BATMAN THE KILLING JOKE 2 2

[aszumilo]

4 hours ago, RockMyAmadeus said:

I have a few 6th print newsstands. It appears it's the only printing that had a newsstand version.

Got any 9.8 candidates you would be looking to part with?

[RockMyAmadeus]

2 hours ago, aszumilo said:

Got any 9.8 candidates you would be looking to part with?

Probably not, but I can certainly look. No promises. They're buried.

[aszumilo]

Looks like there might be a 13th print Newsstand as well.  UPC for the regular Direct Edition is 7 61941 20212 00124 and this one has a UPC of 9 780930 289454 50595

[wpbooks01]

On 10/12/2019 at 9:10 PM, aszumilo said:

That is very interesting.  Wonder how many other books were offered by Book of the Month Club.  We know of 2 now.

I have the V BOMC, and the first Watchmen hardcover was also a BOMC (have that one, too.) I believe it predates the Graphitti slipcased HC.  BTW, my copy of V doesn't have the sticker covering up the BOMC info,

 

This is the first time I've seen The Killing Joke in a book club edition. Strange that it's not a hardcover as well. I believe the book club for TPB editions was the Quality Paperback Book Club.

[aszumilo]

56 minutes ago, wpbooks01 said:

I have the V BOMC, and the first Watchmen hardcover was also a BOMC (have that one, too.) I believe it predates the Graphitti slipcased HC.  BTW, my copy of V doesn't have the sticker covering up the BOMC info,

 

This is the first time I've seen The Killing Joke in a book club edition. Strange that it's not a hardcover as well. I believe the book club for TPB editions was the Quality Paperback Book Club.

I had never seen it before.  Not sure about the Quality Paperback Book Club, never heard of them, but anything is possible.

[aszumilo]

On 10/13/2019 at 11:27 PM, aszumilo said:

Found another one I have not seen before.  6th print Newsstand with UPC on the front cover.  Unfortunately the seller does not have a picture of the back cover.

Mycomicshop also has one, 6th print as well.  https://www.ebay.com/itm/Batman-The-Killing-Joke-1-REP-CGC-9-4-1988-2058668022/312801274311?hash=item48d468a9c7:g:vG8AAOSwEy1doZmz:sc:USPSPriority!89130!US!-1

https://www.ebay.com/itm/Batman-The-Killing-Joke-CGC-9-8-Sixth-Printing-Rare-Newsstand-UPC-Barcode/223694048593?hash=item3415344d51:g:o0AAAOSwFiNdmN~k

This one is mine, now.  ALL MINE!!!!

Need to see if I can get it reholdered with the Newsstand notation and added to the registry.

On the BOMC 4th print, they told me to enclose a note with the submission, Attention Graders, and explain the variation to them.  Hopefully that will work and also work for the 6th and 13th Newstand ones as well.

Edited November 3, 2019 by aszumilo

[aszumilo]

On 10/12/2019 at 9:19 PM, RockMyAmadeus said:

Just for fun, I shot BOMC an email asking what other comic book editions they did...if I get an answer, I'll follow up and see what they know. 

FUN!

Have you heard back from them yet?

Edited November 19, 2019 by aszumilo

[RockMyAmadeus]

6 minutes ago, aszumilo said:

Have you heard back from them yet?

Nothing.

 

[aszumilo]

Damn.  Was hoping they would get back to one of us.

[RockMyAmadeus]

On 11/2/2019 at 10:18 PM, aszumilo said:

This one is mine, now.  ALL MINE!!!!

Need to see if I can get it reholdered with the Newsstand notation and added to the registry.

On the BOMC 4th print, they told me to enclose a note with the submission, Attention Graders, and explain the variation to them.  Hopefully that will work and also work for the 6th and 13th Newstand ones as well.

I found one of my 6th print newsstands...an already slabbed 9.2. Forgot I had it.

 

[aszumilo]

I picked up a 9.8.  Probably paid more than I should have, but, OCD and all.

 

See a couple posts above for it.

Edited November 19, 2019 by aszumilo

[RockMyAmadeus]

11 hours ago, aszumilo said:

I picked up a 9.8.  Probably paid more than I should have, but, OCD and all.

 

See a couple posts above for it.

Yup, saw it. Responded to your post about it. Very, very nice. If that book actually saw "newsstand distribution" (I'm guessing B&N, Waldenbooks, Borders, etc), it's amazing that any survived in 9.8 condition. Book stores were almost as bad as newsstands when it came to mangling books. 

 

[comiconxion]

Not sure how many people realize that when Killing Joke was published in France in USA Magazine, it was released in installments and they commissioned a new painted Joker cover by Bolland and Liberatore for issue #36 (the installment in which Barbara Gordon gets shot).  Although Liberatore ended up changing Bolland's layout slightly, the face is pure vintage Bolland Joker.  For those that have never seen it... here you go!  Published with a September 1988 cover date.  I'm not sure this painted cover was ever published anywhere else.  

Edited December 1, 2019 by comiconxion

[MetalPSI]

That is pretty awesome

[David Buck]

Apologies for the poor snap  (although I have added a further  picture found online which is much better) - I thought this might be of interest - if people want to see a decent scan of this cover I will sort it out next week - this was an exclusive cover done by Bolland for a free magazine from a uk bank to accompany a two page interview and a competition to win one of 12 art prints of the cover sans text

Edited December 28, 2019 by David Buck
better picture

[aszumilo]

@RockMyAmadeus

In addition to the 4th Print Book of the Month Club, 6th Print Newsstand, and 13th Print Newsstand, it appears there may be an 11th Print Newsstand. 

This Print, pictured, has a UPC code of 9 780930 289454 50495, while the regular Direct Version has a UPC code of 7 61941 20212 00121.

I'll find out in a few days when it arrives.

Edited January 11, 2020 by aszumilo

[RockMyAmadeus]

6 minutes ago, aszumilo said:

@RockMyAmadeus

In addition to the 4th Print Book of the Month Club, 6th Print Newsstand, and 13th Print Newsstand, it appears there may be an 11th Print Newsstand. 

This Print, pictured, has a UPC code of 9 780930 289454 50495, while the regular Direct Version has a UPC code of 7 61941 20212 00121.

I'll find out in a few days when it arrives.

Nice! That brings us to...17 different versions of the standard US format?

I love this book so much.

 

[RockMyAmadeus]

The part of the code that reads "50495" and "50595" has to do with the cover price. So, we can see that between the 11th and 13th printings, the cover price went up an additional $1.

As would be expected, the publisher code...in this case, "780930"...and the title code "289454", remained the same. Interestingly, between the 6th printing (sometimes in 1989 or early 1990) and the 11th printing (sometime in the 2000s), the publisher and title codes changed, likely because of the radical change in distribution that took place.

I've yet to discover what the "50...." part means, so if anyone knows, please feel free to share.

As for the Direct 11th print, it's 5 digit "printing code" is interesting...it's coded like a variant: "00121"...rather than as a later printing. Such a mess, these codes are. It's a wonder any of them actually scanned correctly.

[aszumilo]

3 hours ago, RockMyAmadeus said:

The part of the code that reads "50495" and "50595" has to do with the cover price. So, we can see that between the 11th and 13th printings, the cover price went up an additional $1.

As would be expected, the publisher code...in this case, "780930"...and the title code "289454", remained the same. Interestingly, between the 6th printing (sometimes in 1989 or early 1990) and the 11th printing (sometime in the 2000s), the publisher and title codes changed, likely because of the radical change in distribution that took place.

I've yet to discover what the "50...." part means, so if anyone knows, please feel free to share.

As for the Direct 11th print, it's 5 digit "printing code" is interesting...it's coded like a variant: "00121"...rather than as a later printing. Such a mess, these codes are. It's a wonder any of them actually scanned correctly.

The prices on the newsstand copies match the prices on the direct editions as well.

In 1980, agreement was reached between the EAN Authority and the International ISBN Agency to assign a specific 3-digit prefix to a fictitious country designated as "Bookland". The country codes 978 and 979 were reserved for this "country" to encode the ISBN.

978 - denotes ISBN code (Ficticous country of Bookland)
0930289454 - ISBN # (Last number is different due to difference in "check digits" between ISBN and EAN/UCC-13)
50495 - denotes price (50001-59998 = price of $0.01 to $99.98)

 Price Encoded in the Add-On: As requested by some retailers, the supplemental 5-digit add-on symbol may be used to encode cover price. Guidelines for its use have been revised and expanded to encode cover prices up to US$ 499.99.

As in the past, a leading digit (Currency Indicator) of "5" designates prices from US$ 00.01 (50001) to US$ 99.98 (59998).

The number 59999 was previously used to indicate a cover price greater than US$ 99.98. Thus, at this time, the cover price US$ 99.99 cannot be encoded.

Prices from US$ 100.00 to US$ 499.99 are to be encoded with significant numbers, i.e., 10000 to 49999. At this time the numbers 60000 to 89999 have no significance and meaning.
Add-on Data     Pricing Interpretation     Comments
50001 > 59998     US$ 0.01 > US$ 99.98     Previously Existing Rules
59999     Price is not encoded and is understood to exceed US$ 99.98. (Note: A price of US$ 99.99 cannot be encoded.)     This value indicates a price greater than US$ 99.98 and not encoded in the add-on, whether the price is within the expanded range or not.
10000 > 19999     US$ 100.00 > US$ 199.99     New increased range
20000 > 29999     US$ 200.00 > US$ 299.99     New increased range
30000 > 39999     US$ 300.00 > US$ 399.99     New increased range
40000 > 49999     US$ 400.00 > US$ 499.99     New increased range

[aszumilo]

Another note on the UPC codes. 

The 6th print Newsstand is the first printing that uses a barcode and only one I have seen on the front cover.  All other printings, with a barcode, are on the back cover.
There were no UPC codes used on the Direct Editions until the 8th printing.
9th and 10th printings used the same UPC code.
The 8th and 9th Direct editions have a code that correlates to the printing (118 = 8th, 119 = 9th)
The 11th and 12th Direct editions have a code that correlates to the printing (121 = 11th, 122 = 12th)
The 13th Direct Edition has a code that, using the correlation on 11th and 12th prints, that should technically correlate to the 14th printing (124 = 13th instead of 14th printing)
The 14th printing and the "DC Direct Edition" have the same barcode.  
CGC calls some 14th prints as the DC Direct Edition, but, they are wrong as I showed in another thread.  Got no response from CGC about it.

Edited January 11, 2020 by aszumilo