Scarest DC key in the silver age? 3 3

[Math Teacher]

Based on the CGC census, OAAW #83 and SC #6 have almost equal numbers of graded issues. I was surprised that SC #4 had so many issues graded. Maybe there are a lot of SC #4s graded, but they don't come up for sale often.

Just to satisfy my curiosity, I went to Ebay to check how many of each book were available for sale.

OAAW #83 - 8 copies
SC #6 - 6 copies
SC #4 - 6 copies (1 coverless)

Then I looked at sales on Heritage Auctions.

OAAW #83 - 4 sales in 2021
SC #6 - 7 sales in 2021
SC #4 - 9 sales in 2021

[OtherEric]

On 2/12/2022 at 3:25 PM, Math Teacher said:

Based on the CGC census, OAAW #83 and SC #6 have almost equal numbers of graded issues. I was surprised that SC #4 had so many issues graded. Maybe there are a lot of SC #4s graded, but they don't come up for sale often.

Just to satisfy my curiosity, I went to Ebay to check how many of each book were available for sale.

OAAW #83 - 8 copies
SC #6 - 6 copies
SC #4 - 6 copies (1 coverless)

Then I looked at sales on Heritage Auctions.

OAAW #83 - 4 sales in 2021
SC #6 - 7 sales in 2021
SC #4 - 9 sales in 2021

Sugar & Spike #1- one copy currently on ebay, one on heritage.

No sales at heritage in 2021.

[bronze johnny]

On 2/12/2022 at 6:25 PM, Math Teacher said:

Based on the CGC census, OAAW #83 and SC #6 have almost equal numbers of graded issues. I was surprised that SC #4 had so many issues graded. Maybe there are a lot of SC #4s graded, but they don't come up for sale often.

Just to satisfy my curiosity, I went to Ebay to check how many of each book were available for sale.

OAAW #83 - 8 copies
SC #6 - 6 copies
SC #4 - 6 copies (1 coverless)

Then I looked at sales on Heritage Auctions.

OAAW #83 - 4 sales in 2021
SC #6 - 7 sales in 2021
SC #4 - 9 sales in 2021

My guess is that SC 4 and OAAW 83 being top 20 Silver Age keys in terms of value may have something to do with the number of graded copies. SC 6 isn’t a top 20 key (yet) so we may see more submissions as more collectors discover the importance of Kirby’s first Silver Age creation that is also the first original creation of that great age.

[rjpb]

On 2/12/2022 at 3:23 PM, 1950's war comics said:

i now consider 1956 the start of the SA , any month in 1956 is SA to me , Jan-Dec

definitely am not going to pick an particular month that year to start the end of the GA and beginning of the SA ,

SA starts at the beginning of the year-1956, for me at least.....

There's the broad and narrow definitions. Broadly everything from the start of the CCA stamp showing up through the last of the 12 cent covers is SA, and arguably into the 15 cent era, though most keys from that time are thought of as BA. The narrowest definition only includes Superhero comics starting with the release of Showcase #4, and wouldn't include Sugar and Spike because they aren't part of the era's superhero universe. It arguably wouldn't include OAAW either, as those were war comics, and initially had nothing to do with superhero books, same as all the Marvel pre-hero fantasy comics.

[WolverineX]

On 2/12/2022 at 6:36 PM, bronze johnny said:

My guess is that SC 4 and OAAW 83 being top 20 Silver Age keys in terms of value may have something to do with the number of graded copies. SC 6 isn’t a top 20 key (yet) so we may see more submissions as more collectors discover the importance of Kirby’s first Silver Age creation that is also the first original creation of that great age.

SC 6 has been higher than OAAW 83 before.

[bronze johnny]

On 2/12/2022 at 7:56 PM, Wolverinex said:

SC 6 has been higher than OAAW 83 before.

Yes but that has to do with OAAW 83 not having been accepted by the consensus of comic book collectors as Sgt Rock’s first appearance until the very late 1990s and into early 2000s.

[bronze johnny]

On 2/12/2022 at 6:47 PM, rjpb said:

There's the broad and narrow definitions. Broadly everything from the start of the CCA stamp showing up through the last of the 12 cent covers is SA, and arguably into the 15 cent era, though most keys from that time are thought of as BA. The narrowest definition only includes Superhero comics starting with the release of Showcase #4, and wouldn't include Sugar and Spike because they aren't part of the era's superhero universe. It arguably wouldn't include OAAW either, as those were war comics, and initially had nothing to do with superhero books, same as all the Marvel pre-hero fantasy comics.

Do you think we’d even have a “Silver Age” without the reintroduction of the superhero and new concepts like a superhero with a flawed alter ego that Marvel gave us when the House of Ideas introduced it’s line-up in the early 1960s? DC’s Silver Age also gave rise to war hero character led comics led by Kanigher. The Big 5 war books were a big part of DC’s Silver Age- characters that included Sgt. Rock, Gunner and Sarge, Mademoiselle Marie, Big Al, Little Al, and Charlie Cigar, Haunted Tank’s Arch Asher, Rick Rawlins, and Slim Stryker. OAAW 83 is the Silver Age war key representing the greatest era of the war genre in comic book history. Sugar and Spike is a key book but it’s not a Silver Age creation because it precedes the second great age of the superhero and new concepts - the Silver Age.

[shadroch]

Adventure 210 is pretty scarce. I think it is a key book but I'm a dog lover.

[PKJ]

I vote OAAW 83. Was pretty tough to find when I was looking. Comiclink has had very few in the past few years.

Showcase 6 is one I have been tracking down and have bid on several so it has been available just seems someone else has wanted it more than me the past 3 auctions.

 

 

Edited February 13, 2022 by PKJ

[Straw-Man]

this is anecdotal, i realize, but my ain't-crazy-about-d.c. self owning this book heavily militates against it being the rarest d.c. silver key.

[bronze johnny]

On 2/12/2022 at 9:52 PM, Straw-Man said:

this is anecdotal, i realize, but my ain't-crazy-about-d.c. self owning this book heavily militates against it being the rarest d.c. silver key.

You know I love this book and sure as heck thrilled you also own one!

[WolverineX]

On 2/12/2022 at 8:07 PM, bronze johnny said:

Yes but that has to do with OAAW 83 not having been accepted by the consensus of comic book collectors as Sgt Rock’s first appearance until the very late 1990s and into early 2000s.

Maybe..one of my fellow board members astutely pointed out that my first photo clearly shows Showcase #6 ahead of OOAW #81, which WAS considered, for a very long time, the 1st appearance of Sgt. Rock.

Showcase #6 was ahead of both books at that time.  

[Straw-Man]

challengers, metamorpho and the doom patrol are the only d.c. characters from my childhood that i've collected as an old man collector.  tho' i do have the 80 pg. giants 1-20 just cuz they're cool, and i'm so drawn to s.a. squarebounds.

[jimbo_7071]

On 2/12/2022 at 4:59 PM, bronze johnny said:

It’s neither Gold nor Silver. It’s an Atomic Age book (End of World War 2 - Showcase 4). I really wish CGC would give the Atomic Age it’s own forum and remove it from Golden Age forum because it doesn’t belong there given the Golden Age superhero went south after the war and newfound fears coinciding with a postwar America gave rise to the dominance of new genres in the comic boom medium (Crime, Romance, and Horror). 
 

P.S. - I never scolded you.

I agree.  There's a consensus the GA starts in June of '38 (with Action 1), but what do you consider the last GA cover date? The Japanese surrender documents were signed on September 2, 1945, but I'm sure that October issues were already on the stands, and November issues were likely being printed. December issues were probably already finalized, too. 

[bronze johnny]

On 2/12/2022 at 10:05 PM, Wolverinex said:

Maybe..one of my fellow board members astutely pointed out that my first photo clearly shows Showcase #6 ahead of OOAW #81, which WAS considered, for a very long time, the 1st appearance of Sgt. Rock.

Showcase #6 was ahead of both books at that time.  

Yes, 81 was considered Rock’s first appearance but G.I. Combat 68 was also considered his first appearance. The “evolution” of determining Sgt. Rock’s first appearance didn’t make it easy for collectors. Only when it was clear that OAAW 83 was Rock’s first appearance along with the fact that it was done by the greatest war writing and artists team, Kanigher and Kubert, did it begin to take off. 

Showcase 6 is in my humble opinion the most significant key of the early Silver Age and I believe it’s time has yet come.

Edited February 13, 2022 by bronze johnny

[skypinkblu]

Jimmy Olsen #1 was always considered scarce, but I don't think too many people wanted it. There were lots of books listed in Overstreet as scarce that I found piles of in the Bakerstown warehouse (the place in L.I. where unsold comics were thrown in piles after being returned by store owners.. They were there because no one bought them. I must have had 20 copies of each of the Tom Terrific books.

As a matter of fact, he had an AF15, that was the only Spidey I ever saw there...he sold it at auction.

There were tons of OAAW books, I had a whole bunch of OAAW 76's, no Showcase 4, Flash was a popular character right off the bat.

[bronze johnny]

On 2/12/2022 at 10:14 PM, jimbo_7071 said:

I agree.  There's a consensus the GA starts in June of '38 (with Action 1), but what do you consider the last GA cover date? The Japanese surrender documents were signed on September 2, 1945, but I'm sure that October issues were already on the stands, and November issues were likely being printed. December issues were probably already finalized, too. 

If only the ending of comic book ages were as easy to nail down as their beginnings. The birth of the superhero and Golden Age is the best example of a defined beginning. The role superheroes had in fighting the axis powers during the Second World War best represent the relationship that existed between comic book heroes and the greatest generation of real heroes who fought to save democracies. Interestingly, new genres start to appear in the Golden Age with the first crime comic book, Crime Does Not Pay 22, in 1942. The superheroes primarily fight crime after the Second World War concludes while the romance books begin with Kirby and Simon’s Young Romance and horror really kicks off with ACG’s Adventures into the Unknown in 1948. Coinciding with this is the decline of the number of superhero titles. The advent of EC Comics’ horror and science fiction titles lead the way for Atomic Age Precode Horror and these books along with crime dominate the early to mid-1950s. Still, the advent of the Atomic Age of Comics includes fascinating moments when America is now in fear of world communism along with the Soviet detonation of the Atomic Bomb several years after the end of the war. The Korean War and McCarthyism further contributed to these fears along with the effects of the first atomic bomb tests. Comics themselves would experience an existential threat with Wertham’s Seduction of the Innocent and Senator Kefauver’s U.S. Senate inquiries into the comic book publishing industry that later resulted in the establishment of the CCA. Comics weren’t America’s friend during the Atomic Age as they were when the superheroes fought the enemies of America during the Second World War.

[bronze johnny]

On 2/12/2022 at 10:05 PM, Straw-Man said:

challengers, metamorpho and the doom patrol are the only d.c. characters from my childhood that i've collected as an old man collector.  tho' i do have the 80 pg. giants 1-20 just cuz they're cool, and i'm so drawn to s.a. squarebounds.

Great books to enjoy at any age! Among my favorites. Billy, you have DC fanboy in your soul!

[innocuous]

So far it sounds like OAAW83 and SC6 are in the competition. Sounds good to me so far.

Seems like no love for the sidekicks, Jimmy1 or SC9.

 

[jmg3637]

No one has brought up Detective 225 as the start of the Silver age for DC.  Since that was in November of 1955  that would place Sugar and Spike clearly in the SA

 

Not sure  which  but I would put both of those as the scarcest of the DC keys