If it were me, I'd go with the three 'Best of' books...but it's entirely up to you.

I would go for the best-ofs too, and also the newspaper comics. The "Celebration of America's Favorite Teenagers" doesn't have a lot of stories, and the ones it does have are just scanned from comics. Same with Dan DeCarlo's Jetta, I think.

The Best-of collections aren't necessarily the very best of the artists involved, but they are taken from original art and colored to match the original comic colors in most cases, so the reproduction is very high quality. And the collection of newspaper comics is some great early work from Bob Montana.

Hi NoeticHatter,

I actially have all of these books. If I could only have $85 worth then this is what I would buy, and why:

The Newspaper Strips 46-48:
Not only does it give you a look at the characters when they are still developing, but you're provided with some great art and really funny writing. The strips were dailies and they're black and white, but to me it just helps you appreciate the fine work of Bob Montana more . Not to mention, many of the daily strips had storylines that would last 2-3 weeks.

Best of Harry Lucey:

Great art and stories wonderfully reproduced on glossy paper. The book is oversized, meaning that the comics published within are actually larger than they were when they were originally printed as floppies.

Best of Samm Schwartz:
Same as Harry Lucey!

Americana 50's:
IDW has repackaged of the Best of the 50s vol 1 and 2, originally published by Archie Comcs, into a nice hardcover compilation. It's a great book with stories and art from what I consider to be the Golden Age of Archie Comics. Amazing work by DeCarlo, Lucy, Schwartz and more!

There you go, a total of $79.

I really do like all of the books on your list, but:

Jetta, although by Dan DeCarlo, doesn't come close to the quality of his later work at Archie, and the stories are all scanned from old comic pages... a little ugly to look at.

Best of Stan Goldberg features the artist when he was on top of his game (way better than his recent work), but given the choice between him, Lucey and Schwartz he just doesn't have the same "oomph" factor.

Americana 40s features a lot of 1st appearances, but if you want 40s stuff the dailies are a lot stronger.

Celebration of is amazing, but as someone said it's not what you want if you want to read comics.

Hope this was helpful

I also have read all of these. Here's my slightly different take on the choice conundrum:

Newspaper 46-48. $26
I would rate this one first. Great Bob Montana strips that are impossible to find anywhere else.

Jetta. $15
I would rate this second, because if you want to read this series, this is by far the most cost effective way to do so. All three issues of this title are very scarce and typically cost in the $75-$150 each range when they show up on ebay.

Best of Harry L. $17
Best of Samm S. $17
I love both these artists and enjoyed both books. The downside for me is you can probably purchase reading copies of the originals for the same price as the collections. But, they're well worth the money otherwise.

Celebration of. $32
If you want stories, I'd go with the Best of books above. If you are interested in cover galleries, memorabilia, some interesting original art and some history, I think this is a great purchase.