50YrsCollctngCmcs

I had reason to be on the Walt Disney Studios lot yesterday and went over to see if I could snap a picture of the Carl Barks Legends plaque. I found it fairly quickly and snapped my photo. I wanted to look for Walt Kelly but I am not sure if he was ever given a plaque or not. I know I have seen Kay Kamen (KK Publications) before but did not see it on this trip. Enjoy!

I walked into a thrift store in Asbury Park, NJ in the late seventies and found four nice Rex books for pocket change. This is my favorite of the set.

Off Topic - but there's a funny animal on the cover! DC published Mutt and Jeff for twenty years. This issue is all strip reprints which I think most of them were. hard to imagine this series lasted this long.

Funny Stuff is a great title. The early "Three Mouseketeers" by Meyer were much more interesting than the later humorous fare. And who doesn't love a turtle modeled on the Flash!

I think a Google search might reveal some information on Random House. Also, if you want to read about Western / Dell / Gold Key I'd recommend Mark Evanier's blog. I don't recall where I read it but the story of George Delacorte (Dell) and Helen Meyer his right hand woman is quite interesting. As I was verifying Mr. Delacorte's name I just noticed Helen Meyer passed away in 2003 at the age of 95. There is a nice obituary in the NY Times but you need a subscription.

I don't know if the file copy story was ever written down but there were rumors of them going back to shows in New York in the late seventies. I think there are many sources for these (Racine, Poughkeepsie, New York, Random House); so other than the stamped Racine copies I don't know how it is determined they are file copies. Here is the old Racine office by the way back in the early 2000's.

Yeah nice book but unless you are a high grade completist I just don't see the value. So many other places to drop that cash. And the edges don't look like a 9.2 to me; but I don't play the high grade game.

I would also hit up the small press area at a show like this looking for hidden gems. Also the smaller publishers deserve support like TwoMorrows or Oni Press. Lots of interesting things there. Then there is always that odd dealer selling a collection of hard back books and they often have a box of comics hiding in the back. That's how I scored my All Flash #4 years ago at a little obscure booth no one was paying attention to because it just looked like a bookseller!

"Brittle Page Regrets!" It could be a classic lurid fifties paperback. I've only got two books in this category; they both make me want to cry. I remember when the Jerry Robinson books were on offer at a SDCC; they were mostly brittle pages. I would have bought one but the taint of the brittle pages steered me clear happily!

When Wonder Con moved from the Bay Area to Anaheim it lost a lot of the fun local vibe. But I thought hey it is close and I can get there easily and it will be bigger and more interesting. Well it was bigger and other than cosplay the comic book aspect was much diminished. Still I try to keep an open mind at shows and purposefully go explore areas not comic related to see what else I might enjoy and try to understand the broader collecting world. That approach makes the shows more interesting and has led to some fun discoveries. Thanks for the report Bob.

Sting Ray bikes!! I still remember mine so well! It had purple seats and a real gear shifter on the top bar like a car! What a ride!!

Crumb for sure!

I love this show! Wish I could have been there! A few years back I got to meet Lupoff at the show and grabbed an autograph on my well read copy of AICFD. I would have snagged that Classic Comics peeking out of the comic pile if it was an interesting book. That copy of the East Village Other also looks intriguing. Those early counter culture newspapers are interesting reads and don't show up too often; they mostly got tossed in the bin. I always find something intriguing at this show; I picked up a pile of Humbug magazines at the last one I attended. Looks like great fun Bob!!

Rich made a lot of connections on these boards all driven by his love of Disney comics! A wonderful thing for the rest of us to aspire to here!

These Kelly covers always make me smile!!