 So, welcome to a little comic book reading session. For this video, what we're going to do is we're going to read a comic book from the 1940s. This book is called Jingle Jangle Comics, it's issue number 18, okay. And this thing is from the 1940s and it was printed by Eastern Color Printing Company. Now, Eastern Color Printing Company was in the business of, they printed comics and they were also printing house and they printed the majority of the comic books in the United States during that period, during the Golden Age and the early Silver Age. And for the 1950s, I know this number, I looked it up, just to give you an estimate of how many comic books were being printed during that period. In the 1950s, it's estimated that about 65 million comic books were being printed a month and that's huge compared to what's being printed right now. Some of the comic books, some of the well-known comic books, they were getting print runs of over a million or so and the comic books right now, they're considered to be doing extremely well if they get a print run of about 100,000 or so. So the print run of comic books has gone down a lot and there's a lot of Golden Age comic books out there and there are some serious key issues out there. But the main thing with comic books during that period is to find them in high quality because there's way more lower quality comics out there than lower grade comics out there than there are high grade comics. And this one is one of the comic books I just recently acquired. And I just bought a batch of these things because I've never read jingle-jangle comics before and I didn't really know anything about them and you can tell that this is actually from during World War II because it's got the National War Fund war bonds as advertised right in the front and that's one thing comic books were used for a lot during that period and that present is for propaganda, corporate or government propaganda and there's a lot of underground comic books that are on the flip side of the whole thing ok? So let's have a little read through this, I haven't read through this, I don't know what it is about, I don't know these characters and I don't know, we'll take a look and see what we find out right? So let's crack this thing open. And I usually when I get comic books I buy them, what I do is I bag and board them so I put brand new bags and boards on whatever comics I do end up buying. And just for anyone that's doing the bag and boarding, whenever you put tape on these things, get tape that comes off fairly easy and when you're taking it off put it on the side because you don't want the tape to snag the cover. And what we got here is number 18 jingle-jangle and the quality of this is just in good quality, it's a low grade comic, it's got stains on it, it's got some tears on it but the cover is good enough, it doesn't have any serious rips or tears on it and you can take a look and it looks pretty cool right? And whenever I pick these up, I open these up, usually if they're older comics I look at the fine print to see exactly what printing it is, when it was published and this thing was printed by Jingle-Jangle Comics and it's number 18 and it was December 1945 published bi-monthly which means once every two months, once every two months and it's copyrighted, famous, funny, incorporated, they were based in New York and the yearly subscription to this is 60 cents which is basically six issues you get for 10 cents a pop and the mailing for this was, if you can see this, 15 cents for mailing at six times a year which includes packaging and the mailing costs which is crazy, the total would have come out to for one year subscription was 75 cents, consider that to comic books now in 2014 the average comic book sells anywhere between three to five dollars and that's just if you go to a comic book store and buy it straight from there, as far as collectability goes, for me this is collectible, I like this stuff, I collected it, I didn't pay very much for it, a few bucks, in mint condition these things are worth, like if this thing, if you could find it in mint condition I'm pretty sure there are some that exist, this thing is worth well over a hundred dollars, a couple hundred bucks and it's you know in amazing shape, you know you can fetch a few hundred bucks for it which is pretty cool and just flipping through this it looks like this is basically a compilation of just different stories and different characters which is what a lot of comic books during that period were and what some comic books are right now, especially from the independent comic book publishers, when they're trying to introduce someone, when they're putting a few different artists together to print a few issues, so what we'll do is let's just flip through this and see what we got and what I usually end up doing is when I grab a comic like this I take the backing board because they are, these books are fragile, you know I don't want to, I don't want to put too much wear and tear on it more than what it is right, so what I do I usually put the backing boards behind them, that way the comic is not flipping, it's not going to put more stress on the spine and tear off the staples because you can see the top staples are at least the bottom staple is barely attached okay, so this thing anti-spray, don't know this character, don't know what the kids are and this is what is it, one two three four five six a seven page story which is pretty cool and then Peter Mouse presents, Peter Mouse was busy tying a piece of blue string around the ring of molding cheese, I guess it's a little story about Peter Mouse, how's the other one and a one page little story, Waldo, Waldo service deluxe, Waldo the head waiter says he wants to see I guess this is Waldo, no Waldo is the head waiter, no Waldo, this is Waldo, yeah, so this is Waldo, Waldo the head waiter wants to see you, Waldo Mr Diamond Rocks, Diamond Rocks is coming to lunch, give him the best service possible, the best, the very best Mr Diamond Block, Diamond Rocks, welcome, welcome, I'll have an order of bananas and cream the guy goes and gets the cow and the cart full of bananas, so I guess the cream is fresh and the bananas are definitely fresh and plentiful and what you see in comic books in general is you get a lot of names that are sort of descriptive to the character right, Diamond Rocks, the guy's rich in these you know diamonds and rocks right so it's just a one pager, not my pronounciation of names, it's not very good, Johnny and Jay, Trunse Trup, Trunse Trup, let's just flip through this quickly and then a lot of puzzles and stuff instead of advertisements they're puzzles, amusing little puzzles and one page stories and little intermissions as opposed to what a lot of comics are right now, there's a lot of advertisements in recent comics and this is a puzzle, a puzzling message, during a recent paper scrap drive in Pixie Town someone found this puzzling message, can you read it, all the words are stretched, take a look, all the words here are stretched and this way too I guess and there's a lot of paper drives during the war period, a lot of scrap metal paper and so a lot of comic books used to get recycled and destroyed which is really sad and then here's another little fun rainbow colored music with magic charts so here's another little fun little puzzle, not a puzzle but I guess a little game, Mary had a little lamb, let's check this out, so what does this say, here's a magic chart for you to trace then copy the color and put it in place on your piano where it becomes a guide, no notes, rests and sharps cannot hide, so notes, rests and sharps cannot hide and you may learn a tune to play in this delightful easy simple way, super cute, there's actually a patent number on here, check this out, patent number this, left hand magic, you cut this out and you put it on the piano and you play, the colors are coordinated with the colors here, you play Mary had a little lamb, cool, here are the notes with colored faces waiting to play it in turn, so put your fingers in their places and see how easy it is to learn and it's got the lyrics for Mary had a little lamb at the bottom of it, all rights reserved, all these copyright stuff, what's this one, jingle jangle tails, the honey-hearted hunter and the half-varnished duck, who's varnishing the duck, who wrote this, I don't know who wrote this right now, oh there it is by George Carlson, I'm not sure who George Carlson is, all the comic book historians might know and again it's torn a little bit, so as grading goes I would give this one at least three, and the grades go for comic books from I guess zero, poor, extremely poor, to 10, 10 is being absolutely mental, you don't find 10s, from this period you find a lot of fair, which is less than two and this one, this one's not that shape actually, if you look at it, right, pretty, pretty, this one is a longer tail, Jewel House Thieves by Stephanie Firstad, so another story, bingo and clumb, Santa Claus, Moon or something, interesting, and then you get to the end and you got one page for advertisement here, and the advertisements from that period are very interesting, scientific, and this thing's torn here, right, so this one's probably grade three or two for comic book goes anyway, grade two, good copy, and this advertisement, when I was a kid, I used to see this one, so it's incredible, from 1945 they used to run the same ad, I think the cartoon was a little different but it was the same routine, very skinny, weak guy, being bullied around by muscular guy, and it's a little advertisement of, you know, start exercising, I can make you a new man too, you know, only 15 minutes a day, so nothing changes, still lots of these advertisements around, not in this style, but you don't see these kinds of ads in comic books very much anymore, or haven't seen one for a long time, 1970s and 80s, you used to see these, I guess they're remnants of the 1940s, wow, so should we pick one of these stories and read, why not read the cover story, yeah, Jingle Jingle, what was her name? Her name was Antsy Sprye, so let's have a read through this, yeah, Antsy Sprye, with saw and hammer, nails and wood, Anty Sprye is mighty good, and as the derby day approaches, she hammers out the coach of coaches, tough kids took out her cart from us and left this clumsy blunder bus they did, cried Anty Sprye, I say, let's use our hands and save the day by Ben Levine, I've heard Ben Levine's name before, thanks for the wagon Anty, are you going to watch the race, I mean take a look at this one, take a look at this wagon, brand new, after building and greasing that cart, I should say, but hurry, you'll be late, it's almost time for the race, Binny, so the boy's name's Binny, oh those are the bad guys I think, bet we're gonna win too, hope Anty Sprye's on time, and then usually they have a little message, continue on the next page or the page after if there's advertisements, there's a whole bunch of advertisements for a whole bunch of goodies, so let's check this out, oh here are the bad boys, waiting around the corner, but trouble shows his ugly face, two bullies mean to win the race, look at the wagon, Anty built for those kids, we could use that cart, which, yeah, toughy, we will, come on, butch and toughy, so toughy walks up to them and goes, come on toughy, don't talk so much, look at the red wagon kids, now we won ours, Nick's Anty, I like that, come back here you two, that's Anty Sprye, they got our wagon Anty, okay kids get ready, oh their wagon got stolen and the tough guys have taken it, who's driving it, oh it's toughy, a trade, a trade is a trade, they got our and we got theirs, maybe so Anty, Anty decides to join the battle, teach the bullies a lesson, maybe I've got a few tricks up my sleeve, now if I can get back to the hill in time, she took a detour site, next page, she's placing the detour site, those tough kids will win in my wagon unless they turn, they'll turn off at this detour site, they're off, they're off kids, bang, made the best wagon win the war bond, oh this is where the war bond, that's where the war bond right, so there's a lot of propaganda and this stuff right, the war bond propaganda, we're sunk unless Anty Sprye thinks of something, number 13, what number is the red wagon, number two is the red wagon, boy look at us travel, little butch just relax, see how far ahead we are toughy, never mind, look out for that sign, she placed the sign right in the middle, don't bother, you couldn't read it now, Anty's a tough chick, look at her, she jumps on the wagon, moving wagon, neither can I, but I'm not letting go, wow, hey I can't steer this thing, no kidding you're in the air, that's gonna be a hard crash, I'm on the comic book world though, ouch my knee, can you direct us to the races office, tweet, my god they're about to go through the store, this younger gender and their jeeps is going through a department store, she's riding them, sorry madam, but this card is out of control, sale, 98 cents, I don't know what they're selling, gloves, they're selling gloves for 98 cents, I can't see what something tells me we're off the track, if you can't hold on madam, oh they picked up the little mannequin, that's what it was, that's what she's calling a madam, whoop, this roll's rough, look at this one, this store certainly has more departments, and we must have it, have hit them all, so they're just going through the department store, hardware department, oh anchor on their neck, a rope and anchor, this ought to match something, phew, a breath of fresh air, hey let me breathe, you got me, you got me stuffed, I guess toughies have an art time with anti-a, such a collection of useless things, all the stuff they picked up, I'm gonna try and get control of the steering wheel, got it, I'll head back to the race, so they're trying to get back to the race, look at the race, what'll I do with grandma butch, shove her off, question mark, asking butch what to do, I guess butch is calling the shots, now we need her wait for speed, we'll win this race yet, did I go through all this for nothing, oh oh, he's thinking about it, he's got the anchor, let's take a look at what she's gonna do, maybe I should tap them lightly on the head, but it won't look nice, oh okay so she's not gonna hit them, here we are toughie, watch us pass, gee bini, there they go with anti-spray too, so long, slow pokes, oh they went all the way to the front, I do declare, well the race is as good as one now, and she still has the anchor and she's gonna throw it on the moving truck, if this doesn't work I'm at the end of my rope, you can see the sound effect, screech, it's coming to a halt, bitsy and bini, the winners, numbers 13, anti-spray always knows what to do, we were robbed, these guys do look tough eh in this mode, and there is the war upon 25 dollars back then, cute, and who was this person, Ben Levine wrote this, we already read the one pager, that was cute eh, Dave Tentlar, Dave Tent, let's see what the caption says here yeah, an important visitor is coming to town and all the birds are twitter with plans for his welcome, that is, all the birds accept Humphrey Bohawk, he has plans of his own for the visit of the old eagle eye, I guess that's Humphrey, thank you, now as I was saying to this bright group of students, so this guy is Humphrey Bohawk, the birds accept Humphrey, I have to fix that, so he's done something, something to the flowers that they're about to give him right, he put some, what do you call it, hornest nest in there, ouch, and he put a rope across, that's trickery, so basically what's going on, so this, I guess a restocrat or someone high up in the social structure is coming for a visit to the school, and this guy doesn't like it, black, wears a red cap, a lot of imagery here right, a student comes along, the teacher says, I guess he's gonna give him flowers, good little bird ah, well I'll do something about that, and these are the flowers, maybe that's the mum, yes ma'am, no I guess it's the teacher, so he takes it and puts a hornest nest in it, when he's walking by, pulls the rope trips on, the flowers with the hornets, hornest nests inside fly up and smack the rest of the crowd in hand, look at all the bumps he's got on him, cry baby, he serves you right for being such a goodie-goody, so, oh, so his friend comes in comfort, so oh he's taking a present, so he gives him a better idea, and the little guy decides to take a present to the eagle eye, eagle eye, opens it up, and it's a brush, I guess he doesn't like the brush, make fun of me will you, get out before a trashy didn't like the brush, they go knock on the door again, open it up, they pour water on top of his head, this guy raps them both, so they're telling on him, telling him about who's been pulling the treks, yeah, as far I can see the only good little brood around here is Humphrey, free bullhawk, I have something for him, where is he, he says it out loud, and this guy's stupid enough to come by, here I am sir, did you call me, look at the little tripper, his head's poking out, laughing, oh they lynch him, oh my god, that's pretty harsh, and they smack him, they pour water on him, want to confess Mr. Humphrey, or should I tell the boys to repeat the treatment, no, stop, please stop, I did it, I confess, reminiscent of what's going on right now in politics, a little torture does the trick, that's not a happy story