steelcity

Ever since I bought Gerber’s Photo Journals in 1990 I have based a lot of my comic book collecting on covers. Adventure Comics covers generally are very appealing. The Shooter stories are also my most memorable LOSH tales.

Bright yellow covers do tend to dull with age so I was very pleased to find this fresh copy, though true high grade copies just don't seem to ever show up.

I like the combination of Batman with night covers. Again, this copy is from the Grand Rapids collection.

World's Finest #100 is a bit of a landmark issue. It is true the Batman's cape and cowl are usually a very definite purple color. On this particular copy they are more the usual blue. This copy is from the Grand Rapids collection.

I have also found that World's Finest does not get significantly easier to find in higher grade until issues well into the 1960s. Fortunately some of the books after #150 have great stories and are not too expensive.

Legion covers on Adventure Comics prior to #300 are very special. The vivid burnt orange background on Sun Boy's debut in #290 is very striking indeed. This issue is fairly easy to find in high grade, even in CGC 9.4. I bought a CGC 9.4 copy back in 2004 but somehow never liked it as much as the raw copy I bought many years earlier (included below). Recently I saw a CGC 8.5 with white pages and rich colors and thought that should be what my CGC 9.4 ought to look like so I bought it. Adventure #293 is one of the very best Legion covers. Again, this book is not hard to find in high grade. I am more than pleased with the CGC 9.4 copy Stephen Fishler found for my collection in 2005. I have not been tempted to upgrade. My first CGC copy was an 8.5 off ebay. After I bought that copy my good pal Silver made contact with me for the first time, by email. In those days my ebay ID was my email address. He wanted to ask why I had paid so much for a VF+? Pure lack of common sense, of course. So that is the origin of how Silver and I first "met" though we have never actually have.

Very nice indeed.

Truth is, Danny, most of us - you and me included - are happy to settles for nice raw copies we bought last century. My 318 is raw but pretty and I could have it CGC graded though the result could be disappointing.

Very nice copy. One of my favourites. Like your 316 too. Is your Adventure collection based on the LOSH or does it extend to earlier books too?

The colors on this issue, not just your copy, are extremely vivid. My raw copy is also bright.

If we step into a parallel universe there are books that look as if they might or they should have a Legion element. Adventure 260 would have been the follow up to Adventure 247 had the Kent's second super son been linked to the Legion. Of course Superboy's "brother" had visited only eighteen issues earlier and Mon-El had yet to show. Adventure 271 surely has a Legion bubble so are they around here somewhere?

What a classic book Superboy 89 is. I expect most of us read this story in Superboy giant issue 129

Unusual Batplane cover.

Quick sidestep here to show more early Legion other than in Adventure Comics. Always nice to see an Action 276 on the wall at a show. Something a bit exotic about the early 1960s issues. Superman 149 is a true classic in its own right regardless of being the 9th Legion. A perfectly constructed tragedy with not a single panel going to waste. Copies of 149 often have discoloration of the white area by Superman's foot at the bottom right corner. I first read this imaginary tale in Superman Giant 193.

Great books to see. Enjoying the new interest in this thread.

Classic origin of the Batman and Superman team.

World's Finest had really good giant covers that just said "buy me"

There are Adventure Comics from the Massachusetts pedigree. I bought some from Marnin Rosenberg back in 1997/98 along with Detective, Superman and World’s Finest. The collection was too early to be CGC graded though some were graded in 2000/01 without all being noted as Mass.copies on the label. My Adventure 300 was bought from Marnin in 2001, CGC graded and it had a green circular sticker on the outside of the case so I have assumed it is a Mass. copy. No certificates were issued with any of my books from the collection. As far as I know only a sticker on the Mylar ever indicated a book to be Massachusetts. Someone needs to ask Marnin. I lost contact with him a long time ago.

For whatever reason they did not seem to have a Legion cover prepared.

My first ever CGC book was a copy of Batman 59. The problem I always had was that in collecting so many titles I could never focus on any one or even a few. I remember my early buys more clearly today than the books I bought, say, ten years ago when the CGC buying experience was not so new. Here is another early graded book. Some very clean books from all titles quickly showed up in the early days.

After Adventure 300 non Legion covers became less frequent. A few in the 300s and 310s but issue 327 was to be the last purely Superboy cover.

Most of my Legion books are raw, all bought before the advent of CGC. Some I have bought again as CGC copies. Adventure 322 was an easy decision as my raw copy was not so nice. What a strange cover this is, for Legion fans but perhaps not likely to attract new readers.

Looking back to the early days of CGC grading it was such an exciting time. Many issues being graded for the first time and a sense of wonder over what was going to turn up for sale. My copy of Adventure 300 stood alone at the top of the first census in 2001 and remained so for a long time. Today it barely registers in the top ten copies. I have never tried to upgrade this copy because whenever I see it I get just a flicker of the excitement from those days. Besides, it remains just as impressive as ever. I am sure that one day someone will press and regrade this copy but for me it has to keep the old label.

This CGC copy of Adventure 332 is notable only in that it was a very early graded copy.

I also bought a copy of Adventure 307 at SDCC, mine in 1995.