ow/white pgs; QES Certified: Criteria met: impressive prime focal area + sharp right edge with no chipping + deep color strike (yellow, blue & red)
Wood art; 1st issue (formerly A Moon, A Girl....Romance)
Gaines File Copy
Highest Graded
While EC publisher Bill Gaines wasn't a sci-fi nut himself, Wally Wood, an in-demand illustrator and good friend of EC writer/editor Henry Harrison, was a fanatic. Wood and Harrison convinced Gaines to take a chance on "real" sci-fi, rather than the serialized pulp action of Buck Rogers or Flash Gordon. Taking over numbering from a beautifully illustrated but low-selling romance title, this first issue was a like a blast across the bow of the comics industry, with sumptuous art gracing intelligent stories aiming to recapture the readership that kept the pulps afloat during the post-comic bust.



The cover may have played on audience's expectations of silly monster-mash B-movie craziness, but readers were astonished and delighted to find a whole new world of adult, wonderfully crafted storytelling. While the horror comics winked at readers with a campy, knowing snark, Weird Fantasy and its brethren were smart and respectful of both sci-fi fans and the great writers of the day. This influential debut issue helped to seal EC's almost immediate ascension to the top of magazine stands and distributors' sales charts, and the comic business would look very, very different indeed without its existence.
Top of the census, one of one, the only 9.8 copy known in existence, a Gaines File Copy, QES-certified! Brilliant colors, perfect condition, no marks, dents, or other visible condition issues, a unique and beautiful copy that is sure to bring tears to the eyes of EC fans worldwide. This book has to be seen to be believed, it is poetry in, well, not exactly motion, but poetry in a CGC case. It is difficult to achieve perfection, and it is equally difficult to describe perfection, suffice to say, comics printed 70 years ago have no business looking this good, this is like the Cher of comics. Just buy it already!

Overstreet Guide 2020 NM- (9.2) value = $4,000