What can I say? Ever since I was 5 years old and
picked up my father's copy of Jules Feiffer's The
Great Comic Book Heroes, I've been hooked. These reprints of great Golden Age tales fascinated me to
no end, and I pored over these stories every few weeks. Eventually I began to read Kirby's great Thor
issues (King-Size Thor 3 was my first comic, and despite its tatterred condition, it is still one of
my prize possessions) as well as the endless supply of Richie Rich, Sad Sack, and Little Dot books
that my father brought home for my sister and I. And then there were the countless trips to the shoe
store. There, as my parents focused on footwear, I badgered the clerks to hand over as
many issues of March of Comics, featuring characters published by Gold Key, as possible.
My collecting interests are fairly widespread but, aside from reading great comics from the '60's and '70's, nothing makes me happier than finding great high grade Silver-Age books. There's a certain magic in these books for me. What an amazing time in comics! Marvel's emphasis on characterization and overall unequalled artwork and writing, including Lee and Kirby's FF, Gene Colan's great artwork on Daredevil, and Lee's fantastic work with Ditko and Romita on Spiderman. This doesn't mean that DC was not producing some of the great comic classics. My personal favorites are Neal Adam's runs on the Spectre and the Brave and Bold, and Kubert's Enemy Ace issues of Brave and Bold and Showcase. And of course, Gil Kanes unbelievable work on Green Lantern.
Having grown up in the 1970's, much of my collection focuses on the great (and often under appreciated) Marvel and DC books from that period. It's no accident that Marvel's recent reworking of their "universe" harkens back to those years. And nothing beats DC's great Batman issues with Adams, Aparo, and Rogers artwork, their incredibly fun 100 Page giants, and all-round wonderful JLA run from the late Silver-Age to 1980. These books managed to combine all of the charm of the Silver-Age with just enough sophistication. I began collecting in the summer of 1976 and was fortunate to begin in a vacation spot along the New Jersey shore, where stores apparently were not efficient in returning non-sales from the previous month. This meant I was lucky enough to put together runs of titles covering 4-5 months. One of these was Kirby's fantastic (although then, much maligned) return to Marvel and Capt. America. The return of the "King" to his wartime creation and the nation's Bicentennial in the same year -it couldn't have been more fitting.
Because I started collecting during these months, I've always had a fondness for Marvel's 30 cent
price variants which were on sale at this time. For those of you unfamiliar with these, Marvel test-
marketed a price increase from 25 cents to 30 cents on those books with cover dates of April-August
of that year. In certain small markets, a small percentage of books had the higher 30 cent price
on it instead of the regular price or the "Still Only 25c" starburst. This way, Marvel could
determine the degree of consumer resistance to the price increase by seeing how many of the 30
cent books were returned. Those cities in which these copies were distributed include San
Antonio, Grand Rapids, and Baltimore.
Collectors believe that most of these copies were not bought by collectors or regular readers, but by unsophisticated
kids who purchased the books for what they were originally intended-to read, read again, carry around
in their back pocket, loan to friends, etc. This, combined with their relative scarcity, makes it
incredibly difficult to find these issues in high grade. Like a few other collectors around the nation,
I've been determined to complete a set of these variants. I've been obsessed with this for a year now, and it's
much more difficult than it sounds. I've included examples of some of these books below so others can
see what they look like. I've also included a complete list of the variants,
their relative scarcity, and those I need to complete my collection. If you have any of these for sale or trade, feel free to contact me .
Also, send me your want lists. I have many variant duplicates available.
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