Heritage's Next Event Auction has started posting books ! 31 31

[manetteska]

On 4/30/2023 at 10:28 PM, mjoeyoung said:

Can someone explain THIS result to me?  Just wasn't on my radar that it would go for this much.

Not many sales on the GPA, a 7.5 for $250 in 2017 and a 3.0 with brittle pages for $336 in Nov 2021.  Only 9 on the census.

There is a supposed 9.6 Mile High copy. Cool Cole cover. 

 

Yowza! 
 

Color me surprised as well. 
 

[drbanner]

Perplexing...the cover looks half-finished, and the finished half ain't all that (although the "OPIUM" label on the box is a nice touch).

[johnenock]

Never seen that book. Nice. Not 5K nice but nice.

[Telegan]

On 5/1/2023 at 3:58 PM, drbanner said:

Perplexing...the cover looks half-finished, and the finished half ain't all that (although the "OPIUM" label on the box is a nice touch).

Gotta love drug runners that clearly display what they're hauling for all to see ... .  I'm also curious what that almost-Mercedes Benz logo on the side of the plane means.

Edited May 2, 2023 by Telegan

[*paull*]

On 5/1/2023 at 3:36 PM, manetteska said:

Yowza! 
 

Color me surprised as well. 
 

 

 

That's a big price for this book.  And I didn't think that copies were that scarce, at least around ten years ago when I was really focused on Cole books.  Not one of my favorites of his... there are a bunch of better ones for less money.

[Professor K]

The MLJ Auction ended a few hours ago. I know they were mostly lower grades but there were some nice books.I was hoping to grab the Hangman 6 1.5 and the Jackpot Comics 7 4.0 but both went higher than I was willing to go. 

The 4.0 Jackpot 7 went much higher than the 4.0 that sold in December for 2,160. Some highlights. 

 

[Professor K]

Big Money Peps

[Professor K]

Zips, didn't know some were so costly 

[RareHighGrade]

It's official:  MLJs have become the new Foxes.

[Cat-Man_America]

On 5/4/2023 at 11:14 PM, RareHighGrade said:

It's official:  MLJs have become the new Foxes.

Gets my vote; I've got some foxy MLJ's (no foxing, just foxy lookin')!  

[lou_fine]

On 5/5/2023 at 12:14 AM, Cat-Man_America said:

On 5/4/2023 at 9:14 PM, RareHighGrade said:

It's official:  MLJs have become the new Foxes.

Gets my vote; I've got some foxy MLJ's (no foxing, just foxy lookin')!  

Well, not until you guys can breathe some life back into Jackpot 4 which seems to have gone into a seemingly comatose state after catching fire due to its early Archie connection a few years ago.  

Edited May 5, 2023 by lou_fine

[Robot Man]

On 5/4/2023 at 9:14 PM, RareHighGrade said:

It's official:  MLJs have become the new Foxes.

MLJs have always been very tough. I have a number of these all pretty low grade but all I could locate when they were affordable enough to collect…

[Professor K]

I think the 4.0 Jackpot 7 sold for double the previous 4.0 sold for 6 months back may have been in part due to the 11,600 sale of an 8.0 in between. 

Managed to grab one book last night (The power of the green head compelled me). Shield Wizard 7 5.0. Actually a Kirby cover? Kirby/Simon? All Novick? Novick/Kirby? Not Kirby at all? Some else? I'd love to get some opinions on this. 

Heritage and ComicConnect have described the book in many ways over the years.

2002- The King, Jack Kirby, and the incomparable Irv Novick render a dynamic swashbuckling cover as the Wizard and the Shield come to rescue Roy the Super Boy from a bunch of ghoulish ne'er-do-wells. Note the cobweb-covered decaying skull on the deck and the Japanese flag in the background. The Shield dons a new costume with this issue.

In 2003 - The Shield gets a new costume in this issue. The best part of this series is that you get the best of two titles, Pep and Top-Notch, wrapped up in one tidy package. MLJ stand-bys Irv Novick and Paul Reinman contributed to this issue, while there is speculation as to whether Simon and Kirby did the cover artwork. From the Compleat Kirby Comic Collection.

2005 - Jack Kirby cover. Irv Novick art.

2006- A Simon and Kirby cover? This sure looks that way to us (Kirby and Irv Novick is another attribution we've seen). This issue saw a new costume for the Shield (adding a pair of shorts, among other changes), and it is a bit strange that the change made him look more like Captain America -- though of course the Shield pre-dates Cap! 

2012 - scarce; Kirby bondage cvr

Yesterday - The Shield dons a new costume. Irv Novick and Paul Reinman art. Rising Sun cover

 

[Cat-Man_America]

On 5/5/2023 at 10:48 AM, Professor K said:

I think the 4.0 Jackpot 7 sold for double the previous 4.0 sold for 6 months back may have been in part due to the 11,600 sale of an 8.0 in between. 

Managed to grab one book last night (The power of the green head compelled me). Shield Wizard 7 5.0. Actually a Kirby cover? Kirby/Simon? All Novick? Novick/Kirby? Not Kirby at all? Some else? I'd love to get some opinions on this. 

Heritage and ComicConnect have described the book in many ways over the years.

2002- The King, Jack Kirby, and the incomparable Irv Novick render a dynamic swashbuckling cover as the Wizard and the Shield come to rescue Roy the Super Boy from a bunch of ghoulish ne'er-do-wells. Note the cobweb-covered decaying skull on the deck and the Japanese flag in the background. The Shield dons a new costume with this issue.

In 2003 - The Shield gets a new costume in this issue. The best part of this series is that you get the best of two titles, Pep and Top-Notch, wrapped up in one tidy package. MLJ stand-bys Irv Novick and Paul Reinman contributed to this issue, while there is speculation as to whether Simon and Kirby did the cover artwork. From the Compleat Kirby Comic Collection.

2005 - Jack Kirby cover. Irv Novick art.

2006- A Simon and Kirby cover? This sure looks that way to us (Kirby and Irv Novick is another attribution we've seen). This issue saw a new costume for the Shield (adding a pair of shorts, among other changes), and it is a bit strange that the change made him look more like Captain America -- though of course the Shield pre-dates Cap! 

2012 - scarce; Kirby bondage cvr

Yesterday - The Shield dons a new costume. Irv Novick and Paul Reinman art. Rising Sun cover

 

You came away with an incredibly good pick-up. It wouldn't have surprised me if this book in 5.0 had hammered for multiples of that.  It's a unique book with historical significance.

First, in my not-so-humble opinion, this is clearly a Jack Kirby cover (at least the pencils; it was probably inked by Novick).

Second, it comes out several months after S&K were fired from Timely for moonlighting with other publishers. Note: This was after Goodman basket accounted books ...mixing profitable comics with those that lost money... which cut their negotiated profit sharing as editors on Captain America.

Third, the redesign of the Shield has the appearance of a subtle "thank you" to Timely aka Martin Goodman for mistreatment as the character now looks even more like Captain America (ironic, since Cap was originally created by S&K as an even more patriotic imitation of The Shield). There are some interesting stories about how the shield design was changed to round after the first issue of Cap came out because MLJ thought Cap's shield design copied the Shield's costume. Moving to the familiar "frisbee shield" was a momentous decision brought on by the threat of legal action!

Of course I'm a bit biased about this book... 

Spoiler

[Professor K]

On 5/5/2023 at 9:49 PM, Cat-Man_America said:

You came away with an incredibly good pick-up. It wouldn't have surprised me if this book in 5.0 had hammered for multiples of that.  It's a unique book with historical significance.

First, in my not-so-humble opinion, this is clearly a Jack Kirby cover (at least the pencils; it was probably inked by Novick).

Second, it comes out several months after S&K were fired from Timely for moonlighting with other publishers. Note: This was after Goodman basket accounted books ...mixing profitable comics with those that lost money... which cut their negotiated profit sharing as editors on Captain America.

Third, the redesign of the Shield has the appearance of a subtle "thank you" to Timely aka Martin Goodman for mistreatment as the character now looks even more like Captain America (ironic, since Cap was originally created by S&K as an even more patriotic imitation of The Shield). There are some interesting stories about how the shield design was changed to round after the first issue of Cap came out because MLJ thought Cap's shield design copied the Shield's costume. Moving to the familiar "frisbee shield" was a momentous decision brought on by the threat of legal action!

Of course I'm a bit biased about this book... 

  Reveal hidden contents

Holy cow you got the 9.4 . 

Yeah definitely a Kirby cover. I just wanted to hear it from someone else who knows more than me before I said it as fact. I thought it went cheap. Considering some of the prices many books got it seems people weren't holding back. Very rapid bidding on many of the books. This Shield-Wizard got a few quick bids then just stopped,  so I guess I got a little lucky this time. 

Thanks for all that insight and info. Yes Simon and Kirby were all over the place in 42. Timely, Harvey, DC of course, and MLJ with this book. So they got fired from Timely? I thought (or figured) they just  made a deal with Goodman (royalties on Cap I suppose?) and left on their own when they got involved with Liebowitz and DC. I guess everyone involved had a different version of what happened like is so often the case with comics.

So you've heard that MLJ had a problem with Caps shield and that's why they made it round? Very interesting. I would think they'd a had a problem with the whole darn character. I guess by the time Cap 1 came out there were too many super heroes for everyone to start suing each other over similiarities.  Awesome that you have the Church 9.4. I bet you've had it since before CGC was around.  

[Cat-Man_America]

On 5/6/2023 at 12:23 AM, Professor K said:

Holy cow you got the 9.4 . 

Yeah definitely a Kirby cover. I just wanted to hear it from someone else who knows more than me before I said it as fact. I thought it went cheap. Considering some of the prices many books got it seems people weren't holding back. Very rapid bidding on many of the books. This Shield-Wizard got a few quick bids then just stopped,  so I guess I got a little lucky this time. 

Thanks for all that insight and info. Yes Simon and Kirby were all over the place in 42. Timely, Harvey, DC of course, and MLJ with this book. So they got fired from Timely? I thought (or figured) they just  made a deal with Goodman (royalties on Cap I suppose?) and left on their own when they got involved with Liebowitz and DC. I guess everyone involved had a different version of what happened like is so often the case with comics.

So you've heard that MLJ had a problem with Caps shield and that's why they made it round? Very interesting. I would think they'd a had a problem with the whole darn character. I guess by the time Cap 1 came out there were too many super heroes for everyone to start suing each other over similiarities.  Awesome that you have the Church 9.4. I bet you've had it since before CGC was around.  

Joe Simon's biography My Life in Comics and The Comic Book Makers goes into detail about the GA including Cap/Shield issues with MLJ. The nitty gritty is quite interesting. Both hard covers are still readily available and not expensive through Amazon (highly recommended). The specific Shield-Wizard #7 details aren't discussed, but conclusions can be drawn from events by connecting all the dots. Jack Kirby might've been a bit more resentful of how they were treated, but since he isn't recounting the stories that's supposition on my part. Joe Simon apparently looked upon the comics business a bit more from a business perspective and this seems to bear out historically.

Not that long ago for the Church copy; I've been the happy owner for around 10 years. I acquired the Church copy as a trade up with cash through my late friend, comic dealer John Verzyl.  My recollection is that he had a customer interested in a high grade copy, but the buyer wasn't in the market for that nice a copy. I benefited from a reasonable cost break for the upgrade and his other customer got my old copy with a more affordable price tag (win/win). ...You'll hear lots of fond nostalgic mentions of John from folks who've been around here quite awhile. 

Edited May 8, 2023 by Cat-Man_America
More ale!

[jimbo_7071]

On 5/5/2023 at 12:14 AM, RareHighGrade said:

It's official:  MLJs have become the new Foxes.

It's the cycle of life for GA comics. Soon some other books will become the new MLJs, and the Foxes will become the new World's Finest and will start selling for half guide. You heard it here first.

Edited May 7, 2023 by jimbo_7071

[Professor K]

On 5/6/2023 at 2:58 AM, Cat-Man_America said:

Joe Simon's biography My Life in Comics and The Comic Book Makers goes into detail about the GA including Cap/Shield issues with MLJ. The nitty gritty is quite interesting. Both hard covers are still readily available and not expensive through Amazon (highly recommended). The specific Shield-Wizard #7 details aren't discussed, but conclusions can be drawn from events by connecting all the dots. Jack Kirby might've been a bit more resentful of how they were treated, but since he isn't recounting the stories that's supposition on my part. Joe Simon apparently looked upon the comics business a bit more from a business perspective and this seems to bear out historically.

Not quite that long for the Church copy, but I've been the happy owner around 10 years. I acquired my Church copy of Shield-Wizard #7 as a trade up with cash through my late friend, comic dealer John Verzyl.  My recollection is that he had a buyer interested in a high grade copy, but the buyer wasn't in the market for that nice a copy and I benefited from a reasonable cost break for the upgrade and his other customer got my old copy with a more affordable price tag. ...You'll get a lot of nostalgic mentions of comic deals with John from folks who've been around here quite awhile. 

I'm definitely going to read those two. I've seen a few interviews of Joe and he seemed like a pretty cool guy. Grinning the whole time. I know of John Verzyl and have seen his name spoken here many a time. So sad he passed away so young. 

[tabcom]

On 5/5/2023 at 11:48 AM, Professor K said:

 

 

68 pages of awesome,

https://comicbookplus.com/?dlid=22147

Edited May 7, 2023 by tabcom

[jimbo_7071]

On 5/7/2023 at 9:17 AM, tabcom said:

68 pages of awesome,

https://comicbookplus.com/?dlid=22147

I'm surprised to see that one there. I didn't think any MLJ books were in the public domain.