Silver Age pedigree thread 3 3

[Ghost Town]

[Frisco Larson]

On 5/24/2024 at 12:38 AM, Ghost Town said:

These are all Golden State books. I'm probably biased because I own lot of GS books but I think they're pretty great. Probably not quite up there with the Curator or Pacific Coast books because the runs started later. But I think they're nicer than most SA pedigrees.

Wow, thank you so much for posting these!!! I don't recall anyone identifying any Silver Age books as Golden State books and I've wondered if I'd ever see any! I was fortunate enough to be able to purchase some Bronze Age Spideys from Steve Ritter from the Spidey Super Stories run, which have the Golden State sticker on the cases. I'll include some below. The condition on most is amazing! This is a run that were mostly trashed by young kids ... tough to find them in grade!

[buttock]

On 5/25/2024 at 1:35 PM, DanCooper said:

You are right about the Mohawk Valleys. That would have been THE DC Silver Age collection if the page quality was there.

Western Penn did have the pre-1961 key DCs. Problem is, most of that sold in the 1980s and pre-CGC and probably has gotten lost over time. Linmoth/Tom H. posted in the past how he heard about the collection in the 80s through Comic Buyers Guide ads. He even mentioned a high grade WP Green Lantern 1, that he sold through Sotheby's in the 90s that wasn't noted as Western Penn. Western Penn gained traction as a pedigree in the early CGC days.

Honorary mention, even though it isn't a recognized pedigree or noted on the CGC label as a "from the collection", but the David N. Toth DC Silver Age collection that Heritage auctioned off 15+ years yielded some incredible high grade DCs from that tough late 1950s-1960s period, but lacked some of the big Marvel keys to be considered for a pedigree.

Would love to hear more of the back story on that collection Buttock mentioned, that yielded the Tomahawk and the 9.4 Showcase 22 and 9.6 Showcase 13!

It was expansive and included a lot of "off" titles as well as superhero.  There were 9.0 +/- Jimmy Olsen 1, Lois Lane 1, HOM 1, B&B 28, JLA 1 and deep runs of lots of other titles including western, sci-fi, war, etc.  I don't have a full list of all the books, but kept records of everything that I could.  A few more DC examples:

[Microchip]

On 5/26/2024 at 8:34 AM, Ghost Town said:

Just ridiculous colour saturation on all of these books!!  Stunning examples!

[Hepcat]

On 5/25/2024 at 1:41 AM, Ghost Town said:

This website has a nice breakdown of various pedigrees and their key books.

 

"Existence and Grades of Silver Age Key Books From the Major Pedigree Collections"

 

Lots of good info there.

Something else that surprises me is how few of the "key" issues legendary comic fandom pioneers Don and Maggie Thompson had. No Flash 105, no Showcase 4, 8, 13, 22 or even 34, no Brave and the Bold 28 or even 34, no Fantastic Four 1 and 2, no Amazing Fantasy 15 and no Amazing Spider-Man 1. I thought they were very early collectors of Silver Age comics but pre-1962 I see only Green Lantern 1 and Flash 123.

Edited May 26 by Hepcat

[Hepcat]

On 5/25/2024 at 7:08 PM, buttock said:

A few more DC examples:

 

 

Oh man, simply sensational!

[Ghost Town]

On 5/25/2024 at 7:03 PM, Hepcat said:

On 5/24/2024 at 10:41 PM, Ghost Town said:

This website has a nice breakdown of various pedigrees and their key books.

 

"Existence and Grades of Silver Age Key Books From the Major Pedigree Collections"

 

Lots of good info there.

Something else that surprises me is how few of the "key" issues legendary comic fandom pioneers Don and Maggie Thompson had. No Flash 105, no Showcase 4, 8, 13, 22 or even 34, no Brave and the Bold 28 or even 34 and no Fantastic Four 1 and 2. I thought they were very early collectors of Silver Age comics but pre-1962 I see only Green Lantern 1 and Flash 123.

I'm just guessing here. Maybe they sold those books before the days of CGC and the provenance was lost. (I think that's the first time I ever typed the word "provenance"!)

[adamstrange]

On 5/25/2024 at 12:19 PM, namisgr said:

There were lots of really nice copies of Adam Strange MIS books in several pedigrees, including the White Mountain, Slobodian, and Bethlehem collections.

Slobodian

[adamstrange]

On 5/25/2024 at 10:48 PM, Ghost Town said:

I'm just guessing here. Maybe they sold those books before the days of CGC and the provenance was lost. (I think that's the first time I ever typed the word "provenance"!)

Now you've done it twice in one day!

 

On 5/25/2024 at 6:34 PM, Ghost Town said:

x-treme pedigree posting!

[adamstrange]

On 5/25/2024 at 2:39 PM, Hepcat said:

Gary Carter was a legendary DC collector and key player in early comic fandom. Whatever happened to his collection anyway when he stepped away from comics circa 2000?

Gary sold off and on through the 90s both at San Diego Con and privately.  The remaining comics that were previously known to be in his collection were sold off around 2000 to a dealer.  There were hints that more books were to come but nothing ever did.

Gary's father owned a number of Church copies like early pre-Bats Detectives that were sold off at SD Con in the 90s.

The Carter family (Gary, brother, father) supposedly owned a complete DC collection that was supposedly sold to a collector in Japan.  Nothing has been heard of this since.

Edited May 26 by adamstrange

[Hepcat]

On 5/25/2024 at 10:48 PM, Ghost Town said:

I'm just guessing here. Maybe they sold those books before the days of CGC and the provenance was lost. 

That could well be the case. I don't think they were getting rich working as the editors of Comics Buyer's Guide. And as comic fans it would have been much less painful for them to sell two or three of those "key" issues fetching seemingly extreme prices than it would have been selling dozens or even hundreds of other comics.

[Ghost Town]

On 5/25/2024 at 8:04 PM, adamstrange said:

On 5/25/2024 at 7:48 PM, Ghost Town said:

I'm just guessing here. Maybe they sold those books before the days of CGC and the provenance was lost. (I think that's the first time I ever typed the word "provenance"!)

Now you've done it twice in one day!

 

I'm about to use the word "provenance" again, again!

Here's a story of provenance lost and found: In 2011, Heritage started listing a bunch of incredibly high grade FF books in an auction. They called the books "The North Star Collection."

The back cover of one of the books caught my eye because Heritage had a sticker with the consignor's name on the back cover. Oops! (See below.)

At least a few people knew that a well-known comic artist had acquired all the Curator FFs after #1. (That was before Tom Brulato bought some of the other big Marvel titles through John Hauser.) So I called Heritage and said, "Hey, you should know those FFs are from the Curator collection." Heritage quickly had CGC re-holder the books with the proper pedigree designation. (Snarky aside: My thank you note must have been lost in the mail.)

And here's a book I didn't win with either label:

Edited May 26 by Ghost Town

[adamstrange]

On 5/26/2024 at 12:47 AM, Ghost Town said:

I'm about to use the word "provenance" again, again!

Here's a story of provenance lost and found: In 2011, Heritage started listing a bunch of incredibly high grade FF books in an auction. They called the books "The North Star Collection."

The back cover of one of the books caught my eye because Heritage had a sticker with the consignor's name on the back cover. Oops! (See below.)

At least a few people knew that a well-known comic artist had acquired all the Curator FFs after #1. (That was before Tom Brulato bought some of the other big Marvel titles through John Hauser.) So I called Heritage and said, "Hey, you should know those FFs are from the Curator collection." Heritage quickly had CGC re-holder the books with the proper pedigree designation. (Snarky aside: My thank you note must have been lost in the mail.)

And here's a book I didn't win with either label:

I saw those FF Curators in person at the NYC auction venue, and they were incredible, especially the #2. 

I had the hardest time maintaining my focus on GA comics because they were so incredibly bright and better than any I had ever seen before.

Last year, the Strange Tales Dr. Strange set of Curators was auctioned by Heritage.  I knew the consignor had purchased his copies from Hauser, and was certain they were Curators, but he was unconvinced as he bought them when they were first available without any special notation from John.  I connected him with Brulato, and they got slabbed correctly before the auction.

Edited May 26 by adamstrange

[adamstrange]

On 5/26/2024 at 12:47 AM, Ghost Town said:

And here's a book I didn't win with either label:

At the NYC show was a collector of 50+ years in the hobby.  I asked him if he had ever seen such bright copies.  He said, "No", then immediately corrected himself saying, "Yes.  On the newsstand."

[Ghost Town]

On 5/25/2024 at 10:52 PM, adamstrange said:

At the NYC show was a collector of 50+ years in the hobby.  I asked him if he had ever seen such bright copies.  He said, "No", then immediately corrected himself saying, "Yes.  On the newsstand."

I was lucky to see Tom's Curator ASM run in the pre-CGC days - neatly bagged and boarded in mylar. It was great to see but it also made looking at my own books kind of disappointing.

[Straw-Man]

wow!

[Hepcat]

On 5/25/2024 at 4:05 PM, adamstrange said:

Northland contained ACGs.

Fourteen of my twenty Herbie comics are from the Northland collection including these:

NM-

NM

VF+

NM

NM-

Edited May 26 by Hepcat

[adamstrange]

On 5/26/2024 at 12:47 AM, Ghost Town said:

At least a few people knew that a well-known comic artist had acquired all the Curator FFs after #1. (That was before Tom Brulato bought some of the other big Marvel titles through John Hauser.) So I called Heritage and said, "Hey, you should know those FFs are from the Curator collection." Heritage quickly had CGC re-holder the books with the proper pedigree designation. (Snarky aside: My thank you note must have been lost in the mail.)

I was an early purchaser of Mass copies from Marnin so they were not labelled as anything special.  Not long after, I switched my focus to GA and never connected the Mass pedigree with my books.  Some I let go of before ever realizing what they were.

[adamstrange]

Mass copy

[Dr. Love]

On 5/26/2024 at 2:38 PM, adamstrange said:

Mass copy

Kamikaze haiku challenge, may the best warrior/poet win

In my mind I see

Death - on wings of flame, so bright

You and I...tonight