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I’d read and re-read one copy but then stash the other four away and never touch them. So years later I had pristine mint copies of these early Marvels. I just instinctively knew they were worth saving. They would be “good trade bait,” that was the way I put it. And I was always looking for missing issues like Hulk #1 or Fantastic Four #1. So I would have trade bait… CBC: Deals. Denis: So I ended sitting on those for a good number of years, eventually selling them when I
#5 • Spring 2014 • Comic Book Creator
All artwork, The Spirit and the distinctive Will Eisner signature TM & ©2014 Will Eisner Studios, Inc. Snarf ©2014 Denis Kitchen.
Above: One of the most important — and enduring — personal and professional relationships in the life of Denis Kitchen had been his alliance with comic book giant Will Eisner, father of the graphic novel (above photo from 1990). The pair met at an early ’70s comic book convention, and soon the master was contributing to the young publisher’s outfit. Inset right: The Spirit and Commissioner Dolan grace the cover of Snarf #3 [Nov. ’72]. BELOW: Denis also published two issues of The Spirit [Jan. ’73 & Nov. ’73] featuring new Eisner covers, the early (and abortive) KSP revival.
thought they had peaked. And of course, they had far from peaked. If I had those same comics today, you’d be talking to me on my private island off Tahiti. But I sold them when Kitchen Sink needed working capital and I could get $100, $200 for a pristine, early Marvel at Chicago Comicon. I was thinking, “I paid 10¢ for this and someone’s paying me $100 — a thousand times what I paid for it.” It was too obscene a profit to turn down. And it was really handy for growing my company. After all, it wasn’t easy for a longhaired underground comix magnate to walk into a small Wisconsin bank and get a line of credit. After a couple Chicago conventions, I pretty much wiped out my best old Marvel inventory. Today, I look back and some these titles, you know, in a high CGC grade can sell for $10,000 or $15,000 each and more. Amazing Spider-Man #1 sold for over $100,000 at Heritage a while back — and I had five of them at one point! Where are my tranquilizers, Jon? CBC: You still did good. Denis: I did all right at the time. Just sold way too early [laughs] in retrospect. But the fact that I originally bought five of each seems pretty prescient. I can’t put myself today in the brain of that 18-year old. I had some pocket money, but nothing to really speak of. And I was investing a significant portion in something I somehow knew was a smart investment, but virtually anyone else in the early ’60s would have thought was a total waste of money. CBC: What was the plan? Denis: I just knew instinctively. That’s all I can tell you. CBC: Was any of it maybe to share, that this is so cool that “maybe I’ll share with somebody someday?” Denis: Well, I’d find kindred spirits. It’s how Dave Schreiner and I hooked up. Dave eventually became an amazing editor-in-chief for Kitchen Sink, but I met him in college when we were, I think, sophomores in journalism class. We were both journalism majors and I must have sat next to him. We found we had a mutual interest in Marvel Comics and Uncle Scrooge. He was a big Carl Barks aficionado and so we would find ourselves talking about favorites stories, artists, just comics in general. We’d hang out after class. One of our professors a bit later was George Lockwood, who I mentioned earlier. Lockwood was the first