Number 6 Posted May 10, 2020 Share Posted May 10, 2020 (edited) Let me start off by saying that in addition to being an awesome Neal Adams Batman comic, Power Record Comics PR27 is the only Neal Adams Batman comic I actually owned as a kid (I was born a bit too late to buy his actual DC Bats stuff off the stand) and it really shaped they way I thought Batman should look (and sound!). My childhood copy is long gone and was probably thoroughly thrashed to boot from repeated reading/playing. So I was thrilled about 15 or so years ago when someone on eBay listed pretty much every Power Record Comic in factory sealed, unclipped condition and I was able to win back a copy of PR27. I was tempted to bid on more, but at the time I was trying to be "responsible" with my spending so I held off with just this one purchase since it was the most important to me. It looked to be in such nice condition that I've debated off and on about unsealing it and having it graded by CGC. Before everyone gets on me about unsealing the book: while it's cool to have sealed PRCs, and it does guarantee an unused copy, it doesn't guarantee a high-grade copy and keeping them sealed probably isn't the best for the books as the shrink wrap can pull tighter and tighter over time and really bend the book. Still, I debated back and forth because there was just a bit of color loss to the top and bottom corners of the covers. With CGC's recent promotion of allowing free members to submit directly through the mail, I finally decided to submit this book along with a couple of others. I waited until the last minute to unseal the book, and as you can see from the front it looks like a very nice copy. And the it doesn't look too bad from the back either. Removing the shrink wrap revealed just a slight spider vein stress mark to the back cover that was obscured by the shrink-wrap. However, as you can probably already tell, the shrink-wrap was hiding another problem as well. As I started to remove the shrink-wrap I now spotted what looked like stains to the top and bottom corners. O.K., that's definitely not great, but not the worst thing I've ever seen either. Maybe this is still salvageable. Then I open the book up to remove the record and find.... That's ink from the back cover flap that's bled into the interior page. And I'm not sure how well you can see in the pictures, but all the pages have that rough, pulp texture from having been exposed to quite a bit of moisture. So no, this book will not be making the trip to sultry Sarasota. I think this book's seen enough humidity already. It's a real shame because in a mylar bag and board it looks great. I was kind of thinking of getting another Neal Adams SS of this book done, but I think it's even too wrecked for that. I think was really the frustrating part for me (and it's happened before) where you think you have an important book in your collection all locked up and you can move on to looking for other things only to discover much later that, no, in fact you have to start the hunt all over again for a book that should be checked off on the list. If there's any silver lining to this, at least I can now stop kicking myself for not buying more of the PRCs from the same seller I bought this book from all those years ago. Who knows what the rest of his stuff was like. Anyway, just had to cry in my beer a bit about it. Edited May 10, 2020 by Number 6 The Lions Den, ChrispyC66, ADAMANTIUM and 1 other 3 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ADAMANTIUM Posted May 10, 2020 Share Posted May 10, 2020 To be honest I didn't know that cgc graded the record books .... Interesting as I have a man-thing (of course) and a tomb of dracula... I don't know that I've ever seen a graded copy for sale... Veddy Intahresting ChrispyC66 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ADAMANTIUM Posted May 10, 2020 Share Posted May 10, 2020 How would you even fill out the cgc form? Search for "book and record?" Sorry for your book, it's still decent though Or I'm still excited about it As you can tell! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Comics4All Posted May 10, 2020 Share Posted May 10, 2020 19 minutes ago, ADAMANTIUM said: To be honest I didn't know that cgc graded the record books .... Interesting as I have a man-thing (of course) and a tomb of dracula... I don't know that I've ever seen a graded copy for sale... Veddy Intahresting I have a Giant Size Man Thing that burns! I have to go to Walgreens tomorrow! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Number 6 Posted May 10, 2020 Author Share Posted May 10, 2020 (edited) 24 minutes ago, ADAMANTIUM said: How would you even fill out the cgc form? Search for "book and record?" Sorry for your book, it's still decent though Or I'm still excited about it As you can tell! You search "Power Record Comics" Yeah, getting these graded is kinda weird. They won't grade the book with the record, just the book by itself. They make a notation on the label that the record is missing. That doesn't really bother me as I keep the record in a poly-lined sleeve inside a golden age size poly bag taped to the back of the slab. But I think the notation of something missing is a turn-off for some people. The other odd thing is picking the publisher when submitting. The Grand Comics Database lists Power Records as the publisher and in my opinion that's the correct designation as even though some of these contain reprints of Marvel material and new content with DC characters, it seems clear that Peter Pan/Power Records is the one who produced these books, licensing the reprint content from Marvel and commissioning Neal Adams' studio to produce the original content for DC stuff. Other than the material that's being reprinted, neither Marvel or DC really had anything to do with producing these (to my knowledge). However, I think where the waters get muddied a bit is that in OSPG the publisher is listed as "Marvel Comics/Power Records" with no mention of DC Comics as publisher. When you go to the CGC census, there's two different categories for Power Record Comics: one with Marvel listed as the publisher, on with DC listed as the publisher. None have Power Records listed as publisher. That kind of makes sense...up until you get to the non-Marvel/DC content. The CGC census has the publisher for the two Star Trek books - PR25 and PR26 - listed as Marvel Comics...even though Western was the one producing Star Trek comics at the time. Marvel wouldn't get the license to do Star Trek comics for another 4 years. And again, as far as I know, Marvel had nothing to do with producing the artwork for these Trek books, and they don't reprint anything from Gold Key either. And even though Marvel was doing Planet of the Apes comics at the time, I'm pretty sure those don't reprint any of the Marvel content, it's original art content produced by someone other than Marvel/DC. Yet, if you're going to submit these, you just kind of have to hold your nose and pick the publisher CGC has listed on their census rather than what may actually be true in fact. Edited May 10, 2020 by Number 6 aardvark88 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ADAMANTIUM Posted May 10, 2020 Share Posted May 10, 2020 (edited) 6 minutes ago, Number 6 said: Yeah, getting these graded is kinda weird. They won't grade the book with the record, just the book by itself. They make a notation on the label that the record is missing. That doesn't really bother me as I keep the record in a poly-lined sleeve inside a golden age size poly bag taped to the back of the slab. But I think the notation of something missing is a turn-off for some people. The other odd thing is picking the publisher when submitting. The Grand Comics Database lists Power Records as the publisher and in my opinion that's the correct designation as even though some of these contain reprints of Marvel material and new content with DC characters, it seems clear that Peter Pan/Power Records is the one who produced these books, licensing the reprint content from Marvel and commissioning Neal Adams' studio to produce the original content for DC stuff. Other than the material that's being reprinted, neither Marvel or DC really had anything to do with producing these (to my knowledge). However, I think where the waters get muddied a bit is that in OSPG the publisher is listed as "Marvel Comics/Power Records" with no mention of DC Comics as publisher. When you go to the CGC census, there's two different categories for Power Record Comics: one with Marvel listed as the publisher, on with DC listed as the publisher. None have Power Records listed as publisher. That kind of makes sense...up until you get to the non-Marvel/DC content. The CGC census has the publisher for the two Star Trek books - PR25 and PR26 - listed as Marvel Comics...even though Western was the one producing Star Trek comics at the time. Marvel wouldn't get the license to do Star Trek comics for another 4 years. And again, as far as I know, Marvel had nothing to do with producing the artwork for these Trek books, and they don't reprint anything from Gold Key either. And even though Marvel was doing Planet of the Apes comics at the time, I'm pretty sure those don't reprint any of the Marvel content, it's original art content produced by someone other than Marvel/DC. Yet, if you're going to submit these, you just kind of have to hold your nose and pick the publisher CGC has listed on their census rather than what may actually be true in fact. Wow that's a lot of great info! Hopefully I can remember it all As I've got several subs going and may not get to this book quick enough. So it gets a green qualified label? Because cgc "makes it incomplete?" By not slabbing the record? Just clarify for me? Edited May 10, 2020 by ADAMANTIUM Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Number 6 Posted May 10, 2020 Author Share Posted May 10, 2020 Just now, ADAMANTIUM said: Wow that's a lot of great info! Hopefully I can remember it all As I've got several subs going and mypay not get to this book quick enough. So it gets a green qualified label? Because cgc "makes it incomplete?" By not slabbing the record? Just clarify for me? No, it gets a blue label because the comic itself IS complete; there's just a notation on the label because of the technicality that a record was distributed with the book. I'd just give a word of warning: I think a lot of collectors are kind of dismissive of Power Record Comics and don't really know how hard it is to get a decent grade on these. These are prone to corner wear, spider vein stresses/creases, bending from the record in the back cover sleeve. And they've got cardstock covers so you can't "cheat" and have them fudged with pressing really. If the number at the top doesn't bother, I say by all means go for it. There's many of these that have no copies on the census, several that have none in grades higher than 9.4. There's somebody who managed to get 9.6 on all the PotA books, my hat goes off to them. However, if the grade is important at all, I'd suggest going over it with a keen and critical eye as my impression is CGC is pretty unforgiving with these. The Lions Den and ADAMANTIUM 1 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ChrispyC66 Posted May 10, 2020 Share Posted May 10, 2020 This is an ironic post... I had three PRs. I listened to them all one last time on Friday, scanned them, pressed each comic, then bagged and boarded them one last time. I sold them to a friend with a local Antique store for his grand re-opening after the CV-19 shutdown. Just listening to the FF one brought back vivid memories from 40+ years ago. I think it’s why the Thing has been my favorite character forever. I sold them for $5 each and told him they’re worth $15-$20 each. Here are the scans of my three. Spoiler Spoiler Spoiler ADAMANTIUM, The Lions Den and 1950's war comics 3 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
The Lions Den Posted May 10, 2020 Share Posted May 10, 2020 12 hours ago, Number 6 said: I think was really the frustrating part for me (and it's happened before) where you think you have an important book in your collection all locked up and you can move on to looking for other things only to discover much later that, no, in fact you have to start the hunt all over again for a book that should be checked off on the list. That's actually the part I enjoy most---the thrill of the hunt. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ChrispyC66 Posted May 10, 2020 Share Posted May 10, 2020 26 minutes ago, The Lions Den said: That's actually the part I enjoy most---the thrill of the hunt. Spoken like a true lion! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
