The 9.2

     For a collector who is always searching for a 9.8 or 9.9, Marvel's What If? is a comic that can't be found. What If? was a big event back in 1977. It was a new concept and was anticipated for many months before the first issue finally arrived in comic shops. The stories were longer than the traditional 32 page comic so it was decided to publish the issues, "More like a book."

     I believe this was the 1st square bound comic, however I would not swear by it. Not much thought went into providing a quality "prestige format" as DC often did with Batman one shots in the 80's and 90's. In fact, quite the opposite seemed true. In order to give the customer a big story at a low price, the square bound concept was more of a concept than a practicality.

    Looking back, it would appear that the decision to make this a cheap square bound book was made by someone who really hadn't consulted with the people who were actually going to print it. The printer may have accepted the job, but really didn't have the means to follow through.

     The result was  a square bound book with 2 staples in it. It was a mess. When one held it, you could only wonder why the staples were there in the first place." Were the pages sewn in, stapled or what? Many customers must have been in disbelief and asked, "What The...?"  The staples often protruded though the cover and  those that didn't made an imprint on the cover. To the true comic enthusiast, of course,  all this went unnoticed as the content was the only concern.

     The "square " in the square bound spine didn't do much better. The book really wasn't thick enough to form a neat edge. Instead it was a wavy concoction in which the printing wandered all over the edge of the book. The spine had printing on it, like many books, however the printing wandered about from front to back like a drunken sailor.

     Twenty five years later, looking over the inventory to select the best What If? to be certified  was not an easy task. None of the books came even close to "perfect"  as every book  had all these printing defects. One book might have the staple defect a bit nicer than others, however its spine might be cobbled horribly and vice versa.  Eventually it was decided to select a book in which the defects were less apparent than most. Out of a hundred books,  a half dozen became candidates  and only after much discussion and debate from our staff, a book was selected. Everyone agreed, this was the best of the best.

   We predicted  on our web site that the book would not receive a high grade as it was competing against DC's one shot prestige Batman books, Kitchen Sink's  lavish Xenozoic Tales,  and more recent books like Image's high quality  print job on Spawn. It was relatively easy to find books like this that would be rewarded with 9.9 and an occasional 10.0.   We wondered if collector's would realize that the third party CGC grading system would reward high end print jobs and dismiss a cheaply produced hack job from 1977.

     After a 16 week waiting period, the  book arrived  from Comics Guarantee Corp. with its official grade, 9.2. It was a lowly grade while all the big Spawns, Mars Attacks, and Killing Joke copies floated around with 10.0 grade. However, we were proud of this issue and the care that it been given for over a quarter of a century within our vaults. Perhaps  it wasn't a 9.9 or 10.0, like those from the following two decades,  however it stood as a landmark achievement for collector care of a book that could only be a 9.2.

copyrighted Reynold Jay 2001

  Here's a letter from Ron Watson on June 23, 2001 who had some 9.4 What if's.

  ... I recently graded 3 copies of What If? #1. I searched through
about 30 copies from a warehouse find of unread unopened comics from the mid
70's. I sent in 3 I thought were CGC worthy. I received 3 9.4's. I thought 1
might receive a 9.6, but to no avail. You stated in your article that this
issue might have been the first square bound Marvel. Actually I believe that
distinction belongs to FF Annual #1. More annuals followed suit. then came
the first regular series in square bound format: Marvel Collectors Item
Classics. Marvel Super Heroes #1 One Shot and the Silver Surfer. Then there
were all the Giant Size's from 1974 on. From Avengers to X-Men. I totally
agree that these books were not put together well at all. That's what makes
them so attractive to me. I think they actually did a better job in the years
preceding the 1974 and started to get their act together again with the What
If issues. Those Giant Size's are even tougher to find in ultra high grade.
Well, thanks for getting back to me so quickly and I will be sure to contact
you if I have any more questions.

                            Thanks,
                                    Ron Watson

Thanks for the info Ron. I have always enjoyed the Marvel Classics you mention . Most of these are not really expensive either. When you collect something just a bit off the beaten path, the prices always seem to be near rock bottom. RJ