Sun Fun Komiks #1 1939 Superman Parody? RARE Gerber 8

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This odd magazine/comic parody, Sun Fun Komiks #1, with a .15 cover price, was published by Sun Publications way back in 1939 as a way to poke a bit of fun at the then-new comic book craze. The editor's note at the bottom of the splash page states, "Juniper J. Jones' loss of reason is your gain, for this hilarious volume represents his unrestrained reactions to the new comic magazines." This sure seems to be the first attempt to parody comic books, and probably Superman himself, coming out the year after Superman made his debut in Action Comics #1. T are a few one-page gags referring to a "Supersam" and one even has a car upended that seems to allude to the cover of Action #1. T are countless one-page strips and gags poking fun at comic books. Seeing as this book was printed in black and white with a bit of red thrown in t is one page that states, "So you want colors? Color them yourself!" Much of the attempted humor revolves around Juniper J. Jones and Spineless Sam the Schlemiel. Sam's secret power comes from his morning bowl of Cornies - the Breakfast of Schlemiels. He then becomes Ultra-Hyper-Super Sam, who with his sidekick (the 1st?) "wonder-dog of ages, Beelzebub" keeps the streets, and world, safe from villains. Though Supersam can fly he opts to save one gal, tossed from a roof by the villain, Svengali, by using his "dynamic magnetic force which is more powerful than the pull of gravity..." T is also a one-page gag in which war planes drop copies of "Gus the Goon Comics" on some unnamed German town and a running Nazi as some form of WWII propaganda. It kinda looks like Gus the Goon beat the other Golden Age heroes to the punch in doing his thing against the evil Axis. One of the last "adverteasemant" is for Cornies and has caricatures of Hitler, a nose-holding Mussolini and Stalin. This oddball book seems to be one of the frontrunners in a few things that became more than common in the year to come. While some books are not as rare as some think according to the Gerber Scarcity Index I actually have to agree that this one truly deserves the 8 that Ernie Gerber gave it. In the years of searching this is only the second copy that I have seen come up for sale. It is also listed in Overstreet as being rare. This copy is tight and solid but does have its share of wear. The top of the spine is split 1 ½ " the bottom is split 3/16. T is also one page in which the outer edge is short by 1/4" at the most but this does not seem to be a tear but rather looks to be w the roll ran out of paper at the plant. The missing portion is shallow most of the length and in no way gets anyw near the artwork. In one panel some former owner pencilled in Beelzebub's ear and drew a design on his nose in soft pencil. The original owner also pencilled in his information on the subscription form on the back cover. Luckily he never sent it in, and saved his $1, because it sure seems that no other issues ever made it to print, let alone the next seven monthly issues touted on the form. Overall this book is a nice looking Good+. As always we start all our listings at .99, with no reserve, groundbreaking rarity will be the highlight of somebody else's collection soon. Neither this, nor any of my other offerings, have any type of restoration, manipulation or enhancement as insinuated by another eBay seller who contacted at least 2 of my bidders on a book this past week in an attempt to sell one of their own. I am a proud member of the Network of Disclosure (see link below) and if t has been any type of restoration, of any degree, to any of my books I will make it very clear in the listings. If you have any questions about this or any other book please feel free to contact me and I will get back to you ASAP. If any other sellers feel they know more about my books than I do or feel that I have been misleading in any way then please let me know so we can set the record straight. I stand firmly behind everything I sell and ensure that all buyers are more than happy with our transactions. Pleas... read more

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