Primetime

Agreed. AF15 seems to be a tougher book to get CGC "designated" WHITE pages. Silver age DCs are also challenge to garner CGC WHITE pages.

Tough to get a "full" bullet along the right edge of the cover. Often it's miscut as they are in both of these examples.

Feb 1980 - FF 218 was the first Marvel I can recall selecting off the spinner rack at my local 7-Eleven. This is my original copy which, oddly, is a direct copy. I did buy it at 7-Eleven which means it should have been a newsstand copy with a barcode. I asked Steve Geppi for his explanation since the direct market was introduced in 1979 and he said it was still possible back then for retailers to buy direct (larger discount but no returns) or newsstand (some discount but able to return top 1/3 of cover for a credit on the next order). The FF218 could also have been left over unsold stock from another 7-Eleven or retailer that was resold to the new retailer. I can recall being attracted to Spidey and the busy cover that determined my selection. I also had the opportunity to purchase one of the best OA pages from this book a few years ago. I love the Sandman/Electro last panel with interior pencils by John Byrne and inks by Joe Sinnott.

😍😳

And to think he did as many as 9 covers in a week once upon a time.

Full Schomburg is important for sure

A nice 4.0 sold privately for $58k several weeks ago as well. The 4.5 had full girders art and pedestrians along the right edge which only the 7.5 Billy Wright copy has. Quite a unique aspect of the 9 tucked in the corner.

44 is not a Schomburg cover. Looks like Syd Shores..Alex is top notch and inked all his pencils.

I’ve got this one. The guy in the letterman’s sweater looks like Steve Rogers.

Tony 👋🏽

I didn’t see 🤷🏽‍♂️ a MM5 or 9 in this thread, so I’ll post my copies. They are arguably in my top 5 all time Schomburg covers

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It’s a Schomburg cover for sure.

Some considerations that are not only scarce in the marketplace but historically aren’t as easily available: Red Raven 1 Daring Mystery 1-4 Mystics 3,4,8-10 Marvel 1,5,9 (MPFW1 is technically a Funnies, Inc movie premium that was never distributed publicly; 8-9 surviving file copies do make it quite rare)

The street sign.

Good question. I know he started working for Better (not doing comic covers yet) way before Timely. Goodman liked him as evidenced by hiring Schomburg to do many of his early covers (Daring Mystery 1-5, Marvel Mystery 3-11) over any pulp artist (Frank R. Paul) that he had easy access to. I believe Goodman paid him well, as Timely was the Wild West and Goodman liked high impact, bloody, anti Axis themed covers. Alex liked radios and mechanical objects and became a master at detailing tanks, bridges, planes, etc. Schomburg was also in his mid 30s when Pearl Harbor broke out, so he was too old to be drafted. Many other artists (Kirby, Simon) were still young enough to be drafted. Thus, Schomburg was left to do a lot of the covers - a major war effort contribution on his part.

Alex Schomburg is my vote (and I love Kirby). Since he was a commercial artist doing large advertising for companies like Sanka Coffee and film previews, he would do as many as 9 covers in a week. And, yes, Schomburg did do interiors (check Capt Daring story in USA 7) - just not often because he was hired by several publishers to primarily draw covers.

The 9 has always been a big ticket Timely - with a menacing face, Subby goes to town on an El train - the details of the nuts and bolts exploding off the steel girder is a classic mechanical detail that only Schomburg could pull off. It’s the best Subby cover of the golden age, scarce (like #5), and the first time two superheroes battle. The battle issues between Torch and Subby have always went for a premium, and are some of the most highly sought after of all the Timelys. The 9 does not come to public sale often. The clash starts to brew as early as issue 6, in the 7 it’s obvious they will clash as Subby starts to destroy NYC, the initial battle is somewhat brief in issue 8 and told in both perspectives (first Subby’s then the Torch’s), the 9 delivers the full blown goods of the battle story/cover, and the 10 (great Schomburg cover nonetheless) is sort of a dud ending the battle in a one page standstill.

per PM

Very nice December 15 (12-15) arrival date in upper left corner of the cover. Cap 1 had an official release date of 12-20-40.

Big money 💰 bags 💼