Jolly Green Giant

Well after what seems like forever I managed to complete my Incredible Hulk series.. but not really. I took me over a year to get the very last issue I needed, not that it's that rare but I was never in the right place at the right time. But this week I managed to snag Incredible Hulk #180 and that was all she wrote.

Here's a little scan, the grade isn't anything to write home about, but it's good enough for now. A nice little extra bonus is that the book was signed by Herb Trimpe.



Now Hulk #180 is an odd little book, mainly because it has the very first Wolverine in it, but it's not considered to be Wolverine's first appearance. And that's why the next issue is about 10X to 15X as expensive as this book. Hulk #181 is THE bronze age key and widely accepted as the "first Wolverine".

But then there's this :


Yes, that's the very last panel of issue #180 ... still so sure that #181 is the first appearance of everyone's favorite mutant ?
Now I know I won't convince anyone as most people use these three arguments to "overlook" issue #180. Feel free to subscribe to some/all/none of them.

1) ”Wolverine’s appearance in #180 is a teaser/advertisement for the next issue. He’s not a part of the story in that issue.”
2)”You don’t see much of Wolverine in #180. #181 is the real introduction of the character where we learn what he’s about.”
3)”It’s not considered a full first appearance if it’s a one-panel cameo at the very end of the issue...those don't count”

What I am sure about is that issue #180 won't be skyrocketing in value. A lot of people who firmly believe that #180 is the key have been investing in this book with the hope that some day the world would catch up and that this book would be way up there value-wise with #181. Never going to happen, every year the gap between the two books is getting bigger and bigger.

But enough about these two books... at the very start I mentioned that I completed the Incredible Hulk series...but not really. Well there's a reason for that. The Incredible Hulk starts with issue #102 (1968) and my run continues until #586 (or Hulk V3 #112 ....stupid Marvel)... that's 485 issues + the annuals. But there's more. Before the start of the series, Hulk starred in Tales to Astonish from issue #60 (Oct. 1964) through to issue #101 (and then continued in Incredible Hulk #102... first issue of the new series). So I need to get those issues as well...someday
But wait, there's more still. Before the Tales to Astonish run there was a short-lived Incredible Hulk series in 1962 which only lasted 6 issues... So I need to get those as well...and Hulk #1 isn't exactly cheap.

But at the moment I'm glad I managed to complete this series, and with some luck I should be able to complete a few other large series this year. Stay Tuned