High grade FF Thread

[COI]

I think most of us can agree that Spiderman is a much more appealing and interesting character, but in terms of collectibility FF reigns, especially if you like a challenge.

 

Out of all my Silver age books I'm most reluctant to sell my high grade FF's, and will not let them go without a decent premium, mostly because I cannot guarantee a replacement in grade.

[Drummy]

In response to Andrew Knight's original post, I have to say I grew up with Fantastic Four (#172 was my first comic ever) and have tried to grab FF-related books since I entered the high-grade collecting market about five years ago. There's something about the interaction among the characters and the sheer SCOPE of the issues they tackle that has had me hooked since age 9.

 

I love Spider-Man, too, but don't collect him simply because I only have money for two titles: FF and Tales of Suspense. (Although it's hard to admit on these boards, I also love Iron Man and collect him as well.). I have come to realize that getting TOS 39-99 and FF 1-120 in high grade is the epitome of a "challenge." But what fun along the way!

 

Anyway, my collection is so full of holes it's probably not worth discussing in great detail. My favorites in my personal collection are my #28, 29, 72, 13, 51, 52, and 45 in terms of high-grade copies. My current wish list focuses on 20, 22, 23, 31, 32, 37, 49, 55, 56, and 73, but I'll look at anything, really. I also have to say that, like early ASM, FF has some of the best covers in the history of comics. Personal favorites include #8, #11, #16, #25, #29, #37, #39, #43, #45, #49, #50, #55, #72, #73, and even #75/#77. Or how about #112?

 

I'd like to thank anyone on this board who's sold me books in the past, and hope we'll do business again in the future. FYI, I am a collector first and foremost and an investor in the sense that I just hope I won't lose a lot of money if I decide (have to) sell someday. (I don't care about making any, anyway.)

 

My best purchase was probably an unslabbed #72 advertised in NM-, bought for $80 and returned from CGC as a 9.4 with owtwp; really beautiful copy. My worst purchase was shelling out WAY too much for a beautiful #63 in NM. For some reason I thought it would be rare in high grade...

 

Dan

 

 

[lighthouse]

Marvel (Sony?) released X-men 1 movie b4 ASM 1 movie. Don't think it would be that difficult to produce a FF major motion picture. They have already proven the numerous special f-x are possible on a budget for a TEAM of superheroes w/ X-men, Magneto & Brotherhood of Evil Mutants.

 

I don't disagree here at all... But I think there is a big difference between possible and likely.

 

The Spider-Man movie was extremely good. The X-Men movie was not. X-Men had some nice special effects and it was much better than it could have been. But it was not a good movie. And the biggest reason is that the movie focused on the characters' powers rather than on the characters themselves. I don't fault the actors for this. When you are given less than five lines it's awfully difficult to be anything other than a cardboard cutout.

 

One of the best things about the Spider-Man movie is that the filmmakers worked towards achievable goals. They only tried to develop three characters in the entire movie, and were able to do so and tell a story in less than two hours. By comparison the X-Men movie tried to develop ten characters and failed miserably. It was still an entertaining popcorn afternoon, but it was far from being a good movie.

 

And unfortunately it appears that they have made the exact same mistakes with X-Men 2. Halle Berry's print interview this weekend revealed that she has no interest in appearing in X-Men 3 as her character has just six lines in the latest film. Six lines... She did her best not to dog the film, but did point out that with FIVE new characters being introduced it was hard to see any real development of the original players.

 

You can tell a great story with an ensemble of characters. But the focus has to be on the writing, not the effects. The effects have to be there to make suspension of disbelief possible, not to dominate the screen. Otherwise we never see the characters as important.

 

How bad would Spider-Man have been if they had included EVERY villain from issue 1-122 in the movie, instead of telling those 122 issues of story with just one villain? Oh look, there's seven seconds of screen time for Mysterio! Don't blink. You'll miss the nine seconds of the Molten Man! Watch out, here's the twelve second scene with Electro! That movie would have sucked worse than Leonard Part 6...

 

Spider-Man, a 3-character movie, was great.

Daredevil, a 4-character movie will probably be pretty good.

Hulk, a 3-character movie will probably be pretty good.

Spider-Man 2, a 4-character movie (with two of them already established) will probably be good.

X-Men 1, a 10-character movie, was not very good.

X-Men 2, a 15-character movie...

 

I think a Fantastic Four movie could be AMAZING... but only if they limit the number of characters they try to develop. The FF vs Dr Doom, just Dr Doom, could be (pardon the pun) fantastic. If they skip the origin story and go with a show-don't-tell screenplay, having the FF battle against Doom could be very well done, with believable characters and great special effects.

 

As far as the FF vs ASM debate, the first five years of FF are incredible and you'd be hard pressed to find any title that compares for a similar period of time. But there are few new FF fans being made, because there hasn't been an important issue of the title in 30 years. Without compelling new material the back issue prices eventually stagnate. Compare the prices of funny animal books 20 years ago to today... The FF is rapidly becoming irrelevant in the Marvel universe. Prices will likely still rise somewhat... but you would have to characterize them as 'underperforming' in the market...

[COI]

" the first five years of FF are incredible and you'd be hard pressed to find any title that compares for a similar period of time"

 

Very true.

 

" But there are few new FF fans being made,"

 

" The FF is rapidly becoming irrelevant in the Marvel universe."

 

Also true. There is a movie in the works, so hopefully this will change the amount of relevant stuff being put out for FF, and grab some new fans. I haven't read any of the recent FF books since the Heroes Reborn gimmick, but I know that nothing significant is going on there.

 

Even without the movie I think that as long as the silver age Marvel back issue market stays as strong as it is(I'm refering to the market as a whole, everything from HG CGC to low grade readers) FF will continue to show decent to very good increases, second only to Spiderman. They are icons of Marvel, and unless something starts going drasticallly wrong at Marvel headquarters, I doubt they will be leaving "The Worlds Greatest Comic Magazine" in the dust.

[COI]

Drummy,

 

I'm in agreement with a lot of your opinions on these issues.

 

Many of my favorite silver age covers are FF books. Although Kirby's work was great across the board, I always got the feeling he put in a little something extra with his FF covers.

 

Good luck finding the issues you need, especially 23, 31, and 49. I've found those to be the toughest on your list, as well as 52. Anything below 20 is nearly impossible, especially when talking un-slabbed.

[fantastic_four]

Prices will likely still rise somewhat... but you would have to characterize them as 'underperforming' in the market...

Can you sell me some of those underperforming FFs? I haven't been able to get any high grade copies below 60 for less than double to triple guide for two solid years now. Ditto for issues from 116 to 128.

[Mister_Comics]

murph0 maybe they'd say HULK.

 

I don't know if the FF is as popular now as when I was a kid, but the Fantastic Four were pretty well known back in the 60's. The FF was a pretty big thing when they first came out. They were so much in demand that Marvel started HUMAN TORCH stories in STRANGE TALES. Hanna Barba had that cartoon show of them also. (and lets not bring up that show that had Herbie) I can remember reading in nespapers and magazines article about this new super group. And I think SNL even did a bit on Marvel charaters which included the FF once. I remember kids in the neighborhood going nuts for FF comics when they first came out. I don't think Spider-Man had that same impack like the first couple of years of Fantastic Four. I think Spider-Man gradually caught on and became well known and more popular them the FF. The WORLDS GREATEST COMIC seems to be forgotten by thier creators. If the FF lost the popularity its only because of MARVEL. If you were to ask me 5 years ago what was the most popular Marvel superhero comic I'd probably of said X-MEN. And the kids would say WOLVERINE. Its just who is in the spotlight at the time. Right now I'd say Spider-Man.

[jimjum12]

don't count out the current f.f. series just yet.for those of you who gave up on it, the recent pacheco run was out of this world.the last two issues of the new mark waid run are sold out around here and i missed 'em.i guess i got used to no one buying them.the claremont and larocca batch were first rate also.a recent issue that highlighted ben grimm's jewish heritage actually made the national news.it was a real decent story.some of the coolest people i know are jewish.PLEASE,if you haven't done so already,check out the last few years of the f.f.GOD BLESS...

-jimbo(a friend of jesus)

[lighthouse]

First off I don't think you can find strict NM copies of any pre-1965 Marvel for less than double to triple guide and that's been true for longer than just the last couple of years...

 

I've got some free time, and I don't feel like another turkey sandwich, so I decided to pull together numbers on the other issues you mentioned, the 116-128 run of FF. These issues are easy to compare with other titles since they are the 25c Giant and the first 12 issues at the new 20c cover price.

 

Aggregate NM guide of the 25c Giant and the next twelve issues:

From 1995 to 2002 Overstreet:

 

THOR-no 193 194-205 ........62 ......180 ....190%

ASM-no 102 ....103-114 ......252 .....540 ....114%

CAP ..................143-155 ........79 .....168 ....113%

SUB ...................43-55 ...........67 .....142 ....112%

FF .....................116-128...... 118 .....249 ....111%

HULK ...............145-157........80 ......164 ....105%

DD...................... 81-93 ........117 ......211 .....80%

IRON-no 55 .......43-54 ........122 .....212 .....74%

SGT ....................92-104 .......116 .....186 .....60%

AVENGERS.......93-105 ........310......492......59%

 

I took out the three keys from this analysis, Thor 193, ASM 102, and Iron Man 55, since prices on keys are not really indicative of movement of the title as a whole. All three were out-performed by the rest of the market with Thor 193 up 88% and the other two up less than 20% in the seven years. (Avengers 93 and 100 were up 60% and did not affect the ranking of their title.)

 

Of the ten titles, I find it interesting that the lowest-priced and 2nd highest-priced in 1995 were the top performers over the 7 year span.

 

Clearly Thor out-performed the rest of the market during this time period and Avengers, Daredevil, Iron Man, and Sgt Fury under-performed. The remaining five titles chugged right along, well within any statistician's margin for error. There's the past, now where's the future?

 

The biggest reason why I do not see FF back issues keeping pace with the market over the next decade or so is that there are fewer and fewer collectors who have a fondness for the title. Donut feels he has to apologize for seeking out 25-year-old back issues of the title because the common perception is that the title has been sub-par for a very long time. We all love the early stuff. There is absolutely no doubt of that. But I don't think that's enough here.

 

There are three kinds of back issue collectors. There are collectors who have been in the hobby consistently for decades. There are collectors who were in the hobby for a period of time, then left as real-life intruded, and have now come back. And there are brand-new collectors just discovering the joys of comics.

 

The first group buys 30-40-year-old books because they have been buying and selling those same issues ever since they came out. They still have memories of pulling X-Men #5 off the shelf. These collectors are more likely to place value in its historical context and tend to disagree with sudden movements in either direction in the guide. These collectors have been buying early FF since it came out and will continue to do so until they die.

 

The second group is the 20-years-later-20-times-the-cost group. They drift away from collecting for a while, then life changes for them and they rush back with a vengeance buying up the stuff that was important to them as a kid. Then they tend to continue both backwards and sideways, following titles they read back toward the beginning and following artists and writers to other titles they missed way back when. Sometimes they will branch out from their original interests, but frequently they fixate on one or two characters or creators.

 

The third group is the new collector, just discovering what's cool. She steals her boyfriend's copies of Sandman and decides to start collecting on her own. To her the entire past of comics is wide open. She knows there is no way she will ever read all of it, so she tends to focus on recent stuff for a while before gradually selecting a favorite character or two. Then the backward quest starts and the next thing you know she has a full run of Daredevil.

 

Now the folks in the first group are buying FF, they have been for years, they will continue to do so. They exert market pressure on the title on a fairly consistent basis and the market has adjusted to those pressures. The reason why I don't think FF prices will keep up with the market is the lack of people in the second and third groups.

 

The FF buying market has gotten steady influxes from group two for years. Kids reading the title in '69 suddenly have extra cash in '89 and they start repurchasing their youth. Some are slower to get solvent and arrive at the party in '94. But the number of people who are now getting extra spending money that grew up when FF was cool is dwindling by the day. A guy turning 30 today was 7 years old when Herbie the Robot was introduced. He has no memory of Fantastic Four being great. If his mom bought him one of each comic on the spinner rack on his 9th birthday, it's unlikely that he thought FF was the best of the bunch. Instead he's now chasing something that was cool back then, either Spidey or X-Men. He will likely have some FF in his collection, but they won't be his life's quest.

 

The third group is also a fallow field for new FF collectors. Even during Claremont's Richards-Doom body-swapping storyline which was fantastic, the book was a hard sell. There was so much negative momentum to get past that few people were willing to pick up the book. The current Waid storyline is good, but it would need to be good for a while before it could compel customers to buy Silver Age FF's. Quality new product can push Silver Age sales. Inhumans and Black Panther both saw spikes in their back issues as a result of their new releases. I have a customer who was introduced to Iron Man less than six months ago who now has issues #1-10 and is starting on the TOS.

 

Unlike Spidey and X-Men, FF's back issue prices are determined almost entirely by people in the first group. And that group doesn't get any bigger. Spidey, X-Men, and Daredevil all have large numbers of people in the second group, lots of people with fond memories of their books from the early 80's. FF does not. No title was as consistently good as FF in 1961-1966, but every original Marvel title was as good or better than FF in 1981-1986.

 

If other titles see additional demand as a result of people recapturing their youth and Fantastic Four does not, at some point those other titles are out-performing FF in the back issue market. I am not suggesting for a second that the books will drop in value, or that the quest of finding high grade copies will get any easier. But as FF back issue prices climb over the next decade, I do not believe they will be climbing as fast as the rest of the market.

 

And now I think I will get that turkey sandwich after all...

[COI]

Your ff collector catagories make sense on paper, but don't pan out. The buying/collecting public is too diverse, with many reasons for buying what they do, too many to pin down.

 

An example would be myself. I don't fit into any of these catagories, being 24 and not having grown up reading ANY FF. But it is no coincidence that the only issues I buy are the ones where FF was at its best(before issue 60). I can logically conclude that there must be quite a few more like me who got into comics in the 80's(NO FF), decided to go backwards and purchase silver age, and in doing so stumbled upon classic and historically significant issues/runs like the FF's mentioned above.

 

If the declining readership does begin squashing the silver market, it won't be for at least another 2 decades, as there are quite a lot of 20 and 30 somethings to keep the market going. And most people who collect silver marvel will continue to be interested in silver FF, regarless of the their current popularity.

[fantastic_four]

I can't speak for your third group, but I can sure say that you're wrong about the second group. I've spoken with quite a few of the people driving up my prices on FFs, and so far they're all within 10 years of my age (31). Brulato (haven't talked to him but Diamond did a bio on him here: http://scoop.diamondgalleries.com/scoop_article.asp?ai=565&si=127 ) , Storms, Schreuder, Zipperer, and a half-dozen others I've talked with...none of those guys are old enough to have bought many Silver comics off the stands, yet they're paying multiples for them now. First one I bought was around #246, yet I'm paying triple guide for early 9.2s and counting myself as lucky to do it! All you guys reading this who were born in the 60s, 70s, or 80s, respond if you're an FF collector!

 

When I started buying FFs in the mid-80s, they were my third-favorite title behind X-Men and Spidey; I loved most of the Byrne FFs. The Doom stories, the Trial of Galactus...those hooked me. Which Marvels were better than FF in the 80s besides Spidey and X-Men? The others I bought in the 80s were Iron Man, Hulk, and Avengers; didn't like those nearly as much but they were a decent read. I could see an argument for the Simonson Thors, although I still haven't read those yet.

 

I can't say much about the last 10 years, other than it's obvious that Marvel has remained fundamentally committed to most of their Stan Lee creations, and that it seems you're right--FF ain't drawing many new people. Seems to me you could make the same "new collectors don't care" argument about almost every Marvel title besides Spidey, X-Men, and Daredevil (thanks to Smith), and most DC titles. Every long-running title needs outstanding artists, writers, or key character introductions to attract new generations.

[clobberintime]

Ok - I can't take it anymore so I am coming back out of retirement. This guy has the same sort of faulty logic a lot of brain surgeons have on here. The first FF book i bought was 147 with the great Thing/ Namor cover. Within a few months I was buying old issues at the local shop and by mail order. You see what attracted me was the art and great characters and stories. The Thing and Torch are two of the most recognizable and memorable characters anywhere. I wanted to know all about them - why was thing orange and how could Johnny burn and not burn up? The interaction of the characters was fun and they had the greatest bad guys ever. Unlike the street fighting heroes that i found boring, they had space age adventures with the most fantastic characters anyone could imagine. I soon had my copy of Origins of marvel in 1975 and i probably read those origins 10 times over and as implausible as the origin of the FF was, i loved it. I think it appeals a lot to sci-fi folks with Reed and all the sci-fi things going on. And hate to break it to you non-believers but Doc Doom is the greatest villian of all time - not the Joker rip off Goblin or any other goofy animal/insect Spidey fought. Doom is the ultimate embodiment of the evil interaction of science and majic - you know kind of like that Vader guy that everyone knows about these days.Doom comes from the tradition of evil scientists and sorcerers that goes back to Frankenstein. His origin , personality etc are some of the best stuff in comics. But back to the main point. if any kid sees the colorful FF and gets curious, its easier now than ever before to find out the background and enjoy those great old stories. And i think they are selling pretty well. I have all of the large statues, the recent hero clix set based on the ff, the new FF mini set and the brand new action figures which are well made and basically sold out. Like a lot of people's simple minded and simplistic belief in a crash of prices or values, the view that these characters are washed up or out of time is too simple and short sighted. The history and ground work is too rich and solid.

[HooDeeDoo]

I really need to come here more often.

 

Fantastic Four was my first love. The very first comic book I bought off the rack (at the A&P on Jeff Davis Avenue in Long Beach, Mississippi - later it would be blown away by Hurricane Camille) was FF#65. It's very peculiar (and I should probably seek therapy for it) but I can remember the smell of the book and how cold the A&P was that day. Several months ago, I was thrilled to buy a 9.6 w/white pages from THE MAN. (What I wasn't thrilled with was how much I paid, but I digress..........)

 

I beg to differ with those who say the best FFs ended at #60. I think it abruptly ended with #93. After that, it seems as though no one had the energy for the title ever again. Although #100 has a classic cover, the story itself is a bit of a snore-fest. Part of the decline came from the pages having only four panels (less story to tell) and several splash pages. If you look at the early books, they were VERY talky and that's what drove the story and the character development. As time went on, there was bigger art and less talk.

 

Recently, I reread the first 20 Spideys and I was struck by what a soap opera it was. Nonstop existential angst-a-go-go! I believe the reason Spidey is more popular with the masses is because there is ONE character to focus on and alot of people identify with his self-pity. Also, Spidey is an underdog and there are two identities/story lines so there is more dramatic tension at play in the stories. Dramatically, Spidey had more to work with. Whereas the FF is primarily about battling the bad guys. Therefore, dramatically the title isn't as emotionally engaging.

 

Although Spidey has classic characters, so much of the Marvel universe sprang from the pages of the FF - Silver Surfer, Dr. Doom, the Inhumans, Galactus, the Watcher, Black Panther, Skrulls, Puppet Master, Sub-Mariner, Mole Man, etc. Furthermore, EVERY other Marvel character made an appearance in the FF. This wasn't because the FF needed help selling books, but rather Marvel was trying to move readers over to other titles. I think it would be safe to say that at least 90% of kids in the 60's who bought only two comics each month bought Spidey & the FF.

 

Now, if you're a Spidey purest, and you feel the sun rises and sets on Peter Parker, then the characters that came from the FF may seen inconsequential to you personally. However, in the Marvel Universe, the FF's contribution can never be understated.

 

On to other things..........

 

I agree with Odin88 about the #45-52 story run - however, it's important to start with #44 - that's where Gorgon first steps into the spotlight. That run is nothing short of AMAZING - you go from the first appearances of the Inhumans to Galactus to the Silver Surfer to the Black Panther. Talk about a roll!!! Also with #44, Joe Sinnott begins inking and the FF truly find its "look" - which lasts, almost uninterrupted, for 5 more years!

 

A few other classic story lines are Dr. Doom on the surf board, Sue pregnant and the FF hunting down the Silver Surfer, and the FF without their powers trapped in the Alps with Doom. Yeeha!

 

One of the initial questions was what #s are hardest to find. Without question, #29 is the sleeper book above #20. There is one 9.6 and one 9.4 - all the rest are eight 9.2s & nine 9.0s (or below). The 9.4 & 9.6 were slabbed over a year ago so there hasn't been as SINGLE 9.4 submitted in over a year. This does not bode well for more appearing soon. I'm glad I own the 9.4

 

I've rambled for too long.

 

Errands to run!

 

 

 

 

[lighthouse]

I can't speak for your third group, but I can sure say that you're wrong about the second group. I've spoken with quite a few of the people driving up my prices on FFs, and so far they're all within 10 years of my age (31). ....none of those guys are old enough to have bought many Silver comics off the stands, yet they're paying multiples for them now.

 

That wasn't the point I was making. I am 32 myself, clearly I didn't buy any Silver Age off the rack either. My first comics were DD 148 and Isis 1... Now I own somewhere around 6,000 Silver Age books. Of course I am a fan of the first six years of FF. Being exposed to the full spectrum of titles, I can't help but love the early FF's.

 

My point was that there are far fewer 20-somethings who have any fondness for FF. There are some certainly. But as another poster said, almost every kid in the 60's was buying FF and they all loved it (and rightly so). By the early 70's FF had slipped below Spidey, and by the late 70's below X-Men as well. Early 80's FF drops below Frank Miller's Daredevil, and a couple years later below Simonson's Thor. Today it's Marvel's 13th best-selling monthly title.

 

I don't doubt there are college kids shopping in my store today who will eventually be looking for a few FF keys. But the number of them who will try to put a decent run of FF together pales compared to the number looking to put together runs of Spidey, X-Men, and Daredevil. And the high school kids are only likely to pick up Silver Age FF as part of a larger collection, not as the focus of one. And 'key' collectors only affect the prices on keys. You need people putting runs together to boost the title as a whole.

 

Twenty years ago, probably 75% of Marvel Silver Age collectors had FF as one of their main focuses. Today it's less than half. And I see the percentage continuing to fall. The actual count of collectors is still rising, and prices will continue to rise as well, but new Marvel Silver collectors are not as FF-focused as the generations before them. So if they have $1,000 to throw at a nice book, the chances they pick an FF is lower than what it has been in the past.

 

Fantastic Four is as blue-chip an investment as you can get in Marvel Siver Age (in grades under 9.2 anyway, only CI knows what will happen to the 9.2+ end of the market). But blue-chips are by definition conservative. And while I think your money in Silver Age FF's is safer than it would be in any other Marvel title, it's not likely to keep pace with the rest of the market. I don't know which specific titles are going to out-perform it. Could continue to be X-Men as it has been for the last couple years. Could be Spidey again. Could be Daredevil or Hulk as a result of their movies. Could be Thor as 80's Simonson collectors start to get fat cash.

 

There are four other Marvel titles that you can make the generic statement "When those guys start to get their first taste of money, they'll be flocking back to comic stores..." You just can't make that statement about FF... If you need proof of the buying power of my second group, just look at the Marvel price variants. We're a bunch of lunatics trying to chase down our youth (except for Donut who has already caught his and now keeps it locked in a jar on his desk).

 

Every long-running title needs outstanding artists, writers, or key character introductions to attract new generations.

 

I agree with this 100%. Spidey and X-Men have seen the benefit of this for years, with a number of exciting creators as well as a large stable of new characters. This used to be what was great about FF, it seemed like every issue there was something new and amazing. And it's just been too long now...

 

Daredevil has seen two outstanding creator runs since 1979 with Miller and Smith. Thor had one, with Simonson's Surtur saga. Hulk had some great work from McFarlane and Keown, plus a couple good Wolverine fights before the current Bruce Jones run. Iron Man's high point of the last 20 years was Iron Man: The Drunk Years. The Avengers has what? An appearance on David Letterman in 84? And the FF isn't much better. Not a single issue that lists over $5 since 1978, and frankly the coolest FF story from 1980-1999 was their participation in Onslaught, where they actually had the majesty and clout they so richly deserve. I really enjoyed the recent Claremont run with all the Richards-Doom interplay, but it didn't catch on...

 

Please recognize I am not dogging the FF... You can't own 2500 Silver Age Marvels without loving the Fantastic Four... I read FF every month, and I keep hoping that at some point Marvel will treat the book with the respect it deserves. But because they don't, and because they haven't for two decades, I just don't see the demand for Silver Age FF's rising as fast as other Marvel titles...

[fantastic_four]

Oh yah, how'd I forget about Daredevil. FF was my fourth favorite in the 80s, behind X-Men/DD/Spidey.

 

Well I guess Marvel has tried a bunch of stuff...they made a she-Thing in the 90s, shifted team members around, killed off Galactus, gave Galactus new heralds left and right, put Sue Richards in a leather bondage outfit and made her a villain, had the Thing's girl betray him for the Torch...not sure what else they can do besides stick famous writers or artists on the title.

[COI]

"Could be Daredevil or Hulk as a result of their movies"

 

An FF movie IS coming. It's in development as we speak, and supposedly may start filming in the middle of next year.

 

Just to add to this point made earlier, there are a lot of people in my age group(early-mid 20's) who are going through their "other priorities" stages and who left comics on the back burner. If I wasn't self employed, and had tuition and student loans coming out of my @ss like many in my age group, I probably wouldn't be collecting anything other than new books myself. I just spoke to a 26 yr.old friend of mine who spent $200 on a pile of comics last week, and for him this was the biggest "shopping spree" of the year, when many others in this high grade market(myself included) would call $200 a slow week.

 

[lighthouse]

An FF movie IS coming. It's in development as we speak, and supposedly may start filming in the middle of next year.

 

Yes it is... And it appears that it will be just the FF and Dr Doom, which means it has a very good chance... I worry about how much time they will spend telling the origin story (and how much they will have to update it). But with just five characters to introduce and the best villain in comics, there's a great chance for a solid film.

 

My biggest concern to this point is the director, Peyton Reed. His biggest claim to fame at this point is Bring It On, and the FF movie won't have Eliza Dushku to save it...

 

But if it's done right, you may see a few thousand people flocking to their local comic book store to buy more stuff with that cool Doom guy in it...

[conservativeone]

Guys,

For me the magic of the Silver Age Fantastic Four is Kirby! No other artist in my humple opinion has ever expressed raw power, spellbinding character design, machinery, vehicles and devices of size and complexity(so perfect for the title) or how they say "The Power Cosmic" so effectively! Plus, his rendition of the Thing, my favorite comic character of all time- is the "only" version of the character! And Kirby/Sinnott! Pencils and inks combined in heaven!

I have been pursuing high grade copies since the mid Seventies and you may not believe this with the advent of eBay but back in the old days it was tad near impossible to turn up high grade gems of this title and even with eBay it has been futile. If one had the financial means you could have built 2-3 9.6 or better runs of Spidey in the last year alone! Not even close for FF! Why FF is rarer in grade I really don't know but rarer it is! Issues that have confounded me through out the years:

#12 and 13- nuff said.

#15- bought a nice copy off of Sparkle City(remember them?) back in the Eighties.

#18- sold my 9.0 on eBay- never should have because it was super nice and I have never seen a better copy.

#22- Have always liked this cover- best copy I have ever seen was a 9.4 on eBay or it might have been an auction.

#26- never can find a great white cover with the staples just on the spine. Killer copy on eBay right now. It's twin #25 is never seen.

#28- never seen one with a true white cover.

#29, 30 ,31,32- a super tough quartet. #31 impossible in 9.4 or better!

#37- Selling my 9.2 soon on eBay. Could be a mistake. Always off center.

#43- this dark cover is a toughy.

#47- for years I searched for a steller copy.

#49 and 50- by far as everybody knows harder to find that #48.

#51- for some reason took me years to find an acceptable copy.

#54- this white cover is harder to find in nice shape that people think.

#56- sold my 9.4 on eBay. Once again was probably a mistake because a better copy has yet to turn up.

#57 and 58- two sleepers in high grade with 57 being especially difficult.

#65 and 66- again two sleepers because of their dark covers but they are both quintessential Kirby covers that I love. Again, took me decades to locate great copies.

#68- My favorite Thing cover from the Kirby /Sinnott years. The dark purple of the cover was difficult for me to find without stress.

#70- dark cover.

#71 and 73- white covers and like #54 harder than collectors think.

For those who are "Anything after issue #60 in the FF sucks" people, sorry but there are many worthy Kirby art issues and #71 is one of the great action issues of all time.

#80-102- much more abundant simply because of their age but even in this run issues can baffle you!

Annual #4

Many of the above may make some people laugh because they may have great copies but these are just some of many that I have diligently searched for. Luckily I have been able to find many pedigrees and gems to fill the above but I also don't have many of these slabbed! But then again that means my search can go on indefinitely if after having them slabbed they come up wanting. This is fine with me because I love collecting high grade Fantastic Four and Kirby art! conservo.

[supapimp]

yes, sparkle city comics was advertised a lot in the overstreet update, remember direct comics in socal? i remember seeing alot of moondance comics ad in the 80's too.

[aardvark88]

Reminder that FF #1 started in 1961 while ASM 1 was 1963. Age, Marvel chipping, & fewer early FF #s horded by Robt Bell may be why early #s scarcer than ASM. Compare also to early Showcase. Show 4 came out in 1956. All the early Show & Brave Bold r VERY scarce in vf.