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[Corinne]

I don't know if anyone reports problems like this, but such is the case with Romantic Adventures 003.

[narfstar]

Thanks for another heads up C. Fixed the page and cropped and straightened at the same time. Looks like you are into romances so I will have to scan some of mine that are laying around.

[Yoc]

Thanks for pointing out these things Corinne.
They are very helpful to us.

And thanks to Narf for his corrections.

[Corinne]

Thank you once again, narfstar! Any romances you can add would be welcomed by me! This may surprise you, but I never even knew romance comics existed until a couple months ago. 

You are welcome, Yoc. I am glad to be able to do something for the community.

[narfstar]

And primarily for you now available is Young Love 62 missing ifc,ibc and bc also Boy Meets Girl 22 only 22 pages missing many from the center

[Yoc]

Hi Corinne,
While I'm not a 'big' romance comics reader I am a Huge fan of Matt Baker who was an art director at St. John Publications.  He's considered by many to be perhaps the best 'good girl' artist ever. 
You might check out some of his work in the following St. John comics -
Canteen Kate 1,2
Pictorial Romances
Teen-Age Romances
True Love Pictorial

And while not romance books he did work in St. John's -
Authentic Police Cases
Fightin' Marines
The Texan

He's well known for his work in Fiction House (Sky-Girl in Jumbo Comics 69-130) and especially for his Phantom Lady art for Fox.

If you check on The Grand Comics Database and do a search for artists with Matt Baker you'll get a list of books with his work.

For more on Matt Baker the artist try here and here (covers, art only).  Alter Ego did a cover feature on Baker back in 2005 in issue #47.

Enjoy!
-Yoc

[JVJ]

Any romances you can add would be welcomed by me! This may surprise you, but I never even knew romance comics existed until a couple months ago. 

Hi, Corrine,
I AM a big fan of romance comics, and I have tons of them - all of which are available to be scanned here, just not by me. So if you have some favorites, check the list of books available and lobby the scanners to ask for them.
http://goldenagecomics.co.uk/forum/index.php/topic,1067.0.html

Also, if you want to learn more about romance comics, get a copy of Love on the Racks by Michelle Nolan
http://www.amazon.com/Love-Racks-History-American-Romance/dp/0786435194

Peace, Jim (|:{>

[Corinne]

Wow--thank you, everyone!  It looks like there is a lot to learn.

I downloaded and started reading Young Love 62, narfstar. The first story was really great and only had one problem--it was too short! 

[Corinne]

Hi Corinne,
While I'm not a 'big' romance comics reader I am a Huge fan of Matt Baker who was an art director at St. John Publications.  He's considered by many to be perhaps the best 'good girl' artist ever. 
You might check out some of his work in the following St. John comics -
Canteen Kate 1,2
....

Thank you, Yoc. I could not help noticing that Canteen Kate looks and acts like Lucille Ball. Incidentally, there is no link to Canteen Kate from the  home download page under St. John Publications.

[Yoc]

 
Sorry, you lost me Corinne.
Under St. John both Canteen Kates are easy to find with working links -
http://goldenagecomics.co.uk//index.php?dlid=4582
http://goldenagecomics.co.uk//index.php?dlid=5759

She doesn't have her own folder as there were only two issues.

Glad you enjoyed them,
-Yoc

[Corinne]

Hi Yoc, OK, let me explain. Although they can be found by going to the St. John page (as I did after poking around a bit), people cannot tell they exist when only looking at the home page. Until you mentioned it, I was not aware that "folders" were assigned to particular comics and not others, such as those with a short run. Until now, the home page is the only one I have been using to look for things.

[Yoc]

Hi again Corinne,
If you click on the Publisher's name (or anything coloured the same light blue) it is a link.
Under each publisher their main books get their own 'sub-folder' or 'category'.
Any one-shots or titles with less than 5 issues can be found inside the publisher's folder.  We certainly can't list every title ever published by each in their descriptions but if you know the publisher of a particular title you know where to look.  There are hundreds of titles that can be found this way.  The GCD site is a great place you can search for a title and it will list the name of the publisher. 

Take care,
-Yoc

[kquattro]

Sorry, you lost me Corinne.
Under St. John both Canteen Kates are easy to find with working links -
http://goldenagecomics.co.uk//index.php?dlid=4582
http://goldenagecomics.co.uk//index.php?dlid=5759

She doesn't have her own folder as there were only two issues.

Corinne, if you care to read other appearances of Canteen Kate, you can go to any of the FIGHTIN' MARINES #2-9. She also appeared in ANCHORS ANDREWS #1.

And one small correction, Yoc: there were 3 issues of CANTEEN KATE.

--Ken Q

[Yoc]

Point taken Ken.
And if you had the missing issue I encourage you and anyone with it to scan it for the site.
She was a lot of fun!

-Yoc

[Corinne]

Thank you  very much, Ken. I started downloading Fightin' Marines. I must say I have come a long way--what brought me to this site was Glamorous Romances. 

I noticed that Fightin Marines issues are located under both Charlton and St. John. Although issue 2 was St. John, reading the cover it seems like issue 3 was Charlton. I have no idea how you guys keep this straight. I also notice that the quality of issue 3 in the St. John section seems higher than in the Charlton section.

[Yoc]

Hi Corinne,
Yep, as companies came and went some of their titles would switch from one publisher to another.  Dell especially.  It was pretty common.  Fortunately we have some experts on publishers like JVJ who has been wonderfully generous in sending out to a few select members valuable books from his collection to be scanned. Any titles with _JVJ at the end came from his collection.
As the books here come from a variety of different scanners the quality of scans will vary pretty widely.  I try encourage uploaders to list the original scanners when they know them.  Eventually you might start to find some scanners you want to follow no matter what they scan - they do that good a job and might have the same taste in books as you do.
Darwination is one of personal favs (who scans a very wide variety of books) and GAC's own OtherEric is a new scanner on the scene who has quickly made a name for himself among Golden Age collectors.  Phabox is a more seasoned scanner who has some nice books on the site as well.

-Yoc

[narfstar]

And I am a quantity of quality kinda guy. I do very little editing. My scans are not always the straightest. But I aim to please. Whenever possible I use 300ppi. The latest two uploading at 300ppi are Sweethearts 40 missing a centerfold and Sweethearts 44 c2c to the Charlton folder. I have an autofeeder so I cut the books in half and scan away. Love those low grade books I get real cheap. Sometimes my scans have been edited by others to improve their look. Look for them to show up shortly.

[Corinne]

Thank you for the clarification, Yoc!

Hmm. Well I haven't said or asked anything dumb in about 8 hours so: narfstar, what do you mean by "real cheap?" I have done some looking on ebay and although prices start low, romance comics seem to go for $5 each and up when the bidding is done, which does not seem that cheap to me.

[narfstar]

http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=390046154900

http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=390046154494

I seldom pay over a dollar each and get several GA and SA

[JVJ]

Thank you for the clarification, Yoc!

Hmm. Well I haven't said or asked anything dumb in about 8 hours so: narfstar, what do you mean by "real cheap?" I have done some looking on ebay and although prices start low, romance comics seem to go for $5 each and up when the bidding is done, which does not seem that cheap to me.

Well, if you consider that a new comic book will cost you $3 (soon to be $4 I'm told), getting an old one from 30 to 50 years ago for $5 seems like quite a bargain, actually.

And Charlton comics were notorious for their poor printing, so even the best scan of one of their books will almost always look worse than materiol from other publishers.

For the record, folks, I'm back in California and ready for the next rounds.

Peace, Jim (|:{>

[OtherEric]

It does help to remember that shipping can add 2-5 dollars to the price of the book; depending on the book that can range from who cares to a fairly big increase.  But for a 50+year old book in scan suitable condition, anything under $10 seems really cheap to me.  But your view might vary.

I was already planning to get at least a few Pictorial Romances in my next lot; some wonderful Matt Baker romance from the few I've seen.  But Jim sent me a bigger batch than I was expecting, so it will probably be another month or so before I get a new delivery from him.  (I should be sending back the first box of books on my day off this week, though.)

Not sure that I've made a name for myself yet, Yoc, but it's nice of you to say so.  The one scanner who I will always download is Cimmerian32; his books look incredible.

[kquattro]

I noticed that Fightin Marines issues are located under both Charlton and St. John. Although issue 2 was St. John, reading the cover it seems like issue 3 was Charlton. I have no idea how you guys keep this straight. I also notice that the quality of issue 3 in the St. John section seems higher than in the Charlton section.

Hi Corinne,

FIGHTIN' MARINES was originally published by St. John, from Aug. 1951 to March, 1953. As St. John began shrinking their comic book line as they moved into magazine publishing, some of their titles and inventory were purchased by Charlton. The early Charlton issues were reprints of the St. John comics. And you are correct, the poor reproduction is something that was the standard at Charlton.

You have good taste, by the way. The Canteen Kate stories were great and some of my favorite Matt Baker work as well.

--Ken Q

[Yoc]

Hi guys,
Narf of course is to be commended for his person quest to own and scan at least one book from every publisher ever to exist.  From this we've gotten to see some Very Obscure comics one would never think to find here.
Cimmerian32 is also among the very best scanners and this is why I should never point out scanners for fear of not mentioning another.  Cimm is incredible (but I haven't seen much from him in a while), Henry Peters a Scanning Legend, Marble River, King Farady, our own Jon, Snard and Steve Rogers.  Great person friends LoftyPilot, Teto7Totoro, Phabox and Sigasahab, etc etc etc.  It's a wonderful hobby we have here filled with some of the best people going!
TO ALL SCANNERS I SALUTE YOU!