Help ID a coverless Catman?

[Point Five]

Hi folks,

 

Title says it all! Here's another of my many "point five" golden age books. More out of curiosity than anything else, I'd like to know which issue number this is:

 

 

The villian is "Mr. Peccary", and as you can see in the scan, the story starts out with this wonderful bit where Catman and the Kitten are leaving a then-current Humphrey Bogart movie and discussing Sidney Greenstreet, which segues into them talking about Mr. Peccary (I assume his character is based on Greenstreet). Great stuff. Anyone able to pin this one down?

[aardvark88]

U can also try a search for character/villian at www.comics.org Grand Comic Bk database.

[verygoodplus]

Look at this cover:

 

[verygoodplus]

And this one (#24):

 

[Point Five]

Thanks guys! These are great clues.

 

Verygoodplus, the covers you posted are #21 & #24 respectively. From the story, it's clear they've already fought Peccary at least once before, so #24 with the Schomburg cover seems the logical answer...and yep, the cover scene matches the story (Kitten is kidnapped, Japanese agents, etc). But I know that GA covers don't always match their contents, especially with a series like this with so many rotating cover artists. Can anyone confirm this coverless book as a #24?

[verygoodplus]

Each of the covers posted above features a Sydney Greenstreet-like character, so I'm assuming that this is the Mr. Peccary in question. Schomburg's version looks a bit different than Quinlan's, naturally.

 

#21 dates from Nov. '43; #24 from May '44. "Across the Pacific" was released in 1942, so these seem a bit late for that reference, but stranger things have happened. Of course, just because Mr. Peccary is in the story doesn't necessarily mean that he's cover-featured.

 

 

 

Could you give me the page counts for the Catman story, as well as the Deacon story? Any other features you could mention would be helpful, but I think I can narrow it down pretty well from those two.

[verygoodplus]

Issue 24 contains these stories (page counts in parentheses):

 

Catman (10)

The Deacon (7)

The Hood (7)

Blackout (7)

Personal Adventure 1 (4)

Personal Adventure 2 (6)

Corny Cobbs (3)

 

 

 

From what you wrote above I'd say this is almost certainly the book in question. I think coverless comics are great, but don't you wish you had that Schomburg cover to go with it?

[FlyingDonut]

Contact Jeff Weaver at MadCowComics (jeffweaver@aol.com). He's a big time Catman collector and should be able to ID your book.

[Point Five]

Thanks for the tip, Donut, I'll give Jeff a try. But for those of you playing along at home, it looks like my book is not #24 as described above, regardless of the cover theme matching. Here's the breakdown of my book:

 

Catman (10 pages)

The Deacon (7)

Blackout (7)

Ragman (6)

Little Leaders (6)

"Los Banditos" Personal Adventure (6)

The Hood (6)

"Death Roams the Deep" Personal Adventure (4)

 

Boy, you sure got your dime's worth out of this title!

 

And you're right, VG+, I'd take that Schomburg cover any day. Come to think of it, I'd take ANY Catman cover any day! Of my four Catman books, ALL are coverless. Tough title, especially on a budget! I've gotten outbid on low-grade copies countless times, and won a covered #31 but returned it b/c of a really nasty amateur resto job (anyone else seen or owned this one? It seems to change hands on ebay every six months or so)....

[verygoodplus]

OK, Point Five, that is issue 21 (as per the Keltner index).

 

So, we can assume that Mr. Peccary first appeared in an earlier issue.

 

 

This is a very nifty series, I love the fact that he has a girl sidekick (not too many of those).

 

How much do you usually pay for a coverless copy?

[Point Five]

That's great! ...Thanks for the help, VG+!

 

I've gotten pretty lucky (depending on your point of view I guess!, assuming you can live with coverless books) with coverless copies. I won a coverless #11 for $27, and a lot of #5, #21 & #27 for a total of about $45. Since multiples of guide are the rule on these books, I've been real happy with these (by way of contrast, a coverless #27 with a piece missing from the last page recently went for $40 on ebay). In general, the prices on coverless books seems to be all over the map, as you might expect...there's little agreement on what a coverless book should be "worth", especially a rare GA one.

 

Yep, Catman sure is quite the interesting series! Between the wild stories, the frankly bizarre backup features, the classic covers and the great GA art, there's quite a lot going on. The art and story lineups change radically from issue to issue too (not to mention the numbering!), so it's not a seen-one-seen-'em-all kind of thing. There's other GA books that are higher on my want list, so I'll never be spending the kind of dough needed to become a true Catman completist, but I do sure enjoy 'em when I can.