• When you click on links to various merchants on this site and make a purchase, this can result in this site earning a commission. Affiliate programs and affiliations include, but are not limited to, the eBay Partner Network.

The Whitman Thread
15 15

Started by Brock,

615 posts in this topic

Brock

Brock

Posted
  • Author
Posted
On 3/1/2023 at 10:14 AM, PeterPark said:

I saw mycomicshop had a CGC 8.5 copy of Superman 348.

I didn't check the census but that's got to be near the top considering how rare they are...

The census is distorted a bit by the "Big 8/Big 10" Whitmans, but there are currently 135 DC Whitmans with fewer copies graded than Superman 348.

Link to comment
Share on other sites
Brock

Brock

Posted
  • Author
Posted
On 3/1/2023 at 9:47 PM, PeterPark said:

Big 10 includes...Sgt Rock 329, Warlord 22, and/or DC Comics Presents 10?

Yes, Sgt. Rock 329 and Warlord 22.

The DCCP 10 is a sort of "middle of the road" scarcity... It's definitely not easy to find, but others are a LOT harder.

The "Big 8" were all cover dated for June of 1980. Sgt. Rock 329 and Warlord 22 were bother cover dated for June of 1979, and my guess is that they were possibly sold as a 2-pack since they are both so scarce. Interestingly, DCCP 10 also comes from June of 1979 (as do a number of others).

Link to comment
Share on other sites
bellrules

bellrules

Posted
Posted
On 3/2/2023 at 2:08 PM, Brock said:

Yes, Sgt. Rock 329 and Warlord 22.

The DCCP 10 is a sort of "middle of the road" scarcity... It's definitely not easy to find, but others are a LOT harder.

The "Big 8" were all cover dated for June of 1980. Sgt. Rock 329 and Warlord 22 were bother cover dated for June of 1979, and my guess is that they were possibly sold as a 2-pack since they are both so scarce. Interestingly, DCCP 10 also comes from June of 1979 (as do a number of others).

Some collectors think Flash 274 is tough, but I’ve managed to find a few. DCCP 10 isn’t that tough but it might get more attention due to the scarcity of Sgt Rock 329. I think most that don’t feature Batman, Superman or Wonder Woman are scarcer. 

Link to comment
Share on other sites
Brock

Brock

Posted
  • Author
Posted
On 3/2/2023 at 11:06 PM, bellrules said:

Some collectors think Flash 274 is tough, but I’ve managed to find a few. DCCP 10 isn’t that tough but it might get more attention due to the scarcity of Sgt Rock 329. I think most that don’t feature Batman, Superman or Wonder Woman are scarcer. 

It's funny - a few years back, I made a throwaway comment here on the boards that DCCP 10 was a tougher book, and it immediately started to be priced higher on eBay, which I don't think was warranted. I'm not saying that I have some sort of market influence here, but I do think the boards have an outsize influence on the markets. It's definitely made me more cautious about what I write here, and the kind of language I use!

Having said that, my research (actual data!) agrees with you. Leaving aside Sgt. Rock 329 and Warlord 22, I believe that Flash 274 is the toughest (scarcest?) of the other June 1979 books. The Brave and the Bold 151 is the easiest (most common?).

Link to comment
Share on other sites
fett

fett

Posted
Posted
On 11/22/2022 at 12:27 PM, Skwerl said:

It's been awhile since I checked this thread, but someone pointed me to it in a discussion about "mutlipack editions" in the "Ask CGC" thread and urged me to post my knowledge here to contribute to the discussion. I grew up in print shops and comic book stores, so the ins & outs of printing and distribution of comics has always fascinated me, and I've sort of majored in 1977 specifically (mostly because I'm also a Star Wars fan), and I've been obsessing over some of these topics for decades. I'm in my 40s now, so I wasn't there in the late 70s, but in the 80s I talked to people who were.

Here's the Ask CGC thread: 

Whitman's parent company Western printed a lot of comics, but they did not print Marvel comics. They did not have a license to. All Marvel comics were printed on the same printing presses, which I believe were always at World Color Press. In a sec, I'll post an editorial printed by Marvel in the early 80s that stated they all came from the same printing presses.

There is not really any such thing as a "multipack variant." This statement has been a little controversial, and I've got no ego here and would happy to be proven wrong (okay, it would be really embarrassing, but I would try and take the L with grace). But I would simply challenge anyone to show three versions of a particular Marvel comic that had a third version besides newsstand (Curtis insignia), and direct (no Curtis insignia). There would have been no reason to print a third version specifically for multipacks which were just a way to dump excess (as in already printed) inventory at a discount. Important things to note, which has made this challenge tricky: The presence of the barcode is not really the defining characteristic of a newsstand edition, but rather it's the Curtis insignia. Curtis distributed to newsstands, and they put some numbers and their mark on the books they distributed. Direct editions went out through other means (I believe this was typically Sea Gate distribution, as World Color did not distribute), and those did not have the Curtis insignia. I think it's common knowledge at this point why bar codes started going away on direct editions: Retailers were returning unsold direct editions for the higher newsstand wholesale prices, and also some retailers were trying to scan the barcodes on the comics in the multipacks rather than the ones on the multipacks themselves. But that's a rabbit hole in and of itself. For now suffice to say that transition didn't happen overnight at once across all titles.

Okay, so this is from Marvel Team-Up #108 (1981), but I've seen it in other issues from around that time, when collectors first started asking what was up with the diamond boxes:

299530598_5565088990217679_1399204431824857769_n.thumb.jpg.448fa4e30ef1c8a1f717f06bd3eaf321.jpg299507697_1118933252314529_5474598939169376336_n.thumb.jpg.a0bfb4ed03ff162077872e5c1b69ae4f.jpg

Note that Marvel confirms that there were just two versions, and that they were printed "on the same presses." Which further proves that Western/Whitman didn't print Marvel comics (they never had a license to and you won't actually find a Whitman logo on any Marvel books besides a few oddball examples such as the treasury editions and Superman Vs. Muhammad Ali, etc.). And now, the debate that is opened up on the "Ask CGC" thread was whether or not the smaller diamond box shown here is different than the larger diamond boxes on the so-called "multipack variants." My position is that they're the same thing; the design just evolved in 1978/1979 for aesthetic reasons. But that's an open debate, I'll admit.

Now, on that other thread, as we got into questions of who exactly got what versions, many pointed out examples of mistakes. There was the design of things, the intent, and then you had the reality of a lot of cokeheads working on tight deadlines, and there were lots of anomalies, and "bugs" in 1977, which was sort of the 1.0 release of Marvel direct editions. There were some direct editions printed with the Curtis insignia accidentally. Newsstand editions popped up in comic book shops (this happened even into the 80s). I would not be at all shocked to find multipacks with newsstand editions post-1977. It's sort of the same as finding retailer variants in Wal-Mart packs today. Anything lying around could go into them.

This is a big reason why I try to focus my "arguments" on the things that couldn't have been occasionally messed up: That a) there was simply never a third version printed of a Marvel comic for multipacks; If comic stores existed in 1977-1979 (they did of course), and any of them got Marvel comics through a distributor other than Curtis/ID, then they got Marvel comics without the Curtis symbol on them. There was only ever newsstand, and direct edition, and "multipack edition" is a misnomer.  And 2) Whitman didn't print Marvels, they only got their hands on Marvel inventory that was printed not by their parent company Western, who printed the DC and Dell/GK stuff. Which was confirmed by Marvel who literally said they came from the same presses in that Marvel editorial I posted. So "whitman reprint / whitman edition" is a misnomer as well.

So that's the hill I'm on: No such thing as Marvel "Whitman reprints" or "Whitman editions," and no such thing as "multipack edition;" Those were all just early direct editions, printed by Marvel, on the same presses that printed the newsstand inventory that went to Curtis/ID. But I'm not posting this to "be right on the internet," I'm just a nerd who loves this stuff and would love to learn more if I'm off on anything. Hope something here is helpful for anyone else on that same journey.

How about this issue? One regular newstand, one regular diamond with upc, and another diamond without upc. 

 

https://www.comics.org/issue/31543/cover/4/

Link to comment
Share on other sites
Get Marwood & I

Get Marwood & I

Posted
Posted
On 6/29/2023 at 12:38 PM, fett said:

How about this issue? One regular newstand, one regular diamond with upc, and another diamond without upc. 

 

https://www.comics.org/issue/31543/cover/4/

Notice also how the regular newsstand issue has a barcode #10 (for October) and the barcoded 'Whitman' - which has no cover month - has a 'September' 09 (which is on the 'Whitman' issue #215):

21610(2).png.7d2e0f53237511f32f82df11d112bc0f.png 804170(2).jpg.31c2cc2da9ee5b7be3312b0275b3a08f.jpg

Link to comment
Share on other sites
  • Popular Post
Sal

Sal

Posted
  • Popular Post
Posted

got this for $2 plus $5 shipping (sigh). I had tried to bid on another four books but apparently my attempt to raise my initial two dollar bids didnt go through.  Oh well.  its a VF/VF+ ish copy

brave_bold_whitman.jpg

Link to comment
Share on other sites
Warlord

Warlord

Posted
Posted
On 7/3/2023 at 3:06 PM, Sal said:

got this for $2 plus $5 shipping (sigh). I had tried to bid on another four books but apparently my attempt to raise my initial two dollar bids didnt go through.  Oh well.  its a VF/VF+ ish copy

brave_bold_whitman.jpg

Sharp copy, nice score!

Link to comment
Share on other sites
Sal

Sal

Posted
Posted

Thanks! I was pleasantly surprised...considering it was cupped lengthwise in my mailbox (double sigh)

Link to comment
Share on other sites
  • Popular Post
MR SigS

MR SigS

Posted
  • Popular Post
Posted

Looks like the only Whitmans I have that aren't reprints are this Scamp #25

 

o0Th3KKh.jpg

mzw4AUrh.jpg

 

This Super-Friends coloring book

 

UqW1i6Rh.jpg

 

And this (white Whitman?) Buck Rogers double cover.

 

0ftHvuhh.jpg

yTv0YJyh.jpg

 

And though these are from the 60s, there doesn't seem to be a thread like this in the SA forum. I'm not sure what the significance is, if any, for the difference in "Whitman" design, and I don't know if the puzzle (Mike Royer's first professional super-hero artwork) has a non-Whitman version, but the Space Ghost coloring book does.

 

Ru1Ijh9h.jpg

eWdHan8h.jpg

plIMcIyh.jpg

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Create an account or sign in to comment

You need to be a member in order to leave a comment

Create an account

Sign up for a new account in our community. It's easy!

Register a new account

Sign in

Already have an account? Sign in here.

Sign In Now
15 15
Go to topic listing