Posted in: Comics, Heritage Sponsored | Tagged: punisher, spider-man

The Punisher and Spider-Man in Western Penn (and Elsewhere) at Auction

Published Sun, 26 Sep 2021 16:47:10 -0500

I love a good comic book provenance story. Provenance is a valuable source of comic book history that is too often overlooked. Knowing where vintage comic books came from and who collected them gives us significant insight into the history of the American comic book industry. Collecting pedigree comic books does not have to be outrageously expensive, and you can find a pedigree for virtually every kind of vintage collecting taste. For example, there's a wide variety of important Punisher appearances including this high-grade Amazing Spider-Man #175 Western Penn Pedigree (Marvel, 1977) CGC NM+ 9.6 White pages up for auction in the 2021 September 26-27 Sunday & Monday Comic Books Select Auction #122139 from Heritage Auctions.

The Amazing Spider-Man #175 featuring the Punisher (Marvel, 1977).

One of the 61 comic book pedigrees recognized by the company, CGC explains the Western Penn Pedigree like this: "One of Surfacing in the '90s, much of this 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."

If you'd care to follow me down this particular pedigree rabbit hole, I'd suggest you check out this CGC forum article that dives into this particular pedigree mystery. In the meantime, if you're a Punisher fan there's a wide variety of important Punisher appearances including this high-grade Amazing Spider-Man #175 Western Penn Pedigree (Marvel, 1977) CGC NM+ 9.6 White pages up for auction in the 2021 September 26-27 Sunday & Monday Comic Books Select Auction #122139 from Heritage Auctions.