A List Of Important Comics From the 1980s

Important/Key comics from the 1980s

Key Comics From 1980
Key Comics From 1981
Key Comics From 1982
Key Comics From 1983
Key Comics From 1984
Key Comics From 1985
Key Comics From 1986
Key Comics From 1987
Key Comics From 1988
Key Comics From 1989

[ Special Note: If you are not already in-the-know about the difference between newsstand and direct edition comics see the following: Comic Book Newsstand Editions: Understanding The Difference ]

A great decade in comics, and featuring one of my favorite categories of price variant comics: 75 cent variants! For Marvel and D.C. these variants were newsstand exclusives, with estimated rarity of ~2-7% depending on the publication year. That range is driven by the newsstand exclusivity of the variants, coupled with a decline in newsstand sales relative to direct edition sales — direct would overtake newsstand by the middle of the decade. That trend of direct edition sales taking over the market would set up the 1990’s for interesting newsstand variants as well!

There are many “top lists” out there covering important or “key” comics from the 1980s, but the ones I’ve seen are all either based upon individual judgment calls or the high sale prices observed in the marketplace. Judgment calls are great, but not necessarily comprehensive. Meanwhile, high sale prices could just as easily be reflective of, say, a CGC 10 Gem Mint Signature Series copy signed by Stan Lee, versus reflective of the underlying comic being of any great importance.

One surefire way to “tease out” a list of important comics is to consider how many copies have been sent in to CGC to be graded — the more important the comic, the more likely its owner will want to have it graded and slabbed, right? So by ranking comics simply by the number of copies submitted to CGC — removing any judgment call or sales price information — I’d argue we can get to a pretty good list of important key comics! Of course, there are flaws to this exercise which should be kept in mind: for one thing, this submission data is from one snapshot in time (year-end 2016) and there could be plenty of important comics that aren’t recognized as such until some future development gives them renewed attention. And another flaw is that some very-high-value key comics simply didn’t have many copies printed — a big example from 1984 being Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles #1 at 3,000 copies produced. That one will, however, show up on the year-by-year list for 1984. Another example that comes to mind that would elude even the year-by-year lists would be Graphic Fantasy #1, which features the lowest print run for a key first appearance of any major modern superhero — this one simply won’t show up despite its importance, because so few CGC graded copies actually exist. Any other similar examples like that, i.e. with a very restricted print run, will naturally sort themselves off of the bottom of any list like this as well.

So, please don’t anybody think of these lists as a “rank” of importance or as being an all-encompassing exhaustive list… all we’re ranking here is the sheer number of copies that have passed through CGC’s doors as of year-end 2016 and presenting the top fifty. That’s it! This data should give us a very interesting list inclusive of the mega-keys, but this list is no replacement for judgement and no replacement for pricing data — it is simply one more tool for our tool-belt as we study interesting and rare comics like the ones I enjoy writing about on this blog! With that caveat stated, without further ado, here is a list of 50 important comics from the 1980s. [ I’ve also posted more lists of key comic books by year including other decades; special thanks goes to Greg Holland whose research website was the tool that made these pages possible to assemble ].

A List Of Important Comics From The 1980s:

(Census data as of year-end 2016)

Rank	CGC Count	Issue	Date	Publisher
1.	12,690	Amazing Spider-Man #300	5/88	Marvel Comics
2.	11,050	Wolverine Limited Series #1	9/82	Marvel Comics
3.	8,834	Marvel Super Heroes Secret Wars #8 Rare CGC-recognized newsstand cover price variant is confirmed to exist	12/84	Marvel Comics
4.	7,346	Amazing Spider-Man #252 Rare CGC-recognized newsstand cover price variant is confirmed to exist	5/84	Marvel Comics
5.	7,108	Wolverine #1	11/88	Marvel Comics
6.	4,142	Batman: The Killing Joke #nn	1988	D.C. Comics
7.	3,997	Amazing Spider-Man #298	3/88	Marvel Comics
8.	3,944	Amazing Spider-Man #238 Rare CGC-recognized newsstand cover price variant is confirmed to exist	3/83	Marvel Comics
9.	3,811	X-Factor #6 Rare CGC-recognized newsstand cover price variant is confirmed to exist	7/86	Marvel Comics
10.	3,794	Incredible Hulk #340	2/88	Marvel Comics
11.	3,787	Web of Spider-Man #1 Rare CGC-recognized newsstand cover price variant is confirmed to exist	4/85	Marvel Comics
12.	3,645	Wolverine Limited Series #2 Rare CGC-recognized newsstand cover price variant is confirmed to exist	10/82	Marvel Comics
13.	3,595	X-Men #141	1/81	Marvel Comics
14.	3,455	Daredevil #181	4/82	Marvel Comics
15.	3,317	Wolverine Limited Series #3 Rare CGC-recognized newsstand cover price variant is confirmed to exist	11/82	Marvel Comics
16.	3,288	Uncanny X-Men #142	2/81	Marvel Comics
17.	3,234	Daredevil #168	1/81	Marvel Comics
18.	3,014	Wolverine Limited Series #4 Rare CGC-recognized newsstand cover price variant is confirmed to exist	12/82	Marvel Comics
19.	3,011	Amazing Spider-Man #299	4/88	Marvel Comics
20.	2,879	Savage She-Hulk #1	2/80	Marvel Comics
21.	2,866	Avengers Annual #10	1981	Marvel Comics
22.	2,720	X-Men #137	9/80	Marvel Comics
23.	2,553	New Teen Titans #2	12/80	D.C. Comics
24.	2,375	Tales of the Teen Titans #44 Rare CGC-recognized newsstand cover price variant is confirmed to exist	7/84	D.C. Comics
25.	2,363	Wolverine #10	8/89	Marvel Comics
26.	2,349	Omega Men #3	6/83	D.C. Comics
27.	2,296	Batman: The Dark Knight Returns #1	3/86	D.C. Comics
28.	2,060	X-Factor #24	1/88	Marvel Comics
29.	2,034	Watchmen #1	9/86	D.C. Comics
30.	2,034	G.I. Joe, A Real American Hero #1	6/82	Marvel Comics
31.	1,973	Amazing Spider-Man #200	1/80	Marvel Comics
32.	1,950	X-Men #129	1/80	Marvel Comics
33.	1,780	X-Men #140	12/80	Marvel Comics
34.	1,745	Batman: The Dark Knight Returns #4	1986	D.C. Comics
35.	1,727	Uncanny X-Men #244	5/89	Marvel Comics
36.	1,720	Thor #337 Rare CGC-recognized newsstand cover price variant is confirmed to exist	11/83	Marvel Comics
37.	1,698	DC Comics Presents #26	10/80	D.C. Comics
38.	1,683	Incredible Hulk #271	5/82	Marvel Comics
39.	1,655	Sandman #1	1/89	D.C./Vertigo Comics
40.	1,642	Uncanny X-Men #221	9/87	Marvel Comics
41.	1,582	Amazing Spider-Man #239 Rare CGC-recognized newsstand cover price variant is confirmed to exist	4/83	Marvel Comics
42.	1,576	X-Factor #5 Rare CGC-recognized newsstand cover price variant is confirmed to exist	6/86	Marvel Comics
43.	1,559	Amazing Spider-Man #316	6/89	Marvel Comics
44.	1,547	Batman: The Dark Knight Returns #3	1986	D.C. Comics
45.	1,543	Batman #404 Rare CGC-recognized newsstand cover price variant is confirmed to exist	2/87	D.C. Comics
46.	1,527	New Mutants #1 Rare CGC-recognized newsstand cover price variant is confirmed to exist	3/83	Marvel Comics
47.	1,499	Marvel Super Heroes Secret Wars #1 Rare CGC-recognized newsstand cover price variant is confirmed to exist	5/84	Marvel Comics
48.	1,483	X-Men #130	2/80	Marvel Comics
49.	1,466	Batman: The Dark Knight Returns #2	1986	D.C. Comics
50.	1,434	X-Men #139	11/80	Marvel Comics
51-100. Another 50 key comics from the 1980’s »
« the 1970’s			the 1990’s »

More Important Comics Of The 1980s:

See other lists of key comic books by year, including the 1970’s, 1990’s, and 2000’s.

A List Of Important Comics From the 1980s

A List Of Important Comics From The 1980s:

More Important Comics Of The 1980s:

Share this:

Like this: