Fiction house anyone? 26 26

[comicjack]

Got a couple of Rockfords and they don't look as nice as them books!

[Miamiknight3434]

This thread deserves a bump

 

 

 

 

[Scrooge]

2 copies of Rangers # 21, eh?

 

[Miamiknight3434]

yup

[Sqeggs]

Rangers 26 is my favorite cover of the run. I'm probably in the minority (of one ), but this is my second favorite.

 

[Scrooge]

My favorite is # 39 :shrug:

 

Found this one in the unfiled pile - Wings # 63. As much as I will continue collecting the entire run of Wings, there are lean years in the run and this issue hails from a weak period. The book dropped page count here, Al Walker is no longer on Greasemonkey Griffin, ... These are some tough issues to slog through. Looking for a silver lining, you can always rely on Lee Elias to provide some interesting visuals and it's interesting to see Jack Keller draw two stories in this book. This is early in his career; born in 1922, he is only 23 at the time. I could see some of his future characteristics in the Clipper Kirk story, the clean lines and sparse composition that I associate with his 1950's Atlas work. I'll admit that I either never knew or remembered Keller worked for Fiction House; just for that, I'm glad I read this issue this morning.

 

Elias cover -

 

Elias panels -

 

 

Keller splash -

[Scrooge]

Btw, looking at those Elias panels again. Take away the Cannifesque inking folds and splotches and this looks like something Heath would later draw in terms of figure work and layout of each panel. Am I seeing things?

[BB-Gun]

I found a few extra Jumbo comics for the group shot. Many of these have Baker art too.

[Miamiknight3434]

Real nice

[kelholt]

I found a few extra Jumbo comics for the group shot. Many of these have Baker art too.

Nice group (thumbs u

[Scrooge]

Another one that came from the pile: Wings 87.

 

A decent line up of artists: Bob Lubbers, George Evans, Al Walker, Charles Sultan, John Celardo and Maurice Whitman and, yet, not one single inspired job included in the issue. Evans has a couple of good panels tops and Walker is as whimsy as ever but the rest, blah!

 

What turned out to be more interesting is the 5-page text / illo feature. The illos are also by Walker and the topic is Capt. Walker Mahurin as part of the Air Heroes of World War II feature that ran in the magazine. The bio in the feature leaves Mahurin being sent back to the U.S. after resurfacing thanks to the French resistance after his plane had been downed during a mission. That happened in 1944. By then, Mahurin had already achieved super-star status with 19.75 victories. Plus, as mentioned in the piece in the Wings Comics, Mahurin had TWO 3-victory days, on October 4 and November 26, 1943.

 

What the story missed is that he was then sent to the Philippines and added one more victory there in 1945 and then another 3.5 in 1952 in Korea, for a career total of 24.25. Unfortunately he had to crash land in Korea and spent 16 months as a POW. [N.B.: most details from the story & the wikipedia]

 

Nevertheless, born in 1918, Mahurin lived a long life, dying at age 91 in 2010 in Newport Beach (maybe nearmint heard of his passing at the time?) and is buried at Arlington National Cemetery.

 

 

Al Walker on GreaseMonkey Griffin.

 

 

Bud Mahurin's P 47: The Spirit of Atlantic City -

 

 

Bud, with 16 victories -

[AJD]

Another one that came from the pile: Wings 87.

 

A decent line up of artists: Bob Lubbers, George Evans, Al Walker, Charles Sultan, John Celardo and Maurice Whitman and, yet, not one single inspired job included in the issue. Evans has a couple of good panels tops and Walker is as whimsy as ever but the rest, blah!

 

Agreed - I cracked that one out to read it, but in the end wished I'd left it in the slab. I'd read the Bud Mahurin story in an Aircraft of the Aces book, so that didn't help.

[cheetah]

I've been stuck needing four Jumbo to finish my run. Now I only need

 

3...

 

[cheetah]

2...

 

[cheetah]

1...

 

[cheetah]

0...

 

[cheetah]

Mega-thanks to both Michael (Alanna) and Richard Evans for parting with the Jumbo 31 and Jumbo 11. I think I would be looking forever if they didn't cheerfully agree to part with a couple of books I don't think either one really wanted to part with. Thanks, Guys!

 

Now I'm down to one single Jungle to finish that run, too.

[Scrooge]

So glad the boys came through for you Seeing the boards in action in that manner is such a treat

 

Surprised you didn't have the 159. Few graded I suspect?

 

Oh and :hail: :hail: :hail: :hail: :hail: :hail: :hail: :hail: :hail:

[cheetah]

Thanks, Scrooge.

 

There was only one graded copy of 159 until I got mine graded. There was also only one 25 before I got mine graded. The 25 is now the highest graded copy.

 

 

[Miamiknight3434]

After a long day at work, this was at my door when I got home.

I especially want to thank Tyler (Tsp99) for helping me with this issue, without him and other board members I wouldn't be as far as I am in my quest for the first 25 issues of this run.