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"Rarest GA DC Publication" (?) Roll Call
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72 posts in this topic

Just to get things going because he does not post here any more, here's a pic of Ian Levine with what he regarded as the hardest most important trophy books of the compete DC collection.  Over his left (our right) shoulder, you can see his copy of "Defend":

DC Collection Is Complete! — Zarelli Space Authentication

 

 

* Rewrote post because other link broken.

 

Edited by sfcityduck
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17 minutes ago, pemart1966 said:

If it's a DC publication, why is there no DC logo on the front cover?

Because in the GA, DC had "affiliate" publishers like All-American Publications (which included Jolaine Publications) which were later fully absorbed into DC but did not always have DC on the cover. Examples:

All-American Comics Vol 1 | DC Database | Fandom

Cover

The point made by Ian, and I think it is a good one, is that these publications which were not originally advertised as "DC" on their cover in the GA, certainly are necessary parts of any DC collection.

 

Edited by sfcityduck
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24 minutes ago, circumstances said:

But it's not a comic book?

Depends on which Boardie you ask.  Opinions here tend to vary wildly on what constitutes a "comic book" or "graphic novel."  I often find myself on the more restrictive end of that debate insisting on panels, word balloons, etc.  This is a comic format publication, all of the publishers other publications were clearly what all of us would call a comic book, the publication is edited by MC Gaines, it has multiple panels of art and text on most every page (some text story pages).  But, it does not tell a story that progresses from page to page.  But, then again, neither did New Fun 1 and many other early comic books.  Reasonable minds can differ on whether it is a comic or a comic-related publication.  It is mostly educational, but with a healthy dose of entertainment.  

Edited by sfcityduck
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2 hours ago, sfcityduck said:

Ian Levine declared when compiling his complete DC collection that "How You Can Defend Your Home!" was the rarest DC publication.  

There are only two copies on the census, a 3.0 and a 3.5.

When the book has come up for discussion on this site in the past, the board members who then had a copy were limited to:

  • Ian Levine
  • Mark Zaid (Esquirecomics)
  • Bangzoom
  • Jerome34
  • Robert Beerbohm (BLBComics-Migration)

I'd love to see pics, so please if any of you guys read this post a pic.

In addition, the board member Baz posted he'd seen a copy with a rat chewed corner.

I have only seen records for four copies being sold by a dealer:

  • Harley Yee sold a copy to [?] in 2009 or so (not to Zaid, Jerome34 or Levine) for $1000 (previously been offered for $900)
  • eccomic sold a copy on these boards in 2015 to [?] for an unknown amount.
  • Worthpoint shows that a "fair" copy sold on eBay (I don't have a Worthpoint account, but there are pics, date and amount if you do).
  • Potter & Potter's July 2017 auction included this gem:  "Item 254. Gibson, Walter. A Collection of Bound Comics, including How You Can Defend Your Home: A Handbook of Air Raid Preparedness. New York: Jolaine Publications, [1941]. Illustrations by Hubert Mathieu. Bound with a collection of comics books pertaining to air force pilots, all published by Street & Smith, New York, comprising Pioneer Picture-Stories. Volume 1, nos. 6 and 7, 1943. Red Dragon. Volume 1, no. 5, Jan. 1943. Air Ace. Volume 1, no. 9-13, 1943. Bill Barnes, America’s Air Ace. Volume 1, no. 8. 8vo. Red cloth with gilt-lettered spine. From the personal library of Walter Gibson. Est. 200/400."  Estimate seems laughable, love to know what it went for.

Only three public institutions, two University library archives and the Library of Congress, have the book in their holdings.  

So it does seem pretty rare.  

It also does seem to be a DC publication. It is pictured on page 8 of DC Comics: A Year by Year Visual Chronicle (2010) as being published by DC.  The publisher indicated on the indicia is Jolaine Publications, which was one of the All American Comics indicia publishers, appearing on the indicia of All-Flash Comics 2-26, Comic Calvacade 26, and Green Lantern Comics 1-23.  The editor is denoted as M.C. Gaines!  (The writer is Edward Gruskin and artist is Hubert Matheiu).  The below ad for the book appeared in All-Flash 4 and 5

image.jpeg.0bacbe4e44f936a27832baf88b28b4a9.jpeg

This or a different ad for the book may have appeared in Batman 10, Sensation 4, All-American 37-39, All-Star 10-11, and Green Lantern 3 (all in April through June 1942).

Here's my copy (found in the wild two days ago):

1996918493_How.thumb.jpg.41a339250ef96ae47f6ab122a0fba1a0.jpg

Please note:  All known copies of this comic found in the wild have a hole punched or drilled somewhere in the upper left corner, presumably so it could have been hung from a string or wire.  It is rumored DC might have an unpunched copy in their archives.

Who else is presently a member of this club?

Shades of 9/11 on the cover image!

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53 minutes ago, sfcityduck said:

Depends on which Boardie you ask.  Opinions here tend to vary wildly on what constitutes a "comic book" or "graphic novel."  I often find myself on the more restrictive end of that debate insisting on panels, word balloons, etc.  This is a comic format publication, all of the publishers other publications were clearly what all of us would call a comic book, the publication is edited by MC Gaines, it has multiple panels of art and text on most every page (some text story pages).  But, it does not tell a story that progresses from page to page.  But, then again, neither did New Fun 1 and many other early comic books.  Reasonable minds can differ on whether it is a comic or a comic-related publication.  It is mostly educational, but with a healthy dose of entertainment.  

Thanks!

I probably lean the way you do.

This is like an instructional or educational manual with illustrations.

Like those army ones that Eisner did.

Edited by circumstances
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5 minutes ago, circumstances said:

Thanks!

I probably lean the way you do.

This is like an instructional or educational manual with illustrations.

Like those army ones that Eisner did.

If you haven't seen them, those Eisner publications are definitely comics.  Word balloons, multipage stories, GGA, etc.  But, they are tiny thin little digests.  Almost paperback size.  

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17 minutes ago, sfcityduck said:

If you haven't seen them, those Eisner publications are definitely comics.  Word balloons, multipage stories, GGA, etc.  But, they are tiny thin little digests.  Almost paperback size.  

Just the covers. I assumed it was like this book, lol. :D

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20 minutes ago, circumstances said:

Just the covers. I assumed it was like this book, lol. :D

This book is a bit unto itself.  It is not like the illustrated pamphlets you see from the 1950s. This is physically like a comic book, has comic style art, but is more like the one pagers you see in some comics rather than the feature stories.  As I said, reasonable minds can disagree whether it is a comic book.  But, it's real import is it is a DC comic format newsstand publication.  It's not Batman or Superman, but it does seem to belong in the collection of a DC completest.  

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DC appears to have had numerous Publisher's Brands and numerous Indicia Publishers - it's a real jigsaw puzzle.  Someone should write a primer on these.

Do I notice that we have a red, white and blue cover and black, white and red cover?

The House Ad above says "Now on Sale Everywhere".  Is it possible that this was never distributed given its scarcity?  Or perhaps that it had limited regional distribution?

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3 hours ago, sfcityduck said:

But, it does not tell a story that progresses from page to page.  But, then again, neither did New Fun 1

New Fun 1 is filled with the start of of 19 different stories that were continued in subsequent issues.  While there were 13 pages of non-comic stories, articles and ads, it pretty clearly falls into the "comic book" camp.

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10 minutes ago, Pickie said:

Wow, congrats! To think of finding such a rare piece!! :applause:

For reference, I saved the pic with "some guy's comic book room" without the watermarking ... 5006966_IvanLevinenewpic.jpg.baf83e00f65437b8f61bf9f5fed7ce3b.jpg.jpeg.698945d2954c9706047929b0b8859eb6.jpeg

Given the general quality of that selection, I guess I should consider myself lucky that I have any of them.

What is the book to the right of the Defense book?  I feel like I should know it but I've got no clue...

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There are two questions most long time collectors on this forum will ask:

1) Is it rare?

2) Does Bob Beerbohm consider this book to be unique and of indisputable importance in the history of comic books?

:tink:

Edited by Cat-Man_America
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9 hours ago, adamstrange said:

New Fun 1 is filled with the start of of 19 different stories that were continued in subsequent issues.  While there were 13 pages of non-comic stories, articles and ads, it pretty clearly falls into the "comic book" camp.

Exactly.  New Fun 1 is basically a Sunday comic section that came out monthly not weekly with no multi-page stories.  Some of those 1 pagers were continuing stories, but others were not.  Most had word balloons, but some were just illustrated text like Prince Valiant.  And almost half the book were text stories, informative articles, “how to” pieces on airplane models etc.  And, like defend, the contents were all b&w.  New Fun 1 is not even standard GA comic book size.

Yet we all agree New Fun 1 is the first DC comic book.  The term “comic book” is flexible and reasonable minds can differ.

Edited by sfcityduck
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