Five-Score Plus Comic Monthly #23

By request... the cover to Five-Score Plus Comic Monthly #23... this appears to be an elusive issue for collectors... I think it's fair to say that sometimes, issues aren't necessarily scarce as they are elusive... that is, there is no reason to assume there are fewer copies in existence than other similar issues... and yet, they nevertheless remain stubbornly elusive and unsighted for a period of time... until such time as a few copies start to appear, and we all wonder why we thought they were so scarce... and I'm betting we'll be saying the same thing about Five-Score #23 in a year or two...

Fastest Gun in the West

This Fastest Gun in the West unnumbered one-shot is to the Fastest Gun Western series as the Western Heroes one-shot is to the Bumper Western Album series, or the Western Album and Western Action and Adventure and Wild West Album one-shots are to the Super Western Album series - essentially unnumbered instalments of those series in magazine-size format with adapted titles and mastheads.

Sharp Shooters of the Wild West

Sharp Shooters of the Wild West is another in a line of one-shot Murray Comics westerns.

This issue carries features such as Texas Rangers in Action and Cheyenne Kid, each of which was afforded its own eponymous one-shot issue in this period. This is one reason I think this issue was cobbled together from extraneous material (though I hasten to add these features did appear in other one-shot westerns too...)

The other clue is the title typeface, a generic, overused style from the 1970's/early 1980's found in many magazines and advertisements of the period, unlike many other one-shot issues which adapted existing type from other related series.

The cover is signed by Prieto Muriana, a name rather familiar to Australian readers of Gredown western issues such as Bullet Western, Gun Western, Outlaw Gunslingers and Wild Western Action, just to name a few.

Will the real World's Finest Comic Monthly #13 please stand up...?

Here it is - the long-sought-after cover to World's Finest Comic Monthly #13!

I know there are a few of you KGManiacs out there who will be rapt to finally see this cover. It's been the subject of speculation for a quite a while now.

Indeed, not so long ago, a crude yet effective cut-and-paste fake-alternate-proxy of this issue was in circulation, courtesy of moi... we had no idea what the real one looked like, so I mocked something up which could have plausibly been a facsimile of the real thing... I took a punt on an unreprinted DC Flash cover of the period... and some did think it was the real thing on first look... I got my cheapies out of that... mischief is contagious in the junkyard... all of which only whet the appetite and anticipation for the real thing... and so I naturally assumed the duty and responsibility to present the real thing in due course, to compensate for my indiscretion and giggles...

And if you think the real thing looks good on the blog, well, I assure you, it looks even better in my collection, as this issue completes my run of this series!

Of course, there are still a few poor condition issues which really need an upgrade, and even a coverless rebound issue in primo Gigantic Annual real estate which has been holding up its end of the bargain for a good while now...

Oh, and if you still can't tell the real one from the fake, you should either take more pills, or stop them altogether!

Man and Woman #15: Slipping through the CCA net...

First one to say Comics Code Approved Bondage has probably already seen this site, but if not... And when you come back you can check out the original cover on DC's Love Stories #150, June-July 1973...