Wednesday Advertising Day.
This is the last of my posts to sell my double Timely books. Timely (or Atlas, as is was also known) was the company run by publisher Martin Goodman line editor Stan Lee and is one of the must sought after comic lines of the fifties after EC. If have written somewhere that I feel the output of the Timely lne more in line with our current sensibillities than the EC books. EC was a literary company and it's quality suited the needs of a generation of fans who were looking to justify their collecting hobby. The Stan Lee edited books were nothing than entertainment and are often a lot more fun for those of us not interested in proving ou interest in them is justified. This opinion has not gotten me a lot of respect from the comic book collectors community, which is still being monitored by the first generation. Still, I have to concede that they have their points. The general wuality of the EC books was much higher than that of Stan Lee's output. There are more clunkers to be found among the many books published. On the other hand, for years the mpression has been made that Bill Gaines was the only publisher allowing artists to develop their own style and that is not so. DC may have had a company policy of having everyone draw as much as possible in a slicj 'huse style', but most other companies couldn't be bothered. There is some evidence that Stan Lee at least appreciated individual quirkiness as much as Bill Gaines.
Anyway, in these romance books you can find as much art-surprises as in any of the other lines. And though the stories themselves are usually nothing special, at least they weren't overwritten and allowed the artists some moments to shine.
Girl Comics #6
Januari 1951
Cover by unknown
Artists: unknown, unknown, Ann Brewster, John Tartaglione/Hy Rosen (?)
Condition: Good minus, some damage to the cover, a bit old otherwise
Guide price: $10
Offer price: $8
The cover looks like those stories drawn by Mike Sekowsky and inked by Christopher Rule, so either of them might be involved. Even though it looks like a romance book, it was actually a girls adventure series - something entirely new and creative and therefore abandonned after twelve issues.
Girl Confessions #27
August 1953
Cover by Al Hartley
Artists: Bernard Baily (?), Jerry Robinson, Manny Stallman, Jay Scott Pike,
Condition: Good plus, a bit worn, some red smears on the cover (a lipstick kiss, actually)
Guide price: $14
Offer price: $10
Atlas Tales suggests that the fist story might be by Bernard Baily, but all the other attributions are by me so it may be an early guess I made myself. The Robinson story is another gem. The story isn't too bad either, with the girl not getting her man for once. The lipstick lips on the cover make this a true rarity.
Love Romances #29
July 1953
Cover by Al Hartley
First copy of two.
Artists: Jay Scott Pie, Alice Kirkpatrick, John Tartaglione, Jerry Robinson
Condition: Good, cover loose and split, right hand corner fold on cover
Guide price: $12
Offer price: $10
Jerry Robinson solo love story. Get this book. The Al Hartley cover doesn't hurt either. In fact, the art in all these stories is great. The amount of effort the artists put into their stories in this period is astounding.
Love Romances #29
July 1953
Cover by Al Hartley
Second copy of two.
Artists: Jay Scott Pie, Alice Kirkpatrick, John Tartaglione, Jerry Robinson
Condition: Good, spine roll, some creasing on cover
Guide price: $12
Offer price: $10
It's only of one Jerry Robinson's rare love stories. Interesting to compare this to the ones he did togther with Mort Meskin. Great splash page.
Love Romances #52
October 1955
Cover by Vince Colletta
Artists: Vince Colletta, Jay Scott Pike, unknown, Vince Colletta
Condition: Good minus, cover loose but unsplit
Guide price: $6
Offer price: $5
Vince Colletta does a pretty good wedding dress design, if you are into that sort of thing. The unknown story is credited to Fred Kida on Atlas Tales, but it looks as if it could have been inked by Vince Colletta (although he usually put his own style unto it a bit more).
Love Tales #50
January 1952
Cover by Al Hartley
First copy of two
Artists: Mike Sekowsky, Joe Sinnott, Vince Colletta (?), Bill Everett
Condition: Good, cover a bit loose, blue pen on title and text balloon
Guide price: $10
Offer price: $8
Mike Sekowsky always worked with inkers. This is one of those I always thought were inked by Christopher Rule. The early Sinnott story doesn show his Tom Gill influence or his later grimaced faces. Actually, it is quite pretty. The seve page Everett story is a gem, wit two woman literally fighting over a man.
Love Tales #50
January 1952
Cover by Al Hartley
Second copy of two
Artists: Mike Sekowsky, Joe Sinnott, Vince Colletta (?), Bill Everett
Condition: Good, some tears in spine, a bit beat
Guide price: $10
Offer price: $8
Slightly better than my other copy and just as interesting.
Love Tales #69
August 1956
Cover by Coletta
Artists: Vince Colletta, Al Hartley, Bill Everett, unknown, Jay Scott Pike
Condition: Very Good, but front cover missing
Guide price (Very Good): $20
Offer price: $8 (with other book)
Great book, apart from the missing cover. The main reason for getting this one is the rare Bill Everett love story.
Lovers #27
Februari 1950
Cover Photo with Cathy o'Donnell and Farley Granger
52 Pages
Artists: Mke Sekowsky, Bob Powell, unknown, unknown, unknown, Al Eadeh (?)
Condition: Good minus, corner fold, dirt mark on page 1, spine roll
Guide price: $12
Offer price: $8
My copy of this book (as more in my collection) has a stamp by the seller Bonnett's from dayton, Ohio Don't know if that's a famous collection, but a colection it must have been. the first story is what I used to be sure was a Mike Sekowsky/Christopher Rule colaboration. The Bob Powell story is a rare early appearance at Timely for him. And already his characters were wearing those striped and blocked jackets that must have een out of date even then.
Lovers #51
July 1953
Cover by Jerry Robinson
Artists: Al Hartley, Mike Sekowsky, Jim Mooney, Jay Scott Pike
Condition: Fair, water damage on the cover, tear on first page top
Guide price: $6
Offer price: $5
What's not to like? A Jerry Robinson cover, Al Hartley pulling out all stops, one of those Mike Sekowsky stories that is sometimes attributed to Alex Toth and a Jim Mooney story to die for. In fact, it is so good I just had to have it in a better condition. A good starter, though and highly undervalued in the Guide.
Lovers #60
April 1954
Cover by Jay Scott Pike
Artists: Jay Scott Pike, Paul Reinman, Bill Ely, unknown
Condition: Good, cover scuffed, a bit beat
Guide price: $10
Offer price: $10
The unknown artist of the last story has a photorealism that reminds me of Art Peddy. The true rarity here is the story by Paul Reinman, who was usually used for war and horror stories. This is a far cry from his romance stories for Prize at the end of the fifties, thouh. He was at the top of his art around this time. The open bottomed splashed shows he waas a great designer as well. To make an odd issue even odder, ther's also a rare story by Bill Ely, who usuall worked for other companies.
Lovers #66
March 1955
Cover by Vince Colletta
Artists: Vince Colletta, Jay Scott Pike, Vince Colletta, Al Hartley
Condition: Good plus, some creases on cover
Guide price: $10
Offer price: $7
I had a quick look through this first post-code issue to see if there wer any alterations, but on the whole the love stories from Timely were never out of line even before the code was installed.
My Own Romance #62
March 1958
Cover by Kirby (?)/Vince Colletta
Artists: Vince Colleta, Jay Scott Pike, John Tartaglione, John Forte, Vince Coletta
Condition: Very Good Minus, some creases and tears, but well preserved
Guide price: $6
Offer price: $4
After the implosion of 1957/8 the Timely books fell into a predictable rut. Capabillity took over from excitement. What remains is Vince Colletta's extreme facillty at surfaces and Jay Scott Pike's all American faces. And the fact that some art connesseurs have speculated that the cover may be from a Kirby sketch reworked by Colletta.
Patsy Walker #19
November 1948
Cover by Al Jaffee
52 Pages
Artists: Al Jaffee, Harvey Kurzman, Al Jaffee, Al Jaffee, Harvey Kurtzman, Ken Bald, Mike Sekowsky, Ken Bald, Al Jaffee
Condition: Good minus, spine damage, a bit rough
Guide price: $15
Offer price: $12
Patsy Walker was Timely's effort to create a Archie clone, with Patsy and Hedy playing the Betty and Veronica roles. The two Harvey Kurtzman Hey Look pages are in his best style. All Hey Looks were reprinted in a handy book by Denis Kitchen, but it is time for a complete reprint in color. Many newer artists aknowledge Kurtzman's ongoing influence and here we see him at his best.
Wendy Parker #2
August 1953
Cover by Christopher Rule
Artists: Christopher Rule, Christopher Rule, Morris Weiss (?), Christopher Rule
Condition: Good minus, cover loose and split
Guide price: $8
Offer price: $5
Three stories by regular Wendy Parker artist Christopher Rule and a Ptsy Walker story which is probably by Morris Weiss. Probably only for the completists, but then again - I apparently have two.
As always, leave your name in the comments section and I will get back to you.
1 comment:
I'm collecting images of covers featuring our store stamp. If you happen to have a scan or photo of that cover I'd love to see it.
Our collection is infamous, rather than famous, because of those old stamps. We haven't used the stamp for decades, but it's still around.
The books were stamped before they became collectibles, when they sold for five cents each. We also took them as trade-ins at 2-for-1.
There were other stores in the area and if you bought books at the other stores they weren't worth quite as much as trade-ins, We stamped them to know they had been purchased here.
If you have any comics with a Jordan's stamp, they probably came from here as well.
Jordan's was another store in the same building that we're in. When he went out of business he left all his inventory behind which we then added to our collection.
I've added your blog to my Follow list on Blogger. Our collection isn't what it used to be, but we still turn up nice items from time to time, some stamped, some not.
Thanks for posting. :-)
Post a Comment