Darth Floppy

I only began buying the odd incentive variants lately owing to having to get to the LCS early during the HoX/PoX run because the books were selling quickly and getting there early meant that the incentive variants were still hanging around. I will only buy them if the premium ratio over reg cover isn't too bad, I like the art and/or I think it is an important book. I have both the 1/100 variants for HoX and PoX and the 1/25 and 1/50 for PoX, some 1/50 and 1/100 for a couple of the DoX titles. I bought a couple of Dell'Otto covers because I like the art. Price wasn't bad, 2x-5x reg cover. Since those books were heavily printed, they should at least maintain a reason premium over the regular covers since their print runs are a fraction of the regular run. I have no idea if these books will ever be that highly sought after, but that is irrelevant because I will pretty much have them for a while. Unless the X reboot tanks down the road and Marvel gets desparate and undoes everything Hickman did, I believe these are important books in the X men continuity.

Apologies if this is the wrong thread and full disclosure in that I own these books as of this afternoon, a couple of reg covers and the Dell'Otto 1/50. I just made the usual new comic day run and I have an observation and a question. Fallen Angels 1 is sold out at the Silver Snail, which is probably the highest volume LCS in Toronto. Why? I was under the impression that Fallen Angels had the lowest perceived buzz of the Dawn of X titles, many fans are mad at the Betsy Braddock/Kwannon thing and female led books generally are less popular than Male led ones. All the other Dawn of X launches seems to have sold through well enough, but around here, none sold out on release day. I haven't read the books yet, any ideas why?

What constitutes a lowball offer? If the price was say $1000 (around FMV) and the offer was half of that, I highly doubt any seller would do the deal. If the offer was $800 (20% off), is it still a lowball offer? I never buy from eBay, just from shows and a few dealers I've known for a while. During the summer I was at a show and there were two copies of a book I wanted, All-New Wolverine #2 CGC 9.8. Both were initially priced the same, about 20% above FMV at the time. I offered 90% of asking to the first vendor and he got pissy, almost inferring I was a low baller. Needless to say, I walked away, at the second vendor, I showed interest, examined the book and asked "Is there room to negotiate with this book?". He immediately took 15% off and I bought it. Later the first dealer saw me with it in my hands and asked what I paid. When I told him without any editorial, he went on a bender, accusing the second dealer of cutting the market on a book that was priced over what I found to be FMV at the time. Needless to say, I will never buy anything from him, he's a regular vendor that has good stuff, but what an unpleasant tool, who thinks he sets prices.

Gwenpool is odd, it was a variant cover depicting Gwen Stacy as Deadpool, which in turn led to the creation of Gwen Poole, the character. FWIW, it could have Mary Jane on those covers and it could have been Janepool because the costume created the viral sensation. How does an object that later becomes a character fit it? Classic example is coccoon/Adam Warlock, costume/Venom or most recently egg/Xandra in Mr and Mrs X. Appearance of object or emergence of character. I ask this because I've seen dealers stretch "first apprearance" to suit their inventory at shows. My own opinion is that Gwen Poole as Gwenpool was in HTD #1, that is her first appearance as the identifiable character. Emerging is the first appearance, not the object. Character creation development is fascinating and print teases pique curiosity, they will never be in the first appearance to me.

How would you catorigize Gwenpool? From what I understand the cover appearance from Deadpool's Secret Secret wars was one of a series of variant covers using GWEN STACY in different costumes. The Deadpool one went viral and an editor approached the artist to create a new character based on that cover. Her first appearance in a comic as GWEN POOLE was in Howard the Duck #1. How would you reconcile which one is the first appearance?

I went for new comic day as usual at lunch, seemed to be a decent supply of reg cover, fewer variants and would you believe the connecting is already more than double cover in a store that does limit hot issues and specializes in indie books?

I bought my one token copy of this book and my one token copy of Spawn 300. Okay read, but is it an important book with long term value or FOTM?

The Origin of Marvel Comics by Stan Lee. It was published in the 70s and spawned a couple of follow up books, Son of Origins and Bring on the Bad Guys. I still have my first print copy I bought when it was published. First hardcover book that I bought. Not a comprehensive history, but very interesting from Stan Lee recounting of his early days at Marvel.

When I made my new comic day run today the regular cover seemed to more plentiful than in the last couple of weeks. The connecting cover was a rumor by lunch time. One store even had some books from last week, including a few variants, probably from pull lists that weren't picked up, but this store specializes in indie books.

Based on what I've read, there were supposed to be 7.5k glossies in a 115k print run, since they weren't anything special at the time, I was just curious as to where the boxes might of been sent, I did not know there was a glossy version till last year. I was just wondering which areas got those books when they were released. More for curiosity than anything else since the book is over 25 years old. I remember reading somewhere that the rare 35 cent cover variant of Star Wars #1 was only distributed in northern California in 1977.

After looking at the Wiki page, it was probably Andromeda, I seem to recall their name coming up during conversations with the store owners/managers of the day. I recall that Andromeda was owned by Ron, the owner of the Silver Snail. I think Ron was the guy I used to deal with at the long gone Bakka book store, just before he open the Snail in 1976(?). My first major purchase from Bakka was a VG copy of FF #49 for $6, which was a good chuck of change for a little kid on an allowance in the 70s.

I was in downtown Toronto, I remember getting to a store on Queen St. and they were sold out, the store down the street (Dragon Lady?) had a decent copy and since everyone was speculating then, I went to a couple of stores on Yonge St. and snagged the other copies I own right now. I was asking after doing some research, and largely to your invaluable threads that there were only a few thousand glossy copies were printed according to sources. Assuming they weren't anything special at the time, they should have of just packed the boxes and sent them on their way. I have been recently wondering, where did those boxes go?

I just got back from my lunch time new comic day run. These books are moving quickly. I cannot remember the last booking/series I read that leaves me this anxious for the next issue to come out.

What I was saying that it is encouraging to see Marvel doing well in other areas in their publication division, the point I was making was is there a correlation between this area and our beloved hobby. The soccer analogy was to illustrate that life happens and people move beyond a lot of things we love as children. Almost EVERYBODY grew up with these characters, but sadly most lose interest later on. Encouraging new readership keeps the hobby alive, but do these changes add to the base readership in an overall manner, rather than growing a demographic to replace a declining demographic? Just about everybody watches the movies, many people still read, but it seems fewer people collect. That is another discussion for another thread. I have been collecting since the mid 70s and in my city local comic stores have declined from almost two dozen to maybe a dozen now, almost all bad. I am old, but the children of collectors I know do not collect physical copies, the watch more of the movies than I do and read online, but they never buy floppies. If they only knew what Dad has stashed dad has stashed away. We can only hope that this success can carry forward to keep publishing physical copies viable.

Good news for Marvel, but the ability to attract new readership in long term is another story. One analogy I can think of that may relate is kids playing soccer. Almost every tyke plays soccer, simple rules and minimal gear, but past a certain point, they move on to other sports or stopping playing altogether. I took up basketball and football and never looked back. We all read Curious George and Where the Wild Things are as little children, but I doubt many of us still care about these books unless we are parents ourselves.