OK, everything we need to get into the warehouse is now in the warehouse, time to like ninety to get all the comics sorted into their titles. I mentioned last week that our weekly eBay auction is doing well when we put up lots of nice sequential order title runs, there is a treasure trove of runs spread all over about 900 comic boxes and like with most treasures we will have to dig for these. We are on the clock though, Mister landlord has given us until the end of February, the poor unsuspecting fool knows little of my plans to stretch it out to the end of March, though I think I should discuss this with him sooner rather than later lest I turn out the fool. We’re setting up the processing center now, I’ll share pics next week.
I’m really attacking the “going to eBay auction” pile with a focus on nice runs, this focus let me spot a beautiful run of Crossfire #1 to 16 with the classic Dave Stevens cover to #12 pictured below. Runs like this are now 40 years old and are very tough to get, I think the small press stuff of the 1980s might be a growth area for the market in the coming years.
We’ve been selling a whole pile of Spidey’s on the auction lately so I thought I’d share this beautiful Steve Ditko splash page from Amazing Spider-Man #28. Steve’s Spidey splash pages were not as minimalist as some of his fantasy work he was doing a couple of years earlier on titles like Tales of Suspense and Tales to Astonish but you’d only have to peel off a thin layer of this splash to get to the Ditko Lite we all know and love.
Crossfire #12, our Cover of the Week was an Eclipse Comic, the inside back cover had an inhouse ad for Eclipse back issues available from the publisher. Scanning the list i realize Eclipse was a big deal in the mid 1980s, so was Innovation, so was Renegade, as I mentioned above, key issues and even runs from this era are starting to get good results on the marketplace, I think this trend will continue.
Another big finish last night for our weekly icecollectibles eBay auction, I was watching to see how the Amazing Spider-Man #129 would do, Spidey #129 is such a good barometer of the market place, its results are watched and they matter. Our CGC 8.0 White Pages copy sold for $1,833, a bit above the last recorded sale of $1,800, a confidence building result.
That’s a nice looking Punisher – we can add the Punisher (and his classic emblem) to the never-ending list that the morons on your southern border have destroyed with their cult ideology….but the good news is Frank will come back, the brand will return, the memories of Police sporting Punisher emblems (?) will fade into history; he’s too big and too great to stay down for long. Eventually Marvel/Disney will bring him to the big screen again. I think #129 is a wise purchase (sure, it ain’t a Rocket Racer, seriously Walt what were you and Chris drinking to come up with #172 as undervalued).
Having lived through Dave Stevens getting well and truly overhyped last year as a whole generation of neckbeard YT influencers finally discovered him I’ve seen some INSANE sales figures for his oeuvre, so at the moment I’d stay away, let him subside from the limelight a little.
Other books I avoid in the current market: anything with Galactus (after the FF trailer last week) and the one that constantly surprises me is ASM #78 Prowler – great cover in a great run but the Prowler in the Spider-Verse movies is not Hobie (his uncle Aaron is Ultimate Comics:Spider-Man #1)…the movie heated up the book…but not the right book! My figuring is if a movie heats up a book then she has to cool (but that #78 sure is taking its sweet time)
Hi Walt: I know I’m a little late commenting on this post and I’m going to go on far too long, but I felt that a couple of things had to be corrected in my opinion. The 1980s were a magical time for new thoughts and good rip-offs of older comic book titles in my opinion. Your mentioning Eclipse Comics is totally appropriate to this but Renegade was never more than a niche publisher and mostly niche niche. I loved Wordsmith and Ms. Tree but let’s just say most of their other stuff was “eclectic”. Innovation only started at the end of the 80s boom/bust and in my personal opinion did a lot of licensed stuff poorly and probably some original stuff poorly. But they were never part of the big creative push that came earlier. If you want to talk about what was happening in the 1980s, the publishers and titles you need to talk about are, again, Eclipse with titles like Zot (a must read for the first 10 issues), DNAgents for a fresh take on ripping off mutant titles, Groo of course, Crossfire pretty much and the very weird Tales of the Beanworld. All excellent and mostly different. Along with other Eclipse titles that tended to be very professional. And how about Kitchen Sink. Dennis Kitchen had cut his teeth back in the days of the underground comics but by the time the 80s rolled around he was very mainstream professional with not just The Spirit reprints and also Eisner originals but also excellent books like Kings in Disguise, Omaha the Cat Dancer and Harold Hedd. Some of these reflected his underground roots but they definitely brought a more adult/less fanboy perspective to comics. And of course Comico. My own fav is the original Mage series but also Grendel and Jonny Quest. How about Pacific? They didn’t last long into the 80s but if all they brought us was the Rocketeer then they deserve a mention. My gosh. First and Viz. So much creativity and chances being taken in the 1980s and you talk about Renegade and (ughh) Innovation? There was a lot of crap came out in the 1980s but it was a flourishing time for comics too. Someday it will be recognized as more important than the Bronze age although probably not until some Hollywood studio is all out of redundant ideas and stumbles upon some of these titles. I would love to see Zot movie that was true to the comic.
I had most of the 80’s Dave Stevens covers. Sold them all as a lot. My favorite from the 80’s indies was Ms. Tree and I kept my run along with a few of the DC continuation.
Don’t get me started on the border Spider… and Gerald, I hope you got good money for those, they are in demand books.
Robin, that was the thoughtful and thorough assessment of these publishers and this era that I wanted to write but simply didn’t have the knowledge, thanks for the insights.