It was nice to find a box of old comics over at the warehouse. In an unmarked box, I found a stash that included a long run of Adventure Comics dating back to the 10 centers, also in the box was a nice but incomplete run of Sea Devils from #1 up. Have a look at some of those covers! There are some ridiculously good Russ Heath and Irv Novick covers in this run.
Has anyone noticed that Silver Age DC’s are slower than slow relative to the Marvels of the era? Batman and Detective seem to be doing well but overall the Superman titles and titles like Sea Devils seem devilishly cheap right now. I’m thinking there is a good opportunity here, if the market keeps moving forward like this and Marvel’s continue their rapid rise I think people will spot the value that Silver Age DCs will become. Focus on first appearances and great covers if you can.
So there is an unused office in the warehouse that I’ve got my eye on. Looks like we’ll turn this into some sort of processing room or office but for now, I want to line the walls with those sound-absorbing foam squares and use the space to record our Comic Culture podcast, the show could use some added quality and I’d benefit from getting some of Chris’ sound absorbed, getting it all absorbed might be too much to ask I guess.
The key will be to fill the room with some positive energy, if anybody knows any Feng Shui tips or some good potpourri suggestions please send them in. I think some pictures on the wall would work, Group of Seven? Kirby? Adam Hughes?
This week on our eBay auctions we had strong results on many of our listings, we set new GPA price records on 8.5 copies of Avengers #5 and Avengers #6. My favourite book in the auction was a CGC 2.5 Fantastic Four #3, FF #3 is such a titan, its March 1962 date puts it months before Amazing Fantasy #15, Journey into Mystery #83 and Hulk #1, it’s a heavyweight still under-appreciated and our copy sold for $1075, just shy of the top price of $1100. Advantage Buyer.
Before committing to sound tiles, both of you need to move closer to the microphone. It sounds like you’re sharing a microphone and are a few feet away from it.
Russ Heath early Sea Devils covers rule! Amazing artistry from a legend.
For some reason, this office you are considering makes me think of one in Bedrock City in Houston. Richie Evans has four stores, but the main one is 7000 square feet, more than half of which is a huge back room for processing, and several offices. One office is for him, another a simply wonderful Rare Comics room, totally dialed in. It has one wall filled with boxes, up to the extra-high ceiling, a large screen TV on a 2nd wall, a huge10 foot x 4 foot table to work from, lots of comfortable chairs, a modest-sized safe, all nicely isolated from the store and noise and distractions. It is a perfect place to spend several hours visiting and going over comics. Richie hung out one evening with me, after the store had closed, half-watching a football game and gabbing with me, while I went through box after box of Gold, Silver, pulps….
I’m sure this all works best connected to an active storefront rather than a warehouse-only building like yours, but maybe there’s an idea somewhere there. All the good stuff on the walls was in Richie’s office nearby—the nicest Frazetta Johnny Comet Sunday I’d ever seen, and an early Action cover, #16 I think it was…originals, I kid you not.
And in the Rare Comics room, a circa 1940, floor standing metal comic rack with the DC titles, All Star, All-American, Flash Comics, More Fun, Adventure, Batman, Superman—with original “big” logos, in metal, for each title!!! OMG. I can’t seem to attach a picture, but I’ll keep trying…
And Sea Devils and your DC comments. Yessir, Heath’s Sea Devils are simply wonderful and bargain-priced. Stan and Jack did their thing well beginning in late ‘61, but DC was first back into superheroes, and they were different and damned good beginning in 1956.
It’s amazing to look at what DC was doing, in fact pioneering, before the Marvel Age kicked off in late 1961 with FF #1. Even during the first couple years of wild Marvel creativity, say ‘61-‘66, DC was still nailing it with amazing, diverse work. Totally readable books: The Flash by Infantino, Green Lantern by Gil Kane, Challengers by Kirby & Wood, Showcase, Brave and the Bold, Adams Strange in Mystery in Space, Strange Adventures with the Atomic Knights; most of these titles were edited by Julius Schwartz, the genius at DC all through the 1950s and early 60s.
But even the Jack Harris-edited titles like Rip Hunter, Aquaman, House of Mystery, House of Secrets, Tales of the Unexpected have a charm to them during this time. I admit I’m biased because I began reading comics in ‘61, when I was nine or ten, but I’ve enjoyed going after these early Silver Age DCs, some that’d I’d ignored until lately. Many are very affordable, downright cheap compared to early Marvel titles. And they remain popular with fans, evidenced by the great number of DC Archives and Omnibus editions, collecting and re-collecting this material.
Looking at that room…why are the shelves for the books located on the roof????
exactly what kind of gravity-defying deal are you crazy canucks running up there???? We’re dealing with the apocalypse down here with fire, floods and pestilence and you guys don’t even have to deal with rotational forces!!!
That sounds like a fun room to spend some time in Bud, and yeah it would be different if I had a spare room like this at the shop, it could turn into a VIP lounge fill of high end collectibles, we’d have to clean it often to keep out the spiders. And I so agree with you on the Silver Age DCs, I think they are the buys right now, lots of quality content and great value for the buck as a collectible.
Spider, we can thank the Polar Vortex for providing the unique shelving, leave something up there in late November and you won’t be taking it down til early April. I’m afraid to tell you which direction our toilets drain…
You guys make me laugh! Spider, you don’t do stand-up? First the mystery of the Eames chair, and for just a moment there, I wondered if you knew anything at all about roof trusses. But you quickly set me straight. My non-comics partner Anne even got a laugh…
Is that a refridgerator I see at the back of the office? Filled with lots of salami, cheese and beer?
Bud, not only do I know about roof construction but, and I don’t mean to brag, down here we put plaster on the internal face AND a little thing we call insulation in the cavity….and get ready for this (please look at the office picture), we also do wall-to-wall floor coverings that we attach to the floor, we call them ‘carpets’ (pronounced; kaa puht) we don’t just get 60cm squares and slap em down the floor and half way up the walls!!!!
The Eames? Well, it sits in the corner of my open plan kitchen/lounge area in a little reading nook, so there’s that mystery solved…I do have a tale about the chair and a Spanish exchange student but it doesn’t involve comics so it would probably bore you.
Klaus! Can you be more a legend? That is one of those Star Wars Skiff barges that’s almost as big as a fridge. Fridge pics will be included next week.
Ok, Spider, sounds like you know buliding your stuff. Sorry I ever doubted you, even for just a moment there…
I posted my Eames story, didn’t I? Craig Yoe was speaking at a Alice in Wonderland gig at the Charles Schulz Museum in N. Calif, so he flew into Sacto and I took him over to it. The fabled Alice collector (he has EVERYTHING plus a separate tower building for the collection), Mark Burstein, who helped put the soiree together is married to the daughter, or grandaughter, of the the Eames family.
This was in their original house, well actually compound, with multiple buildings and shops, in the midst of an impressive estate amidst rolling green hills north of San Francisco, in Petaluma. My sleep over room was more of a upscale storage area, with Eames chairs all around and up on high shelves, to keep me company. I knew very little about Eames before the visit, not being much of a mid-century modern guy. Our Eames heiress, besides being a great mom and lovely hostest, does metal welded sculpture, huge gates and modern art outdoor pieces. Creative family!! Felt like I was staying with royalty!
Now you can tell me your story. We can start an Eames thread, and somehow we can loop it back to comics…I did my part, Alice and Cfraig Yoe are both comic tie-ins.
Sea Devils, looks like a really neat comic, swell even.
Walt, I will offer you 10 >TEN< >underlined,bold TEN< times the original cover price for the #1!! Right now! Such an offer.
Nice Eames story Bud.
One day I accidentally sat on the leather covered recliner with ottoman….NEVER do this…suddenly $10,000 Looneys seems almost reasonable for a chair. For the comic reader with everything!!!
Walt, Actually, I would like to see a few close up pics of that Skiff barge too. Just imagine having one one of those in life size AND loaded with salami, cheese and beer! EEEYOWSER!!!
I just saw that there is a pretty beat up Dime #1 for almost 4500. USD on eBay.