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Rare comics
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Started by Yodisd,

38 posts in this topic

MattTheDuck

MattTheDuck

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Posted
On 10/30/2021 at 8:41 PM, revat said:

I’ve gotta buddy in Singapore who publishes  his own comics.  His 1st comic involved an alien who crash landed on earth and was murdered in a misunderstanding.  There were 12 copies, I think from 2018.

So that’s much rarer than TEC 27 and Action 1.

 

 

Toss one of those on my pile, if you please.

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shadroch

shadroch

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Posted (edited)
On 10/31/2021 at 12:31 PM, Terry JSA said:

I remember thinking I could buy these books when I first started out collecting. Little did I know they would cost hundreds of thousands. 

They were a couple of hundred dollars when I started but just as out of reach. Looking back, I can't understand why I bought numerous collections in the $500- $5,000 range but never considered one of the Holiest of Holies. 

Edited by shadroch
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Terry JSA

Terry JSA

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On 10/31/2021 at 3:54 PM, shadroch said:

They were a couple of hundred dollars when I started but just as out of reach. Looking back, I can't understand why I bought numerous collections in the $500- $5,000 range but neer considered one of the Holiest of Holies. 

Who knows? I don’t think anyone predicted comics would become what they are now. TEC #27 and Action #1 would be nice to own, but realistically it won’t happen for me.

The only way I could see myself owning either is If I decide to buy a lottery ticket and win millions of dollars. lol

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BigLeagueCHEW

BigLeagueCHEW

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On 10/30/2021 at 7:19 PM, Yodisd said:

Hi,

 

What are the rarest comics out there? How many copies of Batman 1, action comics 1 and amazing fantasy 15 exist? Thanks 

You need a copy of the first appearance of Woodgod, don't pass, buy one immediately before the prices skyrocket.

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comicginger1789

comicginger1789

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On 10/30/2021 at 10:41 PM, valiantman said:

There are comics that were known to be printed, but no copies have survived (as far as we know), so those would be the rarest.

 

This intrigues me...is there a list or site or even forum here that discusses such books?

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valiantman

valiantman

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On 11/3/2021 at 3:03 PM, comicginger1789 said:
On 10/30/2021 at 9:41 PM, valiantman said:

There are comics that were known to be printed, but no copies have survived (as far as we know), so those would be the rarest.

 

This intrigues me...is there a list or site or even forum here that discusses such books?

I've seen discussion of it before, but I can't find anything using the search function here (or Google).

Basically they are what the Gerber Photo-Journals calls "Scarcity Index 11" - even though Gerber didn't assign any 11s in the journals.

@shadroch mentioned Motion Picture Funnies 2 and 3, but I don't know if he was sure about those.

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shadroch

shadroch

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Motion Picture Funnies was a huge deal when the first copies turned up in the mid-1970s. I know there were a few copies of #1, and I think someone had proofs of 2-4.

I remember there was speculation that issues 2-4 exist because a comic that starts with issue #5 was considered to be the continuation of MPFs. I believe it was briefly the most expensive comic in the world.

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Qalyar

Qalyar

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I'm sure there are "Gerber 11" books -- stuff that was physically printed but no longer exists. There's reason to believe that quite a few foreign books have been lost, for example, including one or two Canadian Whites, some early British stuff, and a lot of poorly-documented Asian and South American books.. For original US publications, however, it's tough to pin them down for certain because most candidates fall into two categories:

  • Stuff that was supposed to be destroyed, but the pulping machine didn't catch them all. There's a LOT of these, some of which (Elseworlds 80-Page Giant) aren't even that rare. On the other hand, some definitely are. Off the top of my head, examples include famed underground artist Skip Williamson's Snuk Comix #1 (the printer objected to the drug content, refused to deliver the printed comics, and shredded the run; surviving copies were grabbed by Skip before the rest were pulped, and number in the single digits) or DC's Free Comic Book Day 2020 Generation Zero (intended to have been destroyed after Dan DiDio was sacked and the "5G initiative" cancelled; at least one copy survives).
  • Stuff we can't prove existed in the first place. I think the evidence is pretty good that Motion Picture Funnies Weekly #2-4 never existed as complete comic books (covers were prepared, but there's never been any evidence that interiors existed at all). Likewise, Rural Home had a ton of books destroyed for being produced in contravention of their wartime paper quotas, but there's never been conclusive evidence that the mass government pulping expunged any titles or issues that weren't already out there in some fashion (and their probably-intentional slipshod bookkeeping doesn't help with knowing).

There are honorable mentions, in my mind, for things that were printed, but weren't exactly released as comic books. DC produced quite a few ashcans as copyright registration shenanigans, and not all of them that were known to have been created are still known to exist. But those weren't ever intended for public viewing, not even in the sense of advertising giveaways or promos. Similarly, the 1933 Siegel and Shuster creation The Superman (note: well prior to Action Comics 1), which they tried to market to publishers in Chicago; when that didn't pan out, Shuster destroyed the copies except for one cover. However, that's more of an artist portfolio piece than anything published (since it explicitly wasn't published, and all...).

Ironically, the most-lost comic I'm aware off offhand was never physically printed, but did exist! In the late 1990s, Marvel experimented with digital publication in the MarvelZone on AOL. One of these so-called CyberComics, Gambit: The Hunt for the Tomorrow Stone, is believed lost, despite fans (and Bleeding Cool) who have spent quite a bit of effort trying to locate archives of it. Some of Daerick Gross Sr.'s original art for the e-book still exists, but neither he nor writer Fabian Nicieza apparently have anything close to the finished product, nor did Marvel's own archival project turn up a copy.

As far as the OP's original question of the rarest comics ever, strictly on a numbers standpoint, there are several books that intentionally had only a single copy printed. These include, but probably aren't limited to: Bloodshot Salvation #12 Lewis LaRosa Vin Diesel Variant, My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic #12 "1 Million" Variant, Quantum and Woody! #1 Second Printing, and the five #UNITYGOLDENTICKET contest copies of 2013's Unity #1 (each with a different cover). Actually, two of those might qualify as Gerber 11s: the Bryan Hitch variant and Paolo Rivera variant were apparently never discovered (in contrast, the J.G. Jones, Travel Foreman, and Clayton Crain variants have all been located and have subsequently been graded by CGC).

Edited by Qalyar
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Qalyar

Qalyar

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On 11/5/2021 at 5:00 PM, KrabbyDaddy said:

I think Chaos Comics did this too and called them Omega Editions? Part of a contest?

That appears to be the case. I... don't really follow the Chaos Comics stuff, so that slipped past my list. In any case, it's a little different, because the Omega Editions were apparently the prizes for winning the contest, while Valiant's #UNITYGOLDENTICKET books were Willy Wonka-esque searches -- and, critically, the contest (and existence of the unique gold books) weren't even announced until after the title had gone on sale. The only difference is a line of text in the UPC box, but it's quite a difference (and unlike direct market / newsstand, CGC recognizes the golden ticket books as distinct). Interestingly, the two "missing" golden ticket books are the two variants with the UPC on the back cover...

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