The world's best Wolverine collection

I am primarily a bronze-age collector with a focus on X-Men and Amazing Spider-Man. But, I recently decided to take a break from my X-Men 94-143 run and put together a Wolverine 1-189 run. The idea was suggested to me by a buddy, Dennis Houser who decided to part with his extraordinary collection (#2 on the Registry).

Nobody has completed a 9.8 run of Wolverine 1-189 yet. In fact, when I looked at the census numbers I was astonished to find that 14 different issues had no 9.8 copies at all and 16 others had just one copy. That seems surprising for such a popular character/title. And it means that the only way to complete a 9.8 run will be to find high-grade raw copies for submission.

I have a complete run of raw books that were hand-picked by me fresh from my LCS when they were first released so I began submitting the issues that I knew Dennis did not have in his collection. I pulled out all the copies that I thought were 9.8. Those 60 books were sent to CGC for grading and 46 came back 9.8 including 7 of the 14 issues which previously had no 9.8 copies and 9 of the 16 which had previously had just one 9.8 copy.

Then, I relied on help from some of the friends that I have met on the CGC Boards to find raw copies of the remaining issues. Thank you DarthDiesel, PresidentDennis and BronzeBruce. Not only was I able to find six of the remaining seven issues for which there had previously been no 9.8s, but I was able to find several of the variants, alternate covers and second prints.

It was shortly after this that I noticed that some of the Wolverine artists were scheduled to come to Emerald City Comicon. I thought, "Hey, I'll get them to sign their books." And then something clicked in my brain. "What if I got every book in the entire run signed?" That was a goal that made me smile.

And so I listed out every issue on a spreadsheet and noted who did the cover art and interior art and who wrote the story. Now, I look for them every year at Emerald City Comicon and I keep an eye out for other rare signing opportunities. Meeting the artists has been a lot of fun. Marc Silvestri and Humberto Ramos were both super cool guys. I really liked Erik Larsen and Terry and Rachel Dodson.

I also decided to keep up with the ongoing Wolverine books and Beachbum has really helped me out there. I don't know if I will get all of them signed.

The 1-189 run won an award from CGC for Best Copper Age set in 2012. They did point out (mock?) my inability to find a 9.8 copy of issue 35 in their comments. There is a whole thread on the CGC boards about the quest to find a 9.8 copy of issue 35 and why it has been so difficult.

Joeypost turned up the first 9.8 copy of Wolverine 35. He found the raw copy in a store in Charlotte and offered it to me first. You can't put a run like this together without a lot of help. I can't tell you how many people told me that they were looking for a 9.8 copy of issue 35 to help me out. That comraderie has been a big part of the fun with putting this run together. Now that I have a 9.8 copy of 35, I need to see if I can get CGC to update their comments about the Registry Award :-)