When did Wolverine really become popular?? 2 2

[Darkowl]

1986 was about Miller because Batman wasn't as popular as he was in 1989.

 

Wolverine was at a peak in popularity at that point in time. Not the peak but a peak. So was Miller (he was the hottest thing since sliced bread) but I don't think it was a co-incidence that Wolvie was chosen for Miller's project.

 

I do realize that Miller had a fascination with Japanese culture.

 

That still doesn't mean Wolvie wasn't popular.

 

Anybody have guide values for Hulk #181 to see what prices were in 1980 - 1990?

 

 

 

 

You made me dig out my old Overstreets.

 

OPG 10 (80/81) $3.75

OPG 11 (81/82) $5.25

OPG 12 (82/83) $16.00

OPG 13 can't find my copy

OPG 14 (84/85) $20.00

OPG 15 (85/86) $24.00

OPG 16 (86/87) $24.00

OPG 17 (87/88) $32.00

OPG 18 (88/89) $36.00

OPG 19 (89/90) $75.00

 

What this shows is steady increases except after the mini-series when it triples and between 18 and 19 when it doubles. My recollection is that Hulk #181 sold for double OPG if not more during the early 80s.

Marty McFly could have used that book.....

 

 

Back to the Future

Have you seen this?

 

I have! It's great!

[Prince Namor]

1986 was about Miller because Batman wasn't as popular as he was in 1989.

 

Wolverine was at a peak in popularity at that point in time. Not the peak but a peak. So was Miller (he was the hottest thing since sliced bread) but I don't think it was a co-incidence that Wolvie was chosen for Miller's project.

 

I do realize that Miller had a fascination with Japanese culture.

 

That still doesn't mean Wolvie wasn't popular.

 

Anybody have guide values for Hulk #181 to see what prices were in 1980 - 1990?

 

 

 

 

You made me dig out my old Overstreets.

 

OPG 10 (80/81) $3.75

OPG 11 (81/82) $5.25

OPG 12 (82/83) $16.00

OPG 13 can't find my copy

OPG 14 (84/85) $20.00

OPG 15 (85/86) $24.00

OPG 16 (86/87) $24.00

OPG 17 (87/88) $32.00

OPG 18 (88/89) $36.00

OPG 19 (89/90) $75.00

 

What this shows is steady increases except after the mini-series when it triples and between 18 and 19 when it doubles. My recollection is that Hulk #181 sold for double OPG if not more during the early 80s.

 

What about ASM 129?

[kav]

ASM 129 should be interesting-from what I remember it shot up pretty quickly.

[chrisco37]

I think in OS 18 & 19 it had same prices as Hulk 181.

 

I'm almost positive it was $75 in the same guide.

[Juno Beach]

UXM #133 was EPIC.

What a great issue.

 

The final panel in #132 was great as well.

 

This is the exact panel that made him my favourite character...in any medium.

[kav]

UXM #133 was EPIC.

What a great issue.

 

The final panel in #132 was great as well.

 

This is the exact panel that made him my favourite character...in any medium.

Another sewer great:

 

And wouldn't ya just love that OA?

[Darkowl]

UXM #133 was EPIC.

What a great issue.

 

The final panel in #132 was great as well.

 

This is the exact panel that made him my favourite character...in any medium.

 

This is the Wolverine I quickly grew to love.

[Logan510]

1986 was about Miller because Batman wasn't as popular as he was in 1989.

 

Wolverine was at a peak in popularity at that point in time. Not the peak but a peak. So was Miller (he was the hottest thing since sliced bread) but I don't think it was a co-incidence that Wolvie was chosen for Miller's project.

 

I do realize that Miller had a fascination with Japanese culture.

 

That still doesn't mean Wolvie wasn't popular.

 

Anybody have guide values for Hulk #181 to see what prices were in 1980 - 1990?

 

 

 

 

You made me dig out my old Overstreets.

 

OPG 10 (80/81) $3.75

OPG 11 (81/82) $5.25

OPG 12 (82/83) $16.00

OPG 13 can't find my copy

OPG 14 (84/85) $20.00

OPG 15 (85/86) $24.00

OPG 16 (86/87) $24.00

OPG 17 (87/88) $32.00

OPG 18 (88/89) $36.00

OPG 19 (89/90) $75.00

 

What this shows is steady increases except after the mini-series when it triples and between 18 and 19 when it doubles. My recollection is that Hulk #181 sold for double OPG if not more during the early 80s.

 

What about ASM 129?

 

 

I distinctly remember Hulk #181 being a $20 book in 1984-85 at several shops around Chicagoland. I also remember holding about a dozen copies of ASM #129 that I pulled from a box at one of my regular shops a couple years before that, marked at around $10-$15 each. Unfortunately, I never purchased either of the books back then

[VintageComics]

1986 was about Miller because Batman wasn't as popular as he was in 1989.

 

Wolverine was at a peak in popularity at that point in time. Not the peak but a peak. So was Miller (he was the hottest thing since sliced bread) but I don't think it was a co-incidence that Wolvie was chosen for Miller's project.

 

I do realize that Miller had a fascination with Japanese culture.

 

That still doesn't mean Wolvie wasn't popular.

 

Anybody have guide values for Hulk #181 to see what prices were in 1980 - 1990?

 

 

 

 

You made me dig out my old Overstreets.

 

OPG 10 (80/81) $3.75

OPG 11 (81/82) $5.25

OPG 12 (82/83) $16.00

OPG 13 can't find my copy

OPG 14 (84/85) $20.00

OPG 15 (85/86) $24.00

OPG 16 (86/87) $24.00

OPG 17 (87/88) $32.00

OPG 18 (88/89) $36.00

OPG 19 (89/90) $75.00

 

What this shows is steady increases except after the mini-series when it triples and between 18 and 19 when it doubles. My recollection is that Hulk #181 sold for double OPG if not more during the early 80s.

 

What about ASM 129?

 

That was my next question.

 

(thumbs u

[Logan510]

i think he really took off after the claremont/miller mini series (1982?).

 

this made him a cool character with an interseting story outside of the team.

 

poker is right 180 and 182 were also fairly highly priced at the time.

I suspect it was this. A bit before my time so I can't say I remember, but looking at pre-Miller Wolverine, he's just kind of a goofy Bronze Age character. No "cooler" than Nightcrawler or Colossus.

 

I think Wolverine's exposure grew as the X-men's exposure grew.

 

By the late 1970's they were all cool and then each character began to take a life on their own.

 

Byrne probably had the most to do with that. There wasn't much hotter than X-men during that era from what I can remember. Am I remembering it wrong?

 

Byrne had the most to do with it. Wolverine was about to be written out of the book and Byrne insisted that the only Canadian character should not be written out ( being a Canadian himself ).

 

Hotness is a relative term. The book did not take off sales wise until Paul Smith took over on art. Byrne has regularly said that sales on the X-MEN regularly hovered only just above the cancellation line and that they didn't really pick up on his tenure until around #137. Byrne has often joked that since sales didn't explode until Smith took over the art that he ( Byrne ) must have been holding Claremont back.

[Prince Namor]

i think he really took off after the claremont/miller mini series (1982?).

 

this made him a cool character with an interseting story outside of the team.

 

poker is right 180 and 182 were also fairly highly priced at the time.

I suspect it was this. A bit before my time so I can't say I remember, but looking at pre-Miller Wolverine, he's just kind of a goofy Bronze Age character. No "cooler" than Nightcrawler or Colossus.

 

I think Wolverine's exposure grew as the X-men's exposure grew.

 

By the late 1970's they were all cool and then each character began to take a life on their own.

 

Byrne probably had the most to do with that. There wasn't much hotter than X-men during that era from what I can remember. Am I remembering it wrong?

 

Byrne had the most to do with it. Wolverine was about to be written out of the book and Byrne insisted that the only Canadian character should not be written out ( being a Canadian himself ).

 

Hotness is a relative term. The book did not take off sales wise until Paul Smith took over on art. Byrne has regularly said that sales on the X-MEN regularly hovered only just above the cancellation line and that they didn't really pick up on his tenure until around #137. Byrne has often joked that since sales didn't explode until Smith took over the art that he ( Byrne ) must have been holding Claremont back.

 

Doesn't he realize that's not how the fans remember it?

 

Seriously though, JB has many times on his forum and in interviews given some interesting insight into sales numbers that aren't otherwise known... I remember reading one time how he said he showed Shooter how one of the Secret Wars crossovers simply took sales numbers away from everyone else's books and didn't actually increase sales at all across the entire line...

[Ken Aldred]

Wolverine was breaking out to some degree even as early as 1980. I recall a comic mart dealer at that time commenting that there were many collectors wanting every book that the character appeared in.

 

I read the Byrne / Claremont X-Men without focusing that much on Wolverine at all - I just really enjoyed the material as a whole.

[Randall Dowling]

Hotness is a relative term. The book did not take off sales wise until Paul Smith took over on art. Byrne has regularly said that sales on the X-MEN regularly hovered only just above the cancellation line and that they didn't really pick up on his tenure until around #137. Byrne has often joked that since sales didn't explode until Smith took over the art that he ( Byrne ) must have been holding Claremont back.

 

This statement is completely wrong. Paul Smith didn't take over for nearly 2 years after Byrne left. As you said, sales of X-men picked up around 137 and then steadily increased. By 150, the book was very hot.

 

I'm amazed at how people either have very different recollections or perhaps the dynamics were different in other markets or perhaps they've just been told false bits of information or made conclusions from incomplete information. Whatever the case may be, the distortion of what actually happened can be extreme.

 

To say the X-men didn't become popular until Paul Smith is a joke, as you stated. Not a serious statement of fact.

 

I think the other thing that is confusing is the idea that there was a point when the X-men "exploded". The truth was that the book steadily increased all through out the 80s and a lot of people got into comics because of the X-men. If you were to chart sales of the book the same way you look at stock prices, a 10 year chart from 1980 to 1990 would show minor ups and downs along a very positive trend throughout the decade.

[delekkerste]

This statement is completely wrong. Paul Smith didn't take over for nearly 2 years after Byrne left. As you said, sales of X-men picked up around 137 and then steadily increased. By 150, the book was very hot.

 

I'm amazed at how people either have very different recollections or perhaps the dynamics were different in other markets or perhaps they've just been told false bits of information or made conclusions from incomplete information. Whatever the case may be, the distortion of what actually happened can be extreme.

 

To say the X-men didn't become popular until Paul Smith is a joke, as you stated. Not a serious statement of fact.

 

Yep, completely wrong and contradicts everyone's recollections including well-researched books like Marvel Comics: The Untold Story.

[Gatchaman]

there is that weird issue of iron fist (14 i think ) where byrne drew him with a different costume it was really weird. dont think he wore it in uncanny though?

 

When Dave Cochran left the book he intended for Wolverine to keep that costume that he got from Fang, but Byrne changed it back . Dave was not happy. Funny thing is that Dave changed his costume before left and Dave took over again.

[jaeldubyoo]

I went through my copies of #95 thru #110. I read the letter pages and Wolverine was mentioned only 3 times. Storm, on the other hand, was mentioned in nearly every one. It’s striking that a lot of letters were written by female fans. Early on, Storm appears to be the more popular X-Men. What is certain is that Wolverine became the most popular. What’s difficult is nailing down when it became apparent. A lot of people think it was almost from the beginning. I think it was more gradual, a few years down the road.

[delekkerste]

1. The consensus is that Wolverine broke out between 1980 and 1982, so few would argue that he was a superstar as early as UXM 95-110.

 

2. The letters columns reflect the editor's whims and presents a completely statistically insignificant sampling.

 

3. Again, while I certainly wouldn't hang my hat on this alone, the fact that Wolverine won CBG's "Favorite Character" fan poll in both 1982 and 1984 (probably not a coincidence given that he was featured in a mini series in both years) should be more indicative of the character's popularity versus purely creative/editorial decisions like cover appearances and letter column mentions.

[Mephisto]

UXM #133 was EPIC.

What a great issue.

 

The final panel in #132 was great as well.

 

This is the exact panel that made him my favourite character...in any medium.

 

This to me is the most iconic image of Wolverine. For me his defining moment comes in the following issue where he tears through the Hellfire Club. Granted we had glimpses of the Wolverine we all know today before before this point. The porn mag incident in 129 is one of my favorite moments.

 

I always felt that if Wolverine didn't appear in GSX 1 he would have wound up being a character like the Constrictor or something.

 

It was previously mentioned that Byrne also saved Wolverine from being written out of the book after just a short time. Cockrum wasn't that high on the character and unlike many of the other new X-Men at the time had no hand in his creation. It's not surprising at all that Wolverine appears on so few covers during issues 94-200. Cockrum by far did the most covers during this run. He continued to do many covers once Byrne had taken over the interiors. Cockrum then took over the book again once Byrne left. During the pre Byrne run of issues 94-107 Wolverine only appears on the cover 4 times and only once is he prominently featured. Basing Wolverine popularity with readers by cover appearances that were mostly done by an artist that didn't particularly like the character is weak at best.

 

This to me is when Wolverine cut his teeth, and just plain cut others.

 

 

 

[Darkowl]

UXM #133 was EPIC.

What a great issue.

 

The final panel in #132 was great as well.

 

This is the exact panel that made him my favourite character...in any medium.

 

This to me is the most iconic image of Wolverine. For me his defining moment comes in the following issue where he tears through the Hellfire Club. Granted we had glimpses of the Wolverine we all know today before before this point. The porn mag incident in 129 is one of my favorite moments.

 

I always felt that if Wolverine didn't appear in GSX 1 he would have wound up being a character like the Constrictor or something.

 

It was previously mentioned that Byrne also saved Wolverine from being written out of the book after just a short time. Cockrum wasn't that high on the character and unlike many of the other new X-Men at the time had no hand in his creation. It's not surprising at all that Wolverine appears on so few covers during issues 94-200. Cockrum by far did the most covers during this run. He continued to do many covers once Byrne had taken over the interiors. Cockrum then took over the book again once Byrne left. During the pre Byrne run of issues 94-107 Wolverine only appears on the cover 4 times and only once is he prominently featured. Basing Wolverine popularity with readers by cover appearances that were mostly done by an artist that didn't particularly like the character is weak at best.

 

This to me is when Wolverine cut his teeth, and just plain cut others.

 

 

 

I really need to go back and read these stories.

[Prince Namor]

Here's Bryne's exact post from his web site (not to be confused with where a different quote appeared on the subject):

 

Posted: 20 April 2006 at 7:04pm

"There was no loss in sales when Dave came back. In fact, the book continued climbing, slow but sure, until Paul Smith came aboard. Then the sales exploded and the whole X-Madness was truly born."