DETECTIVE COMICS #25 * CGC 7.0 * The Major Outmanuevered

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Author:
Title: DETECTIVE COMICS No. 25
Place Published:
Publisher:DC [Indicia: Detective Comics, Inc.]
Date Published: March, 1939
Description: CGC certified: F/VF (7.0): Restored (B-4). Grader's notes: "Crease right bottom of front cover; cleaned; color touch on spine; color touch on top & right center front cover; pieces added 1st & 2nd wrap & spine A-4; pieces added top & right top front cover A-4; spine & centerfold reinforced." Off-white pages. Provenance: The DC UNIVERSE COLLECTION.

GPAnalysis: No reported sales in this grade. A Restored 8.0 (MP) sold for $1000 in 2012; a Restored 6.5 (SP) sold for $2677 in 2012. For comparison purposes, a Universal 7.0 sold for $3200 in 2011; more recently, a Universal 4.0 sold for $3444 in 3/23.

CGC Census: 19 graded copies (16 Universal, 3 Restored). There are only 3 higher-graded Universal copies (two 9.0s and one 7.0), and one higher-graded Restored copy (8.0). Gerber Photo-Journal Guide Scarcity Index: 6 ("Uncommon: 50-200 copies").

Credits: Cover: Fred Guardineer. Scripts: Gardner Fox, Bill Ely (credited as Will Ely), Homer Fleming (credited as H. Fleming), Jerry Siegel, Bob Kane, Leo O'Mealia, Sax Rohmer, Garnder Fox (credited as Paul Dean), Jim Chambers?, Tom Hickey? Art: Fred Guardineer, Bill Ely (credited as Will Ely), Homer Fleming (credited as H. Fleming), Wayne Boring (credited as Joe Shuster), Bob Kane, Leo O'Mealia, Jim Chambers, Tom Hickey, Sven Elven, Joe Shuster. The Major Outmaneuvered: "The Major fought for his company in the early months of 1938, but with one lone young lawyer he was no match for the sophisticated maneuvers that had been put in place by a phalanx of lawyers and accountants on behalf of Donenfeld and Liebowitz.... There were rumors that the books had been cooked, with the possibility of overprinting and then charging the Major. It's a complicated story that is still to be told....

"After this huge disappointment, the Major, according to family stories, was in a state for several weeks, in great despair and drinking much more than his nightly martini. But like the good soldier he was, he pulled himself together and went on with his life. He didn't fade away, as Ron Goulart has assumed, he just wasn't involved in comics anymore. There really was no avenue for him to do that since Donenfeld and Liebowitz had taken everything, including the people who worked for him....

"Although Donenfeld and Liebowitz were able to establish Superman as an icon and as a result to make a great deal of money, its creators, Siegel and Shuster, and other creatives in the comics usually did not fare well. In contrast, the Major, with his romantic ideals of how things ought to be, saw the creators as having ownership. Sheldon Mayer once complained about the Major's contracts as being, 'If I make money, you make money.' Not such a bad deal when you think of what happened." — Nicky Wheeler-Nicholson, DC Comics Before Superman: Major Malcolm Wheeler-Nicholson's Pulp Comics. Hermes Press, 2018, pp. 246-247.****************************************
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