Who was "ACE"

[The Black Hand ®]

Question for all you collectors out there. I've had a few MLJ's with the name "ACE" on the cover. I've even seen some in Gerber. Does anyone know who this was?

[Aces]

My dad?

[The Black Hand ®]

If anybody cares, there's an interesting story behind that Pep 32 I've scanned, other than the "ACE" in the middle of the cover. When I was about 15 years old in the mid 60's I conned my uncle into buying me a copy of Action #3 at Cherokee bookstore in LA. We were on vacation there. I remember walking into the store and seeing a Detective #1 in the glass display case. Upstairs there were shelves of comics in the upright position. I picked out the Action 3 for 25.00. It was about a vg/fine if my memory serves me well. Within 3 or 4 months the more experienced Dang brothers in Oakland got wind of the fact I had it and pursued me for it, finally they talked me out of it with a stupid trade, which included that Pep 32. They were older and very persistant and flattered me a lot, I never knew what hit me. I was a kid,Easy to trick. My only revenge was that as a stupid kid, I was dumb enough to write my name and address in ink in one if the center margins, I don't think Lucas ever got over that.

To make this even more interesting, at least to me, I sold that copy of Pep 32 to Bob Beerbohm's store a couple of years later and then reaquired it 30 years later from a local collector at a local comic store. It's low grade, but I'll never get rid of ot.

[Aces]

Nice story.

 

We all got screwed out of stuff when we were young.

 

I was just fooling around...

[Larryw7]

I love hearing anecdotes about the Cherokee Book Store and the Collectors Bookstore in Hollywood. Both stores sound like they were a real mecca for comic collectors in the sixties. I wish I could have been there to experience it firsthand.

[The Black Hand ®]

Both stores were a real treat to visit. Unfortunately, I lived in Oakland, California and didn't have the resources to buy a lot of books at those stores when visiting the area. However, I was aquainted with a lot of collectors in the bay area, one in particular named Barry Bauman, who had the most fabulous collection. Boxes and boxes and stacks and stacks of Golden age in his" Bat Cave", which I seem to remember being in the upstairs bedroom and attic area of his mom's house.I was invited over a few times even though I was a couple of years younger to peruse the collection and purchase items. I remember a sunday afternoon lounging on the floor going through deep runs of DC and Timely with no worries about handling the books. Although we were, as collectors, carefull while reading those golden age goodies.Even as I'm recounting this my sense memory is being flooded with the smell of all that old paper, all those beautiful books, all that time ago when I was just a kid. A few years later I would be a completely different person in a war I could have done without.

[The Black Hand ®]

Any body with any "ACE" books?

[HouseofComics.Com]

I love hearing anecdotes about the Cherokee Book Store and the Collectors Bookstore in Hollywood. Both stores sound like they were a real mecca for comic collectors in the sixties. I wish I could have been there to experience it firsthand.

 

Me too! I love those stories and ones about Evanier's local comic club and Pops (with his pressed and strengthened comics) and Overstreet finding the science fiction collector with all the extra ECs on hand...

 

My first experience with any kind of back issues came when my father returned from a trip with a flier for The Great Escape, a comic book store in Nashville. This is right before the first stores opened up in my area (near Kalamazoo, MI) so I'd never heard of such a thing. On our next two trips to Florida we stopped in Nashville (a convenient halfway point) and I got to visit The Great Escape. Wow--for $25-40 I walked out of there with wonderful piles. James Bond paperbacks for a quarter each, back issues of Batman for a quarter, Conan bagged back issues for $1-3, a few new comics, a D&D magazine that was out of print, etc. Just fantastic for those days.

 

Marc

[HouseofComics.Com]

I remember a sunday afternoon lounging on the floor going through deep runs of DC and Timely with no worries about handling the books. Although we were, as collectors, carefull while reading those golden age goodies.Even as I'm recounting this my sense memory is being flooded with the smell of all that old paper, all those beautiful books, all that time ago when I was just a kid. A few years later I would be a completely different person in a war I could have done without.

 

Great post.

 

Do you still live in the Bay Area?

 

I enjoy stories with the Bay Area slant, whether that's Wyatt and McAdam helping out at the Lawless flea market booth, or the discovery of the Reilly collection and the founding of Comics & Comix, or the first Bay Con, or even Chris Juricich's adventures trying to find back issues on the peninsula in the 60s.

 

Marc

Berkeley

[The Black Hand ®]

I live about 350 miles up the coast now in Humboldt county in the Redwood forest or what's left of the Redwood forest.

Anyone have a Top Notch Laugh 31 or 35 for sale out there?

[Larryw7]

, I was aquainted with a lot of collectors in the bay area, one in particular named Barry Bauman, who had the most fabulous collection. Boxes and boxes and stacks and stacks of Golden age in his" Bat Cave"

 

Bill Schelly's book THE GOLDEN AGE OF COMIC FANDOM has a few pictures of that room. Unbelievable collection!

[The Black Hand ®]

Is that book still available? I'd love to see those pictures!

[Larryw7]

Oops! The kid with all of the comic books in Schelly's book is named Billy Placzek, no pictures of Barry B. unfortunately. Sorry about that.

 

 

At any rate, here's a scan of the page with Placzek and some of his collection.

 

 

[The Black Hand ®]

Still a nice picture. I wonder if there are any photos of Barry's Bat Cave? He's long gone now.R.I.P., but you would think there might have been some shots.

[Larryw7]

If you can make out the books that the kid is holding, one is the Phantom Feature Book. Those were real prestigious in the early days of the hobby, but they have cooled off considerably in the years since. I wonder what caused some of the really hot books to simmer down? I wonder if we'll all be wondering why some of the hot stuff being collected now is colder than a cucumber in thirty years?

[The Black Hand ®]

Wasn't that a reprint book of the strips like Ace? I think those cooled off after silver age started. Availability also mattered.I think the biggest trend change occured after the Journals came out and people saw all the cool covers of non DC and Timely books. These are just uneducated guesses on my part by the way.

[Larryw7]

Yep, all of the Feature Books were, to the best of my knowledge, strip reprints. They were super hot in the early days because of their historical significance. Books like Famous Funnies, Super and the like were as collected as the superheroes were. I concur with you that the Gerber books made collectors much more aware of cool covers as opposed to historical value, hence the surge in prices of books like SUSPENSE #3 and the Nedors.

[BradleyX2]

Any body with any "ACE" books?

 

 

Just one.

 

 

[Norrin_Radd]

Yep, all of the Feature Books were, to the best of my knowledge, strip reprints.

 

Feature #20 and #22 reprint The Phantom strips from the very beginning in 1936. I own reprint books. Great stories that still read well seventy years later.

[rjpb]

Any body with any "ACE" books?

 

 

Just one.

 

 

 

That is just so sad.