One of the details in the story of Action Comics #1 sells for $317,200 was that the person selling the book found it in a second-hand store in the early 1950s when he was nine years old, and bought it for 35 cents. Obviously, he’s the current all-time champ in the single issue category, with Chuck Rozanski holding the award for bulk purchases with the Mile High Collections.

But it occurs to me that most collectors have at least one great find in their collections. The issue to the right is mine, Man Of War #1, from 1940, which my father and I found in a coin collectors store in Lake Ronkonkoma in the late 70’s-early 80’s. I bought it for $3, and it’s worth about $1000 today. At the same store, I also bought a copy of the first edition of the Overstreet Price Guide, which is worth a few hundred bucks now as well.

How about you? What was your greatest find?

Marvel’s press release:

Marvel is proud to announce that in honor of Wolverine‘s 35th anniversary, numerous Marvel titles will feature Wolverine Art Appreciation Variant Covers in April, as part of Wolverine Art Appreciation Month. In the tradition of Marvel’s previous variant cover programs, featuring everything from villains to zombies to monkeys, select Marvel titles will feature variant covers spotlighting the most popular X-Man through a unique lens! Inspired by some of the world’s greatest artists, these variant covers depict Wolverine like you’ve never seen him before, in styles reminiscent of Pablo Picasso, Salvador Dali, Andy Warhol and more!

"This is a huge year for Wolverine as he proves why he’s arguably one of the most popular characters in the world," explained Joe Quesada, Marvel Comics Editor-in-Chief. "He’s not just popular with fans but also with artists, as evidenced by how many of today’s top comic artists jockey for a chance to draw him. This got us thinking: what if Wolverine had been around for hundreds, if not thousands, of years? What great, classic artists would want a crack at drawing a Wolverine cover?"

We here at ComicMix are hereby starting Wolverine Artist Appreciation Month. This will pay tribute to the great, classic artists that have gone into creating Wolverine over the years, yet somehow are not getting their fair share from Marvel over the character to which they contributed so much, and who have been underappreciated in so many other ways.

So please, take a moment to thank:

• Len Wein
• Herb Trimpe
• John Romita Sr.
• Chris Claremont
• Dave Cockrum
• John Byrne
• Terry Austin

In particular, if you’d like to honor the late great Dave Cockrum, please consider purchasing some of his file copy comic books from his estate to help his widow Paty. The list of available books is here.

Today’s– okay, this past week’s– list of quick items:

• Newsarama.com : True Weird War Stories: Mike Grell & Mark Ryan on ‘The Pilgrim’. Mark and Mike spill a few more details about The Pilgrim; including what parts may be true, and what parts you are not yet ready to know… mwah-hah-hah.
   
• The world wide web just turned 20. Yes, you’re that old.
   
• An interview with Jess Nevins, Mighty Comics Annotator on Time.com: it must be horrifying to think that Alan Moore is messing with your head specifically.
   
• The 6 Meanest Things Critics Wrote About Watchmen. Pshaw, that’s not mean.
   
• The Adventures of Tin Tin the Anarchist: "Written during the struggles of 1980’s Britain, Tin Tin is a autonomist, class struggle, and insurrectionary story of ordinary people creating a revolution. It deals with issues within the movement such as sexism, homophobia, and racism, and also touches on violence, the nature and role of unions, and much more."
   
• A new collaborative search engine for movies, http://www.nanocrowd.com/. Interesting.
   
• And finally, actor Ron Silver died in NYC at age 62 of cancer. You can remember him from everything from The West Wing to Timecop, but to me, his greatest role was playing Ron Silver in

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