5/8/08 - This maddeningly tantalizing photo from Robby Reed's brilliant Dial B For Blog site was pointed out to me by Treasury Friend Tommy of The Bat-Blog.

Circa 1978, right over DC President Sol Harrison's right shoulder is one of those beautiful, famed-in-song-and-story DC Comics Treasury Display Boxes, which I have only seen one other time, in a photo from an issue of The Amazing World of DC Comics (see below). (and if that wasn't cool enough, you can see the Superman and Batman paintings used as treasury covers hanging on the walls!)

When I interviewed Bob Rozakis last year, he told me those boxes were, in fact, shipped to stores, so I keep holding out hope of hopes that I'll find one someday. I feel like this site won't be complete until I do.

Until then, thanks Robby and Tommy!

12/01/07 - During my first ever Treasury Comics interview, with Mark Evanier, he mentioned that the site had "every one I know of up there except for Charles Biro's Tops", which of course intrigued me since I had never heard of this title!

Well, it took awhile, but we've finally been able to track down a little info on them, thanks to Steve Stiles' and Jim Amash's feature article on Charles Biro in Alter Ego #73. Not only do they show the covers to the two issues, but in an interview with Biro's three daughters, they mention that it was meant as a comic for adults, and was the size of Life magazine, the only description I've ever seen of them.

Since the magazine was a financial failure, not too many copies are around--I've never seen either issue come up for sale on ebay, ever--so all we have for now are the covers. But who knows? Maybe one day we'll get a chance to peek inside these giant-size beauties!

Follow-Up: I did some networking, and found a way to contact(indirectly) Biro's daughters to ask about maybe doing a piece here on the site about these elusive books. Unfortunately, the decision has been made to sell off the collection of their Dad's book in a series of online auctions in the New Year. While I'lll give it a shot, I'm pretty sure these books will go for thousands of dollars, well beyond my means right now.

Which is too bad, because Charles Biro was a man ahead of his time, and I would've loved to talk about that here. Instead, I'm betting those books will be bought by some collector/investor, stuck in Mylar, never to see the light of day again. *sigh*

11/06/07 - I recently started yet another blog, called Hey Kids! Comics, all about people's childhood memories of discovering, buying, or reading comics. It was an idea I had rattling around in my head for a while, and I'm really happy how much of a chord it seems to have struck--people have been submitting stories(some more than one) and the blog has gotten a higher-level of attention than I would've expected for one just starting up.

Anyway, people have started submitting photos, too, which leads me to this--this was originally sent to me by Neal Snow for Hey Kids!, but after seeing what book Young Neal is reading, I asked him if I could post it here, too, since its just too perfect not to. Troy said yes, so here we are!

And it got me thinking, that, if anyone else reading this has childhood photos of themselves(or others) enjoying a treasury/tabloid comic, then please email me at rob@treasurycomics.com. I'm hoping that I'll collect enough of them to open a permanent "Treasury Photo Gallery" here on the site, I think it'd be a nice addition.

Love the Spidey drapes, Neal!

10/06/06 - I continue to buy issues of DC's super-fun 70s fanzine, The Amazing World of DC Comics, initially just to have them. But I've seen that they provide lots of fun treasury-comics-related tidbits, so now I have even more justification (a-ha) for picking them up. Each issue usually has at least a cover shot, sometimes even a description of one of the books, but nothing as exciting as what I discovered in the recently-puchased AWODDC #2.

Seen at left is DC's official treasury comics display box. In the accompanying write-up, DC mentions that the books are "opening up all sorts of new markets for comics like variety stores, for instance. Not to mention some of the biggest chains of department and fast-food (?!) stores in he country. Look for our bi-monthly blockbusters in a new display box, too. It's designed to get our books the best spot in the store, too." Holy Moley! An honest-to-Rao treasury comics display box!! You can't tell from that write-up whether these boxes actually ever got released, but I am going to dearly, dearly hope they did, and that somehow one might surface on ebay sometime. That looks like the coolest thing I've ever seen, and would make the perfect addition to my ever-expanding treasury comics collection.

I...I can't say enough how much I already love this thing. Seriously.

Courtesy TreasuryFriend Nicholas Yutko (who runs Dreamscape Comics in Bethlehem, PA), this is an interesting piece of comics history. Obadiah Oldbuck was, well, let's let someone selling it on ebay explain: "Rare 1842--The Adventures of Obadiah Oldbuck, which is considered the very first comic book. The strip follows Oldbuck as he tries to marry and find true love, always getting into deep trouble and just when there is no hope in sight, he escapes. Very funny and excellent drawings."

OO was published as a separate 40-page supplement (you know, like those 16-page free inserts DC used to do to promote The New Teen Titans and All-Star Squadron) in a "Brother Jonathan" volume of poetry from 1843 and was published in, you guessed it, treasury/tabloid size. As you can see from the page at left, it was printed on just slightly worse paper than Charlton Comics. It was later reprinted in Italy (!) by Edizioni Napoli Comicon in 2003, also in the treasury format! The cover scan was graciously provided by Nicholas, as was the link to the ebay auction.

Someday I'd love to do some research on this book and write a longer, more informative article. Until then, we have this, all thanks to another devoted treasury comics fan. Thanks Nicholas!

9/03/06 - This little gut-kicker of a quote comes from Bruce Timm, in the first issue of TwoMorrows' new magazine Rough Stuff. So let me get this straight--there was almost a Bruce Timm Fantastic Four treasury comic?

My admiration for the work of Bruce Timm knows no bounds. His skill, talent, and energy are evident in every project he touches, and of course he was the main creative force behind the superb Batman, Superman, and Justice League cartoons. On top of that, when I got to ask him a question at a SDCC panel back in 2000, he was very gracious and funny with me. But, for the love of Rao, Bruce--find time for this project. Please.

And as I've repeated before, notice Bruce's comment about the book: "to make it really interesting..." Once again, Treasury-Size=Cooler Comic. 'Nuff said!