Qalyar

This is not actually the first appearance of the Metal gear characters, however. The 16-page ashcan was essentially a preview for this miniseries, and was distributed a couple months earlier. Not my book:

Warrants are necessary to search First Class or Priority mail, with limited exceptions (packages that appear hazardous, some situations involving international shipping, a few other things that don't apply here).

Issues 2 and 3 are Marvel versus DC; issues 1 and 4 are DC versus Marvel.

Nice try, Ghost of Fredric Wertham, but we're onto you!

It's obviously a different kind of completionism than even what you were going for, but I'd just like to note that this issue also has a newsstand edition ... and that the UPC identifying it as such is on the back (so not casually visible on a bagged and boarded copy).

Glad to see everything is working again. But most of all, thank you @jstam for offering exceptional community engagement, providing updates as they were available.

Don't let Chuck hear that, or he'll adjust everything else up another 15% or something!

I feel like what happened to this book almost had to be intentionally done, given the degree of cover saturation and the relatively uncontaminated interiors. I cannot for the life of me imagine why, though. I did some research. I read through Denise Stockman's "Treatment Options for Oil Stains on Paper" and the subsequent conservation research paper from the National Library of Medicine, "Oil on Paper: A Collaborative Conservation Challenge". Bottom line: this cover is in a really bad place, but I think you already knew that. Oil is hydrophobic and displaces the water from the paper structure. That's what results in the embrittlement. Because this has clearly been in its current state for a very long period of time, that situation is severe. Conservation treatments for oil-contaminated paper have focused on heavier-weight (mostly organic) oils because of past library practices, rather than lightweight mineral oils, like what this book was almost certainly exposed to. Even so, the best suggestions from the 2018 paper are really incompatible with restoration here. I don't think this cover would survive multiple rounds of alternating solvent baths on a suction table, and that's even if such a treatment wouldn't also destroy the inks. Also, wood pulp paper (which, obviously, comic book covers are) have generally fared more poorly in these conservation studies than various cotton or linen papers. I... there's just not a lot of good news here. Someone with more direct experience in paper restoration might have a different opinion here, but I do not think this damage is realistically reversible. Even if that weren't the case, the degree of conservation work that would be necessary here would be extremely obvious. From a grading standpoint, you'd end up with a book in the same functional condition, but with a restoration label. That does raise a concern, however. Because of the extreme degree of cover embrittlement here, there's a very real possibility that CGC would decline to grade and encapsulate this book, per policy. If you tend towards more pessimistic opinions of CGC's quality controls, there's also the danger than they'd underestimate just how brittle decades of oil contamination have left this paper and accidentally snap the cover in half. Basically, I'm not convinced this is a gradable book. Oh, and I'm also not convinced that's mold on the interior pages. At least not from the images you provided. It could be, but I suspect it's point migration of stains from what happened to the cover, probably before the bulk of the volatile oil elements had evaporated out. Obviously, if CGC did opt to encapsulate, this is going straight to 0.5 without passing Go, and I think that would still be the case -- albeit on a purple label -- after any realistic conservation efforts. I'm not sure what I would do if this were my book. If you really want it in a CGC slab, I'd absolutely reach out to them before submitting it, because this is the special handling-est thing I've seen in a long time. I don't think it can safely be loaded into a Mylite. I think you're probably best off with some sort of custom framing solution. Regardless, congratulations on your FF2. It's still, for all it's travails, a copy of FF2, which makes it nicer than mine!

I don't think there's any way to know ahead of time how CGC is going to treat this, as it's a pretty unique case. If I were grading this book, I would not call that edge trimmed; perhaps if the damage were at the top or the bottom, but this is just a chunk out of the center edge that happens to have left a more or less clean break. It doesn't disguise damage, nor does it attempt to improve the appearance of the book, so I wouldn't deem it restoration (not even crappy self-destructive "restoration" like trimming). But what they'll decide?

This is not foxing. Both of these copies show paper translucency in the stained area, so this is almost certainly oil contamination. With two copies affected from different people, my guesses would be either errant machine oil on the press during printing or some sort of horrible mishandling during distribution. In either case, even if this is a defect introduced during production, there's no way CGC is going to give these books a break. Sorry folks.

I do admittedly sometimes feel a little self-conscious when my quests for Very Specific Drek earns a mention in the CovrPrice weekly report. But still... This is the 2nd best copy recorded, behind a single 9.6, and is certainly miles better than the half-dozen or so raw copies I'd already gone through. Nor do I expect there to be many other high-grade candidates forthcoming. This variant was distributed exclusively in one (seemingly low distribution) version of one video game box-set. The contents also weren't exactly secured, so these got to bounce around in the box along with several CD jewel cases and a ~300 page strategy guide. Casualties happened, so even breaking a sealed box of the correct version (none of which were available last time I checked) is no guarantee of an acceptable copy. As an aside, the cover artist here is Francisco Ruiz Velasco, who is probably more familiar to Dark Horse fans for his Predator and AVP stuff a few years later. Also, my slab photography skills are still, erm, Very Good. One of these days, I need to stop buying weird comics and just bite the bullet on a slab-compatible legal scanner.

Seven issue run and, honestly, not terrible as a light horror series. Obviously, the Roman Dirge covers are also a draw, especially for fans of Lenore. If you're a completionist fan, there's also a red foil variant to #1 which is... not super common, but not that rare. There was also a slipcased hardcover that collected #1-6; I don't believe I've seen a copy. to my knowledge, #7 was never reprinted. In 2016, Marvel did a 5-issue miniseries for the Haunted Mansion also (gee, I can't imagine why Marvel would get to do Disney stuff... weird!). I haven't read it. It does have "modern cover variant"-itis (there's at least 7 versions of #1, including a Scottie Young cover that I assume is the chase option -- and that's not counting the Halloween ComicFest book that's technically a different title -- even the last issue has four!). Finally, in 2020, IDW published a standalone 72-page Haunted Mansion graphic novel (I believe technically called Haunted Mansion: Frights of Fancy). I haven't read it either, but based on the art direction, it's definitely more "Disney" and less "horror".

Sharp copy, too. The one I had in my Batman-ing days was... not... this pretty.

Two years later, I can finally state where the blue variant cover of this book came from! Blizzard released a compilation set of their Diablo games (Diablo, Diablo 2, and D2: Lord of Destruction), called the Diablo Battle Chest. There are, erm, a lot of versions of this box set. The very first version released is referred to by video game collectors as the "Tall Box". No comic in that one. Shortly after, it was reissued as the "Wide Box". Predictably, there are multiple versions of the Wide Box. This book is from the very first version of the Wide Box. Well, sometimes. The first Wide Box was also used for some international distribution; only US editions have the comic. Also, some reports suggest that not ALL examples of the first Wide Box actually contain the comic. I can't confirm or deny that, although I can confirm that SOME do. The relevant version of the Wide Box can be distinguished from later versions because the game covers reproduced on the box set are overlapped; in particular, the "O" in "Diablo" on the Lord of Destruction cover is concealed. Absolutely no idea how many of these boxes or how many of these comics were distributed, however. These comics weren't secured inside the boxes, which included a bunch of jewel cases CDs and a lot of other stuff. Needless to say, these boxes weren't exactly handled with care and precision, which did not contribute to keeping these books in high grade. Nor did the general lack of comic collectors' interest or awareness of this book. Many copies were well read and roughly handled.

This checks nearly all the boxes to be a really hard book to find as a NS. After the peak of NS distribution had passed? Although certainly not a post-2000 distribution diehard, I don't think anyone would argue that direct market copies weren't dominant by '95. Way, way off the main-line titles? Check, I'm not sure I ever knew this flashback-y one-shot book ever existed at all. UPC box on the back, where no one will see it on a bagged and boarded book? Very much check. And in 9.8 to boot. Congratulations. Books like this aren't necessarily worth magical Christmasland FMVs, but trying to find them on purpose is another story entirely.