Back in January of this year, I was let go from my fintech job of 10 years. I had planned on retiring early anyway, but would have preferred doing so on my own timeline for obvious reasons. I did something stupid and I had let my manager know I was contemplating retirement and so my being let go was not entirely unexpected since the company always does layoffs in January. It was easier to give me the pink slip than another co-worker who would have been blindsided. The biggest disappointment was not getting a farewell lunch with co-workers and thanks after a software engineer career that lasted well over 30 years! I'm in my mid 50s, so I feel fortunate that I'm still young and have my health.
I spent a few months moping around the house initially, but then I began pondering what I wanted to do with the next leg of my life! I'm married, my wife still works, and both my kids are older and have completed 4 year degrees at college and moved out of the house. I'm sure some of you have noticed I stopped creating content for my blog back in 2020 which coincided with work becoming extremely busy. At the end of this summer, I started posting again and want to keep doing so for the foreseeable future. I have the time now and I love the process of reading comics, researching interesting tidbits, and sharing the information. I still have a ton of comics in my collection that have not been posted including a fair number of international books.
I found myself watching too many YouTube videos earlier this year when the idea hit me to spend some of my time making my own videos about this hobby I enjoy. I released my first video last week to little fanfare! It is rough, but taught me a bit about the process. Earlier today, I just completed my second video which I'm a little more happy with and is emblematic of the type of videos I want to create. This video is Star Wars Dark Empire Surprising Comic Cover Changes and, while sensationalistic in nature, I feel is full of the interesting content I love researching and writing about. In fact, the bulk of the content in the video is taken from a posting I created back in 2016, Wizard Ace Edition #13 - Star Wars: Dark Empire #1. The video is undoubtably rough, but every outing, I plan on improving one thing until these videos rival the best content for Star Wars comic fans.
I plan to create 4-5 blogs a week and 1 video. I feel the videos are an extension of what I've already been doing here, but I'm hoping it can reach a larger audience. If you happen to read this blog and enjoying the content, you would be doing me a tremendous favor if you went over to YouTube and watched the video I posted today. If it interests to you, I would be grateful if you decided to like the video and subscribe to my channel.
I spend a lot of time looking at Star Wars comics while doing research for this blog. Many times, I'll come across something that is interesting but outside the scope of what I'm researching, note it, and come back to it later. A while ago, I noticed that the cover logo being used for reprints of Star Wars #2 is different than the logo on the issue that was original published. It is a subtle, but interesting change. For Star Wars #1, the logo did not join the first and last two letters of the title as is standard for the Star Wars logo. This was fixed for the second issue.
Star Wars #2a - Marvel Comics, U.S. (August 1977)
I first noticed the discrepancy in the Dark Horse published Star Wars: A Long Time Ago... Volume 1: Doomworld trade paperback. The Star Wars #2 cover reprinted in that collection has the separate first and last two letters on the logo. This different logo has been used on subsequent reprints of Star Wars #2.
Star Wars #2 cover used in reprints
Even Wookieepedia incorrectly states:
On the cover of both this issue and the previous one, the first and last two letters of the Star Wars logo are not attached to each other.
This appears to be true for modern reprints of Star Wars #2, but not for the issue as it was originally printed in 1977.
So, what is the origin of this change? I've looked through my collection to see if this alternate cover appears on any of the foreign editions, but I have not been able to find any. If anyone knows or has an older reprint that uses the alternate logo, I would definitely be interested in hearing about it!
The logo for the Italian Big Bang title published by Fabbri Editori in 1979 is taken from art drawn by Russ Manning for the Star Wars Sunday newspaper strip.
The same logo is used on all 13 issues of the Big Bang comic.
Big Bang Logo
The Star Wars Sunday newspaper comic strip the logo was lifted from was originally published on March 19, 1979.
Star Wars Sunday Strip: The Constancia Affair - Los Angeles Times Syndicate, U.S. (March 19, 1979)
The specific panel used to create the logo is the one with the explosion.
Star Wars Sunday Strip: The Constancia Affair - Los Angeles Times Syndicate, U.S. (March 19, 1979) Russ Manning explosion
Here is the side-by-side comparison of the logo to the artwork it is derived from:
Big Bang collects American newspaper comic strips, including the Star Wars Sunday strip it borrowed it's logo from. Was the title of the Big Bang magazine created first and it was just convenient and coincidental that a comic strip published inside the title contained artwork that could be used for the logo? Or was the Russ Manning drawn Star Wars comic strip inspiration for the title of the comic book?
Star Wars Tales #16b - Dark Horse Comics, U.S. (June 2003)This will be a day long remembered. It has seen the end of Kenobi, it will soon see the end of the Rebellion. - Darth Vader
This month, Marvel Comics is ending their ongoing Star Wars and Darth Vader titles which will take us up to the Return of the Jedi. Longtime Star Wars comic fans have seen stories in the period between A New Hope and Return of the Jedi so many times now: the original 1977 Marvel title, the newspaper stories, the Dark Horse Empire and Rebellion titles, and finally the modern Marvel titles. I'm not opposed to having more stories with the original trilogy heroes, but moving beyond the original trilogy, beyond the nine part Skywalker saga, is necessary for the health of the brand. Let Dave Filoni and Jon Favreau fill in the timeline between Return of the Jedi and The Force Awakens and unshackle Marvel so they can innovate without restrictions.
The High Republic titles have been standouts in an otherwise repetitive landscape, but even those have limitations due to the coordinate for the different media partners. I don't know if Lucasfilm is dictating this, but Marvel needs to carve out a piece of the Star Wars galaxy far removed from what is familiar. We need new characters and situations set in different places and times. Dark Horse did this numerous times through their stewardship of the brand and Star Wars fans are richer for it. Lucasfilm should be treating the comics as a proving ground for new ideas, new characters, and new eras. Some of the most beloved stories and characters from Dark Horse came from titles far removed from the original trilogy. Who is the next Nomi Sunrider, Ulic Qel-Droma, Exar Kun, Zayne Carrick, or Dass Jennir? Why not utilize the unbound potential of comics to experiment and discover new stories and new situations that will enthrall Star Wars fans?
The Star Wars universe can be enormous. In fact, we know from the New Jedi Order novels and reinforced by revelations in the Ahsoka television series, we are not even confined to just the one galaxy to tell stories. It is time for Marvel to open up and explore.
I love the Star Wars universe. I love the Star Wars comics. But I want to see the universe grow.
I'm nearly complete recovering the cover galleries. The U.S. cover galleries for Dark Horse and miscellaneous (Antarctica Press, IDW, etc.) are complete. I should be finished with the Marvel cover gallery in the next few days and then I will work on the foreign cover gallery.
Just a reminder, you can navigate to postings using the cover galleries. Just select the thumbnail and hover over the larger image to see the postings pertaining to the particular issue.
I want to bring your attention to an important book that is being published by MA Books and written by José Gracia Pont and Eduardo Serradilla Sanchis, Los Cómics de las Galaxias. La Era Marvel (1977-1986). Eduardo Serradilla Sanchis follows this blog and is an avid Star Wars comic fan. His and José Gracia Pont's devotion to the hobby prompted them to write this book detailing Star Wars comics published around the world during the period of 1977 to 1986. To me, this is a book all fans of Star Wars comics have been asking for and I'm excited about it's existence. To pre-order a copy, send email to mabooks18@gmail.com. Additional information can be found on the MA Books Facebook page.
The book Los Cómics de las Galaxias. La Era Marvel (1977-1986) focuses on the process which took George Lucas’s first galactic film to land in Marvel Comics. Added to that the book ponders on the different graphic adaptations of the movies which were published all around the world as well as the development of the so-called “Expanded Universe”.
For more information, please contact mabooks18@gmail.com
I apologize for the long absence. This has been happening quite a bit since late last year. In October, my mom passed away, and honestly, my heart was not into posting and I believe many of my posts around that period show it. Then in February, I was promoted at work which has kept me pretty busy. I feel like I'm at a point where I can get back to more frequent postings. I cannot promise there will be no more lengthy absences, but I can promise it is not my intent to abandon this blog indefinitely.
Now that things have settled down at work, I'm ready to dive back into giving back to this incredible hobby we share. Looking at the site, I miss having the image galleries and I'm going to be devoting some time in the next month to restoring them. If you recall, they went away because of the whole Photobucket fiasco and I could not be happier with Imgur.
Of course, while my acquisition of new books has slowed the past 6 months or so, I still have some terrific comics to share. I'm always astonished when a vintage books is discovered I never knew about and I have some cool books to share in the coming months.
I cannot help but wonder if the big two (Marvel and DC) understand why sales are down in recent years and if they have a plan on how to revive sales. Comic sales were down last year and sales look like they will be down again this year. I imagine there will be an issue or two that will sell well this year and maybe even a surprise title or two. Action Comics #1000 should do well because it is a milestone, the first title from the big two to hit that issue number, but, let's be honest, it is a tainted milestone due to Marvel and DC's practice of restarting titles at #1. But when you look at the upcoming publishing plans from both companies, you cannot help but feel deja vu.
Take the introduction of Red Goblin in the Amazing Spider-Man title as an example. I'm sure initial sales will be strong, but in the end, Marvel has done this countless times and to be honest, the ever increasing list of Goblin characters Spider-Man has faced is beyond silly. When Marvel's sales are down, they give a supporting character the main character's uniform, give a character a new color or outfit, or "kill" a character only to bring them back later. And this tactic works, for a few months. You can understand why Marvel is publishing Infinity Countdown, because they have a big movie, Avengers: Infinity War, coming out this summer. But considering the original series, Infinity Gauntlet, came out way back in 1991 and we've had umpteen Infinity crossovers since then, you do wonder if the House of Ideas is out of ideas. Marvel reverted to their original numbering in late 2017, but several #1 issues have been announced for Marvel's next relaunch in May starting with Avengers #1. Marvel might as well relaunch every title monthly, allowing them to continuously publish new #1s.
When Alex Alonzo was succeeded by C.B. Cebulski in November 2017, it looked like Marvel realized it needed to make some drastic changes to stop the bleeding, but the plans for this year look like the same old Marvel we've been seeing the past decade. I still have hope that many of the titles Marvel is going to publish this year were already set in motion and, by the end of 2018, we'll see what Marvel under C.B. Cebulski really is like. If his plans are more of the same, they should expect the same results, which, unfortunately, is dwindling sales.
As for our beloved Star Wars titles, we are getting a new editor, Mark Paniccia, who is replacing Jordan White. Outside of Darth Vader, the Star Wars titles have been immune to Marvel's constant relaunching and that has been a good thing. We are entering our fourth year for the line and I like that the emphasis has been on stories over events. The few events that Marvel has done have worked because they have been limited in scope. I hope the writers continue to create new characters for our heroes to interact with and I'm happy to see the breakout character, Doctor Aphra, is able to sustain her own title.
Overall, things look pretty good, but there are some tweaks I would like to see Marvel make to the Star Wars line. In the main title, someone needs to stop Salvador Larroca from tracing pictures and coloring the character's heads. The art is awful, which is a shame, because Kieron Gillen has been telling the best stories the main title has had since the Rebel Jail story arc. Gillen has fixed the characters so Princess Leia is likable, Luke Skywalker is a Rebel instead of a Jedi wanna-be, and Han Solo is getting his first taste at leadership. I hope after these Galactic Files covers, Marvel cools it with the variant covers for a while. We get about a comics worth of artwork on covers monthly and, to be honest, I wish Marvel would just publish an additional title versus publishing more covers. I think it is a crime more stories have not been told about the characters from Rogue One. There are so many potential stories there that an ongoing or a series of mini-series is warranted.
I refuse to believe the high point of Marvel's Star Wars line is when they launched in 2015. Dark Horse didn't peak with Dark Empire, but had a series of successes all the way up to the Brian Wood written Star Wars title over 30 years later in 2013. Marvel's line has the potential to be even better than Dark Horse's, but only if they have a solid plan. Here's to hoping the new editor-in-chief C.B. Cebulski has just that for Marvel overall and editor Mark Paniccia unleashes more of the potential inherited within the Star Wars brand.
I'm sure some of you noticed there have been several large gaps in my postings over the last few months. My mom died in October and that took away some of my enthusiasm and I found myself on more than one occasion just staring at the computer screen, unable to gather my thoughts. Just this week, I took a business trip to San Jose and did not prepare anything for me to post about. Rest assured, I am getting back on track and plan to get back to five or so postings a week.
With that said, on 12/21, I will be starting my 4th year of postings. I also am quickly approaching my 700th posting. My original intent was to have the anniversary and the 700th posting coincide, but that is not looking possible anymore.
Over this weekend, I plan on getting caught up on the monthly analysis I've been doing concerning the sales of Star Wars comics.
Finally, I just got back from watching The Last Jedi this evening with my family and we really loved it. I know I shouldn't based on some of the feedback I'm seeing from longtime fans, apparently their love of Star Wars has been destroyed twice now, first by the prequels and now by this movie. Rotten Tomatoes is showing an audience score of 56%, presumably from hardcore fans who saw the movie already. I don't get it since I enjoyed the prequels and feel The Last Jedi is a terrific addition to the series. I encourage everyone to see the movie and judge for themselves.
The 12 Days of Christmas start on December 25th and runs through January 5th. It has become a tradition for me to post blogs centered on a theme for the 12 days of Christmas. For the 1st year, we had 12 days of Boba Fett covers and the 2nd year saw 12 days of C-3PO and R2-D2 covers.
Every year I solicit ideas from the readers of this site on what theme they would like to see me cover. Please send me your ideas on a theme for this year and I will definitely consider it.
When I started this blog at the end of 2014, I never imagined the impact it would have on my collection. I knew I wanted to write about international Star Wars comics, but I figured I would just scan books from my growing collection and write about them. Most of the time, that is exactly what I do, but in some cases I find myself tracking down comics to buy, because I have an idea for a posting that I think would be interesting. Sometimes those purchases lead me to discover new niches of Star Wars comic collecting I didn't even know existed.
Space Warped #1a - BOOM! Studios, U.S. (June 2011) U.S. edition of French Naguere les Etoiles
When BOOM! Studios' published the 6-issue mini-series Space Warped back in 2011 for their KaBOOM! imprint, I did not purchase the series. I was still collecting a wide variety of comic titles and had not focused my comic collection to just Star Wars comics and Space Warped seemed peripheral to the Star Wars comic collection I had. (The focus did not occur until I learned Marvel was getting the Star Wars license and I made the decision to try and buy as many of the Marvel Star Wars comics, variants included, as I could afford. I knew Marvel was going to have more variants than Dark Horse, I just did not image the vast amount of variants!) Earlier this year, I decided to buy the Space Warped series and write a posting about it. As I was doing research, I discovered this series was imported from France where it was called Naguere les Etoiles. Not only that, the creators of this Star Wars parody, Hervé Bourhis and Rudy Spiessert, added another chapter spoofing Episode I which has not been translated for U.S. readers.
That research of the French parody led me to more parodies, specifically a series from Spain. The cartoonist Enrique V. Vegas has been parodying popular films, and naturally, this includes the Star Wars movies. He has parodied each of the original Star Wars trilogy films: Los Cabezónes de las Galaxias or The Heads of the Galaxy, Le Pire Contre-Attaque or The Worst Counter-Attack, and El Returno del Cabezón or The Return of the Head. Those have been collected as Les Rebelles de la Galaxie or The Rebels of the Galaxy. There is also Las Guerras Cabezón or The Head Wars and El Despertar de Cabezón or The Head Awakens. I suspect, like the French books, we'll see more of these parodies from Vegas. I do not believe these comics have been imported to the U.S.
The Calgary Herald Comic Book Volume 2 #17a - Calgary Herald Newspaper, U.S. (March 17, 1979) 1 page Star Wars comic stripThe Trib Comic Book Volume 3 #25a - Winnepeg Tribune Newspaper, U.S. (June 23, 1979) 1 page Star Wars comic stripSunday Bulletin Comic Book Volume 1 #2a - Norwich Bulletin Newspaper, U.S. (April 5, 1991) 1 page Star Wars comic strip
Another niche I started researching has to do with comic books published by newspapers that contain the Star Wars comic strips. I knew the Star Wars comic strips were reprinted in periodicals that were sold by comic specialty stores; for example, the Amazing Heroes magazine reprinted the Star Wars comic strips long before Dark Horse collected them in the Classic Star Wars titles. (There is also the recent IDW's Star Wars: The Classic Newspaper Comics Volume 1 with a second volume planned.) What I didn't know was newspapers gave away comic books weekly, usually with the Sunday edition. These comic books collect the Sunday comic strips. The earliest comic books were reprinted newspaper comic strips, so it makes sense these exist. There are comic books from the period that the Star Wars comic strip ran from 1979 to 1984 which contain reprints of those strips! I'm doing my best to dig up information on these comic books, but to be honest, the information is scarce. If you were lucky enough to have lived in a city with a newspaper that printed comic books and you have information about these, I would love to hear from you!
There are other areas I still have yet to encroach; there are Rebels comic stories being published overseas that we do not see here in the U.S. I'm also aware that my foreign comic posts mainly focus on the original Marvel era, but there are foreign editions of Dark Horse and modern Marvel comics as well. I do have foreign comics from these periods that will interesting to post about; there have been unique covers published overseas for Marvel's new Star Wars line that have not seen print in the U.S. for example. My collecting focus has been predominantly on the comics published during the original Marvel run and I still have many comics to show from that period, but I will start posting more about foreign editions from the other eras eventually.
This is my 625th blog post and I feel like I'm just scratching the surface on this incredible hobby. The number of hits this blog has received has increased incredibly over the past year so I know there are a lot of Star Wars comic fans out there. That interest is what keeps me motivated to keep writing! If there is anyone who would like to contribute to this site, please contact me.
I swear that David Bowman says, "My God, it's full of star!", when he entered the Monolith in the movie 2001: A Space Odyssey. It turns out I, and many others, were mistaken; Bowman does say a similar phrase in the novel, but he does not actually say those words in the original movie. He did utter that phrase in the sequel however, 2010: The Year We Make Contact. This reminds me of a famous Captain Kirk quote, "Beam me up, Scotty!" Believe it or not, Kirk never uttered those words in the original television series or movies.[1]
A few days back, I mentioned that all the Photobucket images were broken in this blog. Photobucket decided to change the terms of their service without notifying me and for a mere $400 they were willing to fix the issue. Since $400 is no small amount for a blog I make no money from, I decided to move all the images to Imgur. Since I've been experiencing Photobucket issues on and off for over a year, I had already started using Imgur for newer images starting back on March 16th and have been very pleased with the service. As one door shuts, a new door opens.
I'm happy to report that I only have about 200 more images to move to Imgur and this blog will be completely off Photobucket. I've been fixing links in the postings as I go. I expect to have all the images in the postings fixed in the next day or so. But that will still leave the Cover Galleries with broken thumbnails. I will start working on them next, but I'm not eager to tackle them with the same vigor I did the images in the postings. I'm planning on taking up to a month to fix the thumbnails so I can get back to making frequent postings. I apologize for the trickle of new postings the past few days, but I thought it was important to restore the existing postings first.
I am sure some of you have noticed by now that all the Photobucket images are broken on this site. Photobucket has changed the terms of their agreement and now want $399.99/year for me to continue to host those images for display by a third party site. If this had been a few dollars, I would have reluctantly paid and everything would be good. But to go from free to $400/year is entirely too much. I am making plans on moving the images to Imgur, but it is going to take time. Please bear with me during this transition.
I've just requested my third return of a Star Wars comic book in just as many years from the Books-A-Million (BAM) online site. The first time I needed to return a comic was back in 2015; it had arrived in an over-sized box with no packing material whatsoever to secure it. The comic spent its journey bouncing around inside the box on a trip from Alabama to Arizona. Needless to say, all four corners of the book had issues. The second time I returned a comic was in 2016, it wasn't because of an over-sized box, but an under-sized box. The box length was shorter than the comic and whoever packed it pushed the comic into the box anyway. And they used paper to protect the content from jostling inside the box despite the fact the comic was wedge into place. This comic didn't even need the help of the postal service to arrive damaged, it was damaged by the BAM employee who packaged it.
Today's return was yet another twist on how to damage a comic book. This time, the comic was put into a book mailer, the perfect packaging needed to secure a comic book. These mailers are great, when used properly. But rather than placing the comic inside the area designed for the book, it was placed between the top label flap and the inner flaps. The end result, the comic was sticking out of the mailer on its journey from Alabama to Arizona.
The Star Wars comic is sticking out of the unopened mailer!The comic is between the top label flap and the inner flaps.The comic is sitting on the inner flaps instead of being secured in the area below the flaps.As expected, the comic is damaged.But at least half of the package invoice was protected!
What makes the whole thing frustrating to me is BAM keeps getting exclusives and I can only guess, based on my experience, 10 - 20% of the comics they ship out are damaged due to negligence. Clearly, the corporation wants to sell these because their offerings have increased over the years. And they must be aware of the damage issue, because they have upgraded to book mailers designed to protect the contents from damage. What the organization doesn't know however is an employee can still use the mailer and damage the book. I refuse to believe this was anything but spiteful, not aimed at me per se, but definitely a disgruntled worker who probably packed one too many single comics for shipment that day. To be honest, I'm on the employee's side! I'd rather not order retailer exclusives and have them mailed one or two books at a time. It costs more because I have to pay for shipping and handling without the ability to combine the order and the odds of a mishap in shipment goes up with more packages. But what choice does a collector have in today's market? Marvel loves to put out new #1s frequently, so they can entice retailers to want to offer an exclusive.
I took the pictures above in the hopes of showing an employee at BAM the problem, but unfortunately their system rejected my email because of the attachments. So the best I could do was try to explain the problem without the benefit of the images. I am sure whoever is on the receiving end of these emails doesn't care; I'm just another picky comic book customer to them. Hey, I got the comic, why am I complaining? Never mind the fact that I paid twice the cost of the book if it wasn't for the exclusive cover. And being a collector, condition does matter!
If it was just this one incident this week, I doubt I would be writing this editorial. But earlier in the week, I also received my monthly shipment of comics from Discount Comic Book Service (DCBS.) For the third time I received damaged comics. I order comics from Books-A-Million about two or three times a year and I have order my comics from DCBS monthly for over eight years, so trust me when I tell you DCBS has a much better track record. The DCBS shipment included 28 comics all packed into a brick. On one side of the brick, the comics were badly bent from top to bottom, damaging the spine of three comics badly. And the brick was dropped on a corner prior to shipment, damaging the corner of another four comics. I emailed DCBS support and in two days they responded saying they will order replacements for all seven comics and I didn't need to ship back the damaged ones. Now that is service!
Corporations like BAM are not purposely trying to make life hard for comic collectors; in fact, they apparently want us as customers, otherwise why offer the exclusives? The ambivalence comes into play though with the systems they have in place for customers to provide feedback on problems. BAM wants us as customers, but they don't really have a system to see if our needs are being met. Obviously BAM feels it is better to just have the books returned without truly understanding why, whereas DCBS is more invested in making their customers happy. BAM is huge and they make up for the few unhappy customers with volume, where DCBS is undoubtedly smaller and wants to work at keeping their customers happy. In the end, both retail companies are necessary to comic collectors like me who want the exclusives along with the retailer editions, it's just that one does a better job of catering to the collector than the other.
There is a standard measurement for most comics published in the U.S., but publishers do vary the format depending on where and how the comic is sold. For example, the 36-page standard comic format works great in a comic specialty shop and on some newsstands, but a bookstore might prefer a smaller paperback format. Some retailers do not want to deal with the low cost of a standard comic, instead preferring trade paperbacks, graphic novels, or a larger (and more costly) magazine-sized comic. Digest-sized comics are ideal for a checkout line at a grocery store where space is a premium, but if a publisher wants to draw attention to their comic elsewhere in a store, perhaps on the end cap display of a toy aisle in the 1970s, they might decide a treasury-sized comic would attract more attention. IDW has found success with micro-sized comics that allows them to place comics on racks with trading card packs.
Even the standard size of a comic has changed over the years; each subsequent age has seen the size shrink in both page count and physical measurements from the previous age. Here is a table with the standard comic size for the age, understanding that the alignment of age to size is not exact, but a general guideline:
Age
Period
Standard Comic Size
Page Count
Golden Age
1938 - 1956
7 3/4" x 10 1/2"
68 pages pre-war; 52 pages post-war
Silver Age
1956 - 1970
7 1/8" x 10 1/2"
36 pages
Bronze Age Modern Age
1970 - 1985 1985 - present
6 5/8" x 10 1/8"
36 pages
When one looks at comics from different countries, the formats vary widely as well. In the U.K., a thin magazine-sized format was used for Star Wars Weekly by Marvel. An even larger measurement was used for Yugoslavia's Denis and Plitikin Zabavnik comics. German publisher Willams-Verlag released Star Wars comics that are roughly magazine-sized but even taller. The next publisher of Star Wars in Germany, Egmont Ehapa, went with a more squat format but the comics are wider. Brazilian publisher Editora Abril's O Incrivel Hulk issues are digest-sized. Indonesia's publishers mostly use digest-sized issues as well, but also released standard and even treasury-sized Star Wars comics. The Star Wars movie adaptation from Editorial Novaro in Mexico was released in the aguila or digest-size, but other Star Wars issues in this series are in the avestruz or standard-size. France's Titans comic are standard size or slightly larger, but very thick. And nothing beats a Japanese Weekly Shōnen Magazine for thickness; the six issues that contained the Star Wars movie adaptation are like phone books.
These different formats for comics can be a hassle for collectors wanting to store their collection. I store standard sized comics or smaller (micros, digests, paperbacks, etc.) in comic boxes using Silver Age backing boards and bags. For magazine-sized comics, trade paperbacks, and hardcovers, I find magazine boxes using magazine backing boards and bags work best. I also use magazine boxes for CGC slabbed comics. And for the even larger formats, like treasury-sized comics, they are placed in treasury backing boards and bags and neatly stacked. I still haven't found a box size that works for these comics.
I have scanned most of my collection on a flatbed scanner (and store those scans along with a description of those books in a Java application/database that I wrote) but CGC slabbed and treasury-sized comics are too large to scan. I have resorted to taking pictures of them on my phone and cropping those pictures. My preference would be to scan those books, but I do not have that capability currently. In fact, I have about a years worth of foreign treasury-sized acquisitions waiting to be photographed and shared. Here is a preview of some of those foreign treasuries, to whet your appetite for postings to come:
foreign treasuries including: Canada, Indonesia, Philippines, U.K.
I am experiencing Photobucket issues again today. This has been an ongoing problem for me for the past year. Intermittently Photobucket will prevent me from uploading images to my album and this problem can persist for hours if not days. Today, I finally decided to look into using an alternative and I am going to give Imgur a try. Apparently, it is free, has unlimited uploads, and claims to retain the images indefinitely.
Collectors who embrace foreign comic book collecting soon learn that foreign comics are not mere reprints, but have undergone substantial changes from the original material. Changes that can be found in foreign editions include: translating the text into the native language of the country the comic is distributed in; modifications to covers and indicia for publisher identification; modifications to cover text; using different artwork entirely on the cover; and dropping, adding, or rearranging pages and/or panels in the interior content. To simply dismiss a foreign edition as a reprint does a disservice to the work taken by a publisher to adapt the material to their readers. It is an arrogance born of naivety that unfortunately is prevalent in some comic collecting circles.
Comics are books, just a specialized niche of books that utilize images to communicate to the reader. To dismiss comics as anything but a book is to dismiss comics as literature and that is a battle that has been won by comic creators years ago. Comic books are studied in school as literature, they exist on best-selling lists along with other publications, and comics are sold alongside other books in bookstores. So, if a comic is a book, how do books collectors or bibliophiles (a practice that has existed for centuries if not millennia) differentiate between editions and reprints?
If a book doesn't change it is still the same edition. So, if an author changes the text (as text books do almost every year) or if the pages need to be re-done for a paperback's smaller size, then substantial changes have been made and you therefore have a new edition.
If the publisher runs out of copies and makes new ones without making changes, they just make more, then the edition has not changed, but you have a new printing.1
It is clear from these definitions that the first printing of a comic book for a foreign country are foreign editions and not reprints. The next time you hear a fellow collector incorrectly identify a foreign comic as a reprint, think about these definitions for books (and comics are most assuredly books!) and correct them. If foreign collecting is going to be embraced, this ignorance needs to be met head on.
Big Bang collects American newspaper comic strips, including the Star Wars Sunday strip it borrowed it's logo from. Was the title of the Big Bang magazine created first and it was just convenient and coincidental that a comic strip published inside the title contained artwork that could be used for the logo? Or was the Russ Manning drawn Star Wars comic strip inspiration for the title of the comic book?
