My Top Ten

[Crimebuster]

A countdown of the top ten books in my collection.

 

Well, I do like making lists, so I thought I would do one of these top ten books everyone is doing. These are the ten books in my collection I would get rid of last. To be honest, beyond the top eight, it was pretty hard to pick the last two, so there are a number of books that almost made it in, the last cuts being Captain America #111, Star Spangled War Stories #151 and Wow Comics #38.

 

But here is my current Number 10 pick:

 

 

 

I picked this up a couple years ago with store credit at my LCS for a pile of books and other things I was getting rid of. At the time, I was mainly looking for high grade bargaining chips for trade, but this classic cover was also awesome, so I figured it would be something cool to have if I never found the right thing to trade it for.

 

Since then I have put together runs of Strange Tales as Nick Fury stuff, so it's definitely not going anywhere now. Only major issue is the non-color breaking bend in the bottom left corner, which could be pressed out. And might be some day if I decide to get this slabbed.

[Brandon Shepherd]

That's a nice looking book you have, I'm glade to see you and others putting up their lists!

[surfer99]

Beautiful book. Love the pressing and slabbing idea, definitely worthy. Can't wait to see the rest of the list!

[Crimebuster]

I don't have any great pictures of this one, but here is my Number 9:

 

 

 

I have since had this CGC'd and it came back a 4.0, which I was thrilled with. I bought this classic Crimebuster/Iron Jaw cover a couple years ago off ebay, where it was listed by the seller as a 3.0. I ended up getting a great deal, paying only about half guide for a 3.0, so having it come back a 4.0 is icing on the cake, especially since I still paid more for this book than any other comic I have bought to date. I don't yet have Boy Comics #3 or #10, so when I get one or both this may be bumped out of my top ten, but for now, here it is, a Charles Biro classic.

[Tnerb]

I love that you are showing books that have yet to be encased in carbonite, even though you state the book above has been encapsulated, the picture of it free is beautiful. Thank you for showing me a book I have never seen before.

[Crimebuster]

And now for something completely different, my Number 8 book:

 

 

 

This is what is known among collectors as an Original Owner book. I bought this off the stands (literally off a spinner rack in a pharmacy, I didn't even know comic books stores existed at the time) just a few months after I began reading and collecting comics. I was familiar with Conan and fantasy stuff, so as an 11-year-old, there was pretty much nothing funnier than Groo the Wanderer.

 

What makes this book special for me is that after I read it, my dad ended up reading it and he really enjoyed it. So for the next 10 years - all 120 issues of Groo - after I would buy the newest issue, I'd pass it over to Dad to read. A few years back I ended up getting rid of most of the run, but I kept the first 20 dog-eared issues as a reminder of that comic ritual.

 

Each of the past two years, Sergio Aragones has been scheduled to come to a con near me and both times he had to cancel. I am hoping that someday I get to meet both he and Mark Evanier so I can get them to sign this ratty, tattered treasure.

[Crimebuster]

I love that you are showing books that have yet to be encased in carbonite, even though you state the book above has been encapsulated, the picture of it free is beautiful. Thank you for showing me a book I have never seen before.

 

Thanks. I only own a few slabs at the moment, so most of my list is free as the wind at the moment. The slabs I do own I mostly had slabbed after the fact for insurance purposes. I don't mind them, but I do like to read the books as well.

[Crimebuster]

Clocking in at Number 7:

 

 

 

I picked this up a few years ago as part of a big trade with my LCS where I dumped a bunch of collectibles for store credit. I ended up with the Strange Tales #167 at number 10 on my list as well as this, JiM #86 and 87, a high grade MTU #1, a Tomb of Dracula #1 and some other odds and ends like high grade copies of Fear #20 and Marvel Spotlight #32. PLus a ton of random back issues I wanted to read.

 

And those are all cool, but this Journey Into Mystery #89 is tops. An all-time great Thor cover by Jack Kirby that I could just look at for hours. Iconic. You'll be seeing more iconic covers as we go, that's a theme with most of my picks. Characters and stories I love + iconic covers = must keep books.

[Crimebuster]

Hitting the bullseye at Number 6:

 

 

 

 

This is the second copy of ToS #57 i have owned. I got the first when I was in high school for a song - $10 or so - and it had a juicy date stamp on it too. Somewhere along the line, though, I ended up getting rid of it foolishly. So a few years ago, when I really got back into collecting and not just reading comics, picking up a new copy was one of my first priorities.

 

Luckily, I had some trading chips, namely a big run of X-men that i didn't care one whit about. As a result, i traded a high grade copy of X-Men #101 straight up for this ToS #57 with Ted from Superworld. And I haven't regretted it for one second.

 

How can you beat Hawkeye's first appearance!

[surfer99]

Dude...your comics rock! I love trading a bunch of average books to my LCS for a few outstanding copies. You have scored for sure.

[Crimebuster]

Dude...your comics rock! I love trading a bunch of average books to my LCS for a few outstanding copies. You have scored for sure.

 

Thanks (thumbs u

 

Coming on these forums can be a bit deflating sometimes, when you see people posting Action #1 or stuff in ultra high grade. Which is one reason several of the top books on my list have personal stories that go with them. I might be able to upgrade the comic, but it wouldn't be my copy if I did that. The history is more important to me.

[Crimebuster]

Appropriately enough, here's my Number 5:

 

 

 

When I started reading comics in the mid-80's, I was lucky enough to have a family friend give me a big collection of around 1,000 comics form the mid-70's. As a result while most of my friends were all about X-men and other 80's stuff, I was getting into weird, offbeat 70's stuff. Which served me well when it came to buying back issues, because nobody else seemed to care about the obscure characters I liked.

 

I didn't quite get into Ghost Rider as early as I would have liked, but when the new series came out in 1990 I was still enough ahead of the curve to get this copy of Marvel Spotlight #5 for $20. It is a bit of a kick me moment, though; back then, grading wasn't quite as strict, and the dealer I bought this from had another copy without the upper right corner damage for just $5 more. But I literally didn't even have $5 more, as I was working on a high school allowance.

 

This copy is still beautiful, especially for a black cover - and one of the greatest covers of the Bronze or any other age. But my 7.0 could have been a 9.2 if I had had just five more dollars to spend on it at the time.

 

C'est la vie.

[Crimebuster]

Coming in at Number 4:

 

 

 

 

 

This is a comic I always wanted but could never afford. I've been a big Green Arrow fan since the early 90's, and when it comes to Green Arrow, this is pretty much the book to have (other than More Fun #73 I suppose). Not just a landmark issue for Green Arrow, but for comics as a medium. Plus, one of the most iconic covers in comics history.

 

Anyway, a few years ago when I got back into collecting, this was the first purchase I made. At the time, I had probably 12 long boxes of just random comics I had acquired over the years, stuff that i didn't even consider to be part of my collection. To make space, I just dumped the whole lot of it for $250 to a dealer. He paid me via PayPal, so I had this balance in my account - and the first thing I did was go to eBay and buy this Green Lantern / Green Arrow #76. I paid $106 shipped for it. With the rest of the PayPal money I bought a very nice mid-grade X-Men #9, a low grade FF #25 and several random readers to fill gaps in my collection.

 

That was just five years or so ago, so I'm kind of amazed at how much this book has gone up in value in such a short time. I've seen books in lower grades go for twice as much as I paid in the last few months. And that's without the sig, which I got last November. Neal Adams charges $10 to sign books, but since I was going to be spending the money to get this slabbed, I figured another ten bucks wouldn't hurt anything. Neal was almost exasperated when I pulled this one out for him to sign, saying half-jokingly "do you have any idea how many copies of this book I have signed over the years?" I also felt like a bit of a tool when I declined his offer to personalize it, but I wanted just the sig on this. I did later have him personalize a sig on a copy of Avengers #96.

 

So here it is, not just a personal grail, but a grail, period.

[Crimebuster]

Here's a story about my Number 3.

 

As I mentioned in my description of my Marvel Spotlight #5, as a kid in the mid-80's, I was given a large collection of 70's books. As a result, I ended up getting into all sorts of weird, offbeat 70's characters, like Ghost Rider, Warlord, Deathlok and others. Most of them were way out of fashion at the time, though most would also get 90's revivals and become popular to one degree or another later on.

 

Perhaps my favorite character I discovered in that collection, though, was one who was more out of favor than any other, and who wouldn't regain his popularity until just the last few years: Jonah Hex. A western? Bah, who wants to collect that!

 

Well, thanks to receiving several issues of Weird Western, i did. And since nobody else cared at all, I was able to get most of the Weird Western and Jonah Hex runs extremely cheap. but since this was before eBay or anything like that, I was limited to what I could actually find in person, just luck of the draw. And even with so little interest in the character, finding copies of a title like Weird Western wasn't exactly easy to do.

 

So when I found this comic at a local comic shop in 1988, I just knew I absolutely had to buy it while I had the chance:

 

 

 

Just one problem: I didn't have any money! None. Zip. I was a freshman in high school with no job, so my comic money was basically allowance and, like, cashing in old soda cans for 5 cent deposits. That was it. So what was I going to do?

 

Well, I'm guessing this is the only time this has ever happened in world history, but I got the money to buy All-Star Western #10 on a loan from my youth pastor. He wasn't a comic book guy, but he was a hardcore baseball card collector. So he understood the collecting passion. He could tell I really, desperately wanted this book and after I explained the significance, he agreed to float me the cash to buy it.

 

So thanks to my youth pastor Ernie, I was able to get the $14.95 to buy this gem, which has now been in my collection for 25 years. Thanks, Ernie!

 

I had it slabbed last year, here it is post CGC:

 

[Crimebuster]

Coming in at Number 2:

 

 

 

When I began collecting comics, I immediately gravitated to the older stuff. The older, the better. The fact that some of these series had been running for decades was amazing to me. The high numbered books had a sense of wonder - what was hidden in that 250 or 300? How many generations of readers had enjoyed the stories? I loved it.

 

(which is one reason I still don't understand this crazy idea that new readers are turned off by higher numbered books and the constant desire to renumber everything - I know from personal experience higher numbers can be a draw rather than a detriment. But I digress)

 

So the first couple of times I went to a comic store, my aim was to buy the oldest comics I could afford. My first comic shop trip, I bought FF #61 and Avengers #36. That left me with just a couple of quarter left to get books from the quarter boxes - which turned out to be Flash #137 and Amazing Adventures #6 (vol. 1 with Dr. Droom). Hey, things were different in the 80's.

 

My second trip to the comic store, though, I found this book. I think I was just starting to get an understanding of Marvel history, so I did have a vague idea of the importance of this issue, but it was very vague. More important to me was just the fact that it was so old and so early in the development of the Marvel Universe. I had to have it.

 

My dad, luckily, agreed, because I had no money as usual. So he bought this seeming rag for me for the princely sum of $12.50. When I got home and read it, I discovered that the cover was partially split and hanging off the book. This worried me - I didn't want the cover to become detached. So my dad came up with a simple solution: Rubber cement.

 

More than 25 years later, I still have this book and am still happy to say that the cover is as firmly affixed now as it was then. I don't necessarily recommend rubber cementing your keys together, but it worked for me. While I may someday buy a second higher graded copy of this book - maybe - I will never get rid of this one. It really reminds me of the innocent fun of those early days as a reader and collector.

[meshuggah]

I'm really anxious to see what number 1 is going to be now.

[Crimebuster]

I have a lot of stories about my Number 1. But we'll start with a look at the book itself, since most of you are just going to scroll down to see what it is before you read this anyway. So here's a first photo for you of my Number 1 book:

 

 

 

Obviously, as the grail of my favorite series of all time, a copy of Avengers #1 would probably top my list one way or another. But this particular copy - my copy - has a lot of history behind it for me.

 

When I was first getting into comics, my dad gave me a very wise suggestion, which was to focus on one title rather than just buying stuff all scattershot. I bought a price guide and did some research to decide which title I wanted to focus on. My eventual pick: The Avengers.

 

Part of this was because I enjoyed the stories, but at that point, there were other series I enjoyed as much. But Avengers also offered a collecting challenge (it was up past issue #260 at that point) while not being ridiculously priced to the point of being unreasonable (like I felt Fantastic Four was even then). And once I started buying back issues, I quickly fell in love with the series.

 

In a bit of serendipity, the same year I got into comics, a good friend of mine also got into comics. he lived a thousand miles away, but each summer he would come out to visit. It turned out that not only was he also a comics nut like me, but he had independently also decided to focus on collecting Avengers. As a result, for several years, every Friday when new books would come out, we would call each other on the phone and talk for hours about all the comics we had gotten. And of particular note were whatever new Avengers back issues we had scored. Mind you, at the time, there were no Essentials or anything like that, so finding the back issues was about the only way to read the stories.

 

Fast forward to my 16th birthday. Every American lad imagines getting a car when he turns 16, and I wasn't an exception. The car in question that my parents were looking at was a pretty interesting one too - owned by my uncle, it was a junked 1953 Kaiser Willys Jeep. The issue was that it needed to be repaired and I was neither mechanically inclined nor possessed of the money to get it fixed by somebody else.

 

As it happened, the weekend before my birthday there was a small comic book show at the local mall. And one of the dealers had an Avengers #1 for sale. After drooling all over myself, I asked my parents if there was any way we could get it and their answer was: Either the car or the comic.

 

Naturally, I picked Avengers #1.

 

Just a few months later, Stan Lee came to the area for a comic show. My dad took myself and a couple of my friends to the con. But Stan wasn't signing until mid afternoon and my friends wanted to leave early! Apparently meeting the greatest living American wasn't a big deal for them. Anyway, I bribed them by buying them comics they could get signed by Stan (like Thor #385) and we got in line.

 

Now, going into this show, I had bought a book about comic collecting and it had a section about signed books and Stan Lee in particular. The author had an incident where Stan had signed his comic with a ballpoint pen - as he used to do - and had signed so hard he had ripped right through the cover. This was an FF #11, mind you. So going up to meet Stan I was terrified he was going to tear through the cover.

 

I came up with a cunning plan: I opened the book and timorously asked Stan if he would sign the inside instead. He graciously agreed. And then much to my complete horror, instead of signing the splash page, he signed the inside of the front cover! Needless to say, I just about crapped my pants. But when I finally got the nerve up to look at it, I found that luckily, he hadn't torn through the book after all:

 

 

 

This isn't the end of Stan's association with my Avengers #1, though.

 

A few years ago, I was going through some old comics and I came across the old MMMS Ranks of Hallowed Marveldom graphic:

 

 

Looking over the requirements, I discovered I qualified each of the first four ranks - I at one time bought more than three marvel comics a month (it was more like 20 at one point), I won a No-Prize (for cataloging every character appearance from Avengers #1-350) , I recruited several friends to start reading marvel comics, and I had a letter published (in Avengers #353). That gave me the rank of Permanent Marvelite Maximus.

 

But in order to attain the final rank, Fearless Front Facer, you had to go above and beyond the call of duty in your devotion to Marvel. And, in fact, after some research I learned that urban legend had it that only Stan Lee himself could bestow this rare title on a fan.

 

So I made up a YouTube video addressed to Stan and in it, I told the story of choosing my Avengers #1 over a car for my 16th birthday. I then contacted Marvel editor Tom Brevoort and told him what I was doing and he said he'd see what he could do.

 

A few days later, I received an email in my inbox from a strange address. Opening it, I found this:

 

 

 

"Dear Scott Harris, RFO, QNS, P.M.M.,

 

Having been deeply moved by your loyalty to the Mother Company that is, and shall be ever, Marvel Comics, and thankful to the ever-caring Tom Brevoort, I most solemnly take this opportunity to make an official pronouncement...

 

Now and forevermore, the most loyal and deserving Scott Harris shall be known as Scott Harris FFF!

Let no man say him nay!

 

Scott, you shall be entitled to all the benefits and privileges attendant upon your high and noble rank. All of Marveldom United hereby congratulates you and is certain that you will use your new-found powers wisely and for the benefit of mankind.

 

Excelsior!

 

Stan Lee"

 

 

 

Last year, I finally had the book slabbed. I had it graded at a 1.8/2.0. I posted scans on the forums here and every single person that looked at it graded it 2.0.

 

What can I say? This is just a lucky book.

 

- Crimebuster, Fearless Front Facer

 

[meshuggah]

I knew you wouldn't disappoint. That is an epic story for an epic book.

[Hepgwyn]

That is a terrific tale. Thanks for sharing.

[Brandon Shepherd]

I really enjoyed your list, you have a creative lists and personal stories for each book! Thank you for sharing with us, I think I'm going to re-read your posts now!

 

Brandon