lscomics

It takes a real man to admit he has a fondness for romance comics.

Exactly. (thumbs u

Not to stray away from the discussion but… as far as proper foreign editions are concerned, why would you call them "variants"? The use of words reflect an understanding, I don’t know what do you mean by "semantics", but I always try to use the words in the most accurate way, even if some ambiguity is always inherent – but in this case "variant" does not mean anything: "variant" to what? I think the use of variant is fine in this case. These are essentially, in terms of content, the same books as the originals with slight differences and of course the language being translated. Variant as used in this case is in reference to the fact that they're the same books but with certain variations for a foreign market.

Got these in the mail yesterday. This one was a freebie from the seller. Great Jay Scott Pike cover. This was the one I was really after. Neal Adams foreign romance! And look at this... The same seller had this so I figured I should take it off his hands. And I had forgotten I had a CGC copy of the US edition.

You can say that again, pal. Me I'm still looking for that very limitedly still impossible to find now CTB 1 pence variant. Those very few that might exist are unlikely to be let go by their owners because of their incalculable worth. Possibly 100 times that of the prevalently common cent copy, So I can very well understand your passionate thoughts and desire to obtain these editions, its not like the USA where there's the long running culture and foresight to collect and preserve comics from newstands as investment, matter of fact, even newspaper comics strips from the 1930s are well preserved by readers in the US, but not so in other parts of the world Did a pic or scan of the Conan Pence ever surface? I know I looked into it a bit and never found one. If it does exist I'd like to at least see verification of it. I'd like to have one even more of course but that kind of goes without saying.

Nice!

Regardless of how you classify them, until you've actually tried to track these books down you'll never understand. Just finding information about what was and wasn't printed is like pulling teeth. That information along with, I suspect, the majority of the print runs on these books has been lost to the sands of time. There are four guys on the boards that have been actively trying to find copies of pretty much any of them and have for the most part come up empty handed. I'm not talking about a search that started recently either, it's been ongoing for at least two years. I have no doubt in my mind that there are some of these that simply no longer exist.

Whether they're referred to as reprints or variants is semantic. The point is that they're incredibly difficult to find.

I find it hard to believe you'll let that dissuade you permanently my friend.

ummmm this is a toughie.... we think we have confirmation no 181 exists.... the TOD 1 we have thought might, we also think a bats 227, spidey 129, maybe even some DC..... like hos 92 or ASW 10? But we don't really have set parameters as far as dates.... nothing is concrete. Some collectors have confirmed the non-existence of the 181 which we trust for the most part. The problem is there are no databases, there are no threads upon threads of info on these books on the Filipino comic boards, there are no contacts over there even that can give us more than bits and pieces of info.... It really is crazy how little info there is out there about these books. We have cold emailed LCS's looking for info, we have contacted the few sellers over there that sell on Ebay looking for more info or more books, we have even tried to get people that might be travelling to the Philippines to hunt for us? A contact of mine even put an ad in the paper requesting info and money for anything? Books, info, sources..... he did find me some books, but this was over a couple months almost a year. Some books and little little little trickles of info... Just the other day I contacted National Bookstore customer service to see if they could put me in contact with their records dept. or anyone that could possibly shed light on their publishing and licensing in the seventies? Run around and blew me off... im pushing harder but geeze.... The other thing is... many of these books could be sitting in longboxes anywhere in the world being passed over because they look so similar to their American counterparts in many ways. No end to such pursuits if you want to hunt down international reprints. I have also come across very nice foreign language reprint editions of LSH and even Neal Adams GL/GA , think it might have been from Hong Kong/China or Malaysia. I just flipped thru it and never bought any, though on hindsight memory, the pages were of more durable type. Judging from these boards, I think the Adams Batman versions would be very much sought after by collectors here. Foreign Adams & Wrightson books are my main focus. There's more foreign Adams goodness here than you can probably imagine.

Yes it does.

Coming from you that's most definitely a compliment with weight behind it. (thumbs u I think I've seen one of those lying around somewhere.

Yes, but I do not use the term "variant", as I have already explained several times, as these are – foremostly – foreign editions of a US originated comic series. They can be seen as "variants" but it is a misleading term. I will scan and post the italian #2 if you like, but I have to dig it out. It came out around 1970. This is a scan of the #6 which I have at hand: foreign editions of a US originated comic series . Sorry i didn't read your explanation about the difference yes, i would love to see your italian scan of ASM #2 of your foreign editions of a US originated comic series Here's a link to my Photobucket pics with scans of my collection of foreign editions. I'll warn you in advance though, there's a little over 800 of them in there. lscomics Foreign Editions

No, I have to check but I think it’s another duplicate. If I already have it (I am keeping these italian Devils for now) this one will be for sale. (thumbs u

Is that the Marvel Spotlight that Matt got from you?

We've talked to collectors there and even they don't seem to really have much information on them. There are/were some who embraced these books but at the time US editions were (and to a degree still are) what they want. To those of us that collect foreign editions, well... books like this, regardless of condition are considered amongst the crown jewels of our collections. The level of scarcity alone is enough to drive you .

Part of the problem is we don't know what all was printed. There's simply too little information out there on these books. This is something we've been digging into for almost three years and have come up pretty much empty handed.

It's a fairly good sized list. I'll shoot it to you in a PM when I have the time to type it all in. Pretty much any of the people on here that collect foreign books will tell you I'm a little when it comes to this niche of ours. I've got a little over 800 foreign books now and just seem to keep finding more to add to the list of ones that I want.

I might just take you up that next month....WTTBs +1 There's a few Ebal books I'd like to have copies of.

No problem on the scans. (thumbs u

You're more than welcome to use any of my scans. (thumbs u Just curious... Do you know who owns the Batman #241 that's on there and if they'd possibly be interested in selling it?

This sat in my eBay store for a while, glad it found a home. Now that I know their origin I need to go box digging to see if I have some more of these variants! If you find anything foreign with work by Adams or Wrightson let me know if you're looking to sell. That's the main focus of my collection. (thumbs u

I’m really sorry I already sold my italian #4 as it was in awesome condition. But I hope to find some other of interest to you… I'm sure you'll find something. You seem to have a talent for it. (thumbs u

This one just came in today. The run so far...

There were also books done for National Bookstore and Goodwill Bookstore in the Philippines. The Filipino books are incredibly hard to find based on a few factors. 1) Print runs were not high. 2) The paper quality is lower than normal for Bronze Age books. 3) The climate conditions in the Philippines are not conducive to preserving paper products, staples either for that matter. 4) The majority of collectors there regarded (and still do) the Filipino versions as substandard and have no great interest in them so they were generally not cared for very well. Here's pics of the National and Goodwill Bookstore editions that I've been able to get my hand on so far.