The definitive Blankis-Salida thread 2 2

[jimjum12]

1 hour ago, adamstrange said:

I can't believe this is still here.....

GOD BLESS....

-jimbo(a friend of jesus)

[gunsmokin]

I’ve been to Salida many times. My brother-in-law lives in Howard CO which is just outside of Salida.

[comick1]

On 3/28/2020 at 10:24 AM, adamstrange said:

Me either so I think you be confident that they don't exist.

I heard him mention these but no one other than Bruce ever saw them and, like you, I don't think they exist.

Re: "Perty thirty" GICs, Bruce mentioned that those were the only ones he squirreled away. Without saying much more, I think there were MANY MANY reasons why he could not have afforded to squirrel away comics that were/are universally coveted by people with money to throw around. I, too, do NOT think they exist.

[comick1]

On 3/28/2020 at 3:15 PM, IngelsFan said:

I have one book from this pedigree, Fightin’ Air Force 3. I was shown the GIC 75 in 1996 or 97 and it remains one of the best-looking washtone covers I’ve even seen.

Dan (Ingels Fan),
Did Bruce himself show it to you? If so, and you know--proof positive--that it was a Salida (and not merely an incredibly fresh gorgeous white-paged structurally killer beast imposter that somebody was touting as a Salida) this would be the first time I've spoken with any other person who knows of the existence of a Perty Thirty Salida.

Edited March 31, 2020 by comick1

[comick1]

Dan (Buttock),
Favorite thread ever, sir. You get major kudos for that kinda research! Adds a certain mystical aura to the books when I break 'em out. Dearly love 'em. I had about 30 at one time or another, but am down to about 15, m'thinks. To follow are a few of my favs:
 

[comick1]

Sorry for lack of proper scans:

AAMOW 55
On a couple of these, I kept the mylar that they came in with Bruce's original scrawl for grade and price. Unfortunately, I wasn't terribly consistent with that, though.

[comick1]

AAMOW 56

Edited March 31, 2020 by comick1

[comick1]

There were a few Salidas that I got directly from Bruce that had no mark on them and this is one of them. I feel that it's possible that the ones with no marks were represented as Salidas, but actually aren't from the Blankis-Salida collection; but the freshness and telltale pages of the ones I have are just off-the-charts so I believe them to be non-stamped Salidas. That said, I stand by my earlier post about the GIC 75 (re: what IngelsFan Dan said).

Anyway, here's one with no stamp. If it's NOT a Salida, it's a kick@ss imposter of the first order. November 1959 is somewhat late as 10¢ Salidas went. (The only other book I have that late [and that I'll post later] is ALSO unstamped. But unlike this one, it came from the very first group of comics that he sent me in the mail sometime around April 1994 if I have my chronology right).

[November 1959 is when GIC #79 came out so it IS plausible that there were washtone GICs (Perty Thirty) that he held back, but I never saw any evidence of them. There're four possible reasons I saw no evidence of the Perty Thirty. 1) That he genuinely had them set aside and they're still at his mom's house or with a family member even after his death. 2) That he had them set aside for an undetermined time, but had to eventually flip them to an unknown collector who remains a mystery to this day. 3) That he sold them BEFORE he ever gave me "first right of refusal" (believe me, I asked) and they were already gone forever to a mystery collector before I got that fateful call. 4) That he never had them in the first place. I find #1 least plausible and #4 most plausible but I've been wrong about stuff more than I've been right.]

In this particular case, I got this next copy almost by happenstance. In roughly March of 1995, Pam & I happened to be on a road trek across the SW in search of teaching prospects in different school districts and we went as far East as New Mexico. At the time, the collection had pretty much been dispersed to the wind and I thought Bruce had nothing left but we were in Albequerque and we decided to check out Santa Fe while we were nearby; so I gave Bruce a call and he told us to meet him at his store. Bruce was getting ready to clear out of his Santa Fe digs at the time. . .and--unbeknownst to me--sell the store. I went to his store in Santa Fe where there was a nice fellow called Sparks (hard to forget a name like that) who told us about a couple good food places in Santa Fe while I waited for Bruce to drop by.  Bruce never showed up but called the store (we didn't have cells at that point) to have Sparks relay that he couldn't make it to dinner, but we could meet him at his place.

His place was full of boxes and junk for the move. I didn't want to distract him too much but he was patient enough so we chatted for about an hour before I said we needed to get back on the road. I almost left without asking, but on a lark, asked him if he had any leftover Salidas. He almost robotically heads over to one of many boxes (most of which didn't have comics in them) and said that THIS was the only Salida war book he had left. I didn't look a gift horse in the mouth, but have subsequently wondered if this WAS a book that he'd intended to squirrel away for himself (like the aforementioned fabled Salida Perty-Thirty GIC run that he claimed to have held back from the original sale). . .but then decided that he needed the money more than the book. Or maybe it was a return from a customer who wasn't happy with it for some crazy reason? Either way, we drove out of Santa Fe with this in the car.

OFF 51

Edited March 31, 2020 by comick1

[buttock]

5 hours ago, comick1 said:

There were a few Salidas that I got directly from Bruce that had no mark on them and this is one of them. I feel that it's possible that the ones with no marks were represented as Salidas, but actually aren't from the Blankis-Salida collection; but the freshness and telltale pages of the ones I have are just off-the-charts so I believe them to be non-stamped Salidas. That said, I stand by my earlier post about the GIC 75 (re: what IngelsFan Dan said).

Anyway, here's one with no stamp. If it's NOT a Salida, it's a kick@ss imposter of the first order. November 1959 is somewhat late as 10¢ Salidas went. (The only other book I have that late [and that I'll post later] is ALSO unstamped. But unlike this one, it came from the very first group of comics that he sent me in the mail sometime around April 1994 if I have my chronology right).

[November 1959 is when GIC #79 came out so it IS plausible that there were washtone GICs (Perty Thirty) that he held back, but I never saw any evidence of them. There're four possible reasons I saw no evidence of the Perty Thirty. 1) That he genuinely had them set aside and they're still at his mom's house or with a family member even after his death. 2) That he had them set aside for an undetermined time, but had to eventually flip them to an unknown collector who remains a mystery to this day. 3) That he sold them BEFORE he ever gave me "first right of refusal" (believe me, I asked) and they were already gone forever to a mystery collector before I got that fateful call. 4) That he never had them in the first place. I find #1 least plausible and #4 most plausible but I've been wrong about stuff more than I've been right.]

In this particular case, I got this next copy almost by happenstance. In roughly March of 1995, Pam & I happened to be on a road trek across the SW in search of teaching prospects in different school districts and we went as far East as New Mexico. At the time, the collection had pretty much been dispersed to the wind and I thought Bruce had nothing left but we were in Albequerque and we decided to check out Santa Fe while we were nearby; so I gave Bruce a call and he told us to meet him at his store. Bruce was getting ready to clear out of his Santa Fe digs at the time. . .and--unbeknownst to me--sell the store. I went to his store in Santa Fe where there was a nice fellow called Sparks (hard to forget a name like that) who told us about a couple good food places in Santa Fe while I waited for Bruce to drop by.  Bruce never showed up but called the store (we didn't have cells at that point) to have Sparks relay that he couldn't make it to dinner, but we could meet him at his place.

His place was full of boxes and junk for the move. I didn't want to distract him too much but he was patient enough so we chatted for about an hour before I said we needed to get back on the road. I almost left without asking, but on a lark, asked him if he had any leftover Salidas. He almost robotically heads over to one of many boxes (most of which didn't have comics in them) and said that THIS was the only Salida war book he had left. I didn't look a gift horse in the mouth, but have subsequently wondered if this WAS a book that he'd intended to squirrel away for himself (like the aforementioned fabled Salida Perty-Thirty GIC run that he claimed to have held back from the original sale). . .but then decided that he needed the money more than the book. Or maybe it was a return from a customer who wasn't happy with it for some crazy reason? Either way, we drove out of Santa Fe with this in the car.

OFF 51

My god, man!  What a book!  

And Sparks... aptly named.  I wonder what happened to him? 

[MrBedrock]

44 minutes ago, buttock said:

My god, man!  What a book!  

And Sparks... aptly named.  I wonder what happened to him? 

That is Tim. RTS Unlimited.

[comick1]

OAAW 72

The stamp on this one doesn't really appear to be purple. . .more of a blue (maybe lightly stamped purple?). Either way, the blue effect rather nicely matches the color scheme of the cover. Hmmmm. . .I wonder if the guy stamping them made decisions like that. I have another one with a pink cover and a pink (or faded red?) stamp.  No original Brucey price sticker for this one.

 

Edited March 31, 2020 by comick1

[buttock]

4 hours ago, MrBedrock said:

That is Tim. RTS Unlimited.

No, Sparks was a black guy.  One of the nicest guys you'd ever meet.  Unless Tim pulled a Michael Jackson?  @rtsunlimited... is there something you've been hiding from me?  

 

[rtsunlimited]

25 minutes ago, buttock said:

No, Sparks was a black guy.  One of the nicest guys you'd ever meet.  Unless Tim pulled a Michael Jackson?  @rtsunlimited... is there something you've been hiding from me?  

 

Oh! I vaguely remember Sparks. Nice guy as Dan said and not me. Of course I remember Bruce. I bought a few Salidas from him. 

No Michael Jackson *yet*! Might consider it if the lock down goes on for much longer though. 

[adamstrange]

I first heard about the Salida collection from comick1 as he was very excited about a new source of high grade war books.  In a remarkable coincidence, I was scheduled to assess a large project being done for the State of New Mexico in Albuquerque.  I managed to stay over an extra day and drove to Bruce's store where he still had some of the collection left.  This included the WDC&S subscription books as well as a couple boxes of misc war comics that were going to be sent Mark Alvarado.  I managed to get Bruce to let me pick out a couple war comics. 

Leafing through the boxes was a surreal experience as I would have sworn that most of the books were brand new and they must be reprints from the 70s as nothing from the 50s could still look like that.  I actually checked the indicia on several of them before I could convince myself that they were the real deal.  The most exciting covers had already been sold so it was hard for me to decide which books to get but I ended up with a couple Atlas war comics, one of which I subsequently traded and the other is below.

Longtime Church collector and page quality fanatic Pat Kohanek remarked on seeing them said that there's white pages, snow-white pages and gut-wrenching Salida white pages.  I have had a number of people visit me over the years and none of them, repeat, none of them is remotely prepared for what they experience when I pull out a few copies.  Colors, pages and gloss are beyond imagination and they are sweetest smelling comics ever.

[adamstrange]

The "Big 5" Titles of DC War

[Marty Mann]

A very interesting thread...the history of GA collections is fascinating.

Marty

[comick1]

6 hours ago, adamstrange said:

The "Big 5" Titles of DC War

I never get tired of seeing those.
Just beautiful stuff all the way!

[AJD]

8 hours ago, Marty Mann said:

A very interesting thread...the history of GA collections is fascinating.

Marty

I think "bought them new, still have them" is a pretty cool story too Marty!

[comick1]

Here're a couple more.

 

Bill Battle #3
Just couldn't resist the rhetoric on the cover of this one. The pages on this are nuclear white.
 

Edited April 4, 2020 by comick1

[comick1]

Our Army at War #85

These next two were part of the first package that Bruce sent after the initial phone call.  When I ordered them, I only ordered about 15 comics. To my eternal chagrin, I didn't order more. But I'd ordered from Bruce in the past and, although he honored returns with me, I had learned to gauge my grading against his. . .let's just say "I'd believe the conditions when they arrived in hand." So when he mentioned that he had the 2nd Kubert Rock (1st Ice Cream Solder) in NM and a host of other copies in conditions ranging from VF to NM with white pages, I had to balance that against the grades I expected the comics to actually arrive in.

When they arrived in a package from Bruce a few days later, this was the first one I set eyes on. I didn't even look at the remaining comics in the package before I picked up the phone and asked Bruce what was left from the larger list of books that I passed on. Alas, it was too late. All DCs were gone by the time I made that second call.  I was on an extremely limited budget AND I was an Atlas newbie and didn't know one cover or interior from another (no GCDB. . .no internet at all, scant few pictured in the Gerber Guide, spotty info in the OPG). And I wasn't into the Disney or other non-DC titles he mentioned; so I passed on everything that was left.

Back to the OAAW #85. Even in 1994, I had a decent idea that that comic was impossible in high grade. ALL of the early Rocks were elusive in grade. I'd spent about 6 years trying to pick ANY early Rocks up and had only about 5 to my name between #83 and #112. This was after PERSISTENT searching, scrounging, trading, begging, and so forth.

This copy was so much nicer than ANY issue I'd seen previously (not hard to do since NOTHING I saw broke past G-VG). I nearly sobbed when I first really took a moment to look at it. I STILL look at it and can't believe how crazy this copy is.