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Baker Romance
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13,498 posts in this topic

1 hour ago, Point Five said:

I was surprised that the TAR #42 CGC 4.0 underperformed last night. Here's the copy I bought from Andy/october a few months back. I love this cover... the rich color palette and the simple but dynamic composition. More than on any other romance cover, I look at this guy and girl... how differently they are drawn and are dressed... and think yeah, they aren't going to make it as a couple. (Something about the autumn leaves falling in the background hits that poignant note as well.) I think this is a quiet masterpiece. :)


 

I thought it would go higher. A lesser graded slab sold on the board for north of $1000. 

I think it's one of his best covers. Sold my nice copy a year or two ago. Came back a 7.0 from CGC I think. 

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1 hour ago, Point Five said:

I love this cover... the rich color palette and the simple but dynamic composition. More than on any other romance cover, I look at this guy and girl... how differently they are drawn and are dressed... and think yeah, they aren't going to make it as a couple. (Something about the autumn leaves falling in the background hits that poignant note as well.) I think this is a quiet masterpiece. :)

That's very observant. The man is obviously older by the look of the face and neck. The choice of sepia tones in the color design reinforces the scene suggesting an ill-fated May-December romance.  I don't know how Baker worked at St, John but did he have tight control over the color design in his covers? The color scheme in his covers from '54 onward are exceptional, almost like a good painting.

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1 hour ago, GomerPyleUSMC said:

That's very observant. The man is obviously older by the look of the face and neck. The choice of sepia tones in the color design reinforces the scene suggesting an ill-fated May-December romance.  I don't know how Baker worked at St, John but did he have tight control over the color design in his covers? The color scheme in his covers from '54 onward are exceptional, almost like a good painting.

Baker was art director at St. John's for some duration. The sophistication of colour palette in the later issues would point to his hand in it. The soft result on the TaR 42 was a bit surprising. That's a book that deserves classic cover status.

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3 hours ago, GomerPyleUSMC said:
5 hours ago, Point Five said:

I love this cover... the rich color palette and the simple but dynamic composition. More than on any other romance cover, I look at this guy and girl... how differently they are drawn and are dressed... and think yeah, they aren't going to make it as a couple. (Something about the autumn leaves falling in the background hits that poignant note as well.) I think this is a quiet masterpiece. :)

That's very observant. The man is obviously older by the look of the face and neck. The choice of sepia tones in the color design reinforces the scene suggesting an ill-fated May-December romance.  I don't know how Baker worked at St, John but did he have tight control over the color design in his covers? The color scheme in his covers from '54 onward are exceptional, almost like a good painting.

Thanks for the kind comments. You're right, the choice of sepias and autumnal colors seems to reinforce that this couple probably won't go the distance. And I have to think Baker would have conceived the scene (leaves falling, etc) with something like that in mind.

I realize this stuff is subjective, but I guess I don't see the guy as *that* much older than the girl. I can buy him as a college senior (note the books) and her as maybe a sophomore or something.

But boy, the way they're drawn is such a contrast... she's got soft curves and playful energy in her cheerful red jacket, he's got this lean angular thing going with somewhat coiled body language and IMO looks like a bit of a punk. For those of you who get this reference, I see him kind of like Mike Love of the Beach Boys, who was already starting to look like an older man when the boys were in their early twenties (and note that Mike Love has been married five times(!), so the comparison is perhaps particularly apt).

 

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10 hours ago, Yorick said:

I personally believe this is yet another St John miscut book residing in the PLOD.

You are probably correct. True Love Pictorial #11 appears to be particularly prone to factory miscuts.

I have a raw copy of TLP 11 that I was afraid might be trimmed. It made me analyze the cover of every other copy I've found online, with special attention paid to CGC blue label books. Looks to me like the printer's cut on this run was wildly random for whatever reason.

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6 hours ago, MBFan said:

You are probably correct. True Love Pictorial #11 appears to be particularly prone to factory miscuts.

I have a raw copy of TLP 11 that I was afraid might be trimmed. It made me analyze the cover of every other copy I've found online, with special attention paid to CGC blue label books. Looks to me like the printer's cut on this run was wildly random for whatever reason.

Yes, it is. A beautiful but quite misaligned copy I had at one time.

 

IMG_2842.JPG

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On 9/16/2019 at 3:01 PM, szav said:

Worth a resub for sure.

Unfortunately not.  CGC cannot verify that the cut was done at the factory - therefore, purple label.  However (with Rick's example) they will let it have a blue label when it is grossly misaligned (clearly not a case of someone trying to remove a defect edge).

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On 9/18/2019 at 3:56 PM, Yorick said:

Unfortunately not.  CGC cannot verify that the cut was done at the factory - therefore, purple label.  However (with Rick's example) they will let it have a blue label when it is grossly misaligned (clearly not a case of someone trying to remove a defect edge).

Depending upon how long ago the Qualified 4.0 was slabbed, it is possible the book was graded before CGC realized TLP 11 commonly had bad printer's cuts. According to the current census, all other graded copies of the book have received blue labels, several of which could be confused for "trimmed" if one did not know better.

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On 9/19/2019 at 8:01 PM, MBFan said:

Depending upon how long ago the Qualified 4.0 was slabbed, it is possible the book was graded before CGC realized TLP 11 commonly had bad printer's cuts. According to the current census, all other graded copies of the book have received blue labels, several of which could be confused for "trimmed" if one did not know better.

CGC is all over the place with St John's.  Sometimes purple, sometimes not.  And I love my green label 0.5 (not a printer flaw, just some bad grading).

PR21 CGC40.JPG

Teen-Age Romances 32.JPG

DS27 Q05.JPG

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