War Comics 17 17

[buttock]

These are technically GA books, but I hope that the knowledgeable aficionados here can best appreciate them.

 

AAMoW 2, 3, 5, each with a Krigstein story. Nice interior paper. Located them buried in a box at the back of the Dealers' Room at SDCC this past weekend.

 

I am absolutely thrilled to have these very early DC war books...

 

 

 

This one is about as intense as DC covers got!

[OV]

Found this at Dale Roberts Booth - I purchased a batch of Spirit Sections from him, so he gave me a sweet price on this book.

 

It has a significant flaw (the barely attached large chip at the lower staple), but I really like this issue a lot.

 

 

Awesome that you shared this! I just got this copy back from CGC. I know it's a yellow label, but thought people might want to see it as signed by the late, great Joe Kubert and by Russ Heath.

 

[Stevenrams]

Congrats to both of you. That is one cool cover!

 

SLR

[adamstrange]

AAMoW 2, 3, 5, each with a Krigstein story

Hard to go wrong with Krigstein (thumbs u

[OV]

Hiya folks,

I'm just now taking a breather from Comic-Con. Good stuff for sure. I'll post some scans and pix in the next couple days.

Great to see the usual crew of old comics dealers and collectors. I got a chance to talk war books with a bunch of nice people including Steve. Great fun all around.

Mick

 

Look forward to this report! (thumbs u In the meantime here's a link to some awesome Russ Heath and Joe Kubert signed war books I just got back from CGC. They are the only ones that exist in SS format with both legends' autos.

 

http://boards.collectors-society.com/ubbthreads.php?ubb=showflat&Number=6883691#Post6883691

[gojira]

What better place to start my war addiction than with this book - picked it up at SDCC from Motor City Comics. A solid mid-grade copy, and with a discount I paid Guide.

 

 

Now this is a great start Steve! The first DC issue of this title and a grey tone cover!

[gojira]

Found this at Dale Roberts Booth - I purchased a batch of Spirit Sections from him, so he gave me a sweet price on this book.

 

It has a significant flaw (the barely attached large chip at the lower staple), but I really like this issue a lot.

 

 

This one is not to bad either! The first Rock cover, now that's a cool issue to own! (thumbs u

[gojira]

I also picked up this nice copy of OAAW 143:

 

[gojira]

Here is the second book with crow pages I picked up at SDCC. I have been wanting to upgrade this book for quite some time now. When I came upon this I went for it, because I liked the condition and the price was right. And of course because I just love black covers in higher grades. Thanks to Brian and Kenny for making this happen!

 

[sacentaur]

Thanks Mike - I'm focusing on the .10centers right now, but I really like that cover on the OOAW 143.

[gojira]

Thanks Mike - I'm focusing on the .10centers right now, but I really like that cover on the OOAW 143.

 

The thing is that the 10 centers aren't cheap in higher grades. I'm focusing on the cheaper 12 centers at the moment, but I will definitely dive into the 10 centers as soon as I have completed my 10 cent SA Flash. I am likely to go for Atlas war books in the future, but it's tough to get your hands on nicer copies. I snatched up some reading copies at SDCC, but had no luck finding nicer copies.

[comick1]

Hello folks,

A couple of thoughts about the DC war banquet.

 

I'm posting this here because a few people like Andy Greenham, Keith Marlow, Matt Balasteros, Richard Evans, Brian Shepard, Dale Roberts, TupennyConan, TheCollectron, Adam Strange, and Mark Maggarity (among others) are past and current banquet attendees that also happen to be CGC chatboard members. Also a tip of the hat to Kagemusha Mike for his generous donation toward this year's sponsorship. I consider all of these attendees (and others I'm probably forgetting) stakeholders and voices in this conversation. A little bit of history:

 

We have been running the Big-5 banquets and auctions for the past 18 years in one form or another. There's usually been some kind of interplay between the artists/writers and the collectors attending. Chris Pedrin and I started the first one with Russ Heath as our guest and we lucked out with Irv Novick's presence as well since he was a guest of Comic-Con and was already out in SD for the show. Initially, when we started, people like Irv Novick, Mort Drucker, Russ Heath, and Joe Kubert were in their late 60s or early 70s and still traveling quite a bit. In the beginning, it was always a high priority to bring out as many of the "old guys" to San Diego during the con so that they could be recognized--even if late in their careers--by fans and maybe even cash in a bit by doing signings, promotions, and selling of art/sketches while set up in artists alley.

 

It's worth noting that I don't want to overstate the importance of doing this because, though all of these professionals were nothing but gracious to us, I don't think that any of them got what they deserved in addition to the verbal accolades--monetary compensation--to approximate the thousands of hours of enjoyment that their art and stories provided for us fans over the years. I think that they thrived on hearing that their work mattered and that their body of work comprised an important legacy for an incredible genre like DC war comics. But we, as individuals, could do little more than thank them. The thinking behind the banquets/auctions was a win-win mindset. The collectors got to meet their heroes, take home a souvenir of that meeting (with intimate settings for signing stuff without the crowd of the con), and bid in a small gathering on an auction that usually resulted in fans taking away some incredible artwork for a song. The proceeds from that auction ALWAYS went and have continued to go straight back into sponsoring the artists' visits for the following year. . .we've paid for MANY hotel and flight expenses for these creators and their spouses over the years.

 

But we've reached a crossroads. . .

 

With a few exceptions, the old guys that we've focused on and that most collectors recognize as being the creative nucleus of DC war comics (and war comics in general) are either no longer alive or are no longer ambulatory enough to travel all the way to San Diego. Folks from a slightly younger set, Walt Simonson, Romeo Tanghal, and Neal Adams are still very active and make regular appearances at comic book conventions. Sam Glanzman and Russ Heath are still alive & kickin', but face some profound health hurdles. Because of Russ Heath's proximity to San Diego (LA County resident), it's never been a big problem for him to drop in. Usually, we're covering hotel expenses. In fact, in the last 18 years, he's only missed ONE banquet. I want to be delicate about the way I say this, but I think it's fair to say that it's becoming an increasing challenge for Russ to travel as well.

 

Last year, we spent a nominal amount on Russ's hotel and the rest rolled over into our account for Big-5 banquet 2013. Then this year, the Comic-Con covered Russ's expenses in their entirety and I'm grateful for their generosity. This means that the auction money went right back into our account again. A number of us have begun to think that if these pros couldn't be brought to the con, then the auction proceeds could STILL be used to benefit them from afar. . .particularly if we're not having to underwrite anybody's hotel and flight expenses. So last year, I took some of the proceeds from the auction and just sent Russ and Sam a monetary "salute" from our organization. Again, trying to be delicate. . .I guess, the thinking can be summed up as helping our heroes in ways that TRULY help them WHILE THEY'RE STILL HERE TO BE HELPED. So I'm writing this as an open letter of sorts and want to throw this out there for the Big-5 stakeholders to chew on. I'm thinking of doing the following: We'll keep 1/2 the money for next year's guest--whoever that is--in our Big-5 account. Keep it squirreled away for hotel and flight expenses for whoever we decide to sponsor. It might very well be Russ Heath again. . .this time on our dime (not Comic-Con's). But whoever we decide to sponsor, it shouldn't amount to much more than about $1800.00 total. . .even less if that sponsorship doesn't include flight expenses.

 

A bit of accounting here:

Before the auction, we had $1583.00 in the account. Between a couple donations and Neal Adams's Joker sketch donation [that I auctioned on ebay], that came up to $2038.00.

Our "per-head" dinner expense was $20.00. Very few of the attendees' bills add up to more than $15.00, so that difference of $5.00 or so always covers our guests' dinner and drinks tabs. Heath's dinner and drinks tab was covered by that and we had to dip into the auction proceeds by only about $40.00 to cover part of the tip for the wait staff (which we always tip VERY generously in the 30% range--they treat us well and we're always welcome back). If there's extra $$ from the "per-head" expense, we just throw it into the account.

 

After the banquet expenses, the auction proceeds totaled $1371-. That brings our account total to $3409-.

 

As mentioned before, I'd like to keep $1809- for our Big-5 "slush-fund."

 

I propose that we split the remaining $1600- evenly between Russ Heath and Sam Glanzman: $800- each.

 

One last thing. Historically, we asked for auction donations from the artists in attendance starting with an awesome Kubert and Heath jam page in our third year. Severin and Heath followed with an awesome jam that next year, and then the flood started coming in from the likes of Cuidera, Infantino, Simonson, Glanzman, Estrada (!!!!!!!!), and numerous other folks who even donated in absentia (Grandenetti never attended but sent quite a few beautiful pieces over the years). Anyway, as most of these folks are no longer around, it's becoming harder to score art donations, so we've been asking the attendees themselves to dig into their collections and kick us a donation. The incentive is that 75% goes to the donor and 25% goes to the Big-5 account. In this way, the donor STILL gets a decent cut. That's worked the last couple years and will likely be the direction of future such auctions. I'm still committed to getting as many donations from living artists that I can, but if the auction format is still a desired component of the banquet, then it has to evolve accordingly.

 

That's pretty much it. I apologize for all the gory details of this accounting, but I want to make this as transparent as possible without having to mess with the formality of bylaws, non-profit status, tax forms, and the like. Anyway, if any stakeholders have ideas that they'd like to air, let's discuss it in an open forum. If not, then I'm going to proceed as outlined above. By the way, my plan is to scan the postal money orders that I send to each Heath and Glanzman and post each in this forum.

[sacentaur]

Thanks for the detailed explanation, Mick; your efforts are very much appreciated, I'm sure.

 

Please express Board condolences to Glanzman on the passing of his brother (Louis Glanzman, 1922-2013).

[comick1]

I was planning to call him next week. I will definitely pass that along. He's talked about his brother many times over the years.

[thirdgreenham]

Thanks for posting all of this, Mick. I didn't realize all of the effort that went into this. I suppose you never do unless you get involved with something like this.

 

I say proceed as you outlined above. (thumbs u

 

I'm sure that I can shake loose a donation or two for next year's banquet.

 

When you get a chance, let us know how everything went this year.

 

Thanks!

[adamstrange]

After adding up the total from the auction, it seemed to me that we would have some spare funds and that helping folks like Heath and Glanzman would be an appropriate and best use of some of the funds. I read an article earlier this year that Heath was receiving some help from the charity that helps comic artists in need and how the money, while small, allowed him to again purchase a little wine each month.

 

I'm sure the little bit of extra money will be most appreciated and I'm glad you do the work you do every year to help keep the war dinner going.

[Brenmark]

 

Hi Mick,

I wholeheartedly agree that part of the funds be used to help Sam Glanzman and Russ Heath. And, a special thanks to you and all the people who help to organize the dinner each year. This year's dinner was great fun as it's always a pleasure to meet and talk with fellow board members and to visit with Russ Heath.

 

 

[sacentaur]

Just read the story in OOAW 90 on how Sgt. Rock gets his stripes - some carnage and death are portrayed.

 

Great story, enjoyed it a lot...

 

Any other recommendations for best stories in OOAW?

[comick1]

 

OAAW #90 is certainly one of the best stories. Ultra-classic origin story.

 

I definitely like #85 for the first appearance of one of the top-5 supporting Easy characters--Ice Cream soldier. It's exquisite Kubert through and through, not to mention the second time Kubert draws Sgt. Rock (not to downplay #84 which is the 2nd true Rock appearance, but it's just that quintessential Kubert look).

 

Love the #91, too. . .less because it's all Sgt. Rock than that it's the first EVER all-Kubert issue.

 

The #95 is outstanding Kubert all the way around. Cool 1st app. of the 2nd of the top-5 supporting Easy characters--Bulldozer. I don't think we've ever talked about this on the boards, but I've always felt that Bulldozer is the most significant supporting Easy Co. soldier--definitely more than Ice Cream Soldier. He's like the Little John to Rock's Robin Hood.

 

I've always felt that the other 3 most important were Jackie Johnson, Wildman (both appearing first in #113 which is a monumentally cool issue for a buncha reasons) and Little Sure Shot (first app. in #127).

[OV]

A great contemporary Sgt. Rock story is Between Hell and a Hard Place, written by Brian Azzarello with awesome Joe Kubert art. (thumbs u

 

All the characters Mick mentioned are given some strong dialogue and Sgt. Rock is awesome as usual. The pacing and juxtaposition in this story are great. Joe Kubert was a master at this in his art.