Get Marwood & I

Hi Guys, During the interlude I've been busy gathering further evidence on both themes in this thread I started. I've more or less worked out the L Miller situation, and will post the findings soon. Gunsmoke Western, it turns out, is not the only title which has an L Miller indicia line, so it is no longer correct to say (as most reference sites do) that Thorpe & Porter were "the sole distributors of Marvel comics in the early 1960's". They weren't. Turning to the early price font variants, I've populated tables for a number of additional titles and, again, more or less have the complete picture of the brief time period where these variations exist. That detail later (with pictures - I moved some of my old ones into a folder and that seems to have broken some of the picture links in my previous posts). As to why these font / price format variations exist, I've been less successful. CGC are not responding to any mails and, whilst I've had responses from a number of high profile industry figures, all replied in the "can't help you but good luck in your search" mould. I've sent private messages to a number of board members who had links to Sparta, but no luck so far. So as it stands, I know what exists, and in what pattern, but still don't know why. But there may be a glimmer of hope.... Despite being advised that I was wasting my time, I wrote to Steve Ditko, firstly, to thank him for the impact on my life his work has had, but also - somewhat cheekily I guess - to see if he knew why these font variations exist. Maybe he would surprise me with an answer! So I composed a letter on the 6th of January this year and my wife (who's been kicking up a storm elsewhere from the looks of it) took it to the post office on the 7th. She forgot to put the equivalent of return postage in the envelope. So I thought I'd be a lucky man if my letter did not grace his dust bin. 13 days later....... I can't bring myself to open it!

Nope, you and the other one who suggested it are both wrong. For the record, I'm based in England and this is the only board i.d. I've ever had. I have no idea why you would think otherwise, or who Lavaman is/was. I see pretty much every online response has been derisive so far, so my instincts were right. A Mark Jewellers insert to the first person who says "so much for last post". Enjoy the Silence, unless you're a Doctor Who fan that is.

So, a post that actually has something factual to say about Chip and his dealings gets no response whilst the tit for tat one-upmanship posts rattle on. This is why I stopped posting on the boards after a brief spell trying to get people interested in comic related discussion points (see “Re: How does having the last post in a thread make you feel?” for my less than subtle goodbye). I joined the boards because I had a lot to say about comics, having been a collector with a variant focus for many years. After an initially encouraging start – I got some good responses to my Pence Summary and Font Variant threads – both posts fizzled out despite my attempts to prompt further debate. Bottom line, no one was really interested. So I posted away in other threads, adding pictures and additional knowledge and was more or less ignored by the ‘regulars’ of those threads. My attempt to establish whether Marvel 1999 price variants exist re-ignited a fight between two board members, so I knocked that one on the head. The boards feel like a private party sometimes and you’re not invited because, God forbid, you might know something that the ‘regulars’ don’t. And we couldn’t have that could we. Because I’m a human being, with all the frailties that brings, I checked the boards for a while to see if anyone would notice I’d gone. They didn’t of course, but I did start to follow posts like this one about Chip while I looked. And I started to feel quite depressed. What a rotten thread this is. I can’t for the life of me think why otherwise intelligent, busy people would want to spend so long on here arguing over and over again about the same points. The desire to land the ‘killer’ blow in a thread and be seen as the moral conscience is clearly so important to some members it’s nauseating. They must go to bed thinking about it, wake up thinking about it and spend their day thinking about it. The best post in this whole rotten thread was “can we just DROP the mental health thing?” from Porcupine48 who, I’m guessing, would rather not have had to post it. And here I am coming out of self-enforced exile to add to the dross. Why am I bothering?! But here’s one difference – I will not post on these boards again, regardless of what responses come. I know that most will be scathing and I’ll likely be accused of being flouncy and a prima donna. Someone will spot something in the post that allows them to post a funny cutting one liner response, and that will be followed by smiley-winking-clapping face emoticons. Probably no one will say “You know, the guys got a point” and let it stand. I’m off to live my life. However dull it is, I need to find something better to do than post here. To the few good people on the boards who offered a little support, and avoid these rotten posts – like I should have – thank you.

Thanks for your interest!

Actually guys, ignore this - the thread was hijacked by children within 30 seconds so I've given up on it. Your thread rocks by the way - some great stuff here

So all newsstands that are priced the same as DM books are same as newsstands priced higher/lower than DM ones. Got it Yes, unless they are the same issue (like the ones posted in this thread). Please don't allow your ignorance and stupidity to ruin Dog Like Sparky's thread. Ladies! Ladies whoa! Looks like I hit her nervers again! What is it about you and people not agreeing with you, disagreeing with others I mean I could kill you again with insults but I believe in civility OK guys, you've pretty much ruined the thread now so I won't be contributing anything further after this. My intention was to try to expand on our collective knowledge in this area, not to squabble like children. I doubt any board member with something to add will do so with this nonsense going on. Another missed opportunity. Thanks and good night.

Welcome to the Boards!! Indeed!

Hmmm. That's why I started a new thread, to get away from bickering. Facts aside, no bickering please.

Cheers

Hi Guys, Sorry if this has been covered already, but if anyone here has any info on these: Marvel Oct 1999 ~ Jan 2000 Newsstand Price Variants ....please dive in! Cheers

Guys, This information has been touched on in other threads, but none of them seemed to go anywhere and most of them included lots of pointless bickering. So here's my own attempt to clarify the existence of Marvel newsstand price variants. Back in the day when I was an ASM Completist, I collected the following books: As you can see, as well as the usual $1.99 Direct Editions, three Newsstand versions exist for each ASM numbers 10, 11 and 13 at $1.99, $2.29 and $2.49. I never found an issue 12, but I think Marvel skipped that one as it was a double sized $2.99 special issue. So it looks like Marvel did a similar test market exercise to the 30 / 35 cent variants unless anyone can identify another reason as to why they would produce three different Newsstand prices for the same issue. Being an ASM Completist, I never went too much further to see if the price variants existed for all titles, but the few scans I kept from online sources seem to indicate that they do. Here are all nine Spideys: I'm a little surprised that there is not more definitive information out there about these, given the amount of collectors who go after price variants. So, does anyone have any more examples to add, or additional information? Is anyone interested in hunting them all down? My days are done, but it would be a great pass time for a 30 / 35 cv collector who had achieved the set and was looking for a new challenge.... Onwards!

ASM 179 has been difficult for me as well. I have 176,177 and 178 with the Pizzazz insert but still no 179. I think I had three at one point. I picked one up at a London Fair thinking it was a MJI. Nice surprise when it wasn't. Alas, all sold now

I always liked the look of issues where the black ink was either absent or running out....

Cheers. Here's another Lizard issue - I saw this on Ebay ages ago but didn't get it:

This one looks great once you put on your 4-D glasses..... Great! Gives you a headache if you look at it too long

This one is not from manufacturing. What's happened here is that this book was the first book in a comic book box, placed somewhere in direct sunlight for a long time. The sunlight has caused a fade on the front cover area that was exposed because of the handle/hole in the front of the box. I knew there was a reason I posted here! It's so obvious now you say it. How did I miss that!? Well done Sir

Amazing Spider-Man #179 and it appears to be missing some of the lines in the bar code. Spot on

Gil Kane outer - Ross Andru inner

I loved Pizzazz Inserts. They definitely weren't put into pence copies. If you find one, it's a construct. One thing that is rarely commented upon is the different types of insert. Amazing Spidey 176, 177 and 178 had the distinctive red and blue version: But ASM 179 had this pretty yellow and green one: I always found the 179 much harder to locate. My first copy was a CGC 9.6 which arrived from the states in a jiffy bag smashed to pieces. But that's another story....

Can anyone tell me what cover this is, and what's missing from it?

Excellent! I do like a wonky cut. Very difficult to fit in a mylar sleeve though. Anyone familiar with this cover should spot the error:

I love that book. Didn't Ross Andru do the art though?

Error fred overload! Some nice miswraps there. I can see I'm going to have to dig deep into that flash drive..... ?

Hello everybody. I started a new Errors post and was promptly directed here by Mr Moon. What a cracking load of errors so far! Here's some more: