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Gene with the Fawcett comic Motion Picture Comics #110, 1952 and the Dell comic The Time Machine, 1960. These two comics adapt motion pictures produced by George Pal whose movies I’ve always loved. I have all the Pal movies that have been released on DVD or Blu-Ray. For many years no Pal movies except The Time Machine made it to Blu-Ray. In the last two years or so however The War Of The Worlds, When Worlds Collide, Conquest Of Space all were released on Blu-Ray. I’m still patiently waiting for Destination Moon and The 7 Faces Of Dr. Lao to make it to Blu-Ray.
I’ll likely never be able to afford Motion Picture Comics #110 to read the When Worlds Collide adaptation but luckily just recently PS Artbooks just released the hardcover book Sc-Fi Classics Vol. 3 which reprints the story. |
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| Gunsmoke Western #58, 1960 with the Jack Kirby cover is a bit unusual since it features the usual star of the comic Kid Colt but also has Wyatt Earp. As a kid in the 1960s just starting to collect Marvel comics I knew who Jack Kirby was but I didn’t know he drew lots of Western covers and stories years earlier before I started collecting. Circa 1965 at a thrift store in my hometown of Savannah, GA I was thrilled to buy Wyatt Earp #29, 1960 for nickel or dime since it had a Jack Kirby cover. Sadly that comic was lost to the ravages of time and I don’t think I’ve seen it since. The Atlas comic Uncanny Tales #33, 1955 has a Joe Maneely cover. Gene told me the man wearing the hat with his brunette wife was an example of Joe Maneely drawing himself on the cover. I was skeptical but Gene’s claim is confirmed by the Grand Comics Database. I should have known better than to question Gene’s celestial wisdom. |
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Gene with one Atlas comic World Of Fantasy #5, 1957 and four pre-Marvels.
Tales To Astonish #25, 1961 with The Creature From Krogarr stepping out of guy’s television set I bought mail order in the 1970s but it was in terrible condition. I managed to upgrade it years later.
World Of Fantasy #19, 1959 with the Gargoyle From The 5th Galaxy I first saw and bought on a trip to dealer David Alexander’s home around Hollywood, CA in the early 1980s. It was in decent mid grade condition and I’ve also upgraded it since.
World Of Fantasy #17, 1959 I’ve never managed to get my hands on; the robot Guardian Of The Stars is drawn by Jack Kirby on the cover but the story inside is drawn by Steve Ditko.
Tales Of Suspense #37, 1963 is a favorite pre-Marvel comic I have a long history with. I bought if for a dime circa 1968 from the Globe Bookmart in Savannah, GA in mid grade condition but I’ve never seen it in affordable high grade condition so I’ve never upgraded it. This comic is unusual since Steve Ditko drew the cover story instead of Jack Kirby. |
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| Rick peering out over his recently acquired group of EC reprint volumes. Richard Morgan had these at the Captain’s Comics Expo in Mt. Pleasant, South Carolina last February and Rick bought them from Richard. The individual volumes laying down in the foreground were published by Dark Horse in the last few years and are in color. The slipcase editions were published by Russ Cochran as part of his Complete EC Library project which started in the late 1970s and ran for about 25 years. The covers are in color but the interior stories are in black & white since Cochran wasn’t rich enough to afford color printing in those days. I bought all the Russ Cochran volumes back in the day and I’ve been faithfully buying the Dark Horse volumes one at at a time the last several years. Only a small handful of pre-Trend and Picto-Fiction titles remain to be reprinted. When I have those I’m going to sink down in my leather easy chair and read all the EC comics ever printed from 1948 - 1956 (except Mad and Panic). |
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| Rick with the popular Fantastic Four #13, 1963 which features the first appearance of the Watcher. I still have of course my Good / Very Good copy of this probably acquired from my main mail order dealer in the 1960 and 1970s, Robert Bell. Misty via Bell I had a compete Marvel collection by 1971. Fantastic Four #1 was the last Marvel I bought to complete my collection. It was listed at the astronomical price of $30 on Bell’s price list and it took me a long time to save the money to buy it (minimum wage in those days was only $1.70 per hour). Bell’s copy of my Fantastic Four #13 will have to continue to satisfy me since I will never be able to afford to upgrade it. Strange Tales #97, 1962 is a sought after pre-Marvel since it features a prototype of Spider-Man’s relatives, Aunt May and Uncle Ben. The cover by Jack Kirby adds some interest since it has more of a science fiction flavor instead of the usual giant rampaging monster that most pre-Marvels featured. |
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| Rick with a copy of the DC comic Showcase #27, 1960 featuring the first appearance of the scuba diving adventurers, the Sea Devils. This cover by Russ Heath is a good example a technique DC frequently used known as a “wash tone” or “grey tone.” The effect was to make the cover look more like it was painted instead of drawn and inked in the usual fashion. |
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| Banks Robinson, Mac Barnes |
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| Fellow veteran collector Banks Robinson and Rick Fortenberry usually setup next to each other when both are at the same show. The fellow in the background being bathed in light is Rick’s assistant Daniel Murphy. I accidently left one of my flash units at Rick’s table. The young man talking with a customer at Banks’s table is Banks’s new protege, Mac Barnes. I found Mac to be very personable and if I continue to see him at comic shows he may become one of the Leader’s favorite comic book dealers below the age of 40. |
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| Banks with two interesting Atlas Mystic comics with eye catching covers. #37, 1955 by Carl Burgo shows a group of people milling around inside a giant foot print. #34, 1954 by Russ Heath shows a man trapped in outer space or alien dimension trying to get back to Earth. Now what kid in the 1950s with a couple of dimes in his pocket wouldn’t want to buy those? |
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Mac with Tales To Astonish #77, 1966. This isn’t some trick or imaginary story like DC used to mislead their readers. Rick Jones really does spill the beans to Major Talbot that Bruce Banner is the Hulk. This is the only cover in the Silver Age I know of where recently hired artist Marvel artist John Romita inked a cover by Jack Kirby. Romita also drew this Hulk cover story which is the only time Romita drew a Hulk story for Tales To Astonish. He was soon to be too busy drawing The Amazing Spider-Man to draw much else.
The Hulk second feature (following Giant-Man) in Tales To Astonish #60 through this issue #77 are among my favorite Marvel comics. The primary storyline in these issues is the Leader trying to capture the Hulk to make him an ally. The issues where the Leader finally persuades the Hulk to join him and then teleports him to the Watcher’s home planet to steal the Watcher’s Ultimate Machine hit me like a ton of bricks when I read these stories as a kid in the 1960s. I’ve read this #60 - #77 run of stories in my hardcover The Incredible Hulk Omnibus Vol. 1 so many times the hardcover binding is starting to crack. |
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| Gerald Hogan, Bob Cunningham, Rick Fortenberry, Lewis Forro, Gene Carpenter, Banks Robinson, Chris Foss |
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| There hasn’t been a Comic Book Methuselahs photo taken since HeroesCon 2019 in Charlotte, North Carolina so I thought it was time to take another one. I define a Methuselah as someone who has been reading comic books for at least 50 years. So here’s at least 350 years of comic book reading experience concentrated in front of Gene Carpenter’s tables.
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