Brock

LOVE Tim Powers Both he and James Blaylock, the kind of original PKD descendants. Two of my favourite writers! With all the great cross-references in their books, I'm hoping they team up for one some day...

Medusa's Web by Tim Powers... Only a few chapters in, but it's pretty solid.

Now that those two guys have it, I don't think there's anybody else looking for it. Just kidding... IIRC, I only have #0, and I'm moderately interested in Captain Canuck. There are just too many things to chase out there. Even though I like Captain Canuck, it never seems to be top of the acquisition list. I suspect that most of the Captain Canuck market is somewhat like that... passive, rather than active interest.

They're a bit older, but maybe Men in Black, or The Crow?

Great photo, but it's the step ladder that makes it.

My suspicion is that it's easier than #2...

Great book! I've seen images of this before, but what the heck is it about? It looks like something designed to appeal to fans of The Timbertoes in Highlights magazine. I'm trying to figure out who would have purchased it, like most B/W indy comics from the 70s it was more expensive than full color stuff available on the newsstand, and wouldn't have had much of a distribution network. In 1976 you had the first wave of underground comix falling in sales, and the other B/W books available were mostly sci-fi/fantasy oriented, like Star-Reach and First Kingdom. Sim lives in Kitchener, Ontario, which is home to the (reputedly) largest Oktoberfest celebration outside of Europe. I've always been under the impression that it was a locally-produced anthology title that "borrowed" the Oktoberfest name for marketing purposes... I have a couple of copies, but I'm not sure exactly where they are... Maybe someone who's got one handy could see if there's any editorial content to confirm this? I have a copy. I'll pull it out in the morning. I just pulled my copy and there are no editorials. The only text other than the comic story lines themselves is the indicia which credits Harry Kremer as the publisher, The Beavers characters credited to Dave Sim and Cap'n Riverrat credited to Gene Day. It was printed by Moir Hayes Graphics and Fairway Press. The main story line is about how the character Natter P. Bombast finds a document and claims he is the sole "owner" of Oktoberfest and forbids all of Canada to celebrate. Uncle Hans then stows away on Bombast's plane when Bombast goes on a hunt for a co-owner by the name of Running Lake. They eventually locate a descendant of his, Richard Running Lake, unexpectedly and to Natter P. Bombast's chagrin, Oktoberfest can be celebrated once more. Harry Kremer owned a comic shop in Kitchener, and "The Beavers" ran as a daily strip in the Kitchener newspaper, so I think that makes it likely that this was a local one-off... And Sims used to work at that comic book store "Now and Then". I've just read that "Onkel Hans" is the official mascot of the Kitchener Oktoberfest Opening Ceremonies.

Great book! I've seen images of this before, but what the heck is it about? It looks like something designed to appeal to fans of The Timbertoes in Highlights magazine. I'm trying to figure out who would have purchased it, like most B/W indy comics from the 70s it was more expensive than full color stuff available on the newsstand, and wouldn't have had much of a distribution network. In 1976 you had the first wave of underground comix falling in sales, and the other B/W books available were mostly sci-fi/fantasy oriented, like Star-Reach and First Kingdom. Sim lives in Kitchener, Ontario, which is home to the (reputedly) largest Oktoberfest celebration outside of Europe. I've always been under the impression that it was a locally-produced anthology title that "borrowed" the Oktoberfest name for marketing purposes... I have a couple of copies, but I'm not sure exactly where they are... Maybe someone who's got one handy could see if there's any editorial content to confirm this? I have a copy. I'll pull it out in the morning. I just pulled my copy and there are no editorials. The only text other than the comic story lines themselves is the indicia which credits Harry Kremer as the publisher, The Beavers characters credited to Dave Sim and Cap'n Riverrat credited to Gene Day. It was printed by Moir Hayes Graphics and Fairway Press. The main story line is about how the character Natter P. Bombast finds a document and claims he is the sole "owner" of Oktoberfest and forbids all of Canada to celebrate. Uncle Hans then stows away on Bombast's plane when Bombast goes on a hunt for a co-owner by the name of Running Lake. They eventually locate a descendant of his, Richard Running Lake, unexpectedly and to Natter P. Bombast's chagrin, Oktoberfest can be celebrated once more. Harry Kremer owned a comic shop in Kitchener, and "The Beavers" ran as a daily strip in the Kitchener newspaper, so I think that makes it likely that this was a local one-off...

Each year, I'm putting the results of this discussion in my Market Report... I've used 1982 to 1992 as a timeline, but the dating will always be an endless debate.

Great book! I've seen images of this before, but what the heck is it about? It looks like something designed to appeal to fans of The Timbertoes in Highlights magazine. I'm trying to figure out who would have purchased it, like most B/W indy comics from the 70s it was more expensive than full color stuff available on the newsstand, and wouldn't have had much of a distribution network. In 1976 you had the first wave of underground comix falling in sales, and the other B/W books available were mostly sci-fi/fantasy oriented, like Star-Reach and First Kingdom. Sim lives in Kitchener, Ontario, which is home to the (reputedly) largest Oktoberfest celebration outside of Europe. I've always been under the impression that it was a locally-produced anthology title that "borrowed" the Oktoberfest name for marketing purposes... I have a couple of copies, but I'm not sure exactly where they are... Maybe someone who's got one handy could see if there's any editorial content to confirm this?

Damien Lewis' Ministry of Ungentlemenly Warfare... Riveting non-fiction, and soon to be a movie.

I just picked up a Detective #498 that has an Atari insert. In fact, the copy I found appears to have a double insert, like a double cover... Somehow, 2 copies of the insert we're bound into the centre of this single issue. It's not that Atari insert pictured above, but a different one. Can anybody suggest a site or info source other than this thread where I can find out more about these inserts?

My own sense is that DCCP #26 and New Teen Titans #1 are very "copper-y", and that the whole "copperization" process was not like a lightswitch going off overnight, but in last year's discussion we wanted some firmer timelines. Most of the books from 1982 on your list do get a shout out (of sorts) on last year's Top 50 list... I'm really interested, though, in what's changing... Are GI Joe or Transformers declining in importance? Are Suicide Squad or Black Adam or Captain Marvel or Warlock appearances on the rise?

+1 Valiantman - great data! There's actually a fair bit of correspondence between the 2 lists, which is interesting (reassuring?). But there's a few things... like Legends #3 popping up on the list. I think a case could be made that Suicide Squad has really popped this year. There are some emerging books Legends #3, orSuicide Squad #1, #23, #48 - should any of these be slipping onto the list?

Agreed. I'd guess that about 20 of the books in the 'influential' list would be a Top 50 Copper Overstreet book (based on their raw 9.2 prices). A little higher if you include the variants (for example, TMNT #1 1st, 2nd and 3rd prints are all ranked in the top 14 copper books per Overstreet standards). Sadly, Overstreet does not even track their top books all that closely. That's why I'm trying to open this up... let's change the way they look at this, at least for Copper books...

A lot of these are still listed at low prices in Overstreet... Last year, we wrestled with what we meant by "key" books... We're not necessarily looking for the priciest books, but some combination of influence, collector interest, or notability/notoriety... For Valiant books, Harbinger #1 appeared as the "symbolic" kick-off of a successful line independent of the Gold Key characters. It didn't hurt that it's a book with some value, and that the characters continue to be published 25 years later. Given this past year's increased interest in Valiant books, though, there's no reason there couldn't be more of them here...

So apologies off the top for putting this in a new thread... this is a continuation of a discussion from last year, but for the life of me, I can't find that thread. Some of you may recall that I was looking to "crowdsource" a list of the Top Copper Age keys for the Overstreet Price Guide... Due to a technology glitch, this didn't appear in Overstreet #45 in the spring, but it was included in the 2015 Overstreet Yearbook, which went on sale in comic shops last week. Here's the material as it appeared there... ________________________ In past market reports, I have provided a list of what I saw as the top 40 key books for collectors of the Copper Age. However, I’ve always been a fan of “crowd sourcing” – the idea that online technologies allow us to bring large groups together to work on common issues. So this year, I went to the CGC Boards, where one of the most active communities of Copper Age collectors gathers, and asked for their input. Now, anytime you ask 10 collectors for their opinion, you’ll get 11 responses, so the final list is a result of my “editorial control” – but I think it represents a pretty good overview of what the Top 50 Copper Age keys are. To get this list, the discussion limited itself to the 1982-1992 timeframe: • Albedo #2 • Amazing Spider-Man #238, #252, #298, #300, #361 • Archie’s Girls Betty and Veronica #320 • Batman #357, #404, #428 • Batman: The Dark Knight Returns #1 • Batman: The Killing Joke • Bone #1 • Caliber Presents #1 • Comico Primer #2 • Crisis in Infinite Earths #1 • The Crow #1 • Daredevil #181 • DC Comics Presents #47 • Evil Ernie #1 • G.I. Joe: A Real American Hero #1 • Harbinger #1 • Incredible Hulk #271, #340 • Iron Man #282 • Marvel Graphic Novel #4 • Marvel Super Heroes Secret Wars #8 • Miracleman #15 • New Mutants #87, #98 • Sandman #1, #8 • Spectacular Spider-Man #64 • Superman #75 • Swamp Thing #21, #37 • Starslayer #2 • Tales of the New Teen Titans #44 • Thor #337 • Transformers #1 • Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles #1 • Uncanny X-men #221, #248, #266 • Vampirella #113 • Warrior (UK Magazine) #1 • Watchmen #1 • Wolverine (limited series) #1 • X-Factor #6, #24 Virtually all of these books took substantial price jumps over the past year. If this list is of interest – and it should be, given that so much of the current market is driven by the search for “keys” – I’ll try to do this crowd sourcing bit again in future reports. Special thanks this year to all the CGC boardies who took part in the discussion, and a special shout out to Ryan Leskiw (aka “kimik”) who not only helped out with the discussion, but shared some great sales data as well. ___________________________ Thanks to all who helped with this - but it will soon be time to update information for the 2016 Overstreet Guide (and it will be in the main Guide this time!). So, what changes would you make from last year's list? What books have become more important over the past year? What books would you bump to make way for them? As always, I'll try my best to build the final list around your thoughts and ideas!

So ridiculous. This will be a 5 dollar book in a month. I see it differently... In the "Age of Harley Quinn", every Harley book is at least $5, and her base is attuned to paying $20-$30 for appearances in kids titles with a low print run. I'm not going to join the $500 band wagon, but this book will always sell. For the next few weeks, I'm guessing it's $20+. In a month or two, this could be a $10 book, but a year or more from now - once the initial supply has been absorbed into collections - I can see this being a steady seller in that $20-$30 range. Let's not forget that the Harley crowd may be more interested in an animation crossover than in some of the mainstream in-continuity stuff, as well...

I'm losing track... is that 9 known copies now?

Un-freakin'-real! To find one is a tough challenge... but two? My jaw dropped when I saw your photo. Well done!

That was such a great book at the time. The first 12 issues stand up to anything that was being published. Golden was doing some beautiful promo pieces that Marvel was running as ads in different books & it was just beautiful stuff. Then the book comes out & it's got a generic Cockrum cover on it. I like Cockrum, but Golden was just amazing at the time. One of my favourite runs ever... As an aside, you should check out many of Golden's Micronauts covers while wearing the old red/green 3-D glasses... A lot of them reproduce 3-D effects, which is something I've never really seen with other artists. ... And no, I haven't been scanning my entire collection while wearing cardboard glasses... This was a topic of some discussion in the days when these were first coming out.

Why not? It's clearly listed in Understreet...

#10 (with Sgt. Rock) seems to commanding quite a premium over the others more recently, with the exception of #22.

A little thick on the hype...and how do they know only 5 exist? Accounted for is not the same thing as exists. I think there were 5 copies that had been acknowledged in public, until I posted mine (the 6th) here on the boards in June. This book is very closely tracked, because it's believed to be so scarce... However, RMA is right. I'm sure there are some others tucked quietly into collections, and probably more sitting unrecognized out there. I found mine quite inexpensively at the 2nd day of a fair-sized con, where it was obviously bypassed by many, many people before I saw it and recognized it for what it was. Still, I'd say this by far the rarest Whitman. Easily the rarest of the DCs, and probably also rarer than any of the 8-12/80 pre-pack issues.

I don't have any data, but my sense is that it's not too uncommon... Maybe 10% to 15% of print run? I say this only because I used to se it quite often... I have one of each, so not much help there. Of course, it's likely pretty tough in higher grades... Marvel Spotlight V2 was one of those lower tier titles that no one thought was of interest. Captain Marvel? Star lord? Captain Universe? Who would ever be interested in those guys? Especially if the art was by "has-beens" like Ditko, or unknowns like Miller. These sat in the cheap bins for years, and took a beating...