Von Cichlid

https://www.msnbc.com/ https://www.yahoo.com/ https://www.cnn.com/ Apparently this was a part of massive organized raid that took place all across downtown Chicago last night. Absolutely nothing about it on the previous three links. You would have to live in the city or read this message board to have heard about it.

Man, an Iron Fist 14 9.6 would pull more than that Marvel Premiere 15 these days.

Like many people probably, I experienced that from Classic X-Men 2. My 11 year old brain soaked up every bit of it. I haven't looked at it in years and i still remember Thunderbird burning his leg in the Danger Room and the "press me" gadget that made Nefaria's bad guys appear. Wolverine and Iceman getting into the fight at the beginning. There was no way I could afford a real copy at the time, but those Classic X-Men were like owning a time machine back in the day. I read that series more than any other for sure. I do own a raw 94 now, but there is no way I am taking it out and reading it. I just look at it in its Mylite and I try to imagine how thrilled that 11 year version of me would be if he could own what I own now. There was a lot of great times to read comics, but I still feel blessed to have gotten into them the first time in that late 80's early 90's time frame. There were no less that 15 different titles easy that I loved being able to grab each month. ASM, Web, Spectacular, DD, Punisher, PWJ, X-Men, Classic X-Men, Wolverine, X-Factor was decent at times, Liefield New Mutants was the new thing, Lim Silver Surfer and Captain America was cool (always loved Streets of Poison). Marvel Tales was cool. Marvel Comics Presents had its moments. FF and Avengers may have been lame then, but otherwise there was just so much that Marvel was doing right before that exodus to Image. Detective and Batman wasn't too shabby either from that period.

I think that is mostly true, but you are still safer in buying stuff that had value due to actually being loved versus pure speculation value. Miller Daredevil, early Claremont X-men, and other classic art/storyline issues have gone up and down over the years, but they had genuine objective realized value at points due to people really wanting them in their collection. It stands to reason they may become valuable again, or will retain some of what they had. Now, the gimmick stuff from past '93 that was pure speculation like Turok 1, all the foil die cut stuff, etc never had real value. It was speculated on, bombed, and that was that. No one ever loved it. That is what primarily steers me away from buying moderns. Yeah some of the variant covers do look nice, but I think most are purchased by those who are too old to ever fall in love with it like they would able to as a kid. It is for that reason that I think the older material still has much more staying power.

That is kind of my take on it. I think it is a compact way of saying "No fingerprints or things that otherwise would not show up on picture scans."

I collected the first time in the late 80's to mid 90's and I was shocked at how things had changed when I got back into the hobby around 5 years ago. I had kept my old collection (thankfully) but I was surprised to see which issues wound up being valuable and which ones I thought were still valuable but where not near what I thought they would be. The losers from my old collection were generally issues from that era who were prized at the time for art or story lines. X-Men has a ton like mutant massacre (maybe not 212 it is still a first), X-tinction agenda, 248, 162, 205, etc. These issues used to have a significant premium on them and now they are roughly the same as filler/run issues. Run issues from the Byrne/Claremont era strill had value, but they had stagnated relative to growth in other areas. Really, anything that was hot due to Wolverine alone had stagnated. This goes for Captain America annual 8, Spider-Man vs Wolverine, etc. The Punisher stuff was hit pretty bad as well. There is some great stuff in the limited series, the earlier regular series, and earlier PWJ. The lack of first appearances though has really forced that material off of people's radar. It was also disappointing to see that the Miller DD stuff outside 168 was stagnant. I did have some winners though: Marvel Winter Special 8 (this was pure drek at the time), multiple X-Men 221's, DD 256, multiple 98's. Hulk 340 did really well over that span too. It seems that pre-Spider-Man #1 McFarlane material is the only material from back in the day to still be valuable based on art alone.

I think that was true for X-Men 108 as compared to 107and 109 too. Now, 108 is actually the minimum of that sequence.

The real interesting thing is that seemingly none of us care about the health of our skin (the intention of the article), but are obsessed about how the boldness of the colors on our favorite books are going to hold up.

I remember when I was a kid it being a big deal when Wolverine 10 was going for more than Wolverine 1.

I think it is a small sturgeon.

I'm not cheating by doing research these are just best guesses off the top of my head- Valentino- Guardians of the Galaxy 1 Silvestri- X-Men 221 Ron Lim- Silver Surfer 44 Man, these late copper age artists, as good as many of them were, are kind of sparse when it comes to keys. Still, it's when I collected the first time, so it is still by far my favorite era of comics. At Marvel in the late 80's and until about 91 the possibilities were just endless. That exodus to Image, to me, was the largest nail in the coffin to the classic, or "innocent" era of comics. THat's a conversation for another thread, though.

That's a good score. About a year ago I picked up the last 20 issues of HoM with the I, Vampire Kaluta covers for about a buck apiece from a 2nd and Charles used book store that had just opened up in my area. They were pretty much untouched. While those aren't quite as fantastic as the early 70's Kaluta covers, they are still very cool. Here's a good example of the "bleed through" I was talking about on #3. You can see it right on her forehead. https://www.ebay.com/itm/Doorway-to-Nightmare-3-CGC-9-8-DC-1978-New-Case-White-Pages-H7-116-cm/292650023126?hash=item44234cf8d6:g:4~kAAOSwNppbU9yi:sc:USPSPriority!79424!US!-1

I just bought a set of 1-3 in VF condition for 30 bucks off the bay a couple of months ago. #3 is great but there are lot of copies that have the red "bleed through" on that blue cover, kind of like Submariner 5. I need a nice Doorway #5 but that one isn't as common as the others. I see a huge similarity between the first issue of Doorway and the cover to Classic X-Men #3. As innovative as Art Adams was, I think what Kaluta was doing in the 70's had a huge influence on the earlier Adams stuff.

That's like my wife every time I get something in the mail.

I feel the same way- his House of Mystery's from the early 70's to the mid-80's are my favorites. He was just perfect for those. I liked his work better than Wrightson's and Adams' on those, overall. Actually, you take away HOS 92, and what does Wrightson have as a mega key? It's actually a good thing really, in that if you are primarily a fan of art over 1st appearances, then you can get a lot of the fantastic Kaluta and Wrightson stuff at a reasonable price in fairly nice condition.

I don't know about most valuable, but a 9.8 Moon Knight 29 has to be up there and it is the one that I would most want.

Here's an interesting one: JIm Lee I may just be going blank, but i can't think of anything even over 50 bucks raw that he has worked on.

ToD 10?

The Byrne one I had in mind had an X-Men villain in it... For Kubert has to be X-Men 266.

I would say a nice high grade X-Men 50 for Steranko.

It's funny that the thread started with George Perez. I was just thinking the other day that it's weird that such a prolific artist would have New Teen Titans 2 and maybe Avengers 196 9.8 as his MVC's. What about John Byrne? I have a book in mind on this one.

This one is hilarious. https://www.ebay.com/itm/Spectacular-Spiderman-176-Marvel-1991-Stan-Lee-Signed-Autograph-COA/164152450247?hash=item26383f9cc7:g:bKYAAOSw1W5eeqqR

As much as I love (early) Adams artwork, the only story I really liked where he did the interior was the Asgardian Wars. Everything else was always Mojo and X-Babies it seemed, which I was never really that much of a fan of other than Spiral. I need to try and read Web of Spider-Man annual 2 again. Maybe it was good, but I can't remember what happened in that one.

That Falcon mini had some great Paul Smith artwork too, same era as his awesome run on X-Men.

For me it's a tie between the Punisher and Wolverine mini-series for sure. Both proved that each character could easily carry not only one but multiple ongoing titles, MCP serving as a defacto 2nd title for Wolverine. 2nd place pretty clearly has to be Secret Wars. In 4th place I got a tie between Longshot (really for the art alone) and Kitty Pride and Wolverine (underrated IMO).