joe_collector

Pressing was an isolated incident with specific books prior to CGC, but it really took off with the slabbed speculation where a even .2 jump could mean thousands of dollars, and probably went mainstream in the early-2000's. If I was to guess where things really went off the rails, it would be in the 2003-2004 era, where guys like Ewert were gaming the system and it really became an epidemic.

Unless you like shooters or sports games, it's tough as that's bascially what next-gen will be, due to the outlandish budgets. I really miss the PS2 era, where you literally had every genre imaginable. So much choice, but unfortunately, we will never see its like again.

Exactly. In a world without Hulk 181, even the measly cameo is King.

You total and absolute lack of self-awareness is far more astonishing. You are the very last person on these boards who can make that accusation. No, I know *exactly* who I am, and make no bones about it. I'm a surly SOB with a mean streak a mile wide. How you view yourself and how others do is also a mile apart.

What's the big deal with that? The only thing I can think of is "early Dreadstar" or "First Full Dreadstar" but wouldn't Epic 1-2 be better options since EI 1/2 are officially noted online as the first app of Dreadstar? Epic #1 is the 1st appearance of his sword, #2 is 1st Vance and Epic #3 is when Vance becomes Dreadstar when he and the sword combine. Yeah, I know that, but since the Sword was actually Dreadstar, Epic 1 is noted as his first appearance in many publications. If Epic 3 had Dreadstar on the cover, it would likely change in the CGC world, but none of them seem to.

Your total and absolute lack of self-awareness is far more astonishing.

Then something is wrong and I screwed up with the data, as the listings I have show DD historically coming out a week ahead of the Hulk. Was 181 as anomaly and came out a week early or something?

Then no comic heroes have ever been "white hot" in that limited context, as back then, comics were for kids and no comic ever went "mainstream". It was the movie serials, animated series, live action TV, movies, etc. that drove "mainstream popularity", not how popular the comics were with readers.

Come on, who would be stupid enough to try and "make that point"? Superman and Batman have been around since 1930's-40's and Spider-man has been in the public eye since 1962, and each have had multiple TV shows/movie serials. That's some serious longevity, and several generations of media exposure for the DC capes. By 1983, Wolverine had only been around 9 short years, with zero TV shows, so obviously the far more established heroes with decades of history and media exposure behind them would be more popular and well-known with the general populace. That's just basic logic, not any "point that needs to be made". Jesus guys.

Gee, I didn't see that one coming and I was actually going to post "someone is going to bring up Spider-man" low-hanging fruit. As we all know, Spidey was gold at Marvel, and just like Batman and Superman, there are no rules with icons like that. Let's spin it the other way, are you really saying that Wolverine was LESS popular than Devil Dinosaur? Using your logic DD must have been way more popular, since he got his own title.

Sure, and I went to a comic book store in the early-80's and bought a pile of DC 12-cent books at cover price. No joke. But I am talking about the market in general, the OS prices, the mail order prices, the magazine articles, OS reports, etc. Byrne was hot and the X-Men were hot.

Because comics were different back then, and there was none of this "mass overexposure to make a quick buck" that we saw in the late-80's and 90's. Marvel actually worried about ruining Wolverine by putting him in too many books and there was a moratorium on doling out his origin - keep him mysterious. In the 90's that all changed, and you're making the big mistake of using a 90's speculator mindset to judge a character in the early-1980's.

Come on, that's just crazy, and Byrne stuff was hot by 1983-84, when his Alpha Flight flew off the shelves. The guy was the hottest artist on the planet and all of his issues were broken out in OS. I remember filling some X-Men holes in 1984 and spending $8-$12 per NM issue mail-order on the 110's and 120's commons, $20+ or semi-keys. I still have the catalogs and order forms.

1) There are a few panels where you can see the claws sitting under the metal shrouds in his gloves. 2) Yes, Claremont knew, and hated the design so bad he changed it as soon as he could.

Then they're wrong, as I looked it up in the books themselves (they have a weekly list) and DD was out before Hulk.

How would you know??? Hopefully CGC could tell if the book had been totally disassembled and then reassembled. I'm sure they certainly can (as could you or I), but I believe that whetton was talking about after the fact. So CGC knows it's a Frankenstein copy but doesn't do anything about it?

And here are the two aforementioned panels that first got me to take notice of Wolverine:

More:

I posted a little series of Wolverine panels that showed the character high points, and to me, the first time I noticed him was in X-Men 98, where the retcon'ed his claws as being part of his body, rather than inside his gloves as originally intended. X-Men 111 gave him some exposure when he broke his "conditioning" and escaped the circus and X-men 115 was also a big issue, as it showed had several major Wolverine panels in the Savage Land. Here's some faves:

Rogue was popular acc. to my memory but not most popular. That's how I remember it as well. Yes, Rogue was just another reason why the 1983 X-Men spiked in sales, not the only reason.

How would you know??? Hopefully CGC could tell if the book had been totally disassembled and then reassembled.

No, I/we already confirmed DD came out before (it's obvious from the ad anyway, but we made sure), and like I said, the only question is which of the ad books was published first.

Don't worry, MODERN is just a short step to the right.

What's the big deal with that? The only thing I can think of is "early Dreadstar" or "First Full Dreadstar" but wouldn't Epic 1-2 be better options since EI 1/2 are officially noted online as the first app of Dreadstar?

I think you're in the wrong section.