Barbarian

Very cool book I found a few weeks ago after a long search. First AF15 printed in Portugal. Features the rejected Ditko cover for AF 15. Prints also Spider-Man vs. the Chameleon of ASM 1 and the icing on the cake is the story of Strange Tales 115. Origin of Doctor Strange. In colour

. Can you tell us a little about this book please... Contains ASM 1 and 2 in BW with extra art added around edges of every panel to make it larger. This book intrigues me... I never saw that series before... Cool cool cool book!!! http://blogs.peru21.pe/comics21/2008/11/amazing-spidermanwebtrospectiv.html Article in Spanish

Been looking for this one for ages! Tough find. Really... You need this?... ME! ME! ME! PM Please. Yes, I want this!

Been looking for this one for ages! Tough find.

Featuring Spider-man on acid Cool colours

And I agree I would rather not see Spidey's brown eye! It´s funny cause its true http://nick-caputo.blogspot.pt/2011/08/rejected-covers.html

From a foreign perspective, I find it interesting that the US foreign variants/editions follow a Hierarchy of interest/value. 1- The ones that offer more value are key issues that were the first ones to have been printed in the respective countries. Have a look at these 3 versions all printed in Brazil. First one was printed in 74, just 6 months after the original US copy, the second in 1980 and the third in 1991. I bet copy 1 would be the one of most interest to collectors. 2 - The closest possible resemblance with the original cover, the more valuable it seems to have. These 2 Brazilian prints of ASM 252. I bet that not many foreign collectors would find much value in Copy #2 This might change though with the appearance of rejected covers like the ones mentioned above since it shows original covers from US artists that were never used before in the US. For a Ditko fan, that Italian and Brazilian versions might have more value. 3- Then there are those books that even though do not print any keys whatsoever and the cover has nothing to do with the story itself , still attracts the interest of the foreign collector. This Brazilian book prints Marvel Team-up 136. Not a much valued story, but this cover It shows a classic Spidey pose + a background of an actual photo of city buildings. High novelty points on this one. (Btw, if anybody knows where this photo if from, I´d like to know if that is actually in New York!) Or a print of CAP 236. Where the main story is called "Death Dive". See how the Brazilian editor changed the cover to adapt for the tittle of the main story. Pretty cool

Any idea what year this came out? I'm wondering if it predates the Italian version of this book October 1970. Don´t know when the Italian was printed though

Love that Green Hulk 1

Of course, these are variants. I know the meaning of the term, as we’re talking of same-country editions, but I was questioning whether we should call "variants" foreign edition books. That’s the reason for which I could consider a variant L’Uomo Ragno #29, since it features a Steve Ditko cover which was never used in an american edition, neither at the time, nor (to my knowledge) in any US reprint. Not wanting to go further on the definition itself, here is a good read about what might be considered, or not, a variant: http://dellcomicfan.blogspot.pt/2011/10/are-there-any-dell-variants-103.html Funny, the Brazilian Ebal editor also used the rejected cover. I actually prefer the other one. The one that was used in the US doesn´t have Spidey´s pointed at the readers while he´s clutching his hands

The same book printed in the US with a different cent price or with the Mark Jeweler Advertisement Insert is considered a variant.

One of the most interesting things I find about the foreign editors is when the go nuts with their local artists rather than using the licensed material they already paid for . Here´s a good example: Have a look at a splash page of Batman 251 I found here in the boards. (I think its from a recent remastered colored book) There was a Brazilian book I was thinking of buying with this cover, but after looking closer, it seems that the images are very different... Brazilian Neal Adams copycat? Then I found out about this threasury format one. Bit better, but still not there. The one I am looking for now, is this one (where the original splash page is in):

Fixed (thumbs u But only on these special edition runs, "Especial em cores", not the other ones. They used paper on the covers that is even thicker that modern covers today. Add also the fact that the cover was then plastified with an extra layer. You can really feel the difference in texture. Thats why these are still shinny even without bag and boards. Plus these were printed in colour in better quality paper than the usual runs in Black and white. They even made some stunning looking TPB´s, each collecting 5 issues of these Special Runs Unfortunatelly this was not the norm with the remaining 95% of the other Ebal editions in Silver and Bronze age where the quality of the books really dropped. Sometimes I get lucky in finding some really good ones. Never NM though Finding an Ebal in NM its like finding a CGC 10.0 of any book! Here´s a nice one I got last week.

My words exactly in what regards the Portuguese market... plus something else I don´t know if its common elsewhere, specially Silver and Bronze age material. Many of the books we were imported from Brazil, and the distributor in Portugal had a contract with the newsstands so that they could return the ones they did not sell. So the smart way that the distributor found to separate old stock returned from the newsstands from new material coming in was to cut one of the corners from the returned books. So the ones not sold, that would have a better chance to be in better condition ended up with a whole corner cut off. Here´s a good example I own. And this is an example of a "good" cut. Sometimes they cut out a huge chunk of the book

I´d take the CGC 9.6 ASM 129 and sell it for a ridiculous amount of money. Then I would take that money to travel through Italy for a couple of months, drink wine, eat pizza and learn Italian from my new super hot Italian girlfriend. I would then proceed in buying the Italian CGC 9.6 L´uomo Ragno 149, crack it open and then read it (thumbs u This sounds fun Barbarian! Could this pay for a plane ticket so I could join ya? Too many hypothetical’s in this story: 1 - That someone would give me a CGC 9.6 ASM 129 as a present 2- That I would score a super hot Italian girlfriend 3- That your wife would let you go to Italy

Here´s 1 not on that list. Found out about it recently

I´d take the CGC 9.6 ASM 129 and sell it for a ridiculous amount of money. Then I would take that money to travel through Italy for a couple of months, drink wine, eat pizza and learn Italian from my new super hot Italian girlfriend. I would then proceed in buying the Italian CGC 9.6 L´uomo Ragno 149, crack it open and then read it (thumbs u

Being a Portuguese, in my perspective, I really vouch for the Bias towards US comic material in Portugal, especially with the younger generations. Older Generations, not so much due to the language barrier. English is widely spoken, but much more on the newer generations. For example, a young Portuguese collector, being presented with a choice of a original US comic or its local counterpart, most likely, will pick the US material. Interestingly enough, on the younger Portuguese generations I perceive a shift from comics towards TPB´s and Hardcover books due to monetary constraints and storage ease. On the other hand , the middle age+ Portuguese collector, setting aside the language barrier, will be looking for the local material, the one that transports him/her to their youth memories, so the original US comic will carry less interest. (Unless, of course it’s a collector with the means, language skills and comic education to go after the older US original comics + the prospective investement side it also brings to the table). Being on this side of the pond also means that comic collectors also collect a lot of material that is created outside the US For example looking at the current top seller list of comics in one of the biggest LCS Chains, the top list reads are Asterix, Lucky Luke and other Goscinny Morris Works. Other artists like André Franquin, or Italians like Hugo Pratt (Corto Maltese). This said, it´s also cheaper to buy US material on ebay and the likes that on a Portuguese LCS, (Import tax + VAT) so this list might not really reflect the real top reading comics. Its interesting to see the appeal from US collectors towards the foreign variants and reading through your article, I can see why this happens. Its incredible to see the complexity that this medium carries and the differences foreign editors bring to the table with the subtle (and sometimes not so much) adaptations to their own cultural realities and technical printing setup. Really interesting read. Great Job

They probably did not need to get aproval from the original editor once they paid the $$$. And if they did, it would be an almost impossible job to control, with all the diff countries + languages. That´s why these Brazilian versions have like 3 or 4 different stories many times from different Heroes. Its common practice to have on the Spider-man books, a Daredevil story, because there qas not a dedicated book series to Daredevil. Same applies for Captain America + FF or Hulk + X-men.

I can probably get you 1 in the 2.5€ - 5€ range Keep in mind though that these copies most likelly never saw a bag and board before, so dont expect a high grade copy on this.

Yes, its a funny one Robin´s drawing is actually inside the book on page 24. This book is a mix of several stories. The first 6 pages (of the original 27) are the prologue TEC 511. It has has also a a mix of 34 pages of Tec 512 and Batman 345 And it finishes with a 19 page story from Green Lantern 149. "Morte de um ideal": "Death of an Ideal" Why they choose this cover with that change? Probably because the title of the main story is "A sombra de Batman": "The Shadow of Batman" and I guess that this cover ilustrates the title?

Talking about variants of 227, I thought this would be a good place to share this funny one I got. Spot the differences