Comic Grail acquired

[MRP]

So I recently purchases one of my comic grails and it arrived this afternoon. I am not sure how many people here will be familiar with this book, as it's not Marvel/DC heroes, but it is early Joe Kubert work and a book I have wanted since I learned of its existence when I was first getting into Kubert's stuff in the late 90s when I read Fax from Sarajevo for the first time. Never saw a copy in the wild and never saw one online in my comfort zone for price until last week.

It's Son of Sinbad #1 (there was never a #2) published by St. John's from 1950 with a cover and two stories drawn by Joe Kubert (his signature style was still developing at this point so it's not quite as recognizably Kubert as some of his stuff got to be in the late 50s and into the 60s, but it's still gorgeous Kubert stuff). It's only a 2.0 ish, and someone has touched the color of the cap of one of the figures with a black marker, but I am ok with that considering I thought this was a book I would never realistically own in any condition.



Very happy. I have been picking up a lot of stuff in recent weeks (Dave Stevens covers, minor Matt Baker books and Wally Wood stuff mostly) but this is by far the crowning book of what I have gotten for me.

-M

[PNGwynne]

Congratulations--great cover!

[YoungOnce]

What a great looking book! Congrats!

You’re right... I wouldn’t have guessed Kubert looking at that cover... as a matter of fact, I see more stuff (the faces) that makes me think of Ditko. Wonder if Kubert was ever a Ditko disciple before he found his style?

Glad it came your way

[MRP]

What a great looking book! Congrats!

You’re right... I wouldn’t have guessed Kubert looking at that cover... as a matter of fact, I see more stuff (the faces) that makes me think of Ditko. Wonder if Kubert was ever a Ditko disciple before he found his style?

Glad it came your way

Kubert was long established before Ditko entered the field. Kubert got his first pro work at age 12 in the 40s, (1st pro work was inking a story in Catman #8 from '42), Ditko's 1st published work was I believe Daring Love #1 in '53, so I don't think Ditko was an influence on Kubert. Kubert worked with a lot of companies and in a few packaging houses before ending up at DC for a while (and then on to St. John) and was mentored by guys in the Iger shop and the Eisner shop before coming to DC. His style evolved, but the earliest stuff I've seen that is that signature Kubert style in the ealry Tor stuff he did at St. Johns shortly after this Son of Sinbad book.

-M

[YoungOnce]

Ahhh... thanks for the time-line... interesting stuff.

So maybe it was the other way around then... Ditko liked Kubert’s stuff...

[MRP]

Ahhh... thanks for the time-line... interesting stuff.

So maybe it was the other way around then... Ditko liked Kubert’s stuff...

Anything's possible with Ditko. He was always so reticent, so I don't really have a clear idea of his influences (other than Ayn Rand that is). There are a couple of books about Ditko out there that might explore the topic, but I haven't read them.

-M

[J.B.]

Congrats. Nothing like scoring a Grail.

[Earth 2 Chris]

It looks like Kubert's work on Golden Age Hawkman. Great cover, and congrats!

Chris

[knight errant00]

Congratulations -- that looks like a a great book!

[palitoy]

Hey congrats, looks really displayable.

[Blue Meanie]

Was this the one on Ebay? I though I saw one about a couple of weeks back. Golden Age has always been something I would like to explore more. I have a few Super Hero Golden Age books...but I have a pre-code horror Atlas Suspense book that made me start to look at non super hero golden age books. It's fun and it's always great finding a grail. CONGRATS!!

[ToyTalk]

That is an awesome book and a hard one to find. Great Snag!!

[mpramuk]

This Son of Sinbad is much more affordable!

Son of Sinbad.jpg


Awesome comic find!!! Its great when you find your Grail!!

[MRP]

Was this the one on Ebay? I though I saw one about a couple of weeks back. Golden Age has always been something I would like to explore more. I have a few Super Hero Golden Age books...but I have a pre-code horror Atlas Suspense book that made me start to look at non super hero golden age books. It's fun and it's always great finding a grail. CONGRATS!!

Yes, it was on ebay. I finally broke my ebay hiatus to look for a copy of DNAgents 24 with the Dave Stevens cover as it has been impossible to find for the last 7 years at local shows and shops, and it's the last issue I needed for the run, and wanted it regardless of having a Dave Stevens cover, but once I started looking around, I started finding other books-a few affordable Matt Baker books, an issue of Wally Wood's Witzend and a few other books with Stevens covers I wanted to finish runs that were hard to find locally (World of Wood #1 and Vanguard Illustrated #2). Of course a week after I broke down and bought the copy of DNAgents #24, one of our local shops finally got one in, but hey, them's the breaks.

But yeah, I have been getting more into 50s stuff recently, I picked up a couple of reprint books of pre-code horror stuff (the Seduction of the Innocent mini, and the Shocking Tales digest from Harvey), plus 50s stuff by Wally Wood in World of Wood, and as many of the Gemstone reprints of the EC classics as I can find affordably, and it really reinforced my interest in 50s stuff. I have been picking up 50s era Tarzans from Dell on the cheap for a while, and have a bunch of comic strip collections from the 50s (a lot of Steve Canyon by Caniff and other stuff here and there) and so I just find myself drawn to books form that era. Add in getting on a Matt Baker kick and I find myself looking for a lot more 50s era stuff, and with a few exceptions, I haven't been buying much in the way of Marvel/DC super-hero back issues for a while (I still look for Red Circle stuff, Phantom, Hawkman and a few other Silver DC fringe books) so my focus has been on the non-hero (or at least non-costumed hero) stuff. There's just a wealth of interesting stuff there that gets overlooked by super-hero focused collectors.

-M

[YoungOnce]

Enjoying this thread!

I hadn’t had my long boxes out since about 1985, but always kept them. I kept thinking one of these days I’d pass them down to my kids, but neither of my girls care about them. Then I had two grandsons so I’m thinking maybe they will be more interested. Maybe... kids don’t seem to care about comic books much these days, at least not in the way that I did.

Either way, with all this downtime, I decided to get them out and start going through them. It’s been fun to relive the memories. Lots of Silver and Bronze Age marvel and DC horror... Fantastic Four... probably the only person in America who collected a complete run of freakin’ Weird War Tales.

Have tons of old Dells, Gold Keys, Charlotte... etc.. So for the first time in my life, I’m selling stuff on eBay and using the proceeds to fill in the gaps on the Fantastic Four run, the Marvel monster titles like “Where Monster Dwell, Where Creatures Roam, Werewolf By Night and a few others... It’s given me something new to hunt, and that’s the fun isn’t it?