No more Foxing around: Complete run of WEIRD COMICS, 1940-1942!

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I would imagine with issues 6-11,13 and 15 it was hard to remember which ones you already had

That is below the belt, sir!

(Thankfully, the covers are indeed numbered for easy reference.)

Where did all those Weirds go?

 

Missed this thread the first time around but some great info here.

 

In addition to the raw numbers, it's very likely Fox had some serious distribution challenges due to fallout from the Wonderman lawsuit.

 

He probably couldn't use Independent anymore, which was one of his primary distributors (and Donenfeld's savvy at traveling the country and building out his distro network is said to be one of the "secret" ingredients of the DC success story).

 

And it even goes beyond that -- DC dragged Kable and Interborough into the suit also, so who knows how they felt about Fox after that.

 

If it happened that he lost both Independent and Kable, that would've given him some serious challenges in the Midwest and non-metro East, and he may have had to try to piece it together from less reliable distros.

 

If most of those print runs are then concentrated in metro areas + probably sporadic and changing distribution, I think that goes a long ways towards explaining fewer surviving copies of some things (people in metro areas move more, live in apartments more, have less room = comics don't get saved).

 

 

Thats an impressive run to complete, and I share your enthusiasm with the title. Some great covers and hard to find books! Which issue did you find most difficult?

Thats an impressive run to complete, and I share your enthusiasm with the title. Some great covers and hard to find books! Which issue did you find most difficult?

Thanks for the kind words! In fairness, most of these copies are low-grade or restored and probably wouldn't pass muster with many of the collectors here, but I'm happy enough with them. You have to go with whatever you can find.

I'm amazed at how prices are getting more aggressive when they do turn up... looks like a VG Weird #4 sold for nearly $1500 on HA, and a VG- #14 for $956... whoa! Those were both $200ish books not that long ago. And in the last few months, hardly any issues have shown up on ebay at all. There used to be at least a few low-grade beater copies making the rounds.

I'd guess #17 is probably literally the scarcest of the run. (I would have guessed #20 was the scarcest a few years ago, but the strong auction prices seem to have scared up a few more copies.) In general, most of the books in the #11-20 run are very tough, as the print runs (and distribution, thanks Mark) must have dwindled. The earliest issues are actually (a bit) easier.

As I am working on the run myself I would have to agree that that 11-20 are far more difficult to get than the first 10 issues. There have been 4-5 copies of #1 in last year alone and I have yet to see a single 17 in several years of searching.

As I am working on the run myself I would have to agree that that 11-20 are far more difficult to get than the first 10 issues. There have been 4-5 copies of #1 in last year alone and I have yet to see a single 17 in several years of searching.

How many do you have so far?

I am halfway there, the only ones out of the 11-20 I have are 13, 14 and 20. Also working on Wonderworld, Mystery Men, Science and Fantastic...oh my aching wallet....

Thats an impressive run to complete, and I share your enthusiasm with the title. Some great covers and hard to find books! Which issue did you find most difficult?

Thanks for the kind words! In fairness, most of these copies are low-grade or restored and probably wouldn't pass muster with many of the collectors here, but I'm happy enough with them. You have to go with whatever you can find.

 

I'm amazed at how prices are getting more aggressive when they do turn up... looks like a VG Weird #4 sold for nearly $1500 on HA, and a VG- #14 for $956... whoa! Those were both $200ish books not that long ago. And in the last few months, hardly any issues have shown up on ebay at all. There used to be at least a few low-grade beater copies making the rounds.

 

I'd guess #17 is probably literally the scarcest of the run. (I would have guessed #20 was the scarcest a few years ago, but the strong auction prices seem to have scared up a few more copies.) In general, most of the books in the #11-20 run are very tough, as the print runs (and distribution, thanks Mark) must have dwindled. The earliest issues are actually (a bit) easier.

 

Books like this are so rare that even beaters go way up in price. For every high grade collector, there are 10 shmoos like me to just want to have one so the prices are getting pushed up on all grades.

This title along with a few others works just about the inverse to every other title, as you go up in issue numbers the price increases. I paid way more for number 20 than I did for number 1, and that 20 is a beater....

The early issues of Weird had this Voodoo Man feature. (First appearance of zombies in comics? Cha-ching!)

 

 

It might be close to first zombie, but I think Speed Comics #1 precedes it. Check it out at Digital Comic Museum

Anyone have an earlier zombie.

Great thread. Great achievement as well. What I especially appreciate with this effort is just the goal of collecting the run with no particular emphasis on specific grades and no slabbed copies at all. Lots of interior scans could therefore get shared. This thread is what I liked best about this forum. Cheers!

Great thread. Great achievement as well. What I especially appreciate with this effort is just the goal of collecting the run with no particular emphasis on specific grades and no slabbed copies at all. Lots of interior scans could therefore get shared. This thread is what I liked best about this forum. Cheers!

Thanks. It was fun to put together.

I'm definitely a raw books guy, not a slab guy. Especially with a wacky title like this one, I think you'd be missing out not being able to read or at least flip through an issue once in a while. Taking in a dense concentration of stories, art and ads from the early 40s is a bit like time travel. Fascinating to get a taste of the creativity and the mindset back then.

I wish CGC label said first appearance of Thor on Weird #1???

Can anything be done?