The Killing Joke

July 1988, 661,510 First Print Run, Art by Brian Bolland and Written by Alan Moore (For Mature Readers)

In this comic, the Joker tells a joke, hence the title “The Killing Joke”:

See, there were these two guys in a lunatic asylum… and one night, one night they decide they don’t like living in an asylum any more. They decide they’re going to escape! So, like, they get up onto the roof, and there, just across this narrow gap, they see the rooftops of the town, stretching away in the moon light… stretching away to freedom. Now, the first guy, he jumps right across with no problem. But his friend, his friend didn’t dare make the leap. Y’see… Y’see, he’s afraid of falling. So then, the first guy has an idea… He says “Hey! I have my flashlight with me! I’ll shine it across the gap between the buildings. You can walk along the beam and join me!” B-but the second guy just shakes his head. He suh-says… He says “Wh-what do you think I am? Crazy? You’d turn it off when I was half way across!” (taken from Wikipedia)

This comic was one that left me sitting, staring at it with my jaw dropped, thinking “Wow!” The book opens with Batman playing cards with the Joker in Arkham Asylum. There is a flashback to the Origin of the Joker.

Later in the book, the Joker escapes from Arkham. He goes to Barbara Gordon’s (AKA Batgirl’s) house and rings the doorbell (the cover image). When she answers the door, Joker shoots her and then takes pictures of her in various states of undress. The shot had gone through her spine and paralyzed her. Pretty dark, eh?

The Joker kidnaps Commissioner Gordon (Barbara’s father) and takes him to a rundown Fun House in an amusement park. He strips Gordon to his underwear and ties him up to a roller coaster car. While the ride is running, the Commissioner is forced to view pictures of his daughter nude in a puddle of blood! The Joker thought this was the best way to drive Gordon “insane”.

Batman comes and saves the day. This is the closest I ever saw Batman come to killing someone.

The end of the book is Batman playing cards with the Joker in Arkham Asylum again.

For many years, Batman comics fell stagnant, in my opinion. A lot of the 1960s and 70s Batman books were very “slapstick”, or aimed more toward kids. C’mon, who doesn’t remember the Batman TV shows with “BAM” and “POW” all over the screen. Holy time to grow up, Batman.

In 1986 Frank Miller took Batman to a new level with “The Dark Knight Returns”. Miller broke all the rules, including giving Batman a gun when everyone knows he’s anti-gun since his parents’ death. Robin was a girl, and who ever would’ve thought Superman would fight Batman? But those are different stories.

After Miller’s works on the “series” (I use the word loosely, since his contributions rarely fit in with the chronology or continuity of the regular Batman comics) a lot of “prestige format” (mature reader) comics were published. Most vigorously inhaled. I think “The Killing Joke” was the best “prestige format” comic book ever produced.

American Eagle Gold Bullion

$5 tenth-ounce gold American Eagle-weight 3.393 grams; composition .9167 gold, .03 silver, .0533 copper

The American Eagle bullion coins come in 4 denominations 1 oz, 1/2 oz, 1/4 oz, and the 1/10 oz shown. The obverse is by Augustus Saint-Gaudens, and reverse by Miley Busiek. Unlike most coins the value of the American Eagles are spot price of the metal, plus a small premium. When I bought this coin the market value of gold was $740 an oz. last I looked it was in the high $900 range. I would love to invest in gold ,but the market is high now…or is it ?

1921 Morgan Silver Dollar

1921 Morgan Silver Dollar .900 silver .100 copper

The 1921 Morgan is the most common year in the series (44,690,000) with the next closest mintage year being 1887 with 20,290,000.  Even though the ’21 mintage is nearly 45 million this coin pictured is quite rare for a “common” coin.  The above coin is called a VAM.  I’m not an expert on Morgan VAMs but I think the one above is a VAM-1K which has an R-6 on the rarity scale (only several hundred exist).  Note the die crack through the top letters of United and States.  Some collectors hunt and buy only VAMs so which makes my 1-K rare and hard to find. The Morgan series is a great series to collect (if you are rich) – some coins can sell for a few hundred thousand dollars.  Don’t overlook variations in common coins – they can be a cheap way to collect.

Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles #1

Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles #1 (3rd Printing), 1985

Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles (TMNT) is one of the rarest and most valuable comic books of the Copper Age (Copper age: comics published between 1984 and 1992). Created as a spoof of many comics of the time, TMNT was the brainchild of writer Kevin Eastman and artist Peter Laird.

Published by the creators themselves at the cost of $1200, the first printing was only 3000 copies. This run of 3000 copies was very small compared to comics published by the big companies. For example, Marvel’s The Uncanny X-Men #177 in January 1984 had a first printing of 378,135 and DC Comics’ Batman #367 in January 1984 had 89,217 copies. Keep in mind also that TMNT #1 second printing was 15,000 copies, and third printing was 36,000 copies. This makes all the TMNT printings small when compared to other companies’ printings.

I think there are a couple of reasons why high grade copies of TMNT #1 are hard to find. Of course one reason is that the printing runs were so small. Another is that noone took the comic seriously, both for content and for collectability, so they weren’t really handled well. The third big reason that they’re hard to find now is that they were published in a larger format than a standard sized comic, so more of them were left unbagged, at least until the big hype that boosted TMNT into the mainstream. Suddenly this group of characters caught on, and the market was filled with everything from cartoons to pajamas to toothbrushes, and it became a multimillion dollar franchise.

The overstreet Comic Book Price Guide 38th Edition won’t even give an exact price for this comic. They give prices for every other comic book they have listed, including Action Comics #1, Spider-Man #1, Batman #1, etc…, but no price for TMNT. In fact, as far as I can see, TMNT #1 is the ONLY book without a price next to it. The price guide entry for TMNT #1 simply states: “Prices vary widely on this book. In 2005 a CGC certified 9.4 sold for $8300, a CGC certified 9.2 sold for $2850, and a CGC certified 6.0 sold for $1300.” On eBay, I’ve seen a CGC certified 9.6 list for $15,000. A 9.6 is the highest known graded copy of this book in existence.

The book pictured above is a 3rd printing, but the Holy Grail of my collection is a 1st printing of the same book. I found it at a flea market, un-bagged and wedged between a Savage Sword of Conan and an Epic Magazine, and paid $0.50 for it. I ended up buying 20 comic books that day for $10.00. In my opinion, my copy would probably grade between a 7 and an 8, but I haven’t sent it out to be graded yet.

The 1st printings are the only ones that have an ad for Gobbledygook on the inside back cover. There are counterfeit copies that can be found, but many of those have a white streak or mark down the center of the back cover and the black on the cover has a blueish color rather than deep black.

References for this entry:

• The Standard Catalog of Comic Books, 3rd edition, 2004
• Official Overstreet Comic Book Price Guide, 38th edition, 2008
• Great American Comic Books, 2001

Shield Nickel

The Shield Nickel (1866-1883) .750 copper .250 nickel

James Barton Longacre designed this coin during his employment with the U.S. mint as Chief Engraver, between 1844 and his death in 1869.

Joseph Wharton was a wealthy businessman who used his contacts with congressmen and senate members to influence the use of nickel in this five cent piece. I’m not sure of Wharton’s intentions, but since he was the owner of the Gap Nickel Mine in Lancaster County, PA, and the American Nickel Refinery in Camden, NJ, I can take an educated guess. Nickel was chosen for in this coin even over many protests from mint officials due to the hardness of the metal. The dies had to stand up to a lot of stress because of this metal choice. Usually, coins with a mint error such as a die crack become more collectible. In the case of the Shield Nickel it’s often the opposite, because it’s so difficult to find a well struck coin without a die crack.

For an interesting read, check out “The Shield Five Cent Series” by Edward l. Fletcher, Jr, which is where some of the information for this entry came from.