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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