Wednesday, April 22, 2020

Retro Foreign

Argentinian Cuentos Extraordinarios Album Especial #1

Cuentos Extraordinarios Album Especial or Extraordinary Tales Special Album is an interesting title.  Each issue is a collection published by Acme Agency in Argentina of comics originally published by Editorial Novaro in Mexico.  The content inside each copy of this title is not consistent.  This particular copy of Cuentos Extraordinarios Album Especial #1 has the pages from Clásicos del Cine #301 (Star Wars #4 and the first half of Star Wars #5) and another copy of this book I own contains Clásicos del Cine #299 (Star Wars #1 and the first half of Star Wars #2.)  I have also seen a copy of this comic (not in my collection) that has Domingos Alegres #1443a bundled inside, which is part of the Empire Strikes Back adaptation.

Cuentos Extraordinarios Album Especial #1a - Acme Agency/Editorial Novaro, Argentina (November 1984)
contains Clásicos del Cine #301
Based on the page count, it looks like each of these albums collects 3 aguila or eagle sized comics originally published by Novaro.

It was a common practice in many countries to bundle unsold comics into collections for resale.  Based on the wildly different content of different copies of this album, I wonder if this book is a new printing by Acme Agency of the pages or if it is actually a bundling of unsold comics.  Both prospects are fascinating.  If the content is a new printing, why did Acme Agency publish different content using the same cover?  And if it is a bundle of unsold comics, the Star Wars issue found inside some of these copies were published 6 years prior to the pages being bundled inside the collection, which is a long time for those unsold comics to have been around.  I would be very interested in hearing from anyone who knows if these albums are new printing of the pages or a bundling of unsold issues.

Update
I reached out to Fer Franco Quiroz, a well known Editorial Novaro collector, who confirmed that these albums contain three random Novaro remainders!

No comments:

Post a Comment