Approximate
Condition Profile
MARVEL COMICS · 3/69
UNIT ECA-026397
CAPTAIN AMERICA #111
Jim Steranko cover caps the three-part retelling of Captain America's Golden Age origin
// Unit specification
| Publisher | Cover date | Era | Variant | Key attribute | Status |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Marvel Comics | March 1969 | Silver | — | — | AVAILABLE |
// Copies in archive
| Unit | Grade | Variant | Status |
|---|---|---|---|
| ECA-013806 | ~8.0 | — | AVAILABLE |
| ECA-026397 | ~7.0 | — | AVAILABLE |
// Run position
// Condition analysis
Cover shows overall light tanning/toning typical of the era but no major creases or tears. There is slight wear at the top and bottom spine edges with minor whitening at the extreme corners, and a faint vertical crease near the right edge. The corners remain fairly sharp with only slight blunting, and the color break along the spine is minimal. Book is in a protective sleeve which slightly obscures fine surface detail; interior and back cover were not assessed.
// Valuation — market reference
| Bracket | Grade | Est. market value | Marker |
|---|---|---|---|
| LOW_RAW | 0.5 – 1.5 | $30 | |
| MID_RAW | 4.0 – 6.0 | $57 | |
| HIGH_CERT | 9.8 SLAB | $2,600 |
// Archive commentary
Captain America #111 closes out a three-issue arc in which Stan Lee's Marvel revisited and re-dramatized the character's World War II-era origin for a new generation of readers, following on from #109 and #110. The issue is best remembered today for its cover, one of two consecutive Captain America covers rendered by Jim Steranko during his brief, influential run at Marvel in the late 1960s, a period during which his design sensibility on titles like Nick Fury, Agent of S.H.I.E.L.D. was reshaping mainstream superhero cover art. The interior story, grounded in Golden Age continuity involving Bucky and the Nazi threat, gave Silver Age readers unfamiliar with the character's 1940s beginnings a compact, in-house-continuity version of his creation.
Market data shows a book with broad census representation and steady, unspectacular demand through the mid grades, with values holding in a narrow band from the 3.5 through 6.0 range before beginning a more pronounced climb at 7.0 and above. The real value inflection happens at the top of the grade curve: prices roughly double from 9.2 to 9.4, then accelerate sharply into 9.6 and especially 9.8, where scarcity of pristine surviving copies against a large graded population drives a premium far outstripping the mid-grade tiers. This pattern reflects a title with heavy circulation and collector interest concentrated on condition rarity rather than content scarcity.
The book suits collectors building a run of Silver Age Captain America, those assembling a Steranko cover collection, and buyers drawn to the character's own origin mythology rather than a single definitive first appearance. Raw copies in low and mid grade trade as affordable, easily sourced reading and run-filling material, while true gem-quality certified copies command outsized premiums driven by the scarcity of top-census examples rather than by any landmark story significance.
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