A Glance at the Gallery
by Michael McFadden, CGC Quality Control
Greetings, Fandom! Michael McFadden here, waiting in the foreboding confines of the dark abyss known as CGC’s Fortress of Qualitude for Mark Haspel to come around and unlock my manacles. This seems like a perfect time to consider the latest inductees to the world-renown CGC DigiGallery.
Standing out like a supernova this month is a Mad #1 certifying at an incredible 9.9! There are maybe three or four thousand Gaines File Copies, all of which were carefully stored in the E.C. offices, never circulated on a newsstand or spinner rack. It figures a select few could earn nine-nine status - despite their age. But the confluence of the first issue of the culturally iconic Mad and the industry-respected CGC 9.9 is fortuitous indeed. I still need a Mad #1 to complete my Mad Comics collection; my educated guess is that it won’t be this copy!
Being CGC’s QC Doctor is one of the greatest gigs in comics fandom. I get to see so much cool stuff and I love to share it with you all whenever possible. Here’s something else that blew me away this month. I’m an unabashed Shadow fan, be it the Walter Gibson pulp canon, Orson Wells or Bill Johnstone on the ancient radio broadcasts, or those terrific Bob Powell covers on the comics. We’d only managed a half dozen high-grade examples on the DigiGallery of Street and Smith’s golden age run these last four years and we‘d been looking hard to add more. Not 2.5s and 4.0s, uncommon themselves actually, but really outstanding copies worthy of joining the elite comics we have on our Web site. Well, we’ve added 18 Shadow Comics, mostly from 6.5 to 9.6, a few even Pennsylvania and D Copy pedigrees. I’d suggest checking them all out, but I would specifically recommend V7 #s 11 and 12 and V8 #2 to see why Bob Powell is lauded by many longtime fans as a Golden Age great. The Shadow knows!
Pedigrees include the Las Vegas copy of Detective Comics #1. At 6.0, only one unrestored copy has certified higher, that at 6.5. Whitney Ellsworth cover art has seldom looked better. Almost a quarter century later, the Massachusetts copy of Detective #285 comes in at 9.4. A 9.6 Flash #133 also came from the Massachusetts collection. Additionally from Las Vegas are Sparkler #s 1, 3 and 12. Mile High entries include Crackajack Funnies #10, Green Lama #1, Jesse James #25, Gene Autry Comics #62, Super Mystery Comics V7 #5 and Target Comics V2 #8. A fabulous Basil Wolverton cover graces a White Mountain copy of Weird Tales from the Future #5. Charlton’s Unusual Tales #17 (Bethlehem), Murderous Gangsters (what a great title for a crime comic!) #2, Marvel Mystery Comics #77 ( a D copy from the Nicholas Cage collection), Fantastic Four #66 (Boston), Strange Tales #125 (Western Penn), Flash Comics #35 (San Francisco) and Four Color #s 719 and 732 (Circle 8) will round out the pedigrees.
Bourgeois rich snot Richie Rich dominates Harvey File copies this time with beautiful copies of #s 3 and 4. Richie Rich #14, from 1962, has an unintentionally prophetic comic book related cover. Harvey Hits #9, the bow-tied one’s second appearance, is joined by Little Audrey and Melvin #s 34, 35 and 40, and Little Lotta Foodland #1. Dell File copies of Walt Disney’s Comics and Stories #s 22, 38, 40, 124 (Christmas cover!), 132 and #140 join Walt Kelly’s Pogo Possum #1 in the DigiGallery.
Bureau of Statistical Inevitability: Select nine-nine and ten-ohs this month include Dark Tower: The Gunslinger Born #1, Spider-Man #1, Amazing Spider-Man V2 #1, World War Hulk #1 (Diamond), Walt Disney’s Uncle Scrooge #256, Walt Disney’s Uncle Scrooge Adventures #6, Wolverine Limited Series #s 3 and 4, Turok Dinosaur Hunter #1, New Teen Titans #s 6 and 10, Nexus V2 #1, Transformers All Hail Megatron #2 RRP, Captain America #41 Variant, Airboy #1, X-Men #s 3 and 9, and Michael Turner’s Fathom V3 #3 (Wizard World), which all hit 9.9 status. Ten-ohs include Black Terror #1 (Wizard World), X-Men #s 6 and 8, Zero Hour: Crisis in Time #1, Ultimate Spider-Man #79 (Wizard World), usual suspect Transformers Animated #nn (Free Comic Book Day), Witchblade #1 (German) and to no one’s surprise, Locke and Key #s 5 and 6.
Here’s one more reason why CGC’s SigSeries is so great! We had a book come through the Fortress of Qualitude, a copy of Halloween #1, autographed by uber-hottie Jamie Lee Curtis. Now this signature, this “signature,” is bit difficult to decipher. I can make out an ampersand and maybe a “w.” How this spells “Jamie Lee Curtis” is way beyond me. Thanks to our patented high-tech SigSeries protocol, though, we had a well-scrubbed CGC representative on hand to witness Jamie Lee’s actual signing. How else would anyone know who signed it?! That signature looks like one of the Rorschach inkblots my psychologist shows me right before he turns on the juice for my electro-shock therapy. Yeah, my psychologist. You try looking at thousands of Little Dot, Brother Power the Geek and Banana Splits like the Q. C. Doctor does every month and tell me you won’t need one, too.
And here’s a far-out idea fraught with fabulosity. Those blank cover editions are great for sketches, but how about for cover recreations? One savvy fan grabbed his Secret Invasion #1 Sketch Edition and asked Bob Layton to recreate his classic Iron Man #128 cover of Tony Stark’s post-binge DTs. I’ll drink to that! Another Secret Invasion #1 wound up as a jam cover, shared by fifteen different dynamite cartoonists including Arthur Suydam and Bob McLeod.
SigSeries traditionalists should be summarily sizzled by a 9.4 Swamp Thing #1, personalized by co-creators Len Wein and Bernie Wrightson. Big screen Wolverine Hugh Jackman and vid screen Hulk Lou Ferrigno signed Incredible Hulk #340, joined by a bevy of Emerald Anarchist’s comic creators: Stan Lee, Peter David, Len Wein, Herb Trimpe, John Romita Sr., Bob Wiacek and Todd McFarlane. Star Trek #1, the 1968 Gold Key original, is signed by a stunning array of the original cast, namely William Shatner, Leonard Nimoy, Nichelle Nichols, George Takei and Walter Koenig. Dare I say that’s out of this world? Or should I planet more carefully? I’d better not.
Almost 50 sketch editions of Ultimate Spider-Man #100 that we’ve imaged over the last few months are now on the DigiGallery, thanks to the efforts of CGC’s Gemma Adel. Sponsored by the Hero Initiative, these books show America’s favorite angst ridden insect bite victim as interpreted by some of the top talent in the industry, like Andy Kubert, Mike Deodato, John Romita Sr., Ron Garney and Michael Golden. Do check these out. The display of these one of a kind originals that I caught at Florida’s Megacon was very impressive.
Imagine this scene in a typical American kitchen:
Boyfriend or husband: Hi, honey. You worked so hard today while I was at the pool hall I decided to cook dinner.
Girlfriend or wife: That’s great! What are you cooking tonight?
Boyfriend or husband: YOUR HEAD, BATTLE AXE!!!!!
Clearly, this man knows how to show a girl a hot time. But she doesn’t appreciate it… she looks like she’s all burned up. Such is domestic bliss on the cover of Crime Does Not Pay #24 (Pennsylvania, 8.5) as seen by Charles Biro, the inventor of real crime comics as two fiery personalities settle their differences. It looks like the burning desire of their love has been extinguished. Now she can only hope for the same on her flaming scalp. It’s going up quicker than Michael Jackson’s in that old Pepsi ad. I do have high hopes for this couple. He certainly can’t keep an old flame on the back burner forever. Oven-tually, they’ll get back together… at the burn unit. I guess it’ll be a bowl of breakfast cereal tonight instead of roast girlfriend. Crispy Critters, anyone?
Comments and questions regarding the gallery? We’re fans, too. We enjoy hearing from you, unless we don‘t. You can contact me at mmcfadden@cgccomics.com. Thank you for your time and do remember- be good to yourself. Be CGC-ing you!
