The White Mountain Collection
For years, the White Mountain collection of comic books, originating out of the White Mountains of New Hampshire, was widely considered the greatest of all the Silver Age pedigrees. It was the earliest of the Silver Age collections to appear (in 1984) and included many diverse publishers and titles, many from the Atom Age (1950’s). The original owner of the books loved science fiction titles, so most publishers’ sci-fi comic books graced this collection of approximately 5,000 books, which spanned the years 1948 into the early 1970’s. Incredibly, the White Mountains consisted of almost complete runs of the EC titles (the first books offered to Jerry Weist of the Million Year Picnic in Cambridge, Mass. in 1984), Atlas, Avon, Ziff-Davis and Marvel; approximately one-half of the Fawcett and Harvey titles and most of the DC science fiction books. It was only with the more recent emergence of the Pacific Coast and Curator collections in the late 1990’s that the White Mountains have taken a back seat.Nevertheless, the unbelievable quality of the early White Mountain Marvel comic books, characterized by amazing paper quality and cover gloss (the result of the books having been stored in metal storage boxes and never read by the original owner), coupled with the consistent high grades given these books (especially key and first appearance issues) by the Comics Guaranty Corporation, is a fact that can not go unnoticed and is worthy of further inspection.
The early Fantastic Fours (issues 1-12) are simply incredible and collectively form the nicest run in the world. The No.1 is a beautiful 9.2 and would grade higher if not for the common Marvel Chipping found in these early 1960’s issues. The No. 2 is a 9.4 (off white to white pages), tied for the best copy CGC has graded so far; the 5 is a 9.4 and, with white pages, the nicest copy in the world; the 7 is a 9.4 (tied with the Slobodian copy as the only 2 graded this high); the 11 is a 9.4, also tied for best existing copy, as is the immensely popular No.12, the first Hulk crossover. Some of the higher number are equally impressive (24, 9.6; 29, 9.4; 34, 9.4 and 35, 9.6), but overall do not compare with the earlier ones.
The early Spider-Mans are almost as nice. The Amazing Fantasy 15 is a 9.4, while the Amazing Spider-Man No.1 is an incredible 9.6 (both with off white to white pages); And, although the ASM 8 “only” graded a 9.2, the 9 and 10 are both 9.6’s; the 12 and 13, 9.4 and the 20-23 all gorgeous 9.6’s. The ASM 24 is a 9.4, while 31 and 32 are tied for the highest rank at 9.6.
The Journey Into Mystery No. 83 graded a ridiculous 9.6 (highest graded copy); the No.84 is an impressive 9.2; the 86 is a 9.4 while the 87 is a whopping 9.6, tied with one other as the best copy.
The Tales Of Suspense No. 39 (Origin and first appearance of Iron Man) is also an amazing 9.6, tied with the Pacific Coast copy as the only 9.6 in the world. And, although the Incredible Hulk No.1 graded 8.0 (with white pages), the No.2 is an immaculate 9.4 with white pages; the 3 9.0 and the Incredible Hulk 6 (final issue) is a 9.2, also with white pages.
There are many other examples of this wonderful collection of comic books that have received phenomenal grades by the CGC, too many, in fact, to fit in this article. Suffice it to say, the first Silver Age pedigree collection to be discovered is easily among the best.