RockMyAmadeus

As I've said before, no one cares what you think. I have the feeling that's not really true. (To the rest of you...why do you tolerate this?)

Transitional era. Cronze baby! Cronze!! By Cronze! Down with the Broppers!

I would say pure awesomeness until the end of the Wraith war. The book kinda lost its way after that. Why you gotta spoil it, Jerkfro? (I was just thinking about the 25th Anniversary covers, and wishing that Rom had made it just a few more issues....can you imagine how cool a Rom #80 would have been? Maybe I'll get a 75th Anniversary blank, and have Sal draw a Rom head on it. But yeah, it totally lost its way after #66.)

Indeed.

Naw, man, Rom is pure Bronze Age, disco ball, platform shoes, perm wearing goodness! Until issue #47. Then it's just pure awesome until the end.

Poor Dazzler...her era was over almost from the minute she showed up! How do you think ROM felt. I blame it all on Rom #1. Came out 12/1979 and signaled the end of a whole era because it was so......well, like ROM. I was just reading Rom #1 LAST NIGHT, and had to laugh at the "200 years ago, Galador's finest, etc."...and they're all wearing bell bottoms, open shirts, and one black guy (On Galador!) had a big afro. It was hilarious.

Bronze Storm - Copper Storm -

Poor Dazzler...her era was over almost from the minute she showed up!

As I've said before, there is no definitive start/end to Copper/Bronze. Some books, like Batman, retained a Bronze age feel until Miller did Dark Knight (1986.) Some books, like New Teen Titans, had a definite Copper vibe, even though it started in 1980. Solid Bronze is to at least the end of Byrne's X-Men, in early 1981. Solid Copper is definitely Turtles #1 in 1984. What's between? A whole lot of fuzziness. Spidey, for example. What's the end of Bronze, beginning of Copper? Nothing serious happened for years with Spidey, after graduating from college in 185. So, would it be Hobgoblin? That's early 1983. What about Superman? Superman remained static throughout Bronze, until Byrne took over with Man of Steel. That's late 1986! Thor? That would be #337, in mid-83. X-Men? Even when Cockrum returned, it still had a Bronze feel. It took Paul Smith's arrival (#165) to shake things up, and X-Men finally started to "feel" different. 1981 is a bit too early for Copper....1984 is a bit too late for Bronze. Everything else is up for grabs.

I'm betting you don't have a girlfriend.

Maybe Lobo mini series?? Very close, but he'd been replaced by this time. Lobo #1 was the hit of early Fall. Batman 442? Getting VERY warm...but no. I was a year off. Was it Robin #1? DING DING DING!! We have a Wow I thought Robin #1 when you asked that question. I can't remember what I did last week....but I remember what comics I bought in 1990. That cover was sooooooo shiny Yeah, both Marvel and DC were playing around with their cover stock in those months. Check out the Feb 91 Marvels...the paper stock is completely different from Jan and Mar issues.

Ditto on both points. Although, I know my old invoices must be long gone. It was fun when the new catalog would come out and I'd prep my order. With no real LCS option, that is where I got back issues and books that I missed at the grocery or drug store. Loved getting that catalog. The best part of American Comics, later American Entertainment (also Entertainment Monthly...I think...) was that the sold all sorts of books for HUGE discounts off of what was available at any of the LCSs I went to. In the time before the internet, you had few options. Cons were a Godsend. I bought an X-Men #64 at Wondercon in 1991 (in Oakland!) for $8....it's an easy 9.2. I still have it! At a shop, it would have been $30. But AE...man, they had the best prices. Not always in stock, but what there was....woohoo!

New Mutants #87 was second printed in the time between #100 and X-Force #1.

They WERE very unreliable, as far as having the actual items in stock, especially hot books, but...where they come in handy is in the prices that THEY thought the books should be selling for. Keeping in mind that these folks, like East Coast Comics, paid thousands of dollars to have these ads in, they were going to have to be more than just the Comics Values Monthly of ads. In order to get buyers, they had to keep fairly abreast of the comics market, or their multiple thousands of dollars investment would be for naught. I remember calling American Comics in the early 90's, too, and ordering all sorts of books. I still have the invoices somewhere. Man, was that fun. Thankfully, I never bought from Crestohl and Ross!

Yeah, that's pretty much where that whole idea started.

Those distribution numbers are based on an annual count of the circulation divided by 12 issues, and I don't believe some Diamond inventory was included, but I may be wrong - for that time period. And yes, they are also behind the times a bit, and that "12 months" was not immediately preceeding the issue it appeared in, and was a few months back. I just found out that NM 99 has the info in it, with the "last preceeding issue" being noted at 318K. I would estimate that to be around NM 95-96, so NM 98 was certainly higher than 318K (which may not include some DM copies) and I know NM exploded near the end, so I have no idea where this bizarre 250K number for NM 98 comes from. So, even if the entire DM+Diamond print run was included, that means if NM 90-93 sold 150K, 94-97 sold 250K and NM 97-100 sold 500K+, they'd be averaged in for the stated circulation. And NM definitively increased in sales over the Liefeld run, and that can be confirmed through many different sources. Anyone who actually believes the total circulation of NM 98 was only 250K is insane. NM was the hottest thing since sliced bread back then, and to fill demand they produced a second print of NM 87. No need for a second print of NM 98, so you do the math. And contrary to certain whackos on here, NM 98 was a hot issue, but initially due the first appearances of Gideon and Domino, and only peripherally, for the first Deadpool. But people bought it like mad, thinking Gideon or Domino (and maybe Deadpool) would be the "Next Cable". The book had THREE first appearances. I also remember reading/hearing somewhere, a quote from McFarlane (in a documentary?) about how much he was making back on The Hulk ($1 million+/year) and that when the Modern Age started with the Spider-man 1, X-Men 1, X-Force 1 insanity, all their books (ASM, X-Men, NM) were selling over 500K, which was why Marvel gave them carte blanche and effective control. If it was the hottest and everyone was making stacks of cash, why cancel it? I wouldn't put any stock in that post. Most of that information is completely wrong, and the information that isn't wrong is greatly distorted. When questioned, there are no sources given for any of it.

That ad is absolutely fascinating. What was also hot at this time? Clearly, McFarlane Amazings...ECC didn't even HAVE a full run for sale, and #300 was a $40 book, while #302-305 were $25! Robocop #1 $6 Justice League #1-2 $12 X-Men #142 - $8 X-Men #248 - $1 X-Men #266 - 60 cents NO McFarlane Hulks were available. Punisher #1, 10, and ANNUAL #1 - $22 PWJ #1, 6 - $22 (PWJ #1 was a huge book for me. I wanted that book so badly, I could taste it. Something about the cover just speaks to me. Now, I have about 50 copies. ) Spect Spidey #158 - $10 (ahhh, Cosmic Spidey...those were the days.) Batman #426 - $40 And what even I forgot... Groo #1 - $25 (Marvel) Yes, Groo was HUGE in 1990. Don't know why. I traded a Pacific #1 NM for a VF/NM copy of Batman #251, which I still have. Good call?

It absolutely had. The problem being encountered is that people "remember" that it was "the hottest thing since sliced bread" during the New Mutants run, before #100. It wasn't. Ghost Rider, McFarlane Spidey, X-Tinction Agenda itself, all dominated the headlines from this time period (the summer and early fall of 1990.) As fall progressed, it was all about Lobo and the continuing X-Tinction Agenda. As fall turned to winter, all of a sudden we had three new huge surprises: Superman #50 and Batman #457 in October, and Robin #1 in November. Supes #50 was almost instantly a $25 book (because the printruns for Supes at this time were pretty low...Cap City orders were an abysmal 22,250 copies!), Bats #457 was a $10 book, and Robin #1 was a $20 book. All three books, of course, instantly going into second printings. Not to say no one was paying attention to New Mutants #87...they were. But it took a back seat during 1990 to other, bigger caliber books. In fact, other than #87, you could still find the other books in the run, prior to #100, for a little more than cover price. In fact, here's an ad from East Coast Comics, that appeared in New Mutants #99 (a full year after #87): (No New Mutants #99s were harmed in the making of these scans.) Something that's been mentioned once or twice, but mostly overlooked, is that LIEFELD was actually the big ticket draw to the title, more than Cable, at least for a while, and this is reflected in those prices (and, in fact, in the Overstreet Updates). #86 - $10, #87 - $7. So, assuming the ads had to be finalized say, a month before printing...that means that East Coast Comics had, and was willing to sell, copies of New Mutants #87 for a mere $7 at the same time #98 was hitting the stands. Kinda puts the stake in the heart of the' "New Mutants #87 was a $25 wall book in 1990", no? After all...if readers could pick up #99, and see the ad, and send in a check or money order and buy a copy for $7 (all orders were limited to one copy, min order $15, S&H $3)...why would they pay $25 for one? Especially in an era where grade consciousness was fairly non-existent...? It all changed with #100.

Well...it IS slabbed, and currently sitting on eBay.

Wizard #1 came out in July of 1991. There's a San Diego Comicon variant of it, as it coincided with the con. New Mutants #87 was a $50-$60 book by then, and X-Force #1 had already been out for a few weeks.

Here's my hoard pic. Bottom row, left.

That was part of my hoard at one time. I don't think I sold it to you, though....

I can get behind that. It wasn't without precedent (McFarlane and Spidey being still fresh), and I'd be interested to see what the advance reorder numbers were. But no doubt, New Mutants #100 was the bombshell that blew everything up. I have little doubt (#2 notwithstanding) that #100 was the highest printed, highest ordered issue of the entire run, doubling both #98 and #99, and 3 times as many as the books in the 80's...and it still sold out and went to a second and third printing.

True....a lot happened in the 5 months between #95 and #100. Issue #100 was the catalyst, the tipping point, to Cable/Liefeld/New Mutants hysteria. Simmer simmer simmer simmer....#100 KA-BOOM!!!!! And it was all because of that last page. That last page really sent everyone into hysterics.

Oops. I meant that for this journal. My nad.