Extracting the Dr. Octopus Value Stamp!

Tags

Avengers, Avengers 130, Dr. Octopus, Iron Man, marvel value stamps, Thor

We’ve discussed Marvel Value Stamps with you before, but we recently reached a new level of geekdom with these little treasures. Our LCS (local comic shop) sold us a cheap grab bag of heavily abused Avengers comics. In that bag awaited Avengers #130. That’s the one that has Marvel Value Stamp #96, Dr. Octopus.

Now, we have a few Value Stamp issues in our collection, but we would NEVER dream of cutting up the pages of our 1970s Marvels. But in this case, the comic existed in such bad shape that we figured, well, to hell with it! (Yes, we know it’s a $100 book in CGC 9.6, but this was more like a $2 VG-/FR.) And so, with a socially inappropriate and childlike glee that only our fellow comic book fans could share, we grabbed a pair of scissors and peformed the first Value Stamp Extraction Surgery of our entire Martian life.

Later, we sacrificed Doc Ock to the gods of art in a mixed-media collage type thing for our Dream Journal series. He is either worth more now, or worth less, depending on how you value things. And just what is the value of a value stamp?

Avengers #130 also had a fun splash page we cut out to decorate our humble abode: Thor putting the smack-down on Iron Man!

It seems Iron Man had a personal grudge and wanted to beat up some characters in a foreign country. Thor told him to chill out and put his personal vendetta aside. Ol’ Shell Head wasn’t having it, though. Rule of thumb: No matter how many billions of dollars your costume cost, don’t get in a fist fight with a thunder god. CLANG!

Collector’s Guide: From Avengers #130. Reprinted in Essential Avengers TPB #6 (but not with the value stamp!).

DC Value Stamps?!

Tags

dc value stamps, marvel value stamps, value stamps, Weird War Tales

Unless you were raised on Neptune, you’ve seen Marvel Value Stamps from the 1970s. Maybe you even have all the issues with Marvel Value Stamps. And maybe you even cut all of them out and pasted them in the collector’s book. First, we would like to slap you for cutting up those comic books — and then congratulate you on your fervently feverish will to collect.

But recently we found this amazing piece of work from DC. No need to buy 50 different issues and cut them all to ribbons, guys — DC printed all their stamps on one page! Take that, Marvel!

Just another sweet find from old issues of Weird War Tales! 

Marvel Value Stamps!

Tags

marvel value stamps, value stamps

You can still find Marvel Value Stamps in Marvel comics from the 1970’s — unless some rabid fan-boy cut the damn thing out and put it in his Stamp Book! We’ve included our modest collection of Marvel Value Stamps for your viewing pleasure, along with some references to their source books. We do not have anywhere near a complete set but can’t resist scanning them whenever they show up.

Besides, if you dream of seeing them all together, you can view a complete set of Marvel Value Stamps. That incredible site also has a complete listing of all Marvel Value Stamp issues, including Series B, and a finished value stamp book.

Once you’ve sated your lust for Marvel Value Stamps, visit our post about DC Value Stamps to see the response from the Distinguished Competition!

Hulk Stamp 5: Not a part of either Series A or Series B Value Stamps, this numbered Hulk stamp appeared on the Bullpen Bonus page in issues with a cover month/date of March 1974. In Series A, the Hulk Stamp was number 2 and had different artwork.

Iron Man Value Stamp 5: From Creatures on the Loose #28

Black Bolt Value Stamp 17: From Ka-Zar #6. You can read this entire killer dinosaur issue at Diversions of the Groovy Kind.

Watcher Value Stamp 37 From Creatures on the Loose #29

Loki Value Stamp 40: From Kull #14

Man-Wolf Value Stamp 42: From Kull #15

Electro Value Stamp 94: From Strange Tales #76

Mole Man Value Stamp 95 :From Ka-Zar #12. We have excerpts of this dinosaur-loaded issue at Lizard Men! We are Lost!

Doctor Octopus Value Stamp 96: From Avengers #130

“Teaser” Value Stamp 100: This question mark stamp appeared on the Bullpen Bonus Page in issues with a cover month/date of April 1974. It was “teased” the appearance of the real Stamp #100, Galactus.

Series B Value Stamp 76: Combined with other stamps to make a larger picture of Hulk smashing. From Avengers #147

Lizard Men! We Are Lost!

Tags

dinosaur, dinosaur comics, Doug Moench, jungle, Ka-zar, Lizard Men, Marvel Comics, marvel value stamps, mole man value stamp, Russ Heath, Savage Land, Smilodon, Triceratops, tyrannosaurus rex, Wizard of Forgotten Flesh, Zabu

Ka-Zar: World’s Manliest Cat Lover.
From the Letters Page.

2022 Update: This was the first post here at Mars Will Send No More, way back in January 2011. Since then, the scans I painstakingly made for it somehow became FUBAR; so, eleven years later, I pilfered some pirate scans from the web to restore this post to its former glory. Along the way, I re-discovered that the letters page contains the Mole Man Value Stamp, which later became the avatar for our blogging buddy Paul at Longbox Graveyard — a truly historic comics coincidence!

Anyway, let’s rock this thing!

Doug Moench penned Wizard of Forgotten Flesh for the Ka-zar in 1974. Doug Moench did a huge amount of writing for Marvel in the 1970s: teaming up with Bill Sienkewicz for awesome Moon Knight stories, Gil Kane & George Perez on the Inhumans, Paul Gulacy on Shang-Chi Master of Kung Fu, and — my personal favorites — the two Six From Sirius limited series.

That being said, Russ Heath‘s dinosaur artwork in Wizard of Forgotten Flesh speaks for itself. Dig his splash panel for page one.

Here is a the five-page sequence where Ka-zar and his buddies harness a Triceratops. They ride it into a river where they wage battle against the evil cult of serpent people.

Gotta admit: I love Zabu, the sabre-tooth tiger. One of my favorite scenes in any superhero book is Zabu and Wolverine having a conversation in animal language. That was Uncanny X-Men #116, when Chris Claremont and John Byrne took the X-men to Ka-zar’s home, the Savage Land.

Anyway, these serpent cultists are up to no good and using some ancient skull to give them power to enslave the tattooed guy’s people. The good guys free the prisoners, but the serpent priestess invokes skull power. With that power, she raises the dead to life to be her unholy soldiers.

This is a fun issue. It transplants some of the best 1970s Conan and Kull cliches and male-bonding adventures into a world of dinosaurs, and the artwork makes the script come to life. Unfortunately, it was only a fill-in from Russ Heath, and he would not again grace the pages of this series.

Collector’s Guide: From Ka-Zar #12, Marvel Comics, 1974.

If you liked that, dig the rest of our Gallery of Dinosaur Comics both old and new, or our guide to Steve Bissette’s Complete History of Dinosaur Comics.