Silver Streak Comics #1 Pay Copy (Lev Gleason, 1939) CGC VF/NM 9.0 Cream to off-white pages. This is a very significant comic book, and ours is the most desirable copy of the issue you'll find! Not only is our offering tied for the highest grade that has been assigned to this issue, it's happens to be the "pay copy," used by Lloyd Jacquet of Funnies Inc. to keep a written record of which sum was paid to which creator who participated. The information (name, sum, date paid, and check number) is written in pen at the top of the first page of each respective story. Silver Streak #1 is the first comic book by one of the more successful Golden Age publishers, the company that would soon be known as Lev Gleason Publications (here still called Rhoda Publications with the abbreviation "YG" for Your Guide). The content for this comic was provided by Jacquet's "shop" of artists, which was known as Funnies Inc. and included Jack Cole and Bill Everett. The same shop had also produced Marvel Comics #1 just two months earlier, and that brings us to a peculiar feature of this issue -- it's got an ad for Timely's Marvel Mystery Comics #2 on the inside back cover! Also of note is that Silver Streak actually had metallic ink on the cover, a gimmick to stand out at newsstands. The issue is significant in terms of characters as well, as it has the first appearance of the Claw, drawn by Cole. Claw was one of the first supervillains in comics, period, and he was a formidable one indeed -- not only did he almost epitomize evil, not only was his goal nothing short of world domination, and not only did he have fearsome claws and fangs, he could also grow to enormous size! He'd prove to be quite a handful for many a Lev Gleason hero, most notably Daredevil who first appeared in this series a few issues later. All of this contributes to the issue's Overstreet ranking as one of the 100 most valuable Golden Age books; the catch is that it's harder to find than most of the others, earning Overstreet's "scarce" designation. Our offering looks superb -- the silver still gleams and the other colors look great as well. The fact that the Jacquet/Funnies Inc. pay copy of Marvel Comics #1 was sold for $350,000 a couple of years ago is, to say the least, a strong indication that pay copies command quite a premium, befitting a one-of-a-kind item. Overstreet 2005 VF/NM 9.0 value = $12,000; NM- 9.2 value = $16,500. CGC census 3/05: 2 in 9.0, none higher.

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