cranky's

Many Harvey's like this. Definitely contenders!

Yes but no, that is an All-Star Squadron 63. They came from a second hand store near Vancouver Canada.

I found one

Just a great cover

I've been looking a long time for this one, not sure how scarce it is, but this is only copy I've even seen.

This is an odd book. Only newsstand of the run and no ads.

Haha well someone must've read it for DC to print for over a decade. I enjoy Grell for his art but it's got to be one of the worst costumes ever.

Those are good picks, (I'm trying to put together that Legion run currently) but was referring to Warlord specifically. I've picked up the odd issue cause I like Mike Grell a lot but wondered if there's a highlight in the run.

What's your best picks for reading material?

I had to look this up.... 59-75.... various inkers, and not a single cover in the bunch.

This thread needs a bump...

Part of my quest to find this is high grade newsstand.... such an unsung cover and one of the first comics I ever read.

Those two issues are in a transition between the first run of directs that have no boxes at all and those 65 and after which all have boxes, either UPC or spidey head. Maybe the UPCs for 63/64 were later in the print run once they'd decided on the change? I dunno, but there are UPC variant covers again after a long stretch starting with issue 113.

Agree. Bad joke. And not the case with the two in the photo I posted last page, 63 & 64. Two versions, of which UPC much harder to find.

https://www.comics.org/issue/52162/ And a couple others I can't remember, but from the Bolland cover run as well.

Hey they're affordable now...

I'm working on it... only two more to go!

Doom Patrol, Swamp Thing are the only ones I've noticed. There are Wonder Woman issues I can't find newsstands for but I think they're out there.

That is great, thank you! Interesting to see DC beginning to cater to a more mature audience through the direct market in the 80s while Marvel's effort consisted of what, MarvelFanfare basically? One thing I thought isthere would be more of a correlation between the direct market new content and the introduction of Vertigo but it seems they were putting out like material for years before they started branding it Vertigo. Good stuff here, I think I'm gonna keep an eye out for some Camelot 3000....

Is there a list somewhere of titles that went direct only? Alpha flight52 is dated Nov/87and for DC I'm looking at SwampThing 60 which came out in May/87. I'm curious about the transition at the time, like was it a gradual shift and why they chose those certain titles?

I was drawn down this alpha flight rabbit hole a while back and couldn't make sense. There do seem to be UPC-also copies of later issues (post direct-only) that appear few and far between. Then they go to UPC-only for a bit. I wondered if they were a limited market area only or something like that.

Don't do it. The paper and ink on these older books esp silver age marvel, is so fragile, in one light everything looks fine but in another you'll see the gloss or what ever the surface is like all smudged out.

I think it's extrapolating from their banning the mention of other grading companies. What baffles me is how CCS service doesn't constitute a blatant conflict of interest assuming you're getting books graded by the same company that's fixing them up for you.