First Appearance Friday ~ CARNAGE

While Away at SteemFest, it’s been a bit difficult to find the time to post. I also feel like I’m leaving my nerd crew behind this week, so this is for you folks. It’s been a few weeks since my last First Appearance Friday so why not bang one out right now while I sloppily sit in bed...waiting to muster up the energy to participate in today’s events.

Just a quick background on what a First Appearance is for all of my new friends who aren’t comic savvy and don’t know the terminology and lingo. A First Appearance is basically what it sounds like. It’s the very first time that a specific character appears in a comic. There’s a lot of hoopla and arguing in the community about specifics regarding cameo appearances, 1st’s, 1st full Appearances and all that...but that’s an article and battle for another day. So who do I want to discuss today???

Carnage!!!

Carnage first burst onto the scene in April of 1992 in Amazing Spider-Man #361. This tasty book is considered his 1st Full Appearance. It was written by David Michelinie and the art was provided by Mark Bagley.

Carnage also has a cameo appearance in Amazing Spider-Man #360 but it’s been “accepted” in the community that #361 is THE book to have...although any self respecting collector has both along with Amazing Spider-Man #344 which features the 1st Appearance of Cletus Kasady which is the psycho who becomes Carnage.

Quick tidbit...Carnage was created by not only David Michelinie and Mark Bagley, but also Erik Larsen. Erik was the regular penciler on the title when #344 came out so he drew Cletus. Mark took over drawing duties several issues later and penciled the rest. So all had a hand in creating the iconic psycho.

Back on track...Here’s basically how it went down. Kasady was in jail and his bunk mate is Eddie Brock...who is Venom. Safe to say that these two do not like each other much, and Eddie is just biding time until the Symbiote (that’s a whole other write up) finds him and reconnects. When it does...this happens.

Which basically leads to this at the end of ASM #360. The panels below are why it’s condidered a cameo appearance and not a First Full Appearance.

Let’s take a look inside one of my copies of this book. I have a bunch of these badboys. I stash these away whenever I can get my hands on them. Although this came out during a time when print runs were astronomical, it’s still a blue chip key and will always have value while being sought after by collectors around the globe. Simply put, Carnage isn’t going anywhere.

This is the back cover and there’s an interesting tidbit about this. Take a look on the bottom in the red box that says NEW FROM TSR. Notice the tiny little tear on the bottom? That was a printing/manufacturing defect that occurred on an extremely large portion of the print run. Between my shop and myself we currently have around 15 of these. I’ve also sold probably around 20 over the past few years. Every single copy has had this defect...except one...and I stupidly sold it a few years back.

The grading companies are obviously aware of this defect and since it happened during the printing process, they don’t seem to deduct anything if it possesses it. Basically meaning it’s entirely possible to still obtain a high grade such as a 9.8 while still having this particular mass produced flaw. Case in point...I snagged these pics from a seller on eBay. You’ll see that the owner still obtained a 9.8 from CGC even with the flaw.

What stinks is the one I had that was flawless, also came back a 9.8 and we ended up selling it for $250 which was about $75 more than what other 9.8’s that had the flaw were going for. I wish I would have held onto that slab as 9.8 copies with the flaw are currently fetching between $375-$425. You can get a bit higher with the right buyer without the flaw.

Raw copies of the book in a roughly very fine + to near mint shape are going to bring in between $75-$125 depending on the exact condition. There is also a second printing of this book which features a silver background. It’s pretty tough to find overall as back in the day, 2nd prints were basically considered dogshit and nobody cared. Things are a bit different nowadays as there is a large market for multiple printings of key books or any book for that matter. Especially if they feature a different killer cover which they sometimes do. Second printing fetches slightly less than the first printing on average although in time I could totally see high grade copies catching up and keeping pace with the firsts.

Basically, if you are a collector and are looking for a relatively cheap key to put aside...this is definitely a good choice. Especially if you can snag it for the right price. As I mentioned before...Carnage isn’t going anywhere. Symbiotes are popular as hell and have a loyal rabid fan base. Carnage is also one of those characters that looks badass. His toys and statues always command a premium and get gobbled up in record time. He’s highly marketable and I’d expect that to only grow with time. Look at Venom as a prime example. Just going to show off a few cool pieces for all to see.

Hell, they even made a shitty video game based on the Maximum Carnage crossover event that kinda sucked. Both the crossover and the game. It was available on the SNES and Sega Genesis.

Deluxe copies of the game also came with a special limited edition promo comic book. Tons of these got destroyed over time and are extremely difficult to come across. When they do pop up they command at least $100 clams. Some even more. This weird book is pretty much all over the place as they rarely show up and conditions vary. So it’s kinda hard to nail down an average.

SPOILER ALERT!!!!!!!!!! SPOILER ALERT!!!!!!!!!!! SPOILER ALERT!!!!!!!!!! SPOILER ALERT!!!!!!!!!

Oh and if you haven’t seen the movie Venom yet....wait until the end. You’ll see why this pic below makes sense.

Thanks for sticking through my drivel folks. See ya next time!!!