Differentiating first and second printings of Conan the Barbarian #1 (2-3)

[OveraboundingMint]

Thanks for all the posts and pics of the packs. While most of the arguments are very sound and highly sensible, we as consumers may not know it if it really happened. Besides, there was a failure to address the surfacing of CTB#1 on certain newstands around 77/78 period than just 1974. CTB #22 could likely be the cause of the need to print some more #1s since the cover has nothing to do with or do any justice to the #1 in its full entirety that people who wanted to follow or collect the series would want to have a copy of. I regret to say that even though i am quite persuaded by all the common-sense arguments put forth, there is still that element of possibility that the rumors could be true.

 

Let's hope to hear more of those encounters with the aforementioned issue long after 1970.

[blutobc]

Thanks for all the posts and pics of the packs. While most of the arguments are very sound and highly sensible, we as consumers may not know it if it really happened. Besides, there was a failure to address the surfacing of CTB#1 on certain newstands around 77/78 period than just 1974. CTB #22 could likely be the cause of the need to print some more #1s since the cover has nothing to do with or do any justice to the #1 in its full entirety that people who wanted to follow or collect the series would want to have a copy of. I regret to say that even though i am quite persuaded by all the common-sense arguments put forth, there is still that element of possibility that the rumors could be true.

 

Let's hope to hear more of those encounters with the aforementioned issue long after 1970.

 

You sound like the inconceivable fellow from the Princess Bride, in that I don't think you understand the meaning of the words "common-sense" and "rumors".

 

You are the one creating the rumor. No one else is. There is the element of possibility that monkeys can fly out of your backside, and I'll wager that the possible percentage chance of that is only 1% less likely than your so called rumor.

 

Hey, it's nice to have something to talk about in the bronze section, but refusing to see that your dead horse is dead, doesn't bring it back to life.

 

 

[underthebigw]

Thanks for all the posts and pics of the packs. While most of the arguments are very sound and highly sensible, we as consumers may not know it if it really happened. Besides, there was a failure to address the surfacing of CTB#1 on certain newstands around 77/78 period than just 1974. CTB #22 could likely be the cause of the need to print some more #1s since the cover has nothing to do with or do any justice to the #1 in its full entirety that people who wanted to follow or collect the series would want to have a copy of. I regret to say that even though i am quite persuaded by all the common-sense arguments put forth, there is still that element of possibility that the rumors could be true.

 

Let's hope to hear more of those encounters with the aforementioned issue long after 1970.

 

 

WTF?????????????

 

There are no reports of it appearing on the stands in 77/78.

 

 

NONE. Except yours (or that of an oblivious acquaintance). Absolutely none. Is an isolated incident possible. Maybe. If so, it was isolated.

 

Done.

 

 

Go away.

[rjpb]

The other factor ignored with these imaginary rumors, is that it wouldn't make much economic sense for Marvel to release a reprint with a 15¢ cover price in 1974, let alone 1978.

 

A more legitimate question would be how to differentiate the first, second and third printings of Superman #1.

[OveraboundingMint]

There are no reports of it appearing on the stands in 77/78.

 

 

NONE. Except yours (or that of an oblivious acquaintance). Absolutely none. Is an isolated incident possible. Maybe. If so, it was isolated.

 

Done.

 

 

Go away.

 

Sorry if my reply has made you so unhappy. Btw, i was only referring to the issue(s) and not any others because i was told of their strange reappearances on the newstands years after release dates. No offense intended.

[OveraboundingMint]

The other factor ignored with these imaginary rumors, is that it wouldn't make much economic sense for Marvel to release a reprint with a 15¢ cover price in 1974, let alone 1978.

 

A more legitimate question would be how to differentiate the first, second and third printings of Superman #1.

 

That's a good one! Provided the anomalistic reprintings did took place, what's to stop people from paying more than 15 cents for a out of print first (3)issue(s). One of the states mentioned with the sale on newstands if i can still remember correctly was in Arkansas.

[cd4ever]

Deepthroat??

[jools&jim]

 

One of the states mentioned with the sale on newstands if i can still remember correctly was in Arkansas.

If Conan 1 - 3 showed up on an Arkansas newsstand in the mid/late 1970s, they were original copies, and NOT reprints. So far you haven't produced a single compelling argument, nor a shred of evidence, to support the existence of these reprints, yet you persist in trumpeting their authenticity.

 

What's so hard to understand about the fact that there is NO evidence--anywhere, nor from any legitimate source--to substantiate the existence of these books?

 

 

[Dale Roberts]

One of the states mentioned with the sale on newstands if i can still remember correctly was in Arkansas.

If Conan 1 - 3 showed up on an Arkansas newsstand in the mid/late 1970s, they were original copies, and NOT reprints. So far you haven't produced a single compelling argument, nor a shred of evidence, to support the existence of these reprints, yet you persist in trumpeting their authenticity.

 

What's so hard to understand about the fact that there is NO evidence--anywhere, nor from any legitimate source--to substantiate the existence of these books?

 

 

 

I hear there have been Bigfoot sighting in GA too. Maybe related??

[OveraboundingMint]

One of the states mentioned with the sale on newstands if i can still remember correctly was in Arkansas.

If Conan 1 - 3 showed up on an Arkansas newsstand in the mid/late 1970s, they were original copies, and NOT reprints. So far you haven't produced a single compelling argument, nor a shred of evidence, to support the existence of these reprints, yet you persist in trumpeting their authenticity.

 

What's so hard to understand about the fact that there is NO evidence--anywhere, nor from any legitimate source--to substantiate the existence of these books?

 

 

 

You are assuming that i do not understand that there's no concrete evidence yet the absence of any evidence is no absolute certainty that those rumors are untrue, sure i read thru those threads about how comics were printed and circulated blah blah but i am still open to the rumors as being true just as i am swayed that it is unlikely to be based on available facts, but have you not consider why and how its possible that some lower states still have those early 3 issues for sale many years after. Unless some distributor hoards them accidentally and then after many years when they discovered the stock, they release it. Only the comics production people at Marvel can verify on it even if the lack of any open evidence closes the case.

 

Its just a discussion and a sharing of views, doesn't have to be so mean-spirited even if someone had threadwise stumbled unknowingly like an irreverant as clown.

[Lazyboy]

Show me any mention of second printings of early CtB issues in any comic related media.

 

Show me one person who had ever heard this rumor before you created this thread. (Your imaginary friends who told you don't count)

 

Show me other examples of comic companies creating a second print that is completely identical to the first.

 

Tell me why anyone would sell a "second print" of a $5 (or whatever the actual value was at the time) comic for cover price if there was no way to distinguish them.

 

Tell me who profits from selling comics for 15c when other comics on the stands were 20-35c

 

Tell me exactly when the second print was created, since the standard comic size changed (width) in the mid 1970s.

 

Tell me how many copies a comic would need to sell (in the 1970s) in order for Marvel to have it printed.

 

Tell me where all the copies that Marvel would need to have printed were distributed to - other than Buttf***, Nowhere, U.S.A.

 

Tell me why CtB 1 would be reprinted when the story was already reprinted in CtB 22 and where Marvel suddenly found the original art to do it properly.

 

 

Lastly, here's a short story. I saw an Action Comics 1 on a newsstand in 1987. I heard somebody else did as well, and they said it was a second printing.

[MK Ultra]

I'm a little disappointed at all the vitriol. Sure, you may think someone's an insufficiently_thoughtful_person, but it's not their fault, by definition half of the people are below average. Are you that convinced that you're going to all of a sudden educate them to the point of intelligence? Of course not. Just smile at them, wave, and keep going, lest some of the idiocy rub off. There's no point in arguing with them either, they're an insufficiently_thoughtful_person, they don't know any better. Why the need to continue to post in a dead topic and keep the conversation going is beyond me, but what do I know, I'm an insufficiently_thoughtful_person too.

[Whizzer]

If we assume that there were indeed issues of this book on the stands when you say there were, it seems to me that by far the most plausible explanation is that they were, for want of a better term; "Mafia" copies. that is to say books that should have been returned unsold, but which found their way into the black market.

 

There is plenty of anecdotal evidence from numerous sources that this went on, as opposed to absolutely no evidence that the books were reprinted.

 

The consensus of the many knowledgeable collectors who have weighed in on this says it didn't happen. In the absence of any firm contradictory evidence I have to agree.

 

 

[underthebigw]

Yeah, but here's the deal.

 

This was already a $25 book in NM.

 

If some illegitimate books from a distributor did actually come to light, there's no way they were sold on a newstand. Every schmoe, including many retailers, knew this.

 

And, add the fact that no retailer was going to take up newsstand space w/ a 15c book, when they could use the same space for a .20 -.35c issue.

[Whizzer]

Yeah, but here's the deal.

 

This was already a $25 book in NM.

 

If some illegitimate books from a distributor did actually come to light, there's no way they were sold on a newstand. Every schmoe, including many retailers, knew this.

 

And, add the fact that no retailer was going to take up newsstand space w/ a 15c book, when they could use the same space for a .20 -.35c issue.

 

I'm not saying it happened. I'm saying IF it happened, the least likely explanation is that it was a reprint.

 

News vendors might well have been prepared to sell a 15c book if it only cost them 5c and if their 10c profit could go straight in their pocket as there were no invoices etc.

 

Also, news vendors and 99% of their customers would have no clue as to the value of any given comic. Ever.

 

Just read Chuck's article on the Mile High 2 books to see just how little those involved in the distribution of comics new about their secondary value.

 

What I'm saying is that some shady distributor could have supplied a few equally shady vendors with illegally un returned books for a nice little chunk of tax free cash.

 

Doesn't seem that unlikely to me.

[jools&jim]

 

Here's another relevant tidbit of information from Steve Gerber re: Howard the Duck #1 (from Back Issue magazine), describing how the book was scooped up at the distributor level by dealers who intended to flip it for many multiples of its cover price at conventions and through mail order:

 

 

Note that Marvel's response to the popularity of a hot book (in this case, HtD #1) was NOT to do a "2nd printing" or facsimile reprint years after the original book had sold-out, but instead to re-release the story (within a year of its original publication) in a more expensive $1.50 treasury format, which would presumably siphon off some of that black market demand, AND put more of those $$$ in Marvel's coffers...

 

 

[oakman29]

I'll buy a Treasury Edition,or even been sitting in some store for a few years.Second print that's exactly as the original,highly unlikely.

[RockMyAmadeus]

No, no newsstand dealer in their right mind would ever, ever, ever, ever put a 15 cent OLD comic book on their stands. It just didn't work that way. Old comics were useless to the vast majority of everyone. Nobody bought OLD comics, they bought NEW ones.

 

That, of course, is the entire foundation of the 1930-1980 back issue market, by the way.

[RockMyAmadeus]

As a slightly related side note, the Direct Market had far, far reaching implications for the entire comic book industry, far outside of anything even imagined by Phil Seuling et al.

 

The market as it existed from the 1930's to the early 1970's is quite literally unrecognizable to anyone looking at it from a late 70's onward perspective.

 

The HTD #1 issue is a perfect example. People were still buying comic books to READ, not SPECULATE in, and it angered Marvel and HTD's creators that their book couldn't get into the hands of readers...who, of course, would be the ones supporting the book at issue 12, 24, 36, etc.

 

And the whole thing was possible because newsstand dealers were JUST newsstand dealers, dealing in ALL print media, not just comic books...so they wouldn't really have cared if they got the first issue or not..certainly not enough to raise a huge stink about it.

 

Everyone these days would be THUH-RILLED to have speculators attack...well...Diamond...and buy up every available copy, except perhaps readers.

 

Yet another example of why speculating in new books = bad, and has all but destroyed the industry.

 

It is mind blowing how unrecognizably different the industry was back then.

 

Of course, the HTD #1 issue led directly to the Star Wars #1 reprints a year later.

[OveraboundingMint]

Show me any mention of second printings of early CtB issues in any comic related media.

 

Show me one person who had ever heard this rumor before you created this thread. (Your imaginary friends who told you don't count)

 

 

Excuse me, are you insinuating i am lying or making things up. Some older Conan fans i knew but i do not think its right to give away who they are.

 

Now, the consensus is that everyone here has more or less being bought over by all the commonsense arguments put forth, and i am not trying to push that iota of my own personal doubt that the possibility of a reprint was not possible, as i don't think those nice people i knew were lying to me.

 

As to what you said on : quote: " Tell me why CtB 1 would be reprinted when the story was already reprinted in CtB 22 and where Marvel suddenly found the original art to do it properly."

 

The logic as mentioend was the aim towards pandering to collectors who would love to own a #1 (and even 2-3) that they have missed from the start, not forgetting that #22 's reprint lacked the orginal cover. Would you be happy with such a 'make-up' issue. No, i am not trying to say that the rumors are true as there were no known evidence announced in print or whatsoever but for the surfacing of those early three issues years after 1970 on newstands.Period