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NARRATIVE ILLUSTRATION: THE STORY OF THE COMICS...
Np, nd: [1942]. Octavo, pp. [1] 2 [3-4] 5-8 [9-10] 11-14 [15] [16: blank], [Note: two color comic inserts 4 pages and 8 pages], illustrated throughout, printed wrappers. First edition. This is one of the earliest essay's on comic books, an offprint from Print: A Quarterly Journal of Graphic Arts (Summer, 1942). It also includes two four color comic inserts, the first "The Minute Man Answers the Call" with writing credit to Gaines and illustrated by an uncredited Sheldon Moldoff, which is a promotion to buy War Bonds. The second insert is "Picture Stories From the Bible: The Story of Ruth" by Gaines and artist Don Cameron. M. C. Gaines is essentially the father of the modern comic book. In 1933 he devised a saddle stitched newsprint pamphlet which was the precursor of the modern four color comic book. Gaines founded All-American Publications which featured original material including the super-heroes Flash, Hawkman, Green Lantern and Wonder Woman. The financing for All-American came from his partner Jack Leibowitz. Leibowitz was also co-owner of National Allied Publications, the company that would eventually become National-DC comics. The companies were merged in 1944 with Gaines being bought out. Gaines would then go on to establish the E.C. (Educational Comics) line. After Gaines untimely death in 1947, his son Max took over the company and took it in the direction that is well known today of horror and science fiction stories during the 1950s.
THE WAR OF THE WENUSES. Translated from the Artesian of H. G. Pozzuoli ...
Bristol: J. W. Arrowsmith ... London: Simpkin, Marshall, Hamilton, Kent & Co. Limited, n.d., [1898]. Small octavo, pp. [1-10] 11-140 [141-144: ads], original pictorial white wrappers printed in red, yellow and black. First edition. A fine parody of H. G. Wells's THE WAR OF THE WORLDS. Earth is invaded by beautiful Venusian women. "A 'Punch-style' parody ... in which the natives of Venus, young ladies, invade earth (in giant crinolines) in a quest for sartorial improvements, devastating all males with the dreaded 'mash' glance." - Locke, Voyages in Space 88. Bleiler, Science-Fiction: The Early Years 915. Clareson, Science Fiction in America, 1870s-1930s 356. Clarke, Tale of the Future (1978), p. 24. Clarke, Voices Prophesying War: Future Wars 1763-3749, p. 230. Locke, A Spectrum of Fantasy, p. 95. Negley, Utopian Literature: A Bibliography 457. Sargent, British and American Utopian Literature, 1516-1985, p. 115. Suvin, Victorian Science Fiction in the UK, p. 73. Bleiler (1978), p. 85. Reginald 06255. Topp, Victorian Yellowbacks and Paperbacks, 1849-1905 VIII, p. 244.
ATOMS OF EMPIRE.
New York: The Macmillan Company, 1904. Octavo, pp. [i-iv] v [vi] 1-279 [280: blank] [281-282: ads], original olive green cloth, front stamped in gold black and turquoise, spine stamped in gold. t.e.g., other edges rough cut. First edition. Mixed collection of sixteen stories set in the British colonies, mostly adventure stories, but including two science fiction stories and one weird tale, "The Mummy of Thompson-Pratt." Some of these stories were collected earlier in THE STRONGER HAND (1896). "... [his] diversity of ideas, noticeable in both his short stories and his novels, signals him as a writer who may have been unfairly forgotten, even though he was one of the most prolific and successful writers of early magazine sf." - SFE online. Bleiler, The Guide to Supernatural Fiction 879. Bleiler, Science-Fiction: The Early Years 1157. Locke, A Spectrum of Fantasy, p. 120. Stableford, Scientific Romance in Britain 1890-1950, p. 129. Wilson, Shadows in the Attic, p. 273. Bleiler (1978), p. 106. Not in Reginald (1979; 1992).
THE COMPLETE CURIOUS MR. TARRANT.
Norfolk, VA: Crippen & Landru Publishers, 2003. Octavo, cloth. First edition. Part of the publishers "Lost Classics" series. Collects all twelve of the Trevis Tarrant stories, the eight first published in THE CURIOUS MR. TARRANT (1935) and four collected in book form for the first time in this volume. The first seven are locked room mysteries. With a new introduction by Ed Hoch. From Pronzini and Muller, 1001 Midnights, The Aficionado's Guide to Mystery and Detective Fiction, pp. 441, of the 1935 volume, "If wealthy amateur detective Trevis Tarrant is an unremarkable sleuth, the eight cases he investigates here are remarkable indeed." Also of note is the 1935 volume of eight stories is a Queen's Quorum title.
OBELISTS FLY HIGH.
New York: Harrison Smith & Robert Haas, 1935. Octavo, pp. [1-12] 11-337 [338: blank] [339: "The Clue Finder"] [340: blank] 341-343 [344-346: blank] [note: pagination correct], original pale green cloth, front and spine stamped in black. First edition. Golden age mystery with most of the action taking place on a transcontinental flight.