Free Marvel Graphic Novels - Rare Silver Age Color Guide Howdy! I just finished putting together a fantastic live auction of comics, fanzines, toys, and artwork that we will be hosting here in Denver at our Jason St. Mega-Store on this upcoming Saturday. I mention this auction because one of those items is so cool that I thought that I would give those of you who shop with us from far away a chance to bid by phone, or by e-mail. The special item is the original color guide of FANTASTIC FOUR #88 from June of 1969 with 20 pages of comic art, plus 3 pages of letter columns and soap box. (click on any of the images for larger views) Cover - Color Guide of Fantastic Four #88 This particular color guide features artwork by Jack Kirby, with inks by Joe Sinnott. Stan Lee wrote the story, with many of his notes still readable in the margins. The color guide was created by making photostats of the original art in actual comic book size, and then hand-coloring each page with special inks. Each individual color was then hand-coded for the printers. I am guessing that Marie Severin (John's sister...) colored this issue, as she frequently worked for Marvel as a colorist during this period of time. Splash Page - Color Guide of Fantastic Four #88 When it comes to valuing a complete color guide to a Kirby/Lee Silver Age comics, I am at a bit of a loss. Color guides were once considered nearly valueless, but with choice original art from Marvel now frequently selling at over $100,000 a page, collecting color guides has become a very attractive alternative. I am guessing that I could sell the 26 individual hand-colored pages on eBay for at least $100 each, but since this is a still-complete Silver Age book (in its original Marvel Archives folder...), I think that it would be just plain wrong to break it up. That being the case, I am putting this entire color guide up for bid on this Saturday morning, as a complete 26-page book, with no minimum bid! Double Page - Color Guide of Fantastic Four #88 So you know, my best guess is that the color guide will finish somewhere in the $1,000-$2,000 range. If bidding at that level interests you, please call 303-477-0042, and speak with one of our Jason St. staff. They will get your phone number from you, and we will then call you on Saturday morning, right when the FANTASTIC FOUR #88 color guide comes up for bid. We do have a limit of only five phone bidders, however, so this option is available only to the first five fans who call us. Everyone else will need to send firm bids in by e-mail to Moulton@milehighcomics.com, with the final deadline being 10 AM, on Saturday morning. Moving on to other news, the free DC graphic novels promotion that we offered last week caused our online orders to really spike over this past weekend. We have now worked away that backlog, so I arranged with our head buyer, Will Moulton, to offer you 7 free backlist Marvel Graphic Novels. The deal is the same as with the DC's: place any minimum $30 order with us, and we will allow you to choose any one book from the list below as a free bonus. Place a minimum $75 order, and you can choose any three. A $150 order will earn you the right to ask for all 7 books. All you need to do to receive these free books is to simply ask for them, in the "notes" section of our online order form. Most of these books list on our website for $32-$40 each, so this is a fantastic deal that will expire promptly at noon, on Monday. * Dreadstar GN (1982) #1 (Marvel Graphic Novel #3) Fine * New Mutants GN (1982) #1 (Marvel Graphic Novel #4) Very Fine * Star Slammers GN (1983) #1 (Marvel Graphic Novel #6) Near Mint * Killraven GN (1983) #1 (Marvel Graphic Novel #7) Near Mint * Super Boxers GN (1983 #1 (Marvel Graphic Novel #8) Near Mint * Futurians GN (1983) #1 3rd Print (Marvel Graphic Novel #9) Near Mint * Heartburst GN (1984) #1 2nd Print (Marvel Graphic Novel #10) Near Mint Dreadstar New Mutants Star Slammers Killraven Super Boxers Futurians Heartburst That's pretty much it for the news from here today. As I mentioned earlier, our 60% off GREATDEAL codeword discount is continuing to draw rave reviews from fans, and we are receiving an abnormally high number of huge orders for back issue comics as a direct result. Our trade paperback and hardback book sales are strong right now, too, especially among the 40,000+ titles that we just added. Life is good! Happy Collecting! Chuck Rozanski, President - Mile High Comics, Inc. November 13, 2013 Auction Board #1 Auction Board #2 Current Newsletter