Flex Mentallo

The man himself - he and his wife modeled for many of his covers!

If we are going the full Norman, I can only follow...

I thought this might be worth sharing here! https://www.amazon.com/Bill-Ward-Fantagraphics-Studio/dp/1683968727/ref=sr_1_1?crid=T95C0K5LXDEF&keywords=bill+ward+fantagraphics&qid=1677342102&sprefix=bill+ward+fantagraphics%2Caps%2C196&sr=8-1 Naughty but nice!

...and it seems Fantagraphics are on a high at the moment, because this: https://www.amazon.com/Bill-Ward-Fantagraphics-Studio/dp/1683968727/ref=sr_1_1?crid=T95C0K5LXDEF&keywords=bill+ward+fantagraphics&qid=1677342102&sprefix=bill+ward+fantagraphics%2Caps%2C196&sr=8-1 Naughty but nice!

Just relaying some info from Collected Editions for any precode horror/crime/war aficionados who might be interested in supporting a line of books from Fantagraphics! This is from Michael J. Vassallo: "....Now it can be told! Ok, I’ve hinted about this for several weeks and it seems the cat is out of the bag, and I wasn’t even told it was!@#$%! I've was hired by Fantagraphics last year to helm an ongoing line of Timely/Atlas reprints. (Although it will, for obvious reasons, be primarily Atlas). From what I understand, Marvel was happy with farming out the project that became “Atlas at War,” and while Dead Reckoning didn’t want to do a second volume, Marvel was happy enough with the result to approach Fantagraphics with the idea to be even more ambitious. As they ironed out whatever they had to iron out, I was contacted to see if I had interest in planning and organizing it. I was, obviously! So after hearing out what Fantagraphics was looking for, I composed a 2 year initial plan. Next I prevailed upon them to hire Allan Harvey to do the art restoration, hoping against hope they’d be interested, as they initially told me they would do it in-house. Well it turns out they did in fact follow my suggestion and hired him, so the band is back together! Now that you all know the artwork will look gorgeous, I’ll run down the initial plan…. Fantagraphics wants to do 5 ongoing series reprints "plus” one Best Of artist single volume compilation a year. I provide the source material scanned, write an introduction, and Allan restores the art. Two books are planned for the end of this year, one series reprint and one artist Best Of compilation. All genres are fair game, although the concern about sales of less popular genres were talked about. But that said, no genre is off the table so my potential array of choices are legion and just limited to what I have (nearly everything) and what condition it’s in for scanning. The project will lead off with a pre-code horror volume comprising the first 8 issues of the title ADVENTURES INTO TERROR. Fantagraphics liked that title from my initial list of choices because of the strength of the word “Terror.” Understand that members of this group and like-minded Atlas collectors are a given in their idea of sales, but there's a need to tap into the non-Atlas, general Fantagraphics buyer to make the line really viable and continue beyond the initial 2 year period. The second volume will be the first “Best Of” artist volume, and there was no one I could choose but Joe Maneely to launch the line! So yes, by the end of the year, we will “finally” get a Best of Joe Maneely (not the actual title) book! All the books in the line will be oversized like Atlas at War, similar, from what I understand, and similar to the recent Fantagraphics Complete Ray Bradbury EC Comics volume, perhaps even a bit larger. It will be much less expensive than a typical Marvel Masterwork so most budgets should be able to help support this. Let me tell you, trying to distill Joe Maneely's career into 45 (or so) stories and 25 (or so) covers is a difficult endeavor. I initially chose 100 stories and 100 covers, and have been whittling them down ever since. What I hope is, sales will warrant a volume 2 at some point. Next year we will get Venus Volume 2. Understand that that volume will not come from the material already prepared by Marvel for the second volume that was never published. It will be all new art restored from scans of the original books. I have all the issues and the preparation will take some juggling as many of my issues are low grade and suitable for scanning, although some late covers are really raw. I may need a cover scan or two if folks here have them. We’ll cross that bridge when we get there as I already had to purchase a beat copy of Adventures Into Terror #7 to scan, my copy being too high grade. A search on eBay found a literal BTH copy with a shredded cover and perfect interior! So my cover was used and the interior came from eBay. That first book has been put to bed and is now being restored. I don't mind buying low grade copies to scan if necessary, and re-selling them afterwards, but I will not buy slabbed books. After breaking them out I won't be able to re-sell them for what I paid for them, and I'm not taking a loss on this. So that's the update, folks. I'm hoping these books sell better than the Masterworks did and be able to run ... well, indefinitely. They will need everyone's full support. You've asked for it, and now you're going to finally get it! To paraphrase Jack Kirby slightly, "You’ve asked, now buy it!"....." So we will finally see Bill Everett's Venus next year! The first volumes have been trailed on Amazon already: https://www.amazon.com/dp/1683968913?ref_=cm_sw_r_apan_dp_M6ADJN30C11A949DYR4G https://www.amazon.com/Adventures-Into-Terror-Comics-Library/dp/1683968719/ref=sr_1_1?crid=21JJBA0END45M&keywords=Adventures+Into+Terror%3A+The+Atlas+Comics+Library&qid=1677341905&sprefix=adventures+into+terror+the+atlas+comics+library+%2Caps%2C516&sr=8-1

I think that's the best polar bear cover! I have a couple...

One of my absolute favorites! Sharp copy! Here's mine [not so sharp].

A shame to see this topic lie dormant for so long. A post written by @Randall Dowling in a parallel thread prompts an obvious question: what is the most you've ever paid for one of these mags, and which one was it? While I have kept no records, and haven't bought one in years, I recall that this Man's Action I've oft posted here saw intense bidding and I paid something over $200 for it. This would have been more than fifteen years ago. [I had just lost out on another high grade copy so was determined to land it, so would've bid much higher if need be.] Unlike comics, we don't have a price guide, do we? As @Robot Man pointed out in that parallel thread, they have gotten scarce, especially in grade and the collector pool may not be that deep, so it's hard to establish a frame of reference. But it does seem to me that relative to comics and pulps, they remain significantly undervalued.

By Thunda, Foggy! Git the spullin rite!

I would happily sell my mags for 1k each, Randall! What is the record price, and for which mag? Any idea?

Crude for the first few, then they transition to well-drawn GGA as the title enters double digits. Over time, some of the greatest Golden Age artists join the roster.

Just to follow up on my last post - some updated info yesterday from someone who is actually working on Taschen's Marvel books [posting on the Collected Editions Forum]. He says that the X-Men is Silver Age, covering #1-#21. They are working on Spidey vol 2 and the Silver Surfer volume simultaneously - he doesn't know which of those two will be published first, and he hasn't said anything yet about the contents; but these three are definitely in the pipeline for this year.

I passed on the 75 Years XXL books and wish I hadn't! They are expensive now! Do you have any pics of -especially - the Golden Age sections? The EC book is excellent - and there are the Krazy Kat and Little Nemo books. And I suppose the XXL book on pin-ups is relevant.{Just did a count and I have 25 of these monsters all told - mainly artist monographs. If they keep coming, I'm gonna need a bigger boat!] That reminds me, we are promised an X-Men volume next, followed by Spidey volume 2, Silver Surfer, and possibly Incredible Hulk and Golden Age Cap! It seems Taschen are just getting started...

A year in Taschen.

One of our favorites, right, Foggy? I like HJ Ward as well. [Though not so shudder-some!] Sad that he died at the tender age of 35, so we never got to see what he might have done with, say post-war detective, crime and war mag covers as we did with Saunders!

They are definitely worth hunting down if you love pulp covers!

And finally, John A. Coughlin! He did more detective covers than shudder pulps. A few of the yellow peril covers are his.

...and on the wonderfully named Graves Gladney!

I'd love to see a monograph on John Newton Howitt! [Not my copy.]

...and Girasol produced five leather bound volumes of complete pulp covers before going bust. Of which the third focuses on the shudder pulps. I may shudder when browsing but at least I don't sneeze!

Unfortunately pulps aggravate my asthma. So I collect books on the subject instead. I assume everyone is familiar with the Illustrated Press?

Pulps [and Vampi] are rather tame by Renaissance standards! Judith and Holofernes by Artemisia Gentileschi.

Comparing the bottom right hand corner of my former copy with the one I posted earlier, one can see how magenta over yellow was used to model form - and also, that magenta was printed after yellow - and I think almost certainly after cyan. I have no explanation why they might have stinted on the magenta! @jimjum12 do I remember rightly that you have worked in the print industry? Can you shed any further light on the CMYK process for us?