Why Is This Blog Called Key Issue Comics?

If you've been reading this blog you may be wondering, "Why the hell is it called 'Key Issue Comics?'  The only thing here is a bunch of comic reviews and links to comic related stuff."  Well, I started this blog so that I could put together lists of key issues of various comic book titles.  That was and still is my intention.  I got back into collecting comics after an absence of nearly 13 years.  Triggered primarily by a couple of articles I read about the new Wonder Woman costume and the new X-Men title.  Probably more important is that I can actually afford it now.

I enjoy reading comics and I also hope that someday someone will pay outrageous amounts of money for the ones I've collected.  So I'm always on the lookout for "REALLY good deals" on collectible books.  Like the New Mutants #98 that I found for about 80 cents.  I haven't had it graded yet but my guess is that it's probably VF/NM 9.0.  That's what I mean by really good deals.  If that book had been 40 bucks or more I probably would have passed on it.  Thanks to many generations of my family, I'm what you might call a tightwad.


So how did I know to grab that book out of a longbox that some poor sap had sold to a junk dealer?  Well I had done some research on characters that I liked way back when and I knew that this issue was the first appearance of Deadpool.  That's one way to go with collecting comics, only going after first appearances.  People also collect first issues.  You could collect what's called a full run, all the issues in one volume.  Some people collect all the appearances of a particular character.  I collect a mixture of all of these.  The other way to collect is to buy "key issues."  This term is a little hard to define.  It's a little like "reality."  There is no such thing as reality.  We all interpret what we see and then call it reality.  I read that in a college textbook once.  Key issues are really key issues to the individual collector.  Maybe you don't care that Detective Comics #475 has artwork by Marshall Rogers but for his fans this might be a key issue.  It also happens to be a classic story called "The Laughing Fish."  What's so great about Spider-Woman Vol. 1 #37?  For you, maybe nothing.  For me, it's the first appearance of Siryn, one of my favorite characters.  Some of these are valuable monetarily, some have sentimental value, and others are worth nothing until you find the person who views it as a key issue.

That's the job of this blog to list key issues in various comic book volumes.  I couldn't find another site on the web doing a good job of this.  I found some listings in forums on various sites but that's a lot of trial and error searching.  I could use the price guides, but I'm not just interested in how much something is worth.  I also want to read good scripts coupled with good artwork.  Some of the best books I've ever read are only listed as being worth a couple of dollars.  A blog is probably not the best format for this, but it's all I have time for right now.  If people like it maybe it will turn into a site all by itself.  If anyone else wants to compile lists of key issues, I'll gladly publish them and give you credit.  Likewise, if I come up with a list and you feel I've forgotten something please let me know.