sfcityduck

Baker drew some great covers, which matters disproportionately on this site. But, Foster's art hit a standard that Baker never equalled, despite Baker's significant improvement over the course of his career.

I'm voting Barks over Kirby. Kirby's best work, by far, was in the SA. His GA style isn't as appealing to me as some other Timely and DC artists, and I think his romance work was average at best. In the 60s he hit a high peak. Barks, on the other hand, hit a high in the GA that really no other funny animal artist was able to do - draw funny animal stories that were as compelling or more compelling than any other work at that time. His style and storytelling was so next level that fans identified his works even though they were unsigned - which is completely remarkable. That Barks comics are so much more collectible than run of the mill funny animals, including Donald Duck comics of the same time, is a powerful testament to his importance. Plus, Barks' art is extraordinary. Having said all that, you're probably right that most here will probably vote Kirby based on his association with CA 1 - which does Barks an injustice.

O'Mealia's my favorite 1930s cover artist. Action 2 blew me away the first time I saw it for sale at my LCS in 1981. But, I've never seen this however! Great stuff. Totally agree and love to see something I've never seen before! Too rare is right.

Great idea! Because I like a rigged game, I'll volunteer for being one of the newspaper coaches. If it is based on artistic skill and talent, then it is almost unfair to the other teams when you can field a line-up of Hal Foster (Co-best illustrator of all time), Winsor McCay (Co-best and decades ahead of his time animator), Alex Raymond (his first style inspired the GA comic artists and his second inspired Adams etc.), Milt Caniff and Noel Sickles (pioneered the heavy black style that influenced Toth etc.), Bill Waterson (maybe the perfect comic strip), Charles Shulz (the modern comic strip that influenced all others), Al Williamson (the greatest modern adventure strip artist (Star Wars, X-9, etc.), and how about Will Eisner (Spirit was a newspaper strip)?. After all, the comic book artists all wished they were strip artists and idolized these guys.

This contest is making me realize that there are some pretty obvious categories of artists, and it might have made more sense to have bracketed artists by category. The four categories that make the most sense to me are: Primarily cover artists: Folks like LB Cole, Alex S, Flanagan, O’Mealia, etc. Storytellers: Barks, Krigstein, Kurtzman, Eisner, etc. Strip artists: Foster, Raymond, McCay, Sickles/Caniff, etc. Superhero artists: Shuster, Ray, Moldoff, Beck, Fine, Burgos, etc. Obviously, a lot of overlap and many other possible categories. I think it would be interesting to get a final four that pitted the best cover artist vs. best storyteller vs. best strip artist vs. superhero artist. But it would be most informative to know how folks voted for the finalists in each of those categories. For storytellers, how do you rank Barks, Eisner, Kurtzman and Krigstein (my final four for that category)?

Those two’s reputations rest on a very small body of covers as their interiors are not special. They have done covers that might win a 1930s best cover contest, but they are pretty close to one hit wonders compared to most guys on the list.

These brackets made me sad. Barks v. Kurtzman and Foster v. Toth? Those are four of the top ten (maybe 20 at most) comic book/strip artists of all time!

Looks to me like the comic strip artists suffered because they were not really comic book artists and this was billed as a being about comic BOOK artists. Because there is no way that Hal Foster does not make the top 10 of a list of greatest comic arists (comic books and comic strips).

You need an Australian collector.

Maybe pictures will help. I view these covers as cartoony (and almost rubber band style - an animation term) compared to many of his contemporaries: I think this is seen even more in his GA interiors. He did a lot of caricatures and his figures were very very flexible. But, don't get me wrong, I think Kirby was a great artist who could draw in a variety of styles. For me, he hit is apex in the late 50s to mid-60s.

For me, the first "Marvel Universe" cover is this one by Alex S.: Also, I view Jack Kirby's SA Marvel style as completely different than his GA style. I think his GA style was cartoony (almost rubber band style), really more of an imitation of Joe Simon than anything else. Whereas, the art of his SA style is much more substantial, realistic, and refined. I think it is a product of his working at DC in the 1950s (as seen in this obvious precursor to the FF):

For DC superheros, as Telerites already noted, so did Aquaman and Green Arrow and Speedy, and as he didn't note, so did Superboy. For superheros at other companies, Plastic Man also made it into the SA (Nov. 1956) for Quality, but was cancelled in connection with the DC's buyout of Quality. Plastic Man's non-superhero Quality stablemate Blackhawk made the transition from Quality to DC and continued on uninterrupted. Worth noting that Captain Marvel, Captain Marvel Jr., Mary Marvel, and the Marvel Family also continued in publication uninterrupted until 1953, when DC put them out of business. But for that, they would likely have continued on into the SA. In fact, there are a number of non-DC superheros that outlasted the Timely characters, including Harvey's Black Cat which had a sporadic run into the SA. If i were a Marvel zombie I would agree with you because he and Subby are the only GA Timely superheros to make a transition to the SA in their original form, and Subby is an also ran superhero often used as a villian. But, I'm not. I also think the impact of a character over the life of their publication is more important than the impact of the character during a period of movie hype. And CA has never been the most important Marvel superhero in the SA, BA, or CA. I don't think he is in the modern age, but I'm not qualified to make that determination. All I know is that modern age comics have less popular culture impact than GA, SA, BA, and CA comics, so I discount their import. I think you can make a strong argument that even Green Arrow is more important than CA. Not only did GA have an uninterrupted run since his creation, including time on a superhero team, but he also was a pillar of the DC SA - own title, JLA, Super Friends, cartoons, Arrowverse tv, etc. So I think your view of CA is a bit too inflated. Wonder Woman is a stronger character than CA over the life of her publication history. Continuous publication, DC SA pillar, JLA, Super Friends and other cartoons, classic TV series of the 70s, movies, etc. Agree that AS 8 would be a huger book if it had WW on the cover. But, even without, the CGC 9.4 AS 8 outperformed the CGC 9.4 CA 1 - and did so two years before the CA 1 hit market. For me, personally, there is a distinction between a hierarchy of characters and of covers, and I'm a bit confused which you are talking about here. CM was at one time in the GA the biggest superhero of all. He was in continuous publication much longer than CA, and was only stopped by the DC lawsuit. He was revived in the 70s, put on TV in the 70s, and is in movies now. Still, I agree that CA has the edge right now - because of the MCU strength. That may change now that CA is out of the MCU. The present comic market is not very significant to me. I don't know what your criteria for comic covers is. I haven't seen it on this site. But, I don't think the three covers you mention would make anyone's list if they weren't first appearances. I don't think many would argue those three covers are the best on their titles. So you appear to be conflating the quality of a cover with the historical import of the book. Which I think is a mistake. Wonder Woman's origin is one of the most well known. So well known, she's nicknamed the "Amazon Princess." In comics, it's been reprinted many many times. In fact, it was reprinted in the first issue of Ms. magazine at the start of the feminist movement. It also was re-told in the 70s Lynda Carter tv movie/series. And has been the subject of a major motion picture. So, I'm not in agreement here. Winter Soldier and 2010 comics are not my reference points. But, no way is Bucky the second greatest side kick. He was the second sidekick at Timely. He had no Marvel SA or BA presence - arguably less important a sidekick for CA than the Falcon. Far fewer comic and tv appearances than Speedy, who was a founding member of the Teen Titans and is part of the Arrowverse. Focusing just on the GA, Bucky is not even top 3. He never got his own book or series like Robin, Captain Marvel Jr., Mary Marvel, Marvel Family, and had fewer appearances for Timely than Toro. Heck, even Namora got more love from Timely than Bucky. Broadening the discussion to teen superheros, Superboy blows Bucky out of the water and all of the Teen Titans (some of which weren't really side kicks) also are of greater stature. And although this is off-topic, it is pretty clear to me to Hewey, Dewey and Louie may be more important sidekicks these days than Bucky or Robin (e.g. DuckTales), since neither really appears in the movies (Bucky in the MCU is not Bucky the sidekick). Two words: Red Raven. It just doesn't matter to me that CA first appeared in his own comic. I also don't give Flash kudos for debuting in Flash Comics (which was an anthology). It wasn't unique to Captain America and he wasn't the first (maybe Amazing Man?). Having said all that, it is completely personal choice and there are no wrong answers. I realize many folks love CA 1, so I'm in a minority in thinking it is very overrated.

But, the AS 8 is may not the best copy out there. They were same grade, with the AS 8 selling two years prior to the CA 1. I think the bloom is off the excessive CA hype now that Chris Evans and CA are no longer part of the MCU. Whereas we are on to another WW movie soon.

You should send the info to Rob React so he can update the timeline on his site (based on a lot of info I pulled from public sources). See here: https://itsalljustcomics.com/a-timeline-of-world-record-comic-book-sales/

All fair points. But, "it was ahead of its time" would not really float with folks at the time. CA 1 appeared well after WWII had launched, and it was obvious that the US would come in on the side of the allies. We were already in a shooting war in the North Atlantic. Other comics had cast Nazis as villains already.

For me the dollars don't really matter. So Action 7, 10 and 13 aren't nearly as high in my hierarchy as you put them. Pep 1, Pep 22 and Archie 1 outrank them. Detective 38 is probably the least appreciated GA book IMHO.

I can't argue with Tier 1 and 2 (although I put Superman above MC 1). But, CA 1 is a clear cut or two or three below Batman 1. IMHO, CA 1 is the most overrated book of the GA. CA is a second tier character who blazed no new trails in the GA or the SA. Even as a rip-off of a trend, he's no Captain Marvel in terms of his historical significance or popularity. His movie heyday has come and gone and he had a less successful movie/tv career overall than Wonder Woman. CA 1's historical significance is de minimis (not first anything other than CA), it's interiors were rushed, it's cover is not even close to a top 10 Timely cover, it is not rare, desirability is a tautological category on this type of list, FMV is not above AS 8, past impact is not as great as many other books, and projected future impact is not great now that CA is out of the Marvel Movie Universe. It is a favorite of dealers because it is sufficiently plentiful that they can keep on churning the sales. So I expect few here will agree with me. There are a lot of comics I'd rather have than CA 1. Patriotic super heroes are the least popular type of superheroes over the years, and CA was just another Shield rip-off like Uncle Sam, etc. S&K only handled the art for less than a year (and I'm not a huge S&K fan as I prefer many other GA artists), and the best covers were later in the series (and they weren't Alex S's best timely covers). Apologies to those who own and love this book, but it's not tier 3 on my list.

Which is just another way of saying that there is no price per point. Just a price per grade.

That's Lena the Hyena from Life Magazine.

Yep. California’s earliest identified cases were all community spread. It was here at least by December. The flu death rate was running twice average in December. Now they think it was not flu.

With all due respect, this post shows a major amount of ignorance about collector's of DA's generation. They aren't buying books to show them off. They are buying books, and then keeping them secret. It's an entirely different mentality that predates CGC by decades. These guys share their books, which they truly view as holy grails, only with folks who they personally know and value. In DA's case, we know that both Borock and Fischler have seen the book and graded it 9.2-9.4. If that's not good enough for you, then you are too wet behind the ears. If competition is your purpose in collecting, then all I can say is that DA has already won. Top Action 1, Detective 27, Superman 1, and many other key books. Plus, he's got the original batmobile, key original art, and who knows what else. Worth noting that Dave's kid is a highly respected comic dealer on eBay (Blissard) who is a joy to buy from. So, in all likelihood, Dave's collection may never see the light of day.

For me, you aren't under appreciated if IDW or someone else has done an "Artist's Edition" of your work. So guys like Golden, Mazzuchelli, Chaykin, Starlin, Kaluta, Mignola, Russell, Andru, Aragones, Simonson, Gibbons, etc. are not eligible in my book. But, these guys are (I think): Kojima Wildey Swan Truman Willingham Wagner I could go on, but I think you get the drift.

SF had cases before NYC, but also dived quickly into the lockdown - well before the state as a whole. And even before the city went into lockdown, many area employers had already told employees to work remotely. At my office, we had already closed for a day for a clean-up (an employee had been in contact with a positive result) before the lockdown. As a result, the curve in SF is much flatter than other parts of the country. It was very good leadership. Our health care system is not overloaded.

It rarely happens.