500Club

In a world of endless variants, it's A covers that get the love when books get hot.

No, it ends at US Thanksgiving.......   No, no. There’s lots of time for bad personnel decisions after that.

I don’t blame you. Hockey season ends in Edmonton with the draft lottery.

(That's supposed to be "exist" and referring to Copper age Canadian Newsstands, right?) All the time, because CGC is very inconsistent at labeling them properly? Because I'm pretty sure CGC recognized them from the start or close enough that you wouldn't be able to separate not recognizing them from the normal inconsistency they've demonstrated. They recognized them. But the submitter had to put the information on the submission form.

Nah, it’s just a bit of a sensitive issue, in that it’s been debated repeatedly on here. There’ve been a couple of posters in the past who seemed bound and determined to redefine the way first appearances are collected.

Big names? Yes. Comic draws? I dunno - will we see anyone who tells us, yeah, I came because (insert above name) is here. You need a tentpole name.

This immediately undermines its credibility.

His recall is the same as mine. It was the era of the hot artist, and McFarlane was the sine qua non of the trend. Even B listers like Ron Lim and Larry Stroman got some love.

and

Looks like it's a decade earlier...

I can't recall exactly when it got broken out, just that it did long before the Venom books did. I never thought 312 warranted any sort of bump, but, pre internet, all I got for a gestalt was my limited exposure to LCSs and the OPG Update market reports. I think the only thing 312 represents for me in this discussion is the idea that this book captured some attention and a price breakout before the Venom books. To me, that represents the idea Venom didn't become 'market hot' until later.

This is absolute truth. 298 was 'first McFarlane on ASM'. Still is.

McFarlane drove the ASM hype initially. You can tell by which books were hot. Initially, it was the first McFarlane (298) and the Goblin issue (312). You're right in that they weren't strictly separate, but the initial love for Venom was overshadowed by the McFarlane hype.

Management - probably not - but there was a mechanism whereby letter feedback played a role in decisions. The best example I can think of was Cloak and Dagger in PPTSM 64. They proved popular enough, and Marvel got enough feedback, that they promptly appeared again in PPTSS 69 and 70, and then again in 81 and 82. My recall of Venom was that he was 'grassroots hot', but not overtly hot like Punisher, Wolverine and Ghost Rider. Readers loved him. Obviously Salicrup knew this, as he wanted to save Venom for use in ASM. That grassroots love took some time to manifest in market heat, though. Early on, ASM 298 was a bigger book than 300, and 312 was broken out (Hobgoblin vs GG) before 315-317.

You missed FF 347.

He's not fussy. He'll sign any body part, not just the package.

You'd probably be slapped with a ginormous lawsuit.

Knowing the way Marvel thinks, this wouldn’t surprise me. All it would take is some soft feedback from retailers: ‘well, I’d order a bit more if there was a ratio variant...’

I once notified CGC that you masked a swear word in a post. I notified them that the sweet poster named Janet is actually some dude called Hector.   OMG I slept with Janet . . .  Funky Cold Medina...

I once notified CGC that you masked a swear word in a post. I notified them that the sweet poster named Janet is actually some dude called Hector.

That is THE best way to modify publisher behavior - vote with your wallet.

Dissembling is your friend. -5.

Don’t dissemble. Just show the evidence.

Give Colletta enough time with an eraser...

 It is a matter of perspective. Compared to today's print runs, that would place Harby #1 in the 32-35 range for top selling monthly titles in 2019........ That’s good perspective IF the book was released today. However, the book came out nearly 30 years ago. So the perspective is somewhat different. The ‘effective supply’ is reduced by attrition, copies buried in lapsed collections, and in store stock, among other things.