Show Us Your Ducks! 15 15

[Duffman_Comics]

Last things first, Andrew.

 

Lovely WDC & S #71. I wonder whether the violin's "f" holes being repeated in Donald's beak escaped some readers?

 

Now, you should have elaborated regarding the attractions of Duck reprints in Oz.

 

Primarily, they were reprinted on far better paper stock than the originals. It was (and remains) white for the vast majority of surviving books and has a definite"slickness" that the Dell/Gold Keys do not.

 

The only production down side was that the covers were printed on the same stock i.e very thin.

 

Unlike the majority of comics printed here, they are full colour cover-to-cover.

 

There are no ads whatsoever. No house ads, nothing. I actually like ads in funny books (just me) but these reprints have none at all.

 

AJD, have I covered it?

[tb]

AJD, it's always interesting to hear about the Australian editions. Cool how these books have appealed to so many different cultures.

 

The poem below, which I lifted from wikipedia, sums up my own feelings about the Ducks - and collecting comics in general - very well. Reading the Gold board this week somehow made me think of it.

 

Ode to the Disney Ducks

 

They ride tall ships to the far away,

and see the long ago.

They walk where fabled people trod,

and Yetis trod the snow.

 

They meet the folks who live on stars,

and find them much like us,

With food and love and happiness

the things they most discuss.

 

The world is full of clans and cults

abuzz as angry bees,

And Junior Woodchucks snapping jeers

at Littlest Chickadees.

 

The ducks show us that part of life

is to forgive a slight.

That black eyes given in revenge

keep hatred burning bright.

 

So when our walks in sun or shade

pass graveyards filled by wars,

It's nice to stop and read of ducks

whose battles leave no scars.

 

To read of ducks who parody

our vain attempts at glory,

They don't exist, but somehow leave

us glad we bought their story.

 

Carl Barks – 1999

[tb]

First picture:

 

I bought this lot of 115 manuscript pages from the 1960s in a recent Heritage auction. A number of Barks manuscripts from the mid-60s have sold in the last 5 years, mainly from the Barks estate. A friend of mine bought many of these and it was fascinating to go through Barks' edits and corrections to classic stories that I read as a child.

 

Anyway, the real reason I purchased this lot is the manuscript to the 10-pager "The Village Blacksmith" from 1960. I was lucky enough to see this when I visited Mr. Willits and fell in love with it instantly. What makes it special to me is the early date. There may be earlier manuscripts in existence, but I am not aware of them. 1960 is interesting because it was right around this time that Barks and Willits met for the first time. Soon after, a number of other fans would get to meet Barks. I've chosen to focus my collection of Barks originals on the period when Barks was an anonymous artist on payroll, long before Bruce Hamilton turned his name into a successful brand.

 

Barks' first letter to Malcolm Willits sold in the same auction. If the buyer happens to be reading reading this and is having second thoughts about the purchase, I would very much like to hear from you. A friend of mine was the underbidder and we would very much like to acquire this historical item.

 

-----

 

Second picture:

 

In another thread, I mentioned that my own interpretation of beauty is far more important to me than the CGC grade. On two different inspection trips to Dallas, I got to examine this book and another copy in CGC 9.4. Based on the scans, the latter would have seemed more attractive, but when I got to see it in person it had some stress lines at the spine that bothered me. The 8.5 had a perfectly flat cover and an incredible spine - it looked like it never had been opened. As far as I remember, I got it for around 1/5 of the price that the 9.4 sold for although the former was the more desirable book to me.

[Moondog]

First picture:

 

I bought this lot of 115 manuscript pages from the 1960s in a recent Heritage auction. A number of Barks manuscripts from the mid-60s have sold in the last 5 years, mainly from the Barks estate. A friend of mine bought many of these and it was fascinating to go through Barks' edits and corrections to classic stories that I read as a child.

 

Anyway, the real reason I purchased this lot is the manuscript to the 10-pager "The Village Blacksmith" from 1960. I was lucky enough to see this when I visited Mr. Willits and fell in love with it instantly. What makes it special to me is the early date. There may be earlier manuscripts in existence, but I am not aware of them. 1960 is interesting because it was right around this time that Barks and Willits met for the first time. Soon after, a number of other fans would get to meet Barks. I've chosen to focus my collection of Barks originals on the period when Barks was an anonymous artist on payroll, long before Bruce Hamilton turned his name into a successful brand.

 

Barks' first letter to Malcolm Willits sold in the same auction. If the buyer happens to be reading reading this and is having second thoughts about the purchase, I would very much like to hear from you. A friend of mine was the underbidder and we would very much like to acquire this historical item.

 

-----

 

Second picture:

 

In another thread, I mentioned that my own interpretation of beauty is far more important to me than the CGC grade. On two different inspection trips to Dallas, I got to examine this book and another copy in CGC 9.4. Based on the scans, the latter would have seemed more attractive, but when I got to see it in person it had some stress lines at the spine that bothered me. The 8.5 had a perfectly flat cover and an incredible spine - it looked like it never had been opened. As far as I remember, I got it for around 1/5 of the price that the 9.4 sold for although the former was the more desirable book to me.

 

Thanks for sharing your insights, TB. It's always a treat the hear what motivates true collectors!

[tb]

rarehighgrade's generous sharing of some beautiful early DC comics in "Post your Golden Age Adventure/New Adventure/New Comics" inspired me to make a better scan of one of my own favorite books.

 

For someone who might be new to Golden Age comics, it would be impossible to understand the subtle reason why a seemingly vanilla high grade book like this, along with the contemporary Church copies that RHG posted, are so exciting to me. After thinking about how I would explain that to someone who is new to this segment of the hobby, I came up with the chart at the bottom. It shows the CGC census population of unrestored books in 9.0 to 9.8 from 1935 to 1942. For example, the top blue column on the right shows that there currently are 371 books from 1942 that have been graded CGC 9.0.

 

Basically, the chart gives an indication of just how difficult it is to find any high grade comic if you go back before 1940. For each year you step back prior to 1939, the available pool of books decreases by a factor between 2x and 3x. A book in 9.0+ from 1939 is already very challenging to find, but if you go back two years further it becomes almost 5 times more difficult. Once you reach 1936, the current census population levels out in the single digits. Any surviving high grade book from this era, regardless of title or cover art, truly is a treasure of the hobby if you love beautiful early comics.

 

[50YrsCollctngCmcs]

rarehighgrade's generous sharing of some beautiful early DC comics in "Post your Golden Age Adventure/New Adventure/New Comics" inspired me to make a better scan of one of my own favorite books.

 

For someone who might be new to Golden Age comics, it would be impossible to understand the subtle reason why a seemingly vanilla high grade book like this, along with the contemporary Church copies that RHG posted, are so exciting to me. After thinking about how I would explain that to someone who is new to this segment of the hobby, I came up with the chart at the bottom. It shows the CGC census population of unrestored books in 9.0 to 9.8 from 1935 to 1942. For example, the top blue column on the right shows that there currently are 371 books from 1942 that have been graded CGC 9.0.

 

Basically, the chart gives an indication of just how difficult it is to find any high grade comic if you go back before 1940. For each year you step back prior to 1939, the available pool of books decreases by a factor between 2x and 3x. A book in 9.0+ from 1939 is already very challenging to find, but if you go back two years further it becomes almost 5 times more difficult. Once you reach 1936, the current census population levels out in the single digits. Any surviving high grade book from this era, regardless of title or cover art, truly is a treasure of the hobby if you love beautiful early comics.

 

 

Interesting, I wonder if there is a correllation between the quantity of books issued during those years and the survival rate.

[Bronty]

wow, gorgeous book tb!

[Baz]

and the paper drives during WWII is where a lot of comic books probably ended up in? Wouldn't that be a big factor?

 

Those old MMM covers are gorgeous. Don't own any but always tempted to pick up a couple...

 

 

[Bronty]

The other factor unless I am very much mistaken in my assumption is that there were simply far more comics published the further you go into history.

 

I'd guess that for every title published in 1936 there were at least 10 being published in 1941, and at higher circulation numbers. 1936 is just very, very early in the history of this medium

 

I suspect that even if the % survival rate of 1941 comics is the same as 1936 comics, there would simply be far more 1941 comics around because far more were printed.

[tb]

40YC, Bronty:

 

I have no doubt that the lower circulation in the early history of comics is the reason so few high grade copies exist from the mid-1930s. Around 5 years ago, I was looking into this. I made various charts showing the relationship between the CGC census population, print run, and Overstreet value for 1930s and early 40s DC comics since the most complete circulation data was available for these. Back then, the graphs for the census data and the circulation were virtually indistinguishable (aside from scale, of course) while the Overstreet value seemed to have very little impact. My impression is that the census population more or less is a uniform sampling of all comics published, at least for higher grade, early books where the cost of slabbing is sufficiently low compared to the value of the books. Based on these assumptions, the graph I posted above should give a good indication of the relative number of comics published each year.

 

When you are looking at subsets of books that have populations of less than 10 or 20 copies, a single find can have a very big impact. A few weeks ago, I pointed out (in this thread) how more than half of the CGC graded books from the 1930s in 9.4+ are from the Church collection. If you look at the years 1935-38, I suspect that the CGC census in a year or two will show that the Mickey Mouse Magazines from the Disney Archives will be either the biggest or second biggest source of high grade copies along with the Church collection. Of course the Church books are far more important, but I still think it is an interesting bit of trivia.

 

Here is another book that statistically shouldn't exist. I last posted it 5-6 years ago but this is a better scan.

 

 

Edit: Btw., unless they have been lost or damaged at some point in the last 40-50 years, there is every reason to believe that the Disney Archives still has one or more runs of at least the same quality as the books I have been posting. But these are obviously extremely unlikely ever to surface.

 

 

Edited June 1, 2011 by tb

[RareHighGrade]

:applause: Gorgeous books tb. Thanks for posting them, and please post more.

 

I also really like your chart showing the scarcity of high grade books from the early years.

[Bronty]

stunning book tb!

 

 

[AJD]

Hi grade 1930s books and a bar graph.

 

Nerdvana.

 

Thanks for sharing.

[shiverbones]

40YC, Bronty:

 

I have no doubt that the lower circulation in the early history of comics is the reason so few high grade copies exist from the mid-1930s. Around 5 years ago, I was looking into this. I made various charts showing the relationship between the CGC census population, print run, and Overstreet value for 1930s and early 40s DC comics since the most complete circulation data was available for these. Back then, the graphs for the census data and the circulation were virtually indistinguishable (aside from scale, of course) while the Overstreet value seemed to have very little impact. My impression is that the census population more or less is a uniform sampling of all comics published, at least for higher grade, early books where the cost of slabbing is sufficiently low compared to the value of the books. Based on these assumptions, the graph I posted above should give a good indication of the relative number of comics published each year.

 

When you are looking at subsets of books that have populations of less than 10 or 20 copies, a single find can have a very big impact. A few weeks ago, I pointed out (in this thread) how more than half of the CGC graded books from the 1930s in 9.4+ are from the Church collection. If you look at the years 1935-38, I suspect that the CGC census in a year or two will show that the Mickey Mouse Magazines from the Disney Archives will be either the biggest or second biggest source of high grade copies along with the Church collection. Of course the Church books are far more important, but I still think it is an interesting bit of trivia.

 

Here is another book that statistically shouldn't exist. I last posted it 5-6 years ago but this is a better scan.

 

 

Edit: Btw., unless they have been lost or damaged at some point in the last 40-50 years, there is every reason to believe that the Disney Archives still has one or more runs of at least the same quality as the books I have been posting. But these are obviously extremely unlikely ever to surface.

 

 

literally breathtaking book. I am stunned!

[tb]

Nice to hear that other people can appreciate an obscure title like this. Below is another copy that is hard to upgrade. This cover must be among those that have been reproduced most frequently on various products over the years. In my experience, the iconic covers are usually the hardest to find in high grade.

 

Completely unrelated, I was going through my collection of Carl Barks artwork and came across the splash panel to the "Trick or Treat" story from Donald Duck 26 which I have posted here in the past. This is a long shot, but I'd really like to get hold of an article that was published in Comics Buyer's Guide around 1977. I bought the art around 10 years ago and the previous owner told me that CBG mentioned the sale when he purchased it. I love this kind of documentation on provenance and would very much like a copy. If anyone has any clues on how you could get access to 30+ year old back issues, I'd very much appreciate the feedback. Obviously, there would be some kind of reward but that's better handled over PM.

 

[Transplant]

tb: I think you'll have someone posting that article before too long. That's the great thing about these boards. Question. Wasn't the splash page censored? Is yours marked up or was it done to a copy? I seem to remember seeing your splash before, but I can't place the details. I'll be hitting the search function immediately after posting this.

[MrBedrock]

Simply Outstanding (thumbs u

[adamstrange]

tb, thanks for posting the 1930s census data. Very interesting stuff. I was amazed to see a Mystery Men 3 in 9.4. Unless Jon has submitted his copy, that means it`s not the Church copy.

 

Jon has the Church and the Larson. That copy is the Allentown.

[tth2]

tb, thanks for posting the 1930s census data. Very interesting stuff. I was amazed to see a Mystery Men 3 in 9.4. Unless Jon has submitted his copy, that means it`s not the Church copy.

 

Jon has the Church and the Larson. That copy is the Allentown.

Great info as always! (thumbs u

 

As is often the case in this hobby, it`s good to be old!

 

Edited June 4, 2011 by tth2

[tb]

Question. Wasn't the splash page censored? Is yours marked up or was it done to a copy?

You are right, the surviving artwork is the censored version of the splash panel which was rejected and returned to Barks.

 

Here is another original that I have not posted before. It is the top half of an unpublished page intended for Walt Disney's Comics and Stories 175 in 1955. In contrast to the "Trick or Treat" example, Barks discarded this gag himself after he had inked it. According to articles I've read by Geoffrey Blum based on interviews, Barks just didn't think that the gag was funny enough and also pointed out that it could not be understood by children who could not read the dialogue. It was replaced by another, more visual gag where Donald was grabbing the candy from hungry bears at the zoo.

 

A fun little tidbit about this half-page is the almost invisible writing in blue pencil at the top left corner: "has to x-ray nurses", which I have never seen mentioned in any of the many articles on Barks' unpublished art. In the 10-page story, Donald has lost a diamond ring in a batch of taffy and is trying to buy up the candy to find it. Perhaps Barks was making a note to himself to replace (or follow up?) with a gag where D. wants to X-ray the nurses after they have eaten the candy(?).

 

In any case, I see it as an example of how much Barks cared about giving his readers quality for their 10 cents, especially given that he had never received any direct feedback from readers up to this time.

 

My apologies for spamming the Duck thread lately. I may soon have to take a break from posting and am trying to add stuff while I have more time.