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Scud: The Disposable Assassin
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65 posts in this topic

This might JUST be out of the Copper Age but it feels very copper to me...

 

Does anyone else have really fond memories of one of the wackiest and yet interesting comics from the early 90's to ever surface? A robot assassin that becomes self aware of his own termination. Not only was the original issue brilliant but the characters introduced over time were just as enduring. Drywall for example was totally awesome and Oswald was... well a robot that looked very much like Matt Groening first creation from the "Life is Hell" comics. I believe Oswald even mutters the line once before running into battle!

 

What really kept me interested all those years was the crazy villains and the eventual romance between Scud and Sussudio. Oh, and the stories. You could always count on Rob to make the next issue to be completely unlike the ones that came before it. Second best was the covers of things I wanted to buy but were only fictitious like the Scud action figure on Issue 9 with a human hand or the Scud lunch box.

 

Couple of quick questions to anyone who knows the series better that I do; what was the print run for issue 1 and are there any known variants of any issues other than the first issue and are not from Image? For example a color variant for issue 5 or something? And finally, does anyone know how I could get a hold of some of the original art work?

 

Scud1.GIF

 

Scud9.GIF

 

Scud13.GIF

Edited by whetteon
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Very cool book. Creator Rob Schrab went on to co-create the Sarah Silverman Program, and his co-writer on some of the later Scud spin-offs titles, Dan Harmon, is the creator of NBC's excellent new show Community.

 

I own a version of the cover art to Scud Tales From The Vending Machine #5

 

scudtales5art.png

 

I bought it from the artist at SDCC and he explained it wasn't quite the version that got used - he couldn't remember if he redrew it based on Schrab's input, or if they fixed it in Photoshop 1.0

 

You can see the published version is slightly different, mainly with the addition of a cut and paste bee swarm!

scudtales5.png

This poor Scud unit is trying to commit suicide. This was actually the last Scud book published until Image printed 4 issues in 2008, and it had the smallest print run of any of the Scud books.

 

I don't really want to sell the original art. That's why I'm asking $400.

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Here's a list of the print runs I've managed to pull from various sources (special thanks to Comichron.com)

 

Scud 1 2nd print 2860 ?

Scud 6 2321

Scud 14 8892

Scud 15 9673

Scud 16 10243

Scud 17 10534

Scud 18 10842

Scud 19 10707

Scud 21 6851

Scud 22 6122

Scud 23 5967

Scud 24 5977

 

Scud The Disposable Assassin The Whole Shebang (Firepress) 2713

Scud The Disposable Assassin The Whole Shebang (Image) 704

Scud tales from the vending machine #1 10398

Scud tales from the vending machine #2 8720

Scud tales from the vending machine #3 8106

Scud tales from the vending machine #5 6492

 

Wizard #60 mentioned the book in their magazine around August 1996 which is why you start to see a jump in subscription numbers. But looking at this minuscule print run for issue 6 I would tend to believe the earlier issues were well below the 5000 print run. Possibly even below the 2500 numbers. (shrug)

 

Edited by whetteon
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But looking at this minuscule print run for issue 6 I would tend to believe the earlier issues were well below the 5000 print run. Possibly even below the 2500 numbers.

 

That's fascinating, thanks for sharing this info. Maybe Tales #5 isn't the lowest print run afterall. I can't believe those early issues had such low distribution. I certainly feel like I encounter copies of the 1st printing of #1 way more often than other aprox3k print run titles from this period (Bone, Strangers in Paradise, JTHM), but #2-6 may indeed be that scarce - I hardly ever come across them in bins. Very interesting numbers, if accurate.

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Here's a list of the print runs I've managed to pull from various sources (special thanks to Comichron.com)

 

Scud 1 2nd print 2860 ?

Scud 6 2321

Scud 14 8892

Scud 15 9673

Scud 16 10243

Scud 17 10534

Scud 18 10842

Scud 19 10707

Scud 21 6851

Scud 22 6122

Scud 23 5967

Scud 24 5977

 

Scud The Disposable Assassin The Whole Shebang (Firepress) 2713

Scud The Disposable Assassin The Whole Shebang (Image) 704

Scud tales from the vending machine #1 10398

Scud tales from the vending machine #2 8720

Scud tales from the vending machine #3 8106

 

Wizard #60 mentioned the book in their magazine around August 1996 which is why you start to see a jump in subscription numbers. But looking at this minuscule print run for issue 6 I would tend to believe the earlier issues were well below the 5000 print run. Possibly even below the 2500 numbers. (shrug)

 

CBG shows CapCity orders for issue #8 at 2,400 - I have a feeling that your 2,321 figure for issue #6 is a CapCity order number as well, which would put the print run at probably triple that ...

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On 10/9/2010 at 4:47 PM, CoinAddict said:

There is a Special Edition for #18. Not sure of the print run on it.

http://img396.imageshack.us/img396/594/scud18sekw5.jpg

Finally got a copy of this. Freaking cool cover. Re-read the entire series and it held up well. It gets really... weird in places but for a self published title it was pretty damn solid. It a shame their aren't more issues being published today. Fresh stories and characters would be a breath of fresh air in a super-heroed stuff market that takes itself too seriously.

 

Time to get to cgc'ing!

Edited by whetteon
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14 hours ago, whetteon said:

Don't push it bub.

 

 

2044 is the earliest I suspect I'll hear from him.  Maybe he will mention circulation and print run numbers in his eulogy at his funeral.  :wishluck:

You are locked to replying every decade, I’ve asked the mods to lock you out :devil:

Edited by BigLeagueCHEW
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