COMIC DETAILS
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Comic Description:
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Atom 8 Universal
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Grade:
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9.8
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Page Quality:
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WHITE
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Pedigree:
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Pacific Coast
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Certification #:
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0987338003
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Owner:
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Mississippi Mudcats
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SET DETAILS
Owner's Description
Issue #8, featuring a bright red cover and the second appearance of Doctor Light, has always been one of the most coveted Atom covers. In the story, Dr. Light manages to break out of prison using a specially treated light bulb to escape into the sidereal world. The warden of the prison asks Ray Palmer to use his scientific knowledge to figure out how Dr. Light managed to escape. Ray does so, recreating the experiment with the trace chemicals still left in the bulb. Ray creates another, smaller doorway into the sidereal realm big enough for the Atom to get through.
There, he tracks Dr. Light to his hideout and is easily captured. Dr. Light puts solder into his size changing device's control and traps the Atom in a light bulb, which will eventually destroy him while he goes back to Earth's dimension to cause havoc so that he can get revenge against the Justice League.
The Atom uses the light bulb's own filament to reheat the solder in his controls and use his size changing abilities to get free. Returning to Earth's dimension, the Atom uses the element of surprise to deactivate Dr. Light's light weapons, defeat him, and turns him back over to the authorities.
We are fortunate enough to own this WP 9.8 from the Pacific Coast Collection, which marks four consecutive Pacific Coast books. Considered the greatest Silver Age collection to ever surface, the Pacific Coast collection was brought to market by Robert Roter after he discovered portions of it for sale on eBay in 1999. The books were marketed through PCE over the next several years and contained over 7,000 comics and magazines that included Marvel, DC, and Gold Key among others, covering a time span between 1961 and 1977. Many of the highest graded Marvel and DC issues from the early '60s hail from this collection with exceptional page quality. The books do not exhibit any distinguishing markings. It is also currently the single highest graded copy of this issue in the census. We acquired the book in the August 2020 ComicLink auction.
A little story on this one, I remember when our book was first listed in the 2020 Auction I tired to buy it before the Auction privately, but balked at the ask, which was over twice the ultimate sales price. That is just one of several stories I could tell about passing on books and letting them go to auction where I acquired them at much cheaper prices. Of course, sometimes it goes the other way, as I can also recall several books that sat on the market for many months with no activity, but then are sent to auction and sell for much higher prices than the previous ask. I do think there was a time when you always overpaid if you bought a book off E-Bay or an Exchange, but I am not sure that worm has not turned a bit, as many E-Bay and Exchange prices these days look very attractive. I think what may have happened is that we have a new group of comic investors who just buy at auction and seem impervious to historical market prices.
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