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AJD's comic notebook
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1,132 posts in this topic

My collection passed a significant milestone this week. I picked up a couple of 1945 WDC&S, which filled in my 'second half of the century'. I now have the run from 49 -100. Of course, that's the easy part. I'm now 68/100, which means that I have only 16 of the first 48.

 

Here are the issues 49 - 100. (Clickable thumbnails)

 

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Thanks n2wdw, much appreciated. I really like your sig line, incidentally - that shows an eye for a diverse range of books, all of which are cool in their own way. Great stuff!

As for the WDC&S, I keep fairly good records on my purchases, so it's interesting to compare where I am with where I thought I might be on this run. It's been a bit harder than I thought to get a solid mid-grade run assembled. I suspect it's relatively easy in low grade, but waiting for the 'right' copy can take a while.

Back on 1 June 2012, not long after I got my 50th book in the run, I said:

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When I set out to do this I thought it would be a $25k five year undertaking. So far it's been $4,671 in two years and four months and I'm averaging costs of 58% of guide by being patient.

 

I think my estimates are looking good at this point, but we'll see.

Since then I've bought some more early books and had a pay a bit more to fill gaps. The statistics are now 4 years and 7 months gone, and only 68/100 books acquired - so five years isn't going to cut it unless something extraordinary happens. The main culprit has been the siren call of other GA books (ECs, Fiction House, war bonds covers...)

As for costs, so far it's a touch under $6k :eek: but now about 64% of guide on average.

I still really love these books, so let's see what happens in the next five years... hm First stop, I think, will be to fill in the six books in the 40s I need and/or the two books required to have the 20s covered (21 and 23 if anyone has one to sell).

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So I decided after more than six years it was time for a new avatar, but I wasn't sure what would work.

Then I saw this in a recent Australian Phantom comic (in a reprint of an ad from years ago):

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Decision made - The Ghost Who Hops, cannot die.

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Very pleased to have got a few books in this week that finished off another run. Back in June of 08 I read a critique of atomic age comics which mentioned that Two-Fisted tales and Frontline Combat were the best war comics ever in the author's opinion. So in June 08 I bought one on eBay to see (Two-Fisted #26)... six years later, here we are, all done. The Frontline group is earlier in this journal. Here's the Two-Fisted run from #18 (1) to #41 (24).

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These are great comics. The only ones that are a bit sub par are the 36 - 39 "New Two-Fisted Tales" run, where Kurtzman stepped aside as editor for John Severin. Still a few excellent stories, but also some real clunkers. Judging by how the title and style reverted for the last couple of issues, the readers at the time might have felt the same.

 

My favourites are the two Civil War issues (31 and 35), but all of the Korean War issues (19 - 31) have some powerful stuff in them. My favourite single story is probably the Indo-China War Dien Bien Thu in #40.

 

Thanks for reading. I'll have another complete group shot to share in a week or so when the last book arrives from the US. It's a slightly different genre to this one!

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Lovely :applause:

 

And a nice little tease for the casual reader in the last sentence lol

 

Bravo!

 

Agree with you regarding the strange turn the title took under Severin's stewardship. An attempt to introduce continuing characters didn't work.

 

That said, I like Severin's work with a pencil. Underrated IMHO.

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As I mentioned above, I was waiting on delivery of a book to complete a short run. It was Four Color #969 (Peanuts #2). It arrived this week, so I could finally put this photo together:

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This isn't my usual stuff. As you'll have noticed elsewhere in this thread, I'm almost exclusively a GA collector. But these silver age comics have a charm I just couldn't resist. The strong (mostly) single colour backgrounds and the big bold character drawings give them a similar appeal for me to the early Barks 'gag' covers on Uncle Scrooge. I think they're my wife's favourite comics in my collection as well.

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Happy Christmas everyone. :hi:

 

It's the time of year to do the AJD Class of 2014 posts. I've had a great year collecting this year. I've been on the road a lot, which left me in hotel rooms with comic browsing often the best way to kill an hour or two - oh, and extra income from the extra work. The result, as you'll see, has been a big fun year of GA collecting.

For this first post, let's start with the few war bonds covers I've got this year. (You can see the rest of my theme collection here.)

This one was an eBay pickup for $30. I haven't managed to find one in years of looking, and feared this one might go for multiples of guide - it didn't. :banana: Still looking for a #6 if anyone has any leads.

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Heritage for this one. Gotta say, the cover is about all this comic has going for it. the interior artwork and writing are mediocre at best.

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I found this really nice copy at Metro. Quality wise it seems like a Dell file copy, but there's nothing to indicate that.

Super comics 86

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Love this one. Apart from the chip out of the bottom, this is a really sweet copy - nice and tight and with great cover inks and gloss. Not a bad read either, and the cover is a nice whimsical bonds cover.

Tec 101

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This one is just great. Every page is a war bonds ad, with contributions from lots of well known and a few not so well known cartoonists. I've shown a couple of sample pages below. This book should be a grail for bonds collectors. :cloud9:

War Victory nn

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Finally, I've wanted one of these for a long while and thought I'd better grab it before the Aussie dollar goes too much further south. A Heritage win from last week.

Batman 17

 

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Just for fun, here's a pic of the splash page, nicked from an eBay listing.

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That'll do for today. I'll start on the ECs tomorrow.

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I set out in April 2011 to get Mad 1 - 10. Almost there now, missing just #5. Though I strayed outside the range in 2013 by buying a #22 and I weakened this year as well, picking up a 20 and 21 when they were going cheap at Heritage. I might end up going for the 1 - 23 run at some stage... hm

 

Got this one from Joeypost. This is still my largest purchase $$$ wise.

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Heritage for this one:

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Bought this one from Four Color Comics. I really liked the couple of books I got from them - I just wish they had more things I want in their inventory.

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Heritage - from the Don & Maggie collection, cracked out (graded 5.5 by CGC).

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Heritage again. A fun book.

 

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Also from Heritage and a bit disappointing because the tanning is worse than it seems in a scan. At least it wasn't too expensive.

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Next up will be Two Fisted Tales, a run I finished this year. (See earlier post.)

 

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AJD's Class of 2014 - Part III

 

I started this year with 15 of the 24 issues of EC's Two Fisted tales, and with the vague hope of completing the run this year. I didn't expect it to happen though. Even though these aren't expensive books, finding the right midgrade copies is usually a matter of patience. The first copy I bought was #26 back in June 2008, so this was a six year job. As it happened, the remaining issues just happened to pop up at various times over the year. Job done. :cloud9:

 

Incidentally, if you haven't read TFT, track down a reprint of one or two copies (any between 19 and 35 would be my recommended introduction) or of its sister title Frontline Combat (any of those, though #7 is my favourite). These are simply some of the best war comics ever. I first became aware of these through the books 'The International Book of Comics' (Dennis Gifford) and 'The Classic Era of American Comics' (Nicky Wright). Intrigued by the descriptions in those books I bought TFT 26 to check it out. The rest is history.

 

Harvey Kurtzman's work alone is worth the price of admission. Here's what Kurtzman had to say about his approach to them:

 

"... it was fashionable to do war comics in terms of fantasy and glamour, which I thought was a terrible immorality. They made war a happy event where American supermen go around beating up buck-toothed yellow men... but the way war really is, you get killed suddenly for no reason".

 

OK, so onto the books. This one was a boards purchase. The first in the series (#18) is more an adventure book than a war book, so this is the first of the war themed TFT. (36 - 39 go back to the adventure stories, and really suffer in comparison.)

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This was the last one I got. Because I was only missing one, I bit the bullet and (over)paid Metro's asking price.

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An eBay purchase and a lovely book.

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From the same eBay seller. Not quite as nice, but still right in my wheelhouse.

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Another nice book from Four Color Comics.

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A bargain basement eBay purchase. :banana:

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Not so bargain basement, but still well under guide from eBay.

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One of my least favourite books in the series, but cheap enough on the 'Bay.

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My least favourite book in the run, but a nice upgrade from the boards of the .5 I had previously.

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We'll do the rest of the ECs tomorrow. Thanks for looking.

 

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Thanks Griff - that would be great!

Today's offering is the EC sci-fi pickups for the year. These were the favourites of Gaines and Feldstein of all the EC titles, and the ones they were proudest of. I think the war titles were stronger (or maybe they've just aged better) but these books are great too. The funny thing is that I have no interest in the EC horror comics at all. I know they're why EC is as famous as it is in the history of comics, but I just don't see the appeal. I don't like horror movies either. Oh well, that just means fewer comics to have to try to find.

The first Weird Fantasy. A really nice looking 4.0 bought from Ed Owens here on the boards. I'm seriously contemplating cracking out all of my ECs these holidays. I think I've bought about 40 slabs in total, and half of them have been liberated. The only thing that holds me back is the loss of value...

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Another Don and Maggie book. This looks great in hand, especially for the grade. (It has a long faint crease on the cover.)

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Another Ed Owens book. ( :hi: Ed). The perfect comic book - presents great on the FC, but a bit messed up on the back = affordability. :headbang:

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eBay pickup - really nice, especially for the price.

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A surprisingly reasonably priced book from Metro.

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The one that got away twice. I had a couple of tries to buy a WF18 before I got this one from Ed. On eBay I had a snipe that failed to lodge because the sniper encountered one of those 'prove you're not a robot' pages- and it sold for under $50. :frustrated: This one cost more than that, but it's a beaut, especially now it's out of its plastic tomb.

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A great Frazetta PLOA book. (Purple Label of Affordability). I don't understand the aesthetic that says that a book with a couple of dots of marker is to be shunned as unworthy - but I'm happy to take advantage of it.

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While I'm here, three more 'odd' ECs I got this year.

Piracy is a cracking good read, and the classic cover - credit to Marie Severin for the colour work on this one - makes it a must have.

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This is the first one of this series I've picked up. Another good read. Impact, Aces High and Piracy are the best of the New Direction titles I've read. I have a single copy of Extra and it's very mediocre. Valor is OK, but some of the stories seem to lack 'oomph' for a title that has fighting as its main theme. I haven't read any of M.D. or Pyschoanalysis, so I'm not sure about those. I'd like to find a nice Impact #1 next year.

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Finally, this bargain eBay pickup finished my run of Valor. Despite my comments above, it's worth picking up this reasonably priced run for the cover art alone.

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That's it for the ECs. We'll move on to Fiction House tomorrow.

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