Flash collectors thread 23 23

[flashlites]

Here it is Flash Fans! After all these years...I finally have a 105!!! I have never owned one before. My first attempt to complete the run I had a 106, my second attempt, the earliest Flash I had was 110 I believe. I am trying to wrap my head around the fact that I now own a 105! It's surreal. It's is a rescue 105 like most of my collection of misfits and abused S.A. Flashes but it has finally found a good Flashy home to retire in.

Edited March 1, 2020 by flashlites
addition

[JohnH19]

It looks pretty nice to me. Congrats!

Can you share the story of how you went about obtaining it?

[flashlites]

28 minutes ago, JohnH19 said:

It looks pretty nice to me. Congrats!

Can you share the story of how you went about obtaining it?

I've been looking at it for months at MCS wondering and dreaming. They must have about 8 105's for sale right now! But only 2 were in my price range. You see for me to be able to afford a key like this all the stars have to line up just right...LoL! First I have to have the $ and that's tough enough all on its own...then the book has to be available. Usually by the time I get the $ together someone else has bought the book i'm looking at. Only the most abused and neglected key books have to be avail for me at just the right time in order for this to work.  Last year I was able to get a 123, with a little patience and a little luck. I almost wasted my efforts on a coverless 123, but I decided to wait it out, i really wanted one with a cover if at all possible and it came along eventually. For the 105 there were 2 incomplete books available, one with several pages missing and chunks missing out of the front and back cover, and this one with only the centerfold missing. I agonized for months hoping no one else would snatch it up before I had a chance to get it. It is home now! I'm told that the missing centerfold does not interrupt the storyline but I still have to verify that.

Edited March 1, 2020 by flashlites
addition

[Terry E. Gibbs]

On 2/29/2020 at 2:01 AM, flashlites said:

I love seeing that 105 Terry! Thanks for sharing! I may have shared this story before but i'll never forget that day back in the 70's ( I was about 12 or 13) when I asked my local comic shop owner if he'd ever seen a 105 before. I'd never even seen a photo of one! All I could do was look at the the little note in the price guide (105 ...origin retold ) and imagine. He said no at first and paused for a moment....and said "now that I think of it I did have one in my old book store years ago but it sold right away as I recall." "Well what did it look like? What was on the cover?" I asked. "It was the Mirror Master on the cover." My mind immediately went to work in an attempt to create an image of the cover. Its funny how that memory has stuck with me all these years. That little exchange, right when my enthusiasm for the hobby was just picking up steam.... 

Great story. With the internet everything is within reach but back in those days keys in the wild were rare.

 

[Terry E. Gibbs]

On 3/1/2020 at 2:51 PM, flashlites said:

I Last year I was able to get a 123, with a little patience and a little luck. I almost wasted my efforts on a coverless 123, but I decided to wait it out, i really wanted one with a cover if at all possible and it came along eventually.

I think a few of us were encouraging you to save those dollars for a covered 123. Patience rewarded.

[Terry E. Gibbs]

another one living in mylar. Is this the first Flash/Green lantern team up or is it GL 13. Don't know what was more fun seeing Kane do Flash and Iris or Infantino do Green Lantern.

[flashlites]

2 minutes ago, Terry E. Gibbs said:

another one living in mylar. Is this the first Flash/Green lantern team up or is it GL 13. Don't know what was more fun seeing Kane do Flash and Iris or Infantino do Green Lantern.

Nice looking 131 there! I'm a big fan of Gil Kane's work too. It's great to compare the two. I'll bet you have some OA of Gil Kane's too?

[Terry E. Gibbs]

32 minutes ago, flashlites said:

Nice looking 131 there! I'm a big fan of Gil Kane's work too. It's great to compare the two. I'll bet you have some OA of Gil Kane's too?

Two pages.  A bronze/copper Star Saphhire GL page and a GL 2/3rds page with Hal Carol and GL in a wall painting. 

Lots of GL pages come up but to me his prime issues late 30s to late 40s when inked by Greene. Only one of those featured the Flash (so not off topic after all). Issue 43 and it is without doubt my all time favourite GL comic. The debut of Major Disaster (damm I wanted thigh high button up boots so much). I though Kane's Barry Allen and Iris were only bettered by Cinf. Anyway that really dates me. I found a copy in a second hand book store minus the centre page in 1967 and that was the best I could find until I started buying from dealer catalogs in the early 80s. I have kind of finished buying OA at the moment but have explained to my wife that if pages from Flash 155 or 174 or GL 43 or 41 come up then I will be chasing as hard as I can.

[flashlites]

9 hours ago, Terry E. Gibbs said:

another one living in mylar. Is this the first Flash/Green lantern team up or is it GL 13. Don't know what was more fun seeing Kane do Flash and Iris or Infantino do Green Lantern.

It's gotta be a 9.0 or better, right?

[Terry E. Gibbs]

I wish, Mylar makes everything look great. A very nice book, and I really don't care about its grade. One day someone else can worry about it. My kids will hate me.

[flashlites]

34 minutes ago, Terry E. Gibbs said:

One day someone else can worry about it. My kids will hate me.

Mine too! My youngest grandson used to like the Flash. I was thinking i'd leave my collection to him, but alas his interest has waned and now hes into other things. No other interest in the family now it seems. I'm sure they will dread going through it all when i'm gone.

[flashlites]

If you did not make it out to your local comic shop last week, you missed this neat replica of 123, complete with all the original ads and pure as the driven snow white pulp paper insides! (Usually when they do the reprints of old books, they tend to use the slick coated stock for the inside.)

[Terry E. Gibbs]

Hmmm while waiting for more 131s .. or a reason to start on the 132s I will throw this up. Now if you look closely there is a small amount of cover left. I was toying with sending it in for restoration so I could own a "R" SC4 9.8 with cover note of "large piece added top cover.

 

Maybe someone else will do that when I let it go .

and I like that more than the cover.

 

It also shows Cinfs attention to design. Some aspects of that can be compared to the splash on 324. His career had two parts. Before he went to art school, when he drew Black Canary in Flash comics and some GL, and after art school when he became a serious student of design. In the 60s there was him and Jack and everyone behind them (with apologies to Gil, Steve, and Gene)

 

[flashlites]

I like the splash page better than the SC 4 cover. You're right about the design aspect and the flow of the whole page there! 

[flashlites]

On a side note Flash fans, last night I took a peek inside my 105 while giving it a fresh new archival board and mip-it sheet and the missing centerfold does interrupt  the story as it turns out. I am missing this last little half panel with the important end of the story! The description said it did not interrupt the story line. Still I am happy with my purchase, I was specifically looking for an incomplete book. I guess it must have been ad's on the other 3 missing pages, or letters to the editor? Does anyone else know what was on the centerfold?

[Terry E. Gibbs]

Hmmmm do I have time tonight to dig it out. Oh that's right. Its slabbed (lol, lol, lol). Sorry I  had a beaten up reader somewhere just not sure where.

 

[Terry E. Gibbs]

Well it was actually where it was supposed to be.

 

All the things the reprints don't give us. Slabbing is great but reading the old books is fun too.

[Terry E. Gibbs]

and that poor copy gets smaller every time it comes out of its bag. I promise I will read it before it eventually dies. Then I will slab the dust. (and please no parrot comments)

[flashlites]

OMG! I thought you were joking when you said you had a reader copy!!?? Thank you so much for sharing!!! What a treat to see inside! You know, I've been thinking over the last few days, for decades I was always the only Flash collector I knew of. Once and a while a comic shop dealer would mention another Flash collector but not often and i'd never met one or been introduced to one before. It is amazing, the things I've learned over the last two years, what you've shared. It has truly been an honor and a privilege to be able to chat and share with you all here! This is just another great example, where else would I be able to take a look at the insides of a 105!!!??? I've said it before, you all are the Greatest Flash Fans in the world! So lets keep the conversation going- I believe this is the last post for page 131 so get yr' 132's ready for the scanner and get ready to post 'em if ya got 'em Flash Fans!!!

[flashlites]