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Will you be attending in Beverly Hills? BTW, did you see my shout out to you re FB2 a page or so ago?

Yep. he said there won't be another Sack specific auction but there will be pieces continuing to show up in the UG section of many future auctions. Looks like it's a total divestment of the Sack collection. No doubt he's going to retire in style!!! Lotsa Poppa, to be sure! Since there isn't any Underground Comix from Sack in the auction, I'd guess he is just letting the original art go. Looks like Sack was looking for a minicomix here just 6 months to a year ago from a post here, so he's probably keeping a really impressive collection of comix for himself. There are indeed UG comix being sold in the auction, not just OA. Posters and ephemera, too. All that material can be found in the rear section of the auction catalog, and will probably be more spread out in upcoming sales/auctions.

Someday if I'm visiting my relatives in Orange County I'd like to give the collection a peek! Wish it were going to San Francisco State! I would have been happy to help out with the appraisal there!

I spoke with Todd Hignite today and asked him specifically about the threadspool heads. There are 11 of them in the youtube video but only 3 in this weeks auction. He said they intend to put them in future auctions a few at a time. So it looks like while the entire Eric Sack collection will not be offered in this auction, Heritage is in possession of the entire collection. Yep. he said there won't be another Sack specific auction but there will be pieces continuing to show up in the UG section of many future auctions. Looks like it's a total divestment of the Sack collection. No doubt he's going to retire in style!!! Lotsa Poppa, to be sure!

Amazing you guys... be sure to share your stories so we can live vicariously. I think I will bring a camera body with a 14 mm wide angle lens. I don't want to be behind a camera all night but I should be able to get some good pics I defer to Felix^ as the only camera I have still uses film!

Also from the Eric Sack Collection, but featured in the main catalog along with a lot more pages from his collection not found in the UG catalog. He has some amazing taste and a collection that would be nigh on impossible to replicate today. According to his intro in the UG catalog, all the stuff for sale in this series of Heritage auctions are just a part of his vast holdings!!

It's just the one, as shown, but it's a dilly and looks quite majestic in poison!!!!

My vote is 'aye'!!!

I didn't ask but it looked like they had quite a few of them on the wall racks and I noticed a large box of them behind a desk when I was inspecting the page from Griffin's Man From Utopia, which was behind said desk. My guess is that they don't get a lot of stragglers like myself coming into the office except perhaps to consign material, which I saw an example of while I was there. It's really more of an office than a showroom like, say Bonhams, is. It's on a street with a lot of small galleries in the North Beach-Barbary Coast neighborhood, and aside from the walls, the place is rows of desks. I don't think you have to worry, in other words!!! Is the catalog you mention the one that had the Adams GL/GA #76 on the cover? or was there a separate Greber catalog ala Sack?

Went back to the Heritage office in San Francisco this morning where I was more than amazed at the walls of the place which were decorated with choice specimens from the upcoming Eric Sack Collection auction. Rick Griffin, Rory Hayes, Art Spiegelman, Rand Holmes, Zap Jams, and a ton o'Crumb were lining the walls from one side of the room all the way around the perimeter to the other! Best of all the catalog was thrust into my hand, and boy oh boy it is a UG collectible in and of itself. About 125 pages of nicely reproduced art, books, posters and other ephemera with thorough, descriptive captions, a fine couple of intros by Denis Kitchen and Mr. Sack himself, and even a cool brown band circling the catalog warning of the subversive and demented content to be found within. Inside a companion catalog of more mainstream material but with a taste of the Sack collection, a lot of the images have been censored. Not so in the actual Sack catalog, so if you are attempting to snag one, go for the one actually titled "The Eric Sack Collection". It's also smaller dimension-wise so it's easy to tell the two apart. A nice addition to any collection of books on UG, to be sure, and even if I walk away from the sale without a win, this book itself is a very nice consolation prize, indeed!!!

And Away We Go......

I totally forgot to mention that. Indeed, the early specials should be snagged if you find them cheap and they still have the bonuses. The Worst of Mad #4 has a "Sunday Comics Section" bonus that is very hard to find still attached to the inside of the magazine. My copy has the bonus, but it is loose and has yellowed with age (like most newsprint, I guess). The zeppelin mobile and the full-size Alfred poster are also tricky to find. Then try finding the stamps in condition where they haven't ended up stuck together over time. Even well-preserved issues can have this problem. Took pics of Worst of Mad #4 a couple weeks ago... Eight large-format pages satirizing other comics, many of them with art by Wally Wood or other EC greats. I stumbled on to an estate sale about a month or so ago where the place had 5 of the Annuals in pretty much VF/NM condition. They were: WFM #2 with Record (unattached, 3rd copy) WFM #4 with Sunday Comic Section (unattached, my 2nd copy) WFM #5 with Record (unattached, 2nd copy) WFM #8 with Zeppelin (attached, 4th copy) WFM #9 with Record (unattached, 2nd copy) While I was paying for them (under $20 for the lot!!!) the lady running the sale said she thought she saw more of those 'comic books' and wanted to know if I'd be interested should she find them. I of course said yes and gave her my number, never expecting to hear from her again, as would normally be the case! Happily, I was wrong and she called me about a week and a half ago and said she had found a few more. Apparently, a family with twins were giving up the place and at some point both the kids must have bought the same Annual, but along with another copy of WFM #4 (Sunday Comic Section present but unattached, also in about VF condition), she laid the following 4 Annuals on me: MTFM #4 with Sing-A-Long book (unattached, 2nd copy) MTFM #8 with Alfred E. Neuman Pop-Art Poster (attached, my 2nd copy) MF #2 with 1965 Calendar (still intact and in almost as new condition!, 2nd copy, better than my first!!) WFM #7 with all Protest Signs (attached, 2nd copy) She then asked me if I thought $15 was fair! I hemmed and hawed, and then agreed while trying to not giveaway my joy that these gems were being had for a song! Lady made my month and there still may be more!!! She told me that she might be mis-remembering the ones I already bought, though!!! Also, a local used book store is going to on-line and by appointment sales only, so for the last few weeks they have been selling off all their stock at a more reduced discount as the weeks passed, so I was able to pick up 2 virtually pristine copies of Mad Special #9 for 40 cents and 50 cents, respectively! Found some other cool EC and Mad items as well, including 2 first prints of Signet's "Like, Mad" in unread condition! Been a crazy few weeks for this MadMan...and I wasn't even looking for them! It appears Photobucket is down for maintenance currently, and hopefully my wife will let me use her phone camera to take some pictures of the material mentioned above and I can post them here (must be the issue mentioned a few posts above!).

Mad Magazines are generally not worth a lot of dough compared to comics etc., for the simple reason that Mad was popular outside of the comics realm, and had a very high circulation level. (In 1973 and 1974 the circulation actually topped two million.) Here are Mad's circulation numbers by year -- starting in 1961 (not sure why it starts there -- maybe reliable figures are harder to determine previously?). As you can see, the lowest circulation occurred during the past 10 years, with this year being the lowest of all. (And by the way, I heartily recommend subscribing -- you can get 3 years for 35 bucks or something, and they send you extra goodies like a limited-edition poster. Totally worth it.) As a result, perhaps some of the most collectible Mads are the ones from 2000 onwards. I have sold Mad runs on eBay a couple of times, and I've found that if I sell a batch of 1980s Mads, it tends to go for a lower price than a batch of 2000s Mads. That isn't to say older ones aren't collectible. They are very cool Magazines, and the quality of the writing, cartooning and editing is part of the reason so many people held on to their magazines over the years. The mid-1950s issues tend to be the most valuable if you find some in nice condition, especially #24 through #43 or so, but any with Wally Wood, Norman Mingo, and especially Kelly Freas covers are cool. After that, there are certain issues that are just fun to have. The 1960s issues are all really good with excellent Norman Mingo covers. The marijuana cover from 1968 or so, I think it's issue #118?, tends to be much harder to find than others, so pick that up if you see it. Also, the cover with Frankenstein, and the King Kong cover, are a little tougher to find. The 1964 "Alfred of Arabia" issue is always a good one to get because it's the first one to feature the back-page fold-in. All of the 1970s and early 1980s issues are relatively easy to get, though it's fun to find them in nice condition with un-folded back pages (due to the Al Jaffee fold-in). If you can find the issue with the raised middle finger, from 1974, that one is always in demand, because it actually got the editors in trouble, and they had to issue an apology to subscribers. It's a classic cover though. The later issues are a hodge podge in terms of collectiblity or whatever. I think you should buy them if they're a good price and you're interested in having fun reading them. I don't collect the regular monthly issues much anymore, but I go GAGA when I find an Annual, especially from the start to around Mad Special #6, that still has the bonus, and doubly so if it's still attached and intact! I think those Mad's are well worth collecting and in multiples if you can find them in decent shape. I NEVER pass them up if the price is right...and surprisingly even these days bargains on them can still be found!!!

I'm not sure what the deal is, but Photobucket images are not showing up in my browser. I think I can guess what you posted! One of them has to be that headless horseman pumpkin cover. Yeah, they were there yesterday for me, but not today, and you are correct in your guess for one of the images. The other, if I recall, was Frankenstein building the AEN model...but I could be forcing my own version into the conversation....

If there are any Heavy Metal Magazine collectors out there, I just picked up 7 of the original black slipcases with the silver foil stamping of the Heavy Metal title on them. Looks like they hold about a years worth of issues. 6 are in really nice shape, albeit a little dusty, and one has some dings. If you live in the United States and are interested in one or all I'm sure we can work out some sort of deal. Feel free to PM me, as I check this forum every day or so. I can ship them Media Mail, more than likely, as I am a bookseller who ships from the PO almost everyday! If I can I'll try to post an image of what these look like later. I have no camera or cell phone, but my wife does and occasionally she'll humor me with a snap or two.

Thanks for sharing, seems like a super cool guy. Did you see he's also selling an albino Plymell Zap, just like the one you posted a while back, only his has lighter blue and is signed. Guess we'll now see what the market is for a book like this. Thanks for the tip and link. I really should meander over to the Heritage office to see if they have a Sack catalog available yet. I prefer to study these kinds of things in book form rather than via the web. Guess I am just an old fuddy-duddy. Hope to see much of this material up close and personal at the preview and reception in about 2 weeks! Wish I could fly over to share in the bombast of that reception... Sounds like it's going to be a black tie affair. More like a Tie-Dye affair actually! I went over to the office yesterday and had a delightful encounter with the two ladies working there. About 10 pieces had just shown up and were in varied states of unpacking, so I got to hold and examine closely the splash page to Jumping Jack Flash, Leonore Goldberg, as well as the cover to Snarf #7 and a couple other pages, including the cover to the History Of Underground Comics! Amazing stuff! They had no catalogs yet, but I was told to come back and they also wanted to know if I was a beer drinker! Apparently this is the first fete of it's sort being held in the office and they weren't sure if UG fans are wine or beer drinkers! I should have told them to have some random tabs of blotter acid lying about the room, but I didn't think fast enough when pondering the question about my beer preference! They also seemed excited that Todd Hignite was going to be present at the reception, but weren't sure if Mr. Sack would be there. If there are new developments, I'll be sure to report them here!!!

Thanks for sharing, seems like a super cool guy. Did you see he's also selling an albino Plymell Zap, just like the one you posted a while back, only his has lighter blue and is signed. Guess we'll now see what the market is for a book like this. Thanks for the tip and link. I really should meander over to the Heritage office to see if they have a Sack catalog available yet. I prefer to study these kinds of things in book form rather than via the web. Guess I am just an old fuddy-duddy. Hope to see much of this material up close and personal at the preview and reception in about 2 weeks!

Awesome, thanks for sharing. That film is probably the most mainstream platform in which underground comix have ever been mentioned. Leo had to go all highbrow with the Hieronymus Bosch anecdote. A shame he couldn't be more up front about the fact that his life's work is actually inspired by an R Crumb Stoned Agin' black-light poster that hung across from his crib. In my mind it was the Wallace Wood full color poster reprint of his infamous Disney centerspread from The Realist #74!

Hey 50, I just got another early FB #2 which caused me to pull out my original, bought when I was a wee lad, and I must admit I'm a bit confused. That old copy has the white line above the pink sheet on the FC, the Dealer McDope Game on pg. 49 and and the correct configuration of comic covers on the inside back cover. However the photos of the covers seem less defined, sort of less saturated than the ones on my newer copy which looks more 'professionally ' printed with greater detail, though it shows other details which make it a probable 3rd printing. BTW, my original copy is with blue, rather than rainbow IFCs, actually a tad greenish blue towards the top, but just barely. Does that seem like a 1st to you? It was your description of the inside back cover photos of the comics covers that threw me off. I'm still pretty sure that based on when I bought it it's a first, but maybe it's another variation you haven't seen or perhaps your recollection is slightly off on that detail? I'd post a scan but I'm currently without reproduction abilities, so I'm attempting to go by descriptive text.....hope I succeeded! EDIT: One other thing I noticed on my presumed 1st printing copy was on the IFC, at the indicia, there is a small drop out at Gilbert Shelton's name that does not happen on the presumed 3rd print copy. Can't really tell if that's unique to my copy or another point for determining where in the print run the copy fell. Has this been noted before?

Finally, a face and story to put with the name!!!

I got one of their invites and am thinking of going. Will you be there?

Thanks. looks like Amazon will be carrying the book. Curious that it has the same title as the collection that came out a few years ago. Page count is smaller, though. I'm wondering if it's worth getting due to redundancy. Blurb says it has material unpublished in Europe...interesting way to put it. Did you buy a copy? If so can you comment on it versus the other book with the same title? Any other thoughts about it as a Crumbist?

If he were here he might say: "Haw! Haw!"