What to do?

Hey, Hamilton will be a good spot to be in to enjoy the total eclipse of the sun today, lets hope the clouds stay away, at least long enough for me to test out these funny looking cardboard glasses. If the event will be visible in your area please take the precautions needed to protect your eyes, we all need them to tell apart those CGC 9.8s from the CGC 9.9s.

Deep in the “heading to eBay auction” pile I found this nice set of Dune #1 – 3 and decided to make all three the Covers of the Week. Bill Sienkiewicz drew tall three, the mini series was based on the ho hum movie that had just come out. I saw this movie way back then and thought it sucked, I’ve read the Dune books and was so thoroughly disappointed. I’ve seen the first part of the new Dune but have yet to see part two, though I’ve heard it was great. These Dune comics have never really caught on in the collecting community, go back 7 years to the Star Wars comics and you see great market results, but these Dune books… I’m not sure what to do, do I run them knowing they won’t do as well as I think they should? Well at least they are the Newsstand editions, what the heck, lets let them ride!

Speaking of what to do, what the heck do you do with a beautiful run of 12 cent Marvels with Dick Ayers covers, (note: I mistakenly put in Jack Kirby as the cover artist but just make a quick correction) normally you’d rejoice but easy there gunner, slow down, these books are Sgt Fury comics. I really should not run these, perhaps I’ll put them away in storage, perhaps the PC (personal collection), perhaps price them up for the back issue bins at the shop? Any suggestions? These beauties should be worth way more than the market is bringing these days.

I was leafing through a copy of Conan #1 when I saw this ad for these big posters. For some reason the posters reminded me of that 1972 York University Cosmicon poster that was drawn by Jim Steranko that we sold in our Canadiana auction last year. The guy that one the first copy we auctioned had sent it down to CGC for grading but the returned it saying they did not grade that type of poster, I still don’t know what that means. I’m wondering if CGC grades these big Marvel posters from the 60s and whether they are worth anything? That Doom poster is easy the best of the lot.

Our latest icecollectibles weekly eBay auction finished up last night, I was watching a few of the lots with interest including our raw copy of Batman #189. The book finished at a strong $398.33 USD. I think Jay was very tight on the grade but better to slightly undergrade it that slightly overgrade it, way more happy customers and way less returns.

Walter Durajlija
Walter Durajlija

Walter Durajlija is an Overstreet Advisor and Shuster Award winner. He owns Big B Comics in Hamilton Ontario.

Articles: 1826

8 Comments

  1. I always wanted those posters as a kid!
    Even the early issues of Sgt Fury weren’t hugely sought after in my comic sales (I had 1-19). I had a bunch of later issues as well that I sold as reader lots and for whatever reason if you put reader lot in the title of your eBay posting it sells!
    Speaking of Steranko and Kirby… I also kept the entire Nick Fury run of Strange Tales as well as the First issue of Nick’s own title because it’s a book that does not sell very well either ( from my research) and it was one of my favorite titles do to both Nick and Dr Strange.

  2. I went to see the eclipse in Niagara yesterday and took my 78 y/o Mom.
    As predicted it was 70% cloud cover and we only saw the sun come out from the clouds briefly post-full eclipse and the rapid darkening of the sky, even behind the clouds was dramatic was amazing.She is still ahead of me in viewing eclipses since in the mid 70’s when we were in Nova Scotia, I was ill and they promised me they would wake me for the eclipse and DIDN’T. 🙁

  3. Stay bitter at those parents of yours Jim, the best grudge is an old grudge, you gotta let em mature like a fine wine! I hope you slipped in a little backhand comment to her like ‘yeah, at least I woke you up for it mum!!!’

  4. Plenty of eclipses still to come, we can pick and choose with the ease of travel these days, I’m waiting for one near Melbourne…

    I think only #1 and maybe #13 are the only Furys people chase Gerald

  5. Nick Fury, 1,2,3 & 5 – all have internal Steranko art – those should be the ones people hunt ! (issue #4 is a magnificent cover though, I can understand having that one in the box!)

  6. Finally some mention of Steranko in these pages. I met him in Winnipeg when Phil Fry, then curator there, did STERANKO:GRAPHIC NARRATIVE at the Winnipeg Art Gallery in the 1970s. Phil was a pal then and still on all fronts popular. We enjoyed a prime rib with Jim before the WAG opening, got a signed poster and everything. Fry next did The Structure of Comics at the WAG. Got him in some trouble over copyright. The poster in limited supply over copyright.

    If it were not for Steranko’s Preview magazine I would not have known of the up coming Star Wars movie in 1977. Waited two years for it.

    It sent science fiction back 50 years but you could see it better

  7. Walter, you’re probably more likely to be mooned in Melbourne than see an eclipse there. 😮
    I’ve heard that a cruise ship is a better choice since they can go anywhere on our planet of mostly ocean and steer their way to any total eclipse.

    I’ve got 28 issues of Nick Fury titles, including a CGC9.2 of Agent of Shield 6 and 112 Strange Tales books that I need to do some sales research on. I’m so far behind on getting to know more of the books I have I need to retire just to start that and I can’t afford to retire yet.
    I hope the market is still there when I do.

  8. Thanks for joining in M., I love the WAG handle way better that the AGO handle. I had someone reach out to me from Winnipeg with a Structure of Comics poster, that’s a nice piece. If the Star Wars of the 70s set Sci Fi back 50 years then these latest ones set it back another century.

    Activejim, I hope the market is still there too, though I did hear that its actually cheaper to live year long on one of those cruise ships than it is to live on land, so there’s always that option for you.

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