Gallery 24: A $1 million comic & Daily Planet office furniture

[BradleyX2]

Direct from the just released March 2010 CGC newsletter, here's the latest on our Gallery from the QC main man Michael McFadden!

 

A Glance at the Gallery

by Michael McFadden, CGC Quality Control

 

Greetings once more, Fandom. Michael McFadden here with some new additions to the CGC DigiGallery.

 

 

We don’t normally add the second-best copy of a book to the DigiGallery if we are already exhibiting the highest-certified copy online. This month, kids, we’re going to make an exception to my rule, because the copy is, well, special. In our 10 years and more than a million comics certified, we’ve only seen 43 copies of comicdom’s most iconic and legendary book, Action Comics #1, the origin and first appearance of Superman. This is the book from which an entire industry sprang and the unique American pop culture phenomena called the superhero began. Only 26 of those have been certified with our blue label, unrestored and unqualified in any way. The top copy of those is an 8.5, and this month we were delighted to add the second-best copy as yet certified, the 8.0 Kansas City pedigree copy. Do take a look at this beauty… it is stunning, and the kind of book that makes looking at all those Little Dots and Ziggy Pigs worthwhile. This Kansas City pedigree copy is the best thing to happen to Missouri since I pulled up stakes and moved down here to Florida, naturally! Our congratulations to the buyer, who bought this CGC-certified copy with complete confidence of what he was purchasing. He must feel like a million bucks now… or feel like he’s just spent a million bucks, actually! Oh, well… who needs money when you can have comic books!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

We had a number of pedigreed books this month, many added from the Rocky Mountain and Green River collections. Tales to Astonish #s 82, 88, 89, 90, 92, 93, 96 and 99 were all 9.8, as were Strange Tales #s 145 and 152.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Rocky Mountain Green Lanterns (Silver Age) included #53 in 9.8 and #s 54, 55, 57 and 58, 9.6 all. Also added to our exhibit of Green Lanterns were #26 (Big Apple) and non-pedigreed copies of #17 (9.4) and 29 (9.6). Another star of the Julie Schwartz Silver Age superhero stable, Flash, hit 9.8 on the Western Penn copy of #140 and 9.6 on the collection’s copy of #150. The Pacific Coast #147 was 9.6 and a non-pedigreed #119, one of my favorite issues, featuring Murphy Anderson inks on “The Mirror Master’s Magic Bullet,” was 9.4. More Julie: Mystery in Space #3 (Spokane) was 9.0, the Bethlehem copy of #66 was 9.4 and a non-pedigreed #71, prime Adam Strange material, was 9.0.

 

Another Green Lantern, this one from the Golden Age, earned an 8.0 for #27 (Ohio). Among our growing exhibit of Gaines File Copies are a 9.8 Piracy #2, a 9.6 Two-Fisted Tales #24 and 9.8 on Tales From the Crypt #30, a copy that has held up better than the waterlogged, bloated corpse depicted on the cover. Jumbo Comics #16 (Mile High, a stunning 9.8 from June 1940) boasts an art lineup of Will Eisner, Lou Fine and George Tuska. Impressive book, right down to the ink! And Showcase #59 (Pacific Coast, 9.6) yielded the DC tryout title’s 12th feature to earn its own book or cover feature from its Showcase appearance, this just two months short of its 10th anniversary. Can you name them all?

 

 

 

 

 

A lot of nine-nines and 10s added this month, so let’s get right to them, shall we? All this physical perfection makes me feel hopelessly inadequate. Cracking the ten-O circle were amazing copies of Amazing Spider-Man #s 321 and 322. They were joined by 9.9s of issue #s 334, 342, 343, 351 and 360. An Avengers #255 hit 9.9, as did Batman #360, Detective #554 (with 3 JLA members on the cover in a homage to Flash Comics #92) and copies of Marvel’s Daredevil #s 190 and 217, the latter with an outrageously good Barry Windsor-Smith cover. And fans won’t find the red-hot Chew #1 at 9.9 hard to swallow.

 

 

 

 

Some other fun number-ones and firsts this month, including Teen Titans #1 at 9.6, none certified higher. “Always your boy” in 1959, DC’s Pat Boone #1, the four-color paean to the era’s favorite pop rocker of concerned moms and dads across Middle America, at 6.0 is the second-highest-graded copy. It was really a 5.0, but we bumped it up a full grade because we were dazzled by Pat’s wholesome, boyish, all-American smile plastered across the front cover. Who can resist? Siege #1 (Quesada variant cover) was a 9.8 entry. Strange Suspense Stories #75 reintroduced Charlton’s Captain Atom, one of the earliest of Silver Age superheroes, reprinting his adventures from Space Adventures beginning in 1960. After a three issue tryout, the book’s title was changed to Captain Atom and Steve Ditko, having just quit Spider-Man, reassumed art chores on new stories.

 

 

Julie Walker Is the Phantom #1 (Moonstone, 9.8) is an excellent, meticulously researched art job by Eisner-nominated “Athena Voltaire” writer Paul Daly, which chronicles an incident in the life of an x chromosome, 19th century Ghost Who Walks. Wein and Wrightson’s Swamp Thing #1, one of the 70s’ most collectable books, reached 9.6. The first Silver Age origin of Aquaman highlights Adventure Comics #260, May 1959, at 9.2, none higher. The Catwoman sports a brand-new costume in Batman #15 at 8.5. Only one copy has certified better. I hear the story centers around Catwoman going to Kohl’s during a weekend sale. That can be rough stuff, kids.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Harvey’s Spyman #1 is a SigSeries entry autographed by Neal Adams, Ayers, Joe Simon and the man whose first professional work appears here, Jim Steranko. Wolverine Weapon X #1, Hero Initiative Edition, shows real initiative from Clayton Crain, who does a fully realized painting on its blank cover. Marvels Project #1 is another SigSeries book and you gotta look at this thing! It’s one of a dozen cover recreations on Marvels Project #1 blank cover by Anthony Castrillo, and this particular one, for your approval, is Superman #1. A lot of SigSeries sketches are just that — sketches. Castrillo, like Crain, goes above the call of duty with this beautifully rendered and colored take on Joe Shuster’s iconic cover. How I wish we could have posted all 12 to the DigiGallery, but Paul Litch suggests I occasionally QC a few books around here. But, Paul, they’re SigSeries… good times, dude!

 

 

 

 

 

How about some vintage book fun? High-grade, early-50s Atlas books are scarcer in the office than medals in the Winter Olympics for sand-strewn Saudi Arabia. So we were jazzed to see a Battlefront #5 in 9.4, note the finely technicianed cover by Batman alum Jerry Robinson, and Marvel Tales #96 in 9.4. Captain America Comics #52 hit an impressive 9.6 and a copy of #64 tied highest-graded honors at 8.5. L. B. Cole once more made a complex drawing look deceptively easy with a penciled, inked and colored cover on an amazing 9.8 issue of Contact Comics #11, none certified better. From Better Publications, Thrilling Comics #s 8, 69 and 71 are all elite copies. #8 is tough. We’ve seen only six copies in our 10 years. Flash Comics #80 earned 9.8 and Sub-Mariner Comics #8 got an eight. For you Windy City and Playboy fans, we certified a copy of That Toddlin’ Town, its title referencing the Fred Fisher song lyric from “Chicago.” Cover and art by one Hugh Hefner, who was a cartoonist, which explains Playboy’s strong emphasis on art design and his unflagging support of cartoonists like Jack Cole. But you already knew that, didn’t you?

 

 

 

 

 

Silver Age, anyone? How many times has DC exploited Superman’s costume on a cover in a shameless bid to sell copies? I mean, without the big guy in it? Not often, really, given the clear temptation. Offhand, I can think of Kamandi #29 and this issue, Sugar and Spike #83. This one earned a 9.6 and the costume is not unlike the one CGC mega-headcheese Mark Haspel wears on casual dress Fridays at the office.

 

 

 

 

Nine-eights were earned this month by X-Men #45, Fantastic Four #41 and Amazing Spider-Man #8. Earning nine-sixes were Wonder Woman #131, Amazing Spider-Man #55, Avengers #s 16 and 27, Superman’s Girl Friend Lois Lane #38, Batman #s 150 and 157, Justice League of America #40, Detective Comics #318, Brave and the Bold #61, Doom Patrol #s 89 and 92 and Fantastic Four #47. A Fantastic Four #6, the second appearance of Dr. Doom and the Silver age Sub Mariner, certified at 9.6 as well, tying one other copy at the top spot.

 

 

My favorite this month is a 9.8 copy of Action Comics #302. You know the busiest guy in Metropolis? It’s the guy who provides office furniture to the Daily Planet. Back when Mort Weisinger edited the Superman books, it seemed like someone at the Planet would gain Man of Steel’s powers on a weekly basis. They would invariably pound their desk with their fist in front of colleagues and projectiles from the top would go flying as the desk split in half. Can you imagine the all-too-frequent phone calls from the Planet’s buying agent to the office furniture supplier? “You’re kidding? Wait, I know you’re not kidding. Who was it this week? Perry? Lois? Clark? Jimmy?” Then he’d hang up, chortle to himself about “the easiest money in town” and send a replacement from his extensive warehouse that had to mostly be filled with desks tagged for the Planet newsroom. The only brisker business in Metropolis was DC’s… who sold a super-warehouse of comics with this oft-used plotline!

 

 

 

 

Comments and questions regarding the gallery? We’re fans, too. We enjoy hearing from you, unless we don’t. You can contact me at mmcfadden@CGCcomics.com . Thank you for your time and do remember — earn money in your spare time, sell Grit, America’s weekly family newspaper. Be good to yourself and be CGC-ing you!

 

[BradleyX2]

This one earned a 9.6 and the costume is not unlike the one CGC mega-headcheese Mark Haspel wears on casual dress Fridays at the office.

 

 

 

 

But at least he alternates it every other Friday with his BETTY & ME #16 t-shirt!

 

 

[Mr. Zipper]

Seeing this larger scan, it sure does look like there is a dark area around the bottom staple of the Action 1.

 

[MutantKeys]

 

[ft88]

Am I crazy in thinking the ASM 321 is very very slightly off center? (the top looks to be at an angle and the black spine line looks to be slightly on the back.) I'm fine with 9.8's and under not taking into consideration centering but 9.9 and 10's really should with 9.9's allowing for the centering flaws that I see in this book.

 

Otherwise, great showcase of amazing books.

 

Ed

[Mr. Zipper]

Am I crazy in thinking the ASM 321 is very very slightly off center?

 

Actually, the cover is misaligned and angled up to the right side. Look at the logo box and the text box across the top. Not even close to level.

 

[rjrjr]

Do the Flash #140 and Tale from the Crypt #30 have slightly rounded bottom corners? Is that allowed in a 9.8?

 

I am not the expert here, but the modern 9.8s look sharp compared to these two. Does age play a factor in the grade?

 

Thanks,

Ron