[MarkWarner]

Although last week's Green Hornet was fairly well received by the group, I would like it to be noted that  both Narfstar and I felt that the book stretched credulity beyond even acceptable comic book bounds (and that is saying something!)

This week's choice was fairly easy as the book is currently in the news:

"A controversial comic book so rare that, for decades, many doubted its existence, has surfaced at Heritage Auctions and set a rollicking $173,275 record for any comic not featuring a superhero. What it did have, in its lurid cover tableau, was Nazis, Klansmen and a buxom blonde tied up

[Kracalactaka]

well I'll start since I'm the one who threw this on Mark's radar, but to be fair it was Yoc who put it up on mine.

I have skimmed through the book and found none of stories that great, not bad, but not good either

so I'll have fun picking apart Shomburg's cover

to start , I know, It is Schomburg and doesn't need to make sense to be "great"

but I cannot help but analyze the scene

1st our "hero" with the spear on the upper left, well frankly he will never throw it (not that it would do him much good anyway, since even if he spears the guy with the short sword, he is way outnumbered); two Nazi Klansman in the foreground are already firing their guns (one of which is a machine gun) so we are milliseconds from Hero Spear Thrower Guy being riddled with .45 caliber bullets.

But, our damsel in distress really is not in much danger from Shirtless Executioner guy since there is a fire between him and her and as soon as he leans forward to stab her his robes will catch on fire and things will go south for everyone involved.

all that being said, it is quite the striking cover and Schomburg does a good bit for social justice by quite literally "painting the Nazis and the KKK with the same brush" (I know, he drew it, not painted)

[crashryan]

It's bizarre that 72 years after its publication someone will pay nearly two hundred thousand dollars to brag about owning a picture of a woman being tortured by Nazi Klansmen. Doesn't say much for the advancement of civilization.

The book itself is a rather standard crime comic. The lead story is okay. Jack Alderman doesn't draw that well but something about his stuff appeals to me. Maybe it's because he always seems to be trying hard. The Grey Mask is another masked guy in street clothes. It annoys me that his African American butler/sidekick (who, like the villain's butler/sidekick, is colored pink instead of brown) uses his real name when he goes into action. Inspector Todd can't be too bright if he doesn't notice a similarity between mustachioed Dr. Muir and his black servant named The Dove, and mustachioed Gray Mask and his black servant named The Dove.

Morris Weiss' Worthless Wiggins looks remarkably like Uncle Phil in Mickey Finn. I don't know if Weiss was already assisting Lank Leonard on Finn. If not, he was certainly custom-made for the strip. The story isn't bad.

The irony is laid on thick in "It's Murder I Want." For this being the "peak of [his] career," the lawyer's murder plan is pretty obvious.

"Crime in Crimson" is Gothic crime pushed to the point of being laughable. Why did Laramie want everything painted crimson? Why does Grandma feel compelled to point out that the pencil and paper aren't crimson? The story could have used "The End" in the final panel. I thought there was more story to come.

"Death in High Gear" is nothing special, but it's nice that the ex-con chooses to go straight after all.

I enjoy "Wise Guys" because the surprise ending is a surprise. I like the final panel of Studs waiting for the good news from Europe.

The "Tracker" story fails to explain whether the diamond-making scheme really worked. It's just a gimmick to chain a bunch of guys to a windlass. L. B. Cole's art is a cut above that in the other stories, but he was a much better cover designer than a strip artist.

Overall worth reading, but not great.

[The Australian Panther]

All up pretty bog standard except for the Morris Weiss 'Worthless Wiggins' story. Both Art and Lettering are superior. Con Vivance. Nice name for a crooked lawyer. Nice use of silhouette and shadow in the panels on page two and in other places. You can tell he enjoyed his work and cared about it.
All  the characters are drawn so they are recognisable and identifiable as types. I suspect he coloured it too. Some interesting things going on there. Apparently he worked on Joe Palooka. He would have been ideal for that. The plot is pretty average but the treatment is excellent.

https://web.archive.org/web/20060508224451/http://www.statesman.com/life/content/life/stories/other/01/8cartoonist.html

Agree with the comments made by other replies above about the cover.     

[OtherEric]

Just to clarify a point: this statement:

"A controversial comic book so rare that, for decades, many doubted its existence,"

is incredibly odd to me on the face of it.  It's the Edgar Church (Mile High) copy of the book that was found and sold, and the existence of that specific copy was uncertain for some reason.  Calling a specific copy of a specific book "rare" is just odd, in my mind.

A horribly over-rated book, I don't even think the cover is that good; and the contents are underwhelming.  We can't even attach any historical significance to it; I don't believe it really got noticed until the late 80's- early 90's.  There are a ton of genuinely key comics from the golden age out there; this is just a bunch of sound and fury signifying not much at all.  I've learned to not second-guess the oddness of the collector market, but this is my number one choice for high-profile book that will eventually tank.

Heck, if flipping it for the resale was off the table, it's not even my favorite cover on Suspense.  Give me a copy of #8 with the L. B. Cole spider cover instead.

[OtherEric]

Just figured out the price tag wasn't even for the Church copy, that auction is still going on.  It was another copy that pulled the $173K price.

[narfstar]

I read the TRACKER story. Cole art was OK but I agree he was a better cover artist. I regret that many years ago I did not take advantage of an add to have Cole do cover recreations. It was a high price for me at the time but would pay off now. It would have been much easier to use a simple motor to turn the windlass than to abduct men. But then there would not have been a story.

[Captain Audio]

Boobs, bondage and torture porn have a way of selling comics and magazines.

The colorist could have benefited from a more varied choice of inks.

I think the black men having light skin was on part because there seems to have been only one shade of brown available. Also its possible that the colorist didn't read the story and wasn't aware that these two characters were negro.

[Kracalactaka]

@ Captain Audio

well if you look at the GCD data , the colorist is Shomburg himself

and on your last point you are all mixed up/mistaken the Character on this cover is you are referring to is the original GA Kid Terrific. Who was a white character.

You are referring to DC's Mr. Terrific, who in his original version was also a white character.

also, this Cover is just that, a cover, there is no corresponding story in the book to go with this cover.

[josemas]

Is our copy complete?  GCD sez it's a 60 page comic. Our's is 54 pages.  Perhaps a missing story or maybe just missing ads or text?

[Captain Audio]

"and on your last point you are all mixed up/mistaken the Character on this cover is you are referring to is the original GA Kid Terrific. Who was a white character."

I wasn't speaking of Kid Terrific, I was speaking of the two negro characters in the Grey Mask story.

Sorry for the confusion, I was not speaking of the cover story, if there is one out there somewhere, only making a comment on the the cover and then the negro characters of the Grey Mask story which had already been mentioned by Crashryan as being oddly light skinned.

"The book itself is a rather standard crime comic. The lead story is okay. Jack Alderman doesn't draw that well but something about his stuff appeals to me. Maybe it's because he always seems to be trying hard. The Grey Mask is another masked guy in street clothes. It annoys me that his African American butler/sidekick (who, like the villain's butler/sidekick, is colored pink instead of brown) uses his real name when he goes into action"

The author and the inker of the Grey Mask story were not the same person.
"Script: Thor Carlyle | Pencils: Jack Alderman (signed) | Inks: Jack Alderman"

[Morgus]

everything says you shouldn't like this one, but it was still fun. The cover reminded me of Wally Wood's SHOCK SUSPENSE STORIES #6...but more lurid. The Grey Mask story had some nice panels from time to time and you have to love cops that just don't investigate a murder because the victim was nasty. Any REASON for Dove being peg legged? 
I'm with Crashryan. "Crime in Crimson" ends too abruptly to be intentional.   I'll bet they took the scissors to some of "Crime in Crimson" to keep everybody happy, even in those pre censorship days. I'm thinking at least a page, maybe more. And I'm betting the last panel shows the pen and the paper COVERED WITH RED!!! Get it?? Scary stuff, kids.
And that ad at the end just took the prize. I would pay to read that book about love letters. (Not a lot, but it did catch my interest...would the same technique work today??? You have to wonder.)

[OtherEric]

well if you look at the GCD data , the colorist is Schomburg himself

I would be at least slightly skeptical of that attribution, unless we know from somewhere that he regularly colored his penciled covers.  He has a lot of painted/ airbrushed covers that we know for sure he colored, so it's probably a decent first guess; but it's not like his Startling #49 where we can be sure it's him.

[Kracalactaka]

Ah that splains it Cap A, my apologies

on a different track but somewhat related track I reminded how in Negro Romance #2 many of the black characters look like white characters, just colored brown, and in my opinion anyway I think Matt Baker himself had trouble accurately portraying black characters.

@josemas our copy is inc, but considering the going rate, I don't see us getting any upgrades


and oh my we have a lively group this week, say what you will about this book, it generates opinions/comments

[josemas]

@josemas our copy is inc, but considering the going rate, I don't see us getting any upgrades

.               

Thanks for the confirmation.  Any idea what is missing?   What we do have is nicely scanned and I'm always grateful for whatever we can get on some of these costly rarities.

Joe

[Captain Audio]

Ah that splains it Cap A, my apologies

on a different track but somewhat related track I reminded how in Negro Romance #2 many of the black characters look like white characters, just colored brown, and in my opinion anyway I think Matt Baker himself had trouble accurately portraying black characters.

Many year ago before damage to nerves in my hand I was fairly successful at drawing portraits. I could get the features of black people down pat but never got the shading of negro skin tones any where close. 
I suspect many black artists have the same problem when drawing white people.

[SuperScrounge]

The Spectre on the Ceiling - Okay, but nothing special.

Worthless Wiggins - Not bad.

It's Murder I Want! - Eh.

Crime In Crimson - Uhhh... yeah... kind of a pointless story.

Death Spins A Reel - Okay.

Death In High Gear - Wow, um, quite a coincidence with chucking the bomb there at the end. Cracked me up. Didn't realize that this was a comedy. 

Wise Guys - Not bad.

Diamond Master - The best story of the lot.

Well, for a comic expected to sell for thousands of dollars, I'd say it's worth ten cents.