009 Yellow Dog Comics #13 (1969)

I didn't acquire this until early 2012, and not purposefully. It was shuffled into a collection of old National Lampoon magazines that I bought. It appears to be a first printing (there's no indication otherwise), and it's in good shape (possibly very good, for a comic from 1969). You can see the bend in the front cover, and the nick in the bottom right.

  

Interior Front Cover

Interior Back Cover

On the back cover, there's also a little fold what's slightly nicked in the top left corner, but otherwise the book is in good shape.  It features art by Robert Crumb, Rory Hayes, Victor Moscoso, Rick Griffin, and S. Clay Wilson (amongst others).

Asking prices are anywhere from $5 to $75 online,  but I'd be surprised if anyone paid more than $1 for this.

007 Empire Strikes Back Sketchbook (1980)

So, my mom, my godmother, and I were in Columbia Mall in 1980, and I saw this book. I asked my mom to buy it, but she refused. As we continued shopping, my godmother conspiratorially leaned into me, handing me $20: "Don't tell your mother. You go buy that book."

 

Published in 1980, this book contains lots of cool examples of design progression. As a budding artist, it was my invaluable first example of how ideas can change over time, and how your first rendering of a concept isn't always your best (and in some cases, what ends up as the final product isn't as cool as some of the preliminary ideas). For example, I prefer the helmet on this snow trooper. 

And this snow speeder looks like what eventually became the A-Wing fighter. I guess another example of how even an initially unused idea can be recycled into future creative efforts. The snow speeder that ended up on film was my favorite of all the ship designs in the Star Wars saga, but this is a close second.

Wait! I lied. The Slave I was my favorite...until I found out it didn't fly in the same way that it docked (I've rotated the picture to how I thought it would fly). Rumored(?) to be based upon the shape of a streetlamp, this was another great lesson in art: Inspiration for design may be found anywhere.

In decent shape for a well read 32 year old book.