PRICE GUIDE NEW TOP 100 [UTE =o al eh] a} e si e ca ré oo ry i) es EVOL.1 NUMBER 3 NOVEMBER 1991 Wolverine has just been sighted slashing a Wizard cape to pieces. Looks like our friend Poof! The Wiz- ardhas gotten away safely, Wolverine can be found in his own monthly series X-Men, and popping up all over the Marvel Universe. PREVIEWED IN THIS iSSUE Erik Larsen has been very busy lately. Find out what he’s up to, 2 WIZARD #3 FEATURE $ SIMON BISLEY ‘The man who single-handedly brought Lobo back to life. 15 ‘Simon may even be Lobe himself. Find out. JOHN BYRNE — BACK TO THE X-HOUSE Intervew with John Byrne, ‘Nuff said, 1 2 5 Pee Vibe WS. A BOLD NEW DIRECTION . | What are the scariest four words a comic fan can hear associated 7 || with his favorite character AUTOGRAPHED NEW MUTANT’S #87 | your chance own ne amis et ack ses 110 | WOLVERINE — MAN BEHIND THE CLAWS Find out more about this Admantium-Clawed Mutant. GUIDES ANDLISTINGS WIZARD COMIC WATCH Here's mor book og a zr ye on 28 GRADING YOUR COMICS ese ee etn 30 COMIC BOOK PRICE GUIDE | TRADING CARDS | Fn out mere abot he wang card boom 85 NEW VIDEO GAME SECTION Bove petoaiy comreneeais 98 | NEW TOP 10 | Lets lokat th new chars. 100 PICKS FROM THE WIZARD’S HAT Tis montis rekpeekat has team 104 LETTERS PAGE | ee vin oades of Wizard have sy 112LETTER FROM THE PUBLISHER WELCOME TO WIZARD #3 What's up? | called a few comic shops around the country today to find out when the new WIZARD will be in. The replies | re- ceived ranged from, "Not soon enough.’ to. “We just sold out.” I spoke to a shop in Long \sland that told me WIZARD was selling better than X-Men. Well, | don’t know about that; but saleson Wizard have been tremendous. Mind you, these anonymous calls |! make are not phranks. Well, sometimes I'll throw in a fewjokes, but they don’t do any harm. I think it's funny when | test their knowledge of Wizard, see if they've been reading it. |'ll tell ya, some retailers really impressed me, they are tuning to Wizard for all their comic book information. Issue #4 is being started in a few days, just long enough forme to catch a few rays and z's. As you can see from my picture I'm white as a ghost. It’s a moral imperative that Iget away from my computer. my fingers are almost fused to the keyboard. | can’t wait, just picked up some nice seats for the STING concert in Madison Square Garden PUBLISHER: GAREB S. SHAMUS BUSINESS MANAGER: MARTIN SCHRANZ CONTRIBUTING EDITOR: PATRICK DANIEL O'NEILL ART DIRECTOR: RICH DuFOUR CREATIVE DIRECTOR: LEO McCARTHY PRODUCTION MANAGER: JANE SCARANO PRODUCTION ASSISTANT: RALPH O’BRIEN fer without wien prot consent of Ward Pess and Gaveb 5, horns 4 WIZARD #3, OUR STAFF ADVERTISING MANAGER: LINDA PERILLO STAFF WRITERS: BRIAN CUNNINGHAM COLORIST: MARK H. McNABB ILLUSTRATOR: BART SEARS EDITORIAL ASSISTANTS: DOUG GOLDSTEIN Any statement mace in War The Guise To Comic, expresrecorimpieg. ae tly hese ofthe individual Deinginteniewed and do not eprasenttne: federal postion othe publeher, who des not Oscept any exponsiity for such #atermants: Al orkwork TM ond & of ai respective Owners Wear: The Guide To Comics pubiehedd monthly by Waard lets, P.O. Box h, Nant, NY 10%54.0548. [Link] rte is $27.50, Canada ‘ond Mexico $2195, andollothercountser 39.95 Allpaymentiinu' fundrony. Ents contents copyright 1991, GoreoShomutenterpraas, nc The Ward loge 8 protected through trodeman regttation nthe Untedsctes of Amenca. Infermation puble ton: may net be reproduced part or whole any Postmaster Send address changes te Weard Press, P.O, Sox 8, Nanuet, NY. 10PS4-0648 In Issue #4 we have some great features planned in addition to this month’s new Letter’s Page and Market Watch. We've read thousands of requestsandeachmonth we try to fill as many os we can. | assure you, if you wrote us a letter, | read it. You will see your requests filled, so feel honored, we listened to you. Sincerely Gareb Shamus Publisher STEPHEN SHAMUS. PAT McCALLUMby STEPHEN SHAMUS Hello again. This month we're going to discuss the current trend in the sports card market. The new fadis limited edition, premium quality cards, with all sorts of bo- nuses, autographs and holograms. The companies realized that the competition was getting fiercer and to compete, they all had to come up with a new, fresh idea. First it was Classic with draft pick sets. They started the set in 1990 with a limited production of 150,000 sets, andnow the premiere edition of the baseball picks sells in excess of $20. Classic continued ‘its trend in 1991 by releasing a foot ball set, however, with a twist. They signed exclu- sive contracts with two of the hottest picks in the NFL draft, Rahib “Rocket” Ismail, and #1 pick Russell Maryland. They then announced a limited basketballdrattpicks set, which would have exclusives with #3 pick Billy Owens, and #4 Dikembe Mutombo. Classic has just recently an- nounced that they signed an exclusive in their upcom- ing hockey draft picks set. This guy is none other than Eric Lindros, the highest touted prospect since the ‘magnificent Mario Lemieux (Score will stilhave Lindros in their set). Topps joined the fun by issuing a Stadium Club Baseball set. A premium quality card with extremely limited production. The issue was so popular, rumor has it Topps will 2nd print the baseball, however will indicate the 2nd print on the card, thus, there should bea substantialincrease in value of the first prints. Due 6 WIZARD #3 out soon is Stadium club Baseball series 2 and Stadium Club Football. Topps also recently announced they will produce a Stadium Club hockey. Fleer added to the confusion by issuing an Ultra set. This is the first regular issued set to contain four photographs on one card. Fleer has also said a Football Uttra is on the way. Donruss started in 1990 with Leaf and continued its winning tradition this year. Donruss, however, just added a new line called Dontuss “Studio Cards.” These are black and white studio shots of allthe top stars and rook- ies. These have a pink border, and the backs contain personal info as well as some career info, no stats. With produc- tion comparable to Leaf, this set is sure to be 2 winner, ProSethas added anew line of football due out soon called Platinum. This high quality card is limited to less than 10,000 cases. These cards are sure to be a hit, and Pro Setis limiting dealers to a one case maximum. The Platinum set will be issued in two series, similar to the regular Pro Set issue. With all these new “high end” cards coming out, one may ask where willit all end? Or will it even end? These cards do look great, but they are very expensive, especially compared to the regular issue cards. How- ever, for now, people don’t mind spending the extra money if they know they are getting a quality product that wasn't printed in the zillions, like the regular issue [Link] fun adding these new gems to your colectiontWier gi bale) <0 THE Wi URE NiaIn the upcom Spidey goes out ing “Revenge of the Sinister Six” and recruits the new Fantastic Four. ‘Twice in the past two years, Erik Larsen has been in the unenviable position of following Todd McFarlane on the adventures of Marvel's favorite webslinger. He replaced McFarlane as artist on Amazing Spider-Manwhen the fan-fave went onto write and draw Spider-Man; now, with McFarlane dropping the top-selling Spidey book, Larsen has beenaskedtobeone ofthe first creators to comeinand do a story “arc” as the title moves into its new format, a “mini-series within the series” riff. LARSEN: I'm doing a five-issue run on Spider-Man that starts with #19 and runs through #22. I’m writing and inking it myself. It's all-new; all-fun! At this very moment, as we're speaking, I'm doing an inventory story for X-Force that Rob Liefeld plotted and Fabian Nicieza will be scripting. I'm doing a Lobomini-series that |just got the plot for. |haven't started on it yet, because of Spider-Man suddenly opening up. I'm also supposed to be doing a Legends of the Dark Knight story in three parts — writing and drawing that as well WIZARD: Writing your own stuff is fairly new to you, isn’t it? LARSEN: | started out that way, actually. As a kid, | wrote all my own stories, of course. When | first got started doing stuff for regular comics, | worked for a black-and-white comic called Megaton. | did some plotting back then and some scripting of my own stuff, too. I got away from that as | got further into the field. | hadn't really written for a while, and last year \ did athree-parter for Marvel Comics Presents with Wolverine and Spider-Man. | kind of liked doing it again. Since then, I've written another Wolverine story that | didn't draw, that will be coming up one of these days, drawn by Chris Marrinan of Dr. Strange and Wonder Woman fame. He did abang-upjob. It's not quite done—he hasn'tfinished the pencils, |haven'tfinished the script. It makes the drawing part more fun, because know what to look forward to. WIZARD: When you write something youre draw- ing yourself, do you start out with a written plot? LARSEN: Yeah, | have to, because I'm work- ing with editors and editors want to see that. They don't want to just have pages coming in and not know what's on them. “Hey —what's this? You can’t have Spider-Man's arm torn off!” They want to know what's going on and have some sort of control. WIZARD: Is that plot fairly tight? Fairly loose? LARSEN: I'd say loose is as good a descrip- tion as any. WIZARD: Does it read like just a classic high- concept sentence? “So-and-so meets the villain and they fight"? LARSEN: It's usually a little more involved than that—about a page and a half of writ- ing; not too terribly in- volved, because | know what I'm going to be doing with it What | need to show the editor is just that | know what I'm doing and what the basic storyline is. They need to know if there's any problems with my basic concept, so they can say, “Hey, you can't use this character this month,” or something like that. WIZARD: When you've finished the pencils, do they get passed by the editor as well? LARSEN: Actually, the pencils | turn in are very rough. They're less than layouts—because I'minkingit as well— and | do most of my drawing on top of those roughs in ink. | just need the bare bones construction | would be doing for myself if | were doing full pencils. | send the editor those, along with the script, and get it lettered on the boards. That way, | don't have to draw a lot of stuff that | would have to if | were just pencilling it. There's background stuff that | don't have to put in because it willbe covered by the word balloons. | think you get abetter balance of copy and artwork, be- cause | can work“Every artist thinks in a different fashion.” the balloons in so they don't intrude as much as they would if | had just drawn it and a writer placed the balloons. WIZARD: It's been suggested to me that some artists wio write their own stories have a tendency to design their pages so that each page works more as a total image than as a story-telling unit. Do you find that true? LARSEN: You try to strike a balance. There are several things | think about a lot. The people who buy this stuff often flip through it first to decide whether they're going to buy it, so | give them some neat stuff to look at. 1 really don't know how to answer that question. Sometimes | think about it aot, sometimes I'm just drawing the story. Generally, I'm just trying to have fun with it. WIZARD: Once you have an approved plot, do you do thumbnails or some other sort of breakdowns before you begin penciling? LARSEN: | almost always just go right on the boards. A few times I've done layouts 10 WIZARD #3 for myself; sometimes ifl’m really stuck on something, I'll sit down and draw out a couple of different versions —but | some- times do that full-size. On the story I'm doing right not, | just did four different splash pages — but they're all so rough, most people wouldn't know what they are anyway. |'ll just keep the one | like and set the others aside. WIZARD: The five-issue Spider-Man arc can you give us a quick couple of sen- tences on what it's about? LARSEN: Last summer, | drew a six- issue story in Amazing Spider-Mancalled “The Return of the Sinister Six’; this is “Revenge of the Sinister Six.” Doctor Oc- topus sort of betrayed the group lasttime, so this time they decide to kill him. It's alot more involved than that...it'll develop into a reconstructed Sinister Six; Sandman's working his way out of it, because he's agood guy, now. We've been talking about replacing him with the Sandwoman from Thor, or maybe Hydroman, because he has a similar kind of power. The story mostly involves Spider-Man finding out he can't actually beat six guys; throughout the five issues, he gets his head handed to him a couple of times. Spidey goes out and recruits his own group to combat these guys — the new Fantastic Four. WIZARD: When you're writing for someone else, as you did for Chris Marrinan, does the process change? Does even the thought about how to do it differ? LARSEN: It's alittle more complete than it would be for myself, because I can interpret my own stuff — while | can't expect him to read my mind. Generally, when I'm working with someone else, | call the artist and ask what he'd like to draw and what he hates to draw —to get that in my mind before | even start WIZARD: When you're asked to work on something like the Spider-Man arc or a Wolverine story, does the editor ever suggestto you the kindofstory, or the thrust, or the theme he'd like to see? LARSEN: He might, in some cases; in these, he didn’t. | really haven't been doing the writing that much or that long for there to have been that kind of interplay between me and the editor, generally. It's been me coming to the editor with story ideas, after he's said he'd like me to do something But he can always say, "No, don't do that. WIZARD: In working with another artist, are you ever surprised by what you get in the pencils? Is there ever a niggling thought in the back of your mind, “Gee, Iwish I could have pencilled this myself. ! would have done it differently.” LARSEN: I'm surprised and generally | like being surprised. Every artist thinks in a different fashion andalong different lines. There are many whose work Erik has also worked on The Doom Partrol & New Teen Titans... Puidaa iarersareurasane ae SOF ».. and will work on X-Force, Lobo, Batman, Wolverine & Nova. NOVEMBER 1991 11IM SURE AUNT ar ZAM NO OF UPSET ABOTT THAT WOYLO UNDERSTAND IF ACCIDENT AT HE. AMCELED OURCOLLECTING COMICS IN THE 90’S by PAT McCALLUM This edition of collecting comics in the 90's took forever to write. | pinched a nerve in my neck, making writing (let alone anything else) a major chore. But, being the sole survivor of the planet Krypton, I'll do my best. The topic this month is about those pesky movie adaptations that popupfromtimeto time ‘on comic shelves and drive comic fans crazy. How do they fit in with other comics? Are they worth anything? If | col- lect, say, Star Trek, should | buy the movie adaptation? One thing at a time. First, they do not fit in with “normal” comics at all. Anything that hap- pens in movie adapta- tions does not affect regular continuity. Just like what occurs in the actual movie does not affect the comic, nor does the comic adaptation. Secondly, if you collect a title, Terminator, for instance, and the movie adaption hits the stands, it's up to you whether you want to add it to your collection or not. You don't have to worry about missing an important storyline or anything, since they are self-contained stories. As for the movie adaptation’s value, it depends on what you mean by “value.” If its how much their aftermarket price increases, it's almost always 14 WIZARO #3 next to nothing. It doesn't matter if it's based on such blockbuster movies such as Batman, Termi- nator'l, Star Trek or Predator Ik-they just don't have an aftermarket beyond cover price, since publish- ers do not give them the attention they deserve. ‘They are usually poorly drawn and scripted, and almost always cut the story down so that it will fit in a certain number of issues. On the other hand, what movie adaptations have the potential to do is priceless, though it is not handled properly: The power to reach many new readers. The most important factor is distribution. These issues are usually found only at comic shops and newsstands, but not in the one place where they would be most effective: the theaters. In one exception, some theaters which showed the Batman, movie put aside a small section of the theater and displayed the comic adaptation. They sold out instantly. If only 1% of all moviegoers be- came interested in com- ics, that would gener- ate hundreds of thou- sands of new readers. The next factor we need to take into ac- count are the less than impressive creative teams. Comic adapta- tions should use such high profile talents as George Perez, Chris Claremont, Jim Lee, Fabin Nicieza and the like. Show the “outside” world what a comic book truly is, a good story with good art, in comic book form, not a badly thrown together book put out to capitalize on a movie's success. Until the companies decide to handle these books better, they appear to be destined to remain on comic shelves everywhere. Here's hoping that the Publishers give it a shot. This industry must con- stantly introduce new readers and collectors. In- theater movie adaptions are a perfect way to do so!lt His voice is suspiciously quiet over the phone. It v7 doesn’t fool me. What will I hear if] ever play the interview tape backwards? Terrible things, no doubt. But down to business. Simon, lets talk about the real issues affecting comics today. What about big guns? ma “They're great, aren’t they? But they're really a 7M FRAGGIN” joke, it’s just funny seeing a guy with a great gun, POSIBLE! The problem with Judge Dreddis that he has such a small and boring little gun. He’d be much more popular in America if they gave hima big Gatling gun for a weapon.” Itakea chancenow. Say truthand shame the devil, that’s what I always say. Simon, why do you always seem to draw robots, barbarians, and ro- " bots that look like barbarians? “Are you having a dig at me, like?” My whole life flashes before me over the phone. “No, Ilike robots. They havea lot of power about them. Most people seem to do them like dustbins, by Gordon Rennie Good god! I really had it, The Number of the Beast. So dialed it. Far away in Oxfordshire, something stirred; something slouched towards the phone, its, hour come round at last. “Hello? Listen, can you hang on a minute? I’m off to the loo.” What a scoop, the ablution of the Beast! While I wait, I notice that I'm going to tape this interview over a Beastie Boys album. Wow, synchronicity in motion or what? OK, he’s back. Simon, isit true that you eat babies? “Yeah, well, I used to. Not any more. Not after Iwas in prison the last time, Ha ha ha...” Simon Bisley: The Biz; The Beast; King Cannon, comics god of metal mayhem, abrush wielding barbarian whose throbbing artwork blows awayall the competition and whose covers can kill at twenty paces We're talking about monsters here. Mr. Monster to be exact.but I seethemas war machines with their ownanatomy— cables, hydraulics and stuff. You can play about with the human anatomy when you do robots. They're like syn- thetic human beings. That’s how I saw Joe Pineapples in ABC Warriors. And what about barbarians? The best thing about Slaine was that while Pat Mills was trying to rehabilitate the fantasy genre by introducing feminism, earth-mother worship and lots of heavy Celtic mythology, you were filling the strip with big hairy men, big naked women and bloody big weapons! “Yeah well, I like drawing big naked people with big lumpsof metal intheirhands. lignored Pat’sscript for the most part. I knew what I wanted to do and I went for that I don’t think that Pat wanted Slaine with muscles and the rest, but in the end it comes down to selling the book and I thought that it would make it appeal to more people, people like me that like that sort of thing,” And what kind of thing is that? “Women with large breasts. I do like curvy women, so why shouldn't draw them? I like to draw them whenever it’spossible and appropriate. I do like them, don’t you?” Tavoid the question. My wife may be reading this. “I do respect and appreciate women, but I don’t give a damn for those people who getall worked upabout nudity and breasts and stuff. I think that’s all to do with childhood problems with their mothers or something.” Simon worker. sley has never contemplated a career asa social “[ liked doing Slaine and | think I did some of my best work in it. I'm not much of a storyteller, but I thought there were a few things in itthat I was really pleased with That pull-out poster of Slaine that was in 2000 AD not so longago. I think that was one of the best things I’ ve done. But to tell the truth, I never actually read the story when it appeared in the comic. I’m not really into that stuff.”But weren’t you in a recent TV program about The Green Man and Celtic mythology? “Did you see that? I looked like a real plonker, didn’t 1? T told them that I wasn’t interested in that stuff and didn’t know anything about it, that it was all Pat’s ideas. I was sitting there doingme artwork and this guy was whispering stuffto me that I was supposed to reply to. ‘Color is really important in art, isn’t it?” or “Why are you using that particular brush?” I mean, what are you supposed to say to questionslikethat? I felt ikea gorilla inone of thosenature programs, with David Attenborough sitting beside me and whispering to the camera. ‘Oh, look, he’s picked up a mango. I wonder what he’s going to do with it” (Oh god, the temptation for a quick and easy wisecrack here...I change the subject quickly.) Is it true that you're doing a Terminator series for Dark Horse? “Yeah, I really enjoyed doing that. The only problem w that I’m notreally allowed to use Amold Schwarzenegger's appearance as the basis for my Terminator. I'd love to be a Terminator myself. | could walk into car showrooms, shoot the salesman and steal all the best sport cars. ['ve got a Lotus Esprit, you know. That’s how I relax from working. I drive around all day in it. Lused to spend about 20 pounds a day just on petrol for it.” Er, I see. How fast do you drive? “About 70 mph onaverage. Ican go up toabout 130 onthe motorway but I got caught once, That was another time I wished I was a Terminator.” Work hard, play hard? “Yeah, perhaps. [think I domore work thanany otherartist Tcan think of. The number of comics I'm in, counting coversand the like. Ithink Itake on toomuch work. People will call me up and ask me to doa cover for themand offer me 2000 quid. I've always got something else to do, but hell—its 2000 pounds! Then they pester me whenit'slate. They're not scared of me. I’m not going to drive a tank down to their offices and then wipe out their entire family. I’m really not the Amold Schwarzenegger of comics.” But then why do your characters often look so much like you?! mean, Slaine and Lobo area pair of mad bastards and you draw them to look pretty much like you. The same GBH haircuts, the same wicked leer, the same leather jackets for heaven’s sakes! “I don't know about that, I’d like tobe a: but I’m really just a skinny, spotty wimp. T used to do weightlifting, though. I think that a lot of artists do the same sort of thing with their work and their characters, Sean Phillips makes all his characters look like him. trong as them, IVE NEVER BEEN SO EMBARRASSED IN ALL MY LiFe! WHY COULDN'T WE HAVE TAKEN ONE OF THOSE Lovely CRUIBERS? OR AWhat's everyone got against Don’t worry readers, we're all part of one big happy family in comics. Really. Which bringsus to Toxic, Why did you drop out of working onit, Simon, Wasn’t the body count high enough? ted a cover I had done for them, which I felt kind of bad about. Apparently wasn’t “toxic” enough, Tt wasn’t how Gnipreaeian RUSTON Stok inmore ofan O°Neill or McMahonstyle, to throw away the anatomy book and draw with a ruler instead, I’ve always beena great fan of these guys, though, nd it was great to work with them Anatomy again, You've got a thing about that, haven't you? “I do think it’s very important foranart- to understand it, ike to look at bod- ies, to und. them. I own body. 1 look atother people's. Actually, that was another thing I got locked up for, sneaking into other people’s houses at night and inspecting their bodies...” Despite the Toxic fall-out, the rest of the comics world just lusts after young bulging musclesand big guns. I mean, aren’t you working on Judgement in Gotham, the Judge Dredd/Batman team-up by Alan Grant and John Wagner, featuring not one but two of the hottest hardeases in comics? “Yeah, it’s my kind of script — lots of black humor witha well-hard Batman, It’s actually more of Judge Dredd’s story, he really carries it along. I mean, Dredd doesn’t have a tremendous personality, does he? It’s also got the Scarecrow and a really maniac Mean Machine in it.” I take it that this is not another high-brow Batman story? “There's none of that bullocks about Batman and his hang-ups about his past and his mum and dad dying It’s just him kicking arse, I don’t like it when artists, getto arty-farty or writers get all clever-clever. Like Arkham Asylum, what kind of Batman was that? He was such an absolute wimp. That wasn’t my idea of Batman at all “I’m also getting sick of all this dark and moody artwork that everyone is turning out. I'm fed up seeing Batman hiding in darkalleys. I’ ve made the art in this as bright as possible. [’ve got Batman against all these really bright sunset skies, really fiery and hot. Itlooks like hell and Batman is this black demon with big homs and big black wings. He looks far more ferocious than he does in all those dark, wet stories.” Oooh scary! But you’ re doing painted artwork on that strip. Don’t you think that painted stuff is becoming the blight of comics? “I get so tired of it. Judgement in Gotham is about fifty/fifty inks and paints. I used the inks to keep it moving and mobile. You don’t have to paint to produce strong images — look at the tremendous power of Dark Knight or Gene Colan’s stuff on Daredevil. 1 did Lobo in ink because it was so immediate. You could just throw it on the page and it, would look brilliant. Idid ABC Warriors in cheap felt tip pens because that’s what I felt most comfortable with then. I could draw with a fag end if wanted to. Paints can hide bad artwork, especially figures and anatomy, because you can paint over it, smear it or blur it There'sa few Bisley clonesaround now. 20004Dhas found two of them, and by the looks of things one of them has already beat you to the idea of painting with a fag end. Horrible stuff, indeed. Do you feel NOVEMBER 1991 24responsible for inflicting these people on the comic-reading pub- lic? “They pissme off, but then Idon’t suppose I’m original either. My stuff is a culmination of Frank Frazetta, Richard Corben and Bill Sienkiewicz, so maybe it’s good that other people in tum are get- ting off on my artwork.” Batmanand Dredd. Whatastupid butbrilliantidea, don’t you think? “Things like that are what comics, areallabout. Team-ups are great fun. Idon’tknow about the Aliens vs. Predatorthing, though. Those Aliens should have kicked the liv- ing crap out of the Predators. The Aliensare pure death. Iwas really disappointed with the way they were done in the second film and in the comics.” OK, now we're talking, It’s time to settle the definitive dilemma in comics. I hit him with it. Thi: the big one. Isthe Hulk strongerthan the Thing, or what? “The Hulk, I think. I love that stuff, when they fight and they destroy halfof New York, andthe Hulk lifts up big chunks of the ground and there are still people standing on it. I also know that Lobo is stronger than Wolverine. P’mactuallyasstrongasthe Thing. My body is also made of rocks and concrete, but I’m falling to bits because of acid rain and pol- lution from cars.” What would the ultimate team-up be? “Armold Schwarzenegger and Jackie Chan.” I think I’ve just died and gone to heaven. Now surpriseus. What otherchar- 22 WIZARD w3 acters would youmostlike to work on? “Elektra, I'd make her a body- building eunuch-transvestite with very muscular thighs and very large breasts. They would be very important.” “And the Punisher. He’s got a gun anda big chest—everything like drawing, except there’s no women init. I think he prefers his gun, [wonder what kind of batter- ies it takes?” “And the Hulk, I’dmake him even greener and meaner, with those little sharp tecth of his. I'd take him back to the Jim Steranko version with a huge barrel chest and those three hhuge toes on each foot.” Anything else? How about some- thing completely different for you, like Elfquest or Sandman? What do you say? Hello, Simon? Simon? Are youstill there? Reprinted with special permissionNIERNAINE cole Onceuponatime, comic book collect= ingwasachallenge. Inthe days before comic shops, conventions, and price guides, tracking down obscureissues of your favorite series couldkeep ahobby- ist occupied for years, Now. if a collec- tor wants a complete set of all thirty years of Fantastic Four, allhe needs are telephone and a credit card with an ungodly limit, and he ’llbe getting those issues in the mail within a week. If he wantsto find out allof the books that his favorite artist has drawn, he only need look through a price guide. Forthe hobbyist who wants to view coly lecting as a quest rather than an exefl cise in wallet-emptying, there are offal sorts of collections that can be ,&ilis Buildingthese alternate collectig@#@am be a lot of fun, because theymvales research and talking to pe@Bignaing: learning about comics. HejSiGiesomie! examples of special col@@honmypes: that one can build Content-oriented collectiOnS=ainis i) buildingacollection around com Megat certain contents or themes. Exompleg of this might be comics that deal with baseball, or comics that have a US. president in them. Sure, there are obvi- ‘ous examples of presidentialcomics like Reagan's Raiders, but building yourcol- NOVEMBER 1991 23lection would also involve learn- ing about the issue of Captain America that has President Nixon being a plant for an enemy organization, or that the appearances of Jimmy Carter and Gerald Fordonthe coverof Supeiman Vs. Muhammad Ali are probably the only authorized comics appearances ofpresidents. Just pickatheme that is specialto you, and you'll end up witha i “Because writers are Rarely considered “hor”, you'll build a qood collection more cheaply than focussing on AN ARTisT” AT RIGHT: A writer whose career spans over two decades; Dennis O'Neil. FROM LEFTTO RIGHT: 1971, O'Neil cametoattention for the award-winning Green Lantem/Green Atrow. 1972, ong before Frank Miller, O'Neil “de-camped” the Dark Knight. The 1980's saw O'Nell's lasting changes othe Iron Man legacy. Inthe 90's O'Neil has won critical acclaim for his controversial re-working of Steve Ditko’s The Question. 24 WIZARD #3 collection that is special to you. —while itisfairly easy tofindout allthe booksthat a favorite artist has drawn, itis harder to track down the work ofa favorite writer. In a way, that’s a shame, because the quality of workis more likely tobe. consistent between different stories by the same writer than by the same arlist. So if you like Foolkiller, for example. you'llprobably find, that searching out other comics that Steve Gerberhaswritten willnot onlybe fun but will also get you a lot of entertaining comics. Additionally, because writers are rarely consid- ered “hot” by people who invest in comics, you'lllbe able to build a good collectionmuch more cheaply thanifyou focused on an artist —Comic books are popularworldwide these days. Much of the best work from other coun- tties is now available translated into En- glish. However, there is something charming about having a comic inits originallanguage, no matter how incomprehensible itis. There is, also something keen about having some of your favorite American comics in other lan- guages, whether it’s seeing the X-Men gath- ered under their Danish name Projekt X or seeing Popeye spout Hebrew. Most comicbookshopsactuallyhave @ few foreign language comics (especially Japa- nese or Spanish), to get youstarted. Foreign lan- guagebookstoresandin- ternational magazine standsin the big cities are anothersource forforeign editions. Plus, once youy friends and family find ofl about your collectAilm they '‘lloftenbuy you@aaam ics during thejlimmat abroad, — TY to collect every comié book published in a cer- tain month (say. the month you were born) canbeagreatendeavor Once you get beyond mainstream Marval and DC, identifying and locating the issues becomes a real puzzle. Which issue of Richie Rich Bilionscame out that month? Where can you get back issues of Young Love or CARtoons? (One hint for date collectors:It’sa lot easier to find out the cover date of the comicthanthe actual publication date, which is generally several months earlier. As such, you 'lifindit a lot easierto base yourcollection 06 RESERVEHELTENES LEGION on the cover date, unless you happen to have ac- iaess to the old files of a eMic book ormagazine ESHDDa:) Thiscollection MileneUBbeing o snap- BRGNGRP time in comic BOokBFTory,andwill give memmeonse of the breadth ihe comics field that BBEking at endless racks Bf supetherobookswon't, I'm sure that if you think about it, you can come up with a lot of different possible non-traditional collections. Last issues? Issue #137 of every series to go that far? Comics that appeared in World's Worst Comics Awards? nc appearance of every character in The Handbook ofthe Marvel Universe? Theimpor- tant thing is that in some way, it makes the collection special to you And remember. youdon’thaveto give up any othersort of collectingto do this. It willjust give you something different to look for when you are in yourlocalcomics shop. Anditwillleave you with a collection that is uniquely yours! © ETS reme eee r Rial dle Oar NOVEMBER 1991 25Artist: John Romita Jr. Writer: Chris Claremont Publisher: Marvel Release Date: May 1985 Es aan is Spider-Man and his Amazing Friends #1: The true first appearance of Firestar, but the story takes place out of normal Marvel continuity 28 WIZARD #3 ‘1985 Marve! In the pages of the Uncanny X-Men’s 100th anniversary appearance of the all new team, two minor characters were introduced. Later they became fan fa- vorite characters from two of Marvel's hottest new books, The New Warriors and X-Force. Who are they, you ask? Well, none other than James Proudstar, a.k.a. X-Force’s Warpath (who, by the way, is the younger brother toJohn “Thunderbird” Proudstar, the first member of the new X-Men who died in issue #95 of the series). The other is Angelica Jones, known to New Warrior fans as the mutant Firestar, Possessing control over microwaves (and we don‘t mean appliances). With this much going for it, how could this not be a gem in the making?COMME WTA ea (©1989 DC Comes Holy first appearance Batman! One of the most well received characters of the 90's is Tim Drake, the third incarnation of the world’s most famous sidekick, Robin. Making a brief appearance in the story, young Tim Drake (and we do mean young)) is introduced to the DC universe. He‘s shown as being part of the crowd during the murder of Dick Grayson’s (Robin !) parents. Later, Tim pieces together the fact that Bruce Wayne and Dick Grayson are Batman and Robin- knowledge which would lead to him donning the costume. after the death of Jason Todd (Robin ||). With the success of the Robin mini-series last year, the current mini-series and the upcoming regularseries, everyone should know it all began in Batman #436 fh Artist: Pat Broderick Writer: Marv Wolfman Publisher: DC Comics Release Date: June 1989 if “il ‘Tim once again donned The Robin costume, but this one being an updated 90's version. This will Set eas NOVEMBER 1991 29Dark Horse 1.83% Others 15.54% August 1991 Piece Share of the comic: Demonbane Cen msu Te The purpose of this feature is to help you, the reader, understand the increasingly more difficult world of comics. Each month we will bring you the ‘mostup to date information on currentcomic prices, market reports, newest comic trends and|ast minute news updates. he X-Maniais on fire nation-wide! Leading the climb up the price meter is Jim Lee's work on Uncanny X-Men, closely followed by Liefeld’s New Mutants, Portacio's X-Factor and Alan Davis' early work on Excalibur, all of which showno sign of slowing down. With each of these artists maintaining a high profile on current hot books as ‘well, expect prices on their newer projects to follow suit. 94 WIZARD #3 I Infinity Gauntlet, War of he Gods, Deathlok, Magnus Robot Fighter, Ghost Rider and the Robin mini Series all continue to do quite well also. ie Onthe flip side, several titles appear to be lagging in sales. Todd McFarlane’s early work on Incredible Hulk and Amazing Spider-Man are holding in price, but de- mand for these books has dropped considerably since he left Spider-Man (and perhaps Marvel as well. & Interest in Grant Morrison's early work on Animal Man andhis current work on Doom Patrol also appears to be cooling off, with a few issues even taking a bit of a nose dive. Other books not really flying out of the back issue bins include Predator, Terminator, Teenage Mu- tant Ninja Turtles, Punisher War Journal and Punisher (though with the new 7 part series running through Pun- isher #53-59, interest should return). We The hot picks to look out for are pretty much domi- nated by DC Comics. The monster books they're setting up to unleash include the Batman vs Predator series which will ship in two different formats. One priced at $1.95 will be in DC’s new format, while there will be a prestige format marked at $4.95 with a different painted cover, with 8 trading cards bound in the issue. Don't know about you, but this is one fight | wouldn't want to miss. Also onthe menuis the Robin mini-series in allit's myriad forms. Each issue will feature a varying amount ——— Malibu .86% — Disney 20% Dark Horse 1.17% Ort mere Dos PER Oma cording to Capital City Distribution.of different covers and holograms (#1 has four covers, #2 has three, etc), all of which are eagerly anticipated. Everyone's favorite homicidal maniac returns in “The Lobo Paramilitary Christmas Special,” brought to you by the same team which brought you the wildly successful Lobo mini-series last year, Giffen, Grant and Malibu 1.82% Innovation 2.07% Dark Horse 4.63% Others 15.13% Be a eat se Cee et] upon original orders for all merchandise, according to DU Rena cy Bisley. Looks to be fun. Also check out Simon Bisley’s unbelievable art on Balman/Judge Dredd: Judgement ‘on Gotham one-shat. He Not to be completely overshadowed, Marvel has a few choice selections on the horizon including the mile- stone Daredevil #300, which not only has a spot varnish cover, it features the long awaited fall of The Kingpin (gosh, fd hate to be under him when he lands}! Also sporting a nifty cover will be Wolverine #50, which has a cover that looks like claws tore through it (I wonder whose). The story is titled “The Weapon X Files,” and, you guessed it, deals with the uncovering of Wolverine’s past. Neat. ke Also check out Amazing Spider-man #358 with a three page gatefold and don't overlook the DC/Marvel crossover poster by John Byrne, shipping in halves starting mid-November. ; Ac In closing, has anyone noticed that the new trend in comics is specialty covers, covers that have special gimmicks (glow in the dark, gatefold, die cut, etc)? Everyone's forgotten about the altered printing on se- cond prints (remember those “hot” gold covers?), and now have these “specialty cover” books on their “must buy ordie” list. Almost afraid to see what Marvel and DC. have planned next... PERCENTAGE SHARE FOR JANUARY 1990 TO AUGUST 1991 70 CC) Aor i990 July 1990 Oct 1990 Hl Maret Captal Cty Dietibuion Jon 1991 Apr 1971 July 1991 NOVEMBER 1991 95,#1 VIDEO GAME MAGAZINE By Rigor Mortis &e Arachnid aficionados arise!!! After % months of sneak peeks, a certain web-slinging super-hero has finally made it to the video game screen, and it's well worth the wait! Sega's Spider-Man for Genesis is a visually stunning (the 8-bit version may not be as graphically glitzy as its big brother for the Genesis, but there's a lot more to the SMS cart that meets the eye) and extremely challenging game that should please any hard core gamer. So, grab your Web Shooters and swing on! SO MUCH TO DO, SO LITTLE TIME The Kingpin has hidden a nuclear bomb somewhere within the city, but he’s publicly accused our hero of planting it. Spider-Man must locate and diffuse the bomb before half the city ends up in the upper stratosphere. To diffuse the radioactive menace, Spidey must collect the five keys that control the bomb's detonator. To protect his evil scheme, the Kingpin has hired a Spider-Man rogues gallery of arch-villains: Doctor Octopus. the Lizard, Electro, 98 WIZARD #9 a an an aaa —_— ASSOC airy, WIZARD PRESS GamePro's Game Rating System Sandman, the Hobgoblin, and Venom. PROTIP:Supervillain snapshots net the highest ‘amount of money. Take them as soon as they ‘appear. PROTIP:You're awarded an extra photo shot every time you fully replenish your lite meter. As Spider-Man you must swing and punch your way through seven grueling levels. which cover such varied locales as an abandoned ware-house, the rat-infested city sewers, the city power plant. and the city park. Comic book fans will be thrilled by Sega's faithful adaption of the Spider-Man mythos. Spidey looks, moves, and fights exactly as he does in the comics. The vallains are all consistent with their comic book counterparts and the graphics are stunning! The eerie soundtrack is appealing, and the sound of the Web Shooters is just like the “THWPTT!" sound in the comics! You'll think that the comic book has come to life on your TV screen. Simply put, Sega's Spider-Man is a visual feast and a challenging delight! It's various difficutty options make this game accessible to gamers of all skill levels. Spider-Man is fast, dynamic, and exciting, just as you'd expect. Youll go “buggy” over this cart! Sor ee|Dick Tracy made his debut on ‘newspaper funny pages way back _/in the 1930's when “Pretty Boy" referred to a gangster named Floyd not Warren Beatty. Although this good-looking, single- Player Genesis copper cart trom Sega Is closer to the 1990 movie than the comic, it still pits Tracy against his classic criminal counterparts including ‘The Brow, Itchy, and the infamous Big Boy. PROTIP: During the car chase, shoot mobsters as they peer out car windows before they can fire back. PROTIP: Listen carefully during Stage 3 and you can hear the Brow set his bombs before he oppears. To fend off mobsters you've got standard issue weapons, a knockout punch and a pistol, But to hit the goons across the street, you whip out an ‘awesome tommy gun with unlimited ammo. Hold down the fire button and you see bullet holes rake across the buildings, shatter windows, and pop fire hydrants, The high degree of interactivity makes you want to blast everything in sight just to see what happens. ‘AN OPEN AND SHUT CASE Dick Tracy seems simplistic at first, but give It time and It grows on you. However. hardcore fans of lone lawman shoot-erm-ups might prefer to step Into the future with ESWAT. It's more challenging with snazzier graphics, rougher bad guys, and tougher boss stages. And, no, Madonna doesn't make an appearance here. Eon Ook ae ed ‘Dek Taoy by Sepa of America By Slo’ Mo )'\, Comic book fans everywhere know -\ the heart-breaking tale of the Sliver | Surfer, the star-crossed Marvel y/ Comics hero cursed by the heartless, god-like Galactus to wander the universe alone on his sliver surfooard, Arcadia Systems’ Silver Surfer may doom NES shoot-em-up lovers to a similarly bleak fate, PROTIP:f your blasts can't penetrate an obstacle, you can’ fly through it, This cart is easily one of the toughest shooters around, but at least the graphics are great and the sounds really cook. Ee AORN Graphics Sound Gameplay FunFactr Challenge ‘Siver Suter by Arcadia Syste From the Editors of GamePro Magazine - The #1 Video Game Magazine covering Nintendo, Genesis, Turbo Grafx-16, Super Nintendo, Game Boy, (Game Gear, and Lynx. NOVEMBER 1991 99PIGKS Ths WIZARD'S HAT-5 HERE'S A LISTING OF THE HOTTEST BOOKS SHIPPING IN OCTOBER ROBIN: JOKER'S WILD #1 (of 4) Shipping Date: October 29 Artist: Tom Lyle Writer: Chuck Dixon Cover Price: $1.50 With the success of last years Robin mini-series, it was only a matter of time before DC made a sequel, and here it is. The same creative team which brought you last years sales success story returns to bring Robin the ultimate challenge, pitting him against Batman’s deadliest enemy, the Joker, alone. With Batman out of the country and incommunicado, and the Joker running wild in Gotham, can the still somewhat inexperienced Tim Drake take him down, with the ghost of Jason Todd (the previous Robin, murdered by the Joker) haunting his memories? The Direct Market ver- sions of the series will have numerous variations. Issue #1 will have four different covers (each with its own special hologram), #2 will have three, #3 will have two, and #4 has only one.Shipping Date: October 15 Artist: Ron Lim. caved Writer: Jim Starlin Cover Price: #2.50 The once omnipotent Thanos is now the prisoner of Nebula, the new owner of the Infinity Gauntlet, and the universe shudders at her power, The only hope lies in the combined powers of the Silver Surfer, Adam Warlock and Dr. Strange. Can even they defeat Nebula, and whats the final fate of Thanos? Learn alll in the final blowout issue of one of the most successful mini-series ever. Be there or Nebula will kick your butt. Twice Shipping Date: October 8 Artist: Jim Talbot Writer: Neil Gaiman Cover Price: $3.50 This story features the story of Orpheus, Sandman’s only son, who travels to hades to retrieve his deceasedwife. This storyis the first appearance of the entire Endless Family (including the lostbrother), and also has a portrait gallery done by some of the best talents in comics, including P. Craig Rusell The issue also features a glow in the dark cover by Dave McKeon, guaranteed to give every- one nightmares. (©1901 DoComes NOVEMBER 1904/4405Shipping Date: October 22 Artist: Simon Bisley Writer: John Wagner Cover Price: $5.95 (for more art, see Simon Bisley interview on page 15) In the first ever DC Comics/ Fleetway-Quality crossover, the Dark Knight detective Is flung through arift in the space-time continuum Law, namely Judge Dredd. Meanwhile, with Batman going from Gotham to Mega City One, the super- natural Judge Death is into Earth’s far distant fu- flung from Mega City One ture, into the streets of to Gotham, where, with Mega City One. And since the help of the Scarecrow, being avigilante in the future is against the law, he attracts the attention of someone who is the he brings Gotham to it’s knees. Fully painted art by Simon (Lobo) Bisley. AMAZING SPIDER-MAN #356 Shipping Date: October 22 Artist: Mark Bagley Writer: Al Milgrom Cover Price: $1.00 The bi-weekly storyline entitled “Round Robin: Revenge of the Sidekick” continues. Midnight, now a super powerful cyborg, is out to kill his ex-partner Moon Knight. Can Spidey, along with the help of Daredevil, the Punisher and Nova (of the New War- riors) stop him? Thisstoryline is reminiscent of Marvel Team Up, the old Marvel series teaming Spider-Man with other heroes against a common foe. Storyline con- cludes in Amazing Spidey #358, which has a special three page gatefoldcover. (© 1901 MarvelJIHAD #1 [of two) Shipping Date: October 1 Artist: P. Johnson Writer: D. Chichester Cover Price: $4.50 Imagine a war fought solely by monsters, twisted creatures of your darkest imagination. One side, Q group of otherworldly obscenities who live only to enjoy the pain and death of others: The Cenobites. The other, a race normal men have branded outcasts, freaks, those born with unusual powers and appearances: The Nightbreed. What would happen if one side & decided to annihilate the other? Awarthat . $= should never occur, at least not on this Earth. Halloween comes early with Jihad. X-MEN #3 The X-Men’s trip to the Soviet Union hasn't exactly been avacation. Why hasamys- tery from the X-Men’s past become such a huge threat? And how does Magneto fitin? Russia may be Colossus’ home town, but it’s Wolverine who has all the answers about the X-Men’s Shipping Date: October 15 Artist: Jim Lee Writers: Chris Claremont & Jim Lee Cover Price: $1.00 new, deadly foe: Omega Red. John Byrne contin- Ues to write this story with thepizazzthatmade the Uncanny X-Men famous somany years ago. With JimLee’sRED-hotartwork, Marvel’s main mutant comic continues to heat up the charts with huge sales,Dear Mr. Shamus, First, let me congratulate you for the 1st Wizard Comic Magazine to be born, it its no doubt a better comic book digest with many sources and angles. Collectors can benefit from your magazine's features that others don't have. However, if there is one particu- lar problem that all collectors and comic book dealers are very con- cerned of, it’s the value of their collection. You see, in the past years we have been dependent on and confident with CVM. price quite, ENVELOPE OF THE MONTH This envelope was sent to us by Jesse Heimbach, Brushton, NY. He wins a FREE WIZARD T-SHIRT. and as you can see from their monthly correspondence with their readers, everybody has noth- ing but good compli- ments. But when yourfirstissue came. out, your price guide hadabig difference, especially forthe re- cent hot comic | books. You cut "| everybody's comic books value into almost 30-40%. Yes, the golden age books you value are higher, but how many common collectors like us have those FF #1 or Amazing Fantasy #15? As for myself, | am a very serious collector, | buy comics from many comic book stores in Long Island and Queens. When | talk to many of our collector friends, they allfeel the same. Some people try tocall you, but of course we cannot locate your number. This will cre- ate a situation that collectors will gradually fade out your magazine and will side on C.V.M., which | teally don’t want to see because you do have a better comic maga- zine there. You know, comic books are just like stocks, they go up and they go down. Bul, who wants to see their stocks suddenly drop 30to 40% over- night just because of a new maga- zine? | am a very busy business man myself, but | still would like to spare ‘some of my time to express my, and some of my collector friend's, feel- ings. hope you don't mind my prac- tical writing. Again, congratulations and best of luck to your magazine! JohnDuen Massapequa,NY Thanks for your letter, John. |am often asked how we arrived at the values in the price guide, and wish to explain where they came from. I have had a mini price guide in effect for about a year, which was sent to hundreds of retailers throughout the world. From the feedback from these mini-guides! was able to formulate a very con- cise and accurate working price guide. Throughout the past year, books were thoroughly re- searched, values were checked, and markets were studied, The values in Wizard represent the true market value of your com- ics, give or take a few percent depending on where you live, This guide is not meant to de- value yourcollection, buttogive you an accurate indication of what your collection is really valued at. If you look close enough, John, you'll probably find books in the guide worth a lot more than you} thought. Once again, thanks for the letter. Please write back if you have any other ques- tions. Dear Wizard, What is a no-prize? Jay Rick Rea Los Angeles, CA Well, Jay, we can’t tell you, The last time that information leaked out, the Soviet government was al- most overthrown. Sorry. To the Wizard Staff, Congratulations on an excellent first issue of what looks to be the next major source of comic pricing information. | enjoyed yourmaga- Zine from cover to cover, espe- cially your Top 10, Grading Your Comics (I love the pictures), Num- ber 1 releases forthe month, Ship- ping Date list, and the original McFarlane art! | foundyour prices to be fair, uninflated, and up to date.#| arate Unfortunately, | had one con- cern about your publication. When {filled outyour survey, it was made for an American address. When | {filled out your “Wiz Quiz” it had a spot for an American address. Lastly, when | looked for subscrip- tion prices | found that they were only in American and gave no con- version into Canadian dollars. | understand that you are an Ameri- can company, based in the states, but | am not American but a Cana- dian. | am not anti-American at all, I just hope that in the future you will tealize that there is a large comic following up here in this primitive, snowy, icy country of mine, and that some of us would like to be able to get your publication deliv- ered right to our igloos. Not to leave on a negative note however, your magazine was eas- ily worth my $2.95 + GST and | will continue to buy this publication at my local comic store even if | can not get a subscription. Daryl Granger Courtenay, British Columbia Canada Gosh, you Canadians can get a bit fiesty, can’t you? But then, you are living in Wolverine’s home country and all. You're right about the subscription in- formation. On some ads we failed to mention that Canadian and Mexican orders are $34.95 andall other countries are $39.95. We're happy to see that we've gotten responses from places as far away as Singapore. Any- | way,thanksforthecompliments, Daryl. And don’t worry about it being cold up there. When the Global Warming is in full swing, Canada will be all beaches and palm trees. Dear Wizard, What is the oldest and most ex- pensive comic ever? Also, why is it that some comics such as Captain America, Adventures of Superman and Thor's comic prices do not start at #1 in the price guide? Ryon Collins Martinez,GA The very first comic books to ever exist were what the name “comic book” says: small books that col- lected anewspaper’s comic strips. The earliest comic that’s consid- ered to be a collectable would be Action Comics #1, which Overstreet lists as $55,000 in mint condition. This book's printing marks the beginning of the “Golden Age” of comics. There is, however, one book that is worth more: Detective Comics #27, the firstappearance of Batman, which Overstreet lists as $56,000. Wow. There are two reasons why a title listed in the guide may not simply go from #1 and up. For one thing, some titles go so far back, like Action and Detective, that they're roots are in the Golden Age. Our guide is only from the Silver Age onwards, because anything older is very rare and not casually bought and sold. The second rea- son is that many books change their titles. For instance, Tales of Suspense had both a Captain America and an Iron Man story going at the same time. When issue#100camearound, they sim- ply changed the name to Captain America, and then gave Iron Man his own #1 book (that's why there's no Silver Age Captain America#1-99). Hopethis clears things up, Ryon. Dear Wizards, You already know that you have the finest guide in the country, so no chit-chat. I think your guide is not com- pletely accurate. | know i's only a guide, but why don't you form up a survey formilke the popular‘Becket Monthly Baseball Card” guide does (I've sent you what the form looks like to give you an idea). This will enable your readers to set some of their own price suggestions and you can balance it out. Trung Banh SanJose, CA Thanks for the neat survey, Trung. We may not have one of our own, but we very much want to hear from people who have comments about the guide. As the market is always changing, ‘the more reader input we get, the better prices we can offer you. Pleasewritetous, ifevento only say hello. ee Put you responses to the attention of our Submissions Dept. PO Box 648 Nanuet, NY 10954-0648 ee Thats all the room we have for | this issue. If you have any sug- gestions for a name for the let- ters page, lets hear it. See you next issue!