KA-ZAR – Oct. 1936, Jan. 1937 and June 1937 Set sold recently on eBay for $550.00 “Buy It Now”
“VERY NICE OVERALL SHAPE. HIGHER GRADE SET…. NO pieces missing, no tape on covers although small piece inside cover. Full overhang! Complete bold spine! EXCEPTIONAL page quality. Nice back cover with usual edge wear/tears. Much better than average issue!”
This averages out to $188.33 per issue which isn’t bad, especially if you wanted a complete set. The second and third issues are harder to find especially in any halfway decent condition, if you can find them. The white on the second and bright yellow on the third just adds to finding nice clean copies harder. The first is easier to find, relative, and this copy could have been slightly better, however the other two are excellent buys.
The publisher of KA-ZAR – Oct. 1936 wanted to make sure that you wouldn’t forget that you were buying a KA-ZAR magazine: big large red KA-ZAR title, which is fine, but then “Adventures of KA-ZAR The Great” and also “A thrilling KA-ZAR novel” by Bob Byrd.
Oh, by the way people, this is a KA-ZAR magazine, just in case you didn’t know !!!
“The Golden Map” in the last issue of The WORLD ADVENTURER– March 1934, and the 78 page “Scourge of the Sky Hellions” in SKY DEVILS– Oct. 1938 (Third issue, and another Red Circle (Timely/Marvel) Pulp)) are Bob Byrd’s only other known works according to the FictionMags Index.
Bookery says it’s only “Uncommon” but still valued at $80.00 – $200.00 – $400.00 for the Oct. 1936 issue, and $60.00 – $150.00 – $300.00 for each of the other two.
The first issue was printed 3 Years before MARVEL COMICS – 1939 (Marvel Mystery Comics beginning with the second issue), thus a historic title. It’s just not as rare.
The first Ka-Zar was named David Rand, raised in the African Congo by his father following a plane crash (1936-’37). He then reappeared in the very first Timely/Marvel comic ever published, the famous MARVEL COMICS – Oct. 1939, with a Frank R. Paul cover. The series continued until Jan. 1942 in MARVEL MYSTERY COMICS #2-27 and HUMAN TORCH– #5 (b) Fall 1941 (with the Human Torch warning Ka-Kar about Prince Namor, the Sub Mariner’s, new war with land dwellers). Mistakenly there were two issues called #5, Summer 1941 and Fall 1941, hence the (a) and (b) after the issue number; Ka-Zar appeared in the Fall issue.
The second incarnation as Kevin Plunder, or rather Kevin Reginald, Lord Plunder (born in Castle Plunder, U.K.), appeared in March 1965’s issue of X-Men #10. Here he lives in the hidden pre-historic “Savage Land” beneath the icecaps of Antarctica (in Modern times), with Zabu, the saber-toothed tiger. I certainly won’t go into his long history here.
Buy the Complete Pulp Series here for $4.99–$39.95 with introduction by Will Murray.
ENJOY PULPS – David Lee Smith
(Altus Press said a dealer had a nice 3 issue Bound copy that “was quickly snatched up from for” $250.00 at the recent 2016 Windy City Pulp and Paper Convention.
$4.99–$39.95 doesn’t look so bad now!)