Fantastic Four #45, Marvel Comics (December 1965) The Fantastic Four is easily the most important of the original slew of Marvel titles. Most of the time we focus on the importance of FF#1 and how it changed everything. While Fantastic Four #1 started the process of change it was the...

Just wanted to do a quick report on the Canadian Comics panel  that we held at Niagara Con this past Saturday (June 8). The panel was comprised of Hope Nicholson (producer for the upcoming “Lost Heroes” documentary which will air on Super Channel Canada this year, Rachel Richey Canadian...

On Monday May 27th 2013 Tom Laing passed away. That name might not right a bell right away, but he was the owner of Comic 1 Books in Stoney Creek Ontario. I don’t think I ever knew his last name until this week. My friend Marc at Big B Comics told me yesterday; people were coming into...

By the end of 1942 all 7 main Bell Features titles were in place. These included Action Comics, Commando Comics, Dime Comics, The Funny Comics, Joke Comics, Triumph Comics, and Wow Comics. All but a handful had no date of issue reference on them. When I talk about Bell Features comics, I...

JLA/Avengers #1, Marvel Comics, (September 2003) This comic features the 1st meeting of the Justice League of America and the Avengers. Considering how big the Avengers are and how big the JLA will most likely be this is a book that belongs in everybody’s collection. What’s odd to me is that...

You’ve probably heard that Apple is the world’s most valuable company. But how do we know that, exactly? It’s actually a simple calculation: multiply the number of Apple’s shares outstanding by its current share price. Apple currently has approximately 940 million shares outstanding and...

Now would be a good time to remind everyone that a Canadian Comics Panel is being held at the Niagara Falls Comic Con on Saturday June 8th at 12:00 noon until 1:00 PM in room 205 of the Niagara Falls Scotiabank Convention Centre. We’ve received a lot of positive response regarding this panel...

Marvel Team-Up Annual #1, Marvel Comics, (December 1976) Here we have the 1st new X-Men team appearance outside the X-Men title. Better yet they make this appearance in a great little title called Marvel Team-Up, a Spider-Man title. Correct me if I’m wrong but I think this is the 1st meeting...

Auction Highlights #77, Comic Link May Featured Auction The Comic Link Featured Auction has just ended, all results below ended between Tuesday May 21st and Wednesday May 23rd. This was a good auction with a nice mix of books. The top 50 comics by price had 23 from the Golden/Aton age (all...

Yesterday marked 1 year and 6 months since my Undervalued Spotlight #103 post. In that post I put the spotlight on Maple Leaf Publishing’s Better Comics #1 and talked about the importance and the scarcity of the book. I remember not being able to find a color photo of the issue, thus the...

The quality of the artwork in the Canadian WECA books has often received unwarranted malignment for its primitive, almost amateur quality. Though it’s true that this was sometimes the case for the fledgling comic book industry of the early forties, It’s amazing to think how many of the WECA...

Classic Comics #33, The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes, Gilberton Publications, (January 1947) I’ve often looked to Classic Illustrated (it was called Classic Comics for the 1st 34 issues) for a Spotlight but for some reason never posted one. I was pricing a small stack of Classics the other...

The good discussion generated by my last post needs to be seen through little. Besides, I had a busy week and have nothing up my sleeve for this week’s post. The comics in the main graphic all came out in 1946, the last WECA year, and almost all of them had American reprinted guts with most...

Detective Comics #33, DC Comics (November 1939) Batman is one of the most important superheroes of all time, top three on everybody’s list and #1 on a majority of peoples list. Next to 1st appearances Origin issues are the most important issues for any superhero so it goes without saying that...

A solid look into “the first modern detective”, IDW’s Library Of American Comics presents a wonderful look into post war crime fiction. The first volume of Alex Raymond’s modernist classic reproduces, from syndicate proof sheets, every strip from the beginning, March...

Your friend and mine, Walter Durajlija, the “Big” in  Big B Comics, has initiated a panel discussion of Canadian Comics that will take place at Niagara Falls Comic Con (June 8-9) at the Scotia bank Convention Centre.. The panel itself will take place on the Saturday (June 8) during the lunch...

Interest in Canadian war-time comics, popularly known as the “Canadian Whites” is growing and with a scarce and limited supply of them available, their values continue to escalate. The other day I picked up one of my WECA books and fondly recalled that it was the very first “Canadian White” I...

G.I. Combat #138, DC Comics, (November/December 1969) DC War comics are a very active collecting strain. I’ve features two DC War comics here on the Undevalued Spotlight. Spotlight #7 featured the 1st Sgt. Rock while Spotlight #2 featured the 1st Mademoiselle Marie. I hope you picked up your...

In the mid 1950s the U.S. Senate forced comic book publishers to adhere to the guidelines of a Comic Code Authority. The ‘Code’ was brought in to protect America’s youth from what was then deemed disturbingly graphic and blatantly sexual content in comic books. Post ‘Code’ comic books were...

  There were four main publishers of Canadian comics in the WECA era.  Anglo-American Publications out of Toronto and Vernon Miller’s Leaf Publications out of Vancouver started the whole thing off in March of 1941 with the issue of Robin Hood Comics No. 1 and Better Comics No. 1. Adrian...