Secret Wars #1 - Blue Galactus Variant? 1 1

[The Heckler]

I just checked my canadian price variant. Galactus is blue. Double variant! 

[Shoomanfoo]

On 11/18/2017 at 1:35 AM, LHJaguar said:

A little late to the party, but this only recently came to my attention. Here's a shot of my copy. I heard it was first and second prints, but still no confirmation on which is rarest. Also, the cover of the first print has the classic Spidey head in the barcode box and the 2nd has the black suit Spidey head in the barcode box.

The black head spidey is rarer as I have never seen one in a back bin box and classic spidey is a common book. The "blue variant" is actually the more common printing. I do not have hard numbers that prove this...my educated observation is by personal experience and this book being from my era.

So blue variant or no? It's common

If you have a black Spidey SW 1 you have the rarest printing.

Look threw the bay. About 50 copies of classic for every black.

Ok guys...time to hunt because when they do the movie adaption of secret wars?? Black Spidey is gonna hit the fan.

[aszumilo]

The Halloween Comicfest 2014 version has Galactus is his normal coloring.

Edited November 27, 2017 by aszumilo

[Shoomanfoo]

On 11/26/2017 at 7:57 PM, aszumilo said:

The Halloween Comicfest 2014 version has Galactus is his normal coloring.

Indeed only the 2nd printing from the Walmart 3packs has the correct color.

[jcjames]

From left to right:

1st print... 2nd print... Comic fest.

Edited September 14, 2019 by jcjames

[Shoomanfoo]

On 9/13/2019 at 9:42 PM, jcjames said:

From left to right:

1st print... 2nd print... Comic fest.

Nice set.

Its funny how people are still trying to capitalize on “blue variant” lmaooo.

It’s common as dirt.

 

[Lazyboy]

On 7/22/2021 at 10:14 AM, Stronguy said:

Dragging this one out of the grave...

Do you have images that work?

[Lazyboy]

On 7/22/2021 at 2:01 PM, Stronguy said:

Is this one showing up?

[Stronguy]

(Let me try this again and see if things improve.  I DM'd Architect about the original post so I'll leave it up for now.)

Dragging this one out of the grave... 

Until recently I was always under the impression that all 1st print Secret Wars #1 had the Blue Galactus misprint.  Heck, back in the day a guy even got a No-Prize for "explaining" it.  Anytime someone would say, "It's a variant", I would tell them that all 1st prints were ... The other day I got a stack of 11 issues, all 1st print... 3 of the 12 had Red Galactus.   I've never seen one of them but there were 3 of them right in front of me, all were Direct Editions (so I'm not sure if this is also true of Newsstand).

Since I had a decent sample I was able to find a couple of easy ways to tell them apart.

1)  Blue Galactus issues have an orange title banner and Spidey and Thing the same color on p.1.  Red Galactus has them colored properly.

2) Red Galactus copies have the #1 at the top of the front cover in blue.  On Blue Galactus issues it is more purple. (A/B/C are all Red Galactus).

Edited August 1, 2021 by Stronguy

[MyNameIsLegion]

I'm pretty sure these are because the Yellow end Magenta plates got swapped.  This is a printing error.  This vintage the plates would have been metal. at some point they realized the error and swapped the plates.

[ninanina]

Here's one.

https://www.ebay.com/itm/203327234099?hash=item2f573f6033:g:xVgAAOSwEShgYyAe

[Brock]

On 11/21/2017 at 6:48 PM, The Heckler said:

I just checked my canadian price variant. Galactus is blue. Double variant! 

So I just picked up a collection (see the thread on he "Mildew Pedigree" here in copper. There were three copies of Secret Wars #1, and all were Canadian price variants. All three were also Blue Galactus copies, with the purple(ish) $1 that @Stronguy mentioned on the cover.

Since we're 4 for 4 here, maybe we can hypothesize that all Canadian price variants are also Blue Galactus variants?

[Stronguy]

On 7/28/2021 at 6:24 PM, Brock said:

So I just picked up a collection (see the thread on he "Mildew Pedigree" here in copper. There were three copies of Secret Wars #1, and all were Canadian price variants. All three were also Blue Galactus copies, with the purple(ish) $1 that @Stronguy mentioned on the cover.

Since we're 4 for 4 here, maybe we can hypothesize that all Canadian price variants are also Blue Galactus variants?

I would only go do far as to say, CPVs also have Blue Galactus.  Over the past 35 years every first print SW #1 I've seen or owned (and that's a bunch of them) have been Blue.  I'm guessing Red is much, much harder to find. 

[rexinnih]

Just got my "Blue" variant back from the Shooter signing, checked before I sent it in and yes, Galactus is Blue. Not a mention whatsoever on the label ;-)

[ADAMANTIUM]

On 8/2/2021 at 5:10 PM, rexinnih said:

Just got my "Blue" variant back from the Shooter signing, checked before I sent it in and yes, Galactus is Blue. Not a mention whatsoever on the label ;-)

Its a nice blue signature too ☺️

Does CGC sometimes put it on the label?

I had no idea so thanks for that, still looks good!

[Lazyboy]

Okay, a few things:

1. Calling the "Blue Galactus" copies variants is ridiculous, error or not. They are clearly far more abundant than the ones that look normal.

2. The colours on the cover have no connection to the interior colours. The covers and interiors were printed separately. The only way it would matter is if there was a completely separate, unmarked print run. (Plus, anecdotally, I have Blue Galactus copies with the cover "#1" being blue)

3. The page 1 images suggest that there were printing problems with the issue, but the different pages have different (apparent) errors. This isn't a simple plate-swap like that FF (110?) cover.

[Stronguy]

On 8/3/2021 at 8:43 PM, Lazyboy said:

2. The colours on the cover have no connection to the interior colours. The covers and interiors were printed separately. The only way it would matter is if there was a completely separate, unmarked print run. (Plus, anecdotally, I have Blue Galactus copies with the cover "#1" being blue)

Good to know about yours having a blue #1.  The batch of copies I have/had likely came off the press around the same time so that could be a factor.  However, since I figured this out, I have looked at another 10 or so copies.  All but one of them had the purple #1 and all were Blue Galactus; the blue #1 had Red Galactus.  So while it might now be a hard and fast rule, it certainly is a possible indicator.

[MyNameIsLegion]

Cover and interiors where 2 separate print runs - no one disputes that, but in each print run the beginning of the run when the press is “getting up to color” you will see the most color variations. Normally these get trashed outright but it’s conceivable that some got through for the cover and interior both and both would have been at the same relative position in the piles of printed signatures, so it’s not a stretch that many got married up together. 

[comicfutures]

I have a case of 300 and all are blue!

[Aman619]

On 7/22/2021 at 6:16 PM, MyNameIsLegion said:

I'm pretty sure these are because the Yellow end Magenta plates got swapped.  This is a printing error.  This vintage the plates would have been metal. at some point they realized the error and swapped the plates.

not swapped... the yellow plate was printed in magenta.  SO there were 2 magenta bits on press and NO YELLOW.

 

On 7/22/2021 at 3:30 PM, Stronguy said:

(Let me try this again and see if things improve.  I DM'd Architect about the original post so I'll leave it up for now.)

Dragging this one out of the grave... 

Until recently I was always under the impression that all 1st print Secret Wars #1 had the Blue Galactus misprint.  Heck, back in the day a guy even got a No-Prize for "explaining" it.  Anytime someone would say, "It's a variant", I would tell them that all 1st prints were ... The other day I got a stack of 11 issues, all 1st print... 3 of the 12 had Red Galactus.   I've never seen one of them but there were 3 of them right in front of me, all were Direct Editions (so I'm not sure if this is also true of Newsstand).

Since I had a decent sample I was able to find a couple of easy ways to tell them apart.

1)  Blue Galactus issues have an orange title banner and Spidey and Thing the same color on p.1.  Red Galactus has them colored properly.

2) Red Galactus copies have the #1 at the top of the front cover in blue.  On Blue Galactus issues it is more purple. (A/B/C are all Red Galactus).

thats a good catch!  from this pic looks like the BLUE #1s the cyan plate was more heavily inked. That turned the #1 to a dealer blue, whereas in the lighter inked cyan covers (the bottom 3) the #1 looks redder because the red stayed the same but there's LESS cyan/blue...