Collect Mary Marvel Michelle Nolan

Mary Marvel was one of the last significant original costume heroes to be created during the Golden Age. She never achieved anywhere near the popularity of Captain Marvel and Captain Marvel Junior, but she still had a decent run of 11 years in three titles. Collecting Mary Marvel is a far more difficult challenge than gathering the adventures of her two counterparts in The Marvel Family.

Mary Marvel's debut in Captain Marvel #18 (December 1942) is a huge prize for collectors, although the story has been reprinted. If you ever have a chance to get this issue, snap it up. You won't regret it. It's definitely one of the most undervalued key issues of the Golden Age.

Mary shifted to Wow Comics with #9 (January 1943), running for 50 consecutive issues through #58 (September 1947). Marc Swayze did some wonderful covers and interior art on Mary's early adventures, all of which ran 10 to 16 pages through Wow #25 (May 1944). Any of these early issues of Wow are real gems for a Golden Age collection.

Mary was the cover feature for the rest of her run in Wow as well. Many of the covers really are colorful, fun examples of Golden Age energy, but Fawcett opted to reduce her stories so severely that many Golden Age collectors have been disappointed. These covers promise a lot more than Fawcett delivered inside. Most of the stories for the rest of her run in Wow are only 7 to 9 pages long. DC always did a lot better by Wonder Woman than Fawcett did for Mary Marvel.

Just as Wow #9-25 often tend to be underpriced, Wow #26-58 tend to be overpriced. My advice is to examine each issue carefully. There's no doubt in my mind that issues of Wow are significantly more difficult to find than Fawcett's other anthologies, Whiz and Master. Perhaps the way Mary Marvel was handled has a lot to do with this.

Mary didn't get her own title until World War II ended, and even then, there was a big gap between Mary Marvel #1 (December 1945) and #2 (June 1946). In the entire 28-issue run, lasting through September 1948, the only 52-page issues were #5-10. The quality of the covers varied wildly, but there's no question that issues of Mary Marvel are invariably far scarcer than titles featuring Captain Marvel or Captain Marvel Junior, much less DC's Superman, Batman and Wonder Woman. Anyone who tries to complete Mary Marvel #1-28 is likely to need a lot of persistence over several years.

Based on their scarcity, issues of Mary Marvel must not have sold well in relation to the other Marvel Family characters. Oddly, the title remained a monthly from #2 on, skipping only January 1947. I've always thought it was very odd that Mary appeared monthly during a period when Superman, Batman and Wonder Woman were all still bi-monthly. There were multiple Mary Marvel stories in all 28 issues, and only a handful of tales were as long as 10 or 11 pages. The vast majority of Mary's stories ran only 5 to 8 pages. There's no question that the title was designed for younger readers than other Fawcett titles, so that helps account for such short stories.

Ironically, Mary appeared in stylish western-type clothes on the cover of her last issue. The next thing her fans knew, the title had been changed to Monte Hale Western. Wow Comics suffered the same fate after #69 (August 1948), which became Real Western Hero, an anthology title. The cute teen hi-jinx strip "Ozzie and Babs" replaced Mary Marvel in Wow #59-69. Of Mary's three regular comics, it's generally a lot easier to find issues of The Marvel Family than either Mary Marvel or Wow. The Marvel Family title popped up at the same time as the Mary Marvel title, beginning with #1 (December 1945) and also forcing readers to endure a sixth-month gap until #2 (June 1946).

Mary appeared in every issue as a participant in each Marvel Family team-up epic and also popped up in her own short stories in most issues through #60 (June 1951). These were generally 7-pagers. For the most part, it's a lot easier to find issues of The Marvel Family than Mary's other two titles. For my money, The Marvel Family is one of the best bargains among Golden Age comics, but not every reader will be fond of Fawcett's often whimsical approach. The title appeared almost every month through #89 (January 1954), which tied for the final comic produced by Fawcett.

In one of those inexplicable oddities of the Golden Age, one of Mary's final solo stories appeared in Master #118 (October 1950). It was a cute 13-page fantasy entitled "Mary Marvel and the Big Rock Candy Mountain!" Not since Wow Comics #23 had Mary appeared in such a long solo story. This may have been an inventory piece, since Mary wasn't even plugged on the cover along with the four other features. I seldom see Master #118, in which Captain Marvel Junior battles his 'double' on the cover — perhaps because knowledgeable Mary Marvel collectors have snapped most of them up.

I guarantee that anyone who tries to collect all of the 169 comics in which Mary Marvel appears will need a lot of time and patience.

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Classics Incorporated will be auctioning off over 100 CGC'd issues of the famed Marvel 30-cent variants the end of January. These variant issues were recently discovered in an original-owner collection assembled in San Antonio, TX, and average CGC 9.0 – 9.4 in grade. Notoriously scarce in nice shape, several of the issues are the highest-graded copies on CGC's census.

Marvel 30-cent variants are the test price versions of all the regular 25-cent titles that Marvel published from April to August 1976. Marvel raised the price of all their titles in six test markets to see what the resistance to a 5-cent price increase would be. All of the other regular Marvel titles have 30-cent variants, for a total of 186 possible variants. These variants were only distributed in six markets, and apparently not all outlets in those markets received all the variants. San Antonio was one of those test markets.

This could possibly be the biggest one-time offering of Marvel variants ever. Visit classicsincorporated.com for a complete listing of available books, scans, their rankings on CGC's census and a background on collecting variants. The comics will be listed in two groups on eBay starting the end of January. Please e-mail any inquiries to Matt Nelson at comics@classicsincorporated.com.

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CGC is extending its guarantee on turnaround times. The guarantee will now apply to all regular grading tier submissions including magazine submissions. All submissions are automatically eligible for this guarantee, and submitters do not need to make special note on their submission invoice.

We will also continue to guarantee Modern tier submissions at an expedited turnaround time of just 15 business days.

Should CGC fail to meet its stated turnaround time schedule, shown below, the submitter will receive a 20% credit on grading fees for each book on the late submission invoice. This offer is valid on all books received before March 1, 2006.

Turnaround times will be guaranteed based on the following schedule:

Please note that in addition to federal holidays, CGC does not count the Friday prior to a major convention as a business day. All events relevant to this limitation of our turnaround time guarantee are posted on our Web site on the events page. Also note that certain circumstances may cause a delay in processing your submission, and are not covered by our turnaround time guarantee. These include improperly completed submission forms; verification of pedigrees and foreign editions; confirmation of interior pages/back covers of restored or conserved comic books; submitter consent for poly-bag removal; submitter notification of fragile comic books; and authentication of suspect counterfeit comic books.

If you have any questions about submitting comic books to CGC, do not hesitate to contact a customer service representative at 1-877-NM-COMIC or submissions@CGCcomics.com.

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Metropolis Collectibles COO Vincent Zurzolo has recently closed a deal on one of the top CGC Graded runs of Amazing Spider-Man collections ever assembled. "The amount of time, energy and passion — not to mention money — it took to amass such a collection is astounding. The seller truly loved ol' Webhead and the grades on these books really show it. This is a fantastic collection to be able to offer our customers and a great way for Metropolis to start the New Year. I truly believe this collection is a sign of good things to come," said Zurzolo.

The collection consists of a gorgeous Amazing Fantasy #15 CGC 8.5 and Amazing Spider-Man #1-200 ranging from 9.0 to 9.8 with standouts including 2, 3, 4, 5, 9, 10, 11 and 13-20 in 9.4. Issues 125-200 are incredible with most being the highest-graded copies available at 9.6 to 9.8.

To inquire about purchasing any of these copies, e-mail orders@metropoliscomics.com or call 800-229-6387 ext 10.

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The option to drop off and/or pick up submissions at the Sarasota offices has been discontinued for non-dealers and submitters through any of our affiliates.

We regret the inconvenience to our customers. However, in the interest of security, this change in policy is necessary.

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Pedigree Comics owner and President Doug Schmell proudly announces that his company has just completed negotiations on a major consignment agreement that will bring what is considered to be the third-best-known CGC Certified Silver Age Marvel collection in the country to Pedigree Comics, Inc.! It is an incredible single-owner collection that is now over 13 years in the making. This collection consists of near-full Silver Age runs of all the major early 1960s Marvel titles, including Amazing Spider-Man, Avengers, Daredevil, Fantastic Four, Journey Into Mystery, Strange Tales, Tales of Suspense, Tales to Astonish, and X-Men as well as a complete run of Silver Surfer. Also included are some individual issues from the 1960s (Iron Man #1, Doctor Strange #169, Captain America #100, Captain America #101, Nick Fury #1, Sub-Mariner #1, Iron Man and Sub-Mariner #1, Thor #126, Sgt. Fury #13, Sgt. Fury Annual #1) and early 1970s (Conan the Barbarian #1, Marvel Spotlight #2, Marvel Spotlight #5, Incredible Hulk #181, Ghost Rider #1, Tomb of Dracula #1, Giant-Size X-Men #1, Amazing Adventures #1 and Amazing Adventures #11).

The collection consists of 464 CGC graded books, 95% of which are 9.4 or better with 25% being in 9.6 or 9.8 certified condition. In addition, 30% of the collection is pedigreed, with nationally recognized names such as Massachusetts, Oakland, Northland, White Mountain, Pacific Coast, Boston, Diamond Run, Green River, Mile High II, Winnipeg, Western Penn., Bethlehem Circle 8, Golden State, Slobodian and Edenwald represented.

The collector would only buy what he considered Near Mint quality comic books and stressed page quality above other determining factors. Thus, almost every book in the collection (except for 3 or so that have cream to off-white pages) has off-white or better page quality. Most every one of the 464 comics was the best possible copy he could locate at the time of purchase, and he would strive to upgrade issues over time to get to his coveted 9.4/Near Mint threshold. In effect, most of the books are tied as the highest or second highest CGC certified copies. Since the first and second best SA Marvel collections are doubted to be available for many years, this will likely be the greatest individual amassment of high-grade early Marvels ever brought to market.

The books will become available for sale starting on Wednesday, January 11, at which time any prospective buyer may call, write or e-mail Pedigree Comics, Inc.'s Doug Schmell with his or her want-list or specific book(s) of interest. Any book may be purchased before the official listing of the individual runs on the Pedigree Comics Web site, www.PedigreeComics.com. This listing will commence on Wednesday, January 25 with the listing of the Avengers run (issues 1-20). Please check the Web site periodically for further announcements of the date(s) and time(s) of the future listings. All inquiries, questions, comments and want-lists should be directed to Doug Schmell at (561) 422-1120 (office) or (561) 596-9111 (cell) or DougSchmell@pedigreecomics.com (e-mail) or Pedigree Comics, Inc., 12541 Equine Lane, Wellington, Florida 33414.

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Heritage Galleries & Auctioneers (HG&A) will offer all ten of the Top Ten Most Valuable Comic Books, as designated in the current edition of The Official Overstreet Comic Book Price Guide, in their upcoming Comic and Original Comic Art Signature Auction, to be held January 19 – 21, 2006, in Dallas, Texas.

"This is an extremely significant grouping of comics," said Ed Jaster, Vice President of HG&A, "comprising all of the rarest and most desirable books in existence. To see all of these rare issues in one place at one time is an event that happens, at best, infrequently, and we're proud to be able to present these four-color gems to the collecting public."

Jaster added, "Leading the list, of course, is the landmark Action Comics #1, which features the origin and first appearance of Superman himself. Without this book, you wouldn't be reading this today, as this is the single issue that really solidified the concept of comic books as we know them today. The copy we're offering is CGC-graded Apparent VF-7.5 Moderate (P) with Off-white to white pages, and has a pre-auction estimate of $75,000 and up." Read more

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