The stakes were high for comic book publishers in the 1940s when they were launching new titles. Ashcan comics were produced to establish copyright ownership for publishers to claim newly conceived titles without having to produce a complete comic book. Recently, we sat down with Gary Colabuono the CPG ashcan expert/advisor and discussed these ultra rare items and the amazing history behind them.

What is an ashcan?

In the 1930’s and 40’s, ashcans were created by comic-book publishers to secure the trademarks for titles they were planning to publish.  They would send the ashcan to the U.S. Patent and Trademark office for registration.

The production department would create the new logo, attach it (usually) to a random piece of artwork and then print the new cover.  The new cover was then (usually) hand-stapled to a coverless comic book.  Usually 3 or 4 ashcans were made.
So before there was an Action Comics # 1 on the newsstand – there was an Action Comics ashcan.
Before there was a Superman Comics # 1 on the newsstand – there was a Superman Comics ashcan.
They even made ashcans for titles that were never published!  DC never published Superwoman or Supergirl in the early 1940’s, but they wanted to protect those titles from competitors who may have been thinking about capitalizing on Superman’s popularity by publishing their own super-females.

What companies created these books?

DC and Fawcett produced the most ashcans during the Golden Age.  There are examples from Quality and a few other smaller publishers.  The titles range from the most important in history to some of the most obscure.  No Timely ashcans have ever surfaced.

How rare are ashcan comics? How many exist?

There is no exact count on the total number of ashcan titles in existence, but it’s fair to say that the number is in the 50-70 range.  Many ashcans are unique, and only a few titles are known to have more than 5 copies extant.  I’m not aware of any ashcan having double-digit copies.

How did you begin collecting these rarities?

In the fall of 1985 my friend, Joe Desris was interviewing Sol Harrison, the retired president of DC Comics for an article he was researching.  During the interview Sol asked Joe if he would sell some items for him that he had kept from his long years at DC.  Joe approached me at a Chicago Mini-con and asked if I was interested in looking at some very rare and very important old comics.  Seeing the Superman and Wonder Woman ashcans for the first time was almost a religious experience!  We agreed on a price and I took them home.

Did you ever discover any other ashcans besides the examples you purchased from the Sol Harrison?

I advertised for years in the annual Overstreet Comic Book Price Guide that I was buying original, authentic Golden Age ashcans.  During the late 80s and early 90s I was fortunate to find ashcans of Cyclone Comics, OK Comics and Champ Comics.  All were purchased from the relatives of the original publisher.  I also found the All-American Men of War and Star-Spangled War Stories at Sparkle City’s booth at the 1988 San Diego Comic Con.  That was cool!

What’s the record price paid for an ashcan comic?

One of the three Superman Comics ashcans, the highest graded at 9.0, sold for $90,000 in 2007.  It had previously sold for $37,000 in 2005.  This is just the beginning for this book.  If this book were to hit the market today with all the action (pun intended) that the Action 1’s are causing, it wouldn’t surprise me if the book sold for $150,000-200,000.  If you think about it, it’s the first edition of Superman.  Literally the first edition.  The other title with huge upside potential is the Action Comics ashcan.  I don’t think I need to explain why…

What’s the background regarding modern comic ashcans and how did they come about?

Well, it’s my fault that the hobby was inundated with hundreds of these small promotional booklets during the early 90s.  I was friends with the Image Comics creators and when they heard about my ashcan collection, being the great marketers they are, they latched on to the concept the modern-day ashcan was born. 

Radio talks directly to you. Your mind fills in the blanks with what you can't see, allowing you to actively participate, to indulge your imagination. That is the main reason that radio has never disappeared. It may have moved off earth and into space with satellites, or over to the internet, but at its core, radio allows you to participate in a way that no other medium can ever do. The modern equivalent is the massive success of books on tape. Only radio offers the listener so much more.

In a recent interview Tom Brown, CEO of Radio Archives told CPG what radio means to him.

"From the fast talking DJs that I heard in my younger days to the radio dramas and adventure shows that we deal with every day here at work, radio never lets me down. Radio makes me feel a part of the action in a way that movies, TV and video games never really do."

He mentions the company's recent live adaptations of pulp stories of The Spider as a prime example. "As you listen to these audio books there is something about the urgency in the actor's voice, the slight turn of a phrase that you wouldn't have thought of if you were reading the story. There are the sound effects and the music that surrounds everything that really brings me into the story. The action just doesn't let up. Not having the visuals allows your mind to work on another level. You fill in the blanks on your own. Radio makes you part of the action like nothing else."

It is exactly for these reasons that radio has never faded away. The excitement of the radio is grabbing new listeners every day. In fact, the newest form of electronic mass communication, the internet, is helping to fuel a resurgence of interest in one of the oldest forms of electronic mass communication, the radio.

"When I ask new customers how they found us they will often tell me that they heard an old radio show on another site, maybe just a three minute clip, and they just had to hear more," says Brown. "What amazes me is when I take a phone order from someone new and I find out that they are just seventeen. You’d figure that someone that young is only going to be into video games or DVDs, but they tell me they found a program like Space Patrol on a fan site and just had to hear more."

Brown started Radio Archives over eleven years ago in order to bring the programs he loved to fans everywhere. After a career in business finance he found himself able to retire early. Unsure what to do with his newly found free time, he realized there were two things that he loved more than almost anything else, radio and high quality audio. He had been a hobbyist in both for years. Today the company is specializing in restorations of old time radio, pulp fiction and a new Will Murray's Pulp Classic Line of audio books.

"When I was younger, during the late fifties and early sixties, I worked at a TV station. Everyone else was standing around watching the action, but I was up in the sound booth. I loved the sound, high quality audio. Not seeing the action in front of the cameras didn’t bother me one bit."

Once formed, the priority of Radio Archives was to bring the best of old time radio to the fan in as high a quality format as possible. Brown tells CPG what they had to do in order to achieve their goal.

"First we seek out the network master recordings on 16" transcription disks. After cleaning and transferring the disks, we process the radio shows using the highest quality $40,000 CEDAR hardware to remove clicks, crackle and scratches. Then we manually we go through every second of the radio show and repair all defects. This takes 8 hours for every 1 hour CD and that is after we have found the master source recordings and processed it with CEDAR hardware.

He continues. "If you get a show from Radio Archives, we have cleaned it up and done everything possible to present the original work in the best light possible."

Collectors responded to the quality of Radio Archives releases and as time has gone on the company have been able to expand into brand new productions which they are calling audio books. "The first two featured Doc Savage. Our newest one, the third in the series is The Spider. The character was the third most popular pulp hero in print. He fell right behind Doc Savage and The Shadow. But unlike The Shadow, and to a lesser extent, The Spider hadn't really ever found a home on radio before."

The decision to adapt The Spider followed the success that Radio Archives was having selling the modern adaptations of Doc Savage. In the mid-eighties Producer-director Roger Rittner of the LA-based Variety Arts Radio Theatre, working with NPR, had brought Doc Savage to the airwaves. These shows proved to be one of the consistently best selling titles that Radio Archives has in its vast catalog.

"The Doc Savage series was done beautifully. When we got the license for The Spider, we knew we had a lot to measure up to. We contacted Roger Rittner to come in and work on them and he jumped at the chance. We knew that we had something special."

"Spider stories were often over the top. Rittner has really translated that energy into the new books. There are lots of sound effects. It is amazing to hear. Acting as narrator and primary actor, Nick Santa Maria gives a performance that is perfectly suited to the fast paced audio adventures. Working with Nick is Robin Riker. She played Pat Savage in the Adventures of Doc Savage adventures for NPR. Our customers site Pat as their favorite actress in the new audio books."

The success of their first Spider offering bodes well for new releases. "In addition to releasing the new audio books of the original Doc Savage audio books by Will Murray, we are planning on doing three or four of the Spider books every year. These are considered the enhanced books. There is so much in the way of music and sound effects. We are going to continue to do these books until we are through all 118 original stories."

The success of the new Will Murray Audio Books is only building on the other shows available through Radio Archives. They have a massive catalog of older radio shows available through their site.

"Old time radio has always had 12 categories of programs. These include comedy, detectives, adventure etc. Of the twelve categories detectives has always been the most popular. But we also have really strong sales in comedy, drama, horror and especially science fiction."

"With the arrival of the new audio books we decided to add a thirteenth category to our listings: Pulp Radio. These are fast paced adventure stories with heroes who are strong-minded and larger than life. Sometimes the categories can cross, such as detectives or science fiction. But the idea of pulp characters needed their own identifying header to help customers navigate through our listings."

Given the excitement over the action orientated series Brown is quick to remind us that other categories are doing well. "Our best selling comedy is Fibber McGee and Molly. We recently have found five hundred shows that may not have been heard before. We have been releasing these over the last few years."

Brown has a special respect for some of the more obscure shows. "Calling All Cars from the thirties is a great one. It is a bit similar to the old Broderick Crawford TV show from the fifties, Highway Patrol. It is almost the template for all the police procedural shows that have ever followed, including the CSI and Law & Order shows that are currently on TV. Calling All Cars came from William M. Robson, who was the award winning producer of Suspense and lot of other high quality shows that came later. This is the show where he broke into the business and you can see how what made him a great producer was there from the start."

In science fiction Brown mentions a real oddity. "Planet Man is not well known but it is so over the top that I can't believe it. The sound effects are pretty darn good for that one. The entire production, by any standards, is just a bucket of fun. In horror the I believe that Weird Circle is very over looked by even the best of fans. A lot of them are public domain stories by Poe and the dramatizations, music and sound effects are among the best I have ever heard."

There is one show that really stands out for Brown. "From the streets of Cairo I like the show Rocky Jordon. Jack Moyles, the star was very much like the Bogart in Casablanca and I have to say that the entire series is highly influenced by the film Casablanca. The show tells the stories of a mystery detective in North Africa during the thirties and forties."

In addition to the audio books and classic radio shows, Radio Archives also showcases printed pulp fiction. From The Shadow to The Spider and over to Doc Savage, they have a good number of hard to find titles available.

Joining the older books, Radio Archives is about to announce that they are moving into publishing original works as well. As we were coming to the end of our interview with Mr. Brown, he told CPG that, "In the next few days we are getting ready to announce that we are opening a Pulp Bookstore. In fact, we are planning on moving into printing originals very soon." Information about that bookstore should be up at Radio Archives by the time we post this interview.

If you have never heard how much a good radio show can grab and entertain a listener or fan, please visit Radio Archives. They have a lot of samples and each and every one of their descriptions is incredibly detailed. For complete information on everything they offer, you can find them at www.radioarchives.com.

Rich Osman of InvestComicsTV talks with Jaymes Reed, comic letterer and founder of digital-caps.com about his career in comics.

Rich: Hi, this Rich Osman for InvestComicsTV, here today with Jaymes Reed of digital-caps.com. Tell us about Digital Caps, Jaymes.

Jaymes: Well, it was sort of a website I started out of necessity because I spent years trying to get into the business as a writer and it wasn't working out. I've got my own stack of rejection letters... so, I had my own characters—like most people starting out did—and I started writing them and I got some artists to work on them. But then, I got down to the lettering part and I couldn't find anyone the was good, that was cheap, and that was willing to join the project like most of the other guys had done...

Check out the video below to hear the rest of this interview.