steveinthecity

Kirby and Batman likely account for over a dozen “keys” from that era. GL another few. Without including Wonder Woman, war, romance, Bats or Kirby here’s a starter list: Omega Men 3 Firestorm 1 Shazam 1 All-Star 58 Jonah Hex 1 All Star Western 10 Lois Lane 106 DC Comics Presents 1 Joker 1 ? Superman 317(Adams cover) Tarzan 207 House Of Secrets 92

Ask a Mod to move this to the Grading and Restoration forum. You’ll get more eyes on it for sure.

A competent and experienced presser can do this safely. Keep in mind CGC will not give a yellow label to any unwitnessed sigs.

Thanks for quoting that. I earlier saw Cap 183 and thought wth?, I need to look this up, but didn’t have a chance to pursue it further. Now I know @Lazyboy was just having fun with us.

I get supply and demand. What defines “importance” in this context? Is Scooby-Do 1 important to the hobby? More or less than Star Wars 1?

I wasn’t really stepping out of the Bronze era, but yes, good call.

Trying to follow the OP’s criteria. Thought the list would be a fair jumping off point and be adjusted as we go along. X-Men 94 seemed redundant as a first appearance. Based on “importance to the hobby” implies consideration of value (to me anyways), so that list is easy. Top 25 BA Marvel at current fmv. Nothing really to discuss or haggle about.

I kind of ignore those for the purposes of most lists unless dependent on extant copies or market value. Here’s a list of titles (in no order) along with a few other characters that made 1st appearances for Marvel. I don’t think I included anyone that came after the first month or so of 1981. Folks can add/delete as they see fit. @piper can further define criteria. 1. Incredible Hulk 181 2. GSXM 1 3. X-Men 94? 4. Marvel Spotlight 5 - Ghost Rider 5. Marvel Premiere 15 - Iron Fist 6. Hero For Hire 1 7. Marvel Preview 4 8. TOD 10 9. TOD 1? 10. Special Marvel Edition 15 - Shang Chi 11. Nova 1 12. She Hulk 1 13. X-Men 130 -Dazzler 14. Marvel Spotlight 28 - Moon Knight 15. Iron Man 55 16. ASM 101 17. ASM 129 18. Conan 1 19. ASM 194 - Black Cat 20. Avengers 195 - Taskmaster 21. Marvel Spotlight 32 - Spider-Woman 22. Marvel Spotlight 2 - WWBN 23. Savage Tales 1 - Man-Thing 24. Marvel Feature 1 - Defenders? 25. Astonishing Tales 25 - Deathlok 26. DD 168 ? 27. Machine Man 19 - Jack O’Lantern? 28. Eternals 1 29. Captain America 117 Tigra, Shanna The She-Devil, Moondragon, Valkyrie, Killraven, Son Of Satan, Black Goliath, Captain Britain, Ms. Marvel, Howard The Duck, Machine Man...

I think one thing that might work against Star Wars(for some) is it not being any part of the larger Marvel Universe. Conan doesn’t seem affected the same way, even though he’s on his own outside of Red Sonja and What If?.

They’re not worth more because of some kid, they’re worth more because there’s two (or more) kids who think the covers are cool.

I was wondering about X-Men #130. Maybe if the character was freshened up to make her more relevant to the Modern era? ASM #101 would make my list as well. Is there a consensus as to the first appearance of The Defenders?

That was a quick list. Maybe we should stretch it out to top 25 BA Marvel with first appearances.

He provided me countless hours of entertainment and escapist reading for as far back as I can remember. I loved seeing his name on the page as I knew the story would be good.

Mark Roth.

Bindery tears? If the rest of the book is essentially flawless it can still grade out at 9.6 - 9.8.

@lotofsilver - These may be two of the threads you mention. I wasn’t able to find graded copies that had a “complimentary” stamp, but my best guess is if the stamp is on the smaller side, unobtrusive, without smudges or smears the stamp would be treated similar to initials or store stamps and wouldn’t be the cause of an immediate downgrade. I’d believe it would have to be taken on a case by case basis. Some stamps can be fairly yucky, other’s just neatly say “Shoney’s” or “Rex’s” in small font for example.

It was brought up quite some time ago on Voldy’s site, and reasons given were potential difficulty in determining originals vs. counterfeits, first or subsequent printings, and correct attribution to a creator or publisher. Maybe they just need someone on staff experienced with that segment of the hobby?

If the question is Conway or O’Neil, my initial reaction is to go with Gerry Conway. If we’re looking for a top 5-10 I’d like to toss Doug Moench into the conversation with ones already mentioned.

I’d like to know the percentage of collectors that actually use microchamber paper inside their unslabbed comics.

A personal favorite. Hardly underused, but maybe under appreciated.

For me, both under used and seemingly under appreciated would be Tony DeZuniga, although Jonah Hex fans are certainly familiar with him. Paul Gulacy and Jose Luis Garcia-Lopez would be two others that I never seemed to see enough of their work.

Interesting that you mention these, as I never even considered those Annuals to be “picture frame” covers even though the design is similar. The actual picture frames that draw the attention of collectors are Marvels cover dated Nov ‘71 through Dec ‘72. Beginning with the Nov ‘71 issues the price of the comics went from 15 to 20 cents and Marvel instituted a standard cover design to give their books a more uniform look to coincide with the price increase.

Are you able to address the concerns mentioned above, specifically sturdiness and weight compared to traditional backer boards?

I’d think it’s more a matter of the store being in a neighborhood where looting was occurring rather than a store being targeted because it carried comic, toys, tee’s, etc. If there’s a retail shop and goods aren’t nailed to the floor, then anything is ripe for the picking. Shame it’s happening nonetheless.

I thought the writers of those runs (Doug Moench and Archie Goodwin) stated the characters were entirely independent of one another. Shared a last name is all.