Dan'el

I have a lower-grade copy of Amazing Spider-Man #1 that is missing the last ad page. The story is complete and the comic is a GD 2.0 to GD/VG 3.0 other than that. I am going to have quite a few books (80+) in my collection graded in the coming year (prior to sale) and am not certain if this one should be included. How does CGC document a missing page that does not impact the story? If the label is going to say "incomplete" with no further explanation, then I would be better off selling the comic ungraded. Any idea as to how this is addressed? I researched the Overstreet Grading Guide and a number of books of Go Collect, and could not get a feel for it.

Excellent! Did not know that. I do some selling on eBay and have never had the right words for that flaw. Have heard that CGC tends to give it a pass, even on higher grade books. Maybe because it lies outside the comic production process. Still, I have seen some that are pretty ugly.

Glad to hear that others like this have popped up in the past. Can't agree with you on the name issue though. Giving a known defect a name, regardless of rarity, allows us to talk about it and be on the same page. It makes the process more precise and objective. Names are good. Actually, I do not think there are that many possible printing defects and most of those already have names. Miswrapped cover, mistrimmed cover, Marvel chipping, missing or off-center staple, are all used consistently in grading. Three of these particular issues surfaced in the past month (and you mentioned others have surfaced in the past), so it is apparently not that uncommon. In this case, three different people described the phenomenon in three different ways and Lions Den suggested another way CGC might describe it. Far better to give it a simple name (reversed wrapped or whatever) so we can discuss it and everyone will know exactly what we are talking about. Another common flaw I would like to see named is those cover wrinkles or ridges or folds or whatever the heck they are called that show up fairly often – mostly on Bronze-Age comics it seems. There does not seem to be a consistent way to discuss those either.

Okay, so this a different print error. One that is on the cover. This post is referring to comics that have the internal pages reversed. So far, we have only identified three of those, all on Silver Age Marvel comics.

Are you referring to this issue where all of the internal wraps are reversed or something else? Have you seen a lot of reversed wrapped books or is this a color variation on a cover?

Double covers are fairly common. I had one with 5 covers once. Got a few hundred on eBay for that one. I agree about the name. I vote for "reverse wrapped" since the pages are assembled in reverse order.

Given that we have now identified three of these errors it is possible this is an unidentified systemic print error. I started a topic to that effect in the grading forum. Maybe we can get some more feedback there. As info https://www.cgccomics.com/boards/topic/463943-systemic-print-error-identified-by-cgc-board-members/

In the past month or so, several different posters on these boards have identified the same print error in three different Silver-Age comics. So far, no one seems to know anything about this error. In each case, the comic has been what I am calling “reverse wrapped” at the printer. Basically, the pages are assembled in reverse order so that the wrap that contains the first and last page of the comic is placed in the centerfold. Question for the board is: If this is indeed a systemic printing error how do we get it acknowledged as such by the comic gods at CGC, Overstreet, etc.? We comic people love our anomalies and screw ups but we like to have them documented by some “authority”. Lends them authenticity I suppose. This board has uncovered three of these “reverse wrap” errors in a very short time. Might be a bunch of them out there. People just don’t know what they heck they are. Just below are links to the three error comics (two on CGC boards and one on eBay). Below that (if you are interested) I have outlined my theory on how this happens at the printer. Strange Tales #113 https://www.cgccomics.com/boards/blogs/entry/5014-strange-tales-v1-113-oct-1963-extremely-rare-bindery-error/ Thor #150 https://www.cgccomics.com/boards/topic/463832-my-thor-150-is-bound-backwards/ Fantastic Four #63 https://www.ebay.com/itm/Fantastic-Four-1961-63-Manufacturing-ERROR-Title-Page-At-Centerfold-Fine/402037837291?hash=item5d9b528deb:g:aZAAAOSwEaJeHgfd ========================================================================== Looking at the three examples of this error unearthed by this board, I think I see how the error occurs and how it could be repeated. See what you think. There are eight page-wraps in a standard comic. Each wrap contains four pages, two on each side. At some point in the assembly process the eight wraps are stacked in order. The top wrap will have the first page of the comic printed on the right side and the last page printed on the left, facing up. At that point the cover (which is also a four-page wrap) is added to the stack face up, with the front cover on the right and the back cover on the left. It is then stapled and folded down and the comic is correctly assembled. Now, if those page wraps are initially inserted into the process upside down by error, then the wraps will be stacked in reverse order with the first wrap (the one with the first and last page) face down on the bottom of the stack. Then, when the cover is added and the comic is stapled and folded, the wrap with the first and last page will now be the centerfold - which is exactly the case in the three examples we have seen. I assume that someone checks the comics after a handful are run, so this error is likely caught most of the time. However, if quality control is having a bad day or the printer is short-handed, some of them may make it through to distribution and out the door. Probably not often and probably not many. My guess is this error was far more likely in the earlier days of comics because the printing process would have involved more manual steps back then and more chances for screw ups. The process no doubt became more automated and less susceptible to error over time. So, what do you think? Sound plausible? If so, this board may have identified a systemic print error. (Yaay us!) And, if so, I think it merits a name. My vote is for, “Reverse wrap” just because it rolls trippingly off the tongue.

Nice catch! The FF is the focus of my collection (I am building a website for it) so I picked that comic up to add to it. Thanks

Unlike the ST 113, which is perfectly readable, it seems like your comic would have been spotted pretty quickly. I took a quick spin through the 'net and did not find any reference to an error with that book so, chances are, there are not many out there. Error comics typically sell for a premium but that is only if collectors know about the error. Goofs like this may have had only a handful released. Sadly, that may mean they are so rare they are essentially worthless. If there was some way to get the error "officially" documented (by Marvel or some other comic authority) that could be a game changer. I do not have a clue as to how to go about getting that done.

I was the one that posted the same issue with the Strange Tales #113. Is the Thor #150 readable? Meaning could a non-comic person read it and not realize anything was wrong with it? If so, there could be plenty of the misprints just no one caught it. The Strange Tales #113 reads fine, just has the stories in the wrong order. My question was who to contact to verify the error and try to determine how many of them were printed. If the error is documented and rare, it might well sell for a premium. Collectors shell out extra bucks for double (or more) covers all the time and that is a printer/bindery error. However, if no one knows it is rare misprint then it probably only has curiosity value. If you have any ideas on how to research something like that, let me know.

Is there any advantage to sending an otherwise lower value comic to CGC just to verify a very obscure printing error? The comic is a lower grade issue of Strange Tales V-1 #113. The issue is that the comic wraps were assembled in the wrong order at the printer/bindery. In this case, the Torch story was inserted last, instead of first. Since the Torch story takes up one-half of the book, it is actually readable so most people would not pick up on the error. I noticed the book started with an ad page so at first just thought it was missing pages. I have not been able to locate another copy with this error, find anyone else who has heard of it, or find any reference to it. It could be that just a handful got out the door before they caught it or there could be a bunch of them out there and people just don’t realize it is miswrapped. Question is, would CGC verification be of any significant value in this case, or is this one of those situations where it is so obscure that it is just an interesting curiosity? I posted the first and last pages of the error book along with the same pages from a normal issue below. I have scanned all of the pages along with a normal comic on my very early stages FF website if you want to see the rest of it. https://dekventures.com/FantasticFour/strange-tales-v1-113-rare-misprint/

With close inspection with a magnifier, the staples appear to be original so, if someone reassembled it at some point, they were darn good (why?). Again, after looking closer, the wraps do all seem to be printed correctly, so the comic was apparently just assembled in the wrong order at the bindery. Question is, how many were shipped before they caught it and how many are still out there. So far, I have not heard of another. Probably one of those weird things that are so scarce that they have no value. Just a cool curiosity. Now I've got to track down a correct copy for my collection.

I am not completely getting this book either. I attached images of the entire comic. The Torch story is supposed to be first, followed by the Shanng story and then the Shoemaker story. This comic leads with the Shanng story, followed by the Shoemaker story, and then the Torch story last. It looks like the wrap that is the first page and the last page of this comic would have been the centerfold in the normal book. If that is the case, it looks like that wrap may have been printed backwards. It should have had the Torch panels on the left and the ad on the right. (I do not have another copy, so am using the comics online site to compare it.) The comic actually reads just fine so it would not be that easy to catch for a casual reader unless they had another copy so there could have been a bunch of these and no one noticed. I only caught it because the comic starts with an ad page so I just assumed it was missing some pages. That is not the case. They are all there. I uploaded the entire comic – any insight would be helpful. Gives me a headache.

Just stumbled on this old post while doing my own research on a misprint (or misbinding as the case may be) of this issue. I have a copy that has the Torch/Plantman story inserted last in the comic instead of first. Have not found anything so far concerning the scarcity (or not) of that issue, but I have looked at 8-10 issues and all of them have #112 in the indicia page so I suspect that is how they were all printed - in which case that would not be a misprint or variant.

I have a copy of Strange Tales V-1 #113 that has the Torch/Plantman story inserted last instead of first in the comic. It is not an easy glitch to catch since the book reads just fine so it might be a common error. Only reason I caught it is the comic starts with an ad page so I figured it was missing pages. Took me a while to puzzle it out. Has anyone come across that printer/bindery error or know anything about it? My research has been a bust. (The comic also says #112 inside instead of #113 but I think they all do.)