tb Posted June 7, 2011 Share Posted June 7, 2011 In the past, I've mentioned how the technical grade of a book is less important to me than how "beautiful" it looks. The scan below shows the unslabbed version of a picture from the CGC gallery that I linked to previously. This book, which I got from moondog many moons ago, graded 9.2. The picture below that shows a higher graded copy from my collection. I've been through countless of these types of decisions over the years as I have upgraded my run. In this case, what stood out to me was the colors of the top copy which just make it an incredibly beautiful book in my eyes. The second book is also beautiful and I personally very much like file copy markings which I consider a plus. But when I compare the two, like I would two pieces of beautiful art, one just stands out above the other. Almost every copy has it's own slight variation in hue and saturation; I wouldn't know how to quantify my preferences that but it's just obvious when I compare two books. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
AJD Posted June 7, 2011 Share Posted June 7, 2011 tb, I agree with your assessment of those books. When it's all said and done, there's very little difference in 'technical grade' between 9.2 and 9.4 (or .6 or .8 for that matter) and eye appeal trumps it for me every time. Not, I hasten to add, that I am likely to be swmming in the same pool as you any time soon... Thank you for sharing some of your beautiful collection again. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Yellow Kid Posted June 7, 2011 Share Posted June 7, 2011 About 15 years ago, Mal asked me to sell his run of MMM's for him for $15K. When they arrived, I was apeechless as issue after issue was just beautiful. I asked $25K and the first dealer I mentioned them to, bought them. They were so nice that he sold them for $35K a few days later. I had alwalys regretted not buying them myself as I thought I would never see a nicer set. However, tb has put together a plan and followed it, and the result is the nicest collection of MMM's I have ever seen, or even heard of. And the great thing about tb's collection is that it is going to continue to get better and better for many years to come. Congratulations, tb, you have built a magnificent collection. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
tb Posted June 7, 2011 Share Posted June 7, 2011 Thanks, Mr. Kid, that means a lot coming from you. I have indeed been pretty dedicated to this project for 10-15 years now and it's been a lot of fun, not least thanks to friendships I've built with other collectors that I've worked with. The best part is that the whole thing has been surprisingly cheap. Most of the challenge has been in locating the books and not giving up despite some setbacks, for example when "mamanook" was buying every nice copy of the rare last issue that would show up on eBay for several years. I am sure Geppi didn't intend it, but it was actually very discouraging. Fortunately patience, luck, and other board members (not least rarehighgrade) helped me out. The scans below show another example where I ended up with two beautiful books in virtually identical condition. I very much wanted to keep both, but it was still an easy decision for me to let one of them go to help a friend improve his run. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MrBedrock Posted June 7, 2011 Share Posted June 7, 2011 This has been the most beautiful thread lately. Thanks for posting all of these wonderful books tb (thumbs u Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Transplant Posted June 7, 2011 Share Posted June 7, 2011 It's certainly a real contrast to some other threads lately. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
comicdonna Posted June 7, 2011 Share Posted June 7, 2011 This has been the most beautiful thread lately. Thanks for posting all of these wonderful books tb (thumbs u I agree! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
archiefan Posted June 7, 2011 Share Posted June 7, 2011 This has been the most beautiful thread lately. Thanks for posting all of these wonderful books tb (thumbs u I agree! Same here Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
50YrsCollctngCmcs Posted June 8, 2011 Share Posted June 8, 2011 Yes, great stuff. Keep it up. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
adamstrange Posted June 8, 2011 Share Posted June 8, 2011 What a great story! This is one of the nicest bindings I recall seeing and would not have been cheap at the time. It is certainly a sign of a deep affection by Malcolm for Gottfriedson's work. (thumbs u Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
tb Posted June 8, 2011 Share Posted June 8, 2011 What a great story! This is one of the nicest bindings I recall seeing and would not have been cheap at the time. It is certainly a sign of a deep affection by Malcolm for Gottfriedson's work. (thumbs u I think there's a fun parallel between Gottfredson's writing from 1967 and Barks' dedications from 1961 shown below (which I've posted in the past). Barks gave these strips to John and Bill Spicer during their visit: he cut up the rejected halfpage from "The Mysterious Unfinished Invention" (Uncle Scrooge 8, 1955) and signed each resulting tier. Note the humble and self-deprecating message (i.e "to my fan") along the lines that Gottfredson chose. Neither of them were aware of their huge number of readers at the time of these visits. Btw., the two tiers have aged differently because John and Bill kept them separate for 40 years. I would never dream of getting them cleaned since I love this kind of "unintentional" history. Unlike the later oil paintings, this rejected art was originally trash. All the wear and the fact that Barks cut up and handed out the halfpage as a gift are reflections of its humble origin. Although, J. and B.both were in their teens at the time of the visit, they cared enough about the art to keep it relatively safe for so many years. It really was a privilege when they agreed to let me have it. Barks' correspondence with fans later on shows countless requests for Duck originals. In 1961 he had no idea that anyone would be interested in these. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
AJD Posted June 8, 2011 Share Posted June 8, 2011 This thread has been in the stratosphere lately. It's time to fix that and I'm just the one to do it. I picked up two nice WDC&S from Heritage a couple of weeks ago. One of the things I like abut these WWII vintage books is the war related gags. Here's a couple of Taliaferro strips from #60. These are both odd gags to a modern eye, but apparently the editors thought that the intended readership would get them: These make kind of a spiritual link between two of my favourite collection strands. ( This being the other.) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
tb Posted June 9, 2011 Share Posted June 9, 2011 That's a great interior page! I somehow need to get more reading copies myself now that I am getting more of my collection slabbed. There's so much great stuff inside that I have not done justice with my front page scans... First picture: I still have a lot of Mickey Mouse Magazines that have not been certified yet. Here's another. Second picture: The sketches below were done by Barks in 1953. The background story is that he was thinking about making his own strip. As far as I remember, there is a reference in Michael Barrier's biography to an episode where MB was going through Barks' files and came across this drawing (along with an inked version I also have). Supposedly, Barks got visibly upset, grabbed the art, and said that he would tear it up if the subject ever was brought up again. Anyway, that's old hat. What I really care about myself are the sketches of the nephews in blue pencil at the top. It is so hard to find any kind of Duck art from Barks' best period so I treasure everything that comes my way. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Transplant Posted June 9, 2011 Share Posted June 9, 2011 I thought it was a sign this past weekend when I was at a show and saw an opportunity to upgrade my copy: Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
AJD Posted June 9, 2011 Share Posted June 9, 2011 Nice one Transplant - I really like DD26. I thought I'd post a couple more interior pages from WWII vintage WDC&S. These come from #26: This is very much a 'Disney goes to war' kind of thing. It's from the inside cover. My other totally well socially adjusted hobby is building models, and I'm planning to use the scan to produce some markings for a future project. Here's some more newspaper strips. 'Blame it on the Japs' - it's amazing how causal racism was... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
tb Posted June 9, 2011 Share Posted June 9, 2011 Congratulations transplant. I like upgrading too. AJD: It's such a contrast between the innocent stories from the 1930s and those from the war years. Makes me curious when the first war-related material appeared... Perhaps I can figure that out when I visit Mr. Kid. Oh, and as for socially accepted hobbies you are not alone: I make sculptures in my spare time. As for the Mickey Mouse Magazines, I regret to say that we're a very long way from getting through them all. I'll take a break soon so people don't get too tired of them, but here's one I really like. It is one of the issues after volume 2 that has been hardest to find in nice shape (though my backup copy graded CGC 8.5). A fun and unique thing about them is that you can look at just about any cover and then go to youtube and watch the corresponding short or feature. Here's . There are many references to obscure, historical shorts in the interiors as well, such as early b/w cartoons and experimental Silly Symphonies like "Water Babies". Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
tb Posted June 12, 2011 Share Posted June 12, 2011 was released as a Silly Symphony in 1937, the same year Snow White hit theaters. Part of the goal of the Silly Symphony series was to experiment with new techniques and technology. The opening sequence, where Hiawatha sails along a river in his canoe, is the most striking in this short. A lot of effort was put into the animated reflections and the waterfall. Rob Richards has done some amazing digital reconstruction of the backgrounds. Earlier in my career, I worked for Pixar's R&D team on Finding Nemo. Watching the above scenes made me think of how the work we did in the early 2000s to model water in 3d was almost equivalent to what Disney had done 65 years earlier in 2d. The tools were different in that we were using mathematical models of reflections and transparency, but the phenomenological approach of understanding and simulating the appearance of water with the finest available technology was virtually identical. And I have no doubt there would have been just as much work, possibly more, involved in recreating those same effects with paint. It is almost incomprehensible to me that beautiful imagery like this was even possible back in the 1930s. Btw., I suspect the book below is the nicest existing copy. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
AJD Posted June 15, 2011 Share Posted June 15, 2011 One more added thanks to Ed. I was sorry to have missed this copy a few months ago when I thought another boardie had snagged it. I hope the deal didn't fall through for hardship reasons, but I'm very pleased it came back on the market so I could get it. It's my first one in the 30s and the tortoise edges forward one more step... You can see this one with three other Walt Kelly takes on the same idea in the group shots thread. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Yellow Kid Posted June 15, 2011 Share Posted June 15, 2011 That is a very nice copy! All of the WDCS from #31-#50 are tough to find in decent condition. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
50YrsCollctngCmcs Posted June 15, 2011 Share Posted June 15, 2011 was released as a Silly Symphony in 1937, the same year Snow White hit theaters. Part of the goal of the Silly Symphony series was to experiment with new techniques and technology. The opening sequence, where Hiawatha sails along a river in his canoe, is the most striking in this short. A lot of effort was put into the animated reflections and the waterfall. Rob Richards has done some amazing digital reconstruction of the backgrounds. Earlier in my career, I worked for Pixar's R&D team on Finding Nemo. Watching the above scenes made me think of how the work we did in the early 2000s to model water in 3d was almost equivalent to what Disney had done 65 years earlier in 2d. The tools were different in that we were using mathematical models of reflections and transparency, but the phenomenological approach of understanding and simulating the appearance of water with the finest available technology was virtually identical. And I have no doubt there would have been just as much work, possibly more, involved in recreating those same effects with paint. It is almost incomprehensible to me that beautiful imagery like this was even possible back in the 1930s. I didn't realize that Little Hiawatha was a Silly Symphony or that is released so early. I always enjoyed his backup strips in WDC&S along with Bucky Bug and Bongo and Lumpjaw. Disney always hired amazing artists, so I am not surprised that he was able to achieve these incredible background effects as many of his artists were classicly trained. In Salt Lake City for the week but on return I will need to scan the Barks outtakes as well as a piece of original art from one of the early classically trained Disney artists, Hovarth. You don't hear much about him but I picked up a piece for a song on EBay from Red Melvin; aka The Dentist. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
