Doom Patrol #86 (1964)

Many collectors of Bronze, Copper and Modern comics don't look at the Silver or Golden Age because they think all of the good keys are far beyond their financial reach.  Yet this period of comic book history is a prime hunting area for undervalued gems.  The Silver Age stretches roughly from 1956 to 1970.  I divide this into early (1956-64) and late (1965-70) SA.  Any collector wanting to raise their collection and comic book knowledge to the next level should understand the difference between the two periods.  For one, 1963-64 marks the entrance of slightly older fans loyal to the new Marvel brand.  Whether it is actually true that they took better care of their comics than the previous generation is beyond the scope of this piece.  However this is the conventional wisdom that an analysis of the CGC census would likely support.

More importantly, the mid- to late-60s and early 70s are very well represented in the Mile High II "collection" (warehouse hoard) of 2 million comic books purchased by Chuck Rozanski in 1985.  The story of the purchase is an interesting one, but for the purpose of this discussion simply know this: high grade Silver Age books of the late 60s are not rare. If memory serves, the title & issue with the most number of (undistributed) copies in the hoard numbered 14,000 copies.  By all means buy what you like from this era, but if looking to broaden your collection into earlier decades, the good news is there is a lot of great stuff from this era that is still affordable, and in my opinion, more likely to multiply in value over the years.

The first such book that I want to recommend is Doom Patrol #86 from 1964.  This book has two main things going for it.  Firstly, it is the first issue of the Doom Patrol title (My Greatest Adventure having changed its title between issues 85 and 86). Secondly, it contains a cover-featured debut of an interesting and under-rated pair of villains. Now, the "Rule of Villains" says to think carefully about the potential of a villain to be a break-out hit.  Does he/she/it have the potential to rise to Joker or Harley Quinn-like popularity?  Few do, but there is a lot of space to occupy between the loved and the loathed.  Monsieur Mallah and the Brain are just the type of oddball characters I believe could develop a cult following (if indeed they don't have one already).  The slow introduction of Gorilla Grodd in season one of the Flash TV series has excited a lot of fans - could another super-gorilla be far behind?  Neither DC nor Marvel have shown apprehension in bringing some of their odder characters to the screen, and as long as fanboys like Kevin Feige (Marvel) and Geoff Johns (DC) continue to have a major role and the films continue to be successful, this shouldn't change.

If you are not convinced yet, Doom Patrol #86 comes dead last in Overstreet value in the following list of 21 first issues published between 1956 and 1964.  Notably, it is worth less than a third of the next least valuable comic:

Green indicates books with a change in Overstreet value of more than 19% over last year; yellow means a change more than 9%.  I did not cherry-pick these issues to support my argument.  I looked up every Marvel and DC superhero (or superhero-like) Number One in this 8-year period.  If there's any others I might have included, please let me know.

Does the fact it does not sport a Number One on its cover hurt the value?  Well, another analysis we could do would be to compare the value of sequential issues in a series that was retitled without changing the numbering.  Unfortunately I have to break my rule of not comparing early with late Silver Age, but in this case the best examples are the Marvel relaunches of the late 60s:

The first issue in every case except Doom Patrol 86 is that the first of the retitled series is worth more than the previous issue (average of 4 times more), while Doom Patrol #86 is actually worth only 2/3 of My Greatest Adventure #85.  One brief note about Overstreet.  We all know that the market value of certain comics vary widely from the guide value, but in this case I don't see any indication of sales widely deviating from Overstreet values.  That's good for the collector who's getting in now.

I have no problem seeing a 5- to 10-fold increase in FMV for this book in the next 4 years.

Finally, for a little icing on the cake, this issue also features the first appearances of the remaining members of the "Brotherhood of Evil", Madame Rouge, Mister Morden and Rog.  When it comes down to it, however, what I like about the book is the awesome first appearance / gorilla cover, the fact it is from 1964, and the incredibly cheap price.

In the market, I see a high grade copy on eBay by a seller who obviously believes highly in this book.  I don't think the masses are on to this book or ready to pay anywhere near that price yet.  There have been few slabbed sales in recent years.

I think you are going to find my picks to be in the "far-in-advance notice" category.  I have a list of at least 100 books I consider to have much upside potential that I have not seen discussed.  Hopefully I will have something for every budget, era and interest.

Thanks for checking this out!


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The Brain's debut on page 10

Monsieur Mallah's debut on page 11

 

Mallah in action against the Doom Patrol