House of Secrets 92 too hot to handle 5 5

[JTLarsen]

17 hours ago, Bronx said:

Swamp Thing is an interesting character but he's no money maker.  It's all about Berni's great art and a classic scary cover.  Few covers come close to the look you feel after watching it.  How can you define a 1950's style piece art that makes you feel like you're watching a Horror flick from the safety of a drive in theatre.    

Actually, he is a money maker. Y'know that book we're talking about? Money. Berni had lots of great art and equally/more scary/classic covers. None of them touches this issue, price-wise. Why? It turns out this is the first appearance of Swamp Thing, one of the most enduring and recognizable DC creations of the decade...two movies, TV appearances...and two classic, seminal runs in the comics. People will be buying and reading Swamp Thing by Wein/Wrightson and by Alan Moore long after we're dead. And looking for his first appearance.

[Von Cichlid]

The best analogy I can think of is this:

Swamp Thing is a money maker along the same lines as Conan the Barbarian is a money maker.  (I'll attribute Conan to Marvel comics).  There are three Conan movies (1 very good one) and the beginning of Conan's main series is very highly regarded much like the beginning of the Swamp Thing series.  Both 1st appearances also came out at about the same time as well.  There really are a lot of parallels here.

With this being said, the value of that House of Secrets 92 should be in the same tier as that 1st Conan.  Instead you have it being on the same tier as a 181, and that is the remarkable thing.  As famous a creation as Swamp Thing is, he is not the first thing that comes to mind when thinking of DC comics like Wolverine is when thinking of Marvel.  

The additional factors have to be scarcity and that cover.  There are about 40 Conan #1's on ebay atm, but only 10 or so 92's.  Also, as good as the Conan #1 cover is, it is definitely comic book art firmly in the vein of its time period.  That 92 cover is beyond simply being labeled as good early 70's comic art.

[F For Fake]

1 hour ago, Von Cichlid said:

The best analogy I can think of is this:

Swamp Thing is a money maker along the same lines as Conan the Barbarian is a money maker.  (I'll attribute Conan to Marvel comics).  There are three Conan movies (1 very good one) and the beginning of Conan's main series is very highly regarded much like the beginning of the Swamp Thing series.  Both 1st appearances also came out at about the same time as well.  There really are a lot of parallels here.

With this being said, the value of that House of Secrets 92 should be in the same tier as that 1st Conan.  Instead you have it being on the same tier as a 181, and that is the remarkable thing.  As famous a creation as Swamp Thing is, he is not the first thing that comes to mind when thinking of DC comics like Wolverine is when thinking of Marvel.  

The additional factors have to be scarcity and that cover.  There are about 40 Conan #1's on ebay atm, but only 10 or so 92's.  Also, as good as the Conan #1 cover is, it is definitely comic book art firmly in the vein of its time period.  That 92 cover is beyond simply being labeled as good early 70's comic art.

Swampy may not be Wolverine-tier, but I'd argue that he's definitely in the Top 10 as far as DC's characters go. I remember being pleased when the ginormous 75 Years of DC Comics book was released, and the five characters placed on the spine were Bats, Supes, Wonder Woman, Sandman and Swamp Thing. That felt about right to me. Of course, I have argued many times that The Joker is DC's second most popular character, and Superman is actually in third place. I'd put Harley Quinn in fifth. But I'd wager that to the public at large, more people would recognize Swamp Thing than they would, say, Green Lantern?

At any rate, it IS an awesome cover, and there's no doubt that's a huge attraction. For me, it's the whole stew: 1st appearance of a major pop culture character, gorgeous cover, legendary artist. 

As for the comparison to Conan, I'd posit that Conan was a heavily speculated title, whereas HoS 92 just sorta happened organically, and wouldn't have been held onto in the numbers that Conan was. 

[Jayman]

38 minutes ago, F For Fake said:

As for the comparison to Conan, I'd posit that Conan was a heavily speculated title, whereas HoS 92 just sorta happened organically, and wouldn't have been held onto in the numbers that Conan was. 

Also even though it was Conan's 1st appearance in a comic book, it was not his first appearance, origin or an original character.

Edited May 26, 2017 by Jayman

[Von Cichlid]

A seller just put a graded 5.0 on ebay for a 3-Day!?! auction.  It had a starting bid of $399 and I was hoping against hope no one would notice and then I would've jumped on it.  No such luck as there is a day and a half left and it is already past $500.  It will be interesting to see what this goes for as compared to a graded 5.0 181. 

http://www.ebay.com/itm/132204827481?_trksid=p2060353.m1438.l2649&ssPageName=STRK%3AMEBIDX%3AIT

[2muchhorrorbusiness]

Its a book i had always wanted, two years ago i bought a 5.5 off the boards for 300 dollars shipped, looking at prices now, im glad i bought it when i did.

[Agent 007]

http://www.comiclink.com/auctions/item.asp?back=%2FAuctions%2Fsearch.asp%3FFocusedOnly%3D1%26where%3Dauctions%26title%3D92%26ItemType%3DCB%23Item_1181306&id=1181306

$10k plus and a few more days to go

[oakman29]

1 hour ago, Agent 007 said:

http://www.comiclink.com/auctions/item.asp?back=%2FAuctions%2Fsearch.asp%3FFocusedOnly%3D1%26where%3Dauctions%26title%3D92%26ItemType%3DCB%23Item_1181306&id=1181306

$10k plus and a few more days to go

Wow! Glad I got my 9.4's when I did. 

[piper]

On 2017-05-24 at 6:18 PM, thehumantorch said:

Very hot book.  Great black cover and origin.

I also think they are planning a live Justice League Dark movie...

[Agent 007]

2 hours ago, oakman29 said:

Wow! Glad I got my 9.4's when I did. 

Nice - I haven't bought any key books for literally 2 years and have been selling some items to be heavy in cash.  The 3-4 books I want have almost outpaced what I can afford now.  This is one of the books I want.

[rjrjr]

On 5/26/2017 at 11:58 AM, Jayman said:

Also even though it was Conan's 1st appearance in a comic book, it was not his first appearance, origin or an original character.

It's not even Conan's 1st appearance in comics:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Conan_(comics)#La_reina_de_la_Costa_Negra

IMHO there are 3 big books of the Bronze Age, Incredible Hulk #181, Giant Sized X-Men #1, and House of Secrets #92.

Conan is on the same level as Punisher.  They are products of a particular era and their glory days are behind them, but still highly collectible.  Swamp Thing has a bright future IMHO and is on a different level entirely.

Edited May 29, 2017 by rjrjr

[Jayman]

And just to think, as much as I love Swamp Thing, he probably would have drifted down to the lower tier characters if not for this issue...

 

[Jayman]

19 hours ago, piper said:

I also think they are planning a live Justice League Dark movie...

I just hope they don't try to make him into DC's version of Groot! 

[JTLarsen]

39 minutes ago, Jayman said:

And just to think, as much as I love Swamp Thing, he probably would have drifted down to the lower tier characters if not for this issue...

 

Absolutely agree. The Alan Moore run is underrated as a factor for HOS  #92's current value, as well as, of course, his current popularity, his wide usage throughout the DC universe, etc. It's a massive, seminal moment in comics history.

[ComicConnoisseur]

On 5/24/2017 at 5:48 PM, Bobbyusc said:

House of Secrets 92 too hot to handle

Ive always been a Swamp Thing fan.  I loved the movie as a kid (didnt see what A Barbeau did for swampy and frankly still dont) and listened to the record and book set (even though the dead clown story was weird to me as a kid). 

So naturally, Its time to add a House of Secrets 92 to the collection.  Holy Carp!  Prices are crazy!  The comparable grades per price are about EVEN with hulk 181.  Now to me, thats waaaayyy out of whack. 

Whats the catalyst? 

The character has had always a lot going for it.

Bernie Wrightson,Alan Moore, two major motion pictures, and animated series in the 1990s.

So lots of interest from a bunch of good sources have created good demand.

Also there is Hollywood. Sooner or later we will get news that they will be rebooting the Swamp-Thing movie.

[ComicConnoisseur]

7 hours ago, rjrjr said:

It's not even Conan's 1st appearance in comics:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Conan_(comics)#La_reina_de_la_Costa_Negra

IMHO there are 3 big books of the Bronze Age, Incredible Hulk #181, Giant Sized X-Men #1, and House of Secrets #92.

Conan is on the same level as Punisher.  They are products of a particular era and their glory days are behind them, but still highly collectible.  Swamp Thing has a bright future IMHO and is on a different level entirely.

I think the real Conan key is his first pulp appearance.Weird Tales  December1932.

BTW, I would not count out the Punisher with his Netflix series debuting this fall. The Punisher will be more popular than ever.

[bronze johnny]

8 hours ago, rjrjr said:

It's not even Conan's 1st appearance in comics:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Conan_(comics)#La_reina_de_la_Costa_Negra

IMHO there are 3 big books of the Bronze Age, Incredible Hulk #181, Giant Sized X-Men #1, and House of Secrets #92.

Conan is on the same level as Punisher.  They are products of a particular era and their glory days are behind them, but still highly collectible.  Swamp Thing has a bright future IMHO and is on a different level entirely.

And Journey into Mystery 83 wasn't Thor's first appearance in a comic book. So what? 

The genius of Marvel Comics resides in the publisher's comic book adaptation of Conan. You really want to compare the overall comic book success of Swamp Thing (who I happen to love along with Man-Thing) to that of Marvel Comics Conan? A book that started the Bronze Age Sword and Sorcery genre and a series that went 275 issues?  Can't leave out the fact of Conan having the most successful magazine series in the history of comic books. Conan's days are far from over. The key to relatively scarcer in higher grade copies of House of Secrets 92 (emphasis on the word relatively) is that Swampie is the only successful DC Bronze Age horror creation and it has one of that era's greatest covers by Wrightson- the BA's best horror artist. And horror is hot and Bernie has recently passed away- drawing great interest in the corpus of his work. DC didn't do too much during the BA and was lacking in successful original BA creations that could carry books on their own - the true mark for how successful a character was with readers and collectors during the Bronze Age. As far as putting HOS 92 in the same category as GS X-Men 1 & Hulk 181- the question is simple and goes to whether any DC Bronze Age book other than GL 76 can come close to the historical impact these two Marvel juggernauts had on the decades that followed their publication? Conan was a heavy speculated book at the time of its inception and speculators went out and hoarded copies so prices in higher grades won't match those of an anthology "filler" HOS 92 and that's expected. The talk about success in other mediums induces short term bumps in prices- nothing more. Speculators and flippers have been extremely successful in using other mediums to generate interest in a book. The fascinating thing about this era is how far they've succeeded in achieving the "movie is coming out so you must buy the book" pitch. P.T. Barnum would have been impressed with this repeated scenario. Books like HOS 92 stand on their own, not on the crutches of film speculation or an upcoming television series. The great thing about our hobby is that we collect the books for the aesthetic joys they give us and for many- the connection to our childhood collecting and the impressions the comics made on us back then.  The memories can sometimes involuntarily reappear in our minds by simply opening an old comic from our childhood. Fortunately, newer generations are discovering the Bronze Age gems like HOS 92 and it's only a matter of time before Conan comes back- history tends to be cyclical. 

Edited May 29, 2017 by bronze johnny

[Ken Aldred]

2 hours ago, JTLarsen said:

Absolutely agree. The Alan Moore run is underrated as a factor for HOS  #92's current value, as well as, of course, his current popularity, his wide usage throughout the DC universe, etc. It's a massive, seminal moment in comics history.

It's also the run that tied the prototype HOS 92 story into continuity as being an actual previous incarnation of the swamp elemental, years before Alec Holland.

[Jayman]

8 hours ago, Ken Aldred said:

It's also the run that tied the prototype HOS 92 story into continuity as being an actual previous incarnation of the swamp elemental, years before Alec Holland.

That most excellent run also included a tip of the hat to the original comic book swamp monster the Heap. In one of the issues Swamp Thing is talking with the Parliament of Trees and one of them has a German Bi-plane model hanging in its branches IIRC.

[TheFifthHorseman]

Jumped on the bandwagon

 

 

Edited June 24, 2017 by TheFifthHorseman