CGC certified: Fine Plus (6.5). Cream to off-white pages. Cover by Rudi Nappi. Feldstein, Larner, Keyes and Oleck stories. Crandall, Evans, Kamen and Ingels art. GCG: "Distributed only at E.C.'s offices." Last issue. Provenance: previously sold as Lot 254 in Sotheby's sale #7497, "Comic Books and Comic Art," June 17, 2000, NYC.
Final entry in EC's "Picto-Fiction" line of magazines geared towards adult readership, an ill-fated attempt to circumvent the Comics Code. Only a handful of copies were bound and stapled, just enough to satisfy subscriptions, with a few left over for walk-in sales at the office. The magazines were hand-assembled and stapled by EC staffers in what must have been a singularly forlorn day at 225 Lafayette Street. Some sources indicate that 200 copies were circulated; most sources (including Overstreet) state that only 100 copies were bound. The rest of the print run of 250,000 copies was pulped, as Bill Gaines lacked funds to have them bound. The single rarest EC publication.
CGC census: 19 certified copies, no others graded 6.5. Nine copies are graded 6.0 or lower; ten are graded 7.0 or higher (the Gaines file copies presumably account for most of the high-grade examples). Comparable CGC sales: A total of nine certified copies have been sold, of which five are 6.0 or lower. The four remaining copies are 9.0 or higher, of which three are Gaines file copies. The only 6.0 copy sold for $1200 in July, 2008. The next copy up (9.0) sold for $1900 in July, 2006. The most recent sales were a 9.2 that reached $2868 in Feb. 2014 and a 2.5 that reached $1080 in October, 2019.
Consignments Accepted for PBA's Next Comic Book Auction. Golden Age, Silver Age, Pre-Code, Original Art, Interesting Ephemera Sought. Contact [email protected] for details.
PBA COMICS March 26th Comic Book Sale catalogues available. Supplies Limited. Softcover catalogue limited to 200 copies ($45 + $5 postage/handling). Hardcover limited to 26 lettered copies, dust jacket, special limitation plate ($150). Contact [email protected].