SHOW US YOUR GOLDEN AGE CANADIAN COMICS

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Welcome!

 

Great bugs avatar btw

 

1) I think the scarcity is precisely what makes a guide totally unworkable. Many books rarely trade so a guide would amount to nothing more than a bunch of guys sitting around making guesses. Better to use hard data on what few sales do happen. Luckily there were recently a couple of rounds of auctions of whites at CLINK, those are good reference points even if many of the books did very well.

 

2) It depends on the book in question, but I think you have to be prepared to take what you can get. Most of us just want a copy of the book because we know that the hg books are basically unattainable, so the spread between low and high grade value is actually less than you'd think. You simply can't build a hg run so people are quite accepting of lower grade books and the CLINK auction results bore that out. Higher grades did much better than lower grades, but the spread is less than with US books.

Have to agree with Dan. These aren't titles like SA Spider-man that you could essentially complete at one good sized show. They don't come up very often and you'll rarely see high grade copies.

I think Overstreet has a strong bias towards US edition comics and hasn't included much pricing info for foreign comics. Can't blame them as there are millions of comics published outside the US.

The Grand Comics Database will give you a good idea of what's out there. Here's the results for 'slam bang'. It's easy to spot the Canadian publisher and there's links to the five covers.

http://www.comics.org/searchNew/?q=slam+bang&selected_facets=facet_model_name_exact:series

You could also use the Grand Comics Database to search for Canadian Publishers like Bell.

http://www.comics.org/publisher/1988/

Welcome!

 

Great bugs avatar btw

 

1) I think the scarcity is precisely what makes a guide totally unworkable. Many books rarely trade so a guide would amount to nothing more than a bunch of guys sitting around making guesses. Better to use hard data on what few sales do happen. Luckily there were recently a couple of rounds of auctions of whites at CLINK, those are good reference points even if many of the books did very well.

2) It depends on the book in question, but I think you have to be prepared to take what you can get. Most of us just want a copy of the book because we know that the hg books are basically unattainable, so the spread between low and high grade value is actually less than you'd think. You simply can't build a hg run so people are quite accepting of lower grade books and the CLINK auction results bore that out. Higher grades did much better than lower grades, but the spread is less than with US books.

 

Does any one happen to have a list of titles/issues/grades/prices from the CLINK auction?

Thank you in advance.

 

CLINK auction #2.

Most or all of the books noted as .5 had a missing page or pages. The triumph 7 was missing 3 full wraps including the best pages in the book. Most or all of the books listed as Q had large windows cut out of the covers where a coupon had been cut on the inside fc.

http://www.comicbookdaily.com/collecting-community/whites-tsunami-weca-splashes/comiclink-whites-auction-2/

CLINK auction #1. (Note that while Ivans article is excellent there is an error with respect to the nelvana one shot as it includes new material. I'm not sure if that matters to anyone, I see it as super desirable regardless, but pointing it out to keep the record straight).

http://www.comicbookdaily.com/collecting-community/whites-tsunami-weca-splashes/comiclink-whites-auction/

Welcome!

 

Great bugs avatar btw

 

1) I think the scarcity is precisely what makes a guide totally unworkable. Many books rarely trade so a guide would amount to nothing more than a bunch of guys sitting around making guesses. Better to use hard data on what few sales do happen. Luckily there were recently a couple of rounds of auctions of whites at CLINK, those are good reference points even if many of the books did very well.

 

2) It depends on the book in question, but I think you have to be prepared to take what you can get. Most of us just want a copy of the book because we know that the hg books are basically unattainable, so the spread between low and high grade value is actually less than you'd think. You simply can't build a hg run so people are quite accepting of lower grade books and the CLINK auction results bore that out. Higher grades did much better than lower grades, but the spread is less than with US books.

 

Have to agree with Dan. These aren't titles like SA Spider-man that you could essentially complete at one good sized show. They don't come up very often and you'll rarely see high grade copies.

 

I think Overstreet has a strong bias towards US edition comics and hasn't included much pricing info for foreign comics. Can't blame them as there are millions of comics published outside the US.

 

The Grand Comics Database will give you a good idea of what's out there. Here's the results for 'slam bang'. It's easy to spot the Canadian publisher and there's links to the five covers.

 

http://www.comics.org/searchNew/?q=slam+bang&selected_facets=facet_model_name_exact:series

 

You could also use the Grand Comics Database to search for Canadian Publishers like Bell.

 

http://www.comics.org/publisher/1988/

Totally agree Dave, publisher is the way to go in trying to delineate (thumbs u

When it comes to the question that was raised about an index or checklist, an indexing attempt was started by Ivan Kocmarek who writes many excellent articles on whites for Comic Book Daily. You may want to search that site for whites articles.

The (still quite incomplete but a nice work in progress) index is here: http://canadasowncomics.com/home/

I'll probably embarass myself by getting something wrong, but loosely speaking, the four main whites houses that produced the 1941-1946 "true whites" so to speak are:

a) Hillborough/absorbed by Commercial Signs of Canada/later renamed Bell Features (Toronto)

b) Maple Leaf (Vancouver)

c) Educational Projects (montreal)

d) Anglo American (toronto)

Bell

The main, long-running Bell titles (some of the better known features in parentheses) are:

- Active Comics (Thunderfist, the Brain, Dixon of the Mounted)

- Commando Comics (Invisible Commando)

- Dime Comics (Johnny Canuck, Rex Baxter, Polka Dot Pirate)

- Joke Comics (the Wing)

- Triumph Comics (earlier Triumph-Adventure under Hillborough) (Nelvana, Speed Savage)

- Wow Comics (the Penguin, Jeff Waring)

- Funny / Dizzy Don

They also published one shots, etc and continued to publish comics after the 1941-1946 period was over.

Maple Leaf

Main titles:

- Lucky (Haunted Castle)

- Rocket (1st issue was called Name-it Comics)

- Better (Brok Winsor, Iron Man)

- Bing Bang

High quality house as well. Maple Leaf and Bell probably considered the two best houses.

Educational Projects

Edutainment. The comics your parents wanted you to read. considered by some to be interesting but perhaps a bit dry. Nice quality of production.

Main title is Cdn Heroes, main feature is Canada Jack.

Anglo American

Published a mix of original material and Fawcett scripts redrawn by Canadians in order to meet whatever the legislative definition of 'canadian comic' was at the time.

Main titles include

- Whiz

- Captain Marvel

- Spy Smasher

- Freelance

- Robin Hood

- Grand Slam

- Three Aces

Here's a few I picked up in 1945 & 1946.

 

 

mm

 

Nice books Marty but how old are you?

I was 80 this year...thanks for asking!

mm

Oh wow you picked those up at the time - good for you Marty!

Oh wow you picked those up at the time - good for you Marty!

These were the only three I ever found on the newsstand...they didn't

seem to have very good distribution.

mm

Some of the other guys might be able to comment; I'm not too familiar with how good or bad the distribution was other than they did sell a lot of comics in their heyday per Cy Bell's claims, so they had to be going somewhere. Where were you located?

Some of the other guys might be able to comment; I'm not too familiar with how good or bad the distribution was other than they did sell a lot of comics in their heyday per Cy Bell's claims, so they had to be going somewhere. Where were you located?

Newark, NJ...maybe I just didn't see them.

mm

Well no wonder

The 41-46 comics really weren't distributed outside Canada for the most part - that's why they are rare! Only a few exceptions such as some things that sent to the UK and late run Anglos like the ones you have there that did make it to the US. In that 41-46 period we couldn't import US comics (illegal as a result of the War Exchange Conservation Act) so we had our own self contained industry in those years. For the most part we couldn't read your comics and you couldn't read our comics

Well no wonder

 

The 41-46 comics really weren't distributed outside Canada for the most part - that's why they are rare!

That's good to know!

mm

Here's an ad from #50 for FAWCETT CAPTAIN MARVEL items.

mm

Not too shabby Bronty! Love the craft tint/duotone cover!

When you crack and read, why not shoot a few photos of the interior?

Nice job!

(thumbs u thanks Ryan, I have a few pics from stephen that I'm sure he won't mind me sharing

First app of Speed Savage

Nelvana Splash

House Ad for Dime Comics 1

First app of Captain Wonder

Ja Vol Mein Fuhrer

Here's a couple of splash pages from GRAND SLAM THREE ACES #45.

mm

Great images Bronty and Marty! Thanks of posting!

those Bell house ads =

Lousy scan but a nice cheap little addition distributed in the UK I believe.

[/img]

I'll have to repost this soon!

Looking back through this thread I see I've been here before,so I won't repost any..unless I've gotten them from another board member(as above)to show they are still safe and sound.

Bronty...have you heard of or seen any of the Grape Nuts cereal Comic give away premiums? I have a Dime Comics from it...interior advertises Speed and Atomic Comics and a few others.Mine still has the Grape Nut Label attached,seems the comics were glued to the boxes....

Well,not just Bronty,anyone?

Welcome!

 

Great bugs avatar btw

 

1) I think the scarcity is precisely what makes a guide totally unworkable. Many books rarely trade so a guide would amount to nothing more than a bunch of guys sitting around making guesses. Better to use hard data on what few sales do happen. Luckily there were recently a couple of rounds of auctions of whites at CLINK, those are good reference points even if many of the books did very well.

2) It depends on the book in question, but I think you have to be prepared to take what you can get. Most of us just want a copy of the book because we know that the hg books are basically unattainable, so the spread between low and high grade value is actually less than you'd think. You simply can't build a hg run so people are quite accepting of lower grade books and the CLINK auction results bore that out. Higher grades did much better than lower grades, but the spread is less than with US books.

 

 

Does any one happen to have a list of titles/issues/grades/prices from the CLINK auction?

Thank you in advance.

 

 

CLINK auction #2.

 

Most or all of the books noted as .5 had a missing page or pages. The triumph 7 was missing 3 full wraps including the best pages in the book. Most or all of the books listed as Q had large windows cut out of the covers where a coupon had been cut on the inside fc.

 

http://www.comicbookdaily.com/collecting-community/whites-tsunami-weca-splashes/comiclink-whites-auction-2/

 

CLINK auction #1. (Note that while Ivans article is excellent there is an error with respect to the nelvana one shot as it includes new material. I'm not sure if that matters to anyone, I see it as super desirable regardless, but pointing it out to keep the record straight).

 

http://www.comicbookdaily.com/collecting-community/whites-tsunami-weca-splashes/comiclink-whites-auction/

@ Bronty: Much obliged!

sure thing. Let us know how you make out.

I saw this article on CBR and since it was about a GA Canadian book I thought I'd post it here:

Rare ‘Jewish War Heroes’ comic from 1944 found in box of donated used books

http://news.nationalpost.com/2014/10/31/rare-jewish-war-heroes-comic-from-1944-found-in-box-of-donated-used-books/

Have any of you guys even heard of this book? Very cool.

Stephen has some minty copies he showed me some pics of.

I understand the appeal of the rarity and the nice production values but those don't do it for me personally. I see them as sort of a Canadian parallel to the Cathetical Guild books like If the Devil Would Talk and such.

I did think the price estimate given in the article was extremely optimistic.