{"id":1112,"date":"2008-12-18T22:57:33","date_gmt":"2008-12-19T06:57:33","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.oeconomist.com\/blogs\/daniel\/?p=1112"},"modified":"2009-09-21T18:51:14","modified_gmt":"2009-09-22T02:51:14","slug":"lost-worlds-and-caspar-milquetoast","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.oeconomist.com\/blogs\/daniel\/?p=1112","title":{"rendered":"Lost Worlds, and Caspar Milquetoast"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><a href=\"http:\/\/goldenagecomicbookstories.blogspot.com\/\">It<\/a>s name notwithstanding, <a href=\"http:\/\/goldenagecomicbookstories.blogspot.com\/\">Golden Age Comic Book Stories<\/a> has been about a lot more than comic books (of any age).  It has been simply <em>awash<\/em> in terrific illustration for pulp magazines and especially for <em>fantasy<\/em> work of the same genre.  I encourage my readers to set aside a little time for a visit <a href=\"http:\/\/goldenagecomicbookstories.blogspot.com\/\">there<\/a>.<\/p> <p>Meanwhile, over at <a href=\"http:\/\/hairygreeneyeball.blogspot.com\/\">Hairy Green Eyeball<\/a>, Mr Green posted <a href=\"http:\/\/hairygreeneyeball.blogspot.com\/2008\/12\/timid-soul.html\">some scans of the Timid Soul<\/a> from <cite>The Best of H.T. Webster<\/cite>.  I'd first encountered <a href=\"wp-content\/uploads\/2008\/12\/tim18.jpg\">Caspar Milquetoast<\/a>, the Timid Soul, back when, in high school, I discovered books on the history of the comic strip.  In what I saw, Mr Milquetoast was cleverly presented as the most <em>yielding<\/em> of men. (Though I don't enjoy the cases where he is confronted by a <em>genuine<\/em> bully.)<\/p> <p>I hadn't known or had forgot about <cite>The Best of H.T. Webster<\/cite>, first published in 1953 and reprinted at least twice.  I was prompted by <a href=\"http:\/\/hairygreeneyeball.blogspot.com\/2008\/12\/timid-soul.html\">Mr Green's entry<\/a> to look for a copy on <a href=\"http:\/\/used.addall.com\/\">AddAll.com<\/a>.  I found a first printing of the first edition, with the dust jacket in less-than-good condition, but the rest of the book in fine condition, at <a href=\"http:\/\/www.wongbooks.com\/\">Lorrin Wong Books<\/a> (his own site doesn't seem very functional, but he can be reached <a href=\"http:\/\/www.biblio.com\/bookstores\/Lorrin_Wong,_Bookseller.html\">by way of Biblio<\/a> and <a href=\"http:\/\/www.antiqbook.com\/boox\/won\/index.shtml\">at AntiqBook.com<\/a>) in Los Angeles for just $7 (plus $3.50 <abbr title=\"shipping and handling\" style=\"font-size: inherit ;\">s&amp;h<\/abbr>).  I ordered it early in the morning of 16 December, Mr Wong got it in the mails that same day, and it arrived on the next.<\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Its name notwithstanding, Golden Age Comic Book Stories has been about a lot more than comic books (of any age). It has been simply awash in terrific illustration for pulp magazines and especially for fantasy work of the same genre. I encourage my readers to set aside a little time for a visit there. Meanwhile, [&hellip;]","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_bbp_topic_count":0,"_bbp_reply_count":0,"_bbp_total_topic_count":0,"_bbp_total_reply_count":0,"_bbp_voice_count":0,"_bbp_anonymous_reply_count":0,"_bbp_topic_count_hidden":0,"_bbp_reply_count_hidden":0,"_bbp_forum_subforum_count":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[164,5,4],"tags":[51,304,251,481],"class_list":["post-1112","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-art","category-personal","category-public","tag-blogs","tag-books","tag-comic-strips","tag-illustration"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.oeconomist.com\/blogs\/daniel\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1112","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.oeconomist.com\/blogs\/daniel\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.oeconomist.com\/blogs\/daniel\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.oeconomist.com\/blogs\/daniel\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.oeconomist.com\/blogs\/daniel\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1112"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.oeconomist.com\/blogs\/daniel\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1112\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.oeconomist.com\/blogs\/daniel\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1112"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.oeconomist.com\/blogs\/daniel\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1112"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.oeconomist.com\/blogs\/daniel\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1112"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}