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Need more Rare Indie key books - Small Press publishers! Any Suggestions?
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106 posts in this topic

I have about exhausted my search for high grade indies that had very small print runs or very hard to find in high grade. Anyone else have suggestions from what I have? This can crossover somewhat into moderns but for the most part they are cooper books. This is what I have come up with so far in alpha order:

 

30 days of night #1 (first print)

Albedo #2 (Usagi Yojimbo)

Betty & Veronica #320 (Cheryl Blossom)

Bone #1 (1st print Red logo)

Cerebus #1

Comico Primer #2 (1st Grendel)

Copra #1-6 (all hand serial numbered)

Cursed Pirate Girl #1 (Comixpress)

Deadline #1 (Tank Girl)

Death Rattle #8 (XENOZOIC TALES)

Farlaine #1 (first printing, pre-fire)

Goon #1 (Avatar)

Greed #6 (Milk & Cheese)

Hillbilly #1 (Baltimore Variant)

Love & Rockets #1 (Self published)

Mouse Guard  #1 (Comixpress B/W)

Next Men 21 (Hellboy)

Strangers in Paradise #1

TMNT #1 (1st or 2nd print)

Visions #1 (Flaming Carrot)

 

Edited by 1p36DSA
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8 hours ago, 1p36DSA said:

I have about exhausted my search for high grade indies that had very small print runs or very hard to find in high grade. Anyone else have suggestions from what I have? This can crossover somewhat into moderns but for the most part they are cooper books. This is what I have come up with so far in no particular order.

 

Mouse Guard  #1 (Comixpress B/W)

Cursed Pirate Girl #1 (Comixpress)

Greed #6 (Milk & Cheese)

Bone #1 (1st print Red logo)

Bone #2 (Thorn)

Albedo #2 (Usagi Yojimbo)

Betty & Veronica #320 (Cheryl Blossom)

Goon #1 (Avatar)

Hillbilly #1

Copra #1-6

Cerebus #1

Love & Rockets #1 (Self published)

Strangers in Paradise #1

Comico Primer #2 (1st Grendel)

TMNT #1 (1st or 2nd print)

Visions #1 (Flaming Carrot) - still searching, any leads are appreciated

 

First appearance of Cursed Pirate Girl. 300 printed. Self published prozine:

voices001.jpeg

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On 2/9/2018 at 8:48 PM, FlyingDonut said:

First appearance of Cursed Pirate Girl. 300 printed. Self published prozine:

voices001.jpeg

Whats the story on this book? I have never seen it before.

I always thought YE OLD LORE OF YORE was the first Cursed Pirate Girl?

 
 
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Was published as a college project by the artists shown. I bought it from David Peterson and Jeremy Bastian who auctioned it off at the Baltimore Comic Con. They said this was their first published work together.

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On 2/9/2018 at 12:33 PM, 1p36DSA said:

I have about exhausted my search for high grade indies that had very small print runs or very hard to find in high grade. Anyone else have suggestions from what I have? This can crossover somewhat into moderns but for the most part they are cooper books. This is what I have come up with so far in no particular order.

 

Mouse Guard  #1 (Comixpress B/W)

Cursed Pirate Girl #1 (Comixpress)

Greed #6 (Milk & Cheese)

Bone #1 (1st print Red logo)

Bone #2 (Thorn)

Albedo #2 (Usagi Yojimbo)

Betty & Veronica #320 (Cheryl Blossom)

Goon #1 (Avatar)

Hillbilly #1

Copra #1-6

Cerebus #1

Love & Rockets #1 (Self published)

Strangers in Paradise #1

Comico Primer #2 (1st Grendel)

TMNT #1 (1st or 2nd print)

30 days of night #1

Visions #1 (Flaming Carrot) - still searching, any leads are appreciated

 

How about Caliber Presents 1, The crow 1-4 , a Caliber Christmas.

On your 30 Days of Night #1, do you mean the bound version with only 50 produced?

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Not sure how rare many of these are in high-grade, but they all have low print runs and were somewhat "hot" independent books at one point in time:

Gobbledygook #1 & 2 (1st Fugitoid & TMNT Ad) - although these can't be graded by CGC.

Other "lesser keys" to consider:

- Fish Police #1

- Megaton Explosion #1 (1st Youngblood)

- Fantasy Quarterly #1 (1st Elfquest)

- Nexus #1 Magazine (Signed & #/d to 500)

- Dime Press #1, Next Men #21 or SDCC #2 (Whichever you consider the 1st Hellboy)

- Thundermace #1 (2-Color Cover - 1st Chakran the Forever Man)

- Realm #4 (1st Deadworld)

- Harbinger #0 (Mail-in version)

- Tick Special Edition #1

- Tick #2 uncut cover version

- Tick #12 - All 4 different no logo variants

- Adventurers #1 Skeleton Cover

- Quadrant #1

- Raw #1 (May be too big to CGC)

- Funny Animals #1 (1st Maus)

- Huzzah #1 (Fanzine - 1st App. Erma Felna)

- Albedo #0 (White with Yellow Table - 50 copies)

- Power Comics #1 (1st Sim Aardvark)

- TMNT #3 NYC Variant

- Gold Turtlemania 

- Eagle #1 Special Edition (Signed & #'d) - Rare, but not super expensive or important

- Dark Horse Presents #1 (1st Concrete)

- Comico Primer #5 (1st Maxx)

- Colt #2 1st Printing (with TMNT Pin-up - only 3,000 copies)

Hopefully, there's at least 1 or 2 that may be appealing to go after from the list above. 

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12 hours ago, FlyingDonut said:

Was published as a college project by the artists shown. I bought it from David Peterson and Jeremy Bastian who auctioned it off at the Baltimore Comic Con. They said this was their first published work together.

Similarly, I believe there was a Thorn book that reprinted Jeff Smith's Bone strips from college that pre-dated Bone #1.  

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2 hours ago, comiconxion said:

Not sure how rare many of these are in high-grade, but they all have low print runs and were somewhat "hot" independent books at one point in time:

Gobbledygook #1 & 2 (1st Fugitoid & TMNT Ad) - although these can't be graded by CGC.

Other "lesser keys" to consider:

- Fish Police #1

- Megaton Explosion #1 (1st Youngblood)

- Fantasy Quarterly #1 (1st Elfquest)

- Nexus #1 Magazine (Signed & #/d to 500)

- Dime Press #1, Next Men #21 or SDCC #2 (Whichever you consider the 1st Hellboy)

- Thundermace #1 (2-Color Cover - 1st Chakran the Forever Man)

- Realm #4 (1st Deadworld)

- Harbinger #0 (Mail-in version)

- Tick Special Edition #1

- Tick #2 uncut cover version

- Tick #12 - All 4 different no logo variants

- Adventurers #1 Skeleton Cover

- Quadrant #1

- Raw #1 (May be too big to CGC)

- Funny Animals #1 (1st Maus)

- Huzzah #1 (Fanzine - 1st App. Erma Felna)

- Albedo #0 (White with Yellow Table - 50 copies)

- Power Comics #1 (1st Sim Aardvark)

- TMNT #3 NYC Variant

- Gold Turtlemania 

- Eagle #1 Special Edition (Signed & #'d) - Rare, but not super expensive or important

- Dark Horse Presents #1 (1st Concrete)

- Comico Primer #5 (1st Maxx)

- Colt #2 1st Printing (with TMNT Pin-up - only 3,000 copies)

Hopefully, there's at least 1 or 2 that may be appealing to go after from the list above. 

Ill add Elfquest #1 (1st print 1.00 cover), much harder to find than FQ#1, even though it mainly consists of reprinted material

Vootie #9 (1st Omaha in comic form. Fanzine print run 65)

Shadis #2 - 1st Knights of the Dinner Table

Atomtan - 1st Tank Girl in poster

Deadline #1 - 1st Tank Girl in comic form... BTW.. Book is SCORCHING hot now

more to come....

 

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2 hours ago, comiconxion said:

Not sure how rare many of these are in high-grade, but they all have low print runs and were somewhat "hot" independent books at one point in time:

Gobbledygook #1 & 2 (1st Fugitoid & TMNT Ad) - although these can't be graded by CGC.

Other "lesser keys" to consider:

- Fish Police #1

- Megaton Explosion #1 (1st Youngblood)

- Fantasy Quarterly #1 (1st Elfquest)

- Nexus #1 Magazine (Signed & #/d to 500)

- Dime Press #1, Next Men #21 or SDCC #2 (Whichever you consider the 1st Hellboy)

- Thundermace #1 (2-Color Cover - 1st Chakran the Forever Man)

- Realm #4 (1st Deadworld)

- Harbinger #0 (Mail-in version)

- Tick Special Edition #1

- Tick #2 uncut cover version

- Tick #12 - All 4 different no logo variants

- Adventurers #1 Skeleton Cover

- Quadrant #1

- Raw #1 (May be too big to CGC)

- Funny Animals #1 (1st Maus)

- Huzzah #1 (Fanzine - 1st App. Erma Felna)

- Albedo #0 (White with Yellow Table - 50 copies)

- Power Comics #1 (1st Sim Aardvark)

- TMNT #3 NYC Variant

- Gold Turtlemania 

- Eagle #1 Special Edition (Signed & #'d) - Rare, but not super expensive or important

- Dark Horse Presents #1 (1st Concrete)

- Comico Primer #5 (1st Maxx)

- Colt #2 1st Printing (with TMNT Pin-up - only 3,000 copies)

Hopefully, there's at least 1 or 2 that may be appealing to go after from the list above. 

And btw this list is EPIC and hard to beat

Edited by Aweandlorder
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Ok,but a lot of these are not rare per se. Betty and veronica 320 probably had a print-run in the vicinity of many marvel books. DHP 1 is not rare. So if we are not looking at 2,000 and less print run books...  Mangazine 11 - 1st gold digger.  Deathzone  by the copra guy, his first work, was 300 or 500 copies.

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On 2/11/2018 at 8:42 PM, comiconxion said:

Similarly, I believe there was a Thorn book that reprinted Jeff Smith's Bone strips from college that pre-dated Bone #1.  

It's called Thorn: Tales from the Lantern - was published while Smith was still at college by the Ohio State University Press (and only available there). Of all the books mentioned in this thread, it's probably in the top 5 when it comes to rarity.

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On 2/13/2018 at 9:15 AM, the blob said:

Ok,but a lot of these are not rare per se. Betty and veronica 320 probably had a print-run in the vicinity of many marvel books. 

 

Well, he did also say "hard to find in high grade," which applies. B&V was distributed via newsstand to an audience that was mostly kid readers and not comic collectors. It's much harder to find in grade than superhero books from the same period. Also, the print run wasn't that high. Books from this era of Archie are relatively scarce in general as the title was probably only selling around 50-60k copies at this point, compared to an average Marvel book doing 100-150k. 

But your larger point is correct, it's not as rare per se than some of these books with super small indy print runs. 

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4 hours ago, Crimebuster said:

 

Well, he did also say "hard to find in high grade," which applies. B&V was distributed via newsstand to an audience that was mostly kid readers and not comic collectors. It's much harder to find in grade than superhero books from the same period. Also, the print run wasn't that high. Books from this era of Archie are relatively scarce in general as the title was probably only selling around 50-60k copies at this point, compared to an average Marvel book doing 100-150k. 

But your larger point is correct, it's not as rare per se than some of these books with super small indy print runs. 

The print runs were maybe 2x that. I don't know where tge archie newsstand returns went.

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