Li'l Abner at his Best..

Been a little while since recent input into The Rack but am back this time with a weekend Newtown Market find that I'm greatly looking forward to reading..

The Best of Li'l Abner - Al Capp - Holt, Rinehart and Winston/New York - 1978

For an $8 purchase I may finally realise one of my longtime desires - to read a goodly amount of Li'l Abner by Al Capp..
Maybe it was growing up in Hobart, Tasmania (closer to Dogpatch than you think..) that I missed reading this as a newspaper strip in any local paper, unlike folk in big city Sydney, I've discovered, got the chance to. I also didn't know that the strip ran well into the late 60's.
It always looked like a quirky satire of ol' US of A and I always suspected that it was downright surreal whenever I encountered any reference to the Shmoos, but never realised how out there the strip was until recoiling from a quick flick thru this on the way home.. I started to salivate..
Beautiful line work from Mr Capp - surely the embellisher of the sexiest females in comicdom..

This sure beats Archie..

The edition also packs a fistful of colour pages that continue the gloryness.

..ya gotta luv the Shmoos..

Also discovered that Mr Capp had had a leg severed at the hip at age 9 by a trolley car and was well known for his wooden leg antics..

Here's to you, Al..

A Welcome Addition...

Extraordinary Records - from the collections of Alessabdro Benedetti & Peter Bastine

Colors/Taschen - 2009

While deserting the Newtown Festival a couple of weeks ago, as imminent downpour threatened, I made my way back to King Street along a side street and discovered a garage sale set up selling mainly books and cds..

Walked away with this gem that I had never seen before and all for the heafty price of $5..

Inside is a whopping 430 pages of all manner of unusual black slab - although not many of them are black...

From ERB to Me..

According to the hit counter on the right The Record Rack clicked over 1000 views (while on my Post Stats it says 993.. whatever) and rolled back to 100 at 7.40pm this Sunday evening, just as Kaspar and I had finished watching the doco on TVS about Richard Blackie - now deceased toy collector  and certainly an 'interesting person'. Here's to a fantastic collector who's hopefully doing Moondances with his idol in The Great Cereal Bowl in The Sky...

As a special treat to thank those who have viewed this blog since the start of this year, I will now show one very momentous piece of opshop find that I stumbled upon probably 10 years ago in Randwick (I can't recall it's name at the moment but was named after a famous charitable bloke)...

Being a ERB reader since early teens I almost fell thru the cluttered saucepan shelf after picking up this battered hardbound canvas covered throwaway..

Upon opening it revealed a bound collection of The Illustrated Blue Book Magazine from March 1929 to March 1930 featuring  '"TANAR" A New Novel by the Author of "TARZAN"'.

Curiously only the feature ERB story had been bound along with each month's covers, to be read as an entire novel. Tanar only runs to the October 1929 issue and is followed by 'The New "TARZAN" Story' - Tarzan at the Earth's Core, continuing the Pellucidor theme.

The last page declares that the next issue "begins a wholly different but no less fascinating novel which again reveals the splendid creative imagination of the author of Tarzan" - The Fighting Man of Mars. With John Carter being my favourite ERB creation I am in hope that one day I will find that next volume and that it will not cost me more than the $2 paid for this one (not likely)..

August issue was not included as it appears not to start the Tarzan story until Sept issue..

er.. I seemed not to have photographed October issue cover but it was in there (I'll post it later), and put out of order after Nov..

It's hard to guess the providence on this item and the only additional writing in it is a pencil $40 price on the inside cover and a T/N $20.00. There are no descriptive titling on the outside or spine which makes me think that this was an object of delight for an early collector/fan of ERB. I'm sure they would have been pleased it fell into the hands of another..

The End of the World and Beyond

This collection has been holding up some shelves for many years now after the aborted YK2 event and now with the disappointing Mexican end to last year it seems a good enough time to purview what could have been a glorious future amongst the rubble of civilisation. From the urban despots of an British war ravaged countryside to cosmic intervention, humans have come up with many ways to destroy their precious landscape - here are some samples of Man's Folly...

My first apocalyptic read as a teenager

Earth Abides - G.R. Stewart - Corgi Books - 1956

The Coming Dark Age - R. Vacca - Panther - 1974

Black August - D. Wheatley - Arrow - 1960

The Zilov Bombs - D.G. Barron - Pan - 1962

The Crucified City - P. van Greenaway - Pan - 1962

Survivors: Genesis of a Hero - J. Eyers - Futura - 1977

Fugue for a Darkening Island - C. Priest - New English Library - 1973

The Offshore Island - M. Laski - May Fair - 1959

No One Will Escape - H. H. Kirst

Ende - A. Guha - Corgi - 1986

The Bright Phoenix - H. Mead - Corgi - 1960

On The Beach - N. Shute - Pan - 1969

On The Beach - N. Shute - Signet - 1958

This Is the Way the World Ends - J. Morrow - Ace - 1989

End of the World - D. Owen - Ace - 1962

After The Bomb - G. D. Miklowitz - Point - 1985

For Zachariah - R. C. O'Brien - Heinemann - 1989

Alas, Babylon - P. Frank - Readers Book Club - 1961

Tomorrow! - P. Wylie - Popular Library - 1954

The Hills Were Liars - R. Hughes - All Saints Press - 1962

Epidemic! - F. G. Slaughter - Hutchinson - 1961

Plague - J. Black - Belmont Tower - 1978

Three Quarters - G. de Timms - Digit - 1963

Panic O'Clock - C. Hodder-Williams - New English Library - 1973

A Scent of New-Mown Hay - J. Blackburn - New English Library -1968

The Coming of the Rats - G. H. Smith - Priory - date unknown

Tide - Z. Hughes - Berkley Medallion - 1975

The Day the Tide Went Out - C. E. Maine - Corgi - 1958

The Day the Oceans Overflowed - C. L. Fontenay - Bridbooks - date unknown

The World In Winter - J. Christopher - Sphere - 1978

The Death of Grass - J. Christopher - Penguin - 1963

Hello America - J. G. Ballard - Triad Granada - 1983

The Drought - J. G. Ballard - Penguin - 1968

The Drowned World - J. G. Ballard - Penguin - 1968

I Am Legend - R. Matheson - Corgi - 1977

And So Ends the World... - R. Pape - Panther - 1963

In the Days of the Comet - H.G. Wells - Fontana - 1978

The White Mountains - J. Christopher - Beaver - 1981

The City of Gold and Lead -  J. Christopher - Beaver - 1981

The Pool of Fire -  J. Christopher - Beaver - 1981

The War of the Worlds - H. G. Wells - Golden Press - 1978

Planet of the Apes - P. Boulle - Signet - 1964

Escape From the Planet of the Apes - J. Pournelle - Award - 1973

Survivors - Z. Ben Jonah - self published - 2003

Beyond Armageddon - edited by W.M. Miller, Jr & M. Greenberg - Robinson - 1985

Apocalypse Movies - K. Newman - St. Martin's Griffin - 1999

Armageddon for beginners - D. McKay - self published - 1999

And to sum up, Mr Welsman pondered on an unlikely premise that what if we weren't here tomorrow.. how would the Earth cope? Who would read his book?...

to be continued...