Brock

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.

There’s also a scarcer “gold” logo variant of this book, though the logo is actually a sort of brown colour.

It's funny how many times Man-Thing has been mentioned in this thread. This one freaked me out as a kid...

I was 12, and bought it off the newsstand. I remember thinking the miniseries idea was such a brilliant and obvious but overlooked idea... In 1977, the TV miniseries “Roots” was the biggest thing on television, but it took two years for someone to think about applying the idea to comics. At the time, anthology titles were in decline, but #1s were a hot commodity among collectors. And I also remember Untold Legend of the Batman as the 2nd miniseries.

I haven’t read it since it first came out, but I remember it for gorgeous art and a reasonably good (but not outstanding) story.

I once tried to think up the worst possible Amalgam Comics combinations. My top (bottom?) three were: Mr. Fantastic + Plastic Man + Elastic Man = the Fantastic Plastic Elastic Timber Wolf + Wolverine = Tambourine Booster Gold + the Juggernaut = the Boogernaut

You could always go for reprint editions other than Milestone books, like Marvel Tales #137 for AF 15, True Believers Daredevil #1 for DD 1, or Amazing Adventures #1 for X-Men 1. There are probably Marvel Legends giveaways for most of these as well.