals) would fall into the "conservation" category with CGC's change to their assessment of work done on books so I decided to get it and then resub it to see how the new guidelines worked.

 

Well in parallel I was having a conversation with another boardie, who informed me after I had agreed to buy the restored copy that he had just sent his 7.5 on to CLINK for addition into the summer auction. Deciding that I'd love a higher grade copy that was universal the first seller let me out of my purchase (a good guy who I've done many a transaction with) and I set my sights on the 7.5 that would be auctioned in a few months...

 

Time passes... we get closer to the Summer August auction on CLINK, and what pops up on the boards? An amazing 8.5 copy. But I've moved to Belgium, and if I want to get this book delivered it's going to cost an arm and a leg in import fees.

 

But WAIT, the seller is in the UK. No import fees for Europe! Thanks to chromium the other Belgian boardie who confirmed the no-fees hope I had, and I made the purchase.

 

Cant wait to have it in hand soon...

 

QidjjkB.jpg

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Ok, well now that I've finished the move across the pond I can get back to collecting...

 

or can I?

 

Belgium (where I moved to) has some crazy import taxes and fees, so shipping a book from the states tacks on about 33% to the total cost of the book

 

So a $500 book ends up costing me $675, kinda hard to try and get books for their "market" price, when I know Im having to pay a big markup for importing.

 

I've already got a plan to buy and hold books in the US to avoid this, but that means fewer books being in my hands as I work on my collection, which sucks.

 

So on to my tale of Venus #10. One of my favorite Golden Age Sci-Fi covers, the black border is striking, the GGA, the "hero" in his space suit, the alien landscape.... it's just great. Venus went from being Romance, to Sci-Fi to Horror as it tried to survive as tastes changed with readers.... and their Sci-Fi cover is great.

 

So a few months back one of our boardies posted a low/mid-grade copy for a good price, but it had restoration. But it's restoration (tear seals) would fall into the "conservation" category with CGC's change to their assessment of work done on books so I decided to get it and then resub it to see how the new guidelines worked.

 

Well in parallel I was having a conversation with another boardie, who informed me after I had agreed to buy the restored copy that he had just sent his 7.5 on to CLINK for addition into the summer auction. Deciding that I'd love a higher grade copy that was universal the first seller let me out of my purchase (a good guy who I've done many a transaction with) and I set my sights on the 7.5 that would be auctioned in a few months...

 

Time passes... we get closer to the Summer August auction on CLINK, and what pops up on the boards? An amazing 8.5 copy. But I've moved to Belgium, and if I want to get this book delivered it's going to cost an arm and a leg in import fees.

 

But WAIT, the seller is in the UK. No import fees for Europe! Thanks to chromium the other Belgian boardie who confirmed the no-fees hope I had, and I made the purchase.

 

Cant wait to have it in hand soon...

 

QidjjkB.jpg

 

Congrats on this beautiful pick-up, and an equal congrats on making the move to Belgium. I hope you suceed in your endeavors there... and keep the scans coming... this is an awesome thread and your collection is so unique and inspiring (even if it is excluding EC's).

 

SW3D

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Super-sweet Venus!

 

You may want to occasionally check eBay.co.uk and eBay.de, as sometimes even some GA is listed (well, more in the UK, actually).

Exchange rate from Sterling to Euro is not so great, anyway. :(

 

dont think I havent already created ebay accounts for .uk, .fr and .de!

 

They are definately far sparser than their US counterpart, but hey that might mean less competition when a cool book comes along.

 

anything to avoid collecting Smurfs!

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Here's another one I bought not long before the move (using some of the funds from my giant TPB/HC sale).

 

Modern Comics #99

 

I got it from Worldwide and its from the Cape Cod collection.

 

The colors on the cover were so sharp I thought it'd be great to own, plus NO copies on census, so once I get around to it, it'll be the lone copy graded. Just hoping it makes the shipping from the US with all of my other comics...

 

I think it's the lone "Blackhawks in space" type cover... Love the helmets (but look ma, no gloves!) I also question the woman's choice to wear a skirt on the moon, it's probably gonna be cold. The bad guy crouching behind the rock looks like a young Abraham Lincoln.

 

RA16d8s.jpg

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