COMIC DETAILS
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Comic Description:
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Atom 34 Universal
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Grade:
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9.8
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Page Quality:
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WHITE
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Pedigree:
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John G. Fantucchio
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Certification #:
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0345455021
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Owner:
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Mississippi Mudcats
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SET DETAILS
Owner's Description
Issue #34 features another Time Pool story. In "Little Man, You've had a Big Gang Day!" a group of crooks, named the Big Gang, invite a crooked magician and card trick specialist into their group as Big Deal. Their leader, mastermind Big Head introduces him to the other members: Big Ben (timing specialist), Big Wig (master of disguise wigs), Big Bertha (strong woman), Big Shot (marksman) and Big Cheese (who uses specially made cheeses with different properties.) He then shows them their stolen loot which also is part of their motif, including the worlds largest book, and worlds largest drum. Then let Big Shot in on their next heist: The theft of the world’s biggest emerald.
As it turns out, the emerald is one of the items being willed to the surviving members of a dead millionaire. As it would happen, the will is being read by Jean, with Ray in her company. With the emerald being willed to the late millionaires niece, they all marvel at its gigantic size. Before things can be finalized however, Big Cheese bursts into the room with a specially made cheese that is loaded with knock-out powder. Blowing it on everyone gathered, everyone is knocked out except for Ray, whom manages to activate his size change controls just in time to avoid getting a full dose of the powder.
Chasing after Big Cheese, Atom ends up in a pitched battle against the Big Gang on the front lawn of the estate. Although Atom's arrival disturbs Big Ben, who theorized Atom would not get involved until their second big heist, they manage to dispose of him when Big Bertha lobs a cannon ball at him knocking him into a nearby pond. When Atom does not surface, Big Brain assumes Atom is dead and he and his gang return to base to plot their next big crime to steal the worlds biggest stamp and the worlds biggest coin.
Atom tracks the Big Gang down to the location of their next heist, the home of a millionaire who owns the worlds largest stamp and coin. Atom once more tries to stop the group, but they succeed in escaping with the stolen loot when Big Wig tosses an exploding wig at the Atom. The crooks escape once more thinking they have killed Atom, however the Mighty Mite has cheated death once more by shrinking down to a subatomic world to avoid the explosion.
Tracking the crooks to Giant Caverns, just as they have stolen the world’s largest silver nugget, Atom once more clashes with the Big Gang. This time Atom manages to defeat the gang by using their own stolen loot against them. With the Big Gang defeated, Atom turns them over to the police.
High grade copies of this issue are very common with a whopping six 9.8s topping the census as of June 2020. Ours at least has WP and emanates from the John Fantucchio Collection. Fantucchio was a well-known artist in '60s fandom, drawing covers for RBCC and the Comic Buyers Guide (including the #1 cover), and even worked as an illustrator for the CIA from 1963 to 1988. During this time he amassed full runs of Marvel, DC, Gold Key, Charlton, ACG and Dell, among others, keeping them locked away and untouched, which resulted in uniformly high grades and near perfect cover inks. After his passing in 2016, the family auctioned the collection through Comiclink. Even though the books have no distinctive markings, many were CGC graded.
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