Marvel Whitman Variant List

[fastballspecial]

Can someone point me in the right direction for a copy of the Marvel Variant Whitman list from the late 70s& early 80s? I know they are not many, but need to confirm a few.

Thanx

[cosmic-spider-man]

Direct Market Marvels hear is a link to a web sight not really sure if these are considered Whitman's or not, but I would sure like to know more about these myself, it only covers the late 70's though hope this helps .

[Metarog]

You can add Conan #93, Super Spidey Stories #36 and Peter Parker #23 to that list. I also think I saw a Thor #266 too but I don't have a pic.

 

There seems to be a lot of confusion as to what these are.... can we can them the Diamond Price Logo variants? I think everyone can agree that whatever their origin these are tougher to find than the newstand editions of the same issues.

[fastballspecial]

Well heres what my research has discovered in the last week and it isnt much. Apparently a Whitman is just a Marvel that has been sealed up in a Whitman 3 Pack bag. They are variants of the above Direct Market link. Fascinating stuff. Basically I had the opportunity to buy a couple of Marvel Whitman's, but they didnt offer pictures(at first) and I wanted to make sure of what I might be buying before I did it. Essentially the books look to be just like Type 2s except with variant starburst price logos. Tough to find none the less. Thanx for help.

[FFB]

You can add Conan #93, Super Spidey Stories #36 and Peter Parker #23 to that list. I also think I saw a Thor #266 too but I don't have a pic.

 

There seems to be a lot of confusion as to what these are.... can we can them the Diamond Price Logo variants? I think everyone can agree that whatever their origin these are tougher to find than the newstand editions of the same issues.

 

No, because they aren't variants. They are just normal direct market issues.

[Metarog]

I should have been more precise and when I went back and read my post it didn't seem clear but what I am referring to are the Marvels published prior to May 1979. After that all the Diamond prices logos where just Direct Market editions such as the ones sent to comic shops. Previous to that date is when the larger Diamond logos appear and those are the ones I am referring to in my list of additions.

[FFB]

I should have been more precise and when I went back and read my post it didn't seem clear but what I am referring to are the Marvels published prior to May 1979. After that all the Diamond prices logos where just Direct Market editions such as the ones sent to comic shops. Previous to that date is when the larger Diamond logos appear and those are the ones I am referring to in my list of additions.

 

I don't know if I have ever told you this before, but you have a really cool avatar.

[cosmic-spider-man]

Does anyone know where these Direct Market issues were sold in the late 70's I have a friend who says he remembers buying those 3 packs with the diamond price at a Big K back then, I bought comics back then but never seen any in my area all of mine were news stand copy's and came from spiner racks in the local supermarkets and drug stores and their were no comic book shopes anywhere near where I lived back then. How many comic book stores were their back in the late 70's?

 

Also wandering did these Direct market copy's with the diamond prices only come in three pack's or were they sold seperately and placed in three packs by comic shop owners? I have also noiticed their are two types of three packs ones with the Direct Market copy's and ones with the news stand copy's and the bags have different grafix on them. I also remember buying 3 pack's at a local 5 and dime in my area with coverless comics in them in fact that is where I got my first comics back in 1975.

 

I have been collecting these as of late and would like any info I can get about them I am sure their are some on hear who remember buying these new .

[markseifert]

Does anyone know where these Direct Market issues were sold in the late 70's I have a friend who says he remembers buying those 3 packs with the diamond price at a Big K back then, I bought comics back then but never seen any in my area all of mine were news stand copy's and came from spiner racks in the local supermarkets and drug stores and their were no comic book shopes anywhere near where I lived back then. How many comic book stores were their back in the late 70's?

 

Well, obviously this was a long time ago and my memories are vague, and I haven't kept up much with the price/release variant scene, so take this for what it's worth.

 

But I remember them in places that pretty much didn't sell comics otherwise - which accounts for why you didn't see them in the usual comic place haunts such as supermaket newsstand racks and such. I remember them in some of the numerous general retail chains that existed before the Walmart era took over. I specifically remember frequently digging through the bags in a general chain store called Zayres, which was basically a K-Mart type of place. I think these were with the diamond price.

 

Also wandering did these Direct market copy's with the diamond prices only come in three pack's or were they sold seperately and placed in three packs by comic shop owners?

 

Are the well known Star Wars later printing variants of the type you're wondering about here? If so, I think I remember seeing those loose in book stores and/or toy stores at the time.

[cosmic-spider-man]

Hear is something interesting I have about 14 three packs from the late 70's and none of them have Whitman on them anywhere except one of my Marvel Star Wars three packs I think it has issue #10-12 in it

 

Are the well known Star Wars later printing variants of the type you're wondering about here?

 

I am really wondering about all the Diamond priced Marvels from the late 70's not just the Star Wars what kind of book store did you see these in? I was under the inpression that all these eairly Direct market Marvels were only sold in three packs but I don't really know.

[markseifert]

what kind of book store did you see these in? I was under the inpression that all these eairly Direct market Marvels were only sold in three packs but I don't really know.

 

This would have been a chain from that era called Waldenbooks. They had newsstand stuff on a spinner rack but they also did movie related displays and I think this might have been part of that. See, I had picked up #2 off a newsstand somewhere and was pleased to be able to pick up a #1 and a #3 at a later time. The thing I'm not sure of now that I think back on the circumstances is whether I had to get a dupe of #2 to pick up the other two books. Sorry I can't be more sure about it.

[cosmic-spider-man]

I Just got out that Star Wars 3 pack with the Whitman logo on it and it also says across the bottom of the bag "Distributed by Western Publishing Company Inc." which is hard to see in the scan, hear is the scan. I also have a Star Wars 3 pack with issues #1-3 in it and it has no mention of Whitman on it and none of my other marvel three packs do either. Is it posible that the Whitman three packs are reprints but I also know that my Star Wars 1-3 three pack are reprints so I don't know, did Star Wars 10-12 have reprints? anyone else remember anything about these

 

[matewan1990]

True Whitman Marvels include the Close Encounters of the Third Kind magazine, the Star Wars treasury editions, some of the other treasury editions, the Battlestar Galactica treasury, the Buck Rogers in the 25th Century magazine and a couple of others. Modern Comics (which reprinted old Charltons much like Whitman did with Marvel and DC and sold them to retail chains in the 1970s) did a version of the Battlestar Galactica treasury, too. That one's kind of rare, or so I'm told.

Then, later in the late 1980s, SoMuchFun! Inc. reprinted several Archie, Marvel and DC Comics under the "Classics" banner. They reprinted random issues from different periods and stuck a "Classics" logo under the original title logo and sold them in three packs in gift and card stores. The SoMuchFun! line lasted from 1987 to 1992 and there are several that have been located over the last year since I wrote an article for Comic Buyer's Guide telling of the long-forgotten line. These are variants much like the Whitman DCs, but are much rarer, as there were only about 5,000 of each reprint published. Many may have been destroyed when the company went under. All the stock was sold by the owner and he doesn't know if any of the three packs are still around.

Some of these SoMuchFun! reprints have different covers than the original issues, although many simply have the SoMuchFun! name written in the UPC box and "Classics" printed somewhere on the cover. It should be noted that all of the SoMuchFun! variants were printed much later than the originals. Some reprints dated back to the 1960s. The owner of the company picked what he reprinted at random with no rhyme or reason.

There isn't even a complete list of these — yet.

A lot of us collectors are working on that, though, as more pop up on eBay every so often.

[FlyingDonut]

The boys over at STLcomics.com have a pretty nice page on So Much Fun variants

[ASM-completist]

There is no such thing as a Marvel Whitman variant. They are Marvel direct editions and have NO distinguishing marks. The only way to tell if a copy is a Whitman copy is to have the ORIGINAL Whitman bagged 3-pack with the comic in it. If I take a copy, bag/seal it, and distribute it, is it a variant? No, and neither are the direct edition Whitman copies. I would guess that the comics themselves have no more value than an unbagged copy. The only rarity which would command a premium is the Whitman bagged comics as a whole. There can not bew too many of them floating around any more.

 

JMO - taste

[howardhallis]

There is no such thing as a Marvel Whitman variant. They are Marvel direct editions and have NO distinguishing marks. The only way to tell if a copy is a Whitman copy is to have the ORIGINAL Whitman bagged 3-pack with the comic in it. If I take a copy, bag/seal it, and distribute it, is it a variant? No, and neither are the direct edition Whitman copies. I would guess that the comics themselves have no more value than an unbagged copy. The only rarity which would command a premium is the Whitman bagged comics as a whole. There can not bew too many of them floating around any more.

 

JMO - taste

 

This is simply not true!

 

Viola:

 

[nitowljr-migration]

There is no such thing as a Marvel Whitman variant.

 

Wrong...as evident from the images above.

 

They are Marvel direct editions and have NO distinguishing marks. The only way to tell if a copy is a Whitman copy is to have the ORIGINAL Whitman bagged 3-pack with the comic in it. If I take a copy, bag/seal it, and distribute it, is it a variant?

 

It might not appeal to Whitman variant collectors that insist on having the Whitman logo on their books but it sure as hell is a variant.

 

I would guess that the comics themselves have no more value than an unbagged copy.

 

Wouldn't that depend on what someone is willing to pay for it?

 

The only rarity which would command a premium is the Whitman bagged comics as a whole. There can not bew too many of them floating around any more.

 

JMO - taste

 

Who are you to say what would command a premium?

[howardhallis]

From what I understand, Marvel Whitman's have a blank UPC and diamond price box. Those are the tell-tale signs that the book was in the multi-packs. Although this isn't a huge difference, it's about as much of a difference as the 35 cent variants or the pence copies.

[howardhallis]

Sorry to promote my own auction, but I figure folks who read this thread might be interested in checking out what I put in Comics Marketplace:

 

http://boards.collectors-society.com/showflat.php?Cat=0&Number=809128&an=0&page=0#809128

[ASM-completist]

There is no such thing as a Marvel Whitman variant. They are Marvel direct editions and have NO distinguishing marks. The only way to tell if a copy is a Whitman copy is to have the ORIGINAL Whitman bagged 3-pack with the comic in it. If I take a copy, bag/seal it, and distribute it, is it a variant? No, and neither are the direct edition Whitman copies. I would guess that the comics themselves have no more value than an unbagged copy. The only rarity which would command a premium is the Whitman bagged comics as a whole. There can not bew too many of them floating around any more.

 

JMO - taste

 

This is simply not true!

 

Viola:

 

 

Excellent correction. I will change my statement to "there is no such thing as a Marvel Superhero Whitman variant. Also, via your own image, you can see that there is no blank cover box so your statement regarding that is not true. Other direct editions without a blank cover box have been bagged in Whitman 3 packs.

 

No, it not a variant. No comic authority, such as Overstreet or CGC, recognizes them as variants. Plus, they are no different than the direct editions, in fact, they are direct editions. If they are simply direct editions, how can they be variants?!?!?!