Marvel Australian Price Variants

Hello Reader 

Here is a summary of the Marvel Australian Price Variants that I have discovered hiding between the dates of January 1991 and November 1996.

Australian Price Variants (APVs) were printed in the USA at the same time as their cents priced headliners. They are not reprints. If you would like to know more about them, please click the picture below and you'll be magically transported to the discussion thread in which we talk about them:

Notes and Observations

1. 110 Marvel titles have been found with one or more AUS single priced issues (note: annual titles are recorded separately, i.e. ASM and ASM Annual are recorded as two separate titles). Only official ‘regular sized’ first printing Marvel comics have been captured – magazines, fanzines, reprints and over-sized publications are excluded
2. 1,336 issues have been found across the confirmed 110 titles so far
3. All issues are newsstand copies. No AUS direct editions have been found
4. Australian priced issues exist in two cover date blocks:
   • (AUS) January 1991 ~ (AUS) April 1994 inclusive
   • US February 1996 ~ US November 1996 inclusive
5. All ‘first wave’ AUS issues cover dated January 1991 to April 1994 inclusive have cover dates that are 3 months later than their US counterparts (presumed to accommodate shipping times). For an AUS book cover dated January 1991, the US version will be dated October 1990. The indicias of both copies are as per the US versions. Often, the barcode month numbering reflects the three month gap (i.e. when comparing an APV to it's US newsstand copy equivalent)
6. All ‘second wave’ AUS issues cover dated February 1996 to November 1996 inclusive have the same cover dates / indicias as their US counterparts
7. No AUS issues have been found between cover dates May 1994 (AUS dating) and January 1996 (US dating) inclusive – this block separates the two known runs of AUS books
8. For the first January 1991 AUS issues, Avengers West Coast (#63 & 64) and Daredevil (#285 & 286) have two issues cover dated January 1991
9. Many of the final November 1996 dated titles are priced at $2.75 whereas the preceding 1996 issues were priced at $3.20
10. Ten Annual titles have been found so far – Amazing Spider-Man #27, The Incredible Hulk #19, The Punisher #6, Silver Surfer #6, The Spectacular Spider-Man #13, The Mighty Thor #18, The Uncanny X-Men #17, X-Factor #8, X-Force #2 and X-Men #2. All are 1993 annuals and all have an AUS cover price of $4.75
11. Only five titles have been found to have issues cover dated April 1994 (AUS dating) – Captain America #423, Ravage #14, Spider-Man 2099 #15, Spider-Man Classics #10 and Web of Spider-Man #108. Issues for this date appear particularly scarce and, by way of illustration, no Amazing Spider-Man #385 has been found in ten years of searching
12. Only eight titles have been found to have issues cover dated March 1996 (US dating) – Generation X #13, Marvel vs DC #2, Uncanny X-Men #330, Wolverine #99, X-Factor #250, X-Force #52, X-Man #13 and X-Men #50. Issues for this date appear particularly scarce and, by way of illustration, no Amazing Spider-Man #409 has been found in ten years of searching
13. Bi-monthly ‘early / late’ issues exist for many titles between AUS cover dates of October 1991 to April 1992 and, the same months for the following year, October 1992 to April 1993
14. There are currently no obvious gaps where different titles are missing issues for the same months. Analysis suggests that some titles do appear to have limited issues produced however. For example, the title Ghost Rider has a potential AUS issue range of #6-75. No AUS issues have been found for 6-19, but most of the issues from 20-45 have been found. This indicates that 6-19 may not have been produced as the likelihood of not one issue surfacing are slim. In a similar vein, The Avengers has all copies between issues 325-363 confirmed but not one after
15. In respect of whether all issues for each title exist, the McFarlane 1990 Spider-Man run could have AUS copies for issues #3-74 yet only ten copies have been found so far. All the hologram issue #26’s found available from AUS sellers online are the US newsstand copy and CGC has no graded copies (whereas it does for the Spectacular Spider-Man #189 copy of the same month). So it may turn out that, like the UK price variant copies, not all issues of each confirmed title will have AUS copies
16. Many titles exist for which no AUS copy has been found. Many notable titles are missing copies, e.g. Doctor Strange. For this title, every issue on eBay Australia is a US copy. It seems unlikely that a copy has yet to surface and this indicates that many titles are likely to have been omitted from the AUS treatment (this also mirrors the UK price variant scenario where many titles did not have pence copies produced)
17. In respect of content, the only differences identified between the AUS and US newsstand copies are the price and, in respect of the first run of books, the cover date / barcode month numbering. No other generic differences have been found
18. For the 110 titles found so far, there is a maximum number of 1,721 issues available within the (AUS) January 1991 to November 1996 date ranges, excluding the May 94~Jan 96 period where no copies have been found. However, it is clear that of those remaining titles, many appear to have gaps and missing issues which may not have been produced. Given how scarce many are, it may be difficult to impossible to confirm a definitive AUS issue total
19. Regular sized issues are priced at AUS $1.50 from January 1991, increasing to AUS $1.80 from May 1992. The price increases again to AUS $1.95 from July / August 1993. Issues from February 1996 tend to be priced at AUS $2.50 or $3.20 with the final November 1996 issues priced at AUS $2.00, $2.75 or $3.95. Individual special / double sized issues can vary wildly and can be priced up to AUS $6.50 (Midnight Sons Unlimited #1). All ten known annuals are priced at AUS $4.75
20. In addition to the standard comic sized titles documented above, 3 magazine titles are confirmed to have APV's, all now believed to be complete:
    • Conan Saga - 39 of 40 possible / 39 expected confirmed (all first wave books)
    • Conan the Savage - 4 of 4 confirmed (all second wave books)
    • Savage Sword of Conan - 39 of 40 possible / 39 expected confirmed (all first wave books)

Happy hunting, if you decide to build a set!

By Stephen Cranch based on v11.0 of the ‘Marvel Australian Price Variants Summary’ (15.05.22)