With everyone looking to find that next spec book that includes a first appearance, I want to look at first appearances of another type. Artists and writers first published appearances. Do you have any of these books?  Today's greatest artists and writers will be looked at from a new perspective. For our first installment, we will take a look at 3 greats. John Romita Jr., Donny Cates, and Mike Allred.

John Romita Jr.

The first artist we are discussing is John Romita Jr. His father, John Romita Sr., was one of the head artists of the Spiderman run in the 1960s. John Romita Jr.'s first contribution to Marvel comics was at the age of 13. He created a character named Prowler and sent a drawing to Stan Lee. Can you imagine at 13 years old having Stan Lee look at your idea and not only like it but to introduce it into the Amazing Spiderman run? Prowler was introduced in Amazing Spiderman #78.  Romita Jr. began his career at Marvel UK, doing reprint cover sketches. His first appearance in the US was in a 6-page story called "Chaos at the Coffee Bean!" in the Amazing Spiderman Annual #11.  With Amazing Spider-man #55 (2020) coming up soon with a Prowler cover variant and Prowler in the new Spiderman Game for Playstation 5 this character and book are primed to be on the hotlist.

Donny Cates

Dark Horse Presents #24  from 2013 represents Donny Cates' first appearance with texts that he was allowed to work on. The title of the short story was Hunter Quaid.  In May 2013 Dark Horse Comics Published Donny Cates "Hunter Quaid" #1. This comic seems to be a difficult book to find in the wild. Since starting work for Marvel in 2017 Donny Cates has done some of the best work of his career. Venom, Guardians of The Galaxy, and Thor along with his new upcoming title Crossover (Image Comics).  Everything he touches right now is on fire.

 

 

 Mike Allred

Mike Allred began his career as a radio host in Roseburg, Oregon. He later became a television reporter in Europe and started drawing comics in 1989. His first appearance was in 1989 and was titled "Dead Air" by Slave Labor Graphics. He worked for Caliber comics in 1990-1991. In 1992 he published a Madman miniseries for Tundra Publishing which got some attention. It was picked up by Dark Horse Comics in 1994 where it was relaunched as Madman Comics. He also worked on Neil Gaiman's Sandman series as well as Wolverine and the X-Men, Silver Surfer, Batman Black and White, Daredevil, and many others.

 

 

First Appearances - Do They Have Added Value?

As with every part of comic collecting, you the collector have to decide what you like and what you see as having value. It is no surprise that the average collector continues to search for first appearances, or newsstand copies as the community places an emphasis on these items. The odd part is that in most of the Art World and in Published Works first appearances by an artist or writer demand a far higher price than any subsequent work. Why is it in the comic collecting world that there seems to be no importance placed on these types of firsts. Partially of course is the fact that many artists start in independent or small companies and get noticed once established. But this also adds to the scarcity of some of these great firsts! We will visit three more artists in Part 2.