We are in the month of June with the last vestiges of spring, the flowers are blooming, the bees are buzzing, and a young couple’s thoughts turn to marriage and a life lived happily ever after… (insert screeching brake sound here)! Well that might have been the norm in days gone but today it’s just a wee bit different. In…
Written by:Mike Huddleston
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This week’s Overvalued spotlight falls on one of the great-granddaddies of Marvel Annuals – Fantastic Four Annual #1. A huge book back in 1963 it was, along with Strange Tales Annual #2, the first super-hero themed annuals produced by Marvel, and a milestone for the company. Fantastic Four Annual #1, July 1963. 46th Overstreet Prices: 6.0 $210 / 8.0 $555…
We are going to take Arcs & Runs in a slightly different direction this week and look at a Silver Age run of issue #4’s. Yes #4. I have listened to all the love and support for issue #2’s and their value relative to #1’s. I think many of them overvalued. I have always believed that issue #4’s only bent…
Today’s Overvalued Overstreet spotlight features one of my favourite comics of all time: Tales of Suspense #49. I still own a beautiful copy of the book, and it will probably be one of those books that goes to the people who I leave behind when I am resting in an urn on somebody’s mantle. They of course will probably sell…
We are finally back in the saddle here on Arcs & Runs and we will start the year with a look at some comic books that were connected from their first publishing date or “birth”. Twins if you will. In today’s post, the two titles both began in September 1963 and through a few fits and starts are still running…
It seems a little odd writing about war comics in the middle of the most festive time of the year. It is this time of year however when I think about war the most. The sacrifices that others have made in the past, and still make today, so I can sit at home relatively care-free with my friends and family.…
This week we take another look back at the Fantastic Four and another small run within opening #1-67 run of this fabulous book. This is part four if you are counting. Stories by Stan Lee, awesome art by jolly Jack Kirby, with inking chores spread amongst Chic Stone, Vince Colletta, and Dick Ayers. We’ll start by meeting a Dragon of…
Amazing Spider-Man #3, Marvel, July 1963. Every now and again I’m lucky enough to have Mike Huddleston come to the shop for a nice visit. I’m not sure what I enjoy more, catching up with Mike or the coffee and donuts he always brings. Last time he was down as we enjoyed some Boston Cremes he suggested we switch columns for…
This month we feature a classic bronze-age arc from the pages of Captain Marvel. The Captain Marvel #25-34 storyline is the highpoint Marv-ell’s comic career, and introduced us to the full mad cosmic villainy of Thanos. Captain Marvel was first introduced to us in Marvel Super-Heroes #12. He soon had his own book (Captain Marvel #1 May 1968), but the…
It took a while, but I finally have come to my most disliked Marvel title of all time – Not Brand Echh. Issue #1 of Not Brand Echh has already been covered in Walt’s Undervalued Spotlight #85 way back on May 13, 2011 (Thank you again Scott for that Index). There is a lot of good background information on the…
We are venturing back to the X-Men title to shine the Overvalued spotlight on a seriously overvalued Top Ten issue and to attend to a little unfinished business on X-Men reprints. The books in the original X-Men title (#1-66) have always been and still are valued higher than its twin sister book The Avengers (both started in September 1963). There…
This month we feature a look back to the late sixties and early seventies and Marvels venture into horror comic reprints and my favourite title from the period: Where Monsters Dwell. We’ll begin with a quick overview of this period which ran from 1969-1976. Marvel’s first two titles in their return to horror, Chamber of Darkness and Tower of Shadows,…
Fantastic Four #24 March 1964 The Infant Terrible A standard Kirby/Lee production In this month’s edition of Overvalued Overstreet we turn our attention to comic retailers and collectors current nightmare: the dreaded “run” book. I always chuckle at this term as all comics become part of a run if the title lasts for any period of time. Key and semi-key…
Marvel Team-Up Annual #4, Pawns of the Purple Man, Marvel Comics, August 1981. Cover Art and story by Frank Miller, Interior art by Herb Trimpe, Inking by Mike Esposito. Walt: Here’s another fantastic contribution to the Undervalued Spotlight from Mike Huddleston. Mike knew I was tied up with a comic con for the past week and stepped in when the…
One of the most critically acclaimed comic books to hit the stands in early 70’s was Neal Adams and Dennis O’Neil’s Green Lantern/Green Arrow run. I didn’t know much about DC comics but I was very familiar with Neal Adams, who had just finished a ten issue run with the X-Men (#56-65) and then the title was suspended after issue…
We continue our look at one of the greatest runs of comics in Marvel’s super-hero history: Jack Kirby, Joe Sinnott, & Stan Lee’s Fantastic Four. This is part three of the series and today we feature the tail end of the run, and we pick-up after the events in Fantastic Four #60. Doctor Doom has been vanquished, and the Inhumans…
In this week’s Arcs & Runs we will follow up our Human Torch piece from last post with another of the most popular and highly sought after characters in the Marvel stable of super-heroes – Prince Namor the Sub-Mariner. This introduction has been paid for by comic shop owners almost every where. Well maybe I am being a little hard…
Today we will take a look at one of my least favorite genres of comic collecting – the photo cover comic. Who am I kidding? I think they are the worst. I would say I hate them but “hate” is an overused word, we’ll settle for intensely dislike and leave it there. My biggest gripe about them is the complete…
Superman #100 DC Comics September/October 1955. In today’s Undervalued Spotlight we venture back in time to one of the bleakest periods in the super-hero comic book genre. The year is 1955 and the Golden age of comic books is winding down. The comic book genre in has been under attack by Doctor Fredric Wertham, and the industry in general has…
