Comics, Pulps, and Paperbacks: Why such a discrepancy in values?

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Dr. Love · July 26, 2020

1 hour ago, damonwad said:

I don't have enough to worry about overflow yet, but I do need to find some good book bags.

Anyone have recommendations for a high quality bag that still has good spine visibility?

Bags Unlimited has digest sleeves in slightly different sizes - poly resealable

I prefer Clearbags.com

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and I like to back them as well, but that's just me.

Edited July 26, 2020 by Dr. Love

damonwad · July 26, 2020

41 minutes ago, Dr. Love said:

Bags Unlimited has digest sleeves in slightly different sizes - poly resealable

I prefer Clearbags.com

and I like to back them as well, but that's just me.

Thanks, Andy.

Surfing Alien · July 27, 2020

A nice mixed bag of stuff to show today.

Minty copy of one of the LB Cole romance pb's that I needed.

A nice copy of the Maguire Salambo that sparked some cool comentary a couple pages ago

A tempting Carnival digest

And a couple of early Lion's including an early Harry Schaare cover on 19 and a pretty classic drug/sleaze title with the requisite unbuttoned tough girl with cigarette

Randall Dowling · July 27, 2020

23 minutes ago, Surfing Alien said:

A nice mixed bag of stuff to show today.

Minty copy of one of the LB Cole romance pb's that I needed.

Nice haul, SA!! This is particularly cool!!

frozentundraguy · July 27, 2020

A couple of days ago I shared some photos and illustrations from my Sea Serpents book. The illustrations were quite small, but the ones by Gustave Dore looked particularly appealing. Intrigued I gathered a couple of his other sea drawings to share. Dore is yet another French artist with incredible drawing skills, who did the bulk of his drawings in the middle 1800's.

Randall Dowling · July 27, 2020

1 minute ago, frozentundraguy said:

A couple of days ago I shared some photos and illustrations from my Sea Serpents book. The illustrations were quite small, but the ones by Gustave Dore looked particularly appealing. Intrigued I gathered a couple of his other sea drawings to share. Dore is yet another French artist with incredible drawing skills, who did the bulk of his drawings in the middle 1800's.

I've always loved Dore's work! He's very much a product of the era of Symbolism and his illustrations are rich with that (the women in the waves is a good example, as well as the stars in the other illustration). All of these things had referential meaning that people of that time could clearly read. Unfortunately today, much of that understanding is lost. But the evocative qualities still stand out.

Randall Dowling · July 27, 2020

Well, this is all I got in today. I really love digests and the American Agents are super tough to find without pieces missing or heavily worn covers. Note the author of the story for issue 2... could it be?? No, that's crazy. Right? Anyway, Issue 2 is pretty tough to find in any grade.

And I saw this Phantom and just had to add it to the collection. Very cool!!

And last is a couple of fresh, unread, just like new beauties. If only they were all like these.

Surfing Alien · July 28, 2020

1 hour ago, Randall Dowling said:

And last is a couple of fresh, unread, just like new beauties. If only they were all like these.

Sweet all around. It's getting good in here and there'a a whole week ahead

I'm really gonna have to get to work on Phantoms. I've never had many of them.

Randall Dowling · July 28, 2020

I found this the other day but I thought it was worth sharing. I'm sure many of you know who Gary Lovisi is. I've bought a large number of books from him over the years and always knew he was one of the foremost experts on paperbacks and their history. However, I was not aware until recently that he has done an amazing youtube series with each episode on a different aspect of the field. I am absolutely hooked. It'll take a while to get through them but if you have any interest at all, Gary is a rare treasure trove of knowledge (much like a few here on the boards!).

Randall Dowling · July 28, 2020

5 hours ago, Surfing Alien said:

Sweet all around. It's getting good in here and there'a a whole week ahead

I'm really gonna have to get to work on Phantoms. I've never had many of them.

I agree! I just watched Gary's video on Phantoms. Very informative including a clarification I've been trying to sort out. The series was first published in the US with 14 titles, most of which were written by 3 different authors (Whittington, Keene, and Saber). Then it was published in Australia (same logo and brand) and they printed hundreds of titles there.

I'm in a deep dive on this stuff. So much to learn...

damonwad · July 28, 2020

13 minutes ago, Randall Dowling said:

I found this the other day but I thought it was worth sharing. I'm sure many of you know who Gary Lovisi is. I've bought a large number of books from him over the years and always knew he was one of the foremost experts on paperbacks and their history. However, I was not aware until recently that he has done an amazing youtube series with each episode on a different aspect of the field. I am absolutely hooked. It'll take a while to get through them but if you have any interest at all, Gary is a rare treasure trove of knowledge (much like a few here on the boards!).

I happened to run across his series this weekend too and watched the First 10 Pocket Book and First 50 Lion episodes. I really liked them and learned a lot in just those two episodes.

He showed off some great looking books too. I assume some of those books are a lot rarer than a new collector like me can appreciate.

Surfing Alien · July 28, 2020

8 hours ago, Randall Dowling said:

Gary is a rare treasure trove of knowledge

He sure is - Westy linked a few vids here a while back, including the one on Croydons.. which of course set me back to hunting down Croydons

I've always tried to buy a few things from Gryphon. Aside from him managing to find lots of cool books to sell, I look at it as paying it backward/forward? to a guy who has shared so much then lost almost everything (to Hurricane Sandy storm surge 2012) but has carried on valiantly and passionately as ever.

Surfing Alien · July 28, 2020

This is gonna be a good week..

How much would this be worth if it was a comic book?

Halliday sold millions so his books seems common but some aren't in condition. This Schulz cover is insane and the book seems to mostly exist creased to death or very spine rolled. Been looking for a cheap decent one for a while and chose spine roll because I hate heavy creasing

A couple of hard hitting Etons...

Love the subtlety of the blurb "Humans don't act that way." when the reader knows they do in these books... There is no subtlety to "Kiss My Fist"

Couple of Digests (of course!)

Early classic Venus

If you want to collect Peggy Gaddis you better have a long life and a deep pocket lol. She must've written 500 novels

Keyhole covers are a genre all their own... Unis are so fragile, a black cover is bound to be rubbed but this one isn't creased up.

Another nice Uni with a Walter Popp cover that has great colors and a cat-scratched face on the dude.

Edited July 28, 2020 by Surfing Alien

Randall Dowling · July 28, 2020

3 minutes ago, Surfing Alien said:

This is gonna be a good week..

How much would this be worth if it was a comic book?

Halliday sold millions so his books seems common but some aren't in condition. This Schulz cover is insane and the book seems to mostly exist creased to death or very spine rolled. Been looking for a cheap decent one for a while and chose spine roll because I hate heavy creasing

A couple of hard hitting Etons...

Love the subtlety of the blurb "Humans don't act that way." when the reader knows they do in these books... There is no subtlety to "Kiss My Fist"

Early classic Venus

If you want to collect Peggy Gaddis you better have a long life and a deep pocket lol. She must've written 500 novels

Man, this is a little uncanny. I recently picked up the first 2 here (big fan of Brett Halliday and Mike Shayne books!) and the last one is on it's way to me!

One of the things that I'm finding with digests is that you have to really know your stuff as so many titles were printed first as PBOs or have multiple printings later, same cover art, just small changes like issue number or slight layout changes or art adjustments. A good example is this recent pickup (which I'm still glad to have) that I posted earlier. Apparently, the Venus book came out one year before the Carnival issue. And many, many others have multiple issues from different publishers. Just more to be aware of.

A feel like an explorer discovering a new land. More fun than I've had collecting funny books in a long time!

Surfing Alien · July 28, 2020

28 minutes ago, Randall Dowling said:

Man, this is a little uncanny. I recently picked up the first 2 here (big fan of Brett Halliday and Mike Shayne books!) and the last one is on it's way to me!

Lol - hey, after a while the knowledge and good taste starts to get into your blood and you know the good ones when you see them!

Surfing Alien · July 28, 2020

33 minutes ago, Randall Dowling said:

so many titles were printed first as PBOs or have multiple printings later,

I want the 1sts of course, but i'll always grab the later printings if the right price/condition point is there. Some of the later printings/editions do have different covers and even some of the "same cover later prints" are hard to find for whatever reason.