MORE FUN COMICS #27 * Christmas Cover

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Author:
Title: MORE FUN COMICS No. 27
Place Published:
Publisher:DC [Indicia: Nicholson Publishing Co. Inc.]
Date Published: December, 1937
Description: CGC certified: Good+ (2.5): Restored (C-2). Grader's notes: "Chews left bottom of back cover; tape interior cover; cover reinforced; heavy staining to cover; light tears to cover; moderate creasing to cover; pieces added right top & right center back cover C-2; small amount of color touch on left center front cover; tear seals front cover C-1." Light tan to tan pages. Provenance: The DC UNIVERSE COLLECTION.

GPAnalysis: No reported sales in this grade. Only one reported Restored sale: the Edgar Church copy, (9.0, SP) which sold for $2600 in 2014. An unrestored 2.0 sold for $227 in 2018.

Overstreet: "Xmas cover." CGC Census: 13 graded copies (10 Universal, 3 Restored). Gerber Photo-Journal Guide Scarcity Index: 7 ("Scarce: 21-50 copies").

Credits: Cover: Vin Sullivan. Scripts: Jerry Siegel, Russell Cole, Vin Sullivan, Creig Flessel, Tom Hickey, Malcolm Wheeler-Nicholson, Sven Elven, Whitney Ellsworth, Gill Fox. Art: Bill Ely, Joe Shuster, Russell Cole, Vin Sullivan, Creig Flessel, Tom Hickey, Raymond Perry, Leo O'Mealia, Sven Elven, Whitney Ellsworth, Gill Fox, Homer Fleming.Naughty or Nice? St. Nick runs afoul of modern technology when his car, subbing for his traditional sleigh, gets a flat tire on Christmas Eve. This mag hit the stands shortly before Major Malcolm Wheeler-Nicholson was squeezed out of the company he created by his shady business partners Harry Donenfeld and Jack Liebowitz, both of whose names must surely have topped Santa's "naughty" list that year.

"In early 1938, Harry Donenfeld sent [the Major] and his wife on a cruise to Cuba to 'work up new ideas'. When they came home, the Major found the lock to his office door changed. In his absence, Harry had sued him for nonpayment and pushed Detective Comics, Inc. into bankruptcy court. There a judge named Abe Mennen, one of Harry's old Tammany buddies, had been appointed interim president of the firm and arranged a quick sale of its assets to Independent News. Harry gave the Major a percentage of More Fun Comics as a shut-up token and wished him well." — G. Jones, Men of Tomorrow: Geeks, Gangsters and the Birth of the Comic Book. Basic Books: 2004, p. 125.****************************************
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.

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