Set Description
Magnus: Robot Fighter was a series created by Tarzan artist Russ Manning that was originally published by Gold Key from 1963-1969; reprints then followed sporadically until 1977.
The series follows Magnus, a human raised by good robot 1A and trained in martial arts to protect humanity against rogue evil robots in the year 4000 AD, a future in which society has become dependent on robots, Jetsons-style.
Notably, the series has only two "key" issues--# 1, with first appearance of Magnus, 1A, and Leeja; and # 10, with the first published (fan) artwork of Walt Simonson (see 2nd photo for # 10, below for his page).
My introduction to Magnus was via Jim Shooter's Valiant Comics reboot in the early 1990s, where the character was the lynchpin of the line.
A huge Valiant fan growing up, I have a near-complete set of the company's 800+ books and several original art covers, but I didn't start collecting the Gold Key Magnus series in earnest until the summer of 2011.
I am grateful to eBay, the CGC Registry and Boards, and the discovery of the Savannah and Twin Cities collections for enabling me to build a strong collection within just a year, including numerous highest-graded examples, File Copies, and pedigree copies from the Twin Cities, Boston, White Mountain, and Savannah collections. While not displayed here, I also have one raw double-cover and an undercopy from the Massachusetts pedigree.
For other fans and collectors, I divide the series into thirds. While all the books are common in low grades, 1-12 (pre-1965) are tough in strict 9.0 or above; 13-27 are the "commons," with many copies available in high grade (largely due to the Gold Key File Copies) and 28-46 are very tough in strict 9.0 or higher. They were lesser-collected reprints published irregularly and are generally seen as not yet valuable enough to slab.
As of January 2016, I've finally completed my 46 issue set in 9.0 or higher. Current numbers:
9.8: 15
9.6: 18
9.4: 10
9.2: 1
9.0: 2
This year I have focused on adding foreign variants to my set. I've included photos of many Spanish (Mexican), French (Canadian) and Dutch reprints to my gallery.
I am also proud to have acquired Spanish, French, and Italian versions of Magnus # 1.
The quest continues...
Squeeee!
