Popular Post Bunky Brian Posted December 4, 2018 Popular Post Share Posted December 4, 2018 SushiX, Cpt Kirk, Sqeggs and 2 others 5 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Straw-Man Posted December 4, 2018 Share Posted December 4, 2018 paltry NOT! Larryw7 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Sqeggs Posted December 4, 2018 Share Posted December 4, 2018 4 hours ago, Bunky Brian said: On 12/3/2018 at 9:24 AM, Timely said: Gerber no-show white space. Probably the rarest Hitler cover! Definitely a top 3 for the most unusual hero costume in the Golden Age! Frigging unreal rare book !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Crazy tough book. You have to credit Edgar's newsstand (or the newsstand's distributor) with carrying such a wide variety of comics, even obscure ones. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Timely Posted December 4, 2018 Share Posted December 4, 2018 23 minutes ago, Sqeggs said: Crazy tough book. You have to credit Edgar's newsstand (or the newsstand's distributor) with carrying such a wide variety of comics, even obscure ones. Well, they knew they were guaranteed at least one copy would sell... to Edgar! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Sqeggs Posted December 4, 2018 Share Posted December 4, 2018 Just now, Timely said: 25 minutes ago, Sqeggs said: Crazy tough book. You have to credit Edgar's newsstand (or the newsstand's distributor) with carrying such a wide variety of comics, even obscure ones. Well, they knew they were guaranteed at least one copy would sell... to Edgar! You know, I was wondering about that. Would it have been worth the distributor's or newsstand's while to get in a single copy to set aside for Edgar? Maybe it was given the volume of books he was buying. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
adamstrange Posted December 4, 2018 Share Posted December 4, 2018 1 hour ago, Sqeggs said: You know, I was wondering about that. Would it have been worth the distributor's or newsstand's while to get in a single copy to set aside for Edgar? Maybe it was given the volume of books he was buying. In the early days you had the code telling you how many comics were at that location and Church was probably 20% or so of what they sold. It was probably large enough volume in the days when a dime was a meaningful amount of money that the news stand cared. Also, if it was a single owner business than he probably received a level of customer service you don't see as much any more. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
sagii Posted December 5, 2018 Share Posted December 5, 2018 7 hours ago, Bunky Brian said: Phenomenal Bunky. Wowzers!! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SteveDuin Posted December 5, 2018 Share Posted December 5, 2018 2 hours ago, adamstrange said: In the early days you had the code telling you how many comics were at that location and Church was probably 20% or so of what they sold. It was probably large enough volume in the days when a dime was a meaningful amount of money that the news stand cared. Also, if it was a single owner business than he probably received a level of customer service you don't see as much any more. Have you ever read anything that might explain the condition of the books off the newsstand? Not once they reached Edgar's home, but at the newsstand. Did the guy set aside one copy of each issue for Church? Did Church emphasize that he wanted the book with the fewest flaws? So much lost history ... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
adamstrange Posted December 5, 2018 Share Posted December 5, 2018 1 minute ago, SteveDuin said: Did Church emphasize that he wanted the book with the fewest flaws? So much lost history ... I was thinking about this question as I was responding earlier today. Comics would have been handled multiple times between the plant and the news stand so if so many Church copies survived in near mint or better condition then some credit has to go to the general care that was taken at every step along the way. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
adamstrange Posted December 5, 2018 Share Posted December 5, 2018 9 hours ago, Bunky Brian said: Isn't this the Larson? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Cat-Man_America Posted December 5, 2018 Share Posted December 5, 2018 2 minutes ago, adamstrange said: I was thinking about this question as I was responding earlier today. Comics would have been handled multiple times between the plant and the news stand so if so many Church copies survived in near mint or better condition then some credit has to go to the general care that was taken at every step along the way. Keep in mind that Edgar Church wasn't a typical kid begging his news dealer to hold copies for him. He was an established adult illustrator requesting copies as source material for his files. It should be assumed he had a deal with a local distributor or store account to acquire undamaged copies and some care was taken to insure the customer got what he requested. At least that's my best guess. Cpt Kirk 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Cpt Kirk Posted December 5, 2018 Author Share Posted December 5, 2018 44 minutes ago, Cat-Man_America said: Keep in mind that Edgar Church wasn't a typical kid begging his news dealer to hold copies for him. He was an established adult illustrator requesting copies as source material for his files. It should be assumed he had a deal with a local distributor or store account to acquire undamaged copies and some care was taken to insure the customer got what he requested. At least that's my best guess. Exactly. I think there has been some documentation to confirm what you just said. He was meticulous about making sure the best copies were set aside for him. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
buttock Posted December 5, 2018 Share Posted December 5, 2018 3 hours ago, Cat-Man_America said: Keep in mind that Edgar Church wasn't a typical kid begging his news dealer to hold copies for him. He was an established adult illustrator requesting copies as source material for his files. It should be assumed he had a deal with a local distributor or store account to acquire undamaged copies and some care was taken to insure the customer got what he requested. At least that's my best guess. Given that the codes on the books were written by the vendor for returns to the distributor, I don't think we should assume he was getting copies from the distributor. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bat34 Posted December 5, 2018 Share Posted December 5, 2018 (edited) My first MH Edited December 5, 2018 by Bat34 Updated pic Cpt Kirk, Larryw7 and Sqeggs 2 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bat34 Posted December 5, 2018 Share Posted December 5, 2018 Cpt Kirk 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bat34 Posted December 5, 2018 Share Posted December 5, 2018 Cpt Kirk 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
adamstrange Posted December 5, 2018 Share Posted December 5, 2018 Those Targets are sweet! I'm pretty sure those are ones I saw raw before they were slabbed. Bat34 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
adamstrange Posted December 5, 2018 Share Posted December 5, 2018 Per Chuck: Quote An interesting sidebar to this story is that Mr. Church was apparently the first person in the history of comics to have his issues reserved for him! He had one copy of every comic printed put aside for him by his local newsstand starting with ACTION COMICS #1 (that book is even marked very lightly in pencil with his name!) in 1938. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Cat-Man_America Posted December 5, 2018 Share Posted December 5, 2018 3 hours ago, buttock said: Given that the codes on the books were written by the vendor for returns to the distributor, I don't think we should assume he was getting copies from the distributor. An oft-discussed theory is that the penciled letters & numbers in the upper left hand corner (or on cover logos) of most early 40's Church pedigree books represent which distributor specific lines of books originate along with dates received. If that's the case, it doesn't seem logical that these books were designated as returns regardless of whether they were set aside by a vendor or purchased directly from a distributor. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
buttock Posted December 5, 2018 Share Posted December 5, 2018 5 hours ago, Cat-Man_America said: An oft-discussed theory is that the penciled letters & numbers in the upper left hand corner (or on cover logos) of most early 40's Church pedigree books represent which distributor specific lines of books originate along with dates received. If that's the case, it doesn't seem logical that these books were designated as returns regardless of whether they were set aside by a vendor or purchased directly from a distributor. The reason that vendors put distributor codes on books was so that they would know which distributor they should return the books to in case of a non-sale. I never said they were designated for returns. The point that I'm making is that the fact that they had distributor codes written on them means that they had already made it to the newsstand, so they would not have been obtained directly from the distributor. That's flat out wrong. Sqeggs and adamstrange 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...