Brock

This has been a subject of much discussion on these boards, and I won't belabour it (too much) here, but maybe one example will help. The author of the article you link to, Benjamin Nobel, is a good writer, but his general approach is to present qualitative or circumstantial arguments as proof. To cite a single example, he points to the fact that "fat diamond" Marvel issues have no cover date, and infers that this backs up the concept that they are Whitmans. His argument is that Whitmans were bagged for sale over an extended period, and therefore did not need cover dates, but (and I quote him here with his italics), "would comic shops really have gotten comics with no cover month on them?" How absurd, he's suggesting! Of course direct editions would have cover dates. But take a look a look at the comics you may have bought from the comic shop recently, say a Batman #104 or a Venom #30... Guess what? No cover date. Does that mean they can't be direct editions, and (following Nobel's logic) that they must be Whitmans? Cover prices were necessary for newsstand editions, as they were a signal for newsstand retailers about when to return unsold copies. The removal of the cover date could mean these books were intended for distribution by Whitman (as Nobel suggests), but it also could mean they were intended for direct sales, or (as @bellrules and I suggest) that they were intended for both of these channels. In general, Nobel's style is very didactic - that is, it is elegantly argued, but with a pre-intended conclusion or outcome (a kind of ulterior motive) rather than an academic or evidentiary approach, which would focus on gathering evidence regardless off its impact on the question at hand (i.e. something more in line with the scientific method). Having said that, I quite enjoy reading Nobel's stuff - I just don't always find it very convincing, and the example I've given here is but one example why, out of several in the article you linked to. I do find Jim Shooter's personal recollections much more convincing in this case, but they are merely anecdotal (and - as they say - the plural of anecdote is not evidence) and have been contradicted by others. To me it's an open question... I'm quite prepared to be wrong on this, but I've yet to see compelling evidence one way or the other. Having said that, over the last couple of years, the market has come to see "fat diamond" Marvels as Whitman variants, and has even begun to ask a premium for them. And while the market isn't always correct, it does tell us something about the collective perceptions of the hobby as a whole... If I were selling "fat diamond" Whitmans somewhere at the moment, I'd probably be finding a way to work a "Whitman" reference into the listing.

"In the pink" simply means "in perfect order" or "in good health"... It's been a part of the English language for more than 400 years, and is certainly still in common usage in the UK and Canada. Do I gather from the comments here that Americans don't say it anymore? Presumably some do if it made its way onto an Archie cover. And while I do think the double entendre was deliberate, there surely must be enough Americans who understand its "in good health" meaning to justify its use as a double entendre here...

I appreciate you posting your sales, divad. I may not always be able to get the prices that you do, but seeing them is very helpful. Back in the old days (), Overstreet and other guides used to put the notation "prices vary widely" on certain issues. I always saw that as a sign that a book was heating up. While it's true that the highest price that a book gets is not the going market rate, it can be a valuable indicator of where a book is headed.

As @bellrulessays, it’s a controversial topic. My personal opinion is the same as his, that the fat diamond Marvels were distributed through multiple channels, INCLUDING Whitman. Others argue that the fat diamond Marvels were EXCLUSIVELY distributed by Whitman. Neither side has been able to show direct evidence of their perspective, so it remains one of the great mysteries (of which there are several) associated with Whitman. It also tells us that even though this happened just 40 years ago, when some of us were already active collectors, Whitmans were so underrated and undercollected that nobody bothered to document the specifics. That lack of original interest from collectors is part of why thye’re Starting to be so valuable today...

Wow... Nice Scrooge 179! I sold a low grade copy here on the Boards a couple of years ago for about $350. Yours looks much nicer!

And here's a Whitman mystery question to get some conversation going... If you look at the issues in the previous post, they're all August 1980 issues. Same cover date, presumably same distribution channels (and likely mostly in packs). So why does Tom & Jerry have a UPC, while the others don't?

And as a first post, here's a dollar bin find from last week - three of the 8-12/80 issues:

As suggested in another thread (by @OtherEric), perhaps it's time a for a general Whitman thread. There are a few threads that have popped up over the years, but maybe we can start one that brings everything together - from rare finds, to the population of the 8-12/1980 books, to scarce color and price variants, to DC Whitmans, to which books were in which packs, to discussions about whether "fat diamond" Marvels are all Whitmans, etc. Maybe even for trading some Whitmans between enthusiasts? I know I have posted in one of the other Whitman threads from time to time, only to realize that my posy would have fit better in a different one... Hopefully, this thread will solve that problem! I feel like I know a little about Whitmans, and just enough about their history to want to know more... I also have the top registry set for DC Whitmans (though that may just go to prove that I have more money than sense; still, you should definitely sell me the rest I need! ). However, there are some other boardies like @Warlord and @bellruleswho have real street cred on these issues. Hopefully this makes sense to everyone...

I think it would be good for us to start one on all things Whitman, so I'll get one going.

1st Han Solo, 1st Chewbacca, 1st Jabba the Hutt (though the latter as a human).

This could get interesting.

It SOMETIMES makes it more likely that your book will turn up in my search, but it ALWAYS makes it certain that I will ignore your listing.

I agree with @Warlord that the price is a tad high for its condition, but not outrageous. I see a few comments suggesting that this one is the hardest after DCCP 22, but I'd rank it a little lower than that. I think (for example) that Justice League of America 179, Flash 286 and Legion of Super-Heroes 264 are all tougher books, in part because Batman was more heavily collected (and saved). Of course, anything that anybody says about the relative rarity of the scarcest Whitmans is a shoot. They're all like hen's teeth, and what tiny supply randomly survives in one geographic area seems to have no bearing on the overall population. I seem to have no trouble finding Action 508s, for example, but for many they are a ghost. And - as always - anything in truly high grade (say, 9.0 and above) is impossible. I've been working on my CGC registry set for 6 years, and I only have a quarter of them.

Sorry for the delay... it's been a bit busy. It has not sold, so I have no price I can share. It's pretty obscure, so I don't think people are looking for it. Low demand = low price, I suspect. I listed it in a lot with 3 other UK Superman books (including the first and second issues of the 1988 UK Superman series, complete with their free gifts), but there's been little interest. I really expected that - as a lot - it would get some traction with Superman completists. It's the story of my collection, really - I revel in rarities and unique pieces. Sometimes that translates into good prices, but mostly it does not.

Posting a (poor) photo, since there were a couple of likes.

Welcome to the Boards! I’m not aware of any print run information, but this board is definitely the place to ask! Maybe @Warlord or @OtherEric have some thoughts? FWIW, my general sense is that Whitman print runs were large, but survival rates are generally low. Surviving copies in very high grade (about 8.5 and above) are extremely rare. There are, however, a few - including the so-called “Big 8” - that apparently had quite small print runs. Chief among these is probably DC Comics Presents #22, which seems to have about 30 extant copies.

I was in the UK at the time, and they had a 50th anniversary edition of Radio Times, the British equivalent of TV Guide. It included a brief (2 or 3 page) Superman comic story with art by Dave (Watchmen) Gibbons. I thought it was very cool, but I ended up listing my copy on ebay a couple of months ago, where it’s attracted very little interest.

I was never super keen on this one...

Technically, maybe... but nobody's checking inbound mail for this book. It affected the initial distribution, but not secondary market sales.

I listed a (raw) Canadian Price Variant newsstand on ebay yesterday... I have an offer in hand of C$650 (about US$500), and have countered to 2 other offers that were a bit lower. The book continues to be hot!

I have a couple of hundred I keep thinking of selling. I’ve been letting some of my low grade copies go for for awhile, but I keep debating the better ones. Every now and then, they look like the prices are set to spike, but then they settle back down. It may be that if the prices do go up, more may come loose from long-term collections.

A "Class Act" response. Thank you!

Just be advised that Eco is an acquired taste! His novel Foucault’s Pendulum (which I loved) has been called the “most bought, least read novel in the world.”

I just finished Serendipities: Language and Lunacy by Umberto Eco. It's a collection of essays about the Renaissance search for the perfect language of the angels. In the book of Genesis, God asks Adam to name all the animals, and it says that the names he gave them were proper according to their nature. In this Edenic time, there was only a single language, gifted by God, and (as illustrated by the story of Adam naming animals) the words of that language captured the true "essence" of the things they described, giving them magical or spiritual power. During the Renaissance and early Enlightenment periods, many famous thinkers - including the poet Dante and the mathematician Liebniz (who invented calculus) - attempted to recreate or rediscover this language of the angels. Like all of Eco's books, it's incredibly dense and slow-going... And while it also proves to the reader how little they know about things compared to Eco, it can be very rewarding.