Get Marwood & I

I agree - 1986 to 1990, there were comic shops everywhere in Englandville. Wish that were still the case...

I managed to get all 3 Spidey's back in the day. Gone now alas, but here are the pictures - you don't often get to see the back packaging:

Any collector who doesn't know the feeling is, I suspect, a big fat liar

sympathy ˈsɪmpəθi/ noun 1. feelings of pity and sorrow for someone else's misfortune. "they had great sympathy for the flood victims" synonyms: commiseration, pity, condolence, consolation, comfort, solace, support, encouragement; More 2. understanding between people; common feeling. "the special sympathy between the two boys was obvious to all" synonyms: rapport, fellow feeling, affinity, empathy, harmony, accord, compatibility; More

It is! To most, each variant is only worth a bit of a coin!

I was going to 'like' this as a sign of support but then realised it's probably not nice to 'like' a story about another's misfortune. So I was going to 'sad' it instead. But that could be construed negatively. So I've concluded that we need a new reaction to use on those 'sorry for your loss' occasions In the meantime Dave, I'll let your mate do the talking.

Thanks again Aman619, that's clearer. Guess we'll just have to put it down to sloppy stripping

24! Don't ever hold out on me again MasterLogan Only kidding, I'm pleased you dived in for three reasons. First up, your new books makes 24 - here's the updated chart: Secondly, your background summary shows what I suspected - that there are indeed other lunatics out there trying to track these down. I'm not alone! It usually links to a character - me Spidey, you Wolvey and X-Men - such is the completists wont. It also shows that the avid collector will indeed pay a premium, dispelling the naysayers who struggle to comprehend why someone would offer a large bounty on a book which, in it's 'normal' state, is fairly worthless. Again, the completists desire is a powerful one. I wish you luck in your hunt MasterLogan and if I ever see the books you want, they're yours my friend. Thirdly, your experience matches mine - years of looking and years of only finding the same limited set of books. @FlyingDonut staked his claim earlier that all newsstands would have these variants. I'm going to propose the opposite. I believe that the titles in my chart may be the only ones that had the variant treatment. There is no direct evidence for this, but if two people on different sides of the pond keep finding the same books, and never find one outside of those on the chart above, then that's a powerful indicator that they may be it. I never say never. But I do like to draw conclusions. Years of looking and years of not finding tell a story. Until someone finds a book outside of the title range here then I'm inclined to say that's it. Similarly, I think it's unlikely we'll see a 5 month run. If ASM 14 and FF 22 exist, they are hiding like a hiding thing from Hiding Town Hidingville. Or that could just be my cunning plan to draw out those holding back who are in the knowing know all knowledge...... All good fun

Nothing wrong with that. Who needs Hulks and X-Mens anyway when you can have the Kids instead

I've probably mentioned this before, but at 16 or so I sold a VFNish AM15 for less than £100 to buy clothes to impress the girls. And to add insult to injury, it didn't work. Catweazle meets Doctor Who wasn't the look they were looking for, apparently.

@Aman619, thanks for jumping in I've read your explanations but, if you don't mind, I want to make sure I'm understanding them correctly. I know you know what you mean, but I'm not sure I currently do If I look at the printing plate below I can see the raised part of the plate that will, for example, be responsible for printing the 1/- price in black ink on the comic cover: In the case of the ASM #5, there will presumably have been a similar such plate that printed this 12c price in black ink as follows: Are we saying that, once the 12c copies had been run that the same printing plate was then altered so that the cents price was 'cleared off' and replaced with a pence price? If so, that would explain why, when the pence copies were then printed, parts of the 12c still showed: The failure to completely clear the 12c price was the reason that tiny parts of it can still be seen. Is that right? Or are we saying that two separate plates would have been made up - one cents, one pence - prior to any printing taking place? If so, explain to me if you can why the pence one would have remnants of the 12c ones price on it please. That would surely mean two cents ones were made, and then one of them would have been altered to make the pence one - right? The reason I persist is that if there was only one plate, then the cents must have been printed first. How else would remnants of it exist on the pence copies? Hope I'm explaining myself correctly. Do you think I can find a video anywhere on the web that shows how it was done!

@Aman619 @VintageComics Guys! You've both been online since I posted this - are your notifications not working or have I gone too far through the tedium barrier?

23! It's great that we're finding more, but odd that only for the titles that I originally set out. It makes you wonder whether these were the only titles that got the treatment, doesn't it...

Or 'tear', as the case may be...

Pence ramblings alert! Pence ramblings alert!

Nice analysis, thanks gadzukes I've never seen a definitive / factually informed statement on the % print run figures for pence copies myself, only anecdotal speculation from the usual crowd / industry figures. Chuck had this to say in one of his Mile High articles: "Print runs varied, but UK editions were clearly printed in far smaller numbers than US editions. My best guess is that UK editions may have constituted as few as 10% of the total print runs during the 1970's and 1980's." 5-10% has always been the ballpark figure whenever it's been pondered as far as I can see. I doubt the % of submissions to CGC could be relied upon personally as an indicator of actual volumes. If there was an office in the UK, I would likely get mine graded (even though I'm not that into graded books - but ASM 1-5 would probably fair better in slabs, once I came to sell). I suspect there are many like me who baulk at the idea of sending their precious books overseas, especially seeing as how costly it is and how long it seems to take to get them back. I suspect the census % would increase somewhat, if CGC got off their lazy backsides and opened a London office. Frankly, it's always puzzled me why they haven't, perhaps in partnership with the right UK based people, as I'm sure there's a buck to be made. Sorry, a quid

Thanks - it looked like incomprehensible gibberish when a I first posted it, so I edited it a few times. Running already printed sheets through again to overwrite the price just didn't make sense to me, although it certainly looks like that might have been done in the example - probably an illusion. Cheers Mike / Mark, thanks for your thoughts I do know they didn't run already printed sheets through and overwrote them, but I'm not an expert. Aman619 knows a lot about the printing process, hence my earlier call out to him, and I hope he'll dive in at some point. He did explain it all to me once, but I can't find it. It might be in the font variation thread somewhere. Liz - like the new avatar. Very sedate. I will miss the old boy though - remember this one from last year?: Not enough mucking about in 2018 so far for my liking. First Barry sighting though On the subject of the printing process, which has always interested me, I picked up this pack of an old Alan Class reprint from 1962. The pictures aren't the best, but you should see 'Out of This World' #21 along with the four original cover plates plus COA signed by Alan Class himself (he's still going strong): Looking at the plates you can kind of see how it was done, with a fairly crude scraping out of the plate in places where no ink was wanted. It's a cool thing and a pence copy (albeit not a Marvel reprint, but it's my thread and I'll post what I like in it) Anyway, let's see if the printing experts chip in soon. All good fun Not long until Bobby's thread now. Keep 'em peeled.....

@Aman619 @VintageComics - Guys, what do you think of Ryan's ( @Foley) observation here? Does the fact that tiny parts of the 12c price can still appear to be seen behind the 9d price indicate that the 12c was first and the 9d second? Logic says so, yes? Coupled with the article I posted from Chuck a few posts back which says US copies first, is this sufficient evidence to settle this long questioned scenario do you think? Or just one random example for one days printing schedule? Your thoughts please, while I look for more examples (I have 3,007 images to look at tomorrow). The two visible dots of black above and to the left of the 9d copy do seem to line up with the 12c in the US copy, but maybe it's a printing glitch / trick of the eyes? Whaddaya think? Cheers, Steve

Sooper! I want a full report after

ASM 1 is just a popular book so naturally gets more attention. No difference in volumes that I'm aware of. There's a scan of all 101 pence ASM' s in my kudos thread