Hello to all. So long! Several months ago, one day I tried to enter here and the forum seemed to have vanished. Tried to enter a couple more times in the following days and nothing. So I thought the forum would no longer exist, and deleted it from my bookmarks. A couple of weeks ago, I started to wonder if the forum was really gone and if I was too swiftly to erase it from my bookmarks. However I did not have its address anymore, so I contact Jesse through Facebook and he gave me the forum address once more!
Despite that, I did not have much stuff to show, so decided to wait for a package that I just purchased to arrive to have more things to show. And it did yesterday. Although part of is of US, there still a reasonable amount of Brazilian stuff to show. Here it goes, from newer to older!
Tarzan was Huge In Brazil, I believe that, outside Disney world, he was one of five champions of selling, together with the Phantom, Mandrake, Superman and Batman.
This 1979 edition is a high quality edition. Ebal pusblisher was using high quality, "book" like paper, with high quality coloring, in several titles. I forgot to take a photo from the interior, but the next Tarzan book is quite similar. And this is one of these. It was already published in a reduced format, like a bigger digest. This bigger digest size was used since the early 50's in Disney material. However, when Bloch publisher started to use it in 1975 in the super-hero genre, it swiftly spread through other publishers. After, all, less paper and less paint, cheaper costs! . This edition is without the staples. Fortunately this is the kind of flaw that really does not bother me much, specially because the pages are quite firm, they only move slightly! And without the staple stuff, the high quality material helped to keep the cover and the interior pages in mint range!.
Now another Tarzan book, this time from 1976. Ebal publisher decided to publish some important Tarzan stories in a deluxe editions. And this is one of them. It's bigger than the average US format from 70's, with square bound spine and the high quality coloring and paper like the previous book. This time with a interior's photo!
Looking at the state of these editions, only makes me wish that most of the global comic book industry had tried to move to better quality editions earlier in time. Took too much time IMHO.
Now something different. A Disney book!
Despite Uncle Scrooge being in the cover, its a book from José carioca (or "Zé Carioca" as in the tile). And boy, the cover of this thing is in great shape!. Unlike the heroes or super-heroes genre, these books uses thin, US like cover. with make it quite more fragile than the heroes books! But unlike the more mature books, these books were colored, and with quite a good quality. IMO better than many stuff Abril was publishing in middle 90's!. The bad is that the upper staple is with rusty. perhaps I should remove it. Zé Carioca book started in 1961, and Abril publisher wanted it to follow the Donald Duck numbering. Until there, The Donald Duck book was weekly , but it then started to be bi-weekly, with it always having even numbers (480,482) while Zé Carioca having odd numbers (479, 481,483...). It continued that way until early to middle 90's, when both where approaching the number of 2000, so Abril publisher decided to let Donald Duck to have new issues faster to be the first to reach number 2000, since it was its first successfull publication. Now only among comic books, but also between magazines! I don't know the printing data from the 60's by in middle 70's, Zé Carioca book had a printing number between 200.00 and 250.000 , so between 800.000 and 1.000.000. So I really happy to have one of the earlier editions.
Now something from another publisher:
A quite earlier edition of the Flinstones! Published by the Cruzeiro in 1963. Cruzeiro was specialized on comics for kids and they were quite good at it. Not sure if they sold it as well as Abril with its Disney material and high quality coloring, but certainly did much better on this market than Ebal, that had the rights of Tom and Jerry, Papuncio, Popeye and others. For the kids, its fairly poor quality coloring was certainly likely far more cool than the B&W editions from Ebal, whose titles for kids were one of the last in number of sold units.
Moving on.
The last Tarzan book!
This one is from 1962! Brazilian books from the late 60's are usually fairly easy to find. However, as one goes back in time in that decade, the comic books starting to became more and more difficult to find. From around 1963 or so, they start to vanish from the main online stores and marketplaces. This happens mainly because Brazilian comic books were considered pernicious, and suffered mass destruction by the kids parents, that forced the poor kids to throw away their beloved treasures. Yes, quite similar to what happened in the US, but here the peak of this mass destruction happened latter than the US, victimizing books from longer periods. For someone that follows from close the market, is crystal clear how much easier to find the books from the end of the 60's are compared to the ones from earlier 60's. For printing lines of low 6 digits, the amount of surviving copies is so low!
If one pays attention to the upper right corner, one can see the symbol of the Brazilian code of ethics!. It was more prominent in that period although at least one publisher keeped showing it until middle-to late of 60's. There were even TV debates, were celebrities pro and against comic books went to tv debates to condemn or defend its reading by kids! The previous "Zé Carioca" image also had one in the lower upper corner.
This particular edition is in great shape for a scarse issue from 62. Although its winner uses standard newspaper like paper in B&W, the thicker cover is in great shape. What I find the most impressive is how clear the white portions of the cover are!. Given that the majority of the books were keeped in open environments with poor environmental conditions. To find a copy of this book in this shape is rare!
And now a Superman book from the same year:
This one is in quite good shape similar to the last, with the main difference being the fairly dim stamp mark on the cover. Still quite satisfied with it!
As far as I know, this is considered one the best Superman stories of all time. I still did not read it (and will probably be a couple of weeks until I do) but if I really like it, I will probably try to build a set of it, especially since I really liked the cover art! I believe Novarro probably published it. Perhaps a few other countries did so.
And even older "Zé Carioca" and also with the cover in excellent shape! The only downside is that the staples are rusty, considerable more than the other copy. I thing I shall remove it, even for aesthetic reasons. Also form 62
Another issue from the "cruzeiro" From 1960.
And finally the last one:
A Flash Gordon n°13 of 1959!. I just noted now, but the thing has two covers! I don't know how it is spoken in English, double cover perhaps? I think it was made by a previous owner, will take a photo tomorrow. Anyway, Flash Gordon was quite popular in Brazil, being published constantly since middle 30's until around 1980, where it started to show only occasionally in special editions.
Anyway. I aquired all these comics on an online auction, all from the same owner, with the exception of the newer Tarzan. The day I won the bidding war for these titles and Yesterday, when I finally received the package with these titles, where perhaps the second happiest comic book collectin day of my life. Besides these I got a Brave and the Bold 21, a House of Mystery 86, a Lassie from 1962, a Doctor Solar 2 and a Dennis the Menace little book from the end of the 50's.
And that was the tip of the Iceberg! There were countless Brazilian Donald Ducks, several older and more rare than these Zé Carioca, one earlier edition from o Guri, from the beginning of 40's, the oldest and perhaps the rarest issue of this auction (was also the most expensive), a US Jetsons n°1, a Green lantern n°2 , a snagglepuss n°1, a Journey into Mystery before Thor, a Flash 105 and many more treasures from Brazil and US. There was also a portuguese Spider-man. The owner putted about 400 items and certainly had a low 5 digit return from it. And this was not the first time he did it. I followed another in the beggining of the year, but unfortunately could not acquire. Hopefully there will be another one and I will be bale to won even more amazing books!
P.S: Forgot to take pictures from two Brazilian's "The Savage Sword of Conan".