tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6672923492889685727.post3353182614825388172..comments2024-03-18T04:20:25.934-07:00Comments on <i>bare</i>•bones e-zine: EC Comics! It's An Entertaining Comic! Issue 34: May 1953John Scolerihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14082147756474762000noreply@blogger.comBlogger13125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6672923492889685727.post-41748156880911287962024-01-25T07:34:05.308-08:002024-01-25T07:34:05.308-08:00I came here to see if you could fill in some blank...I came here to see if you could fill in some blanks regarding the story 'who doughnut?' But no, the story seems unfinished. When I read it long ago, I thought it was about a vampire who prefers to shape shift into the form of an octopus. But all of that is from my own imagination. Crazy! johnhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/10229828104169789073noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6672923492889685727.post-68002091661405985922017-07-07T14:00:41.582-07:002017-07-07T14:00:41.582-07:00Wow! When I was collecting comics growing up, $5 o...Wow! When I was collecting comics growing up, $5 or $10 was a lot to spend on an oldie. I remember buying an issue of Sensation from the late 40s for $5 at a convention and later buying an issue of Daredevil from the same era for $5. I think I'll stick with digital comics for now!<br /><br />I will buy the occasional pulp magazine for $30 or even $40 if there's a story I need . . .Jack Seabrookhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/02216640325305820140noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6672923492889685727.post-5850592530106269112017-07-06T23:03:42.203-07:002017-07-06T23:03:42.203-07:00They can cost a lot. Quiddity99 is correct with o...They can cost a lot. Quiddity99 is correct with one small error -- the number of copies of comic books Gaines set aside ranged from 7 to 12 per issue. Gaines File Copies come with a Certificate of Authenticity. Frontline and TFT are relatively inexpensive for Gaines Fille Copies; the horror titles and sci-fi titles are more expensive. The key factor for expense is the grade. Gaines File Copies are generally slabbed and graded by CGC (or, increasingly often, by CBCS). A 9.8 graded copy of any issue of TFT or Frontline will be tied for the highest graded copy or will umdisputedly be the highest graded copy, and it is generally very difficult to obtain a TFT 9.8 for issues 23 or above or a Frontline 9.8 for issues 6 or above for under $1000 - $1100. A 9.8 copy of Frontline 3-5 or of TFT 21-22 is likely to cost $1300-1400. A 9.8 copy of Frontline 2 or TFT 19-20 will almost certainly cost you over $2000. 9.6's can be a relative bargain, but are still costly. I paid $4000 for a 9.6 copy of TFT 18 -- one of 7 Gaines File Copies of that first issue. It lives in a safety deposit box in a bank. It is the most expensive comic book I will ever buy, but I believe there are two 9.8 copies in other collections, and both should command a substantially higher price than $4000 if they were to go to auction. I'm not sure what a 9.8 Frontline 1 could command; a Frontline 1 9.6 should cost less than $4000, but auctions are hard to predict.<br /><br />Prices go down substantially at 9.4. I have never had to pay $1000 for any TFT or Frontline graded 9.4, and prices can dip towards $500 at that grade for titles from the years 1953-1955. <br /><br />At 9.2, prices are relatively reasonable -- generally in accordance with Overstreet.<br /><br />Mad can be much more expensive, and a Mad "1 graded 9.4 or above would be prohibitively expensive for virtually every comic book collector who might read your blog -- certainly would be for me; however, a dedicated and enthusiastic collector can fill a run of Mad 2-10 -- the last of the Kurtzman covers -- in a 9.4 -9.6 range for an average price of $2000-$3000 per issue.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6672923492889685727.post-42671877523958009272017-07-06T15:03:52.741-07:002017-07-06T15:03:52.741-07:00I'm a little afraid to ask, but what do those ...I'm a little afraid to ask, but what do those cost?Jack Seabrookhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/02216640325305820140noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6672923492889685727.post-61474791098885997552017-07-05T16:42:01.665-07:002017-07-05T16:42:01.665-07:00Bill Gaines had a habit of retaining everything; i...Bill Gaines had a habit of retaining everything; in addition to keeping all the original art, after each issue was printed he would set aside a certain amount of copies (12-15 I think) to keep. I think he not only did this for all the EC comics but Mad as well. Eventually, many, many years later he was convinced to sell them, or at least most of them (I think he kept at least one set each for each of his children, although they have may subsequently sold them), so they are now out there in the general public. Because these copies never got distributed, went to a newsstand or were sent through the mail they are generally considered the EC comics to be in the most mint condition.Quiddity99https://www.blogger.com/profile/17809157926893454731noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6672923492889685727.post-40924260220378211292017-07-05T16:33:36.547-07:002017-07-05T16:33:36.547-07:00Pardon my ignorance, but what are "Gaines fil...Pardon my ignorance, but what are "Gaines file copies?"Jack Seabrookhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/02216640325305820140noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6672923492889685727.post-76632812340438674012017-07-05T16:23:36.005-07:002017-07-05T16:23:36.005-07:00I didn't realize you fellows still do blogs. I...I didn't realize you fellows still do blogs. I really enjoyed your Thriller a Day blog, which I read a couple of years late. I have been collecting Gaines File Copies of Mad, TFT, and Frontline Combat for the past ten years, so I welcome your views on these wonderful comic books. Mad #4, specifically the cover and the "Superduperman" story is a longtime favorite of mine. I happen to love TFT #33. "Atom Bomb" and the cover are fantastic, and any issue with a Davis Korean War story is on my list of favorites. I have never liked Frontline #12; I agree with the guy who interviewed Kurtzman for the EC Comics Library reprints: the "F-94" story is off-puttingly jingoistic. Also, I never really loved most of Davis's covers for TFT and Frontline. The covers of TFT #30 and the second annual were great, and the tasteless cover of #41 is visually striking, but his Civil War cover for TFT #35 suffers by comparision with Kurtzman's Frontline #9 and TFT #31, and I didn't like his Frontline covers or the TFT #34 one much. I do love all of Wood's covers for the Kurtzman war books, and that's another reason why I'm so fond of TFT #33, even though the title was past its prime by then.<br /><br />Best regards, and keep up the good work!<br /><br />Jim GAnonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6672923492889685727.post-92017605441863547012017-07-01T17:35:08.884-07:002017-07-01T17:35:08.884-07:00Anonymous-
Those MAD paperbacks from Signet chang...Anonymous-<br /><br />Those MAD paperbacks from Signet changed my life as well. I think some of the stories still resonate with each of us. You'll see that's true with me when we get to MAD #5.Peter Enfantinohttps://www.blogger.com/profile/04317575598411394944noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6672923492889685727.post-17522530683341872772017-07-01T17:19:59.874-07:002017-07-01T17:19:59.874-07:00Regarding "Piecemeal," I imagine if I...Regarding "Piecemeal," I imagine if I'd seen it as a kid I would have liked it, but these days my main thought is "Where the hell did you go in the early 1950s to buy a man-eating shark"? I'll bet it would still be hard today (unless Amazon keeps them on hand), and then there's there's the delivery arrangements. . .<br /><br />The "Superduperman" story in MAD, on the other hand, I *did* see as a kid, and this and "The Lone Stranger" (the other of the first two MAD stories I encountered, as reprinted a couple of years later in THE MAD READER paperback), changed my life. Seriously; discovering MAD was probably the most memorable and most important moment of my childhood. So I can't be neutral on that score.<br /><br />Denny LienAnonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6672923492889685727.post-24118163441590041712017-06-22T18:27:16.987-07:002017-06-22T18:27:16.987-07:00All you have to say is "Shoe Button Eyes"...All you have to say is "Shoe Button Eyes" and I get a shiver. My top two comic creators of all time are Eisner & Barks, since both had long careers writing and drawing fantastic comics. When I see someone like Craig do the same, even for a short time, I'm impressed. My thoughts about comics are highly influenced by all of Eisner's interviews with other creators and his thoughts about the interplay between words an pictures.Jack Seabrookhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/02216640325305820140noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6672923492889685727.post-22686540326425050252017-06-22T16:39:27.435-07:002017-06-22T16:39:27.435-07:00At least by this era in EC's life, he was the ...At least by this era in EC's life, he was the only one still doing both drawing and writing for his own stories. Certainly both Kurtzman and Feldstein did a decent amount of both in 1950 and 1951 (with Kurtzman lasting a little longer than Feldstein), but both are full time editors by this point. Wally Wood actually had a few stories he wrote early on in the sci-fi stories as well, but not by this era.<br /><br />Eventually Craig will even start writing at least a few stories for other artists, including some really strong stories like "Shoe Button Eyes" and "Pipe Dream" which are a while off.Quiddity99https://www.blogger.com/profile/17809157926893454731noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6672923492889685727.post-6005006822693395772017-06-22T14:29:51.154-07:002017-06-22T14:29:51.154-07:00Thanks, 99! I love Johnny Craig's EC work and ...Thanks, 99! I love Johnny Craig's EC work and agree that he could do no wrong most of the time. Unless I'm missing something, he's the only creator there who consistently wrote and drew his own stories. Kurtzman did briefly but seems to have given up drawing for the most part once he had books to write and edit.Jack Seabrookhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/02216640325305820140noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6672923492889685727.post-89759472345547373432017-06-19T18:57:05.192-07:002017-06-19T18:57:05.192-07:00All things considered, a weaker than usual month f...All things considered, a weaker than usual month for this era with some generally average at best issues. I don't have much to say about this month's MAD (the one EC comic I was never that into, believe it or not), but I believe Superduperman was the turning point for Mad where it went from losing money to becoming one of EC's most popular titles, eventually even moreso than the horror comics.<br /><br />"The Arrival" is the latest of many recent Al Williamson stories to feature similar looking aliens ("The Aliens" and "Snap Ending" being the others) and while not as good as The Aliens, is a really fun story with a hilarious ending and the peak of this month's Shock. "The Assault" is fairly strong, although they'll cover the rape & mob hysteria plot in more effective fashion in issue 16. "Seep No More" is also decent, clearly inspired by either Poe's "The Black Cat" as you mentioned (which was used in The Haunt of Fear's first issue) or "The Telltale Heart". While not as good as Kamen's opener for the last few issues of Shock, "Piecemeal" is pretty decent too. Probably the best issue of this month, although Shock's next issue may be the best of the entire title.<br /><br />"Midnight Mess" is the highlight of this issue's Crypt, being adapted in the Vault of Horror movie, they even reference it in at least one future horror story we'll see a while from now. "By the Fright of the Silvery Moon" and "Busted Marriage" are average at best stories that I don't really have anything to say about (although Davis's cover is great). "This Wraps It Up" I think is the only mummy story we ever get from Ingels; in fact I think this may be the very last EC horror story to feature a mummy. The mummy was the one monster that the EC horror comics never used that often, especially in the later years after they had worked their way through the cliches. There's at least one more story taking in place in Egypt in Vault #35.<br /><br />Its around this time where we start getting some very violent covers from Craig, as we see in both this month's covers. Future covers from him will feature a guy shooting himself in the head, a hanged man, a corpse with a cleaver sticking out of its head (at least in the uncensored version) and of course his infamous decapitated head cover. Surprising, as Craig tended to be the artist that avoided goryness as much as possible in his stories. As you said, "Rendezvous" features a really heinous character who blows up an entire plane to kill one person. Craig sure is good at drawing attractive women, as seen by both this story and his Vault story this month. Not much to say about the middle content of this issue's Crime other than the fact that for much of "Come Clean!" Williamson's art isn't up to its usual quality, and for our final Old Witch story in this title we get a story that isn't really horror related at all (outside of the splash page), although Orlando's art is good.<br /><br />A gruesome, but also hilarious cover for Vault of Horror this month (see the sign in the back?). We're around an era of the comic where Craig really can't do any wrong, and we get great story after great story in the opener for almost the entire rest of the comic's run, "Split Personality" easily being the issue's peak. I'm not as down on the rest of the issue as you guys seem to be, I suppose I enjoyed the ridiculousness of "Who Doughnut" even if it makes little sense, and at least most of "Practical Choke" is good although the ending makes no sense whatsoever. I read in the EC Library that it was based on a real life incident they had heard about. "Notes to You" comes off as a rather muted redo of the much better known "Poetic Justice" from Haunt of Fear #12 (notice that the candy store owner looks exactly like the protagonist from said story).Quiddity99https://www.blogger.com/profile/17809157926893454731noreply@blogger.com