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Post by codystarbuck on Nov 4, 2018 10:57:26 GMT -5
My list of obscurities I am looking for but doubt I will ever see has very few comics on it, but a lot of comic related material...and some of it I doubt would be in my price range if I found it, but you never know. There are a lot of portfolios I would love to find, but doubt I will ever see in person. The caveat is that I won't use ebay, which could make finding some of these easier, but these are things I doubt I will ever run into in the wild even with all the shows I attend and dealers I know. Some highlights would be... The Ballad of Red Sonja 45 rpm Black Widow portfolio by Paul Gulacy The Books of Zomxathia Colour of Your Dreams fanzine featuring early work by Wrightson, Chaykin, BWS, Kaluta, Cockrum, Simonson, Krenkel and others... Conan portfolio by Bart Sears Conan portfolio by Big John Buscema Conan: Queen of the Black Coast portfolio by Stephen Fabian Conan: Sea Woman Portfolio by Craig Hamilton Doctor Strange Portfolio by Michael Golden Elric Portfolio by Frank Brunner Elric Portfolio by Howard Chaykin Fantastic Art of Clark Ashton Smith Four Ages of Conan portfolio set by Barry Windsor Smith Jack Kirby's Gods Portfolio Kull Portfolio by John & Marie Severin Red Sonja portfolio by Jackson Guice Star Slayer portfolio by Mike Grell Thundarr the Barbarian coloring book.. any edition of Elric by Druillet and copies of any issue of La Reigna de Costra Negra, the Mexican Conan comic that predates the American Conan comics from Marvel... Not as rare as a commissioned comic to be sure, but not things you are likely to stumble across at a comic shop or comic con with any kind of regularity. -M I found both the Gulacy Black Widow portfolio and the Starslayer one at the Atlanta Fantasy Fair, in 1991. There was a dealer who had a lot of art portfolios, sketches and similar material, as well as comics and magazines. I got both for relatively low prices, though I don't recall how much. I had seen an add for the Gulacy one, in a mailer from a comic shop, where I had purchased back issues, via mail order. It also advertised the Fastner & Larson X-Men portfolio and one or two of the other ones they did. The Black Widow one was the one that caught my attention, with the moody art. It was years before I even saw the Bizarre Adventures (Marvel Preview) magazine, that featured the Gulacy story that was tied in with the portfolio.
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Post by beccabear67 on Nov 4, 2018 12:01:07 GMT -5
What I'd most like is a high quality version of this one known Neal Adams X-Men portfolio piece... Blowing my mind would be even one other of the 'plates' originally announced! I may've had someone else's rare treasure and didn't appreciate it... I had a Merry Marvel Marching Society flexi record from the '60s in pretty nice shape. I made a cassette tape copy of it and traded it off (no idea where the cassette might be now if I still have it, next to a Doctor Demento program I taped off FM radio [KISW or KZOK one of whom had a new stoner Leave It To Beaver] which I'd also like to hear again, and the Nexus #3 flexi which was probably on the other side of the Marvel cassette). I remember it had a few words spoken by various bullpen folks and a song of some kind. Maybe I should check youtube? It was this one minus the sleeve and all the other stuff... Thanks to Jim Shooter website!
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Post by Farrar on Nov 4, 2018 13:39:13 GMT -5
... I may've had someone else's rare treasure and didn't appreciate it... I had a Merry Marvel Marching Society flexi record from the '60s in pretty nice shape. I made a cassette tape copy of it and traded it off (no idea where the cassette might be now if I still have it, next to a Doctor Demento program I taped off FM radio [KISW or KZOK one of whom had a new stoner Leave It To Beaver] which I'd also like to hear again, and the Nexus #3 flexi which was probably on the other side of the Marvel cassette). I remember it had a few words spoken by various bullpen folks and a song of some kind. Maybe I should check youtube? It was this one minus the sleeve and all the other stuff... Thanks to Jim Shooter website! Oh these are definitely on YouTube--I've listened to these many times! Here's one example, this is the one with the Bullpen gang. The one with the MMMS song is also on YT. That one brought back great memories.
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Post by hondobrode on Nov 5, 2018 0:38:32 GMT -5
I've got the Michael Golden Dr Strange and Paul Gulacy Black Widow portfolios and have heard about that infamous Mexican Conan comic.
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Post by hondobrode on Nov 5, 2018 0:40:10 GMT -5
The first comic I ever collected in the late 1970s was Ghost Rider - I never say these early toys for sale, though I had heard about them and looked for them as a kid. My little brother got the one on the left from Superhero Merchandise for $ 1.29 I'm pretty sure.
I've never seen another one and have wondered how rare it is (though it's long gone now).
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Post by Phil Maurice on Nov 5, 2018 10:06:55 GMT -5
EC's experiment in "Picto-fiction," Shock Illustrated's third issue had a print run of 250,000, but lacking the means to distribute the book, publisher Bill Gaines had the entire print run destroyed except for 100 copies (some sources say 200) which were hand-bound and passed around the EC offices.
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shaxper
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Post by shaxper on Nov 5, 2018 11:48:13 GMT -5
I didn't know publishers could be commissioned for private jobs. This has opened conundrums in my mind. Both Marvel and DC have licensing departments that produce promotional comics, anyone who wants can try to make arrangements for them to produce a comic for them. The quantity produced and the profitability (or tax deduction if done for a charitable cause) are often the deciding factor, though sometimes it is a matter of who the publisher wants to be associated with (there was a brouhaha a year or so ago when a company had contracted Marvel to produce a promo comic for them only to have Marvel cancel it after it was announced and received a lot of bad PR as the company was involved in some questionable activities in the Middle East-I forget the specifics of the company and the controversy but it was all over Bleeding Cool at the time). A privately commissioned comic would go through the same channels and have to go through the same hoops, but it is possible, just not likely without a lot of resources behind it. But everything from Superman Meets the Qwikbuny to the Teen Titans anti-drug comic to the Spider-Man anti-child abuse comics were produced through someone hiring Marvel or DC to produce a special comic for them. It just a matter of having the resources to make doing so worth their while or appealing to them in some way. -M I seem to recall DC releasing a comic around 2006 or so that existed entirely to promote a car that was featured prominently in the book. What was unusual in this case was that the book was commercially available and could be ordered through Diamond like any other DC title. Thus, it was a paid advertising campaign for the car, using a DC title as its (ahem) vehicle.
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Post by MDG on Nov 5, 2018 12:07:26 GMT -5
Both Marvel and DC have licensing departments that produce promotional comics, anyone who wants can try to make arrangements for them to produce a comic for them. The quantity produced and the profitability (or tax deduction if done for a charitable cause) are often the deciding factor, though sometimes it is a matter of who the publisher wants to be associated with (there was a brouhaha a year or so ago when a company had contracted Marvel to produce a promo comic for them only to have Marvel cancel it after it was announced and received a lot of bad PR as the company was involved in some questionable activities in the Middle East-I forget the specifics of the company and the controversy but it was all over Bleeding Cool at the time). A privately commissioned comic would go through the same channels and have to go through the same hoops, but it is possible, just not likely without a lot of resources behind it. But everything from Superman Meets the Qwikbuny to the Teen Titans anti-drug comic to the Spider-Man anti-child abuse comics were produced through someone hiring Marvel or DC to produce a special comic for them. It just a matter of having the resources to make doing so worth their while or appealing to them in some way. -M I seem to recall DC releasing a comic around 2006 or so that existed entirely to promote a car that was featured prominently in the book. What was unusual in this case was that the book was commercially available and could be ordered through Diamond like any other DC title. Thus, it was a paid advertising campaign for the car, using a DC title as its (ahem) vehicle. I would guess (hope) that publishers think carefully about using their flagship characters for commissioned/promo books. I do know that in the 80s-90s, since profit was built in, DC, anyway, could bay the artists a better page rate, which is part of the reason you saw Swan on He-Man and Kirby on Super Powers.
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Post by adamwarlock2099 on Nov 5, 2018 13:17:39 GMT -5
EC's experiment in "Picto-fiction," Shock Illustrated's third issue had a print run of 250,000, but lacking the means to distribute the book, publisher Bill Gaines had the entire print run destroyed except for 100 copies (some sources say 200) which were hand-bound and passed around the EC offices. How reasonably or inexpensive is the rest of the issues? And/or is there a collection of the issues? This cover intrigues me. I've been fortunate to get a lot of pulp novels from the annual library sale here locally, but haven't delved into pulp comics of that time period much. Mostly due to ignorance of their contents and what's a reasonable price to expect them to be. Edit: Oh there's only three issues all together.
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Post by Phil Maurice on Nov 5, 2018 13:31:36 GMT -5
How reasonably or inexpensive is the rest of the issues? And/or is there a collection of the issues? This cover intrigues me. Edit: Oh there's only three issues all together. Sorry, I should have mentioned that. The other two issues go for around $100-$400 depending on grade, of course. There's a hard-bound, Russ Cochran collected edition from 2006 that includes a finished fourth issue that had never been printed previously. Now out of print, it goes for around $100 today.
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shaxper
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Post by shaxper on Nov 5, 2018 21:21:35 GMT -5
I seem to recall DC releasing a comic around 2006 or so that existed entirely to promote a car that was featured prominently in the book. What was unusual in this case was that the book was commercially available and could be ordered through Diamond like any other DC title. Thus, it was a paid advertising campaign for the car, using a DC title as its (ahem) vehicle. I believe this was the series to which I was referring. The Pontiac Solstace is featured prominently in each issue and on all covers:
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Post by mikelmidnight on Nov 7, 2018 14:56:33 GMT -5
'Superman in Europe,' which was published only in Europe and which featured teaming up with a number of the Global Guardians (including a new one, Ice's younger sister!). It has never been translated into English.
In the 60's there was an X-rated Justice League story done as a lark at the request of a fan ... and drawn by Mike Sekowsky. Roy Thomas published one panel in ALTER EGO and said it was literally the only panel he could reproduce.
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Post by brutalis on Nov 7, 2018 15:15:18 GMT -5
Unlikely to ever see: those elusive creatures of myth found lurking around the world.
Bigfoot Nessie, the Loch Ness Monster Jackalope Chupacabra A flying Reindeer
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Post by chadwilliam on Nov 7, 2018 22:28:51 GMT -5
Jim Aparo once sent me a Xerox of a page of an inventory story he drew if needed for Detective Comics. Alas, it was never needed. I can't believe there's a Jim Aparo Batman story out there - assuming that it was a Batman story for Tec and not a back-up Green Arrow or something - that hasn't seen the light of day. At the same time, I know that a lot of inventory stories were made in case someone else was late turning in their tale meaning there should be more stuff like this out there. Along similar lines, Marv Wolfman recently lent some pages he acquired as a fan from DC to the company for Action Comics 1000. Which pages? A lost Superman tale from the 40's by Siegel and Shuster entitled 'Too Many Heroes'. How'd he get them in the first place? He was a fan taking a tour of the DC offices at some point during the 60's and happened to be there with a few other kids when an employee wheeling a barrel full of original art was heading down the hall. It was explained that this employee was on his way to the incinerator to burn this stuff but since these kids were fans, they could grab whatever they could carry and Wolfman, by pure luck, happened to grab this story (amongst other stuff). I don't even want to try and guess what he might have missed. www.syfy.com/syfywire/how-marv-wolfman-found-a-lost-siegel-and-shuster-superman-story-for-action-comics-1000
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Post by EdoBosnar on Nov 8, 2018 6:01:09 GMT -5
Yeah, I remember reading stories like this before - not sure if it was also Wolfman, or some other future comics professional who toured the DC offices and was then given pages of original art like some kind of 'free sample' parting gift. Amazing.
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