Qalyar

I'm often a Dark Horse fan, but... Yeah, this.

Thanks to another board member, I've finally got my copy of the Babylon 5 Best Buy limited edition (and SDCC, but this was a Best Buy copy) mini-comic created by JMS in tribute to Richard Biggs and Andreas Katsulas, the two cast member who had passed away before the creation of the direct-to-DVD Lost Tales. Because it was distributed as a pack-in in DVD cases under the case clips, it is, shall we say, pretty wavy right now, but I think most of that should press out of this lightweight paper without incident. In any case, it's fantastic to finally own the elusive little thing.

Matt is many things, but he's not a comic book publishing company. ... or is he?? ...

Yes... for the most part. All of the story content from Batman 400 is included in The Joker: The Bronze Age Omnibus, although the omnibus doesn't include Stephen King's forward or the four standalone illustration pages (Grell / Kaluta / Wrightson / Rude) from the end of the issue.

I'll probably try to grab Enter the House of Slaughter, Stray Dogs, and the Blade Runner one-shot. Maybe also the Resistance: Uprising book, even though it's reprint material, because I'm more or less collecting J. Michael Straczynski at this point. My interest was briefly piqued when FCBD listed the Vampire: the Masquerade book as "Original Exclusive Content", but they're wrong; it's just a reprint of Vault's mediocre #1 from last year.

On its way back to me now is a box of Moderns. Three of the books got 9.6s; none have grader's notes. The only book in the lot with notes is a 9.0 that has "very light creasing to cover" that I... guess I missed? Luckily, not an important book, but I'll get to try a round of everyone's favorite party game once it arrives: Spot That Crease!

Midnight Nation was a 2000-2002 series, written by J. Michael Straczynski and published by Top Cow under his Joe's Comics imprint. It's actually a really good read. If you're not familiar with it, the TPB isn't too hard to pick up. As of today, I have a complete graded set; 24 slabbed books. They're all entered in this Registry set. It's the 2021 Best in Set Type winner for Midnight Nation, beating out... hmm. Zero other candidates. Speaking of which, I'll be working to get images uploaded over the next few days. I don't have a legal scanner and I'm a terrible slab-photographer, so I tend to put that off. But with the last books for the collection finally on their way back from CGC, it's past time. A lot of people here will look and wonder why I did this. There are no great rarities here. No key issues. No valuable books. Complete 12-issue runs of the normal covers are frequently available on Ebay for dollar-bin prices, and even the rarest of the Dynamic Forces covers or foil-logo variants can be obtained for $20 and some patience. You can almost certainly assemble all 24 of these books as nicely-presenting raws for under 200 bucks. And there's not much chance of a film or Netflix adaptation here, so there's no way to pretend these are hot spec books... at least, not with a straight face. Needless to say, I didn't build this set for the money. Back in 2000, I was managing operations at a comics and collectibles store, and I read these off the shelf. In the years since, I've introduced several friends to this series, either with timeworn copies of the individual issues, or... slightly less timeworn copies of the trade paperback. Many years ago now, Midnight Nation was the first exposure to comics for one of those friends. She would eventually come to read a wider array of books, but she always considered this one her favorite. She also became more than a friend, and after a couple of years together, she accepted my proposal. However, real life isn't a comic book story, and not all the endings are happy ones. Before then -- a year or two before we first dated, even -- she had received a diagnosis of terminal cancer. At that time, they gave her six months. She beat those expectations many times over, but the inevitable only waits for so long, and we both knew that our engagement was going to be more symbolic than anything else. She passed away shortly after. There are a lot of reasons to collect comics. There are perhaps not quite as many good reasons to spend the time and money to have them graded and slabbed. I have collected more conventionally-collective books. But I slab a lot of weird stuff these days because the hunt for obscure books is more fun for me than just throwing cash at the same "keys" everyone else wants. But these books aren't obscure. Except for the challenge of finding the highest-grade copies out there, there isn't much of a chase. I'm building this set because it holds memories for me, both fond and bittersweet, and the least I can do in return is to treat that like it's valuable. Because it is. With all that said, this set is complete, but it isn't finished. Just like most any set that is taken seriously by its owner, I'm determined to present and preserve the highest-grade copies of these books that I can. How am I doing on that goal? Of the 24 collectible issues here, I've got 9.8 copies for 14 of them. Not too shabby for a first pass. And it's actually one book better than that, which I'll get to in a little bit. Another 5 books are 9.6: #1A, #2, #4, #12, and the normal version of the Wizard 1/2. Trying to go from 9.6 to 9.8 is... well, I think we all know the challenges there. So I'm probably not going to be chasing upgrades here for awhile unless I trip over a copy that someone else slabbed. And that's not currently possible for most of these. My copy of #4 is the top of the census, and the only 9.8 copes of #2 and #12 are Signature Series slabs; I don't collect yellow label books. I'm pretty sure there are 9.8 copies of #1A out there, although the census there is a mess because CGC did not provide distinct labels for #1B until early 2021 (at least some of the 8 copies in 9.8 are probably this cover, though). There are five copies of the Wizard 1/2 in 9.8, out there somewhere, so there's that, I guess... And the last 5 books in the set are down at 9.4. Still high-grade copies, certainly, but with the most significant room for improvement. One of them, technically, I already have improved. My copy of #1B (the "Variant Cover" in the Registry) is the first such copy that CGC assigned a distinct label to. I knew that wasn't a particularly high-grade book; it was submitted as part of my discussion with CGC about breaking the two covers out to begin with. I already own another copy of #1B -- a 9.8 copy -- purchased pre-slabbed (from Portugal!), but it was graded before they gave the second cover its own category, so I'll have to have it reholdered for it to fit in the Registry slot (which is fine, it's also in an old-style holder that needs an update to match the rest!). The rest are what passes for some of the hardest books to find in the set: The so-called "European Exclusive" (it wasn't, I'm pretty sure) Dynamic Forces variant of #1, the Graham Cracker Comics store exclusive Pink Foil variant of #2, the Wizard 1/2 Special Edition (Gold Foil), and the Wizard 1/2 Blue Foil variant (which was a limited edition of 999 copies). I've got the top of the census for the #2 Pink Foil and the 1/2 Blue Foil. There are five copies of the Wizard 1/2 Special Edition in 9.8 slabs, and all of two copies of the defect-magnet black-cover European Exclusive in that grade. So they exist, sort of. But I'll probably have to make my own if I realistically want to push the numbers higher. There have also been two 9.9s received by books in this series. One is for #1, although it's impossible to know at this point whether that's an A cover or B cover book. The other is for the Top Cow Classics in Black & White reprint. These were both very early CGC slabs, graded around July 2001. And, as far as I know, never seen since. I assume they're in a personal collection somewhere. I'd certainly like to own them; I don't expect I ever will. And that's fine, really. I should also note that there are foreign-language republications of Midnight Nation. I don't have copies in a grade I'm willing to slab. Yet... For now, though, with this set complete at 9.4+, it's probably going to drop down my priority list for a bit. Obviously, it means a lot to me personally, but I'm not a high-enough volume submitter to make 9.8 pre-screening an option. And while I certainly didn't do all this out of a sense of financial investment, playing the 9.6/9.8 lottery when I probably can't sell undercopy slabs is not extremely appealing. Hopefully, I'll run into some of the existing books that would serve as upgrades in the meantime.

The key difference is that it wasn't a random someone, it was a publisher doing this (and doing so intentionally, rather than the random error books that sometimes happen). A similar situation happened in the 1970s, when British importer and reprint publisher Thorpe and Porter sourced a huge pile of remaindered DC (well, mostly...) books and slapped them four at a time into custom covers, then sold them as variously-titled Double Double Comics. In this case, there is no "real" comic book. T&P's Double Double Comics exist only as a T&P cover with more-or-less random remaindered interiors. They also receive Universal labels from CGC. Obviously, these aren't books for everyone. Personally, I think the Rural Home Red Circle Comics #4s with remaindered interiors are a fascinating piece of comic production history. And I do think CGC's labeling practices are correct here.

The Winter Soldier book got a blue label because there are enough such books that CGC seems it an (unintentional) print variant rather than a one-off error. See the black error edition of Venom Lethal Protector, for example, or the blue panels Sandman. As to why the upside down book got blue instead of green? But, seriously, my guess is that's because the error didn't compromise the book in any way. It has the correct cover and all the correct pages, in the correct order (more or less). I seem to recall that "manufactured with one staple" books get blue labels as well, presumably on vaguely similar grounds.

I believe CGC follows the cover in these cases. I know there are some slabbed examples, so someone can prove me right or wrong. Unlike the Red Circle 4s, I believe such books do get green labels -- which makes sense, really, because that XMen/Spiderman mashup book is an error vs. Rural Home's intentionally-created oddities.

Indeed, this was fun regardless. Congrats to the winners! And especial thanks to the panel of judges. And don't worry everyone, that flipbook will still get slabbed regardless.

But that's exactly what should happen, because that would be a married cover. The interior pages of Captain Marvel Jr. inside that Red Circle #4 don't belong in a Captain Marvel Jr. cover. Long ago, those pages were inside one of those covers. But that cover was removed when the book was remaindered, before Rural Home acquired the interior. Rural Home manufactured this book with this interior. No, they didn't print the interior. No, what they did almost certainly wasn't legal, and absolutely couldn't happen now. But regardless, a comic book publisher combined this cover and these pages, and that's different than a collector, now, deciding to Frankenstein book parts together.

No, this will get a legitimate grade. The story here is that RHP printed sort of a lot more #4 covers than they did #4 interiors. RHP wasn't exactly a high-budget company flush with cash, so this presented a problem. Their solution was, as far as can be determined, to buy a lot of coverless, remaindered comics in bulk, staple the Red Circle #4 cover to them, and sell them! There are actually comics of Red Circle Comics #4 that contain the interior for Red Circle Comics #4. There are also copies that contain the interior of a crazy array of books from a whole swathe of publishers: Batman, Claire Voyant, Crime Does Not Pay, Dairy Loves, GI Joe, Love Confessions, Love Letters, Sabu, Secret Hearts, Superman, Women Outlaws, Young Love, and very likely others. Probably the most desirable known variant includes the interior from Dorothy Lamour #4, which was cancelled before publication and so is not known to exist as its own book!

It probably wasn't the smartest decision ever given the way the world is, but I just saw them in concert on the Weezer / Fallout Boy / Green Day Hella Mega Tour. Green Day, I must say, remains a fantastic stage show. And if anyone has any questions whether they're still a punk band... go see them live. Seriously.

Exactly. I hope that at least one person looked at my assembly of Dark Crystal/Labyrinth flipbooks and grew jealous of my collection wondered what's wrong with me.

Well, at least it makes sense for this title to have some QA challenges, since the graders gotta go fast, and all.

I was under the impression the "SUPER SUBSCRIBER OFFER!" version of this was the second printing, and the "FREE FROM SEGA" was the first printing. I know the census has both first and second printings for #1/4, but ... this slab makes me think that either I have no idea how the printings on this thing work or CGC didn't label all the slabs properly. Or both, frankly.

There was a brief moment when Grips wasn't completely obscure, because it's Tim Vigil work that predates Faust. But that's been, um, awhile.

0.5. If there was an 0.8, like there is a 1.8 for some reason, this might be that. But there's not, so it isn't. That said, despite the terrible technical grade this will receive, this actually presents pretty well from the front. And the pence stamp makes this an extremely interesting bit of comic history, since, as noted above, this book also exists in a UK-market pence edition.

Something something AF 15 on a toilet...?

Sad Sack, obviously.

No take backs! It's yours to cherish forever, in your dreams...

Okay, but don't forget, you asked for this.

I'm not sure that wouldn't still have been a trainwreck. But somewhat back on topic, having a major, active superhero learn that a past relationship resulted in him fathering unexpected children would (potentially) be a nuanced storyline that addresses real-world issues of sexuality, paternity, parenthood, and even the idea of what it means to be a "family". That's surprisingly on-point for some of Spiderman's better arcs, not that I have much faith we would have ever gotten anything like that. Instead we got Goblin Babies, raising some serious consent questions (among other issues). And the Green Goblin O-face panel, which no one needed, ever Yeesh. That's sort of a parallel to what goes wrong with 90% of the non-heterosexual characters in comics. Sexuality is a serious topic; that doesn't mean it's unsuited to the comic medium, but it certainly is unsuited to industry executives who seem more willing to play coming-out stories as the Previews capsule teaser of the month than as a mature component of a well-written character.

Yep, pretty much this. Doubly so for as high profile a character as this. You know, now that I think about it, there's probably a really interesting, meaningful story to be told about the parallels between closeted sexuality/"coming out" and the genre trope of the secret identity. That would be the sort of story that could address sexuality in a way that would (or could, at least) come across as more than a clickbait cash grab. But, sadly, I don't see that happening here. If I'm wrong, crow'll be for dinner.