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Post by codystarbuck on Jun 29, 2022 11:27:37 GMT -5
The restarting of numbering is just pandering to collector mentality; but, it isn't totally unique to the post-Direct Market audience. Some publishers used volume and issue numbers, like the slicks, such as Hillman, with Airboy and the publisher of Treasure Chest of Fun and Fact. The latter was distributed to Catholic schools and each year had its own volume and was then numbered from 1 to whatever (there was a slight variance in the number of issues published in particular years. A neighbor of mine picked up a whole stack, at a garage sale, then gifted them to me, after he had read them all. Most had no covers and it was a pain trying to figure out chronology, as many of the features were continuing stories, like the sci-fi strip Sock Jones. It also made it hard to figure out when that feature appeared, when I started looking for those issues. Fortunately, I discovered the whole series available for download, as pdfs, at a university library. They had them organized by volume and issue, so I could fill in the gaps (I already had about 1/2 to 2/3 of the series, covering the beginning to the early 60s).
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Post by tolworthy on Jun 29, 2022 18:10:45 GMT -5
I frequent a board that has many newbie collectors absolutely flummoxed with modern comic roadblocks The frequent re-numberings and special events throw them into a frenzy of questions That was me! I had an 18 year gap in collecting (1986-2004). Came back, hoping to catch up on the Fantastic Four. It was awful! The 1990s was multiple titles, reboots, some really bad stuff, just a mess. I was a highly motivated reader with every issue up to 1986. but ti was like Marvel was doing its best to stop me coming back. Most fans were sauying that, with a few exceptions,nothing good had happened since 1986 anyway. Such a disappointment! I was looking forward to a wealth of wonderful stories and character progression to catch up, Instead it was just awful. |
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Post by chaykinstevens on Jul 12, 2022 8:10:16 GMT -5
Valeria the She-Bat volume 1 comprises #1 and 5. The Neal Adams checklist, archived from the Continuity Comics website, says "#2 to #4 Do not exist due to lack of continuity".
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Post by wildfire2099 on Jul 12, 2022 8:20:56 GMT -5
I frequent a board that has many newbie collectors absolutely flummoxed with modern comic roadblocks The frequent re-numberings and special events throw them into a frenzy of questions That was me! I had an 18 year gap in collecting (1986-2004). Came back, hoping to catch up on the Fantastic Four. It was awful! The 1990s was multiple titles, reboots, some really bad stuff, just a mess. I was a highly motivated reader with every issue up to 1986. but ti was like Marvel was doing its best to stop me coming back. Most fans were sauying that, with a few exceptions,nothing good had happened since 1986 anyway. Such a disappointment! I was looking forward to a wealth of wonderful stories and character progression to catch up, Instead it was just awful. That makes me sad! Not sure about the 80s, but if this helps: The Hickman run is pretty good.. (it's the only think of his I'd every in a million years recommend)... he adds Spidey to the team for a while and there's a 2nd title for the Future Foundation (FF).. which focuses on Franklin, Valeria, and a few other kids which is really fun. Then he gets into weird multiverse stuff which is less good. The run RIGHT after that feature Scott Lang, and is decent, but perhaps not what you'd be looking for. I read a bit of James Robinson (which was OK) and Dan Slott, which was also decent. Today's Marvel is not a cohesive universe, every new writer starts from their own personal head canon and goes from there it seems, so if you like one of the writers, you can just go with it and get a whole story. How much character progression there is is another story, as that is often 1 step forward two steps back, and the next writer is likely to ignore the previous one. |
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Post by Ish Kabbible on Jul 19, 2022 5:42:05 GMT -5
Here's an odd re-naming
Sherry The Showgirl was an Atlas title that began in 1956 and ran 7 issues. But for some unknown reason, it was re-named Showgirls for #4 only and went back to it's original title right after
I don't know any other series that re-named for 1 issue only in the middle of it's run
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Post by Ish Kabbible on Jul 20, 2022 19:31:19 GMT -5
Another book today entered the arena of "Go Nuts Collecting Them"
About 25 years ago Image Comics took 4 of their titles, Stormwatch, Brigade and 2 others and jumped their numbering all the way to #25 to give readers a preview of what the books would look like a year down the road. Those four books went back to the original numbering the following month. Ain't those image guys clever?
Turns out at least 2 of those titles never made it to # 24 anyway. Hey, maybe the readers didn't like # 25 and thought it's a good time to abandon ship.
Anyhoo, last year image had a 5 issue anthology series called Skybound X. It concluded in 2021
Today Skybound X #25 shipped. No promises when # 6 will come out, if ever.
Those Image Guys. As clever as ever
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Post by wildfire2099 on Jul 20, 2022 19:57:16 GMT -5
Another book today entered the arena of "Go Nuts Collecting Them" About 25 years ago Image Comics took 4 of their titles, Stormwatch, Brigade and 2 others and jumped their numbering all the way to #25 to give readers a preview of what the books would look like a year down the road. Those four books went back to the original numbering the following month. Ain't those image guys clever? Turns out at least 2 of those titles never made it to # 24 anyway. Hey, maybe the readers didn't like # 25 and thought it's a good time to abandon ship. Anyhoo, last year image had a 5 issue anthology series called Skybound X. It concluded in 2021 Today Skybound X #25 shipped. No promises when # 6 will come out, if ever. Those Image Guys. As clever as ever I had been buying comics weekly long when Image happened, and I read alot both Stormwatch and Brigade at the time. I was SUPER annoyed by that whole thing, to the extent that I dropped both titles after it. |
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Post by Deleted on Jul 20, 2022 20:07:05 GMT -5
I'll only get Fast Willie Jackson 1-7 when I spot a full high grade set, getting them individually in a grade to my liking is a nuisance.
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Post by Ish Kabbible on Jul 20, 2022 20:15:49 GMT -5
I'll only get Fast Willie Jackson 1-7 when I spot a full high grade set, getting them individually in a grade to my liking is a nuisance. Well, that's a title and publisher one hardly ever hears about. Looks to be possibly the first African-American comic company? Just checked. I have all 7 issues in digital |
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Post by Deleted on Jul 20, 2022 20:24:08 GMT -5
It's not close to the horror stories already posted, but I had some trouble sorting out back issues of Legion Of Super-Heroes after they added the second title. Something to do with one title reprinting the other after a gap of maybe six months? Eh... I gave up and blocked out the memory.
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Post by foxley on Jul 21, 2022 2:46:32 GMT -5
It's not close to the horror stories already posted, but I had some trouble sorting out back issues of Legion Of Super-Heroes after they added the second title. Something to do with one title reprinting the other after a gap of maybe six months? Eh... I gave up and blocked out the memory. Same thing happened with New Teen Titans.
Short version is this. DC decided to relaunch both books as direct market only books, with better quality paper and covers, and the reprint the stories a year later as newstand books. The new books were launched with new numbering starting at #1, while the xisting books were renamed as Tales of the Teen Titans and Tales of the Legion of Super-Heroes and continued their original numbering. However, because they wanted to a year of stories in reserve before they started doing the reprints, the Tales books continued to print new stories for 12 months (give or take) before switching to reprinting the Baxter books.
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Post by Icctrombone on Jul 21, 2022 5:48:23 GMT -5
Old time collectors here had a hard time compiling their acquisitions before the internet and even further back without fanzines or print resources alerting them to how long a series ran, changed it's title etc. New collectors, eeven with all these tools , still have it rough I frequent a board that has many newbie collectors absolutely flummoxed with modern comic roadblocks The frequent re-numberings and special events throw them into a frenzy of questions They don't know where to start, what order things are in, what are essential to read for a favorite character or event It's understandable that most don't want to start with 60-80 year old issues just to get a taste of, let's say Iron Man But that character has multiple volumes with that title and multiple titles he starred Newbies get so confused with jumping on points and what continues from what Either they have to do some serious internet research or they just give up and go back to manga Yeah with all the restarting of books, it's a mess. I had problem with the Teen Titans books of the 2000's for that reason. I have resorted to taking screen shots of Mikes amazing world of the covers to help me not buy duplicates. Buying duplicates has been my main problem in the last 3 years, made more difficult with all the variant covers. |
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Post by Icctrombone on Jul 21, 2022 6:02:15 GMT -5
I frequent a board that has many newbie collectors absolutely flummoxed with modern comic roadblocks The frequent re-numberings and special events throw them into a frenzy of questions That was me! I had an 18 year gap in collecting (1986-2004). Came back, hoping to catch up on the Fantastic Four. It was awful! The 1990s was multiple titles, reboots, some really bad stuff, just a mess. I was a highly motivated reader with every issue up to 1986. but ti was like Marvel was doing its best to stop me coming back. Most fans were sauying that, with a few exceptions,nothing good had happened since 1986 anyway. Such a disappointment! I was looking forward to a wealth of wonderful stories and character progression to catch up, Instead it was just awful. If you're talking about the FF title , I disagree. I really loved the Tom Defalco run starting at #356 ,The Dwayne Mcduffie run started with # 542 and the Mark Millar run starting ar #554. Some really enjoyed the Mark Waid run started at #60 ( volume 2) but I thought it was meh. |
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Post by tartanphantom on Jul 21, 2022 8:08:38 GMT -5
I'll only get Fast Willie Jackson 1-7 when I spot a full high grade set, getting them individually in a grade to my liking is a nuisance.
I've been working on completing a decent set for years. I've got a high-grade #1 and #2, and a couple other issues in mid-low grade. It's quite difficult series to complete.
I'll only get Fast Willie Jackson 1-7 when I spot a full high grade set, getting them individually in a grade to my liking is a nuisance. Well, that's a title and publisher one hardly ever hears about. Looks to be possibly the first African-American comic company? Just checked. I have all 7 issues in digital
Fitzgerald Publications started in the mid-'60s with educational comics. Their Golden Legacy series on African-American history is, in retrospect, quite enjoyable and well-done. Although Fitzgerald largely employed their own artists and writers (the company founder, Bertram Fitzgerald, for one), they also occasionally hired from the industry at-large, and both Don Perlin and Tony Tallarico did occasional freelance work for them.
The Golden Legacy series is quite a bit easier to collect as it was distributed to school systems throughout the US, and was reprinted and distributed for over 10 years. However, there was also an unauthorized bootleg version published by Baylor Publishing, the circumstances of which are detailed on GCD. Consequently, you have to be careful when assembling a run of Golden Legacy, as most issues have at least 3 different variants-- the original, the authorized reprint edition, and the bootleg (unauthorized) editions.
On the other hand, Fast Willie Jackson had substantially smaller distribution and is a real bear to assemble in conditions higher than 5.0.
I should mention that Fitzgerald Publications also published a promo/giveaway book entitled Drugs...Where it's At, which was distributed as an anti-drug pamphlet.
Fitzgerald Publications is apparently still publishing the Golden Legacy title, or was, as late as 2014.
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Post by Icctrombone on Jul 21, 2022 9:18:12 GMT -5
This discussion of Fast Willie Jackson just reiterizes what mrp always says about this hobby being a niche pastime. If you were to publish that series in a tpb today, it would do poorly. No one knows or cares about it except us comic geeks.
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