CGC Members Choice: Most Single Undervalued GA Comic book your opinion and mine! 7 7

[Mmehdy]

On 12/11/2022 at 6:45 AM, Pantodude said:

A lazy Sunday morning, so I have another GA candidate relating to some of my fav SA keys. I was thinking about Avengers 1 today, itself a likely undervalued book. It has no 1st appearances, but that ensemble led the MCU to the most epic and lucrative run ever, culminating in End Game. Two more Avengers movies will likely provide an epic (and very lucrative) conclusion to MCU’s phase 6.  

Due to that success, rival DC has flat out said it will copy Marvel’s strategy. This will require a reboot of their own super team, the Justice League of America (BB28 being another likely undervalued book), en route to an epic conflict of its own.  

So how did we get here?  The answer for Marvel is All Winners Comics #1 (Timely, Summer 1941), which presented Timely’s first team-of-heroes concept…the All Winners Squad.  The Human Torch, Toro, Captain America, Bucky, and the Sub-Mariner are joined by the Angel and the Black Marvel.  For the first time, all of Timely’s flagship characters (Subby, Cap, and Human Torch) appeared together on this classic front cover.  Much like FF1 was Marvel’s answer to DC’s BB28, All Winners Comics #1 was Timely's answer to DC's World's Finest. Published shortly after Captain America Comics #1, AWC1 is just Cap’s 4th appearance, here in what many consider one of the most compelling GA Simon and Kirby Cap stories.  It also includes a very early appearance of the Star Spangled Avenger. But the main thing is AWC1 was the genesis of ALL those countless Timely team ups, then and now!  That should count for a lot, right?   

AWC1’s appeal might increase considering how expensive GA 1st appearances are, including Cap, Subby, Torch, etc.  AWC1 provides an early appearance for all of them, along with their first cover together as part of the first appearance of Timely’s first super team.  So AWC1, already very high in historical significance, might also be very undervalued, like other candidates in this thread. 

One of the big pluses of AW1 is the Kirby Cap which only appeared in on 1/2. I have always liked #19/21 like everyone else on the board and think those are really great books, early in the 70's All Winners was one of the top GA books to get, over time the luster has faded, so I would agree that is a great book period.

[Joseph Ragno]

I'd like to bump this thread.  As a fairly new collector, I found it fascinating.  I learned a lot.  One of my takeaways from reading the entire thread is the focus on individual images and pages from these comics.  I'm new to comic collecting, but I'm not new to investing.  Seems to me that the greatest percentage increase moving forward is collecting the individual pages that represent these first images or sentinel moments in a character's storyline.  I don't disparage any form of collecting that makes people happy.  It just makes less sense to pay a high amount for a midgrade key book, rather than spending less money on the pages that one can actually see the images that make the comic or character special. 

[Ameri]

In terms of underrated, here is something. Captain Marvel 1 was a Simon and Kirby product during their Captain America work in 1941. Strike that up to moonlighting to make some extra bucks without Timely knowing about it. The front cover is CC Beck but what I forgot is the back cover is by Kirby which are random panels from the interior. GCD pointed out something I never heard before. One of the stories features monsters from Saturn. Here is what GCD says about that and here is the thunder god page.     

"Thor Precursor. Shazam referred to as “Thunder God” and fights Aliens from Saturn. This motif used when Kirby co-created Thor in Journey Into Mystery (Marvel, 1952 series) #83 with Thunder God fighting Aliens from Saturn as per Comic Book Historians article researched by Alex Grand."

 

Edited February 3 by Ameri

[whomerjay]

On 11/15/2022 at 1:36 PM, sfcityduck said:

Artificial scarcity.  MANY copies of that book are being hoarded by a prominent collector. If all those copies came to market, that book would not trade for as much as it is. And that's an increasing risk for the buyer since you never know what the hoarder is going to let loose the dogs.

Curious to know how many MANY is, and who is this genius hoarder?

[DanCooper]

On 2/3/2024 at 1:53 PM, whomerjay said:

and who is this genius hoarder?

[jimbo_7071]

On 11/15/2022 at 1:36 PM, sfcityduck said:

Artificial scarcity.  MANY copies of that book are being hoarded by a prominent collector. If all those copies came to market, that book would not trade for as much as it is. And that's an increasing risk for the buyer since you never know what the hoarder is going to let loose the dogs.

You have to wonder how many other books are being hoarded unbeknownst to the collecting community. More than a few, I trow.

[Mmehdy]

Whiz 2....very under valued and a fantastic story and art.....

[Joseph Ragno]

On 2/4/2024 at 1:47 AM, Mmehdy said:

Whiz 2....very under valued and a fantastic story and art.....

[GreatCaesarsGhost]

On 12/11/2022 at 4:09 PM, Mmehdy said:

I have always liked #19/21 like everyone else on the board and think those are really great books, early in the 70's All Winners was one of the top GA books to get, over time the luster has faded

Yes, I remember when All Winners 19 was the book everyone wanted in the 90’s. The book I never see in grade is AW8. To me, that’s the standout cover

[GreatCaesarsGhost]

On 11/16/2022 at 9:03 AM, sfcityduck said:

Stage 4 has seen actual sales results become available daily (eBay) and weekly (Heritage) on the internet which has had a bit of a tampering effect on some genres and is generally a healthy development. But it can lead to a lemming effect both upward and downward, and it does make it easier to spread info and opinions on pricing both upward and downward on sites like this.  We all can be market makers  now. Information disparities are decreased and buyers now have plenty of cautionary info available to them. It should make the market more rational as time goes by but challenges remain.

And who can ever forget the relentless drumbeat coming from those Wizard magazines 

[path4play]

On 10/10/2022 at 1:45 AM, Cat-Man_America said:

Shield-Wizard #7 ...This is a popular book, but in my estimation it's a key issue deserving reevaluation and much deeper research to verify it's unique place in comic history.  This is the issue which redesigned the Shield's costume & took away his super-powers making the character more like Captain America. The irony is that Cap was originally provided to Martin Goodman by request in response to Pep Comic's successful super-powered patriotic Shield character. Impressed by the result, S&K were promised profit sharing at Timely and Joe was given senior editorship.  But this honeymoon didn't last long. Frustrated by deceptive basket accounting shenanigans (combining winning titles with losing titles to deceive competitors resulting in lower percentage payouts to Cap's editors) they decided to solicit additional work elsewhere.

When this moonlighting was discovered by Goodman S&K were summarily axed for disloyalty having violated Martin's perception of their binding contract with him. In an intriguing twist, shortly after the dismissal Jack Kirby penciled this unsigned cover of Shield-Wizard (Irv Novick inks?) for MLJ.  

S-W #7 was published less than six months after S&K were dismissed from Timely, around the time they started working for DC.  It's entirely possible that the pencils were done without any paper trail perhaps as a subtle "thank you" to Martin Goodman. But the evidence is sketchy (pun intended). I suspect more proof of how this short side-venture transpired is recorded somewhere. I'm unaware of any other cover work generated by Jack Kirby for MLJ around this time which only serves to fuel curiosity about this book. The timeline is interesting and I'd love to see the evidence developed. This unique issue raises a lot of questions, many still unanswered.

 

I'll go along with that!

 

[Ameri]

On 2/4/2024 at 8:36 AM, GreatCaesarsGhost said:

Yes, I remember when All Winners 19 was the book everyone wanted in the 90’s. The book I never see in grade is AW8. To me, that’s the standout cover

not exactly in grade but in a grade 

[IngelsFan]

On 2/4/2024 at 5:36 AM, GreatCaesarsGhost said:

Yes, I remember when All Winners 19 was the book everyone wanted in the 90’s. The book I never see in grade is AW8. To me, that’s the standout cover

I absolutely agree. AW8 is a Top 10 GA cover for me.

[path4play]

On 10/21/2022 at 6:12 PM, szav said:

No votes for Police Comics #1?  Maybe it’s been trending upward too much recently to call undervalued any longer.  It is sadly officially on the I’ll never get one list now.

https://comics.ha.com/itm/golden-age-1938-1955-/superhero/police-comics-1-quality-1941-cgc-vg-40-white-pages/a/7335-88095.s?type=bidnotice-dailystatus

[Joseph Ragno]

On 10/25/2022 at 9:06 PM, Ameri said:

yes but both Tec 27 and Action 12 came out the same month (May 1939) so how does Action 12 gets "tagged" as a first appearance? Seems simultaneous to me 

The new crown jewel of my collection.  The first image of Batman.  Predates Detective 27 by 6 days.  Also by default, the first time Superman and Batman are seen on the same page.

https://www.comics.org/issue/435/

https://www.comics.org/issue/442/

 

[GreatCaesarsGhost]

On 2/4/2024 at 12:42 PM, IngelsFan said:

I absolutely agree. AW8 is a Top 10 GA cover for me.

That book has got a nice cut to it. They don’t all, these AW8s

[Joseph Ragno]

On 2/3/2024 at 11:04 AM, Ameri said:

In terms of underrated, here is something. Captain Marvel 1 was a Simon and Kirby product during their Captain America work in 1941. Strike that up to moonlighting to make some extra bucks without Timely knowing about it. The front cover is CC Beck but what I forgot is the back cover is by Kirby which are random panels from the interior. GCD pointed out something I never heard before. One of the stories features monsters from Saturn. Here is what GCD says about that and here is the thunder god page.     

"Thor Precursor. Shazam referred to as “Thunder God” and fights Aliens from Saturn. This motif used when Kirby co-created Thor in Journey Into Mystery (Marvel, 1952 series) #83 with Thunder God fighting Aliens from Saturn as per Comic Book Historians article researched by Alex Grand."