Thor's Day Flashback: The Avengers #1

This is the big one. This is the best present I have ever received from anyone. Period. Stop trying!! (Well, don't stop trying to give me presents... but you simply can't, within the bounds of natural, earthbound processes, possibly top this...)

This is the front cover of my copy of The Avengers #1 from September 1963, which basically means the comic is just over one year older than I am (please recall that the dates on the front cover of most comics are projected by a couple of months, sometimes several).

Sure, it isn't the prettiest cover. As you can see, the back of the cover can be seen lightly through the front, which is how it has looked since it was bestowed upon me by the wonderful Mr. Tony D. Batres over 30 years ago or so.

Tony can correct the details in the comments, but I believe he purchased it -- the price of $100 springs to my mind -- from a real pain-in-the-ass dive called Comic Book Cosmos, which served as the first comic book shop in Anchorage, Alaska (or at least the first one of which we were aware at the time). Cosmos had really odd hours, and half the time we went all the way across the city to Mountain View, it would be closed even if you went according to the posted schedule. My recollection of the place was that you pretty much had to deal with what they had at hand (I was never successful at having the owner order anything for me that I wanted), but when Marvel went "direct market" with some of their titles in 1981-1982 (thereby skipping newsstand circulation), Cosmos briefly became the only game in town for us (at least until the still-thriving Bosco's Comics & Cards opened up in mid-1984 in Spenard).

The comic itself? I have only read it by hand thrice: once when I first got it, once when I first bagged and boarded it a couple of years later, and the third time just the other day, when I switched it to new mylar and a protective case. Surprisingly, for a cover that has always looked like it was hand-dipped in Wesson oil personally by Florence Henderson, the inside pages and the color on them are still holding up quite well.

What is it worth now? Why haven't I graded it? How did I get so lucky to have a lifelong pal like Tony? The answers: 1) Don't care, because I will never sell it; 2) Because of the answer to the first question; and 3) Don't know. I guess you had to be there.