The Overstreet Comic Book Price Guide #6 is one of the most famous issues in the Guide’s five-decade history. It was the first to be distributed to traditional bookstores and as such it represented a huge increase in sales. With that, though, came restrictions from Bob Overstreet’s then-new book market publishing partner.

To us in the comic book world, Will Eisner is the acclaimed creator of The Spirit, one of the father’s of the graphic novel, and one of the top promoters of the comic artform the world has ever known. There are literally awards named after him.

To the bookstore publisher working with Bob, though, he was the guy who illustrated the covers for a line of cookbooks that didn’t sell. Clearly, that was the fault of the covers, at least in their thinking.

So the word came down: No Will Eisner cover.

For Bob, though, it was too late. He couldn’t get another cover done in time to go to press.

They were willing to compromise. Bob could use Eisner’s art. It just couldn’t be signed. Reluctantly, Bob agreed, and made the fateful call to Will Eisner.

According to Bob, Will couldn’t have been more gracious. Ever the pragmatic businessman as well as the comic art visionary, he told Bob he understood, and no problem.

In fact, he was so nice, Bob refused to take his name off the cover. It was published, sold extremely well, and that was that. Another Overstreet legend was born.

In addition to the then-new pricing, collectors who picked it up found it packed with such features as “An Interview with Will Eisner, Creator of the Spirit” by Jerry DeFuccio, “Good Girl Art - An Introduction: Why it Was and What it Was” by the American Comic Book Co. (Carl Macek), and “The Archives of the Comic Book Price Guide” by Landon Chesney.

And if they hung onto it, they found a Guide that like the comics it covered went up in value as well. Considered one of our all-time classic covers, we have small supplies of both the hardcover and soft cover editions of The Overstreet Comic Book Price Guide #6 available through our website for $155 and $105, respectively.