Rediscovering Doc Savage as an adult

[Mr C]

Many years ago, I had sold all my Bantam paperbacks mostly to people
on this list, because I just never got around to reading them all. I
only had about %60 of the Bantams, and never bought any of the doubles
nor Omnis.

After re-reading an original copy of Farmer's :"Doc Savage His
Apocalyptic Life" this week that I've had in my collection since late
grade school/early high school, I thought I would start re-reading the
stories again.

Today, I bought 11 Bantams at a used book store. I paid $4.50 each for
these, and think I had sold mine for $1-$2
or so :(

I was just looking through the covers and noticed that Bantam renamed
"Ost" to "The Magic Island"
What was the reason for this? Did they think the name was boring and
"The Magic Island" would sell more?

I even had an original Bama poster of The Man Of Bronze, had it
shipped to someone form this newsgroup, but the post office or UPS
lost the darn mailing tube.

For the life of me, I can't remember how I got into Doc Savage, but I
remember the cover from "The Monsters" at a library near my house..
The image of that giant hand holding a man (I didn't know who Doc was
at the time) scared the heck out of me when I was a kid, and stayed
with me forever.
I have one of the Grafitti Designs print from "The Monsters" framed,
but with no place to hang it.

I was also a big fan of Marvel Comics, after (somehow) starting to buy
the Bantams I bought all the Marvel DS comics & B&Ws. I wish how I
could remember my first reading of DS, but I can't ;-))


Looking forward to re-reading stores from my youth, and hearing about
yours.

Thanks

Tony

[Dave]

Welcome to it; thisis what we all do.

I actually can't remember the last time I saw a Bantam paperback in a
used bookstore. Most used bookstore owners learner fairly early on
that they were a premium item and started siphoning them off their
shelves and onto e-Bay.

Dave

[mikey]

Long ago, I discovered Doc savage paperbacks at a local used book
store. They had many volumes on the shelves and I was intrigued by the
covers and fantastic storyline blurbs and the fact that they were
short novels. My intuition told me to buy them all and I did. As I
remember, they cost me about 30 cents each. After many years, I now I
have the entire Bantam collection.

[Marcus Tee]

Sounds like we all lived the same lives, Doc Savage-wise.

I have been curious as to which of the Savage stories is the most
popular. What is YOUR favorite Doc Savage story?

Take the poll. 2 clicks of your mouse and you're home free. I'll
publish the results as soon as I have collected enough data.

http://www.litb.com/DS

Marcus Tee

[mikey]

No favorite here. I like many of them for many different reasons.

[Dave]

I started reading the DOC paperbacks when THE TERROR IN THE NAVY came
out. I'd seen them on the paperback rack in the scienc fiction
section of the card sho[ for years, but that was the first one I
bought. I bought them originally in reverse order, since the older
paperbacks were only 45 cents, and the price for the newer ones was 50
cents. I had most of them up into #60s, and left them behind for my
Mom to sell at her yardsale when Dad retired and they moved (except
for BRAND OF THE WEREWOLF, which I still had). Read DOC over the
years, but didn't save the books. Bought the final DOC omnibus wjem
ot came out and hung onto it.

In the mid-90's I started to reaquire DOCs at yardsales and
fleamarkets, sometimes on-line. , along with printing out stuff that
was illegally on-line. I love the tollin editions. $14.95 for two or
three DOCs is a super deal -- face it, nowadays a new paperback can
run $10 -- you may not even finish it before you toss it, but a Tollin
DOC will be on your shelves for your grandkids to figure out what to
do with when you die.

Dave

[Anim8rFSK]

In article

Post by Dave
Welcome to it; thisis what we all do.
I actually can't remember the last time I saw a Bantam paperback in a
used bookstore. Most used bookstore owners learner fairly early on
that they were a premium item and started siphoning them off their
shelves and onto e-Bay.
Dave

It was ... at least 5 years ago that the used bookstore by my office
suddenly decided their Docs were valuable and added a zero to the price.
Suddenly those bad boys I could impulse buy for a buck and not even care
if I'd read it before were $10, and the doubles were $15 to $25 and put
in a glass case and ... the dream was over.

[T Guy]

Post by Mr C
Many years ago, I had sold all my Bantam paperbacks mostly to people
on this list, because I just never got around to reading them all. I
only had about %60 of the Bantams, and never bought any of the doubles
nor Omnis.
After re-reading an original copy of Farmer's :"Doc Savage His
Apocalyptic Life" this week that I've had in my collection since late
grade school/early high school, I thought I would start re-reading the
stories again.
Today, I bought 11 Bantams at a used book store. I paid $4.50 each for
these, and think I had sold mine for $1-$2
or so :(

Welcome back to the fold!

I never got rid of my Bantams (or most of the other Cool Stuff I have
acquired over the years), but did spend a Wasted Decade or two not
reading any Doc.

Post by Mr C
I was just looking through the covers and noticed that Bantam renamed
"Ost" to "The Magic Island"
What was the reason for this? Did they think the name was boring and
"The Magic Island" would sell more?

They probably reasoned that 'Ost' meant nothing. They were wrong. I
bought a copy (via ebaY) of the renamed Bantam solely to find out
what the word 'Ost' meant. Lester Dent did not let me down.

Post by Mr C
I was also a big fan of Marvel Comics, after (somehow) starting to buy
the Bantams I bought all the Marvel DS comics & B&Ws. I wish how I
could remember my first reading of DS, but I can't ;-))

I knew that Marvel had done a Doc comic, but had not seen a copy, so
latched on to the first paperback I found, which might have been the
three published over here (U. K.) at the time the film came out.

Post by Mr C
Looking forward to re-reading stores from my youth, and hearing about
yours.
Thanks
Tony

As I said, welcome back.