All Story Tarzan first appearance 2 2

[Aman619]

Whats everyones take on the sale at Heritage this past week (62K)?  and also, just how many known copies are in circulation, or in collections that are known to exist?  and which is the copy considered to be the highest graded?  thanx

Edited June 13, 2021 by Aman619

[FoggyNelson]

Seems like nobody appreciate Tarzan anymore

[Aman619]

Yeah.  Someone will know the answer….

[tth2]

There seem to be some guys who hang out in the GA Forum who seem knowledgeable about pulps.  It doesn't appear that any of them hang out here.  They might not even realize that this forum exists now.

I've never had any interest in pulps with Tarzan or ERB stories because everything that comes on the market is so low grade.  Which I guess makes sense, given that the condition of comics from pre-1940 drops off significantly, so pulps from 2 decades earlier would be even scarcer in any kind of decent collection.

Still, I've never understood why there wasn't at least one Edgar Church-type of pulp collector from the pulps' heyday of the 1920s and 1930s.

 

[Rip]

16 minutes ago, tth2 said:

There seem to be some guys who hang out in the GA Forum who seem knowledgeable about pulps.  It doesn't appear that any of them hang out here.  They might not even realize that this forum exists now.

I've never had any interest in pulps with Tarzan or ERB stories because everything that comes on the market is so low grade.  Which I guess makes sense, given that the condition of comics from pre-1940 drops off significantly, so pulps from 2 decades earlier would be even scarcer in any kind of decent collection.

Still, I've never understood why there wasn't at least one Edgar Church-type of pulp collector from the pulps' heyday of the 1920s and 1930s.

 

There was a sizable pulp collection from the Edgar Church, but a big chunk of them were found water damaged. Not too many have made it to market, but they are out there.

Edited June 14, 2021 by Rip

[OtherEric]

2 hours ago, tth2 said:

I've never had any interest in pulps with Tarzan or ERB stories because everything that comes on the market is so low grade.  Which I guess makes sense, given that the condition of comics from pre-1940 drops off significantly, so pulps from 2 decades earlier would be even scarcer in any kind of decent collection.

I have some Argosies from the 30's I would describe as high grade (not super high grade, but better than decent) with Burroughs stories.  But nothing with a Burroughs cover. 

Edited June 14, 2021 by OtherEric

[FoggyNelson]

Looks unread above , almost fresh of the shelve👍‼️✅😷

[Aman619]

That’s a beauty. I’ve wondered about all the overhang on pulps. That clean pulp is beautiful. If such books exist does it imply that the printers were just inconsistent?  That plenty of books came out without overhang? Or was the overhang present on all pulps in some eras, and nonexistent in more modern periods??  

[OtherEric]

1 hour ago, Aman619 said:

That’s a beauty. I’ve wondered about all the overhang on pulps. That clean pulp is beautiful. If such books exist does it imply that the printers were just inconsistent?  That plenty of books came out without overhang? Or was the overhang present on all pulps in some eras, and nonexistent in more modern periods??  

The book I showed does have overhang, it just survived well. With that said, the printers were highly inconsistent and the overhang wasn't as dramatic on my copy.  With that said, not all pulps have overhang.  As far as I know, most if not all bedsheet and digest size pulps are factory trimmed.  Street & Smith dropped the overhang around 1936; I'm not sure if they changed all the titles the same month but Astounding lost the overhang in February 1936.  Weird Tales started trimming the edge sometime in the early 30's, although the kept the top and bottom untrimmed.

[Aman619]

Thanx for the explanation. I’ve wondered about this. 

[Aman619]

So is the thinking there are 5-10 copies? 10-25?  Or more than 25.  Or LOTS more? 
 

anyone have an edjumacated

guess?

[OtherEric]

8 minutes ago, Aman619 said:

So is the thinking there are 5-10 copies? 10-25?  Or more than 25.  Or LOTS more? 
 

anyone have an edjumacated

guess?

My uneducated guess would be double digits, but I have no basis other than age and the fact it doesn’t seem to be either famously common or rare compared to other books of the era, despite its fame.

[50YrsCollctngCmcs]

I wonder if @Yellow Kid might hazard a guess as he has probably seen some copies in his time. I mentioned in another forum post that I was talking to the representatives of the Burroughs company a few weeks ago at a local show. We were mainly chatting about the John Carter movie and why it didn't do better. Their theory was that Disney lost interest as they had just picked up the Lucas properties and their focus went there. Too bad I enjoyed that movie and would have enjoyed another.

It's also interesting that Burroughs was far sighted enough to copyright his characters and create a small media empire out of them back in the thirties and forties. And of course Tarzan is still relevant today. Personally, I've never been a big fan of the character but appreciate his longevity and the history behind the work.

[Aman619]

I loved John Carter too. My take for it’s abysmal reception was that it was so faithful to the original stories — and so many of Burroughs ideas inventions and concepts had already been seen by kids in other movies , that it was boring to them. Looked a copycat movie!  
 

im not sure when in the production they bought Lucasfilm, but they pulled the plug once test screenings all said it was a dog. I went in week 2 and sat all alone in the theatre. Which was great. 

[Bookery]

15 hours ago, Aman619 said:

So is the thinking there are 5-10 copies? 10-25?  Or more than 25.  Or LOTS more? 
 

anyone have an edjumacated

guess?

Exactly 17.

I compared my notes going back 30 years, checked the number of copies that have appeared at Heritage and other auction houses, and deleted obvious duplication of copies that have come up for sale repeatedly.  I then compared print runs of All-Story to several mainstream magazines and referenced surviving copies of those issues.  Distribution frequencies and aberrations were calculated for various publishers to obtain a mean.  I worked out a formula to ascertain reduction of copies due to wartime paper drives.  After that, I dug into entomological records to check out population surges of silverfish as well as documented fluctuations in humidity over the course of a century.  When adding this all together the results proved that absolutely no copies could have survived.

But since we know some have, I then proceeded to make up the above number and declare the issue settled.

[Aman619]

Done and done!

[Aman619]

But seriously.  !

[jimjum12]

I've always been curious about the scarcity as well. Wouldn't mind knowing more about what copy is considered the finest known. GOD BLESS...

-jimbo(a friend of jesus)

[tth2]

18 hours ago, jimjum12 said:

I've always been curious about the scarcity as well. Wouldn't mind knowing more about what copy is considered the finest known. GOD BLESS...

-jimbo(a friend of jesus)

Would it be the copy owned by John McLaughlin that was sold on Heritage?

[jimjum12]

59 minutes ago, tth2 said:

Would it be the copy owned by John McLaughlin that was sold on Heritage?

I'm new to Pulps, other than the basics. If it's on Heritage I can at least have a look at the scans. John certainly had some primo copies. I've become spoiled by the CGC Census where I can just type something in an get a very educated guess in the regard of scarcity of a comic book. GOD BLESS....

-jimbo(a friend of jesus)