Set Description:
I have always been fascinating by the concept of time travel, so this is a series I have pursued for a few years, although I only recently registered our collection. Quite frankly, like a few other minor DC titles, it can be frustrating to collect as there are so few high grade certified copies. Currently, we own copies of 32 of the 33 books in this set with a minimum grade of 9.0-9.2 excluding the four Showcases. Our problem is that to finish the set at the same level we are really looking for just one or two books, which may or may not even still exist. So I’m not overly optimistic about any timeline for completion, but the search goes on.
Background: Created by writer Jack Miller and artist Ruben Moreira, Rip Hunter first appeared in Showcase #20 (May 1959). Following three more appearances in Showcase (#21, #25, and #26). Rip Hunter was given his own series which ran for 29 issues (1961–65). In this original incarnation, Rip Hunter is portrayed as an ordinary man who uses his invention, the Time Sphere, to travel through time. Rip is aided in his adventures by his friend Jeff Smith, girlfriend Bonnie Baxter, and Bonnie's younger brother Corky, who engage in brisk and historically accurate adventures in various eras in time.
After the end of his series, Rip is next seen in the Challengers of the Unknown series, where, in the year AD 12,000,000, he assists the Challengers, Swamp Thing, and Deadman in defeating the dictatorial Sun Lords. The character's next major appearance is in Action Comics #552–554, where with the aid of Superman and the Forgotten Heroes, he prevents an alien invasion of Earth.
Rip later starred in the eight-issue Time Masters series (1990), written by Bob Wayne and Lewis Shiner. After numerous revisions and following the events of the 2005 "Infinite Crisis" storyline, Hunter is established as the son of Booster Gold.
Arthur Darvill portrays Rip Hunter in the Arrowverse television series Legends of Tomorrow.
Our Collection: While we originally focused strictly on super-hero titles when I started back comic collecting in the early 2000s, in the last decade my son and I have expanded our collection into a few sci-fi and western titles, including Challengers of the Unknown, Rip Hunter, Rawhide Kid and the Two-Gun Kid. In each case, I had read such books as a child and still have a few readers that have survived decades in my parent’s basement.
We have yet to finish any of those sets and in most cases we probably never will, but because Rip Hunter is a short series, which runs entirely in the Silver Age, it the is one where we are probably the closest. We have been lucky enough to acquire most of our books in private transaction from friends who were selling their books, otherwise we could have never gotten this close.
The highlights of our set are the single highest graded copies of Issues #1 and #2 and highest graded copies of Rip’s first three Showcase appearances, one of which is single highest graded. In total, 30 of our books top the census with 12 of our books single highest graded copies.
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