COMIC DETAILS
|
Comic Description:
|
Showcase 35 Universal
|
|
Grade:
|
9.8
|
|
Page Quality:
|
WHITE
|
|
Pedigree:
|
Western Penn
|
|
Certification #:
|
4190257001
|
|
Owner:
|
Mississippi Mudcats
|
SET DETAILS
Owner's Description
Showcase #35 is the last 10-cent issue and features the second appearance of the silver-age Atom. In the cover story, “The Dooms From Beyond!", Dr. Gordon Doolin is preparing to look for funding to build a hospital in a third world country, he learns that he's really the heir to the Heath fortune. In spite of the fact that there is a family curse, Doolin legally changes his name back to Heath to collect the fortune before the deadline.
Taking up residence in his grandfather's old home, Doolin apparently becomes a target of the ancient curse. Ray Palmer gets involved because Jean is the lawyer in charge of executing the will. As the Atom, Ray manages to protect Doolin from the various apparent curses, incorporating the various elements. However, the Atom soon learns that all of these "curses" are really machines created by somebody on the property wanting to kill Doolin. When Atom discovers that the last curse, that of the element of Earth really turns out to be a bomb hidden in a globe, he disarms it. Atom catches the crook when he invites everyone into the den as Ray Palmer. When the groundskeeper flees to avoid being killed, he gives himself away. Atom captures him, and Doolin is awarded his inheritances.
Our 9.8, like our #34 and #36, all of which were acquired together, comes from the Western Penn Collection and is the single highest graded copy out of well over 300 examples certified by CGC. Surfacing in the '90s, much of the Western Penn Collection’s history is shrouded in mystery. We know that both a father and his son accumulated the collection from the '60s to '80s, and there was allegedly a cache of Golden Age comics as well that may have been sold earlier (to date only a handful of Tarzans prior to 1961 have been CGC graded). Stuart Friedlander brought the collection to market, and several Silver Age publishers were represented, although Marvel was the predominant company. Known for very high grades and exceptional page quality starting in 1961, the Western Penn copies have been well documented, but do not exhibit any identifying marks.
I believe this is the first 9.8 in the Showcase title. We acquired the book along with the WP copies of Issues #34 and #36 from a friend and fellow collector in February 2023.
|
|
|