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Whitman appreciation and information thread
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315 posts in this topic

It wasn't too long ago that I had given serious thought to hibernating my collecting interests. And then I started learning about the comics published by Western Publishing (Whitman) and became fascinated with what I was discovering. There were some nice similarities too with the researching element of Whitman variants and some of my past collecting focuses. And while at first glance their subject matter, composition and the endeavours of the company as a whole might be construed as being a plain reprinting of mainstream publishers works, I quickly began to see there was much more to it.

 

While this point seems more appropriate to attribute to the artists and writers, Whitman seemed quite adept themselves at choosing the right mix/portfolio of characters to publish. Their distribution model of pre-bagged (referred to as 2 or 3-pack) comics and distributing them in department and retail outlets proved to be a winning formula in getting these great comics and stories into the hands of younger audiences. In doing so, they returned some of the excitement of these colourful characters and recaptured audiences imaginations with the bright colours, layouts and humorous scenes (especially with the cartoon character titles).

 

And so too does it return today some of the same excitement, appreciation and enjoyment I had for these characters growing up and I thought I'd begin sharing some of these amazing covers and insights with you by starting an appreciation thread. Please feel free to share some of your own favourites or information on Whitmans here as well. (thumbs u

 

I'll start things off by posting an Uncle Scrooge 180 - listed in the top 42 rarest Whitman (estimates place 51-75 copies in the marketplace)

 

uncle_scrooge_180-1.jpg

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I'll start things off by posting an Uncle Scrooge 180 - listed in the top 42 rarest Whitman (estimates place 51-75 copies in the marketplace)

 

uncle_scrooge_180-1.jpg

 

Yup, I've got this one jotted down as the 37th rarest Whitman.

 

Here's the list that comes from Doug Sulipa, in order of rarity (#1 being the toughest to find):

 

1. Woody Woodpecker #191

2. Bugs Bunny #221

3. Popeye #158

4. Beep Beep the Roadrunner #92

5. Looney Tunes #35

6. Tom and Jerry #332

7. Super Goof #61

8. Daffy Duck #130

9. Little Lulu #260

10. Super Good #62

11. Huey, Dewey, and Louie #66

12. Tom and Jerry #331

13. Yosemite Sam #68

14. Black Hole (Beyond The) #4

15. Winnie The Pooh #20

16. Tweety and Sylvester #105

17. Mickey Mouse #208

18. Beep Beep the Roadrunner #93

19. Winnie The Pooh #22

20. Battle of the Planets #7

21. Beep Beep the Roadrunner #91

22. Chip n' Dale #69

23. Daffy Duck #131

24. Daisy and Donald #47

25. Donald Duck #222

26. Huey, Dewey, and Louie #65

27. Little Lulu #261

28. Looney Tunes #34

29. Mickey Mouse #209

30. Pink Panther #76

31. Popeye #159

32. Super Goof #60

33. Tom and Jerry #330

34. Tweety and Sylvester #106

35. Tweety and Sylvester #107

36. Uncle Scrooge #179

37. Uncle Scrooge #180

38. Walt Disney's Comics and Stories #480

39. Winnie The Pooh #21

40. Yosemite Sam #69

41. Yosemite Sam #70

42. Woody Woodpecker #190

 

Hope that helps some folks out and gives you a list of books to hunt for. (thumbs u

 

Andy

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The estimates for the top 20 Whitmans is believed to be 25-50 copies in the marketplace - though I believe that the numbers would actually be lower for some of the top 10 comics. While I don't particularly regard the CGC census as the best indicator of market scarcity, we do know there are currently 3 copies of Woody Woodpecker 191 which have been graded.

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These books are rare, but not as rare as Doug's list makes them out to be. I made a killing off of buying and flipping them a few years back from the LCSs in town. From what I have heard talking to other collector-dealers at shows over the past few years here in Alberta is that it sounds like they had low distribution in the USA outside of a few areas but are plentiful here. You can usually find them in decent shape for $0.50 - $1.00 and flip them for a significant gain. The best I did was a $1.00 VG/FN Scrooge #179 that I landed $150 for when these books were the rage a couple of years back. :banana:

 

Since then, I believe that a few large stashes have come onto the market and that has lowered the prices considerably.

 

They are tough to find in 8.0 or better, though.

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why would ANY of them be rare?

 

surely Whitman published thousands of copies of each issue, otherwise why bother acquiring the publishing rights?

 

yes, many got thrown out and beaten up by small children, but surely they can't be so rare as to have less than 100 copies left in existance? (shrug)

 

 

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I'll start things off by posting an Uncle Scrooge 180 - listed in the top 42 rarest Whitman (estimates place 51-75 copies in the marketplace)

 

uncle_scrooge_180-1.jpg

 

Yup, I've got this one jotted down as the 37th rarest Whitman.

 

Here's the list that comes from Doug Sulipa, in order of rarity (#1 being the toughest to find):

 

1. Woody Woodpecker #191

2. Bugs Bunny #221

3. Popeye #158

4. Beep Beep the Roadrunner #92

5. Looney Tunes #35

6. Tom and Jerry #332

7. Super Goof #61

8. Daffy Duck #130

9. Little Lulu #260

10. Super Good #62

11. Huey, Dewey, and Louie #66

12. Tom and Jerry #331

13. Yosemite Sam #68

14. Black Hole (Beyond The) #4

15. Winnie The Pooh #20

16. Tweety and Sylvester #105

17. Mickey Mouse #208

18. Beep Beep the Roadrunner #93

19. Winnie The Pooh #22

20. Battle of the Planets #7

21. Beep Beep the Roadrunner #91

22. Chip n' Dale #69

23. Daffy Duck #131

24. Daisy and Donald #47

25. Donald Duck #222

26. Huey, Dewey, and Louie #65

27. Little Lulu #261

28. Looney Tunes #34

29. Mickey Mouse #209

30. Pink Panther #76

31. Popeye #159

32. Super Goof #60

33. Tom and Jerry #330

34. Tweety and Sylvester #106

35. Tweety and Sylvester #107

36. Uncle Scrooge #179

37. Uncle Scrooge #180

38. Walt Disney's Comics and Stories #480

39. Winnie The Pooh #21

40. Yosemite Sam #69

41. Yosemite Sam #70

42. Woody Woodpecker #190

 

Hope that helps some folks out and gives you a list of books to hunt for. (thumbs u

 

Andy

 

I've had this list loaded in my PDA for a couple of years now so I can keep an eye out for these issues. But I've never come across one. I even sometimes buy a lot of Whitman comics in online auctions thinking I might get lucky and get one of the rare issues in one of those lots. But I've come up empty so far. :(

 

While we're talking about Whitmans, why is it that many Gold Key titles listed in Overstreet don't even mention the Whitman version of those comics? Is it because they're all just reprints? (shrug)

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If you want a great article about how spotty the distribution of these books was, pick up Comic Book Marketplace issues 85 and 86. Jon McClure did a fantastic job of breaking down what happened to the books as well as how they managed to put themselves out of business through self-distribution. The 8/80 to 12/80 issues are rare as they were when the company switched from newsstand distribution to direct distribution through sealed pre-packs. They are hard to find in high grade due to the fact that they were collected mostly by children and kids don't really take care of their comics, they read them. A few years ago, the Randon House File copies came out with anywhere between 10-20 copies of each book except for Uncle Scrooge 179. (there might be a few more) They are rare but not impossible to find. The lower grade copies might be more readily available but the forget about finding high grade copies at your LCS.

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These books are rare, but not as rare as Doug's list makes them out to be. I made a killing off of buying and flipping them a few years back from the LCSs in town. From what I have heard talking to other collector-dealers at shows over the past few years here in Alberta is that it sounds like they had low distribution in the USA outside of a few areas but are plentiful here. You can usually find them in decent shape for $0.50 - $1.00 and flip them for a significant gain. The best I did was a $1.00 VG/FN Scrooge #179 that I landed $150 for when these books were the rage a couple of years back. :banana:

 

Since then, I believe that a few large stashes have come onto the market and that has lowered the prices considerably.

 

They are tough to find in 8.0 or better, though.

 

I bought a Super Goof #61 in Fine for $1.00 and sold it for $500, and I bought an Uncle Scrooge #179 in VG for $1.00 and sold it for $400. There was another one that was in mid-grade that I bought for a buck and sold for just over $100.

 

They were the rage 3 or so years ago, but they still do hold some popularity. I am not sure if the estimated number of copies available today is realistic or not, but these Whitmans are pretty tough.

 

Andy

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I'll start things off by posting an Uncle Scrooge 180 - listed in the top 42 rarest Whitman (estimates place 51-75 copies in the marketplace)

 

uncle_scrooge_180-1.jpg

 

Yup, I've got this one jotted down as the 37th rarest Whitman.

 

Here's the list that comes from Doug Sulipa, in order of rarity (#1 being the toughest to find):

 

1. Woody Woodpecker #191

2. Bugs Bunny #221

3. Popeye #158

4. Beep Beep the Roadrunner #92

5. Looney Tunes #35

6. Tom and Jerry #332

7. Super Goof #61

8. Daffy Duck #130

9. Little Lulu #260

10. Super Good #62

11. Huey, Dewey, and Louie #66

12. Tom and Jerry #331

13. Yosemite Sam #68

14. Black Hole (Beyond The) #4

15. Winnie The Pooh #20

16. Tweety and Sylvester #105

17. Mickey Mouse #208

18. Beep Beep the Roadrunner #93

19. Winnie The Pooh #22

20. Battle of the Planets #7

21. Beep Beep the Roadrunner #91

22. Chip n' Dale #69

23. Daffy Duck #131

24. Daisy and Donald #47

25. Donald Duck #222

26. Huey, Dewey, and Louie #65

27. Little Lulu #261

28. Looney Tunes #34

29. Mickey Mouse #209

30. Pink Panther #76

31. Popeye #159

32. Super Goof #60

33. Tom and Jerry #330

34. Tweety and Sylvester #106

35. Tweety and Sylvester #107

36. Uncle Scrooge #179

37. Uncle Scrooge #180

38. Walt Disney's Comics and Stories #480

39. Winnie The Pooh #21

40. Yosemite Sam #69

41. Yosemite Sam #70

42. Woody Woodpecker #190

 

Hope that helps some folks out and gives you a list of books to hunt for. (thumbs u

 

Andy

 

I've had this list loaded in my PDA for a couple of years now so I can keep an eye out for these issues. But I've never come across one. I even sometimes buy a lot of Whitman comics in online auctions thinking I might get lucky and get one of the rare issues in one of those lots. But I've come up empty so far. :(

 

While we're talking about Whitmans, why is it that many Gold Key titles listed in Overstreet don't even mention the Whitman version of those comics? Is it because they're all just reprints? (shrug)

 

To provide some perspective, I recently went to look at a collection which contained over 3000 gold keys. When the seller told me this, I thought there are bound to be Whitmans in any collection of Gold Keys. My hunch was correct, however I only managed to pull out some 90 Whitmans from a 3K grouping of books. That's approximately 3% of the total number of comics. Not a single book from the rare list was in there. Then a week later, I went to an annual flea market. Its an outdoor flea market the size of approx 10 football fields - see pic:

 

C7MID967.jpg

 

It was early morning, I went through roughly 400 vendors booths in less than 1 hr (lets say I was doing a light jog) and found no Whitman comics. There had to have been close to 5000 vendors there, and I just couldn't be there much longer, so I was about to pack it in, and saw an old spinner rack (tried to make an offer - wouldn't sell) at a booth about a stones throw away. I went there and in an assortment of approx 80 books, I found 26 Whitmans. While there weren't any from the above list either, I did find some of the later no code/date issues and 2 price variants. To this day, I have not had a single day haul like the above noted, and usually only find a few sparse issues here and there. I don't think the numbers are very far off (just look at the CGC census on any of these books and you'll see they are well below the low number range), and believe Doug Sulipa and Jon McClure have done a fantastic job documenting their history and availability. I'd accept their opinion over anyone elses on this topic.

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I'll start things off by posting an Uncle Scrooge 180 - listed in the top 42 rarest Whitman (estimates place 51-75 copies in the marketplace)

 

uncle_scrooge_180-1.jpg

 

Yup, I've got this one jotted down as the 37th rarest Whitman.

 

Here's the list that comes from Doug Sulipa, in order of rarity (#1 being the toughest to find):

 

1. Woody Woodpecker #191

2. Bugs Bunny #221

3. Popeye #158

4. Beep Beep the Roadrunner #92

5. Looney Tunes #35

6. Tom and Jerry #332

7. Super Goof #61

8. Daffy Duck #130

9. Little Lulu #260

10. Super Good #62

11. Huey, Dewey, and Louie #66

12. Tom and Jerry #331

13. Yosemite Sam #68

14. Black Hole (Beyond The) #4

15. Winnie The Pooh #20

16. Tweety and Sylvester #105

17. Mickey Mouse #208

18. Beep Beep the Roadrunner #93

19. Winnie The Pooh #22

20. Battle of the Planets #7

21. Beep Beep the Roadrunner #91

22. Chip n' Dale #69

23. Daffy Duck #131

24. Daisy and Donald #47

25. Donald Duck #222

26. Huey, Dewey, and Louie #65

27. Little Lulu #261

28. Looney Tunes #34

29. Mickey Mouse #209

30. Pink Panther #76

31. Popeye #159

32. Super Goof #60

33. Tom and Jerry #330

34. Tweety and Sylvester #106

35. Tweety and Sylvester #107

36. Uncle Scrooge #179

37. Uncle Scrooge #180

38. Walt Disney's Comics and Stories #480

39. Winnie The Pooh #21

40. Yosemite Sam #69

41. Yosemite Sam #70

42. Woody Woodpecker #190

 

Hope that helps some folks out and gives you a list of books to hunt for. (thumbs u

 

Andy

 

I've had this list loaded in my PDA for a couple of years now so I can keep an eye out for these issues. But I've never come across one. I even sometimes buy a lot of Whitman comics in online auctions thinking I might get lucky and get one of the rare issues in one of those lots. But I've come up empty so far. :(

 

While we're talking about Whitmans, why is it that many Gold Key titles listed in Overstreet don't even mention the Whitman version of those comics? Is it because they're all just reprints? (shrug)

 

Ahhhh...after doing some further research I've found that my Whitman buying efforts weren't for naught after all. I don't have any of the rarest or rare issues, but I did just learn through one of Doug Sulipa's websites that I have obtained 11 Whitman issues that are considered scarce or uncommon. They are:

 

1) Bugs Bunny #244 in 9.0

2) Bugs Bunny #245 (last issue) in 7.5 (2 copies)

3) Jungle Book #1 in 8.0

4) Little Lulu #262 in 8.0

5) Pink Panther #87 (last issue) in 8.0

6) Super Goof #70 in 3.5

7) Super Goof #74 (last issue) in 5.5

8) Walt Disney's Comics and Stories #507 in 9.2

9) Walt Disney's Comics and Stories #508 in 9.0

10) Woody Woodpecker #200 in 5.0

 

All the above are considered scarce except for the Little Lulu #262 which is considered uncommon.

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