Robot Man

So nice! One I don't have nor have I ever seen for sale either. I was lucky enough to snag this one from Harley at Terry's show a few years ago for what I thought was actually a very good price. Haven't seen one since...

Sometimes books like that you just have to buy and try to find a better one later...

One I’ve never landed. A big hole in my collection. Just slipped under the radar. I think I still have a little time but I better hurry.

You get a lot more girls with a nice panel truck than a comic book... And I work on my own toys.

Best line I ever waited in was The Rolling Stones 1972 Exile on Mainstreet tour at the Hollywood Paliadium. The Stones at their peak (google it). Spent the night waiting for Ticketron to open with about a hundred people. What a party. The cops came by and just looked the other way. Made a lot of friends that night and nearly everyone got their tickets!

I would think that it should have an effect on the grade. It didn’t leave the printing plant that way. All givens the same say both grade at say 9.4. One has spray and one doesn’t, which copy would you rather have? It isn’t resto but it also isn’t a production error. I have the same problem with mid wrapped covers but that is another discussion...

As a kid I remember lining up outside of a record store to buy a new Beatles album or concert tickets but not for a comic book...

By the way, I was looking at a fairly nice restored 1941 Chevy Panel Truck Hot Rod yesterday for only a couple grand more than this comic book...

It’s been a while since I looked at my copy and I don’t have it handy, but I believe it does. Great under rated Crime title!

A nice book with a cool cover but not top of the heap Atlas horror wise to me. It has had a huge spike in popularity recently due to it being a “sleeper” for so long. That combined with a black cover in beautiful shape and a River City to boot is probably responsible. I agree though, that is a bit insane. It is hard to come to grips with sometimes and often astonishes when I see numbers like this on books that just a few years ago were pretty reasonable. Sure glad a got a decent copy...

As a rule, I’m not a real big New Direction fan. Overall, the stories just don’t match up to the pre code stuff. The art is wonderful but the stories in general on most of them are a bit bland. Way above most of the other post code stuff but still a little boring. I love Aces High and Piracy. Valor is full of off the hook great art but the stories are just OK. Other than Master Race, the rest of Impact is a struggle for me. The other two are pretty much un-readable for me. Other than completing a full EC run, I have no real interest in them. Just my 10 cents...

I would also agree with Gomer. If I were plunking down my Mercury dime, I would choose WS16 for the same reason. That, and the fact that it has one of Woody’s best covers. So iconic, influencal and represents the era and genre so perfectly. WSG 29 has “that cover” though... Insides are good (hey an EC after all), but not on par with WS 16. As was said, get them both. Take your time and find the right copy for the right price. They are usually both fairly available and I don’t see either taking a huge price spike suddenly. I would man up a little on the 29 though. Dark cover shows all the flaws and this is one you really want nice. And just to make your life more difficult, you might want to consider WF 21 as well. Underrated Frazetta cover and great interior as well...

Mailman brought me a cool one today. Just the way I like ‘em. Smooth, tight spine, no tears or creases and white pages. Just enough insignificant little defects to keep the price affordable...

1950's Hot Rod Diner!

That was Carl Macek. Maybe I was wrong on the photo ID. It was a LONG time ago. So, maybe the first photo is Carl and the second is David Belmont. Yeah, Carl had a cool shop for a while by UCLA after he broke away from Terry and David. The three of them had very large holdings of the San Francisco books. I bought several Timelys from Terry that sadly, I no longer own. I remember them bringing them down from the Bay Area and seeing piles of them. Beerbaum has stated, that he only sold a few at a time to many people. I suspect that is partly true because when I visited his shop he would only let only buy 3 or 4 at a time. I suspect though, if you had the cash like these guys did or Redbeard, you were obviously able to get quite a few at one time. And yeah, the old Shrine shows were epic. So much great stuff came out of there in the day. Now, it's mostly washed up movie stars, new comics and porn...

Bound copies vary all over the place in condition just as raw books do. Some like the horror ones above were random reading copies bound by a fan. I have others that were bound by publishers as office files copies. Depending on storage, they vary from tanning reading copies to glossy, white paged copies. Some have been trimmed and some have not. They are usually either sewn in and or glued at spines or simply 2 or 3 hole punched. They are all very unique and usually one of a kind. Are they "restored"? No, I prefer the term "desecrated". But due to this, they still exist and can be easily read and enjoyed as the freaks of nature that they are. I have never, nor will I ever remove them from their current state. I believe they have more interest and value the way they are. Either you like and appreciate them or you don't. Value? Real hard to put a number on them. Depends what they are, depends on the condition and the interest of the title. There is some one on the bay who keeps putting up wonderful bound volumes at auction. Some are runs and some are single books that are bound. He puts stupid numbers on them. Much more than a high grade unbound copy would go for. I doubt he ever sells any. If I were to sell mine, they would go to auction. I know they would go way higher than I think they should. Why? Because, they are unique and people get emotional and caught up in the frenzy. People who love them will pay up because of what they are. I have two volumes of slightly used but pretty high grade Duck Four Colors. All of the Barks issues. As well as as #1-40 in two volumes of Uncle Scrooge in high grade (but sewn and trimmed). I know for a fact that other Barks fans like myself would jump at the chance to have these. Nothing like reading issue after issue of the classics in one sitting without having to worry of removing them from mylars and putting them away. I also have a publisher volume of Wings #1-12. Who wouldn't pay up to be able to pursue and read them all at one time. I would describe them fully and let the market decide. I'm sure I would be surprised...

Yeah, other than the smog, good times! I was a little older than you probably and could drive from Pasadena to the Valley. I was pretty good friends with David T, Terry Stroud, Carl Macek and the gang at ACBC. They would let me into the back room where I saw piles and piles of un-processed GA and SA collections on the tables and the floor. They were buying stuff that walked into the store faster than they could process and sell it. I remember I got a few nice Timelys out of a few piles of maybe 200 of them that walked in the store one day. I was always learning and discovering so much stuff due to the massive amounts of books in there. They were then, as they are now a bit pricey, but they had the goods that nobody else had. They had quite the parties in the off hours. They were the "rock stars" of the comic biz in LA. Lots of girls and "intoxicants". Good times. Here are a couple of old photos. The first one is I believe, David Belmont. Just look at the stacks of SA next to him. I can't remember the name of the other guy in the 2nd photo. Look at him eating over a pile of un-bagged EC's.

I was an early contributor along with Redbeard and Bob Nastasi of SOTI and censorship books. I discontinued contributing when I noticed that he wasn't including my data in the guide.

No, I ready took the Tec before you walked up to the rack. I left to go home and get another dime for the Action...

But then you got that cool Detective #33 or maybe Mystery Men? Then there are all those cool Centaurs... Choices, choices...

Grizzly Bears?

Or even better, someone posts an old newsstand photo with a kid standing in front of it. How many of you have ever fantasied you were that kid with only one dime? Which one would you buy? I’m sure all of us faced that delimma more than once in real life as a kid... OK, how about a test? You got a shiny Mercury dime... What do you pick and how long does it take you?

Just couldn’t help yourself Richard? I’m pretty sure I would have had to do the same thing. The temptation to just open up that book would just be far to great... I once had a factory sealed 1950’s Marx Toys Untouchables play set. A VERY rare one still stapled shut. I would look at it once in a while, tempted...I finally couldn’t take it anymore and just sold it for a wad of money. Kind of the way I feel about graded comics and maybe the reason I have so few of them.

These are your under copy “trade bait” copies? I am of the school that his better non romance books are really heating up right now. APC, for years, was a dead title, Baker cover or not. I scooped up as many as I could at great prices in nice grades. Just can’t touch them any more. I think the folks that chase the romance ones have gotton wise to this now.

Think ALL of us either do or have done that on occasion. Somebody posts a group shot of various books. Say they have 5 books in 5 rows. How many of you have had to choose which one in each row you would take? Or even better, someone posts an old newsstand photo with a kid standing in front of it. How many of you have ever fantasied you were that kid with only one dime? Which one would you buy? I’m sure all of us faced that delimma more than once in real life as a kid...