Comics that are valuable ONLY because of the cover 3 3

[BigLeagueCHEW]

18 hours ago, Mercury Man said:

I could have sworn we did this type of post before.   Anyhoo-

Was just thinking of this one.

[Lazyboy]

3 hours ago, october said:

3 hours ago, F For Fake said:

I don't recall reading that one, but I'd have to assume Avengers Annual 10 ranked pretty high on that list!

Me neither, but Strange Tales 110 has to be up there too. 

Is the ST110 cover that bad, or does it just have the wrong characters considering why the book is important?

AA10 was definitely mentioned. New Mutants 98 somehow () came up as well.

[F For Fake]

26 minutes ago, Lazyboy said:

Is the ST110 cover that bad, or does it just have the wrong characters considering why the book is important?

AA10 was definitely mentioned. New Mutants 98 somehow () came up as well.

ST110, I definitely think the major knock is that Dr. Strange isn't on the cover. As Kirby covers go, it's not his most inspired, but I wouldn't say it's outright bad. Of course, Paste Pot Pete never helps anything. ha

Huh, wouldn't have figured on NM98. I'm not a Liefeld guy, but Deadpool is front and center on that cover, and as Liefeld's go, it's certainly not his worst. Plus it's very much of the time period. 

[D2]

18 hours ago, DJones said:

Black Mirror is an excellent read. 
 

880 is irrelevant in respect to a 1st appearance/key, but the story itself is phenomenal. 
 

It’s more, back to basics Batman, than he had been, and has been in years. 
 

Totally disagree with this one. 

[Poekaymon]

1 hour ago, D2 said:

Black Mirror is an excellent read. 
 

880 is irrelevant in respect to a 1st appearance/key, but the story itself is phenomenal. 
 

It’s more, back to basics Batman, than he had been, and has been in years. 
 

Totally disagree with this one. 

Does how good of a story something was drive value?  I'm pretty sure that it doesn't--or Marvel Premiere 31 would be the most expensive comic of all time.  

Most of my modern slabs I've never even seen the inside, and I am pretty sure I'm not in the minority.  And most of my runs from the 80s-90s: Daredevil in the 200s, Simonson's Thor, David's Hulk, Claremont's X-men in the mid 200s--none of them are worth beans unless they are a 1st appearance (DD 254, Thor 337, X-men 266) or (to OP's point) have an especially rad cover (Hulk 340).  

[D2]

6 minutes ago, Poekaymon said:

Does how good of a story something was drive value?  I'm pretty sure that it doesn't--or Marvel Premiere 31 would be the most expensive comic of all time.  

Most of my modern slabs I've never even seen the inside, and I am pretty sure I'm not in the minority.  And most of my runs from the 80s-90s: Daredevil in the 200s, Simonson's Thor, David's Hulk, Claremont's X-men in the mid 200s--none of them are worth beans unless they are a 1st appearance (DD 254, Thor 337, X-men 266) or (to OP's point) have an especially rad cover (Hulk 340).  

How does a good story drive value...

Well, I mean, we all know that 1st appearances drive value, but if it wasn't for great stories, then what are we collecting? The Dark Knight Returns isn't really valuable because it's the 1st appearance of Carrie Kelley...

Now I agree with you, I sincerely wish ALL good stories were inherently valuable. Lord knows I collect books that I love, not because of what the market says I should be collecting due to their dollar value.

 

If it wasn't for great stories, who would care about Spider-Man, or the X-Men, or Avengers... isn't a good story exactly what we are in this hobby to begin with?

 

I understand that the standard speculator market collects rare things because of inane reasoning, but the speculators wouldn't be there in the first place if people didn't care so much about these characters.

 

So in turn, I would say, yes... good stories are the cornerstone of value.

 

 

 

[Poekaymon]

6 minutes ago, D2 said:

Well, I mean, we all know that 1st appearances drive value, but if it wasn't for great stories, then what are we collecting? 

 

Scarcity + art?  Dark Knight Returns is sort of an extreme case--it's a cultural icon.  Not just a good story, but one of the most influential events in comics, which in turn had a big effect on Burton's Batman, which had a big effect on comic movies as a whole.  AND it has a rad cover.  

But I have a bunch of variants and such that are worth more than DKR or even any of the firsts I just quoted, and I couldn't tell you the first thing about what they are about.  In fact one of them I later got a reader copy just to see what it was about and it was awful.  But I digress.

[D2]

40 minutes ago, Poekaymon said:

Scarcity + art?  Dark Knight Returns is sort of an extreme case--it's a cultural icon.  Not just a good story, but one of the most influential events in comics, which in turn had a big effect on Burton's Batman, which had a big effect on comic movies as a whole.  AND it has a rad cover.  

But I have a bunch of variants and such that are worth more than DKR or even any of the firsts I just quoted, and I couldn't tell you the first thing about what they are about.  In fact one of them I later got a reader copy just to see what it was about and it was awful.  But I digress.

 

I know... I know. I agree with you. I really do. I know the collector market is hugely based on, criteria, that I will never understand.

I guess my point is, that, if you had to pick all of the modern books and variants you have, I would believe virtually no one would tell you 'hey! you should read that book you bought!'

880 is part of a series that, although, I agree, 880's cover is only popular because of its cover, but Black Mirror is also considered a 'top' Batman story. 880 is a book I would say to you 'hey! you should read that book you bought! Well maybe not that stupidly expensive one that's only popular because of it's cover, but the trade of it at least!'

 

 

[DJones]

[Kramerica]

23 hours ago, F For Fake said:

I don't recall reading that one, but I'd have to assume Avengers Annual 10 ranked pretty high on that list!

Avengers Annual #10 will always win. Always. Let me first say that Al Milgrom (editori-Al) was one of the best editors Marvel ever had. And a good inker too. But this is the worst cover ever. It's almost criminal in it's awfulness. Some of the faces will always make me laugh. I mean, how do you draw a small Blob? It's an oxymoron. Like 'jumbo shrimp.' The cover is like a pizza with 18 toppings trying to disguise the fact that all of the toppings are moldy and wilted.

But lo and behold! Those who decide to enter are greeted by the amazing beauty of Michael Golden's art and a riveting yarn by Chris Claremont. It's like reverse fake advertising. Remember when Neal Adams did all those covers only to have you open the book to find Frank Springer?