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Venus 19 crazy price on Ebay

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Are there any other comics in history that started as romance/comedy, morphed to science fiction for a while, and ended as horror?
the classic Adventures of Ciorac (shrug)
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Venus1975.jpg

 

 

 

Just wanted to post a larger image of my #19 (thank you Photobucket!). Not a 9.0 by any means - maybe a 7.5 becasue of very slight spine wear, but very glossy, with white pages. (Scan doesnt really do it justice)

 

I agree with Scrooge - #19 in the same category as Fight 31 (interesting comparison there Scrooge!) I've noticed that Rangers 14 seems to have stepped up to that category quite dramatically in recent months.

 

RangersComics1492Pennsylvania.jpg

 

Interested to know if other board members can think of other recent examples?

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Thanks Watcher! I picked it up from Jim Payette about 10 years ago. I phoned him one day and asked if he had a nice copy of Dark Mysteries #19 and he said, "Yeah, I've got one in my hands right now". We negotiated a price for what turned out to be a beautiful 8.5. Then I said, "How about Tormented #1? He said "Yeah, a VF copy."

 

I asked about other long-desired comics -Chilling Tales #16, Menace #4 and Venus #19 and, remarkably, he had those too. It turned out that he had just picked up an original owner collection (he's good at that) - not quite of pedigree status but beautifully preserved horror comics.

 

Of course I now wish I could go back in time and make him an offer on the whole collection! As far as I know, the others went into his catalogue and gradually dispersed - but anyone who bought them would have been blown away by their eye appeal regardless of the technical grade.

 

If not for that stroke of good fortune I would probably still be looking for a Venus #19. The others wouldnt have been easy, but nice copies have turned up here and there.

 

And another thing about these later issues is that the art is so beautiful one can never tire of them.

 

The real mystery is, why are these later Venus issues so scarce? As Scrooge pointed out, lots of copies have been posted in this thread to make it seem as if they are relatively common - but that is not the case!

 

Of course no collector who once having seen these, would ever want to part with them - but as we all know they also fall into a period when Atlas comics and pretty much every other publisher had low print runs. So they are hard to come by and we tend to hold onto them until a better copy comes along - then there is a dog fight. Yet, in a way, they also seem to remain slightly off the beaten track - or otherwise we wouldnt be so surprised at the prices they are capable of achieving!

 

Anyway, please excuse my ramblings - I guess all this is pretty obvious to the vastly experienced board members whose posts I am finding so fascinating to read!

 

May as well post my Venus #17 and #18 while I am at it. (If anyone would like to see scans of any of those Jim Payette issues just let me know and I will stick 'em up with my newfound powers of photobucket!)

 

 

 

Venus1870.jpg

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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Are there any other comics in history that started as romance/comedy, morphed to science fiction for a while, and ended as horror?

 

 

 

 

Well, maybe not quite so dramatically, but there was E.C.'s "A Moon.. A Girl.. Romance" which I believe became "Moon Girl".

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I've posted these before, here are my copies of the Everett run.

 

venus19.jpg

venus18.jpg

venus17diamondrun-1.jpg

venus16-1.jpg

venus15-1.jpg

venus14metro-1.jpg

venus13-1.jpg

 

 

Magnificent! #16 is really tough in nice shape (though lower grade copies do turn up) and my impression is that #15 is even scarcer than #19! (If you ever get bored with it let me know!) As I recall, the art only gets really dark with issue #16 - while #15 is sort of transitional, with less use of shadows.

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Thanks Watcher! I picked it up from Jim Payette about 10 years ago. I phoned him one day and asked if he had a nice copy of Dark Mysteries #19 and he said, "Yeah, I've got one in my hands right now". We negotiated a price for what turned out to be a beautiful 8.5. Then I said, "How about Tormented #1? He said "Yeah, a VF copy."

 

I asked about other long-desired comics -Chilling Tales #16, Menace #4 and Venus #19 and, remarkably, he had those too. It turned out that he had just picked up an original owner collection (he's good at that) - not quite of pedigree status but beautifully preserved horror comics.

 

Funny, several of the comics you mention are comics that I've spontaneously come across while browsing comics sites and thought to myself, "I'd like to have THAT issue!" Then later on, I would find out it's the hardest issue to get. (Which goes to show, my thoughts aren't terribly original...traveling down the same wow-look-at-the-pretty-girl-in-bondage paths as many before me...)

 

Dark Mysteries #19 is one that I knew I had to have. Same with Chilling Tales #16, which I spent two years trying to find before I exasperatedly bought the 2nd-highest-graded copy. All of the Chilling Tales comics are awesome.

 

Unfortunately, my instincts weren't so good on Tormented #1, and I've let reasonably-priced copies of that pass by without realizing what I was missing. I never noticed Menace #4, but it does look cool. I gave up on the Venus comics a while ago. I eventually want to have at least one in my long-term collection, but I'll probably settle for one of the early, romantic issues.

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Are there any other comics in history that started as romance/comedy, morphed to science fiction for a while, and ended as horror?

Well, maybe not quite so dramatically, but there was E.C.'s "A Moon.. A Girl.. Romance" which I believe became "Moon Girl".

 

True, that did shift a lot, although the story with that has more to do with postal codes than anything else. To avoid paying new postal fees, the publishers would keep the numbering of one comic even when they were scrapping it and replacing it with another title. In the case of Moon Girl, the comic completely changed, but it appears they kept "Moon" and "Girl" in the title because they feared the government was starting to crack down on publishers who were abusing the way the fees worked. Apparently they didn't fear it much later on when they changed "A Moon, A Girl...Romance" into "Weird Fantasy."

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Nice #19, alanna. (thumbs u I think pinball may need to change the title of this thread to "Show us your Venus." :acclaim:

 

VEN016-RC.jpg

 

Well, it's definitely a love in! Terrific copy of #16 there, zzutak.

 

You know, the other thing that strikes me about most of thes Venus stories is, that while the artwork is immensely sophisticated, the stories themselves are often decidedly eccentric - and at times, illogical, clunky, or surreal. They have unsatisfactory endings - and we never quite know what she has going for her, except, of course, her beauty and a winning personality! The immortal beauty queen! Maybe once they've run through all the clunky marvel heroes/heroines, they'll make a Venus movie! Hmmm, wonder who would best play the role?

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I'd also recommend the work Bill did on Namora #1 and #2 - simply sensational!
My two favorite Bill Everett stories are "Cartoonist's Calamity" from Venus 17 and "Doomed in the Desert" from Namora. Both are spectacular.

 

Cartoonist's Calamity is amazing, but I never let people read my copy for fear they'll damage an expensive book.

 

It was reprinted, I was told, but I can't remember where.

 

 

 

...and "Tidal Wave of Fear", also from #18, was republished in The Golden Age of Marvel Comics, Otober 1997

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The real mystery is, why are these later Venus issues so scarce? As Scrooge pointed out, lots of copies have been posted in this thread to make it seem as if they are relatively common - but that is not the case!

 

Yes, this board has a tendency of making tough books seem common when they are not, Venus included.

 

However, I am not sure about your "as we all know they also fall into a period when Atlas comics and pretty much every other publisher had low print runs".

 

Venus 18 came out in March 1952, at a time when in more than any other years there were the most comics out. Now, since the publishers multiplied the # of titles out, I don't know if it corresponds to a smaller print run on more titles, and your statement is true ... but I always assumed that, there were more titles with similar print runs, which makes for a continued mystery for the relative scarcity of this title.

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The real mystery is, why are these later Venus issues so scarce? As Scrooge pointed out, lots of copies have been posted in this thread to make it seem as if they are relatively common - but that is not the case!

 

Yes, this board has a tendency of making tough books seem common when they are not, Venus included.

 

However, I am not sure about your "as we all know they also fall into a period when Atlas comics and pretty much every other publisher had low print runs".

 

Venus 18 came out in March 1952, at a time when in more than any other years there were the most comics out. Now, since the publishers multiplied the # of titles out, I don't know if it corresponds to a smaller print run on more titles, and your statement is true ... but I always assumed that, there were more titles with similar print runs, which makes for a continued mystery for the relative scarcity of this title.

 

I think you are right, the mystery is deeper, and I should have checked a few dates, and laid things out with a little more forethought.

 

Take another Atlas title I was thinking of, Lorna the Jungle Queen. Issues seem to get scarcer as the years go by, spanning 1953 to 1957. Even the early issues can be pretty tough - including #1 (or that is my impression). So what I should probably have said to be more nearly correct, is that later Venuses seem to have the kind of scarcity usually associated with titles of the mid '50's, though they were published at a time just prior to the "dark age".

 

Could it have been something to do with sales perhaps? Did the audience fail to stay with a title that went through a metamorphosis from romance to horror?

 

Anyone else shed any light on this? I'd be fascinated to know.

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