I went to Big Apple Con this past weekend and, well, I may have gone a bit crazy buying up some old comics.
Am I a bit basic for picking up Venom: Lethal Protector #1? There aren't a lot of covers that scream "90s" more than that. So much holofoil.
Or Sensational She-Hulk #1?
Or Amazing Spider-Man Annual #21, the issue where Peter Parker and Mary Jane get married?
Perhaps. I never fancied myself a "Comic Book Guy." but I'd been eyeballing those "basic" issues for a while and finally decided to pick them up. Thankfully they were all made in the past 35 years, so picking those up didn't break the bank too much. Hell, ACTUAL key comics (like the actual first appearances of Venom, She-Hulk, or any character people have actually heard of) go into the hundreds, if not thousands of dollars these days. It's a nice racket if you can get into it. It's one of those things where if I had a time machine, I'd go and grab all those early DC and Marvel stuff for nickels apiece, and then grade and sell them when I get back to the present.
It's the only reason I can explain the existence of this copy of Superman #1 in an 8.0 grade. I know less about how comic grading works, but what I do know is that an 8.0 for something that old and iconic is nearly unheard of, it's practically as good as it gets. Someone drew on the cover, and it has a few scuffs, but after 80 years I dare you to find something that looks that good.
For instance, this same issue, graded in .5 (essentially the cover is intact, but not attached to the issue, and there's no back cover), had a price tag of $100,000. That 8.0 is probably worth millions.
They were among several old, iconic comics in a tiny museum display the convention was running. I didn't take pics of all of what they had because frankly, when you've seen one copy of Amazing Fantasy #15 or Incredible Hulk #1, you've seen them all.
That brings us to the other headliner, Bob Kane's personal copy of Detective Comics #27, the first appearance of Batman. It, in unpleasant terms, looks like shit. But since it was owned by Batman's co-creator, that's a piece of history we're looking at here, and I was in awe just looking at it.
And in case you were wondering, here's what the back cover of one of the most iconic comic books of all time looks like. So many scams.
And the book I'm assuming the comic was bound in before it was graded. It's older than your parents, maybe even your grandparents at this point.
But basic aside, if you've read this blog long enough, I think you know where my tastes truly lie.
I'd been looking for a decent copy of this strange Jimmy Olsen issue for what felt like years, and snagged this one. Yes, in one issue Superman must confront that Jimmy has fallen into a crowd of (GASP) dirty hippies! The story is probably lame, but we all know the cover is why many of us even collect the things.
On the other end of the spectrum, we have this incredible silly Lois Lane cover. Even out of context, this is just dumb and hilarious. Also, don't pay attention to the price tags on these, a lot of the booths had sales, especially the one I bought these two issues from.
But I am here to show off what was probably my favorite find that day:
Yes! I finally found one of the Green Lantern/KFC comics in the wild. From 2017, this was the third in a series of KFC comics that were produced by DC for SDCC.
It's well known that I love weird, random crossovers, and this is as weird and random as it gets and I'd been dying to get my hands on them. It's Colonel Sanders recruiting the Green Lanterns in a search through space, how is that not amazing? The other two issues involve alternate Col Sanders a la The Green Lantern Corps, and you just know I eat stuff like that up like a ten piece bucket.
For a free comic, for some reason they shot up in price almost immediately. Maybe it was because the novelty value? It's not often you see comics made in the past ten years be really expensive, unless they're first prints of series that eventually became hit shows (cough)Walking Dead, Invincible(cough), or it was some variant by some artist that I've never heard of. In any case, I had to pick this up, damn the expense. It was under three digits, but it currently stands as the most I spent on a comic.
And I'll add that I managed to get Thor 337, the first appearance of Beta Ray Bill, for $67. At that con, the lower asking price I saw was around $250. Most cases, I'd say trawl eBay, those are where the best deals are.
These were nowhere near all of the stuff I picked up that day, but these were some of the highlights. Maybe I'll share the rest one day? Until then, you'll probably more likely to see them on my Instagram page, conveniently linked at the bottom of each post.
