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Distribution of Timely/Atlas/Marvel cover sales
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Started by Bronty,

17 posts in this topic

Bronty

Bronty

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Posted (edited)

I had a fun conversation with another collector about whether the marvel hero covers exist or don't exist.

The other collector's position was that its suspicious that there are absolutely NO such early covers (you'd expect at least a few to survive somehow?).  

As part of that I did a little digging and found the following number of covers, by year, sold at heritage, below.   It IS kind of interesting how prolonged the zeroes are, right when kirby and ditko start (58/59)..

Does this mean that there's a foot tall stack of covers in Lucas' closet?    Or that they are all in a sewer hm Either seems about as likely.    Nobody's seen one and yet... 1958- 1964?   ALL zeroes?   Not a single cover to a single B title in there?   Not a single prehero monster cover?   Nothing?

Discuss :insane:

1948 - 3

1949 - 3

1950 - 0

1951 - 0

1952 - 1

1953 - 1

1954 - 0

1955 - 0

1956 - 2

1957 - 4

1958 - 0

1959 - 0

1960 - 0

1961 - 0

1962 - 0

1963 - 0

1964 - 0

1965 - 3

1966 - 12

1967 - 26.

Edited by Bronty
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Bronty

Bronty

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Yes, I thought about that also, however that’s not a recent sale and came from a marvel staffer is my understanding .  

The above is heritage sales only not all sales, and if a marvel staffer pinched a few things let’s say, then that wouldn’t really be here or there as to the status of the rest of it

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williamhlawson

williamhlawson

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I always thought of this in the back of my mind, just never really saw any for sale. I assumed they were just owned by Marvel and were in a vault somewhere.  My main resource then (late 80's to 90s) was CBG and I never saw any there as I recall, ever. I only went to a few cons and never saw any early covers there either.  I sincerely hope they exist for the sheer historical importance of the work, even if they don't show up for another 100 years (be a lot cooler in my lifetime though).

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Lee B.

Lee B.

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13 hours ago, Bronty said:

I had a fun conversation with another collector about whether the marvel hero covers exist or don't exist.

The other collector's position was that its suspicious that there are absolutely NO such early covers (you'd expect at least a few to survive somehow?).  

As part of that I did a little digging and found the following number of covers, by year, sold at heritage, below.   It IS kind of interesting how prolonged the zeroes are, right when kirby and ditko start (58/59)..

This is a fun exercise Bronty.  If you search, in addition to Heritage, the database at www.comicartads.com , you can find these results from the time frame you documented:

1952

http://www.comicartads.com/content/astonishing-19-cover

1966

http://www.comicartads.com/content/strange-tales-142-cover

http://www.comicartads.com/content/kid-colt-outlaw-131-cover

http://www.comicartads.com/content/rawhide-kid-54-cover

1967

http://www.comicartads.com/content/x-men-36-cover

http://www.comicartads.com/content/tales-astonish-91-cover

http://www.comicartads.com/content/tales-suspense-85-cover

http://www.comicartads.com/content/avengers-40-cover

http://www.comicartads.com/content/x-men-37-cover

http://www.comicartads.com/content/two-gun-kid-85-cover

http://www.comicartads.com/content/avengers-45-cover

http://www.comicartads.com/content/avengers-36-cover

These could all be duplicates of the records you found at Heritage, but maybe there are a few extra covers to add to the yearly totals.  It could be interesting to see during what years these covers were offered for sale "back in the day."  Best regards, Lee

 

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The Voord

The Voord

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Posted

If you go beyond the Heritage results, Wally Wood's cover art to DAREDEVIL # 5 (1964) exists and is on CAF.  ASM # 11 exists (also from 1964), as has been pointed out by someone else here.  No idea if FF # 40 (1965) came through Heritage, but it's another one out there.

1950s & 60s Atlas/Marvel covers that have passed through my own hands would include:

Astonishing # 8 (1952)

Battle Action # 3 (1952)

Marines in Action # 14 (1957)

Two-Gun Kid # 83 (1966)

Sgt, Fury & His Howling Commandos # 43 (1967)

Tales to Astonish # 96 (1967)

Tales to Astonish # 98 (1967)

Strange Tales # 164 (1968)

Capt. Savage & His Leatherneck Raiders # 2 (1968) . . . which I still own

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Bronty

Bronty

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4 minutes ago, williamhlawson said:

If this thread was specifically regarding Marvel Hero Covers from '58-'65 the results are still sparse.  Remove westerns, monsters and war from the above lists ... still not but a few around (or are there...?)

 

No monsters on the list.     Those started with kirby and ditko at the end of 58.   The monster books are really 59 -62 and that's about it.   No monster covers in the records above.    No kirby and ditko covers from the early hero OR the monster period as a result. 

The books in the records above are pretty much all western, war, and teen from 1950-1965.   There was a hero cover or two in the late 40s covers.

 

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Bronty

Bronty

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9 hours ago, The Voord said:

If you go beyond the Heritage results, Wally Wood's cover art to DAREDEVIL # 5 (1964) exists and is on CAF.  ASM # 11 exists (also from 1964), as has been pointed out by someone else here.  No idea if FF # 40 (1965) came through Heritage, but it's another one out there.

 

Good info and points Terry.    Still, not a single cover between 58 and 63?   Its perplexing.    There should just by dumb luck be a few?

The funny thing about that fact is that is strengthens both arguments.

If you believe they are all destroyed, you point to that and say - see?    NONE are around, therefore they must all be destroyed.

If you believe they are all in George Lucas's closet, or wherever else, you can also point to that and say - see?   NONE are around, how could there not be ONE given that a few covers from the 50s ARE around?   Therefore they must have all been saved.

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The Voord

The Voord

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Posted
12 hours ago, Bronty said:

No monsters on the list.     Those started with kirby and ditko at the end of 58.   The monster books are really 59 -62 and that's about it.   No monster covers in the records above.    No kirby and ditko covers from the early hero OR the monster period as a result. 

The books in the records above are pretty much all western, war, and teen from 1950-1965.   There was a hero cover or two in the late 40s covers.

 

Someone had a monster splash from the 1959 - 62 period that was also used for the cover image.  Cover would have been a mechanical, I guess.

A number of surviving pre-code Atlas covers from the early 1950s are Horror examples.  As mentioned, I used to own Astonishing # 8.

astonishinga.jpg

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Bronty

Bronty

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Yeah horror, not monster.   And heath not ditko or Kirby.    The point being there are no covers from when jack is hired to 1963 that I can find. It’s just a lovely lovely cover though.

i know the one you are thinking of but re monster; TOS11, but it’s an interior page at the end of the day.   If I recall the cover is very similar but slightly different 

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The Voord

The Voord

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3 hours ago, Bronty said:

Yeah horror, not monster.   And heath not ditko or Kirby.    The point being there are no covers from when jack is hired to 1963 that I can find. It’s just a lovely lovely cover though.

i know the one you are thinking of but re monster; TOS11, but it’s an interior page at the end of the day.   If I recall the cover is very similar but slightly different 

Conflicting messages!

I took my prompt from your quote which read:

"The books in the records above are pretty much all western, war, and teen from 1950-1965"

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The Voord

The Voord

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3 hours ago, Bronty said:

i know the one you are thinking of but re monster; TOS11, but it’s an interior page at the end of the day.   If I recall the cover is very similar but slightly different 

The one I'm thinking of is TOS # 20.  Can't find a scan of the OA splash, but the printed cover was a definite replication as I recall.

tos20.jpg

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