sfcityduck

Guns pointing at you? Or at yourself?

As a point of comparison to Dave's inks of the Carl Taylor cover, here's a centerfold spread that Dave did in 1973, a year earlier, for the Nova Two convention book as a tribute to Eisner: Dave's inks made Carl Taylor's pencils look better, but Dave's own talent was much greater.

Agree! Go Ducks!

And congrats to whoever got this one!: Billed as a countertop rack, it looks to me like it was actually intended to be used on a peg board and hung from a wall.

Congrats to whoever won the recent auction for this: It was described as a Dell counter-top display. I don't know if this was hand made by someone or this actually was a manufacturer produced counter-top display. If it was, it answers a question I've always wondered: Where did the Dell wooden signs with pink instead of yellow paint come from? I've seen multiple regular Dell wood racks where the owner, Robotman is one, affixed a pink lettered sign they'd got elsewhere to the kick plate on the bottom. This may well answer the question why there are pink lettered Dell signs floating around.

Great explanation of what the two books are. I understand that there are differences in the indicia, covers and sometimes content. For me, though, your explanation is defining the difference between a foreign first edition and a U.S. first edition. The term "variant," to me, is a specific term discussing a variant printing of the same edition (e.g. a U.S. variant is a U.S. edition with some changes). Your label makes a UK edition appear to be part of a U.S. edition, when it clearly is not. I get that you don't want pence books being described as "reprints," but using the term "variant" is not the most effective way to do that. After all, comic collectors often use the term "variant" to describe a reprint (e.g. the "Nov." copies of MC 1 and "on sale now" copies of Superman 1). I also get that you want to emphasise that UK editions have lower prints runs than U.S. editions. That has nothing to do with the proper use of the term "variant." After all, because of population differences, almost all foreign editions have lower print runs than U.S. editions. I think the Classics collectors have got this right. If its a T&P comic published for the UK market it is a foreign edition, which may or may not be a reprint, not a "variant" on a U.S. edition. The books you are describing are UK first editions issued in tandem with U.S. first editions, which are not reprints and are also not variant U.S. editions.

I get and agree with Marwood that the terminology is not that big a deal and certainly does not detract from the great information that he shares on this thread about these UK comics. But, after reading rakehell's commient, now I'm really confused. I thought that Marwood was saying that the the UK books had different indicias (e.g. he says after rakehell's post that "There are seven different Thorpe & Porter indicia scenarios, cents copies with T&P details" and also has said that there were other UK publishers than T&P). By the way, didn't Thorpe & Porter also publish the UK Classics Illustrated? I've never heard those called "variants". Plus, didn't Marwood also point out significant cover and interior differences with the UK editions omitting a 16 page catalogue of some sort? I get that they were printed at the same time, but they were printed for a different market. They are not a variant of a U.S. edition intended to be sold in the U.S. such as a 35 cent test price variant or variant cover of a U.S. edition. They are comics that were never intended to be sold in the U.S. at all. So they are not a variant of a U.S. edition.

Lots of U.S. comics are printed in other countries, notably Canada, for U.S. publishers. That doesn't make them U.S. variants of Canadian or Chinese, etc., comics. Why should a comic printed in the U.S. for a UK publisher become a variant of a U.S. comic?

You haven't converted me. Seems like you are just trying to make foreign editions sound like a U.S. comic to American buyers. Since they are published by a foreign publisher for a foreign market, they are just a foreign edition comic to me. That's not uncommon in the book world. But it doesn't convert a UK edition into a variant of a U.S. edition or vice versa. Harry Potter books have first U.S. editions and first U.K. editions, for example. I agree that they are not "re-prints" if released at the same time as the U.S. editions. The term "U.K. reprint" would seem best to describe, well, U.K. reprints.

I'm completely confused. Why do you call these "pence priced variants" when they are, in fact, UK editions published by UK publishers? I've not heard the term "variant" applied to a "foreign edition," not do I think it should be. A "variant" is a U.S. edition that "varies" from the regular U.S. print run, either in content or price.

Why do you call them "pence price variants" instead of what they really are - UK editions?

Terrible! The "old school" feel of that event was really cool. I spent an hour and a half making my first circuit of the room (just looking, not buying yet). Was starting my second circuit and was going to buy a beautiful (no. 2 on census) and cool comic from a dealer, but he wanted cash for the best price (which was far far more than fair!) and when I left to hit an ATM to get the cash I got a call from my wife for a family emergency so I couldn't get back to finish the transaction. I hope that the dealers don't get scared off by this sad turn of events because I plan on going to the next one. Was a throw back to the convention of my youth.

I was looking at Dave's index of his work and this is not on it. Which is not shocking because he appears to have left most of his early fanzine work off his list, and the Carl's Comics publication The Creature is referred to as a fanzine in the discussions I've seen of it. Dave also did only the inks on this cover. Having said that, I think it is really cool. Maybe not his "first cover," if that means he did the pencils, but certainly the first cover his name and inks appear on that I know of. Dave did a lot of inks early on. As far as I can tell, the first published work I've seen from Dave was 1971 and first interior story I know of was 1972. First cover pencilled by him I've seen is the May 1975 fanzine up thread.

My best day was when a new friend I'd made in my first year of middle school showed me his 1979 Overstreet Comic Book Price Guide and told me about something I'd never heard about before - a comic book shop - in my hometown. I will be forever grateful that my friend inspired me to become a comic collector. My second best day was when my Dad told me a few weeks later that he had his childhood comic collection (late 40s early 50s) in storage at my Grandpa's house.

I would think the biggies are: 1. Whiz 2 (1) 2. Special Edition 1 3. Captain Marvel 1 4. Whiz 25 5. Captain Marvel 18

Back in the day, we collected far more than one title a month. I can see why someone today would be limited to one.

Back in the 80s, speculators would buy cases of comics. I assume that continued into the 90s.

Back when I was an avid collector of new comics, we wanted a complete title. You may not understand that mentality, but it was the norm. It was very very healthy for comic collecting. We live in a different world now. The publishers killed off collecting as I knew it. Get off of my lawn.

That's the only cheesecake cover I will be seeking out.

For me, if you were going to issue only one cover out of the 80, it would need to be one of the following (in order of preference):

Those 80 variant covers would make a great sociological study of today's comic collecting community. Less than 10 (mainly the decades covers) really seem like homages to the Detective Comics title, the kind of thing that collectors used to want back when I started collecting. Remember these?: It used to be anniversary covers were a homage to the covers and characters published in the title in the past. (That Action 1000 poster was a continuation of that idea.) Instead, the overall impression I get from these variants is that comics readership is really trending old. Why? Because of the vast number of cheesecake covers. GGA seems like a form of nostalgia that appeals most to collectors who are 50+, given that kids today can just pull up porn on their phones.

It's not an "editorial dilemma." It is a marketing choice. These are manufactured collectibles of the worst sort.

80 variant covers for Detective 1000? What a sad and blatant rip-off and F-U to the collectors of that title.

I stopped buying new comic books decades ago when I thought the publishers were gouging customers with too many mini-series, spin-off series, event cross-overs, etc. It got to the point that the characters for which I was collecting as a completest were appearing too much, and many of those appearances were a lousy product. How can anyone collect Detective Comics and not feel that they are being reamed by 80 variant covers? This is the opposite of what I view as the way to "celebrate" a character and its fans. It sure seems like a poke in the eye to me. Now, get off my lawn!