Craig Shoup

Reporter

FREMONT - Chris Rupp, owner of Rupp's Comics in Fremont, hit the Marvel Comics jackpot recently with the purchase of a collection of 1500 comic books from the 1970s.

In the comic book world, a key issue is a book that either introduces a character, tells the story of the death of an iconic character, or intersects heroes in one book, and "The Tiffin Collection," as Rupp calls the acquisition, netted such key issues in Marvel lore as "Incredible Hulk #181," which marks the first appearance of X-Men member Wolverine; "X-Men #94" and "Giant Size X-Men," which brought the first appearance of the X-Men team feature Wolverine, Colossus, Nightcrawler, Storm and others.

"Overall the collection was a very nice collection from the '70s," Rupp said. "In recent years, Marvel comics from the '70s have become very popular and this collection had a lot of what people want."

The "Giant Size X-Men" issue could be worth as much as $3,000, depending on its condition.

Rupp's Comics General Manager Adam Schiewe said the previous owner took proper care of the books, whose conditions range from very poor to very fine ratings.

"There's some good quality stuff here. He definitely took care of it. If they picked and read, they didn't just fold them up," Schiewe said.

Comic books are rated on scale of quality, ranging from a score of 0.5 (poor) to 10.0 (gem mint condition). The scale ascends in increments of half a point from 0.5 to 9, then goes up from 9.0 to 9.8 in increments of 0.2, such as 9.2, 9.4, 9.6 and 9.8

The highest possible ratings are 9.9 (mint) and 10 (gem mint condition).

A comic book's overall sale price is based on its grade. Comic book stores often attach a number to the book, which constitutes its grade quality. The lower the grade, the lower the book's value; the higher the grade, the more it's worth.

Comics have become a popular art form over the years, Schiewe said.

"A lot of people are wanting the first 'Wolverine,' the first 'Punisher' and 'Daredevil,' which have shot up because of the upcoming ('Punisher') Netflix show," Schiewe said. "They (Marvel) released a 'Daredevil-Punisher' series right before the 'Daredevil' Netflix show came out and it outsold all the (previously released) 'Daredevil' and 'Punisher' separately before that show came out."

Other highlights in "The Tiffin Collection" include "Iron Man #1," and "Iron Man #55," which is the first appearance of Thanos, a villain who has been teased recently in the Marvel universe movies.

Thanos is expected to be the main villain in the upcoming "Avengers" movie sequels, slated to open in 2018 and 2019 respectively.

Along with several top-quality Marvel Comics issues, Rupp said the collection also features a Friends of Ole Marvel (FOOM) fan club kit and editions that were pleasant finds.

"This is very rare to find a run of these, especially with the membership kit," Rupp said. "This is definitely on the highlights, as it is a peek back to the marketing collecting of comics during the '70s," Rupp said.

Landing this collection is the second time Rupp has scored big in the Tiffin area, saying he purchased more than 4,000 comics featuring key issues in both Marvel and DC universes.

Rupp said he is always interested in investigating collections to determine value, and is willing to travel about anywhere to find a good book.

"I have purchased everything from a single comic book to a semi-truck load of comics from the Upper Peninsula of Michigan to a large collection out of Los Angeles," Rupp said.

Perhaps the best purchase Rupp made was the very first comic, "Detective Dan Secret Operative #38," which was published in 1933.

"I'm still processing this (Tiffin) collection, and it may be a while until I get a full value of the collection, but part of the fun is the sorting process of each issue," Rupp said. "I am always buying collections, from comic books to action figures to old toys and even Legos. Twenty-five years in the business and I still get excited when the staff says there is a customer on the phone that has a collection to sell."

Rupp said riffling through collections is a rush like no other, and said every call gets the same treatment because of the uncertainty of what a collection can bring.

"It is the possibility of coming across that rare collection that maybe has an "Action Comics #1," the first appearance of Superman, or a "Detective Comics #28," the first Batman," Rupp said. "You never know. But all in all, it truly is the stories that come with the collection and fun going through the books, with the surprise of what you might find that makes this life so great."

cshoup@gannett.com

419-334-1035

Twitter: CraigShoupNH