Posted in: Comics, Comics Publishers, Current News, Marvel Comics, X-Men | Tagged: Dave Cockrum, giant-size x-men

The 14-Year-Old Who Bought Giant-Size X-Men #1 Cover for $45 in 1985

Comic book collector Sam Hare has the original artwork cover to Giant-Size X-Men #1 from 1975 by Dave Cockrum. Or not...

Comic book collector Sam Hare posted to Facebook in the Original Comic Art Collectors Group, a tale of a fine acquisition he has allowed Bleeding Cool to republish. Strap in folks, it's a doozy and takes place at a San Diego Comic-Con almost forty years ago. The original artwork cover to Giant-Size X-Men #1 from 1975 by Dave Cockrum, that contained no original artwork whatsoever…

The original artwork to the Giant-Size X-Men cover that isn't.

"I bought this at SDCC in 1985 – I would have been 14 or 15 – and I think this may have been my second ever OA purchase. The dealerʼs table was an small endcap on the west side of the dealerʼs room and had probably a dozen three or four inch stacks of art. No Kirby, Byrne or Miller on the table, just a lot of interior pages with what seemed like a very high ratio of characters out of costume talking, and pages that would be the set up for pages youʼd actually want to own. Only one other cover there I can recall: A Tales of the Green Lantern issue with Guy Gardener holding the lantern, standing in the shadows (it just sold on Heritage last month, actually). A great, stark image that I really loved. But it was fifty bucks, and that was a definite dent in my con budget. At the bottom of a stack of particularly C and D quality material interior pages, was this piece, also $50. The dealer was careful to explain that it was an amalgam of stats with corrections, and title dress, no art. But even though GSXM1 was only ten years old at that point, it was already an iconic cover, so I decided to pull the trigger and grab it. Being *that* kid at the time, though, I had to haggle the guy down from $50 to $45. I remember that he really didnʼt want to budge on the five bucks, but I was relentless. I got it, and as I was walking off with it under my arm, I was clobbered with buyerʼs remorse. I felt like I just bought a glorified photocopy and passed on actual art: that TOGL cover. So I went back to the dealer to try and get my money back, but he refused, his revenge on the annoying dork with braces. In retrospect, Iʼm glad it didnʼt occur to me to ask him to just swap it for the TOGL cover; I honestly donʼt know why I didnʼt, because thatʼs the one I really wanted."

So basically, it was the art board used to create the cover used in Giant-Size X-Men #1, the relaunch for the X-Men by Len Wein and Dave Cockrum that formed the basis for the modern day version of the X-Men. And was created by pasting down photocopied bits of other art. But nevertheless is one of the most important comic book covers in American comic books. It's as valid an important artistic artifact as any Banksy.

The children who bought up comic book original art…

"This was my third SDCC, but it was the first for my two friends from my hometown had also made the trip with their parents. My one buddy, he was about 14 at the time, would buy Byrneʼs Alpha Flight #7 cover at that show (I vividly remember going over to his house and seeing it propped up on a chair later that summer) and he bought Cockrumʼs X-Men 161 cover either that year or the next: they were both, I think, $50 and $75 respectively. I remember, even at the time, thinking that was a particularly cheap price for the Byrne cover, but we were Byrne fanatics in those days, and his Alpha Flight run was all the rage. It boggles my mind now, but a fair portion of the pieces of art that routinely hit five figures today first passed through the hands of children."

Just so you know, you've had 284% inflation in the USA from 1985 to 2023. $45 then is about $128 now. John Byrne's Alpha Flight cover from #24 later in his run, recently sold for $52,800. Issue 7 cover could well hit six figures. Page 2 of Giant Size X-Men went for $102,000. A Cockrum X-Men cover from his first era sold for $360,000.

…but wouldn't buy his X-Men cover for $50.

"Anyhow, I desperately tried to sell it to both of my friends. I wasnʼt even interested in flipping it, I just wanted $50. One had already burned though his money and the other completely apathetic. I even offered to sell him half ownership so we could be joint owners. But again, no. So I sulked, and now, I had to spend the rest of the con wandering around with it in my hands since there was no bag check (that I remember). About an hour later, Iʼm near the main entrance, about three rows deep from the door, and Iʼm looking at some books. The dealer was a young guy, probably early 20ʼs, and takes note of the cover. Without asking me about the piece, he casually drops into our conversation heʼd trade this DD#1 he had on his wall, straight across. It was a sharp copy with bright whites on the cover, easily NM. I can see that he thinks Iʼm holding the actual pencils, so I explained that, yes, it is technically the cover of GSXM1 but no, itʼs not the actual art. But surprisingly, he doesnʼt seem to care. He just says something like, "That would just be a cool piece to hang on my wall." It was pretty much at that point I pretty much settled on keeping it. I did take it back to the 86 and 87 SDCCs thinking maybe I could trade for something, but I never did."

Anyone want to make him a Giant-Size offer?

"The piece itself was assembled upside down on the reverse side of the standard art board Marvel used during this period. The art has a number of minor corrections: the page rip right next to Nightcrawler and the edge of Stormʼs cape is original art, and thereʼs some blue pencil tracing over the original X-Men stat, especially on Jeanʼs left arm (which actually looks like a stat on top of another stat). There are a few very minor areas where the art was extended to connect the new X-Men stat to the OG X-Men stat, as well as some additional touch ups here and there (the tips of Beastʼs fingers, for example). There doesnʼt seem to be anything under the new X-Men stat: itʼs glued to the board securely, but only in one or two places, so the stat can be carefully lifted up and looked under. The spine name indication had been ripped out at some point before I bought it. Also, in the jet-black shadow areas on Wolverine and Nightcrawler (and Cyclops' abdomen), it looks like an assistant roughed in the muscle shapes (it doesn't show up in the scan, but you can see it in direct light)."

Decade after decade after decade, the market for original comic book artwork has exploded. For those kids buying original artwork then, well, they can't pay for their own college education, but maybe they have kids – or grandkids – who might benefit. And man, you should see the other pieces Sam posts as well as Giant-Size X-Men…

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