• 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.

Archived

This topic is now archived and is closed to further replies.

Just read New Teen Titans #1 (1980)...

Started by Point Five,

35 posts in this topic

Point Five

Point Five

Posted
  • Author
Posted

Thanks man! thumbsup2.gif

 

I'm a diehard NTT collector of 20+ years, but even I'm mystified by the prices this issue commands in high grade. confused-smiley-013.gif Took awhile to upgrade this one.

Link to comment
Share on other sites
Zonker

Zonker

Posted
Posted
Sometime during the mid-80's, NTT underwent a title change and became Tales of the Teen Titans. This series continued with the original NTT storyline for a few issues, then became a reprint-only title.

 

Ohhh yeah! That was one of the more bizarre, irritating and pointless format changes I've ever seen. Each "Tales of the Teen Titans" book would reprint a NTT story from the Baxter series that you'd already read a year ago...with a crappier cover...on regular paper instead of Baxter stock. Talk about ways to kill off a title! screwy.gif

 

The title change to "Tales of..." was my original dropping off point. I also boycotted the Baxter format New Teen Titans book because I didn't like the fact they started a new #1 within five years of the original New Teen Titans #1. If I only knew then what the future would hold for title relaunches! Christo_pull_hair.gifscrewy.gif

 

The rationale in those early days of Direct Sales was to market the same book twice to two different audiences (a variation on what they teach you in B-school as the two-part-tariff):

- sell the new stuff at a higher price to the comic shop buying audience

- sell it again a year later to the newstand readers

 

DC even called it their Hardcover/Paperback experiment. They tried the same thing with Legion and Outsiders as I recall. I guess no one expected the newstand to die as quickly as it did. I'd imagine anyone who wanted to read the stories had found their way to a comics shop or mail order venue in the first year. I don't think any of the "paperback" versions survived too many issues after the reprints began.

Link to comment
Share on other sites
uclapeterg

uclapeterg

Posted
Posted
Thanks man! thumbsup2.gif

 

I'm a diehard NTT collector of 20+ years, but even I'm mystified by the prices this issue commands in high grade. confused-smiley-013.gif Took awhile to upgrade this one.

 

Nik sold me a CGC 9.4 White for 50 bucks - thanks Nik! cloud9.gif

Link to comment
Share on other sites
40sJohn

40sJohn

Posted
Posted

The New Teen Titans holds a special memory for me as it was one of the eye opening moments that led to me getting out of collecting in the early 80's.

 

By 1980, I had gone to pretty much collecting only Marvel comics and had left DC, except for sporadic issues of Action or Detective. It seems within the first year of NTT, it became THE hot title in comic collecting and Perez was THE man. #1 shot to $10 maybe $25 for a Mint issue. Discussing this with our local comic store owner, he was incredulous that this was happening and showed me multilple,multiple issues he had stashed when they were first published - of course he was selling them at market price.

 

It didn't take long for me to realize that the market was possibly based on phony scarcity and the elevated prices were short term at best. Which then led to the realization that it would no longer be possible for future issues of any comics from the late '70s or very early '80s to become anything of real value due to the pure numbers of issues in high grades that were out there and the hoarding of "collectors" issues in "mint" conditions.

 

It was an issue that I would like to have owned but never bought since I got out of collecting within a year or so due to other numerous issues, both with the comic industry and life itself. However now that I am back into collecting it might be the only Copper age DC comic that I buy along with the Crisis series.

 

Link to comment
Share on other sites
DrWatson

DrWatson

Posted
Posted

I thought that the first five issues of the Baxter run was a very good story line with the whole Trigon/Raven scenario playing out. They even more or less adapted it to the Titans cartoon.

Link to comment
Share on other sites
helionaut

helionaut

Posted
Posted

I missed out on the Claremont/Byrne X-Men run, but I was all about NTT. I had a few issues of the original Titans series from somewhere and don't remember liking it overly, but I liked the DCCP 26 story, and got NTT from the beginning. It was really something above most of the other books I was reading, and it still is. From the introduction of the new heroes and the Terminator and the other villains, to the character driven stories like #38 and Cyborg's struggles with his appearance and Raven's dealing with her father (a demon, what baggage), through the Judas Contract, then the switchover to the Baxter title (they did an issue of each series for 12 months, where the Baxter series was a year ahead, and at the end of the year the last issue of NTT lead into #1 of Baxter Titans, which was reprinted as #64 or whatever of NTT, the rest of which followed). Then the Baxter title had controversy in the first issue with Nightwing and Starfire being in bed together (I always thought it was funny that the furor was over them being teenagers and unwed, not that she was, you know, a friggin' alien), and the cover itself was argued about because it wasn't full-bleed, unlike what was shown in in-house ads. And the stories were harsher, with some fairly disturbing art during the Trigon sequences. But the art was supreme, no one is better at inking Perez than Perez. I've been meaning to reread the series for a while now, maybe scooping up the Archives will be worth it. Anyone have them?

Link to comment
Share on other sites
Go to topic listing