Updating Blogs

I had several goals in mind when I started out writing these blogs:

• Get Star Wars and comic fans interested in the wide assortment of Star Wars comics from around the world
• Meet other Star Wars comic collectors
• Document interesting and important information for myself and other collectors

With regards to the first goal, I cannot really say if these blogs have had an impact on anyone and turned them into a Star Wars comic collector.  I hope they do get others excited about Star Wars comics and I'll keep writing them as long as I feel there is an audience for them.  As for the second goal, in the three months since I've been writing these blogs, I can honestly say I have not met one other Star Wars comic collector.  Very few comments are left on the blog postings and most postings have only received a handful of visits.  I am encouraged however whenever I share select blogs on various forums because those blogs do receive many more hits than usual.  While I wish visitors would take the time to leave a comment or participate in one of the surveys, I understand the mechanism for communication provided by Blogger is awkward unlike a forum like the CGC Forum or The Foreign Comics Forum.  As for my third goal, from time to time, I re-read some of my previous blogs and correct errors and add more information.  Up until this point, these fixes have all been minor and not noteworthy.

Recently, I decided to update two previous blogs to include more substantial content: images of the interior panels of Boba Fett in two key Star Wars comics, Star Wars #42 and Star Wars #68.  I have been reluctant to take pictures of the interior of comic books because I want to retain the comics in the condition they are in.  I also refuse to take images from other sites and use them here; I want these blogs to contain images from my collection.  Both these decisions have at times limited my ability to clearly explain things as I have had to rely on written words only.  To get around this, I have made some purchases recently which will allow me provide scans of all the Marvel comics and many of the Dark Horse Comics.  Interior scans for Marvel Star Wars comics will come from my set of Star Wars: A Long Time Ago... trade paperbacks from Dark Horse Comics and interior scans for Dark Horse Star Wars comics will come from the myriad of Dark Horse trade paperbacks I now possess.  Interior images will still be used sparingly, but at least it is a tool I can now use in my postings.

The first blog I updated is First Appearance: Boba Fett.  The blog now includes the panels from the 2 pages inside Star Wars #42 that contain Boba Fett.

The second blog I updated is Retro Marvel: Star Wars #68 versus Star Wars #81.  I added the single 2 page panel from Star Wars #68 that contains a Boba Fett appearance.

I am not attempting to diminish the value of Star Wars #42 or Star Wars #68 but am instead hoping to inform collectors.  In this day and age of encapsulated comics, it has become common for sellers and buyers to take the labels on an encapsulated comic as gospel.  This has led to confusion in the marketplace about the significance of a character's appearance inside a comic, whether it is a cameo, first appearance, major appearance, ad appearance, etc.  What needs to be understood is grading companies like CGC, CBCS, and PGX make mistakes on labels.  My understanding is labels are established by those purchasing the grading service.  Unfortunately, it can be costly for the grading companies to correct mistakes on labels, so usually they don't.

Another problem is these grading companies do not necessarily grade all the various formats that comics take, so their labels are applicable to those format they do grade.  For many years, CGC did not grade magazines.  So, a label for the first appearance of a character in a comic would be affixed to a traditional pamphlet format comic, because that is the first appearance of the character in a format that the grading company grades, even if that character had a previous appearance in a format the grading company does not handle.  I'm not saying a conscious decision was made to ignore formats not handled by a grading company, but it might help explain why Incredible Hulk #271 with a cover date of May 1982 is labeled as the first appearance of Rocket Raccoon when Rocket Raccoon's first appearance was in a magazine, Marvel Preview #7 in 1976.

Regardless, from time to time, I will make updates to previous blogs.  When those changes are significant, I will let you know about them.