comiconxion

If someone here did buy them, I'd be happy to provide copies of the other letter that originally accompanied the set that was sent to me by Kevin. May be good to have down the road for provenance. It's also part of the history of the books as that is the set that help expose the counterfeits in the market.

Ironically, the second set I used to own is also being sold on eBay. It comes with the original letter that I got from one of Kevin's high school friends (Dale Leroux) and Kevin was kind enough to write up a hand-written authentication letter to go with it. It came with a collection of other super rare Turtles items that will likely make an appearance in an upcoming book on the Turtles (teaser). Kevin also posed for a picture with them when he made a visit over to my old house about a year and half ago. For future generations, I wanted to make sure the provenance was there even if I no longer owned the books. The Leroux copies in my opinion were in much better condition and were not signed inside (I sort of liked that as they weren't sold with signatures on them originally). Anyone out there looking for a set has a couple good options at the moment on eBay it seems.

One thing that is a little odd with the current auction is that I had originally included 2 letters from Eastman with the books - one that was sent to Eldorado Comics and the second which was a hand-written letter to me confirming that the yellow covered copies I had originally purchased were fake. Kevin sent it back to me along with a signed copy of "Underwhere" that he and Mark Martin had just completed. Maybe Brian ended up keeping the second letter as it wasn't needed for provenance since the first one pretty much confirms the authenticity of this set?

Yes, these were the first official set that I owned. I traded them to Brian as was described in the Scoop article - picked up some Turtles OA from Brian in exchange. I was later able to pick up 2 other legit sets - still have one. At the time I traded these, there weren't any other sets that had surfaced. The Steve Lavigne copies surfaced soon after.

These are original and were confirmed by Kevin back in the 90's. This was one of the first "official" sets to appear on the market in the mid-90's. Unfortunately, I had originally purchased a set of counterfeits, but the seller also had this original set that he agreed to substitute after Kevin had informed him that the yellow-covered copies he had originally sold me were fakes. These are the actual copies that appeared in the Overstreet Price Guide to demonstrate what originals looked like. The letters that Kevin wrote to authenticate this set is were also used as the source for confirming that only 50 copies of each issue off Gobbledygook were printed (previously it was reported 150 copies in Turtlemania). This set was traded to Brian Tatge (as reported in an issue of Scoop). Brian sold them along with the rest of his Turtles collection to Motor City Comics. Now they seem to appear here. I'm shocked at the price - pretty low for an authenticated set! I believe they previously sold for a lot more.

Actually, Dooney had a Gizmo story in Domino Chance #7 as well! Get both!

For Dark Knight, Lynn Varley actually hand-painted bluelines for every interior page. To create these, they made "blue photocopies" of the pages and Lynn painted on top of them. Then transparencies of the B&W art were then placed on top of them to be shot for production. These are different than some of the printing "proofs" that none of the original art team ever touched. These bluelines will pop up from time to time and will only cost you from $500-$3k (roughly). Original B&W art by Miller will typically cost you $7500-$500k (on average $25-40k for nicer pages).

One other book that I don't think that has been mentioned in this thread is Transformers #3. Although it's a "toy" book, it does have a place with superhero collectors as it is an early Black Spider-man appearance. There were three packs of TF #1-3 issued and the copies of #3 in the 3-pack had the same ad pages as you would find on TF #2 or #1 (a black background ad) instead of the one that was issued when it hit the newsstand (a tan background). Would one of these be considered a 2nd print or just a "variant?" Regardless, it's an interesting book to note from this timeframe.

It was a wedding gift - someone mocked it up with a corner box and covered up the personalization with an overlay. It was first published in Dave's 3rd sketchbook that he published and then in the larger Stevens books that were later published.

Thought of another one.. Nam #1 - I believe that had a 2nd printing. Classic Michael Golden.

Do magazines count? Marvel Illustrated Swimsuit #1 had a second printing. And a bunch of the graphic novels all had second printings - they did have different covers in some cases. There are also 2nd prints of Secret Wars #1-3 that appeared in 3 packs. And, don't forget about the first reprints - Star Wars #1-6!

I just listed this raw copy for sale in the For Sale section. Add it to the list! May be the lowest grade copy here, but still has all the glory of a 1st printing!

To celebrate this thread... here are some photos of Mutated #3 & 8 as well as copies of the harder to find issues of Saga of Elf Face #2 & 3! I believe the Mutated issues only had a print run of 100 copies each and were distributed in Connecticut. I went through my files and found 8 copies of Mutated #3 along with 6 copies of Saga of Elf Face #1 and some of my personal signed and number copies of #3. For those that are interested in owning some of these infamous comics, I'll list them some special bundles in the Comic Book Marketplace section.

There were at least eight issues of Mutated (the pre-cursor to the Saga of Elf Face). Unfortunately (for me), the Saga of Elf Face only made it to issue #3. I had a pin-up lined up for issue #4 that never saw print. Irononically, the print run on those books was higher than some books today. I believe the first issue of the Saga of Elf Face had a print run of of 5700. I believe issue #2 and 3 dropped to 2500 - still higher than Cerebus #1! But a lot harder to find nowadays. If anyone wants copies, drop me a line. I may be the only one that still has these! There was an issue #8?

Hey - Be nice! I actually drew the cover to issue #3 of the Saga of Elf-Face - my shining moment as a comic book artist (at the age of 15). And, Tim Freundlich and Steve Scotten (who published the book), were nice guys. What people may not realize is that the Saga of Elf-Face was actually a reprint of stories that originally appeared in an even rarer book titled "Mutated." I'd like to see who else out there has copies of those books! I have copies of issue #3 and #8 floating around the office.

Yes, the 2nd printings of 3, 4 and 5 were all printed at the same time as issue #11. You can tell becuase of the ads on the back cover and throughout the book match to issue #11.

I always thought this Turtles piece was a concept piece for an ad in the CBG for Eastman and Laird's appearance at WonderCon in '86 as there is that big Coca Cola sign when you enter the city. It was one of the better pieces that Kevin was selling on the site last year. But, for less than $2k, you can buy a nice published page from the original first 10 issues.

I had a shot at it when if first came out for $75, but I didn't collect Mike's Cap art at the time, so I passed. I also passed on the complete Cap Annual #8 interior art around that time. I think it was $800. Those are some pieces I wish I had bought, but I didn't.

Being a long time fan of Mike's G.I. Joe art, Mike Zeck and John Beatty were kind enough to offer me all the art (including prelims) to G.I. Joe #21 when they were drawing it. They even named the arcade in the story after me and drew me into the story. I don't see myself selling the final pages from that book anytime soon because of the personal connection to it. But, the Renegar cover should be out there somewhere! That didn't come with the collection.

Odd that one of the prizes advertised wasn't a Gold Turtlemania! Instead it was original artwork from the book (still very cool).

I first talked to Kevin in 1996 about how many copies of Gobbledygook were printed. He told me back then (docuemented in a letter) and still maintains to this day that there were 50 copies of each printed. Allegedly, they ran them off in batches of 5 which explains why there is some variation across the printings. Let's face it, I don't think Kevin and Peter sold many of the copies of Gobbledygook that they printed and they weren't widely distributed. Most of the legitimate copies that have surfaced in recent years have come out of the collections of Kevin and Peter or friends and family members that they were given to. Kevin actually owned the original proofs that the books were printed from up until recently so I have to believe that he knew how many he printed of the book.

Transformers came out a few years later than G.I. Joe. And, there were bagged three packs of issues #1-3 that were offered of that book. I remember buying 20 or so of those three packs myself - bagged and boarded them as soon as I pulled them out of the thee pack and sold them straight to collectors for a few bucks each. So, they probably survived a lot better.

I think part of the reason that it's scarcer is that G.I. Joe didn't really become a "hot" comic until a few months later. I'm not sure what the print run was, but I don't think it was as anything close to as high as it got when it peaked around issue #50. I remember going to local comic shows at the time and the hype around G.I. Joe started a couple months after issue #21 and you didn't see dealers start stockpiling back issues until around issue #28 (although you started seeing some of that with issues #22 and 23). The first few years, kids were keeping the comic alive and may not have been as concerned with keeping their Joe comics in tip top shape - they wanted to read them! Also, it is a dark cover which is why it's harder than some of the other early issues. That's my perspective having been pretty active buying Joe comics back in the day.

It exists in a private collection and has been off the market for a long time...I wouldn't expect it for sale or posted on CAF anytime soon. Also... I wouldn't mind knowing if this exists, even if I can't afford to own it myself. Just the fact that someone has it would be interesting to me.

I've heard that those two covers are still owned by the same person and he's passed up some rather large offers for them over the years. Who can blame the guy as they are both great covers. If you want to own something close, best bet is to to try and track down one of the recreations that Zeck did a few years back - he did a few variations of each of those covers.