Qalyar

I really like JMS as a writer but man this story (and the Goblin Babies one) are tough to love.

The other variants don't really like to talk about Kang, the Conqueror of Sheep.

Given an infinite number of Kangs, some of them will have every possible sexuality.

This. I support broader diversity -- in many senses of that term -- among comic book characters. I'm not even opposed to giving existing characters "coming out" stories, because that parallels the real-world experiences of people who don't fit heteronormative expectations. But... we've had this character since 1989, we've explored his experiences growing up (albeit with weird sliding timeline and time travel shenanigans), interacting with peers, and exploring romance. It feels like he was selected just because he's a high profile character, and that makes DC seem with it. Which is sad all around.

Genuine quote, it's from Mein Kampf.

The big one that's like 15' long? That's a cool object.

I'm a Muppet, you know what I mean...

Oooh, a contest based on collecting stuff no one else cares about? Right up my alley. Labyrinth and Dark Crystal are great films, and aren't unpopular at all. On the other hand, their comic book adaptations... What's that, you say? The original Labyrinth comic adaptation, Marvel Super Special #40, is a fairly interesting book that (like most of the Super Specials) can be tough at high grades? Well, that's true. But this isn't about Marvel Super Special #40. It's also not about the three-issue Labyrinth mini-series, either in direct market or newsstand. It's not even about any of Boom!'s Labyrinth spinoffs, although they've got plenty of convention covers and obscure promotional pieces that might qualify. No, my entry in this contest is... this: The sane first response is to ask what is that thing? So, Tokypop -- the manga publisher -- got the rights to do a manga-format spinoff of both Dark Crystal and Labyrinth, titled Legends of the Dark Crystal and Return to Labyrinth, respectively. Those are big, chonky manga books that can't be slabbed due to size. About the same time, Sony Pictures decided to release a three DVD box set, including those two films plus Mirrormask. It was a match made in marketing. Tokypop published this stiff cardboard cover preview flipbook -- from one side, an excerpt from their upcoming Legends of the Dark Crystal manga, and from the other side, a similar excerpt from Return to Labyrinth. Sony slipped the books into the box set's slipcase, and tacked a hastily-printed note to the back of the box saying that it included an exclusive preview comic. Presto -- a collectible, of a sort, is born. This is deep in obscurity. The other books presented so far? Batman #209? 117 slabbed copies. Resurrection Man #1? 17 slabs, not counting the second printing. Western Crime Cases #4 -- okay, I'll give you that's a pretty unloved book right there -- still has four. This baby? Not on the census at all! But I'm willing to concede that slab count (and total lack of market value...) may not be enough to push this advertising promo of a manga spinoff of a movie into the winner's circle. There's another reason I think it deserves its turn in encapsulation: its brother is lonely. You see, early the following year, Sony decided to release a second batch of that 3 disc DVD box set. But in the interim, the first volume of the Legends of the Dark Crystal manga had actually released, so the preview flipbook wasn't technically a preview anymore. As a result, when Sony asked Tokyopop for another round of flipbooks, they hastily prepared a second version, with the excerpt of Legends of the Dark Crystal swapped out for an excerpt of Legends of the Dark Crystal volume 2! The two have very different cover designs, but are indistinguishable when viewed edge-on (like in sealed box sets). What does any of that have to do with this contest? Well... I already have the second one slabbed. You can probably count on your elbows the number of people in the world who care about these weird, obscure, promotional books. For what it's worth, they are quite hard to find, and survival rates from DVD set purchasers are approximately nil. MCS has only ever seen one copy of the first one, and zero of the second. But don't just think of this book for its rarity, its obscurity, its total lack of market value, or the lack of interest pretty much anyone has for movie spinoff spinoff promotionals. Think of this as your opportunity to help two long-separated relatives find happiness together in my slabbed collection of Labyrinth comics (and eventually this Registry set).

I'm not convinced it's not just the lighting, but there looks to be a sort of bend/curl parallel the spine at upper left. Assuming that's not an optical illusion, I'd go 9.0/9.2 as it is now (it's a pretty long bend, and defect size counts for a lot in CGC's system). On the other hand, that would almost certainly press out if you're into such things. Grade aside, agreed. I've always been a big fan of Vess.

Why would this get a Qualified grade? It's a sketch cover in terms of the art style, not a literal sketch made on a blank cover, and isn't individually numbered on the book. Now, Dynamic Forces did also release 300 copies of this with a JR Sr. remarque in the big white box, plus another 1000 copies with a Stan Lee sig in the big white box, and any of those would get Qualified labels. But this shouldn't. That said, I'd open this. I don't think anyone is really looking for sealed DF books in their original plastic. If you want this slabbed at some point, it'll have to come out (and don't send in the COA). But even if you don't, you need to be able to handle the book to evaluate its condition. Sometimes these sealed DF books have been moved around enough that they get some rubbed ink on the back cover; this tends to be a bigger problem with the ones that shipped in the very stiff sleeves rather than the standard-quality bags, but you never really know. Also, for this book in particular, there's what looks like impact damage to the bag at Spider-Man's left foot. Did that leave an impression in the paper beneath? If so, did it break color? No way to know as it stands. Is that a spine tick below his hand, sort of aligned with his top knee? Or just something wrong with the bag, or the lighting? From the back, it's clear the LR corner has a crunched board. There's no clear image of the LL front corner, and of course, we can't see the LR back at all. Is it okay? Did the corner get blunted by the impact that crunched the board? There's one way to find out... I'll guesstimate this is a 9.4 book, assuming there's not anything seriously wrong with that bottom corner or the back cover. Could it be higher? Maybe, depending on whether any of the bag/board problems avoided causing defects (and then to say nothing about whether any such defects could be pressed out).

I think there's a longer list of limited series that got expanded into ... a longer limited series. Right off the top of my head, Pirates of Dark Water was advertised as a 6 issue mini based on the cartoon. But it sold well, and they followed it up with three more issues with entirely new content.

Copper Age newsstands, in and of themselves, are not particularly rare (the same is not always true of later books). Newsstands, in nearly any time period where both distribution channels existed, are almost always more difficult to get at high grade. That drives prices up for high-grade newsstand copies of key issues, and to a lesser extent drives up prices for newsstand copies of weird books with low overall distribution numbers (and very likely higher return counts). There's a lot of kind of Copper books in the middle that are probably not hard to find at a minimal premium (although to some extent, 9.6/9.8 newsstand copies are always a bit of a chase). As for whether people should care? I was a significant philatelist for awhile. Take a widely collected series of stamps: the 1938 Presidential series. Some people were type collectors; they were happy to just have one of each design. Some people wanted all the versions that the Scott Catalog assigns distinct numbers to -- different perforations, different distribution methods. Some -- fewer -- people were specialist collectors wanted every possible variety, every printing plate difference, every tiny change in ink color ratios or paper stock. None of those people were "wrong". Likewise, you're not wrong if you just want a copy of each issue of whatever you collect. You're not wrong if you want one of each cover. And you're not wrong if you chase a specialist's approach to completion, hunting distribution variants, price variants, Canadian issues, pence copies, Australian issues, inserts, reprints, and whatever else is distinguishable. Collect what you want.

Yep. I assume there's a backend update or something of that nature going on.

I don't think I realized Shooter was from Pittsburgh. Ouch.

I thought it started pretty strong, but you can detect the changes along the way that reflected the company's rapidly fading faith in their grand experiment.

I just wanted to let you know that I'm doing my part to occupy the opposite end of the flea market / garage sale / antique shop bell curve from this, thus making these sorts of finds possible for ... other people. Like you! You're welcome!

Bleh. I'd somehow managed to miss reading about the Landis allegations. Yikes. Well. That's another good reason to be happy he's gone.

I didn't hate hate Bright. The setting itself was tolerably interesting even if it's sort of an Awakening-era Shadowrun expy. Joel Edgerton was actually fairly good. We're getting new scriptwriters for the sequel, which is probably a good thing. On the other hand, it looks like the rumor that Ayer was being dropped as director in favor of Louis Leterrier (whose Dark Crystal: Age of Resistance was fantastic even if Netflix decided to cancel it immediately) isn't going to pan out, which I find a bit disappointing. I really think Bright's core material could be better with different hands guiding it.

This isn't remotely the worst miswrap I've seen from Marvels of this era.

I wonder if this was an error per se, or a pricing variant experiment like the 30/35 cent variants. Either way, fantastic book.

Pretty sure that's all there is.

Believe it starts in Star Brand 14, but the bulk of that story is in Star Brand 15.

Agreed. I don't fault the parent company for MTG/Pokemon grading. I only question why it's wasn't spun off to its own division rather than sidling CGC with it.

Let's be honest. The rollout of the Conserved grade was a good idea on the part of CGC. It was, in my opinion, a necessary idea for the long-term physical stability of many GA comics. It was not, however, a flawless launch. The delineation between Conserved books and Restored books isn't entirely clear to the lay reader, is apparently not entirely clear the conservationist, and quite possibly isn't entirely clear to the graders. In my opinion, anyone submitting a book for a Conserved label should be submitting it with documentation describing the full list of work done on the book (and setting aside the possibility of prior restoration work having been done). If you're already doing that, well, it's not like the fuzzy requirements for the gray label are a secret at the moment. The idea that they'd miss a married wrap -- which, as an aside, I don't think should be Conservation-eligible -- is sort of a separate problem.

One other curiousity: the Dan Garret(t) Blue Beetle evidently didn't have its copyright renewed (circa 1966/7) by then-owner Charlton and so lapsed into the public domain. Americomics (formerly Paragon, and since renamed AC comics) resurrected Dan in Americomics #3 and had him fight Ted Kord, who I'm... not entirely sure would have been a public domain character in 1983 (or now), actually. No idea if they made any sort of licensing agreement or just figured that the Charlton superheroes were orphan works, prior to the DC acquisition anyway. Just in case someone here aspires to be a really thorough Blue Beetle completionist.