Captain America #253 for Sale - First Appearance of Joseph Chapman - Where to Buy

Identification plate

Series: Captain America (Marvel, 1968 series)
Issue: #253
Publication date: January 1981
Key date: 1981-01-00
On-sale date: 1980
Indicia publisher: Marvel Comics Group
Price: $0.50
Pages: 36
Rating: Approved by the Comics Code Authority

Match the book in your hand against this plate before paying an edition-specific price.

Why this issue matters

First appearance of Joseph Chapman - the earliest non-flashback appearance on record for this character.

First appearance of Kenneth Crichton - the earliest non-flashback appearance on record for this character.

First appearance of Inspector Sweeney - the earliest non-flashback appearance on record for this character.

The evidence

Claims here come from the story records for this issue, listed under Sources at the bottom of the file. Character hubs with full evidence tables are coming to this site.

Seq	Story	Type	Pages	Credits	Characters
0	Tomb of Blood!	cover	1	pencils: John Byrne; inks: Joe Rubinstein; letters: Gaspar Saladino	Baron Blood, Captain America, John Falsworth, Steve Rogers
1	Should Old Acquaintance Be Forgot	comic story	22	script: John Byrne, Roger Stern; pencils: John Byrne; inks: Joe Rubinstein; colors: Bob Sharen; letters: Jim Novak	Agent Axis, The Asbestos Lady, Baron Blood, Captain America, Joseph Chapman First, Kenneth Crichton First, Werner Eisen, John Falsworth, Abdul Faoul, Jim Hammond, Adolf Hitler, Human Torch, Edwin Jarvis, Wilhelm Lohmer
2	-	letters page	1	letters: typeset

Plus 1 page of advertisements and other matter across 1 sequence, as published.

Printings and variants

Edition	How to tell
British	price 0.15 GBP
Newsstand	barcode 0714860245301

Where to read it

Collection	Year
Captain America: War & Remembrance [Second Edition] #[nn] ISBN 0785126937	2007	On eBay ›
Captain America [War and Remembrance] #[nn] ISBN 0-87135-657-0	1990	On eBay ›
Captain America: War & Remembrance #[nn] ISBN 978-0-7851-4966-8	2010	On eBay ›
The Marvel Comics Illustrated Version of Captain America #02883 ISBN 0-939766-08-6	1982	On eBay ›
Dawn's Early Light ISBN 978-0-7851-8866-7	2014	On eBay ›
Essential Captain America #7 ISBN 978-0-7851-8409-6	2013	On eBay ›

Reading the story costs a fraction of owning the issue. Both routes are on every file.

Before you buy

Check the price box: Marvel ran 30-cent and 35-cent test-market price variants in 1976-77.
Canadian and Whitman editions exist for many bronze books; match the barcode area to the plate.
Look for Mark Jewelers inserts and date stamps - they affect collector preference, not authenticity.

Series context

‹ #252154 of 355#254 ›

Sources

Grand Comics Database, issue record (CC BY-SA 4.0)

Found an error in this file? corrections@comicrecord.com