thats what I menat by being "released" as in by special relationships with insiders like Sol. I was trying to explain why the major GA collections did not have them nor COULD have had them since they came out much later on as curiousities of the publishing business process, and not as products for sale.
As for #1 and #2, depending on what exact purpose they served (postal regs, copyright security, etc) couldt a #2 serve as wellas a #1 on the cover? Or perhaps, #1 was one title and #2 a different title? Comic books changed titles but kept the numbering all the time back then when #1s didnt automatically sell like they do now. Maybe Ashcans ooperated similarly in their numbering.
Or, in this case, all the #1s were just either dispersed and destroyed or lost over the years. They were worthless oddities once their job was done, after all, werent they?
Where were they sent for copyright reg purposes anyway? Wouldt THAT place be the SOURCE for ALL of them?? A government office? Or even the attorneys files?