Heading: One of the Rarest EC-Related Publications
Author: Gaines, Maxwell Charles
Title: NARRATIVE ILLUSTRATION: The Story of Comics [No Number]
Place Published:
Publisher:M.C. Gaines
Date Published: Summer, 1942
Description: CGC certified: VG (4.0). Grader's notes: "Light creasing to cover; light spine stress lines to cover; moderate bends to cover; moderate staining to cover." Off-white to white pages. Provenance: The DC UNIVERSE COLLECTION.

GPAnalysis: No reported sales in this grade. A 4.5 sold for $1380 in 2006. Only three recorded sales in any grade.

Overstreet: "nn-16 pgs. text with illustrations of ancient arts, strips and comic covers; 4 pg. WWII War Bond promo, 'The Minute Man Answers the Call' color comic drawn by Shelly and a special 8-page color comic insert of 'The Story of Saul' (from Picture Stories from the Bible #10 or soon to appear in PS #10) or 'Noah and His Ask' or 'The Story of Ruth.' Insert has special title page indicating it was part of a Sunday newspaper supplement insert series that had already run in a New England 'Sunday Herald.' Another version exists with insert from Picture Stories from the Bible #7. VERY RARE. Note: Print: A Quarterly Journal of the Graphic Arts Vol. 3 No. 2 (88 pg., square bound) features the 1st printing of Narrative Illustration, The Story of Comics. A VG+ copy sold for $750 in 2005." CGC Census: 13 graded copies (12 Universal, 1 Qualified). Gerber's Photo-Journal Guide Scarcity Index: Not listed.

Credits: M.C. Gaines, Sheldon Moldoff, and Don Cameron.In "Narrative" Terms: We've devoted this catalogue to telling the story of DC's creator, Major Malcolm Wheeler-Nicholson, and the two guys who first propped him up and then stabbed him in the back, Harry Donenfeld and Jack Liebowitz. But there's one key figure in the early DC saga who we haven't heard much about yet — Maxwell Charles Gaines, founder of the All-American Comics line.

Kind of like the Major, Max Gaines partnered up with Donenfeld and Liebowitz and got played like a fiddle, finding himself ass-out while his ex-partners made millions. It's hard to feel sorry for Max, though, because he was such a domineering brute to his bumbling son, Bill, constantly telling him that he was a loser who'd never amount to anything (see Frank Jacobs' The Mad World of William M. Gaines for details).

Aside from his game-changing epiphany that kids might be willing to pay a dime for comic pamphlets (prior to Max's insight, the only comic books were giveaways), Max had pretty poor publishing instincts — he thought Siegel and Shuster's Superman was trash and turned it down flat, preferring to pave his way to the poorhouse with bottom-selling stuff like Fat and Slat and The Happy Houlihans. Three years after he got aced out of All-American, Max was killed in a boating accident while on vacation. After Max died, his bumbling son Bill took over the company and published a bunch of violent, lurid, scandalous funnybooks under Max's "EC" label, nearly bringing the entire comics industry down in flames.

As for the present lot, it's a rare offprint from Print: A Quarterly Journal of the Graphic Arts Vol. III, No. 2, comprising Max Gaines' seminal essay "Narrative Illustration: The Story of Comics." For the facts on this essay, see the previous lot. For the even rarer sequel to this obscurity, see the following lot.****************************************
The DC UNIVERSE COLLECTION comprises over 40,000 comic books, encompassing every single DC comic published for retail sale from 1934 to 2014. The collection was amassed by British music producer Ian Levine over the course of several decades, and it's been hailed as the single greatest collecting accomplishment in comic book history. This collection served as the basis for former DC Comics president Paul Levitz's monumental book 75 Years of DC Comics: The Art of Modern Mythmaking, published by Taschen in 2017. PBA is proud to present this epic collection in a series of themed sales, including The DC UNIVERSE COLLECTION Part 3: The GOLDEN AGE, coming this summer. To join the DC Universe Collection notifications list, contact pba@pbagalleries.com.

Enjoying PBA's DC Universe Collection: Pre-Hero, Ashcans and Oddities sale? A very small number of softcover and limited edition hardcover auction catalogues are available for purchase. The catalogues are fully illustrated, thoroughly researched, and make excellent reference works for DC diehards. To order a copy, or to inquire about consignment opportunities, contact Ivan Briggs, PBA's Director of Comics: ivan@pbagalleries.com.