Mall Variants of Adventures of Superman 443 - was there ever a DC issue with more variants prior to New 52? 6 6

[archivist]

How can I contact him ?

[Cpt Kirk]

Another year has gone by without another new discovery of one of the rare Adv of SM 443 mall variants.  They are usually found with a 1 or 2 dollar price tag and once they are listed on ebay, they will almost assuredly get bought for more than $100.   It makes me wonder if very many people are keeping an eye out for these.

[onlyweaknesskryptonite]

I purchased a lot earlier this week

and when it showed up I was amazed to find this gem hidden inside of it.

[kenaran]

That's pretty high grade as these go!  Congrats!!!

[onlyweaknesskryptonite]

1 hour ago, kenaran said:

That's pretty high grade as these go!  Congrats!!!

Thank you . I thought so as well. I was pleasantly surprised not only to find this one , but as you said it is in pretty good condition.  

[Buzzetta]

Never knew about any of these.  I wonder how many of these are sitting in dealer inventories unnoticed...

I wonder how many of these are sitting in MyComicShop‘s inventory unnoticed.

[Cpt Kirk]

On 1/26/2020 at 3:36 AM, Buzzetta said:

Never knew about any of these.  I wonder how many of these are sitting in dealer inventories unnoticed...

I wonder how many of these are sitting in MyComicShop‘s inventory unnoticed.

I have been looking for these for about 10 years now, and they are indeed rare.  @mycomicshop recognizes the value of these, and when they sell a mall variant it almost always goes for more than $100.  I would say that even if MyComicShop had 100 Adv of Superman 443's in stock, they would be lucky if one of them was the mall variant. These are sitting around in dealer inventories unnoticed.   That's how most of my copies were found.  But if you start going from dealer to dealer to check for them, you will talk to a lot of dealers before you find one.  Very few of these mall variants have survived.

p.s.   @onlyweaknesskryptonite sold his Georgetown copy to me, so I now have a spare one.  I was thinking about selling it on ebay, but have decided against that.  Instead I am going to keep it in hopes that if someone finds another one I don't have, I can use my copy (plus some cash) to convince the owner to trade their newly found mall variant for mine.

Edited February 17, 2020 by Cpt Kirk

[Cpt Kirk]

AJ at Recalled Comics wrote an amazingly insightful article about these variants. The link below goes directly to that article.  Great job AJ!

http://www.recalledcomics.com/Superman443MallVariants.php

[onlyweaknesskryptonite]

The Florence Mall opened in 1976 . The two-story mall was constructed by Homart Development Company, a former real estate division of Sears,  Roebuck and  Company. 

Prior to the mall's opening, a water tower with the words "FLORENCE MALL" was built between the mall and Interstate 75. However, this commercial advertisement was considered a violation of federal and state laws - the mall had not even yet opened. As a result, the "M" in "Mall" was partially painted over, converting it to a "Y" and an apostrophe was added, changing the text to "FLORENCE Y'ALL". 

This Mall is still open today. I have family in both Kentucky and Ohio and have visited it many times.

Recently I found a collector in Cincinnati who had also frequently visited this mall including during the 50th celebration of Superman and among their collection I was able to purchase this from them.  It's a new one Y'all ! 

[ADAMANTIUM]

@onlyweaknesskryptonite

Thank you, and so, the story continues!

Amazing there were still unknowns!

[onlyweaknesskryptonite]

25 minutes ago, ADAMANTIUM said:

@onlyweaknesskryptonite

Thank you, and so, the story continues!

Amazing there were still unknowns!

Adamantium you are welcome.  I too was surprised to find this one as well . I have actually been to this mall many times and didn't know it was one of the Homarts. Never even crossed my mind that some these may have been made/ distributed there until I came across it. 

[Cpt Kirk]

On 2/29/2020 at 8:01 PM, onlyweaknesskryptonite said:

Adamantium you are welcome.  I too was surprised to find this one as well . I have actually been to this mall many times and didn't know it was one of the Homarts. Never even crossed my mind that some these may have been made/ distributed there until I came across it. 

Great find!   So now we have a total of 15 of these mall variants (namely, Florence Mall, Montclair Plaza, Georgetown Park, Eden Prairie Center, Clearview Mall, Cranberry Mall, Willowbrook Mall, Washington Park Mall, Town East Mall, Spring Hill Mall, Rhode Island Mall, North Shore Square, Westgate Mall, Fiesta Mall, and the Parks at Arlington.

I am sure there will be many more that will be found.   Following is a listing of Homart malls (that existed in 1988) for which we have yet to see a mall variant (I pulled this from the Homart wiki article):

 

Valley View Center	Dallas	Texas		1973
Metrocenter	Phoenix	Arizona	Joint venture with Westcor[35]	1973
Altamonte Mall	Altamonte Springs	Florida	Jointly developed with Edward J. DeBartolo Corporation[36][37]	1974
Maplewood Mall	Maplewood (Minneapolis–Saint Paul area)	Minnesota		1974[38]
Independence Center	Independence (Kansas City area)	Missouri		1974
Westminster Mall	Westminster (Orange County)	California		1974[39]
Brea Mall	Brea (Orange County)	California		1975[40]
Northbrook Court	Northbrook (Chicago metropolitan area)	Illinois		1976
Orland Square Mall	Orland Park (Chicago metropolitan area)	Illinois		1976
Woodland Hills Mall	Tulsa	Oklahoma	Expansion completed by Homart in 1982	1976
Lakeside Mall	Sterling Heights	Michigan	Joint venture with Alfred Taubman	1976
Burnsville Center	Burnsville (Minneapolis–Saint Paul area)	Minnesota		1977[38]
Louis Joliet Mall	Joliet	Illinois	Renamed in mid 2000s as Westfield Louis Joliet	1977
Twelve Oaks Mall	Novi	Michigan	Joint venture with A. Alfred Taubman and Dayton-Hudson Corporation	1977
Westfield Broward	Plantation (Miami Metropolitan Area)	Florida	Acquired by Westfield Group in 2007 and renamed Westfield Broward	1978
Baybrook Mall	Friendswood (Greater Houston)	Texas		1978
Town Center Mall	Boca Raton (Miami Metropolitan Area)	Florida	Also known as Town Center at Boca Raton	1980
Greenbrier Mall	Chesapeake	Virginia		1981
Deerbrook Mall	Humble (Greater Houston)	Texas		1984
Tysons Galleria	Tysons Corner (Washington Metropolitan Area)	Virginia	Jointly developed with Lerner Enterprises	1988
Lakeland Square Mall	Lakeland	Florida	Jointly developed with Edward J. DeBartolo Corporation[43]	1988

 

 

 

[FlyingDonut]

16 hours ago, Cpt Kirk said:

Great find!   So now we have a total of 15 of these mall variants (namely, Florence Mall, Montclair Plaza, Georgetown Park, Eden Prairie Center, Clearview Mall, Cranberry Mall, Willowbrook Mall, Washington Park Mall, Town East Mall, Spring Hill Mall, Rhode Island Mall, North Shore Square, Westgate Mall, Fiesta Mall, and the Parks at Arlington.

I am sure there will be many more that will be found.   Following is a listing of Homart malls (that existed in 1988) for which we have yet to see a mall variant (I pulled this from the Homart wiki article):

 

Valley View Center	Dallas	Texas		1973
Metrocenter	Phoenix	Arizona	Joint venture with Westcor[35]	1973
Altamonte Mall	Altamonte Springs	Florida	Jointly developed with Edward J. DeBartolo Corporation[36][37]	1974
Maplewood Mall	Maplewood (Minneapolis–Saint Paul area)	Minnesota		1974[38]
Independence Center	Independence (Kansas City area)	Missouri		1974
Westminster Mall	Westminster (Orange County)	California		1974[39]
Brea Mall	Brea (Orange County)	California		1975[40]
Northbrook Court	Northbrook (Chicago metropolitan area)	Illinois		1976
Orland Square Mall	Orland Park (Chicago metropolitan area)	Illinois		1976
Woodland Hills Mall	Tulsa	Oklahoma	Expansion completed by Homart in 1982	1976
Lakeside Mall	Sterling Heights	Michigan	Joint venture with Alfred Taubman	1976
Burnsville Center	Burnsville (Minneapolis–Saint Paul area)	Minnesota		1977[38]
Louis Joliet Mall	Joliet	Illinois	Renamed in mid 2000s as Westfield Louis Joliet	1977
Twelve Oaks Mall	Novi	Michigan	Joint venture with A. Alfred Taubman and Dayton-Hudson Corporation	1977
Westfield Broward	Plantation (Miami Metropolitan Area)	Florida	Acquired by Westfield Group in 2007 and renamed Westfield Broward	1978
Baybrook Mall	Friendswood (Greater Houston)	Texas		1978
Town Center Mall	Boca Raton (Miami Metropolitan Area)	Florida	Also known as Town Center at Boca Raton	1980
Greenbrier Mall	Chesapeake	Virginia		1981
Deerbrook Mall	Humble (Greater Houston)	Texas		1984
Tysons Galleria	Tysons Corner (Washington Metropolitan Area)	Virginia	Jointly developed with Lerner Enterprises	1988
Lakeland Square Mall	Lakeland	Florida	Jointly developed with Edward J. DeBartolo Corporation[43]	1988

 

 

 

The Northbrook Court and Orland Square Mall malls were really big at the time - I would imagine they would have one. Tysons Galleria has always been a "luxury" mall so it might not have one but I'll look around. Fun fact - when it was built I lived behind it, I walked my dog through the construction site. My office looks down on it now.

[Cpt Kirk]

Thanks to @onlyweaknesskryptonite, I've been able to amass 12 of the known 15 variants of Adv of Superman 443.  Now I wish the owners of the other 3 would decide to sell!  

 

 

 

 

 

 

Edited March 7, 2020 by Cpt Kirk

[converseba]

Excited to find this thread as I had been wondering about these mall variants. I've got these two in my collection from a trip I took to the mall when I was a kid. Thanks for all the info here. Nice to have some actual background on these. Just to add a little background of my own, what I remember about these is that they were literally just sitting on a table in the mall for the taking, like a flyer (thus why I snatched up two...wish I had been greedier at the time). 

Edited May 30, 2020 by converseba

[Cpt Kirk]

11 hours ago, converseba said:

Excited to find this thread as I had been wondering about these mall variants. I've got these two in my collection from a trip I took to the mall when I was a kid. Thanks for all the info here. Nice to have some actual background on these. Just to add a little background of my own, what I remember about these is that they were literally just sitting on a table in the mall for the taking, like a flyer (thus why I snatched up two...wish I had been greedier at the time). 

    

[Qalyar]

14 hours ago, converseba said:

Excited to find this thread as I had been wondering about these mall variants. I've got these two in my collection from a trip I took to the mall when I was a kid. Thanks for all the info here. Nice to have some actual background on these. Just to add a little background of my own, what I remember about these is that they were literally just sitting on a table in the mall for the taking, like a flyer (thus why I snatched up two...wish I had been greedier at the time). 

And I believe that's confirmation of one of the previously unrecorded Homart Malls!

[converseba]

On 5/30/2020 at 10:05 PM, Qalyar said:

And I believe that's confirmation of one of the previously unrecorded Homart Malls!

Funnily, I entirely misread the previous posts and hadn't realized that these were unaccounted for previously. Makes it far more exciting for me, which is great since I've been inside and bored for months. It's also a little sad since I'm a professional copyeditor and proofreader.

Edited June 1, 2020 by converseba

[ADAMANTIUM]

59 minutes ago, converseba said:

Funnily, I entirely misread the previous posts and hadn't realized that these were unaccounted for previously. Makes it far more exciting for me, which is great since I've been inside and bored for months. It's also a little sad since I'm a professional copyeditor and proofreader.

Lol, no worries, , and you're forgiven! 

It's cool enough that you faoind the thread and posted

 

[Cpt Kirk]

Thanks to @converseba, one of the two known copies of the Deerbrook Mall variant has been rejoined with its relatives.  Now I’m able to show a photo of 13 of the 16 known variants together, plus the direct sales and newsstand versions.

 

So I suppose a person could do an archival research of local newspapers for each of the cities that has a Homart mall to see if you could find an advertisement similar to the one shown below (found by AJ at RecalledComics.com). If you found that advertisement, then you could assume that there a mall variant exists for that mall, and start doing a search in that area to find the mall variant.  But I think finding a missing mall variant would be harder than the dickens to do.  First of all, it seems reasonable to assume that a good portion of these free giveaways were stashed away or even thrown away (especially since this issue of Adventures of Superman would otherwise have little to no value).   To add to the problem, most of the mall variants in my possession ended up being found a long distance from the originating mall. For example, my spare copy of the Georgetown Park mall variant (which originated from the Georgetown Mall in Wash DC) was later found on the opposite side of the United States in Redmond Washington.

I’ve been chasing these mall variants down for 8+ years.   @converseba is the first person I’ve met who has direct recollection of picking up these comic books at a mall.  In his own words (and with his permission) is his story:

“We moved to Conroe, Texas, which was, at the time, a small town far enough outside of Houston to feel like a really small town. Which brings us to 1988, Superman's 50th anniversary. Suddenly, my relatively low-public-interest hobby was everywhere. Since we lived in a small town, the only malls were about 20-30 minutes away, but since it was the 80s, you were going to go to the mall, regardless. That meant either Willowbrook or Deerbrook (there was one other mall, but people were regularly shot there). Given my overall excitement over the 50th anniversary at the time, I would guess I had seen something regarding the giveaway and pleaded with my mother to go. I do not have any memories to back that up, so it's possible this was just happenstance. Either way, a stack of these free books was just sitting on a table in the mall waiting to be taken. I imagine I tried to take the whole stack, but I'm sure my mother most likely limited me so others wouldn't be left out (the right thing to do, but saddening in retrospect with regard to these books).  I don't recall any other 50th anniversary activities going on, but again, my memories of that specific mall visit are a little fuzzy 32 years on.”

Edited June 5, 2020 by Cpt Kirk