Amazing Spider-Man 361 Print Run

[Broke as a Joke]

RMA I know you will never admit that you are wrong but come on...

 

Venom was very popular before 361 came out. He was already the villain everyone wanted to see, even with such few appearances. He was so popular that they would even tease his small cameo appearance in the book with a header on the top of the cover.

 

In fact Wizard Magazine would feature Venom by himself on the cover of issue #9 which is one month after the release of 361. And in that very same issue 361 placed 9th on the infamous Wizard Top Ten Hottest Comics. Again all this less than one full month after release of 361.

 

This book was speculated, hoarded, hot, whatever you want to call it and this happened basically upon release. Also, this is all within a month with no internet, and even so by the time Wizard puts out that Venom cover issue 361 is long gone off the stands.

[lou_fine]

 

so, plenty of copies out there

 

Yes, from all of the statistics being presented by the board members, this would definitely appear to be the case. And virtually all in uber HG grade locked away in private collections just waiting to be cashed out upon retirement.

 

Now as to the number of actual copies read, that would be a far significantly lower number.

 

And in terms of low grade copies, that would probably be a true rarity and possibly even close to being non-existent.

[RockMyAmadeus]

RMA I know you will never admit that you are wrong but come on...

 

 

Try to save the personal comments for the Water Cooler or Comics General. If you can't have a conversation without making it personal, you have no business having a conversation at all. I'll save the off-topic lecture for now.

 

Venom was very popular before 361 came out. He was already the villain everyone wanted to see, even with such few appearances.

 

You are incorrect. The characters "everyone wanted to see" in that time period were Cable, Wolverine, Punisher, and Ghost Rider. And the villains "everyone wanted to see" during that time period were Hobgoblin and Sabretooth.

 

Let's nail down everything, so you don't run off the rail: I didn't say Venom wasn't gaining in popularity. He certainly was. However, he was not at all the uber popular character he would become, and THAT popularity hit its stride with the publication of the Venom: Lethal Protector mini-series.

 

This may be a hard thing for some younger collectors to understand, but there really was a time when villains weren't considered "main characters", and it wasn't until Venom became a "semi-hero" in ASM #361-363 that he really started to gain popularity.

 

He was so popular that they would even tease his small cameo appearance in the book with a header on the top of the cover.

 

Examples?

 

Here's one: Quasar #6.

 

Quasar Cap City numbers:

 

#4 - 18,400

#5 - 21,100

#6 - 21,400

#7 - 20,900

#8 - 18,800

 

No significant bump.

 

Venom wasn't an instantly popular character. In fact, it took an entire year for him to return after ASM #300. Between 1988 and 1992 he appeared in a grand total of 25 comics, which includes appearances in the Official Handbook of the Marvel Universe, and tiny cameos in books like What If #31 and #34.

 

The Punisher appeared in 67 different comic books in 1991 alone.

 

In fact Wizard Magazine would feature Venom by himself on the cover of issue #9 which is one month after the release of 361.

 

Yes. And...?

 

X-O Manowar and Flash appeared on the covers of #7. Wetworks was on the cover of #14. Bishop was on issue #8. Maxx appeared twice, first on issue #16 and then on issue #20.

 

And in that very same issue 361 placed 9th on the infamous Wizard Top Ten Hottest Comics. Again all this less than one full month after release of 361.

 

How do you know that was "less than one full month" after "release of 361"? I looked up the USCO info for ASM #361...it was on sale the week of Feb 11, 1992. Do you have that information for Wizard #9?

 

And, I'm not sure why this is relevant. I don't think anyone's said anything about ASM #361 not being a runaway success, nor Venom not becoming a popular character.

 

By the way...as an interesting aside, Erik Larsen HATED Venom, which is why he drew him looking like such an idjit.

 

This book was speculated, hoarded, hot, whatever you want to call it and this happened basically upon release.

 

You are using words that mean different things, as if they all mean the same thing. If you are using words that mean different things interchangeably to mean the same thing, you're going to be confused.

 

No one is disputing that the book was speculated, nor is anyone disputing that the book was hot.

 

What the book was NOT was hoarded, for the reasons stated above.

 

Now, do you have a reasonable explanation for why you believe it was, or no?

 

Also, this is all within a month with no internet, and even so by the time Wizard puts out that Venom cover issue 361 is long gone off the stands.

 

You do understand that Wizard was a publication about comic books, right...? And, as such, they had access to information that the average collector/comic reader didn't, and at a speed they didn't...? And, again...no one is disputing that ASM #361 wasn't an instant success. No one has said anything like that, but you are arguing as if someone has.

 

There's a difference between "ASM #361 was a hot book instantly upon release" and "Venom was an ultra-popular character when ASM #361 came out."

[Gatsby77]

Throwing another contemporary anecdote on the fire.

 

To say people didn't speculate on ASM 361 is wrong. The cover appeared in Previews; folks knew what it was.

 

Result? A substitute teacher at my middle school who speculated on/dealt comics in his spare time pre-ordered 50 sets of ASM 361-363.*

 

As in, put the order in 60 days before 361's release because "he was the next Venom."

 

True, he ended up selling them rather quickly ($20-$25/set at cons about six months later) but it wasn't a surprise.

 

He also told us about the book a week before its release, so my buddy & I went around town that week. I bought 4. Shops had them through the weekend, but only as a "limit one per customer."

 

After the sell-out, it was another two months before it hit local back issue bins, & by then it was $8 (this was suburban Philly).

 

 

 

People who were watching the market at the time *could* and *did* speculate & pre-order books like Robin # 1, Silver Surfer 50, ASM 361 & others that instantly went to second printings.

 

The ones that folks missed either were slow burns (nobody hoarded X-Men 266, but they did X-Men 268 for the cover) or true surprises (Alpha Flight 106, Ren & Stimpy 1).

 

Likewise, a bunch of my buddies & I bought multiple New Mutants 98s off the shelf just because Liefeld was hot -- it was like our generation's Byrne X-Men. We all started buying duplicates with # 93 (Cable vs. Wolverine), continued with 95-97 (dupes of the whole X-Tinction Agenda storyline) & just continued with NM 98-100 out of habit.

 

Still, we all thought NM 93-94 were going to be the money books, not NM 98.

 

 

*It's not like the substitute teacher was a svengali, though. While he won big w/ ASM 361-363, he also pre-ordered 10 sets of the whole "Rise of the Midnight Sons" storyline.

[Peter G]

RMA I know you will never admit that you are wrong but come on...

 

Venom was very popular before 361 came out. He was already the villain everyone wanted to see, even with such few appearances.

 

You are incorrect. The characters "everyone wanted to see" in that time period were Cable, Wolverine, Punisher, and Ghost Rider. And the villains "everyone wanted to see" during that time period were Hobgoblin and Sabretooth.

 

Let's nail down everything, so you don't run off the rail: I didn't say Venom wasn't gaining in popularity. He certainly was. However, he was not at all the uber popular character he would become, and THAT popularity hit its stride with the publication of the Venom: Lethal Protector mini-series.

 

This may be a hard thing for some younger collectors to understand, but there really was a time when villains weren't considered "main characters", and it wasn't until Venom became a "semi-hero" in ASM #361-363 that he really started to gain popularity.

 

He was so popular that they would even tease his small cameo appearance in the book with a header on the top of the cover.

 

 

Venom wasn't an instantly popular character. In fact, it took an entire year for him to return after ASM #300. Between 1988 and 1992 he appeared in a grand total of 25 comics, which includes appearances in the Official Handbook of the Marvel Universe, and tiny cameos in books like What If #31 and #34.

 

The Punisher appeared in 67 different comic books in 1991 alone.

 

In fact Wizard Magazine would feature Venom by himself on the cover of issue #9 which is one month after the release of 361.

 

This book was speculated, hoarded, hot, whatever you want to call it and this happened basically upon release.

 

You are using words that mean different things, as if they all mean the same thing. If you are using words that mean different things interchangeably to mean the same thing, you're going to be confused.

 

No one is disputing that the book was speculated, nor is anyone disputing that the book was hot.

 

What the book was NOT was hoarded, for the reasons stated above.

 

Now, do you have a reasonable explanation for why you believe it was, or no?

 

Also, this is all within a month with no internet, and even so by the time Wizard puts out that Venom cover issue 361 is long gone off the stands.

 

You do understand that Wizard was a publication about comic books, right...? And, as such, they had access to information that the average collector/comic reader didn't, and at a speed they didn't...? And, again...no one is disputing that ASM #361 wasn't an instant success. No one has said anything like that, but you are arguing as if someone has.

 

There's a difference between "ASM #361 was a hot book instantly upon release" and "Venom was an ultra-popular character when ASM #361 came out."

 

 

I ordered comic books for our comic book store during this time period. Orders were placed by comic books stores with a full gamut if promotional materials. I distinctly remember that there was a lot of promotion on this particular issue. Hence the book was targeted as likely to be hot even before it hit the shelves. Our store ordered massive massive amounts of asm 361.

 

 

 

 

 

 

[GeeksAreMyPeeps]

I snagged a SA Marvel collection three years ago and the owner added in six copies of #361 for free in the end as "he had plenty of them in the basement". The reason - his file LCS told him it was the next Venom so he loaded up.

 

While I don't doubt that there were a few people who did just this...bought multiple copies, and then sat on them...it's important to recognize perspective.

 

In February of 1992, when ASM #361 came out, ASM #300 was a roughly $30 book (it was $32 in the OPG.)

 

Not even VENOM was "Venom" when this book came out. In fact, in the 1991 OPG, #300 was simply listed as "last black costume" and "1st Venom" was listed as #298 (which is, technically, correct.)

 

From 1988-1993, ASM #298 was either the more expensive book, or worth the same, as #300. It wasn't until the Venom mini-series of 1993 (which debuted in Dec of 1992, about 10 months after ASM #361 came out) that Venom became a breakout character.

 

Further...up until ASM #361, Venom had only appeared in 8 full stories (ASM #300, 316, 317, 332, 333, 346, 347, Darkhawk #13) with brief cameos in a few others (ASM #298, 299, 315, 330, 331, 344, 345, Quasar #6, and incidental, non-story appearances elsewhere.)

 

So...you'll forgive me if I question the "my LCS told me this was the next Venom" anecdote, because at that point, even Venom wasn't Venom. It was actually this story, in ASM #361-363, that propelled Venom to wider popularity, and Marvel began to expose the hell out of him.

Let's not conflate the number of stories that Marvel published with Venom with the desirability of readers to see more stories. I was reading and collecting during this period as well. Venom definitely had a decent number of fans, even before his mini and the Carnage storyline.

[Gatsby77]

Also notable:

 

ASM 362 is the only instance I can remember from that period where Marvel announced the second printing before the first printing hit the stands.

 

The day of release, I recall a LCS trying to sell me on the book by noting there was already a second printing on the way, so "that's already like an $8 book, man."

 

And the difference between ASM 361 vs. 362-363 (at least in my area)?

 

ASM 361 was a "limit one" per customer

ASM 362-363 were "limit five" per customer

[mysterio]

 

By the way...as an interesting aside, Erik Larsen HATED Venom, which is why he drew him looking like such an idjit.

 

I had heard this before, and you can tell just by looking at his versions of the character. It is such a shame too, as McFarlane's version of Venom up through #316-317 is the perfect level of creepy and intimidating as a villain. I rarely got goosebumps while reading a comic to the level I did at Venom's reveal in #299. Of course, the stupid overdrawn extendo-mouth with the ridiculous green slime as pioneered by Larsen is the one that caught on.

 

Bagley did try to dial it back a bit, and it helped, but it seems that Larsen put a huge stamp on the portrayal of Venom. I guess it didn't help that the late 90's bred a whole host of hack artists at Marvel that carried on (and expanded upon) the style of art pioneered by the guys that eventually left for Image, and did so with much less talent. Adding more teeth and slime was the easy way to look AWESOME.

[Petey's Wheatcake]

I knew people who pre-ordered hundreds of copies of this book.

 

The only thing that kept me from ordering in large quantities(I ordered multiples, but not multiple cases), was I honestly thought it was too obvious. Greg Buls of Kingpin Comics, for instance, made ASM 361 his monthly pre-order pick. Personally, I assumed everyone was jumping on the bandwagon with this one, and the ceiling was limited.

 

Turned out I was wrong, of course, but there were plenty of Valiants to be had, and I didn't regret my longbox of Magnus #12s either. :smile:

 

Speculation was already running rampant at this time, and I can't think of anything that truly slipped under the radar by 1992. Just crack open a CBG from this time period, and you'll see that many sellers didn't need the internet to move large quantities of books. Once you placed your first few ads, you had a nice customer base from around the country, and you were good to go.

[seanfingh]

I was in college when 361 came out. I had stopped collecting ASM after McFarlane left. My two comic buddies bought three copies each. I passed because it looked stupid and derivative to me. I never owned a copy until I started buying them for a dollar around 1999 or 2000.

[RockMyAmadeus]

Also notable:

 

ASM 362 is the only instance I can remember from that period where Marvel announced the second printing before the first printing hit the stands.

 

Yes....issue #361 had created such a firestorm of demand, and orders for #362 had already been finalized, so they announced a second printing before the first printing was on sale.

 

The day of release, I recall a LCS trying to sell me on the book by noting there was already a second printing on the way, so "that's already like an $8 book, man."

 

And the difference between ASM 361 vs. 362-363 (at least in my area)?

 

ASM 361 was a "limit one" per customer

ASM 362-363 were "limit five" per customer

 

I do not doubt your anecdotes, or any of the other anecdotes, though time may have fuzzed a memory or two.

 

The facts, however, paint a little different picture:

 

ASM #361 only had a 20% bump in orders at Cap City over #360. Orders for ASM #358 were an astonishing 43% higher than #361, because it was a "gatefold cover", which was one of the new-ish gimmicks at the time.

 

Looking at Diamond, we see that, for the year, only two issues, #370 (211) and #360 (244) were ordered in lower numbers than #361 (207.)

 

And, the most compelling piece of evidence that this book was underordered: it went to an immediate second printing, which was fairly rare in those days, relatively speaking. It was, for example, the very first issue of Amazing Spiderman ever to go to a second printing because of a sellout.

 

Not saying it wasn't hyped. It was, and the cover being printed (albeit, in small form) on the letters page of #359 helped fuel demand, but not necessarily orders, because the orders for #361 would have been due around the time #359 hit the stands.

 

I have no doubt that Previews also highlighted it...but, Previews highlighted a light of things, including Magnus #1, which didn't exactly set sales records.

 

Not saying people didn't order "hundreds of copies."

 

Not saying that it wasn't speculated, but it certainly didn't result in substantially higher orders.

 

No, this book was a (general) surprise to the consumers of ASM, and it was "so cool", it led to a virtually instant sellout across the country. Remember: it's not in a publisher's interest to underprint ANY book that they think they can sell. Ok, yes, Quesada had his "print to order" scheme, but that was nearly a decade in the future, and Marvel certainly would rather have not had the additional expense and effort of going back to the presses if they could avoid it.

 

Remember: not three issues before, the CC orders were 43% higher than they were for #361, so it's not as if there was any sort of low expectations for the title to begin with.

 

You know a book that was NOT underordered, and took no one by surprise? Issue #365.

 

 

[RockMyAmadeus]

Let's not conflate the number of stories that Marvel published with Venom with the desirability of readers to see more stories.

 

Let's not rewrite history based on subsequent events and impressions. It is not reasonable or logical for a publisher, especially Marvel, who was and is the master of milking characters to death, to not recognize demand for a particular character, and cater to that demand.

 

I have no doubt that Venom was a character on the rise. I watched it unfold, with a front row seat (working for a small distributor in the SF Bay Area.)

 

Erik Larsen hated Venom, and did quite a number on him with his beyond ugly renditions in ASM #346 and #347, with the green slime, the crooked teeth, and whatnot.

 

This is the character Todd created:

 

 

And this is the character that Larsen made him into:

 

 

He had, within the space of a few appearances, become a caricature.

 

As Mysterio mentioned, Bags toned him down quite a bit, which saved the character from silliness.

 

I was reading and collecting during this period as well. Venom definitely had a decent number of fans, even before his mini and the Carnage storyline.

 

Sure, but so did the New Warriors, and Hobgoblin (1991 was definitely the year of the Hobgoblin) and Sabretooth, and Stryfe, and a whole host of new and new-ish characters at the time.

 

But they paled in comparison to the big guns of the day: Punisher, Wolverine, Ghost Rider, X-Men, Cable, Gambit, X-Force...

 

Let me say it again: in 1991, Punisher appeared in 67 different comic books.

 

Venom appeared in 9.

 

And 5 of those were cameos.

 

He appeared on the covers of exactly four:

 

ASM #346, #347, What If...? #31, and Avengers: Deathtrap, the Vault.

 

That's not a character that is being "clamored for." 1993, however, would be a completely different story.

[Gatsby77]

ASM #361 only had a 20% bump in orders at Cap City over #360. Orders for ASM #358 were an astonishing 43% higher than #361, because it was a "gatefold cover", which was one of the new-ish gimmicks at the time.

 

1) Gatefold aside, ASM 358 would have had a higher order number because of the Punisher appearance (ditto 357).

 

2) One would expect orders for 361 to be naturally depressed because it was the first regular issue to be priced at $1.25 rather than $1.00. That they were still higher than 360 even at a 25% higher price point points to robust pre-orders.

[RockMyAmadeus]

Throwing another contemporary anecdote on the fire.

 

To say people didn't speculate on ASM 361 is wrong. The cover appeared in Previews; folks knew what it was.

 

 

You sure the cover appeared in Previews...? If so, how...? Was it a "gem of the month"? Was there a "spotlight on" it?

 

Correction: no one said people didn't speculate on ASM #361. People were speculating on EVERYTHING at this time, and ASM #361 was no exception.

 

However...we have to ask ourselves these questions: WHO was speculating? HOW were they speculating? WHY were they speculating? WHAT did they buy, and in WHAT quantities?

 

Result? A substitute teacher at my middle school who speculated on/dealt comics in his spare time pre-ordered 50 sets of ASM 361-363.*

 

As in, put the order in 60 days before 361's release because "he was the next Venom."

 

As noted before, even Venom at this time wasn't "the next Venom", so it's hard to say people ordered #361 because Carnage was "the next Venom."

 

True, he ended up selling them rather quickly ($20-$25/set at cons about six months later) but it wasn't a surprise.

 

He also told us about the book a week before its release, so my buddy & I went around town that week. I bought 4. Shops had them through the weekend, but only as a "limit one per customer."

 

After the sell-out, it was another two months before it hit local back issue bins, & by then it was $8 (this was suburban Philly).

 

People who were watching the market at the time *could* and *did* speculate & pre-order books like Robin # 1, Silver Surfer 50, ASM 361 & others that instantly went to second printings.

 

*It's not like the substitute teacher was a svengali, though. While he won big w/ ASM 361-363, he also pre-ordered 10 sets of the whole "Rise of the Midnight Sons" storyline.

 

But, you say this was a person who speculated on comic books in his spare time, and even bought 10 sets of the Midnight Sons. This guy was obviously not a casual consumer, so how can he be used as an example?

 

"People who were watching the market at the time" being the operative phrase, there.

 

Robin #1 wasn't expected to be as big a hit as it was. Cap City orders are 103,300, keeping in mind that this was still a time (Nov 1990) that Batman was very popular. The remaining orders tell more of the story:

 

#2 - 74,250

#3 -100,700

#4 - 111,300

#5 - 110,350

 

So, issue #1 got an order boost for being a #1, then #2 saw a 28% dip in orders...then issue #1 comes out, is a sellout, and orders for #3-5 get bumped substantially...including an extreme rarity, where the last two issues are ordered in greater numbers than the first!

 

However, perspective is necessary.

 

Spiderman #6, coming out the same month (and not a #1) had Cap City orders of 202,500, almost twice as many as Robin #1. As well, X-Men #272 had orders of 93,100, about 10% less than Robin #1.

 

What gave Robin #1 the boost is the new costume debuting a month earlier in Batman #457, which was also a sellout and had an immediate second printing (and had CC orders of 66,000 copies, about average for the title at the time.)

 

It was that month gap between ordering Robin #1, and Batman #457 coming out, that created a feeding frenzy for Robin #1 that outstripped demand, even if people speculated on it.

 

These things don't happen in a vacuum. Context is critical to understand these things.

 

Silver Surfer #50 was a special case, because it was a foil cover at the beginning of the "gimmick" era. It was a much bigger success than anticipated, which led to THREE printings. It was one of the first, and most successful, of the "gimmick" covers, and consumers ate it up. As well, it was also the culmination of a year and a half worth of stories that saw the Surfer become quite popular, combined with the-then hot artist Ron Lim.

 

Oddly enough, there aren't any Cap City order numbers for #50 in my Krause, but CC orders for #49 are 44,000 and #51 are 57,100.

 

ASM #361 was neither a #1, nor a gimmick cover.

 

Context.

 

But no, but your anecdotes about ASM #361 don't match up with the numbers.

 

You were a young teen at this time, yes...? There is a problem we all have of allowing our personal experiences, feelings, memories and impressions shade our perception of what "actually happened", and that is magnified the younger we are. It's important to forensically analyze these things, setting aside personal recollections, and just looking at what we have on paper.

 

 

 

[thecopperagekids]

 

 

ASM #361 was neither a #1, nor a gimmick cover.

 

Context.

 

But no, but your anecdotes about ASM #361 don't match up with the numbers.

 

You were a young teen at this time, yes...? There is a problem we all have of allowing our personal experiences, feelings, memories and impressions shade our perception of what "actually happened", and that is magnified the younger we are. It's important to forensically analyze these things, setting aside personal recollections, and just looking at what we have on paper.

 

 

 

Hats off for the studious research and well thought out reply.

 

I've highlighted this portion of your posts, as this is what it all boils down to,IMHO.

 

ASM 361 is a solid $200 book in a CGC 9.8 holder.

 

What I think may catch $300 is a CGC 9.8, without the common production tears on the bottom of the front cover.

 

I do not think I have ever seen a copy of this book without those tears, raw or slabbed.

 

 

 

 

[RockMyAmadeus]

ASM #361 only had a 20% bump in orders at Cap City over #360. Orders for ASM #358 were an astonishing 43% higher than #361, because it was a "gatefold cover", which was one of the new-ish gimmicks at the time.

 

1) Gatefold aside, ASM 358 would have had a higher order number because of the Punisher appearance (ditto 357).

 

Issue #358 was the last part of the "Round Robin" 6 part storyline, beginning in issue #353, all of which featured the Punisher, and all of which enjoyed substantially higher numbers than issues directly before or after it.

 

It cannot be overstated how popular and ubiquitous the Punisher was in 1991.

 

CC numbers:

 

#348 - 59,100

#349 - 65,100

#350 -75,600

#351 - no numbers published

#352 - 65,400

#353 - 79,200

#354 - 76,800

#355 - 78,300

#356 - 79,500

#357 - 76,500

#358 - 98,400

#359 - 60,600

#360 - 57,300

 

As you can see, "Round Robin" increased orders about 15-20% across the board.

 

However...#358 had numbers 20-25% over that because it was a gimmick, and gimmicks were all the rage at that point. It was precisely because of the gatefold that #358 was far and away the winner of the 6 part story.

 

2) One would expect orders for 361 to be naturally depressed because it was the first regular issue to be priced at $1.25 rather than $1.00. That they were still higher than 360 even at a 25% higher price point points to robust pre-orders.

 

The first issue of ASM that was priced at $1.25 was #359...not #361. I really don't mean to be rude, but that information is just a couple of Google clicks away.

 

The point is a fair one, and may have influenced the numbers for #359. You'd have to do studies for other titles at the same time period.

 

Here's one:

 

Hulk #387 -45,500

#388 - 49,500

#389 - 43,800

#390 (first $1.25 issue) - 49,500

#391 - 47,100

#392 - 43,500

 

[RockMyAmadeus]

I knew people who pre-ordered hundreds of copies of this book.

 

You did...? Were they comic store owners...?

 

 

The only thing that kept me from ordering in large quantities(I ordered multiples, but not multiple cases), was I honestly thought it was too obvious. Greg Buls of Kingpin Comics, for instance, made ASM 361 his monthly pre-order pick. Personally, I assumed everyone was jumping on the bandwagon with this one, and the ceiling was limited.

 

Greg Buls has always had a remarkable talent for sniffing out things most people missed. I worked for him in 1999. Not that that's relevant, but I did get to deal with him on a daily basis for several months.

 

 

Turned out I was wrong, of course, but there were plenty of Valiants to be had, and I didn't regret my longbox of Magnus #12s either. :smile:

 

A whole longbox of Magnus #12s...? Wow.

 

That's almost the entire print run!

 

 

Speculation was already running rampant at this time, and I can't think of anything that truly slipped under the radar by 1992. Just crack open a CBG from this time period, and you'll see that many sellers didn't need the internet to move large quantities of books. Once you placed your first few ads, you had a nice customer base from around the country, and you were good to go.

 

True, but we're talking, what, a couple hundred sellers at most? Maybe a few dozen? And the internet wasn't important just because people could now trade directly with one another across the world...it was important because people now had instant access to information, information which altered and directed their consumption behavior.

 

It's not possible to overstate that impact.

[RockMyAmadeus]

I ordered comic books for our comic book store during this time period. Orders were placed by comic books stores with a full gamut if promotional materials. I distinctly remember that there was a lot of promotion on this particular issue.

 

 

Do you have any of that material still? That would be invaluable.

 

Hence the book was targeted as likely to be hot even before it hit the shelves. Our store ordered massive massive amounts of asm 361.

 

How many, and how did those orders compare to your orders for issues #359 and #360?

[Peter G]

I ordered comic books for our comic book store during this time period. Orders were placed by comic books stores with a full gamut if promotional materials. I distinctly remember that there was a lot of promotion on this particular issue.

 

 

Do you have any of that material still? That would be invaluable.

 

Hence the book was targeted as likely to be hot even before it hit the shelves. Our store ordered massive massive amounts of asm 361.

 

How many, and how did those orders compare to your orders for issues #359 and #360?

 

Sorry, this material is long long gone. Thrown out shortly after orders were filled.

 

But I remember the mindset, and 359 and 360 would not be big order books because of the weak villain and no venom.

 

361 in particular was heavily ordered but do was 362 and 363 because of carnage and venom were deemed cool by the massive demand we expected on future demand. We like most stores would not just order to fill initial demand but to have supply stretching into the unknown future too.

 

[RockMyAmadeus]

So I went and dug out the pertinent issue of Previews, to see what it had to say. Here are pictures:

 

 

 

 

So...part of the cover is shown. If you can't read the blurb, it says "Spider-Man teams up with his arch-nemesis Venom to stop the serial killer Venom-Spawn - a serial killer joined with a piece of the symbiote alien Venom!"

 

We do see part of the cover...but we see the full covers to Groo #88, and the Groo Carnival (which is actually a tough TPB to find.) Also, the full covers to She-Hulk #38, Namor #25, and Web of Spiderman #87 on the preceding page.

 

There's a picture for WCW #1, and a panel for Yuppies From Hell #3, which is set off from the others.

 

Spotlight on X-Men #287.

 

Full page (facing) ad for Cage #1.

 

Elsewhere, a full page ad for MCP #100.

 

No other mention of the issue in the Marvel section. No special symbol, like the Galactic Storm crossovers or various Punisher issues.

 

Not seeing anything that said "this book is special" beyond being an issue of Amazing Spiderman.

 

Does anybody else have any promo materials? If so, please do share them.