2 comments about Radios: The Golden Age.

1. "This book of postcards pictures extraordinary radios of the thirties, forties, and fifties. Philip Collins's superb collection of the colorful gizmos includes many that are drop-dead beautiful and not a few that are deeply peculiar.
   
   "In only eleven years, between 1930 and 1941, an estimated 71 million home radio receivers were sold in the United States. The designs featured here are a cross section of three decades of radio cabinet aesthetics. Their elegance and occasional whimsy are uniquely American. Vintage-radio collecting has mushroomed in the United States. There are specialists now who enjoy comfortable careers as restorers and manufacturers of replication parts, such as knobs, dial glasses, trims, handles, and cosmetic adornments that time has not treated well.
   
   "Pomegranate's books of postcards contain thirty top-quality reproductions bound together in a handy collection. Easy to remove and produced on heavy card stock, they also make great little books. This convenient compilation offers a wide selection of gorgeous cards to choose from, making it easy to find the perfect postcard to send to any friend, family member, or casual acquaintance. ISBN: 0-7649-2039-1; size: 4 3/4 x 6 7/8". See also: Radios Poster."--© Pomegranate



2. If you have one of the antique radios shown in this book, you will want to display it open next to your radio. The photos are absolutely stunning. The book also provides some help in identifying rarely seen radios and how they should look if you have one that's not in good condition.

   The author includes some resources and contacts, but the beauty of the subject is reason enough to have this now out-of-print classic. A MUST for antique radio collectors.

2 comments about The Foremost Guide to Uncle Sam Collectibles.

1. The most comprehensive guide of its kind I have been able to find.
   Good information on the origination and evolution of the Uncle Sam character.
   Well researched and easy to browse.



2. With a better than average knowledge of Uncle Sam collectibles, I searched for specific information in this book and was able to easily locate what I needed. Very good photography. A prized addition to my collection of art books.

No comments about Jazz Album Covers: The Rare and Beautiful.

No comments about The Preston Catalogue: Catalogue No 18/May 1909.

No comments about TV Toys and the Shows That Inspired Them.

No comments about Zany Characters of the Ad World: Collector's Identification & Value Guide.

3 comments about Goldmine Christmas Record Price Guide.

1. Goldmine's Neely has once again produced a gem of a book, this time focusing on the oft-neglected niche of Christmas music. Well documented, with lots of color glossy pages of rare album covers, this is a must-have for those of you addicted to holiday vinyl.
   The book's only shortcomings: (1) It has now been almost seven years since its publication, it would be nice if Goldmine would issue an updated version of the book every few years to update its content; and (2) the book contains few international titles, of which there are hundreds if not thousands, particularly from the Western European countries (where most of our modern-day Christmas celebration traditions originated!). It would be nice to see more of them incorporated into a future edition.
   Well organized and written by someone who obviously is passionate about the genre, I highly recommend this publication.



2. Even during the off season I find myself thumbing through this book, it's a great source of information on collecting rare, hard to find holiday records. Plenty of singles and albums are listed that are worth hundreds of dollars if they're in mint condition and have a picture sleeve cover. It is also fun to look up the names of favorite artists & groups to see what, if any, holiday tunes they may have recorded. So next time you're cleaning out your attic, basement or in back of your closet, if you come across an old box or bin of 45s and/or albums-poke through, you never know if some hidden treasure is in there, and not just Christmas music either! Tim Neely has a few Goldmine Collectors guides out there and all are tops. Very highly recommended.



3. If you are into collecting Christmas Music of every variety whether traditional,pop,rock,etc.than this is the book for you! It lists every artist who ever recorded Christmas songs and hymns,and it also gives a listing of the worth of the original vinyl record(according to the condition of it,of course). A fun book to browse through even if you just want to see what's out there & perhaps to make some additions to your collection.

5 comments about The Classic Era of American Pulp Magazines.

1. A somewhat personal account at times of the editor's interest in pulp magazines.
   
   He mentiones when he first saw them in Woolies in the 50s - saying they were used as ballast in ships, then sold cheaply. That is whacky, but good for him, after scoring a Weird Tales.
   
   He goes through various different types, spicy, detective, fantasy, shudder, hot, etc.
   
   Also, being a pom he talks briefly about the magazines there, especially when the yank imports where banned, and some of the artists.
   
   That is where a heavy focus of this book is, the artwork.
   
   He does detail some of the publishers, who put them out, the strategies they used, etc., but also talks a lot about the artwork and styles used as far as what they could and could not get away with as American became more and more puritanical moving into the 50s.
   
   He deliberately ignores the superheroes, or the major variety, mentioning a couple in passing like the Black Bat and the Crimson Mask. Nothing much on the Lone Ranger or various Westerns either, or major science fiction magazines.
   
   So partly interest, partly what has been covered already drove his editorial decisions, presumably.
   
   People who like those covers will like it, hardcore pulp historians maybe wouldn't be so thrilled, but would still be interested somewhat.
   
   
   3.5 out of 5



2. Note: There are a couple Mormons who are angry over my negative reviews of books written in defense of the Book of Mormon, and they have been slamming my reviews. Your "helpful" votes are appreciated. Thanks.
   
   As a non-artist, it's hard to write a review of an art book, but I know what I like. So here's a non-expert's opinion.
   
   This book is well worth the price. It is full of color covers of pulp magazines from the 1930s through the 1950s. I've owned it for many years, and I still love browsing through it. I've copied a couple of them and hung them on my wall.
   
   Also, if you don't already know about Bud Plant, then also check out his site. You'll go broke ordering from it. What a wonderful collection classic illustrations!
   
   Check out my download pictures.



3. The colorfully covered, cheaply printed pulp magazine of the 1920s and 30s great out of the 19th-century dime novel and served as the forerunner of the comic books and paperback novels of today. In its heyday, pulp magazines were a staple of popular culture that offered every genre of readership the thrills, adventures, and entertainments they craved -- often to the dismay of parents, teachers, and clergy! Virtually creating the now popular literary genres as science fiction and the hard-boiled private eye mystery, these magazines were the incubators of such American literary talents as Arthur C. Clarke, Isaac Asimov, Raymond Chandler, James M. Cain, Dashiell Hammett, and a legion of others. An outstanding recommendation for personal, academic, and community library collections, The Classic Era Of American Pulp Magazines tells the complete story of these colorful pulps and those that wrote and published them, with a wealth of colorful cover art giving today's readers an accurate sense and taste of what the glory years of pulp magazines had to offer their enthusiastic readers.



4. Peter Haining has published a huge number of volumes on a variety of topics, which tend to be both well illustrated and very carelessly researched. This latest addition to the stack unfortunately follows that pattern.

   First the good stuff: the book offers a large number of well-reproduced covers from a wide variety of pulps. The images are photographs (two are out of focus slightly), and so do not have the problems seen in several similar recent books which had electronically-scanned covers displaying a color palette nothing whatsoever like the actual covers.

   Now for the bad part. The text is mainly just a description of particular magazines which happen to be in the author's personal collection. Where the text departs from what is really just a catalog of the collection, to provide background on publishers, specific titles and authors, the material is so riddled with errors as to be of very limited use and reliability. So much of the text is clueless, every reader will have his favorite (and different) gaffe. Mine is the reference (p. 203) to "famous American space artist Chester Bonestall." He's apparently not as famous as I thought!

   To summarize the contents: Chapter 1 provides a confused account of the origins and types of pulp magazines. Chapter 2 is devoted to the very-soft-porn pulps usually sold from under the tobacco shop counter. Chapter 3 deals with detective, crime and gangster pulps. Chapter 4 covers the "spicy" pulps and their imitators. Chapter 5 introduces the weird fantasy pulps, of which the best and best known were WEIRD and UNKNOWN. Chapter 6 surveys the "shudder" pulps which featured heavy doses of sadism and torture. Chapter 7 fairly casually dips into the huge sea of science-fiction pulps. Finally, chapter 8 shows us a little bit of the little-known world of British pulps and pulp publishing. (About half the space actually is devoted to paperbacks rather than pulps.) Notable complete omissions from the book are the most popular pulp genre, westerns (perhaps half of all pulp titles at peak), and the justice-figure pulps such as THE SHADOW, DOC SAVAGE and the SPIDER, which are the best remembered pulps today. Also largely ignored are the general fiction titles, such as BLUE BOOK, ARGOSY and ADVENTURE. With such omissions, the present book cannot be considered very valuable even as a pictoral survey of the pulp era.

   Buy it for the cover reproductions and you won't be too disappointed. But if you try to read the text, you're in for dismay and frustration.




5. Obviously the politically incorrect covers are the first attraction. You can't ignore the cultural significance of the covers and thus, if you are a teacher of semiotics or visual interpretation, I can't think of a richer source. Congrats to the publishers for printing such a glorious book. For those more interested in what's between the covers, Haining gives insightful critical analysis of the different genres. A great gift for anyone; a wonderful coffee table book for yourself. It's worth every penny.

5 comments about Tomart's Price Guide to Worldwide Star Wars Collectibles.

1. I found this guide to be very complete for older star wars collectables, but I was dissapointed that it did not have any more current star wars items such as the Saga or 30th Anniversary collectables. This is not a bad reflection on the book itself as the information in the book is very accurate. I would have still bough the book had I know it only had older items listed. An update with current values and items would be a great idea.



2. I bough this book recently and was surprised to find, not only are all the pictures tiny, THEY ARE BLACK AND WHITE! It is increadibly hard to read and does not cover "revenge of the Sith". I have a few other Sansweet books "the action figure archive", "the star wars poster book" and "star wars - from concept to screen collectibles". But, young jedi, save your money here and consider "Star Wars Super Collector's Wish Book: Identification & Values" by Geoffrey T Carlton. I find that book gets used alot more, is more up to date and easier to read. Hope this review was helpful (I think I was being generous with 3 stars, I havent opened this book since I got "super collectors wishbook")



3. The "Tomart Guide" is the only Star Wars price guide you'll ever need. It is comprehensive with just about every production Star Wars item known to exist in the world. Did you know that they made "Star Wars Dog Chow" in Australia in the early 1980's? How about a ceramic tape dispenser where you pull tape from between C-3P0's legs? Or a Boba Fett cake pan...there's no better way to honor the most notorious bounty hunter in the galaxy than a frosted cake with his likeness. From tacky to the timeless, it's all contained within the pages of the Tomart guide, with hundreds of photographs of many of the items listed in the book. No true Star Wars collecting geek should go without it. This is the only Star Wars price guide authorized by Lucasilm, and no other guide is as detailed and thorough as the Tomart guide.



4. This is it - the only book you will ever need to find what you have been looking for in the STAR WARS universe!

   "DO or DO NOT, there is no try." - YODA




5. Tomart's Price Guide to Worldwide Star Wars Collectibles is the most valuable book any Star Wars collector can own. Stephen Sansweet is the expert in the field of Star Wars collectibles and it definitely shows here. The layout is so easy to use and the book contains many photographs to aid you in your search for what each collectible is worth. This is the bible for Star Wars collectors!

1 comments about Oil Company Signs: A Collector's Guide.

1. although i bought this book elsewhere, it is very informative for those who remember that there was a standard oil in many states after its breakup in 1911. however,there are some flaws in the book's text-they used the spelling of "it's" incorrectly(example: "standard is the best in it's marketing area").