You ever try to come up with a system to help tackle a big task? We’re trying and I think we’re learning that stacking things into big piles doesn’t work so well. But hey, we’re improvising on the fly – though it may not look like it in this pic – and we’re really humming along now. I’m not sure if I’ve updated you on the fact that we now have the extra warehouse space until the end of April, plenty of time!! The best part is that I haven’t done a thing yet, I have a crack unit of men working on the project, these boys go hard until their wives message them to come home.
I once read that the toughest years for comic collectors to track down, DC comic collectors in particular, were 1953 and 1954, these were really slow sales years and finding quality copies of quality books out of this era is a tall order. Imagine how excited I got when I pulled out this really strong copy of Congo Bill #1 from August 1954, this was just before the Comics Code was implemented and that fun cover was by the great Nick Cardy. It was no contest, this was going to be my Cover of the Week the moment I spotted it in the “going to eBay auctions” pile.
What was it about the early 1950s? People weren’t buying comics but it looks like they were buying some sort of medieval torture contraptions disguised as… I’m not sure what they were disguised as. “The Commander” doesn’t look comfortable at all, but hey, if you can go in a couple of extra notches on the belt I guess its worth it… I’m wondering how many of these were successfully returned thanks to that generous “Trial Coupon”? “The Commander” (there are more jokes here, if I only had the time and courage) earns our “Ad of the Week” title.
I’m a big Norm MacDonald fan, love the guy, may he rest in piece. Its often said that Norm was too busy making himself laugh to care about whether we thought it was funny or not, this is the vibe I get from this Jim Steranko work (our Splash Page of the week from Strange Tales #163. It looks like old Jim really had fun putting this together, the pay off for me isn’t there but I’m sure Jim had a blast.
Our latest icecollectibles weekly eBay auction closed with a bang last night, there were so many strong results, I was watching with interest at how out CGC 2.0 Amazing Spider-Man #6 would do seeing as how that last sale dipped below $500, lowest its been in 5 years. Our copy closed at $531 USD, so a positive little correction. I like seeing the floor on these old key Spidey’s firming up, it tells me there are new people entering the game, wanting a copy, any copy.
Nick Cardy has never struck me as being more than a journeyman comic artist and this cover isn’t even that good. Congo Bill? Good. Early mid 50s DC? Good. This cover? Not so good.
That quality Congo Bill #1? Really good. I had one in a plastic box at one point and I don’t think it was that good. If I win that one I’ll actually pay for it.
The amount of inventory in that warehouse makes me want to run out and dump everything. Is that a pile of Longbow Hunters? I will have to tell CGC to stop the grading process for mine and return it, I was hoping for $$$ from the sale of that one.
I think Cardy’s stuff later in the 60s was great, I agree the cover isn’t a good one for this Congo Bill, I was referencing more that it was a quality copy. Chris Meli looks like he’d rather invest heavy in Mike Grell, I’ll take the Cardy stuff any day.
I never considered Cardy a journeyman comic book artist. His Aquaman covers from 1968 on along with the best of his romance and mystery covers are so good! And what about Bat Lash?
I am betting it was editorial reasons that Congo Bill cover isn’t better. All the figures are rendered beautifully… they are simply stacked in a less then exciting manner but, they accommodate the word balloons. Love the original Nick Fury and kept its entire Strange Tales run along with a Nick Fury 1. Good stuff!
Alan, Cardy’s cover to Teen Titans #20 won me over, I love that cover!! Thanks for giving Congo Bill some love Gerald.