The skyrocketing prices of comics has cut many collectors from ever acquiring the key issues.
The first appearance of Spider-Man in Amazing Fantasy 15? It’ll cost a collector thousands of dollars for a copy that’s just stapled together. The first Superman or Batman in higher grade? Worth about the same as a house in downtown Toronto or Vancouver. Soon, Manhattan will be on that list.
And market prices for other highly prized comic collectables are going higher. EC comic books in decent shape, for example, are greatly desired and gaining in value on the market. There are some exceptions but Golden Age era books, from 1938 to about 1956, no matter who published it, are for the most part in demand, especially in higher grades.
The prices of back issues in general, whether it’s something innocuous as Amazing Spider-Man 262 or Brave and the Bold 148, are pushing collectors to find the next hot thing. A silver lining to this market madness is that’s pushing collectors to look at titles that were largely ignored and once were stuffed in quarter bins. There’s growing interest in those books that were considered “just okay”, such as war titles, chintzy horror and mystery books, and Gold Key books that were often left behind at the news stand.
The long dormant western titles could see a revival.
Some of the interest is moving to titles including Gold Key’s The Twilight Zone from 1961 to ’82, the Occult Files of Dr. Spektor, and Space Family Robinson; DC’s the Unknown Soldier, the Unexpected and its various romance titles; and also gaining traction are the funny books, including Richie Rich, Sugar and Spike and Casper the Friendly Ghost.
Many of the one-shot titles of short-lived TV shows and of films that didn’t quite fill the box offices’ tills are getting a second look as collectors are exploring new genres, titles and, ultimately, what they can afford.
These titles were either the launch pad for young artists or the landing strip for the aging artist at the end of their career.
Twilight Zone 84, for example, contains the first work by artist/writer Frank Miller. He would go on to do ground-breaking work in Daredevil, Batman and Sin City. His 300 comic about the Battle of Thermopylae in 480 BC would become a hit movie. Unknown Soldier, which was Star-Spangled War Stories until issue 204, had art by Howard Chaykin (Blackhawk, American Flagg!), EC Comics star artist George Evans, and Joe Kubert (Enemy Ace, among his massive amount of work).
Collectors of Charlton Comics will arguably stand to gain the most. The Connecticut-based company that was considered the bottom of the barrel for artists during the 1960s until it closed in 1986, have numerous short-lived titles that are really nice gems. E-Man falls into that category, containing work by Joe Staton, Steve Ditko and Canadian artist John Byrne, who would later move to Marvel and draw, among others, Fantastic Four, Alpha Flight and X-Men.
Its romance and horror titles, on second look, are really better than remembered when they were on the newsstands.
There’s also a great cache of work that’s lain ignored — or forgotten — under the First, Pacific and Eclipse imprints.
Eclipse brought Miracleman, Ms. Tree, the Rocketeer (see the movie on Disney+ but the artwork by Dave Stevens warrants a French chef’s kiss), and was one of the first companies that published graphic novels, including an adaptation of The Hobbit. It also adapted Manga comics for the North American market.
Pacific, launched in the early 1980s but was one of the first to flounder and many titles moved over to Eclipse, launched one of the finest sci-fi comics in Alien Worlds. It’s Somerset Holmes was a terrific mystery book. It also reprinted Frank Robbins’ newspaper strip Johnny Hazard, a classic from the 1940s and ‘50s.
Pacific, launched in the early 1980s but was one of the first to flounder and many titles moved over to Eclipse, launched one of the finest sci-fi comics in Alien Worlds. It’s Somerset Holmes was a terrific mystery book. It also reprinted Frank Robbins’ newspaper strip Johnny Hazard, a classic from the 1940s and ‘50s.
The collectibles market for the key books will remain strong, but limited to those who have deep pockets. New records are being set almost on a monthly basis. But that could force collectors to alter their tastes somewhat to rediscover (or discover) titles kept in remainders bins or were forgotten — yet remain affordable.