First Appearance Friday ~ Trash Panda Edition

Comic book characters like the one covered today excite me and make me smile. Here’s why...5 years ago, nobody knew who the hell this superhero was. Comic fans barely knew of this obscure fella let alone the general public. But now In 2019, he’s pretty much known throughout the world thanks to the huge success of the Guardians of the Galaxy films. I’m talking about Rocket Raccoon!!!

Rocket was created by writer Bill Mantlo & artist Keith Giffen. He was initially called Rocky Raccoon and was first featured in the oversized book, Marvel Preview #7. He was only featured in several pages of a back up feature titled, "The Sword in the Star". The book was released in Summer of 1976.

There are 2 problems regarding this book for collectors. First being it’s insanely hard to find these in decent shape. These were oversized and an absolute nightmare to store and keep looking purdy. Which leads to the next problem. The ones you do find in good shape can cost a fortune. It looks as though copies of this are all over the place with crappy raw copies fetching $75 bucks and decent looking raws bringing in several hundred. A CGC 9.4 brought in over $800...what the hell would a 9.8 command?!? Regardless, I’m glad I’m not in the market for one.

Rocket was shelved for 6 years until he popped up in Incredible Hulk #271. This is also kinda considered a 1st Appearance mainly because it’s a normal comic. This puppy was released in May of 1982 featuring cover art by Al Milgrom. Interior art was provided by Sal Buscema while the story was once again by Bill Mantlo.

I think 99 out of 100 collectors would pick Marvel Preview #7 over this anyday of the week if given the choice. I also think any serious collector is going to have both because...well...we are all crazy. Incredible Hulk #271 isn’t as rare a book. As a matter of fact, I just got one in a collection several days back that I featured on Steemit.

That doesn’t change the fact that this book still flies out of here quickly whenever we are lucjlybebough tonacquire a copy. But that wasn’t alway the case...as a matter of fact, a few months before the initial Guardians of the Galaxy film was released, I specifically remember this book being worth like $4 bucks. Nobody cared. Today it’s a bit of a different story. Raw copies in decent shap are bringing in coin the likes of $75 to $125 bucks! Slabbed 9.8’s are much higher at around $550 to $650 clams!!! Hot damn!!!

As I mentioned and as I’m sure you picked up, this character was pretty much a nobody in the Marvel Universe. Having the awesome Bradly Cooper voice him for James Gunn’s fantastic film franchise was a brilliant decision which quickly landed him as one of the fan favs in the MCU.

His merchandise along with fellow Guardian Groot, is also a hot commodity. Action figures, t-shirts, statues, Pops...you name it, they made it. Half the time paired with his wooden best friend as well! Let’s take a peek at some cool ass pieces that you could pick up from your friendly neighborhood comic shop!!!

The MCU Trash Panda sells toys. I sell em to kids, men, women, and even raccoons!!! Look...I even have some of my own Rocket merch!!!

Thanks for reading my friends!!! See ya next Friday. If you have a specific character you’d like me to cover on First Appearance Friday, feel free to suggest it in the comments!!!

Blewitt

Oh, and because this cover is freaking awesome...