2020

Motion Picture Funnies Weekly #1 Pay Copy (First Funnie

Currency:USD Category:Collectibles Start Price:19,000.00 USD Estimated At:100,000.00 - 150,000.00 USD
Motion Picture Funnies Weekly #1 Pay Copy (First Funnie
<B>Motion Picture Funnies Weekly #1 Pay Copy (First Funnies, Inc., 1939) CGC VF/NM 9.0 Cream to off-white pages.</B></I> This is one of the most famous single copies of a comic book in existence. And here's the most surprising thing about it when you see it up close: you've got to marvel at what a <I>great-looking</B></I> copy it is! Give our scan a look and you will agree that the issue has earned its VF/NM grade -- the fresh cover colors stack up well even against comics from the famous pedigree collections. Now, terms like ""holy grail"" are used for collectibles quite a bit, but we feel that nobody could dispute that the " "<B>Motion Picture Funnies</B></I> Pay Copy has that status. Its significance and uniqueness make it so. And the reason it is so hotly sought-after is that it has the very first printed appearance of the Sub-Mariner. The comic was never released to newsstands -- it was created as a promotional item by the Lloyd Jacquet studio (or ""shop"") of artists also known as Funnies Inc. It was intended to be a giveaway to be distributed weekly at movie theatres (as demonstrated by the back-cover ad which elaborates on the concept). The Sub-Mariner story even has a box on the last page saying ""continued next week,"" but the concept did not catch on, and no second issue was printed. In fact, the very existence of this comic book was not known to comic fandom until the 1970s. As it stands today, only eight copies of the issue are known to exist. And the most desirable one of the bunch is the Funnies Inc. ""pay copy,"" the office copy in which the amounts paid to the creators of the issue were noted in longhand. The copy came to light as part of Jacquet's estate and has been a storied collectible ever since. It's that Sub-Mariner connection that accounts for the great historical significance of this comic milestone. While this is not a Timely/Marvel publication, we have chosen to include it in the Timely section of this catalog because of the historical s