The Overstreet Comic Book Price Guide!

I have to confess I was sorely tempted to pick up this latest The Overstreet Comic Book Price Guide with its outstanding homage to Avengers #3, the comic I argue is the single best Marvel ever produced. But I held myself in check as I have done now for many years. That doesn't mean I haven't picked up a lot of these though over the years. 

One of the most important events in the history of comics was the publication in 1970 of Robert Overstreet's first Price Guide. It was a work which he did with the crucial assistance of legendary fan Jerry Bails, and this incomplete but significant work transformed a ragged two-bit pastime into a full-blown hobby and a shiny new industry. All yours for five bucks. (Forty smackers today.)

Robert M. Overstreet (Pick Your Poison.)
Whatever came from that, good and ill, can be traced very much back to the impact of "THE Price Guide".

My first Guide I bought was the fifth volume (found it on a newsstand), but it would be many years before I saw or bought another. Once I found comic shops, it became a regular thing. I personally have lost some interest in it as an item itself. It has become like so many of the comic books it tracks so self-conscious of itself as a collectible that it undermines the charm of the activity it lionizes.

But, I do rather love old Price Guides, the ones from the early days, when the format was still relatively simple, and the text could be read easily by people of all ages and didn't require me to break out the magnifying glass which came with my copy of the Oxford English Dictionary. The early guides speak to the fan in subtle but specific and effective ways.

Here are the first twenty-five of those early lovely covers, by some of the industry's true talents. The earliest three covers aren't much, but the ones that followed for many years are masterpieces in my estimation and it was a huge thrill waiting to see just what who would be featured and how the cover design, logos and all, would reflect the specific subject. Sadly, the later covers become more and more bland as the material and logos become standardized.

The price slips up to six bucks on the next two Price Guides, but we get color covers. 

In 1974 we get this beautiful cover by Don Newton of the Justice Society of America. I don't know when I fell in love with the JSA, but they were the first and remain strong contenders. It costs fifty cents more. 

In 1975 we are treated to a portrait of Tarzan of the Apes by Joe Kubert. This is the first one I found, but it was not the last. I still remember buying it at a classic newsstand in Ashland Kentucky. It's only a nickel away from seven bucks now. A big outlay for me at the time. 

Will Eisner offers up a real treat for the 1976 Bicentennial celebration cover. I have to admit I'm surprised to see such a late appearance of Ebony without some modifications. The price jumps to seven dollars and fifty cents. 

Carl Barks stepped in to give us a bizarre scene featuring Bugs Bunny and Porky Pig for 1977. Another forty-five cents is added to the price. It's to be remembered that these were years wracked by very high inflation. 

Bill Ward knocked it out of the park with this splendid Good-Girl contribution for 1978. The price holds steady. That's not all I'd like to hold. 

Wally Wood is the main man on this retro sci-fi classic for the 1979 edition. The price jumps a full buck. So many of the classic Woody tropes are here -- the bubble helmets, the girl in the might-as-well-be-naked outfit, and bug-eyed aliens. 

Alex Schomburg revives Captain America, the Human Torch, and the Sub-Mariner battling those skanky old Nazis in 1980. The price for the guide leaps up yet another dollar. 

L.B. Cole provides a bizarre and spooky piece of art for the 1981 volume. The good news is the price held steady. 

In 1982 we get a nod to MAD Magazine with Norman Mingo showing us what it's like for Alfred E. Newman to get some special clothes. Price stays the same for three years in row. 

Don Newton returns in 1983 with DC's Big Three in a wonderful infinity cover. It's a fourth year for the price. 

Bill Woggon provided this tasty image of Katy Keene for the 1984 offering. My daughter still holds a grudge against the Archie outfit because when she tried to join the Archie fan club, they sent her Katy Keene stuff instead. The price holds for a half a decade. 

For the fifteenth guide in 1985 we get a cover by C.C. Beck featuring the Big Red Cheese and the other members of the Marvel Family, just before the explosion. The price has exploded and rises one dollar. 

The Price Guide joins in with Marvel's twenty-fifth anniversary celebration 1986. Johnny Romita and his gang provide the cover. At ten dollars and ninety-five cents the Guide would cost you a little over thirty bucks today. Things are improving on that front. I can't calculate anymore prices because in wily move keeping the price obscured would be wise, so as to cut down on sticker shock, I suppose. 

Ron Dias offers up a nifty painting celebrating Disney's Snow White with Mickey and Donald along for the ride on the 1987 guide. 

In 1988 L.B. Cole returns, this time promoting the Man of Steel on his Golden Anniversary. Comic books have become very aware of their legacies in these years. 

1988 gives us a Jerry Robinson rendering of Batman and Robin battling Robinson's creation the Joker. I notice that the Joker is packing heat in this one. I'm a little confused by the perspective on this cover, but Robin seems to enjoy it. 

Carmine Infantino and Murphy Anderson join forces once again in 1989 to offer up a fantastic cover featuring the Justice League of America. Even though I can't see him I'm sure the Atom is in there somewhere. 

Alex Schomburg returns in 1990 with a fabulous painting with Timely's Big Three rounding up torpedoes. The cover celebrates fifty years of Cap. 

Mark Bagley and John Romita join forces in 1991 to gives us the first Guide cover to feature Spider-Man (I know he's on the 1986 but he's not featured necessarily.) It's Spidey battling the Green Goblin. 

The twenty-third edition from 1992 has the Flash and Green Lantern up front with their Golden Age counterparts bringing up the rear. Carmine Infantino returns to do the honors. 

In 1993 it's the X-Men on the twenty-fourth edition of the Price Guide. The artist is Mike Parobeck, who left the world much too soon. 

It's the X-Men again in 1994 by John Romita Jr., this time they are held at bay by the legendary Yellow Kid created for newspapers in 1895. The Overstreet Comic Price Guide celebrates its own anniversary. 

And that's a wrap. The Guide has gone on to become a very complicated affair, available in all kinds of formats for all kinds of needs. Though I collected these Guides for a time, I rarely if ever checked the prices. My comic are pearls without price, though I know that one day, sooner than later I will have to sell them off. 

Heavy sigh. 

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The Phantom - The Charlton Years Volume Five!

The Phantom - The Complete Series: The Charlton Years Volume Five brings the reprint series from Hermes to a close as it documents the end of the venerable Phantom comic many years ago. The character had begun his new comic adventures at Gold Key in 1962and continued them at King Comics in 1966 before being picked up by Charlton for a hefty run. In 1976 it ended, but not with a whimper by any means. 

Don Newton was one of his generations finest comic artists, alongside others such as Joe Staton, John Byrne, Dave Cockrum, and Mike Vosburg. He lived in Arizona, far from the NYC-based comic book industry so he made his bones with outstanding fan artwork. On many occasions he drew the Phantom. Now he'd get his chance to draw him in a professional capacity. But first...

Charlton's conversion of their Phantom to something more akin to what classic fans of the character expect continues with issue sixty-three. "The Web of Fear" was written by Joe Gill and drawn by Frank Bolle. It has the Ghost Who Walks battling a villain dubbed "The Spider" who targets the Phantom and Diana Palmer as well as the treasure hidden in the Skull Cave. The Phantom invades the Spider's lair to rescue Diana and later lures the Spider and his thugs into his trap. 

Joe Gill wrote "Goldbeard the Pirate", but Don Sherwood drew it. Sherwood has a peculiar spare style and one of the biggest signatures I've ever seen in comics. George Wildman is revamping the Phantom as part of a larger move to revive Charlton's languishing superhero genre. To that end the company has been created Yang and E-Man. Charlton's ghost-host line-up is getting a kick as well. Charlton is on the cusp of another of its periodic flowerings. Back to the Phantom, we find the pirate Goldbeard using Diana to attract the Phantom who he wants to fee to the fishes. That of course doesn't work, but it comes close, and the rest of the comic is a back and forth between these two foes. 

With the sixty-seventh issue of The Phantom the game changes entirely as the late great Don Newton takes on the title that will make his reputation. "Triumph of Evil" written by Joe Gill offers Newton a chance to revise the Phantom's famous origin. Nazis come to the Deep Woods and are confronted by the Phantom's father. It proves to be his final mission. The secret of the Phantom is almost exposed, but our Phantom arrives in the nick of time to assume the legendary role. We get this story in a flashback as the Phantom tells it to Diana Palmer, explaining I suppose the need for an heir. This comic marked a new path for the Phantom, beginning with the attractive painted cover. 

Nick Cuti steps in to write "The Beasts of Madame Khan". We meet Hera Kahn as she attempts to bring her animal act to a circus. She is rebuffed but when the owner is killed by a strange fox-faced woman his brother agrees. The circus supplies cover for Khan to enter the jungle and look for the Mask of  Dusambassi, a legendary item once venerated by a tribe which dressed in animal skins and practiced lycanthropy. Khan appears to be able to transform herself and she has in her thrall three beast-men (a lion-man, a leopard-man, and a panther-man). The Phantom has to battle all of these foes to recover the mask and return some measure of peace to the jungle. 

Underneath a typically handsome Don Newton cover we get the story "The Shining City" which pits the Phantom against the cruel Athena, a woman of accomplished martial arts skills and unlimited money. She wishes to cross Bengalla to reach an unknown destination which turns out to be a lost city known as "New Athens" and is filled with people who have lost contact with the outside world, until Athena found them and appears now as a prophesized ruler. She'd like the Phantom to rule by her side but he has other ideas.  The story was written by Joe Gill but drawn by Recreo Studio. "The Immortal Ghost of Bengali" is a one-page text item which has the Phantom confronting an old cult of Leopard Men. 

Bill Pearson joins Newton in a Phantom comic which pays homage to a duo of classic Humphrey Bogart movies. In "Mystery of the Mali Ibex", an ancient golden treasure is sought by a man named Rick who teams with a stunning blonde he calls Slim to travel up-river in a small boat with the one woman who might know its location. He is shot, the woman is killed and the blonde heads back to civilization, specifically Casablanca. There the man, named Rick confronts the blonde about the Ibex, but then a fat bar owner and his slinky henchman intervene. The Phantom, the father of our Phantom, gets involved. There are secrets and betrayals galore in this story which evokes both The African Queen and Casablanca. Newton's atmospheric artwork is ideal for this period tale. 

Issue seventy-one gives us "The Phantom Battles the Monster of Zanadar" written by a guy named John Clark. There are echoes of H. Ridger Haggard in this tale which has a cameo by a character named Quartermine. The Phantom undertakes a rescue mission up a remote mountain and finds a hidden tribe which worships a deadly giant spider. There are some great thrills in this one, and some nifty spins on the classic action. 

Don Newton's incredible run is interrupted by a story from Joe Gill and artist Don Sherwood. This one had been commissioned and was waiting for its opportunity by editor George Wildman. "Man in the Shadows" pits the Phantom against a wily foe named Dr. Nyte. Nyte kidnaps Diana in order to lure the Phantom into his trap where his henchmen all wear masks to make them look like their boss. The Phantom is forced to climb deadly cliffs to get to Nyte's remote lair which looks like a gothic mansion of sorts. Nyte has also trained a deadly wolf named "Satan" to imitate the loyal Devil. There is also a text story titled "The Witchman's Revenge" which has the Phantom battling a powerful slave in place of the titular Witchman. For some reason, or merely by accident, this story is presented out of order in the reprint collection, but it's all there. 

Don Newton returns in issue seventy-three on "The Torch" written by Bill Pearson (under a pseudonym). The creators are reaching into the Jame Bond universe for inspiration this time as the Phantom rises from the sea in that classic Sean Connery manner. (Minus the goofy bird thank goodness.) The Torch is an assassin and arsonist sent by Dr. Never (who we never see) to kill an old villainous chap named Raven who commands a gang of zombie-men controlled by headbands. We even get a little flavor of those classic Universal monster flicks as well. This one definitely was set up for a sequel but it was not to be. "The Invaders of Bengali!" is a one-page text yarn which has the Phantom do a crackerjack job of scaring away some poachers. 

Arguably the finest comic book run of Phantom stories comes to a conclusion with "The Phantom of 1776" which was both written and drawn by Don Newton. Dated January of 1977, this actually hit the racks in the fall of 1976 during the two-hundred-year anniversary of the signing of the Declaration of Independence. (The two-hundred-and-fiftieth anniversary is just around the corner if we can hold onto our democracy just a little bit longer.) When slavers enter the Deep Woods and steal away the chief's son and others, the Phantom takes on the mission to bring him back. That means sailing to America and battling pirates along the way. The Phantom is able to find the chief's son but none of the others who were taken. The Phantom has to take part in a battle between the British and the Colonialists before he can complete his mission. He uses his influence with Ben Franklin (who he saved in another adventure) to get back to Bengalla. But not before he witnesses the signing of the Declaration of Independence. As dandy as that is, the failure to rescue all the natives does leave a bad taste in the mouth after reading this classic adventure. 

And that's a wrap on Charlton's The Phantom. The little publisher produced some really outstanding issues in the run which began at Gold Key, continued briefly with King Comics and finally came to a finale with these issues by Don Newton. Newton's career was made by these comics, as he left Charlton a recognized pro and went over to DC to draw Aquaman, Batman and to my eye his other great mastepiece Shazam. If you just want the Newton adventures, Hermes has published them alone sporting that great cover image from the last issue. 

The Phantom would later show up in all sorts of places in comics. Reprints of the comic strips would show up now and again. DC took on the character and produced some handsome work by the likes of Joe Orlando and Luke McDonnell in the 80's. Marvel got their hands on the Ghost Who Walk for a few fantastic issues in the 90's. Moonstone revived the hero for the new century and was doing a bang-up job until Dynamite came along and lifted the license. Hermes itself has created some new material in recent years. I have more of the Hermes Avon novels to read and review and I might even get around to some of these other comics. The Phantom is well and truly immortal. 

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Return Of The New Gods!

The Anti-Life Equation is the deadly secret over which the war between New Genesis and  Apokolips is fought. It's a way to access a power to rule the minds and wills of other people, to effectively turn others into your willing servants and slaves. Jack "King" Kirby was a guy who fought for liberty in real palpable and life-threatening ways during World War II. He was a man who had enormous talent, but  even more enjoyed his freedom to create as he chose. But the rigors of raising a family and meeting their needs has made many a person turn from the purity of their principles. Freedom doesn't feed the baby all by itself as much as we cherish it and so sometimes, we give up aspects of our freedom, become de facto serfs to systems which use our talents to larger and sometimes even greater well-meaning ends or perhaps not. Getting men and women to surrender their liberty is what Darkseid wanted in the end. That was the driving force behind Kirby's Fourth World books which sadly were cancelled or altered by editorial edict before they reached their climaxes. 

Darkseid's plots had been dormant since the final Jack Kirby issue of Mister Miracle until he popped up again as the mastermind behind The Secret Society of Super-Villains. That is save for the one issue which heralded the Return of the New Gods. The series is written by Gerry Conway and drawn with consummate skill by up-and-coming Don Newton. Newton doesn't attempt to ape Kirby, but instead brings an atmospheric feel to the stories all his own. But before that. 

1st Issue Special #13 landed on the racks in January of 1976 and it shows just how eager DC was to exploit Kirby's Fourth World creations. He had just left DC and his final work on Kamandi was hitting the stands just as his first Captain America work from Marvel was bringing a whole new chapter to the Kirby saga. But DC had told Kirby these characters weren't profitable and that's why his Fourth World tetralogy had been largely cancelled after the first few years. But literally the door hand not quite slammed shut and they rushed a new version onto the racks. The story by Denny O'Neil and Mike Vosburg reignites the war between New Genesis and Apokolips and sees a differently garbed Orion press the fight to Darkseid's own doorstep. It would be a year before more was done, but when it was done it was done quite well.

When the New Gods did return in regular order it was with a flourish and they picked up their old numbering as Gerry Conway and Don Newton crafted some new stories in what would become one of DC's key mythic arenas. In Return of the New Gods #12 meet the New Gods as they are dispatched first to the abandoned Moon base of Darkseid and then to Earth where six New Gods find they have a human to protect. Each human has part of the Anti-Life Equation and must be protected from the warriors of Apokolips. Joining Orion, Lightray, and Metron are the Forager the Bug, Lonar and his steed, and a new character named Jezebelle.

The Gods are met with different emotions when they try to rout the attacks from Apokolips, specifically the attacks of the Deep Six. Orion is able to save the humans but only by killing (again) his enemies. Al Milgrom is supplying some action-filled covers for the series to date. 

All of the New Gods are called upon across different parts of the world to battle against Doctor Bedlam who is even more powerful than ever thanks to Darkseid. Bedlam abandons his usual methods of subtle attack on the mind and uses Darkseid's power to fight directly on several fronts. 

The ongoing battles result in a tragic loss for the New Gods and Darkseid at long last gets his hands on part of the Anti-Life Equation. Also, a strange new pact of sorts is made between New Genesis and Apokolips.  This issue was drawn by Rich Buckler who is the best of all the artists of his generation of evoking the "King".

Darkseid is able to strike at the very heart of the society of the New Gods, but still they battle taking the war to the enemy in some familiar locales from the classic Kirby run.

We learn again about the origins of Orion and why he's so dedicated to defeating his father Darkseid and we at long last learn that Jezebelle of the Firey Eyes (a new character created for this seris) is in fact another defector from Apokolips and the not-so-tender care of the malevolent Granny Goodness. 

Ultimately as the series ends for a second time with its nineteenth issue the surviving New Gods fight together on Earth even as the secret of the Anti-Life Equation is captured by Darkseid and used by him to bring the world to its knees. We learn that the Infinity Man and the Forever People have a role to play yet in this drama, but as the series itself closes out, the story moves over to an expanded Adventure Comics.

This collection has Super-Team Family #15 appear at this point in a story in which the Flash meets up the New Gods to save Orion and more beyond. There is a reference in the upcoming Adventure stories to this episode, but frankly it's not all that good. Despite being written by Conway, the story doesn't feel much like a New Gods story at all and in the context of the larger epic is utterly forgettable.

The saga of the this third conflict between New Genesis and Apokolips wraps up in two issues of Adventure Comics and that's fortunate, because these stories might well have been consigned to the limbo that the infamous "DC Implosion" created for so many finale issues. We get an ending, and the war is won of course, but you already knew that. Darkseid is dispatched, the status quo is not quite brought back, but for my money there is an incomplete and somewhat wrongheaded understanding of the Anti-Life Equation in these last several installments. It seems to be a device to make anything possible when I've understood it to mean control over all thinking creatures, as if that wasn't enough.

We also get this little yarn by Conway and Newton which reveals how Lightray got his powers. I didn't realize that required an explanation, but someone seemed to think so and what we have actually reads a bit like an adventure of "Little Orion" and his buddies.

The story finally wraps up a few years later in the pages of Justice League of America when the New Gods become part of the long-standing tradition of including a third in the annual date of the JLA and the JSA. Justice League of America #183 is significant in many ways, not least of which is the hint of the return of Darkseid after what seemed a pretty grim demise. This crossover returned to the classic pattern and had the heroes meet up with a new bunch of characters. This time the mined the vast trove of material left behind by Jack "King" Kirby when he unleashed his Fourth World on the world. His rich and evocative worlds of the New Gods changed the way comic book stories were told, and his creation of Darkseid gave the DC universe a villain worthy to take on the whole of their heroic academy. Orion, Metron, and Highfather of the New Gods and Scott Free, Big Barda, and Oberon of Mister Miracle are tapped to appear in this trilogy. Not in evidence are the Forever People, nor does Lightray make an appearance. But for me personally this issue is a heartbreaker because it is the last issue drawn by the great Dick Dillin. I still remember reading the tragic notice of his death as I stood in the grocery line to pay for the book. It was a sad moment.

But my sadness over Dillin's passing was somewhat salved by the next month's issue featuring George Perez's debut on the book. He was considered one of the great up and coming talents and his work on The New Teen Titans was magnificent, but with this gig he became a bonafide super-star artist. He does a fantastic job of telling this jam-packed story. We have a handful of superheroes from Earths 1 and 2 alongside the New Gods trying to rescue the people of New Genesis trapped on  Apokolips and attempting the resurrect Darkseid himself.

As with most of these "Crisis" epics the story moves at a breakneck pace but Conway and Perez keep the ride vivid and lively. The ending is abrupt but that was not uncommon with these stories. Suffice it to say that when this story was done, so was DC at trying to get others to tap into the potential of Kirby's great Fourth World creations, at least for a little while. 

Before the cataclysm which was the Crisis on Infinite Earths Jack "King" Kirby would be invited back to bring his epic saga to some conclusion. And when he did it, the stuff produced by other talents in these tomes was whisked away into the ether of the fanboy's memory and imagination. It was as if these stories never happened, but then of course they did. That''s the delight of a world without "Anti-Life", I am free to remember and think what I choose. 

Ironically it was a death that struck me quite hard, in that one of the most reliable things in my world at the time was that Dick Dillin was going to draw the latest JLofA adventures. His loss touched me then and still has an effect now that I'm older than he was when he passed away. It's a reminder that our time is always limited, though we go to great pains to forget that most of the time.

(Richard Allen "Dick" Dillin --December 17, 1929 – March 1, 1980)

NOTE: This is a Dojo Revised Classic Post. 

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