About an hour ago, I received a phonecall from my brother (link on the left), to whom I'd sent packets of the four Halloween comics. He called to say that the comics seemed to be a success in his area (small-town New York State a couple of hours north of NYC). He said one child had initially reacted in doubt to the Peanuts comic, but the parent pointed out that the child had just watched the Peanuts Halloween show, and this was the comic book. And all was well. (More anecdotes at his site, if you link there now.)

I love book sales. Big surprise, right? I finally joined the Association of University Women, which has -- over the years -- put on some of the very best book sales I've ever attended. So this was the first time I could help to put one together. This specific event has the following schedule:

Thursday Oct. 23, 2008 3-8 p.m.

Friday Oct. 24, 2008 9 a.m.-8 p.m.

Saturday Oct. 25, 2008 9 a.m.-5 p.m. half-price day

Sunday Oct. 26, 2008 noon-3 p.m. "$5 per armload"

It's inside the Northland Mall in Appleton, Wis. But that's not my point.

You might want to Google "AAUW" plus "book" plus the name of a nearby city to see whether there's a similar sale scheduled for your area. Since some will already have ended this late in the year, it's a good idea to check it out every few months. But that's not my point.

What's my point? Well, I suggest you go in with your eyes open and your mind set to explore whatever it is you find there. Because what happened to me yesterday is that I walked by an opened box that had a bunch of old magazines sitting in it, and below you'll see three that were among them. Let me explain in advance:

Hugo Gernsback (1884-1967) is sometimes called "The Father of Modern Science Fiction." The annual Hugo Awards are named for him. He was also a radio pioneer and founded radio station WRNY. He founded the first magazine devoted exclusively to science fiction -- Amazing Stories -- with its first issue dated April 1926. (In fact, he founded the first six science-fiction magazines.) But before he created Amazing Stories, he injected SF concepts in some of his other work. He wrote the SF novel Ralph 124C41+ and he hired classic SF artist Frank R. Paul to illustrate material in magazines before Amazing Stories began.

And the three issues that were in that opened box were edited by Hugo Gernsback before Amazing Stories. The first below was the last of the three published and looks like a sort of Popular Science -- but it has some SF content (and even a letter from a reader complaining about the fiction). It was dated Dec 1925. The second below (May 1924) has a science-fictional thrust (and, I'd guess, a cover by Paul). The third (Aug 1924) clearly has extraterrestrial content. I pulled the three issues, since the highest price for the AAUW wasn't likely to be reached in a local book sale. And this week I'll start sending messages to possible sellers. In the meantime, enjoy. (And what looks like brown on the covers is actually a fifth ink: gold. Gernsback wrote, "THE GOLDEN AGE OF SCIENCE is symbolized by the golden cover OF SCIENCE & INVENTION, LOOK FOR THE GOLD COVER every month!")

 

 

As you've no doubt figured out, the strips I've been running have been from the actual strips clipped from newspapers. But a comment on my Tumbleweeds posting sent me looking for any samples of Rick O'Shay — and I'm providing you with a few strips in the reprint volumes writer-artist Stan Lynde (1931-) has released of the strip that he began in 1958 and wrote and drew until 1977, when Alfredo Alcala took over. (Lynde's Latigo began in 1979 and ran until 1983, suffering in part from the same pressure that kept O'Shay limited; a newspaper that was running Tumbleweeds would respond to the solicitation that it was already running "a Western strip.") This sample ran in 1961:

I've been featuring some of the strips you're least likely to have come across. Here's a look back at one of the best-known. It began in 1954 and is still running today, originally by Mort Walker (1923-) and Dik Browne (1918-1998), today by Brian and Greg Walker and Robert "Chance" Browne. We all recall (don't we?) that Lois is Beetle Bailey's sister; there's that and much more at Wikipedia and Don Markstein's Toonopedia. Here's a sampling from the very beginning of 1962:

As I wrote earlier, Carroll was nice enough to pose with folks who asked. So here he is last year with my daughter, Valerie. (By the way, at this year's FOTR convention, October 23-26 in Newark, Valerie will perform as Effie with The Gotham Radio Players in a re-creation of an episode of The Adventures of Sam Spade for which the script survives but the recorded performance does not.) (Also by the way: Though his stance with Valerie and Anthony might make you think he's a one-note performer, I guarantee that is not the case. He's in complete command of the character throughout his impersonation.)