show us your Mile Highs (Edgar Church copies) 7 7

[cheetah]

I lurk on the boards every couple of months to see what people are up to.  I think most people here were here when I collected but, if not, I used to collect...a lot.  As my kids got older and were able to travel I indulged my traveling bug and was reminded how much I loved the jungles of Costa Rica.  My son and I made a few visits.  During one of those visits, my house was robbed and over $100,000 in comics, including some irreplaceable Church copies were stolen.  The perp, being a meth head, left a trail of bread crumbs that got me my books back in a short time.  He got 8 years in jail, of which he served 5 months.  All my GA books were returned but a number of my BA and modern books were sold and unrecoverable.  I spent hundreds of hours documenting for the police what had been stolen and, yes, they were more interested in a chain saw than they were in Edgar Church's Wings Comics #1.  Given that I wanted to move to Costa Rica and begin doing some things I felt/feel are important to the world, I realized that I couldn't leave the USA for months at a time and leave my books unguarded.  I could get insurance but it would be expensive.  Since my collection was now common knowledge for all the meth heads in northern Kentucky, I felt it would only be a matter of time till the same thing happened.  Insured or not, many of the books I owned were not things that deserved to be stolen and maybe end up in a dumpster somewhere.  The thought of Church books being lost under my ownership  still fills me with horror.  I always felt that I was just borrowing the books from the collecting community; they belonged to all of us as collectors.  I was just the current curator.  So I made the decision to quit the hobby and return all my books back to the community, some with a finder's fee and some with rent due. [snark}  Regardless, as time has gone by, I am positive I made the right choice.  I've only spent a few months in the USA over the last five years.  My current stay in Costa Rica will be more than a year in length.  I am not 'home' anymore and would not be there to make sure my books were protected.  In the time I have been gone, I've managed to start up a native tree nursery on Costa Rica and reforest a rare, low-elevation cloud forest. I've also begun to help an indigenous group begin reforesting their lad in order to preserve their dwindling water supplies.  I've grown and planted more than 50,000 trees that I have grown from seeds I collected by spending many hours in the jungle.  I'm happy with my choice and I know that the community still owns all my old books and they are in someone's hands who cares about them.

That being said, I spent hundreds of hours scanning my books.  I've maintained my photobucket account for years with scanned copies of almost every book I have ever owned.  Even though I used to post a lot, there were hundreds or thousands of books I owned that I never posted on the boards.  Plenty of these were Edgar's books.  I never intended to be a 'pedigree snob,' but I did prefer to collect beautiful books.  As everyone knows, Edgar's books are beautiful.  Central Valley, Vancouver, and Pennsylvania books were of similar quality and I had those, too.  But thanks to Edgar Church's monomaniacal collecting strategy, his books were the most common of the cherry books I owned.  I probably owned more than anyone ever realized.  I certainly was surprised when I once counted the total and saw it numbered in the hundreds.  All that being said. we are nearing the end of the planting season in Costa Rica and that means it rains every day and I have time to sit and catch up on other things.  So I decided I would post a gallery of all of Edgar Church's books that I once owned.  It might take a while as Photobucket does not provide link information like I want and I have to do some editing.  For now, I am posting the As and Bs or my former collection.  I'll post the rest as I have time. 

[Randall Dowling]

@cheetah I, for one, really appreciate you posting these.  You sold me a Jungle Comics back in the day and I've always enjoyed watching your collection from the impressive set of GFCs that you put together (which I purchased a few of from Comic Connect) to the amazing sets of Fiction House and Church books.  Having said all of that, I really agree with your choice.  If I thought there was even a 5% chance that my books might get stolen and trashed, I'd divest as well.  And what you're doing down there in the jungle is as meaningful a way to spend one's time as any.  

Always glad to see your posts.    

[Cpt Kirk]

16 hours ago, Randall Dowling said:

@cheetah I, for one, really appreciate you posting these.  You sold me a Jungle Comics back in the day and I've always enjoyed watching your collection from the impressive set of GFCs that you put together (which I purchased a few of from Comic Connect) to the amazing sets of Fiction House and Church books.  Having said all of that, I really agree with your choice.  If I thought there was even a 5% chance that my books might get stolen and trashed, I'd divest as well.  And what you're doing down there in the jungle is as meaningful a way to spend one's time as any.  

Always glad to see your posts.    

You could not have said it better.  I took am grateful for the post, @cheetah

[Timely]

Here’s an interesting tidbit.

43 years ago in 1977 Chuck liberated the books from Edgar’s basement. Even Church’s oldest books from 1936 now have spent more that half their lives outside of Church’s basement!

[cheetah]

This group includes my favorite title, Nedor's Exciting comics.  Edgar Church's copies of this title were immaculate and Xela's airbrush covers were my favorite covers in my collection.  I completed the entire run of the title and eventually sold it in its entirety to purchase my low-elevation cloud forest where I now live.  It was a trade of my favorite title for a thing of awe-inspiring beauty and ecological value.  In a moment of synchronicity, we will be finishing the reforestation planting on the property this week.  Work over the last year has already increased habitat for over 300 species of birds, ocelots, peccaries, and a black jaguar that includes this area in its home range.

[october]

1 hour ago, cheetah said:

Work over the last year has already increased habitat for over 300 species of birds, ocelots, peccaries, and a black jaguar that includes this area in its home range.

Sounds like you made a great choice and used the money for better reasons than most people can or will manage. Hats off on the impact you have had. 

[adamstrange]

[MrBedrock]

[whomerjay]

5 hours ago, october said:

Sounds like you made a great choice and used the money for better reasons than most people can or will manage. Hats off on the impact you have had. 

+1

Just wow.

[lotemo]

Two favorites from my collection

 

[Mr. Lady Luck]

17 hours ago, lotemo said:

Two favorites from my collection

 

Beautiful books!!

[cheetah]

This group includes my Fight Comics. Mr. Bedrock took the entire run when I sold and I've seen that he has kept so many of the best.  I don't think I quite finished putting the run together but when I first started collecting it, it was well down on the list of favored titles so many issues came easily and at a reasonable price.  By the time I was done, It was like going to war to find decent copies of the ones I was missing.  Kind of ironic that some of my favorite covers in the run at the jungle-themed covers.  Predestination I assume.  Fight 79 with art by Maurice Whitman is one of my favorite GGA covers.  The colors on Edgar Church's copy are mind melting.  Hard to believe it is a 70-year old comic book.

Firehair is included in this lot.  Unappreciated for GGA.

 

 

 

Edited October 2, 2020 by cheetah

[podboy66]

This thread needs a bump

[Timely]

MH Copy

[Sarg]

On 9/30/2020 at 11:12 AM, cheetah said:

This group includes my favorite title, Nedor's Exciting comics.  Edgar Church's copies of this title were immaculate and Xela's airbrush covers were my favorite covers in my collection.  I completed the entire run of the title and eventually sold it in its entirety to purchase my low-elevation cloud forest where I now live.  It was a trade of my favorite title for a thing of awe-inspiring beauty and ecological value.  In a moment of synchronicity, we will be finishing the reforestation planting on the property this week.  Work over the last year has already increased habitat for over 300 species of birds, ocelots, peccaries, and a black jaguar that includes this area in its home range.

Stunning -- and so great to see 9.4 and 9.8 grades to books that deserve to be graded 9.4 and 9.8. 

[Larryw7]

22 hours ago, Timely said:

MH Copy

[mwotka]

Was very happy to pick up one last year, still can't believe I ran across it.  

[podboy66]

I've been eyeing these for quite sometime.  Mail call!  The scans don't do justice to how fresh the book are and that the cover is razor sharp!!

Edited May 20, 2021 by podboy66

[Robot Man]

28 minutes ago, podboy66 said:

I've been eyeing these for quite sometime.  Mail call!  The scans don't do justice to how fresh the book are and that the cover is razor sharp!!

Damn, those are epic. Other than a certain issue owned by our very own Tall Texan @MrBedrock, GA books don't get any better than this.

[bpc3qh]

1 hour ago, podboy66 said:

I've been eyeing these for quite sometime.  Mail call!  The scans don't do justice to how fresh the book are and that the cover is razor sharp!!

Oh my oh my. Those are *beautiful*.