Tag Jack Kirby

1st Brief Appearance Vs. 1st Full Appearance: Which Is Better?

If we only look at the Wolverine example, we would assume that the value of a character's first full appearance always trumps the value of the first brief appearance. It would stand to reason that a comic book reader gets more of the character in the first full appearance issue and this would increase more buying demand (and value) for the first full appearance issue. However, as I sifted through and compared first brief appearance and first full appearance values in this year's guide, I found that this wasn’t always the case. Here are examples of comics showing both cases: examples where the first brief appearance issue is more valuable, and examples where the first full appearance issue is the more valuable of the two.
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Marvel 1960s Annuals: Part One, Fantastic Four

One of my personal favourite genres of comic books that I like to collect is the big square bound super-hero annuals. Twice the size and price of a regular comic, these books only came out once a year and were packed with pin-ups, some classic reprints, and usually a crackling good original story. The original stories quite often took place outside the current storylines taking place in the title, but had a place in the character or groups long term continuity. There were surprisingly few made – I count 18 in the sixties and some characters and groups had none at all. I did not include war, romance, westerns, or re-print annuals in this first series but may get to them at a later date.
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Spidey Super Stories 1-57

We have featured many arcs in the last little while so I thought this week we'd take a look at a run. This run features Spider-Man outside of the regular continuity of the Marvel universe and in a joint venture the Electric Company. The Electric Company is the name of a PBS (US Public broadcasting) children’s TV show. It used live action skits featuring Spider-Man and Electric company characters, Easy Reader, Detective Fargo North, Jennifer of the Jungle, and a cast of kids to challenge evil doers like Blowhard, The Prankster, and the Blue Beetle.
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Undervalued Spotlight #210

The Spotlight format only allows passing references and hopefully some insightful tidbits sprinkled here and there. In other words I have to pick a book worthy of a birthday tribute to the Man. I’ve picked Superman’s Pal Jimmy Olsen #133 because this book sticks out among the books that stick out, it represents Jack Kirby embarking on the most ambitious project of his career.
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