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Post by beccabear67 on Jul 6, 2020 19:25:34 GMT -5
I may've known this but forgotten it... if the Legion of Super-Heroes had a rule that members had to have unique powers to be admitted in, how did Supergirl get in? Wasn't she in duplication of Superboy's powers?
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Post by Roquefort Raider on Jul 6, 2020 19:41:51 GMT -5
I may've known this but forgotten it... if the Legion of Super-Heroes had a rule that members had to have unique powers to be admitted in, how did Supergirl get in? Wasn't she in duplication of Superboy's powers? There's a nice article on the subject here, but in a nutshell... There is an exception for Superboy and Supergirl. The real reason is that the rule about "only one member with a certain power" came a long, long time after the super cousins were made Legionnaires!
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Post by Deleted on Jul 6, 2020 19:49:02 GMT -5
I believe it happened before they made that rule part of Legion canon.
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Confessor
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Post by Confessor on Jul 7, 2020 0:08:48 GMT -5
Rules are made to be broken.
As are hearts and promises.
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shaxper
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Post by shaxper on Jul 7, 2020 12:30:32 GMT -5
Can someone explain to me why Direct Market comics did not have UPC barcodes? Did publishers have to pay a fee to UPC for each code printed, or perhaps was there a need to distinguish between Direct Market and mass consumption books? I've got to think that it would have been useful for LCSes to be able to quickly scan inventory, so it seems odd that this was not available to them.
Going along with this, my 30 year old memories betray me -- did subscription books come with a UPC barcode or not?
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Post by Slam_Bradley on Jul 7, 2020 12:56:26 GMT -5
Can someone explain to me why Direct Market comics did not have UPC barcodes? Did publishers have to pay a fee to UPC for each code printed, or perhaps was there a need to distinguish between Direct Market and mass consumption books? I've got to think that it would have been useful for LCSes to be able to quickly scan inventory, so it seems odd that this was not available to them. Going along with this, my 30 year old memories betray me -- did subscription books come with a UPC barcode or not? I'd venture that it was because Direct Market sellers were very much very small businesses at the time and largely couldn't afford the point-of-sale scanners that used UPCs. I worked at a local grocery store in high school during the conversion from old-school pricing to UPC usage and it was incredibly expensive and there was a lot of push-back against it from workers, customers, pretty much everyone but inventory control.
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Post by Farrar on Jul 7, 2020 12:56:43 GMT -5
The "no duplicate powers" rule being thought of as established early on is probably due to this, from Adventure #317: But see? No hard and fast rule...just being practical . Hmmm o-kay
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Post by Deleted on Jul 7, 2020 13:19:40 GMT -5
Can someone explain to me why Direct Market comics did not have UPC barcodes? Did publishers have to pay a fee to UPC for each code printed, or perhaps was there a need to distinguish between Direct Market and mass consumption books? I've got to think that it would have been useful for LCSes to be able to quickly scan inventory, so it seems odd that this was not available to them. Going along with this, my 30 year old memories betray me -- did subscription books come with a UPC barcode or not? subscription copies in the 80s at least when I had Marvel subscriptions were from Curtis i.e, newsstand copies with UPC symbols (and came 2 weeks after direct market editions hit stores, as newsstand copies reached market later than direct market books did-I can remember a few times waiting for newsstand copies to hit after something sold out at the comic shop that I had missed a copy of). -M
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Post by zaku on Jul 7, 2020 14:53:05 GMT -5
I may've known this but forgotten it... if the Legion of Super-Heroes had a rule that members had to have unique powers to be admitted in, how did Supergirl get in? Wasn't she in duplication of Superboy's powers? Because you should be crazy to not admit TWO people able to do this
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shaxper
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Post by shaxper on Jul 7, 2020 15:42:07 GMT -5
Can someone explain to me why Direct Market comics did not have UPC barcodes? Did publishers have to pay a fee to UPC for each code printed, or perhaps was there a need to distinguish between Direct Market and mass consumption books? I've got to think that it would have been useful for LCSes to be able to quickly scan inventory, so it seems odd that this was not available to them. Going along with this, my 30 year old memories betray me -- did subscription books come with a UPC barcode or not? I'd venture that it was because Direct Market sellers were very much very small businesses at the time and largely couldn't afford the point-of-sale scanners that used UPCs. I worked at a local grocery store in high school during the conversion from old-school pricing to UPC usage and it was incredibly expensive and there was a lot of push-back against it from workers, customers, pretty much everyone but inventory control. A fair point. But I'm still missing why publishers bothered to print two different versions of the books. Why go through all that trouble NOT to print a barcode for the direct market?
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Post by Prince Hal on Jul 7, 2020 16:19:12 GMT -5
I'd venture that it was because Direct Market sellers were very much very small businesses at the time and largely couldn't afford the point-of-sale scanners that used UPCs. I worked at a local grocery store in high school during the conversion from old-school pricing to UPC usage and it was incredibly expensive and there was a lot of push-back against it from workers, customers, pretty much everyone but inventory control. A fair point. But I'm still missing why publishers bothered to print two different versions of the books. Why go through all that trouble NOT to print a barcode for the direct market? Just a wild guess, but would the issues without the UPC code be seen as more collectible and ergo a boost to the direct sellers, who were just starting to appear? They would still have had the box, right, but didn't they print something relating to the comic inside it?
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shaxper
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Post by shaxper on Jul 7, 2020 16:44:55 GMT -5
A fair point. But I'm still missing why publishers bothered to print two different versions of the books. Why go through all that trouble NOT to print a barcode for the direct market? Just a wild guess, but would the issues without the UPC code be seen as more collectible and ergo a boost to the direct sellers, who were just starting to appear? They would still have had the box, right, but didn't they print something relating to the comic inside it? I suppose it might have had the variant appeal. That makes sense. Yes, some great art in those boxes.
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Post by codystarbuck on Jul 7, 2020 20:12:24 GMT -5
Newsstand comics were printed in much higher numbers; but were also returnable, via affidavit returns (cover is stripped off and returned for credit). Direct Market were non-returnable; so, I would guess that the two different covers would distinguish between legit newsstand returns and a direct market customer attempting to pull a fast one. Book publishers do the same thing for book club editions, like the Book-of-the-Month Club, Sci-Fi Book Club and the Scholastic School Book Program. Those books have different ISBNs and covers to identify them, so that people cannot try to return them to bookstores for credit or other fraudulent returns. Believe me, I saw them all the time. Scholastic even started doing school book editions in paperback for books they only had in hardcover, in the retail market (Series of Unfortunate Events, Diary of a Wimpy Kid, etc).
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Post by rberman on Jul 7, 2020 22:16:11 GMT -5
I may've known this but forgotten it... if the Legion of Super-Heroes had a rule that members had to have unique powers to be admitted in, how did Supergirl get in? Wasn't she in duplication of Superboy's powers? Because you should be crazy to not admit TWO people able to do this Seriously. The U.P. should just use the Horde of Daxam, who could wipe the floor with the Legionnaires if they felt like it.
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Post by Deleted on Jul 7, 2020 22:21:15 GMT -5
A fair point. But I'm still missing why publishers bothered to print two different versions of the books. Why go through all that trouble NOT to print a barcode for the direct market? Just a wild guess, but would the issues without the UPC code be seen as more collectible and ergo a boost to the direct sellers, who were just starting to appear? They would still have had the box, right, but didn't they print something relating to the comic inside it? Because Curtis Comics handled the newsstand distribution and had their logo and job number on the covers for the newsstand books but had no part in the direct market distribution and did not have their logo or job number on those copies, so even without the UPC divide you would have had to print different copies for each market, and since the UPC was not needed and the box could be used for additional marketing, why not add things to the space the UPC box took up on the Curtis Comics copies.
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