Adventures on the Planet of the Apes or Charlton Heston Bronze-Age Goodness

We might as well start at the beginning with the 30 cent variant issues of Adventures on the Planet of the Apes. Planet of the Apes is one of the classic early science fiction movies. It was well received by moviegoers and critics alike when it debuted in 1968, and is widely regarded as one of the best movies of 1968 and is noted for its use of prosthetic make-up and its soundtrack by Jerry Goldsmith. It also starred Charlton Heston and a script originally written by Rod Serling.

In 1975, yes, seven years after the movie first appeared, Marvel released an eleven issue comic book series that showed adaptations of the Planet of the Apes movie and its sequel, Beneath the Planet of the Apes.

The first 30 cent price variant in this series is issue 5. CGC has certified nine copies of the book. The condition census grades are 9.6, 9.2, 9.2, 8.5 and 7.5. I think that issue 5 is the easiest to find of the three price variant issues.

Issue 6 is the second of the Adventures on the Planet of the Apes price variant issues. The issue contains the conclusion to the Planet of the Apes movie. CGC has certified seven books of the issue. The condition census grades for the issue are 9.4, 9.0, 9.0, 7.5, 6.5.

Issue 7 is the last of the three Adventures on the Planet of the Apes price variant issues. CGC has certified six books of the issue. The condition census grades for the issue are 9.4, 9.4, 9.4, 9.0, 8.0.

The books are very hard to find and high grade certified examples almost never come up for auction. GPAnalysis does not record a single sale of a certified copy of any of the three issues in the last five years.

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One of the neatest threads on the CGC forum site is my friend Stronguys review of the Marvel Bronze Age books. He has collected every bronze age book (but not the variant issues) and he helped me with a couple of the almost impossible to find 30 cent westerns and the impossible to find Weird Wonder Tales 15. Here is his review of Adventures of the Planet of the Apes. You can find the rest of his great thread here. http://boards.collectors-society.com/ubbthreads.php?ubb=showflat&Number=3409154&fpart=3

Adventures On The Planet Of The Apes
Issues 1-11
October 1975 - December 1976

Rating: 2/5

Not a lot to report on this one. If you saw the movies then you could have saved yourself $2.95 (or $3.10 if you lived in one of the 30¢ variant cities) and not bought the comics.

Issues 1-6 follow the original Planet Of The Apes movie pretty much scene for scene. George Tuska and Mike Esposito turn out some pretty bland art with only 1 memorable page -- the 2 page splash of Taylor and Nova in front of the destroyed Statue Of Liberty. But even then it's not that great. Issue 6 has a pretty decent Jim Starlin cover. I don't know that you can really credit Doug Moench with "writing" -- more like watching the movie and remembering. One thing that seemed strange was, you know how Hulk 168 has that Overstreet note about Betty being nude when she's really just standing behind a bunch of bushes presumably nude, well issue 1 has 2 panels with some interracial bare-assness and there's not one single mention in Overstreet about it.

Issues 7-11 follow the Beneath The Plane Of The Apes movie... once again, scene for scene. Taylor disappears into a mysterious wall of ice, rescue pilot Brent shows up and hooks up Nova (damn tramp!), they meet some telepathic zombie looking guys and Taylor blows up the planet. Alfredo Alcala took over as the artist for this run and the art takes a nice step up (if you like the Filipino art style... and I do).

April ComicLink Prices Realized

Comiclink is one if not the most important sales venues for high-grade bronze-age comics. Comiclink does not report its sales to GPAnalysis. GPAnalysis is a subscription service which tracks sales of CGC certified comic books from most of the major auction houses and many of the largest dealers. Since Comiclink has regularly sold some of he most significant price variants, it is helpful for collectors to have this information which is why it is listed here.

Recent Comiclink sales

1. Amazing Spider-Man 157 CGC 9.6 W $795


2. Amazing Spider-Man 159 CGC 8.5 OW/W $90


3. Astonishing Tales 35 CGC 9.2 W $50


4. Conan 63 CGC 9.8 W $451


5. Conan 65 CGC 9.8 W $405


6. Conan 65 CGC 9.6 W $200


7. Conan 75 CGC 9.2 W $160


8. Eternals 1 CGC 9.6 W $165


9. Eternals 15 CGC 9.6 W $357


10. Fantastic Four 170 CGC 9.0 W $100


11. Fantastic Four 117 CGC 9.0 W $117


12. Howard the Duck 3 CGC 9.6 W $95


13. Howard the Duck 4 CGC 9.8 W $484


14. Inhumans 4 CGC 9.8 W $352


15. Invaders 7 CGC 9.4 W $69


16. Iron Fist 4 CGC 9.6 W $170


17. Iron Man 102 CGC 8.5 OW/W $87


18. Nova 13 CGC 8.5 OW/W $100


19. Spectacular Spider-Man 9 CGC 9.0 OW/W $65


20. Star Wars 1 CGC 9.2 OW/W $4950


21. Star Wars 2 CGC 9.0 OW/W $650


22. Star Wars 3 CGC 9.0 OW/W $1200


23. Star Wars 3 CGC 8.5 OW $550


24. Star Wars 4 CGC 9.2 OW/W $2200


25. Tomb of Dracula 45 CGC 9.0 OW/W $77


26. X-Men 99 CGC 6.0 W $125


27. X-Men 107 CGC 8.5 W $375

Other recent notable CGC certified price variant sales

1. 2001: A Space Odyssey 7 CGC 9.4 $249


2. 2001: A Space Odyssey 10 CGC 9.4 $199


3. Amazing Adventures 36 CGC 8.5 $16


4. Amazing Spider-Man 157 CGC 9.4 $675


5. Amazing Spider-Man 155 CGC 9.0 $300


6. Amazing Spider-Man 158 CGC 9.0 $300


7. Amazing Spider-Man 159 CGC 8.0 $115


8. Avengers 146 CGC 5.5 $34


9. Avengers 147 CGC 6.0 $34


10. Daredevil 135 CGC 9.4 $369


11. Daredevil 136 CGC 9.0 $90


12. Defenders 35 CGC 8.5 $10


13. Defenders 38 CGC 3.5 $10


14. Star Wars 1 CGC 5.0 $680


15. Star Wars 4 CGC 7.5 $813


16. Thor 249 CGC 9.4 $175

Comiclink is a tremendous marketplace for high-grade comic books. I have purchased many books from them and recommend them. http://www.comiclink.com/

GPAnalysis is simply an indispensable resource for the high-grade comic collector. It is well worth the price.http://comics.gpanalysis.com/

Variant Prizes Realized

Good price data is hard to find on Marvel Price Variants. The Overstreet Price Guide doesn't really have a clue about these books. I track most of the auction results and will post the results of auctions in an effort to help collectors value their collections. The best resource for variant sales history is the Stl Comics forum which can be found here. http://forum.stlcomics.com/viewforum.php?f=40&sid=7260ef285e8f07ea626edba1c7472aa9

Harry Miller, one of the godfathers of the variant mafia regularly tracked ebay sales results of price variants and posted them to this site. Unfortunately, the site crashed in 2009 and the back up was only successful up to 2008. Harry did not resume posting the auction results. With the usual caveats and expectations of raw ebay grading, here are the current results of properly listed marvel price variants.

Ebay results for April 2010

1. Godzilla 2 (listed as F+) $105
2. Ms. Marvel 6 (listed as VG/F) $64.50
3. Fantastic Four 169 (listed as 7.5-8) $28
4. Iron Man 88 (listed as G) $3.51
5. Warlock 13 (listed as VG/F) $7.83
6. Thor 249 (listed as F+) $42.52
7. Thor 248 (listed as VG) $17.50
8. Thor 247 (listed as VG) $13.63
9. Incredible Hulk 216 CGC 9.2 (Qualified due to a popped staple) $71.12
10. Incredible Hulk 214 CGC 7.5 $76
11. Incredible Hulk 212 CGC 6.0 $76
12. Incredible Hulk 202 CGC 9.0 $80
13. Incredible Hulk 201 CGC 9.0 $56
14. Incredible Hulk 200 CGC 8.0 $77
15. Incredible Hulk 199 CGC 8.5 $63
16. Incredible Hulk 198 CGC 5.0 $31
17. Incredible Hulk 200 (listed as VF/NM) $66
18. Incredible Hulk 201 (listed as VF/NM) $30.05
19. Marvel Presents 12 (listed as F/VF) $70
20. Godzilla 2 (listed as VG/F) $40
21. Godzilla 1 (listed as G/VG) $40
22. Marvel Two-In-One 29 (listed as F/VF) $55
23. Marvel Two-In-One 30 (listed as VF-/VF) $70
24. Kull 21 (listed as excellent) $125
25. Marvel Adventure 4 (listed as G/VG) $3.99
26. Tomb of Dracula 44 $10.49
27. Omega the Unknown 2 $3.25
28. Iron Man 87 $3.30
29. Iron Man 85 $6.52
30. Doctor Strange 14 $8.58
31. Doctor Strange 13 $8.09
32. Champions 4 $6.99
33. Black Goliath 2 $7.11
34. Red Sonja 4 CGC 9.4 W $160
35. Incredible Hulk 202 (listed as VG+) $8.09
36. Marvel Presents 5 (listed as VF) $47
37. Astonishing Tales 36 (listed as VF-) $25
38. Tomb of Dracula 44 (listed as VF-) $27
39. Black Goliath 3 (listed as VF-) $20
40. Marvel Team-Up (listed as VF) $35
41. Marvel Spotlight 29 (listed as VG with moisture damage) $6.09
42. Marvel Spotlight 29 (listed as VF) $48
43. Marvel Chillers 5 (listed as VF/NM) $60
44. Super-Villain Team-Up 7 (listed as VF+) $55
45. Skull, the Slayer 5 (listed as VF) $40
46. Kull 16 (listed as VF) $40
47. Champions 6 (listed as VF) $35
48. Son of Satan 4 (listed as VF/NM) $40
49. Black Goliath 2 (listed as VF+) $40
50. Marvel Two-In-One 16 (listed as VF+) $50
51. Howard the Duck 4 (listed as VF/NM) $35
52. Eternals 2 (listed as NM-) $45

The buyer of books 36 through 52 (with the exception of 41) is going to be disappointed in the books as, in my opinion, the seller is a serial overgrader.

It also appears that three really nice 30 cent variant books from a very reputable ebay seller who inherited a phenomenal 30 cent variant collection (but that is a story for another blog) were taken down off ebay and sold in a private transaction. The books were

1. Werewolf by Night 38 CGC 9.4 W $240
2. Sgt. Fury and His Howling Commandos CGC 9.4 W $180
3. Tomb of Dracula 44 CGC 9.4 W $180

And finally,

Skull the Slayer 7 in CGC 9.4 W for $83. Here is how the seller described the book. "This listing is for one CGC slab, as described in the title of this listing. This is the rare 30 cent price variant cover. For some reason CGC did not mark it as a variant cover, but this is the rare variant version. This issue has a very tough black cover. It is very hard to find the regular issue in high grade, let alone the variant cover. Plus this copy has amazing WHITE pages and a perfectly centered cover." The only problem is that CGC did not mark it as a variant because Skull the Slayer 7 is NOT a variant edition.

X-Men 98 CGC 9.6 Off-White to White

In the January 2010 Comiclink auction, this terrific copy of X-Men 98 set the record for a X-Men 30 cent price variant bringing a final price of $1875. This copy is currently one of two 9.6s on the census followed by a single 9.4. Here is the Comiclink scan of the book.

Of course the NEW X-Men first appeared in Giant-Size X-Men 1 followed by X-Men 94 and just four issues later, in X-Men 98, the phenomenon was still just starting to catch on. These bronze-age x-men issues are particularly prized by numerous X-men collectors.

CGC census numbers for the regular edition are currently 10 9.8s, 34 9.6s and 91 9.4s. There have been a total of 602 copies of the regular edition certified by CGC versus 53 of the variant edition. In comparison a regular edition X-Men 98 in 9.6 would typically sell for $350 in an auction. The 12 month average price for a regular edition X-Men 98 is $1700. If a 9.8 copy of the variant edition ever showed up at an auction, I wonder what it would fetch?


CGC census data for this book can be found here. http://www.cgccomics.com/census/grades_standard.asp?title=X%2DMen&publisher=Marvel%20Comics&issue=98&year=1976&issuedate=4%2F76

Long live the KING!

In ComicLink's November 2009 auction, a sizzling copy of Star Wars 1 achieved the record price for a Marvel Price variant. The auction for the CGC 9.6 white paged copy ended at $26,250.


The Star Wars 1 price variant holds a unique place for Star Wars collectors. The comic book is the only Star Wars collectible that was released prior to the release of the movie. Marvel Comics Group was struggling financially as evidenced by the need to try a price increase and the tremendous popularity of the movie and the tremendous sales of the Star Wars comics books helped save Marvel from financial ruin.

Currently, there have been 81 unrestored Star Wars 1 books graded by CGC. This 9.6 book is the single highest graded followed by two 9.4s and six 9.2s. Compare this to the 1735 regular issues that have been graded by CGC with 104 9.8s and 458 9.6s and 439 9.4s and you get an idea of the rarity of the marvel price variants. A regular edition of Star Wars 1 in 9.6 would typically sell for around $130 or half of a percent of the variant edition. Because of the huge print runs for the Star Wars 1 book, the Star Wars 1 price variant is the most common of all the price variants books and because of the popularity of the Star Wars franchise, one of the most desired.



The CGC census data is a tremendous resource for comic book researchers. To view the census data for Star Wars 1 go here.
http://www.cgccomics.com/census/grades_standard.asp?title=Star%20Wars&publisher=Marvel%20Comics&issue=1&year=1977&issuedate=7%2F77

The Big Comic Book Database is a great resource for Comic Book Collectors.
http://www.comics-db.com/comic-book/1061698-Star_Wars_1.html

To read more about how Star Wars 1 saved Marvel Comics Group go here.
http://www.starwars.com/episode-iv/bts/article/f20070601/index.html


The book was originally sold by an ebay seller who inherited a collection which included a number of high grade 35 cent variants including multiple copies of Star Wars 1. The book was originally sold on ebay in a CGC 9.4 holder for $10,000. You can find more about the story here. http://www.comicspriceguide.com/blog/post/2009/10/26/Star-Wars-1-35-Cent-Variant-CGC-94-Hits-2410000-on-eBay!.aspx

A Neat Little Kid Colt 218 Western story

Kid Colt 218 is one of the keys to the series. Until earlier this year, there were only two copies of this book known. Terry Hall, who is the only person to complete the 35 cent variant set has one. Harry Miller, who only lacks two books to complete the set and will be the next person to complete the set has one.

And then a noted hunter of hidden variant comics on ebay who I call Sherlock Holmes found an auction lot titled KID COLT OUTLAW COMIC BOOK (BRONZE AGE) 9 ISSUES accompanied by the above picture. If you look closely, right in the middle of the picture, is the third known copy of Kid Colt 218. And Sherlock paid $12 bucks for the lot.

After receiving the books from the original seller, Sherlock listed the book correctly on ebay and not surprisingly the auction results were much different for the Kid Colt 218. The hammer price was $408.28 for this correctly listed book. I have not seen the book in hand, but the grade can probably be best described as "beater".

The remaining question is what is the cover price on the Kid Colt 220 in the top picture? And who says that searching for price variants isn't fun?

A little bit about me.

I grew up an avid comic book reader and collector while I was in school in the 70s and early 80s. I remember biking to the 7-11, buying books off the spinner rack, and reading the great bronze-age classics like Cockrum and Byrne’s New X-Men, Frank Miller’s Daredevil, and Dave Steven’s Rocketeer. After graduating from college, getting married and having kids, I stopped buying comic books because of the demands of my new responsibilities and home budget constraints. Fast forward to a couple of years ago with my own kids in high school, some spare time, and settled in a bigger house with some extra storage space, I started working to complete some of the comic runs that I never finished as a kid. Searching for these books led me to the CGC website where I discovered a thread on Marvel price variants of the same books that I collected as a kid. That thread led me to the STL comics site where I met up with the Variant Mafia. You can't complete a set of marvel price variants without help from the mafia. Anyway, I became hooked on the price variants. Hard.

As of 2010, I have completed the 30 cent set. I am actively working on completing the 35 cent but so are several others and the competition for the last twenty books that I need for the set is pretty fierce.

So What Are Bronze-Age Marvel Price Variants?

In April 1976, like the rest of the world, Marvel Comics Group was faced with rising costs of producing and shipping books. At the time, the cover price of a regular issue was 25 cents. The marketing executives were faced with the classic question of whether and how much raising prices to recover the additional production would erode sales. In 2010, a price increase of a nickel may not seem like much, but in 1976, a five cent price increase was 18%. To answer the question, for four months, Marvel issued test price versions with a cover price of 30 cents in six test markets. The six test markets were Grand Rapids, Baltimore, San Antonio, San Jose, Albuquerque, and somewhere in Massachusetts. The answer, apparently, was that the price increase either didn't hurt sales much or the production costs had increased enough that there was no alternative to a price increase. In September of 1976, the regular issue price increased to 30 cents.

Marvel repeated the experiment from June to October in 1977 by releasing test editions with 35 cent prices instead of the normal 30 cent cover price. Apparently, the 35 cent test was done on an even smaller scale than the very limited 30 cent test, because the 35 price variant books are even more elusive than their 30 cent price variant brethren.

There are two things that continue to astound me about the marvel price variants. Except for Iron Fist 14 and Star Wars 1, for twenty years no one noticed the price variants until Jon McClure published an article about them in Comic Book Marketplace #55. The other thing that is amazing, is that over thirty years after their publication and some serious money chasing them, there have been so few found. Happy hunting.


Paul Merolle is one of the collectors who has managed to find every 30 cent variant. His website http://mysite.verizon.net/psmerolle/variantlist.html provided the first checklist that I used in my search for price variants and is still accurate.

For more information about Jon McClure and his early research on price variants go here. http://www.jonmcclure.net/

You can find a ton of information about 30 cent price variants here. http://www.stlcomics.com/gallery/30cent/

You can find a ton of information about 35 cent price variants here.
http://stlcomics.com/gallery/35cent/

Greetings

Welcome to the Bronze-Age Marvel Variants blog. This blog is intended to be a great resource for information about Bronze-Age Marvel Price Variants. You will be able to find out all the important information about each issue - price history, census data, high quality scans and reviews of each issue, and fun tales of the hunt.

In addition, I am going to throw in a blurb or two on my hunt for the very elusive double-cover error printings of some of my favorite series.

I look forward to hearing from fellow price variant collectors.