Sunday, February 19, 2017

Retro Marvel

Marvel Movie Showcase #1

It is fairly common to see a listing of a reprint of the Star Wars (1977) #1 comic asking for 1st print prices on eBay.  For non or novice comic collectors, this mistake makes sense; there are five different versions of Star Wars #1 and only the newsstand and $0.35 editions can be considered 1st prints.  Identifying two of the three reprints is fairly trivial since the word REPRINT is written in the upper left hand corner of the cover in the character box.  The other reprint is slightly harder to identify as it would require reading the indicia on the first page or understanding the nuances of the diamond price and UPC symbol boxes.

It is also common to see Marvel Movie Showcase #1 being misidentified as Star Wars #1, usually with an incorrect description saying the comic was printed in 1977.

Marvel Movie Showcase #1a - Marvel Comics, U.S. (November 1982)
Newsstand
reprints Star Wars #1 - 3
Marvel Movie Showcase #1b - Marvel Comics, U.S. (November 1982)
Direct
reprints Star Wars #1 - 3
While the cover art is the same on Star Wars #1 as Marvel Movie Showcase #1, there are many differences that help distinguish the 2 comics:

Star Wars #1Marvel Movie Showcase #1
title in indicia Star Warstitle in indicia Marvel Movie Showcase
published in 1977published in 1982
$0.30 or $0.35 cover price$1.25 cover price
32-pages64-pages
green Darth Vader and blue Death Star on coverblue Darth Vader and green Death Star on cover
star burst text reads: Fabulous First Issue!star burst text reads: 64 Page Collector's Special!
text blurb reads: Enter: Luke Skywalker! Will he save the galaxy-- or destroy it?text blurb reads: Because you demanded it, the triumphant return of the original movie saga!
Side-by-side comparison of Star Wars #1 and Marvel Movie Showcase #1

3 comments:

  1. worth of the 64 page without spiderman on it???

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  2. Newsstand and direct market edition of books from this era are equally plentiful in nice condition. I cannot imagine a newsstand version would sell for much more than a direct version. Now the Canadian edition ($1.50 price on the cover) is another story entirely.

    ReplyDelete
  3. What would you say the price the Canadian one would be them

    ReplyDelete