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Did Tim Holt #30 inspire the Zodiac Killer?
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Started by Sarg,

138 posts in this topic

Robot Man

Robot Man

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On 12/11/2020 at 9:11 PM, adamstrange said:

An example of a similar book is Mystery Tales 40 which the TV series made famous.  That now has 49 copies, but only 3 are better than 6.0.

I was thinking of the same thing. Hasn’t this book cooled off considerably? 

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Robot Man

Robot Man

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Frankly, I have always thought this was a “hype” book. People seem to be fascinated with the “dark side”. Case in point the “Green River” Collection. 

I actually like it for the GGA cover and interesting concept much more than the serial killer angle. If I turned up a copy, I would probably put it on the bay as quickly as possible. 

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szav

szav

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On 8/1/2021 at 8:46 AM, Robot Man said:

Frankly, I have always thought this was a “hype” book.

At some point the hype either evaporates or it crystallizes and takes permanent form... 7 years into this thread and 4 years into eye opening prices that continually rise with no sign of the very expected pull back, I think Tim Holt 30 is here to stay.  Like any other GA/pre-code book the real question is how many copies are there?  I've got to think there are way more than the census indicates, and this latest sale should really flush out some copies.  Then again, it took me a few years to even find a single copy.

On 8/1/2021 at 8:46 AM, Robot Man said:

I actually like it for the GGA cover and interesting concept much more than the serial killer angle.

I like it for both, even though  I'll admit I'm not a fan of our cultural obsession with and glorification of serial killers.  Don't care for the movies etc.  Still the Zodiac case is one of America's greatest unsolved crime mysteries and there's a whole subculture devoted to investigating it and other cases.  If I recall from reading into the links earlier in the thread too...it was these Zodiac hunters who made the connection to the comic.  That it wasn't comic book people hyping it up originally show's the sort of cross cultural appeal the book has.  It's a double bonus that it also happens to have a standout killer cover, despite belonging to the generally maligned Western genre.

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Point Five

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On 8/1/2021 at 3:13 PM, szav said:

At some point the hype either evaporates or it crystallizes and takes permanent form... 7 years into this thread and 4 years into eye opening prices that continually rise with no sign of the very expected pull back, I think Tim Holt 30 is here to stay.  Like any other GA/pre-code book the real question is how many copies are there?  I've got to think there are way more than the census indicates, and this latest sale should really flush out some copies.  Then again, it took me a few years to even find a single copy.

I like it for both, even though  I'll admit I'm not a fan of our cultural obsession with and glorification of serial killers.  Don't care for the movies etc.  Still the Zodiac case is one of America's greatest unsolved crime mysteries and there's a whole subculture devoted to investigating it and other cases.  If I recall from reading into the links earlier in the thread too...it was these Zodiac hunters who made the connection to the comic.  That it wasn't comic book people hyping it up originally show's the sort of cross cultural appeal the book has.  It's a double bonus that it also happens to have a standout killer cover, despite belonging to the generally maligned Western genre.

Your take is pretty much like mine. I really like it for the racy GGA cover. I've been looking for a copy since it started heating up a few years ago, and never did find one! The (relative) scarcity seems to be real.

 

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comicnoir

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On 8/1/2021 at 5:43 PM, Point Five said:

Your take is pretty much like mine. I really like it for the racy GGA cover. I've been looking for a copy since it started heating up a few years ago, and never did find one! The (relative) scarcity seems to be real.

 

I got mine off the boards. Nobody seemed to want it then.

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Readcomix

Readcomix

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FYI, AC Comics’ 1990s reprint series “Best of the West” #28 reprints this, including the cover, albeit with a blue background. It’s a black and white interior and somewhere between the size of a digest and a regular comic. Unfortunately, it’s almost as tough as the original to find but a whole lot cheaper. It’s probably tough because no one thinks it’s worth putting up online, but it’s out there somewhere. Then again, they probably didn’t have massive print runs either — 1990s western reprints, after all.

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Turnando

Turnando

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On 8/2/2021 at 9:33 PM, Readcomix said:

FYI, AC Comics’ 1990s reprint series “Best of the West” #28 reprints this

Cool.  Thanks for the heads up.  Still available directly from AC Comics at their website for $5 (plus $8 shipping).

Maybe cheaper on eBay or wherever but I don't spend more than 30 seconds trying to save a few bucks and I don't mind rewarding AC Comics directly.

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Readcomix

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On 8/2/2021 at 11:59 PM, Turnando said:

Cool.  Thanks for the heads up.  Still available directly from AC Comics at their website for $5 (plus $8 shipping).

Maybe cheaper on eBay or wherever but I don't spend more than 30 seconds trying to save a few bucks and I don't mind rewarding AC Comics directly.

I never knew they were available there because I did know there was a there! I thought AC was long gone! doh! I think that’s about what I paid, but it took me forever to find one turn up on ebay, MCS etc. I wonder if it’s old stock, or if they keep them in print, or even print on demand?

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Sauce Dog

Sauce Dog

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On 11/21/2021 at 11:35 PM, comicnoir said:

So they found him out, they say. And the Tim Holt connection is still part of the story.

https://www.cheatsheet.com/entertainment/the-zodiac-killer-identity-inspired-comic-books.html/

The I wouldn't put much stock in it actually being Gary Francis Poste, the 'evidence' was flimsy at best. He was known to the FBI prior to these 'armchair' detectives fingering him and was cleared (hence why these 'detectives' kept shopping it around to media outlets only after rejected by the FBI). The photo 'evidence' alone is a big joke, but the real actual kicker is the cypher explanation given.

The best explanation to the Zodiac thus far, IMO, was by Thomas Henry Horan who wrote 'Myth of the Zodiac Killer'. There wasn't a 'single' Zodiac technically (two known writers of the cyphers), and several of the crimes associated with Zodiac had nothing to do with the case and only became tangled up due to media reporting and how the police handled each case at the time - including how it was still common practice to allow journalists to type up reports for officers who couldn't type well, and the Vallejo Police Department approached the cases using Robert Graysmiths book on the Zodiac as a 'bible' to look at them and connect crimes (you can imagine the problems in doing that from the onset of an investigation during a media frenzy). Also fun fact - the group who claimed him to be Gary Francis Poste initially reached out to Horan and his Zodiac boards...and were thoroughly ripped to shreds over their 'evidence' :D 

It is a shame the author has become fairly bonkers online with his interactions, as it now makes people dismiss the entire investigation outright without giving it a chance. The writing is poor, but I still recommend Horan's 'Myth of the Zodiac Killer' to anyone interested (and yes, he names the 'real' zodiac...the aforementioned Robert Graysmith himself, who wrote the first book on Zodiac - the evidence for this is very interesting on how he was the first to write the initial batch of cyphers, how he obtained police evidence and directed the police/media, as well as excerpts from his first rejected Zodiac draft which he scraped when the story changed in the media and he wanted to craft a different tale without giving away his involvement)

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szav

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On 3/28/2022 at 5:13 AM, Steppenwolfscomics said:

I finally got a copy (thanks comicnoir). I’ve been trying to complete the Tim Holt run and this one has been pretty difficult to find due to the Zodiac link. Nice GGA cover by Bolle. A58EF2BD-4E17-4554-AD69-B9E8B6FE4DD1.thumb.jpeg.fee0a2b3da9189650c2ebc80741fa597.jpeg

Congrats! Tough books obtained from kindly boardies are the best.

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Point Five

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On 3/28/2022 at 12:04 PM, szav said:

Congrats! Tough books obtained from kindly boardies are the best.

Kind books obtained from tough boardies are pretty good too.  

 

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