50YrsCollctngCmcs Posted October 22, 2018 Share Posted October 22, 2018 41 minutes ago, AJD said: Good idea. @HeritageComics please note the above post for quality control purposes. I should also say that this is my first real problem in ten years as a customer. I'd let them know and ask for free shipping on your next win. Those Our Gangs are fun books. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
AJD Posted October 23, 2018 Author Share Posted October 23, 2018 Not for the first time, I have fought a losing battle with my inner completist (IC). Many pages back in this thread I said that I had completed my set of 24 Mobil Disney giveaway comics from the early 1960s. IC took a dim view of that, because 21 of the comics were the Australian edition and the other three were produced for the New Zealand market. The discussion at the time went something like this AJD: aha - got a #9 at last. The quest is over! IC: dude, seriously? It has a staple rather than being glued and - worst of all - it has a map of frickin' New Zealand on the back! AJD: yeah, but the cover and contents are identical, other than the tiny indicia. IC: you know I'm not going to let this rest, don't you? AJD: But there are other shiny things to pursue. IC: I'll bug you about those too. Do you think I'm a one trick pony? Which reminds me, how are you going with those EC sci-fi and war annuals? Sigh, bowing to the inevitable, several years later I now have all 24 Australian editions. I now have to decide what to do with the NZ editions of #1, 9, 14 and 17. Again, it was #9 which took the longest to hunt down. Here's the Australian edition that finally shut the IC up - at least on this topic. 1950's war comics and sagii 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
sagii Posted October 23, 2018 Share Posted October 23, 2018 7 minutes ago, AJD said: Not for the first time, I have fought a losing battle with my inner completist (IC). Many pages back in this thread I said that I had completed my set of 24 Mobil Disney giveaway comics from the early 1960s. IC took a dim view of that, because 21 of the comics were the Australian edition and the other three were produced for the New Zealand market. The discussion at the time went something like this AJD: aha - got a #9 at last. The quest is over! IC: dude, seriously? It has a staple rather than being glued and - worst of all - it has a map of frickin' New Zealand on the back! AJD: yeah, but the cover and contents are identical, other than the tiny indicia. IC: you know I'm not going to let this rest, don't you? AJD: But there are other shiny things to pursue. IC: I'll bug you about those too. Do you think I'm a one trick pony? Which reminds me, how are you going with those EC sci-fi and war annuals? Sigh, bowing to the inevitable, several years later I now have all 24 Australian editions. I now have to decide what to do with the NZ editions of #1, 9, 14 and 17. Again, it was #9 which took the longest to hunt down. Here's the Australian edition that finally shut the IC up - at least on this topic. Congratulations! I'm sure there are a few Disney collectors on the Boards who'll gladly take the New Zealand editions off your hands (or IC may want to complete a full NZ set ) 1950's war comics 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
AJD Posted October 23, 2018 Author Share Posted October 23, 2018 1 minute ago, sagii said: I'm sure there are a few Disney collectors on the Boards who'll gladly take the New Zealand editions off your hands (or IC may want to complete a full NZ set ) Quiet you fool! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Popular Post AJD Posted October 24, 2018 Author Popular Post Share Posted October 24, 2018 Many 1940s/50s Australian comics are found in lower grades, if at all. But occasionally you get a gem - like this Fight #12. I bought this from an online catalogue that had small scans and no grade. I lucked out. The cover is from Fight #74 - the only problem being that the Tiger Girl story advertised on the cover is not in the Australian edition! There is a story featuring the character Starlight - written by Ann Adams. How many women writers were there in comics at the time? Point Five, 1950's war comics, pmpknface and 3 others 6 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
AJD Posted October 25, 2018 Author Share Posted October 25, 2018 ... and here's another Australian comic, this time a locally drawn one. Virgil Reilly's Silver Flash began life as Silver Flash and his frog-men, the frog-men being dropped with #17. The storyline in these books was continuous between issues, but there's absolutely nothing to help a new reader out. Names and plotlines just continue on from previous issues with no recap. The device on the front has been built to help Earth stave off destruction from another planet on a collision course. (Unnecessary physics note: a million feet per second is 10% the speed of light - that's some weapon!) No doubt you are all on edge worrying that the Earth might be destroyed. Will the weapon work? Spoiler Yes, albeit with some rather unlikely orbital dynamics resulting. And a new storyline starts straight away, mid issue. pmpknface, Harry Lime and 1950's war comics 3 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Scrooge Posted October 25, 2018 Share Posted October 25, 2018 On 10/23/2018 at 9:09 PM, AJD said: There is a story featuring the character Starlight - written by Ann Adams. FWIW, it's from Indians # 4 - http://furycomics.com/viewer/3/Indians/Indians_004/?i=4&m=S3 Thanks for posting those. AJD 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
AJD Posted October 25, 2018 Author Share Posted October 25, 2018 Another one from the latest Heritage package. I posted Heritage's scan of this in my gallery a while back and it drew quite a few 'likes'. In hand it's not quite so nice, but it's still pretty shweet! As well as the 'war stamps for victory'/flag cover, there are some nice war bonds ads inside as well, with a Hitler appearance: Sqeggs, sagii, 1950's war comics and 1 other 4 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Robot Man Posted October 25, 2018 Share Posted October 25, 2018 38 minutes ago, AJD said: Another one from the latest Heritage package. I posted Heritage's scan of this in my gallery a while back and it drew quite a few 'likes'. In hand it's not quite so nice, but it's still pretty shweet! As well as the 'war stamps for victory'/flag cover, there are some nice war bonds ads inside as well, with a Hitler appearance: Love that one. One of my favorite Capt. Marvel covers. So under-valued... 1950's war comics 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Popular Post AJD Posted October 27, 2018 Author Popular Post Share Posted October 27, 2018 My first Ziff-Davis painted sci-fi cover. Interesting filler item here - lots of silliness, but the last panel shows something interesting. It was thought in the 1950s that observations of Mars had shown seasonal variations in vegetation. On closer inspection it turned out that seasonal wind shifts carried different coloured sand around and there is no vegetation to be seen. An object lesson in the perils of confirmation bias. </prof AJD> sagii, Gnasher, 1950's war comics and 2 others 5 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
AJD Posted November 16, 2018 Author Share Posted November 16, 2018 I just got another issue of Silver Flash. This series had some excellent covers. Virgil Reilly's kinda scratchy style continues to grow on me. I do like the layout of this page. Whereas the great space war perhaps lacks a little in its execution... 1950's war comics and Gnasher 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Gnasher Posted November 16, 2018 Share Posted November 16, 2018 That first page really does hold a lot of promise, very nice. The Space War page may be a bit of a letdown due to deadline being met and a hurried finish. 1950's war comics 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
AJD Posted November 16, 2018 Author Share Posted November 16, 2018 8 minutes ago, Gnasher said: That first page really does hold a lot of promise, very nice. The Space War page may be a bit of a letdown due to deadline being met and a hurried finish. Every issue is like that, with some nicely done art - if a touch minimalist - and some pages that look very unfinished and poorly executed. Point Five suggested that the difference might be due to a lack of reference pictures for some and I can imagine some of the panels in the better page above being based on other illustrations. (BTW: I like the new avatar!) Gnasher and 1950's war comics 1 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Gnasher Posted November 16, 2018 Share Posted November 16, 2018 9 minutes ago, AJD said: Every issue is like that, with some nicely done art - if a touch minimalist - and some pages that look very unfinished and poorly executed. Point Five suggested that the difference might be due to a lack of reference pictures for some and I can imagine some of the panels in the better page above being based on other illustrations. (BTW: I like the new avatar!) May have had more success in this case by reducing the number of panels, quite a tight area he's using there. He doesn't use Frank Bellamy's method of using life models then! Yes, thanks, Gnasher looks almost friendly.... 1950's war comics 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
AJD Posted November 29, 2018 Author Share Posted November 29, 2018 It's been a while, but a couple more Australian Fiction House reprints have joined the fold. These two have different titles, but both have covers from the US editions of Wings. This one has the cover from Wings #117, though the contents come from a number of FH titles, including Fight Comics. And this one has the cover from Wings #118 When the MiG-15 appeared over Korea it came a very unpleasant surprise to the Allied forces, being significantly better, more heavily armed and much faster than the straight-winged US and British jets in theatre. Having a pedigree of excellent Soviet engineering, a British supplied jet engine design and some of the insights into high-subsonic flight obtained by German engineers towards the end of WW2, it was an early sign that the US wouldn't have everything it's own way in the Cold War. USAF folklore has it that the introduction of the F-86 Sabre reset the balance, and for a long time it was possible to find claims of kill ratios of better than 10:1 in the US' favour. When Soviet records became available much later, it became clear that the both American and Soviet pilots had greatly over-claimed. The true figure is likely closer to 2:1 against all MiG-15s, but closer to parity when the MiGs were being flown by experienced Russian pilots rather than North Koreans. The two aircraft were quite closely matched. And in any case, the MiGs succeeded in preventing USAF daylight bombing attacks. (Further reading: The jet that shocked the west) Get Marwood & I, szav and pmpknface 3 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Harry Lime Posted November 29, 2018 Share Posted November 29, 2018 Hole-Card is a very unusual name, is it a reference to the second cover? Poker-Hole would have been more suitable if he's off to rescue the lovely but captive, Lia Sung? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Get Marwood & I Posted December 3, 2018 Share Posted December 3, 2018 On 11/29/2018 at 12:30 PM, Harry Lime said: Hole-Card is a very unusual name Never mind that Harry, what about 'Dirk Fowler'? Sounds like an incitement to a 'dirty protest'. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
AJD Posted January 4, 2019 Author Share Posted January 4, 2019 Before this journal disappears over a distant event horizon, I thought I'd post a few pickups from late 2018. First up is this SOTI book. (A big thankyou to @EC ed for this and the other books to come). So... what did Dr Wertham pick on in this particular book? Was it the headlight cover? Or maybe the suggestive "hello boys" seated posture of Zazenda? Or maybe the blonde bikini twins catfight (interspersed by rather nice animal drawings) All good choices, to be sure. But the good doctor was having none of that. The true delinquency-inducing filth was on this page (study it closely): Not seeing it? Here's a hint: Spoiler Still not getting it? OK, here's the unmitigated filth presented in all its glory: Spoiler I think Dr Wertham effectively demonstrated that comic books can be an excellent projective tool for a disturbed mind that's determined to discover filth. pmpknface, Get Marwood & I and EC ed 2 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
AJD Posted January 6, 2019 Author Share Posted January 6, 2019 Here's some more material guaranteed to get Dr Wertham worked up. This was an attempt by Bill Gaines to get around the code by publishing edgier material in a magazine non-comic format. Lots of good artwork in this, but the writing - of which there is a lot given the picto-fiction format - isn't great. Given the high 25c price, no wonder the series didn't last long. Here's an example of the splash pages And this ad on the inside back cover is a hoot: Get Marwood & I, pmpknface and sagii 3 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
sagii Posted January 6, 2019 Share Posted January 6, 2019 Always a great read Andrew! Keep the Journal alive! AJD 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
