Archie All-Star Special 0

[comicwiz]

I acquired a collection yestereday and in it were issues #3 and #4 from the Archie All-Star Special series. I have to admit, in all my years of collecting I never knew these existed, and I consider myself something of an Archie collector as I've owned practically everything from the GA Archie's right through to even some of the newer editions.  I can't speak on their scarcity, but after 30+ years of buying collections, I have to assume these aren't easy to find.

These are "giant" 160 page square-bound comics that are taller, and as far as I know only 4 issues were made, but the two things I'm unsure about concern the variations I'm noticing. I have seen the same issue bearing a 98 cent cover price and a $1.25 cover price. Both of mine also have no ads printed in the inside cover.  This is how they look (not mine, just pulled from the internet).

Does anyone know anything about the reasons for the price difference? I assumed the $1.25 was the Canadian price, and I based it on the blank "no ads" on inside cover which is reminiscent of the Canadian SA FF #2 Annual. If someone else here has these and can confirm the blank interior covers were used on all these no matter what price, and/or has a different theory for the price difference for the same issue, I'd love to hear more about it.

I certainly am considering completing this set now that I got these two so any info would be appreciated.

Edited August 15, 2017 by comicwiz

[comicwiz]

@Chuck Gower  @143ksk do either of you know anything about these?

[jools&jim]

Looks like these were cobbled together from randomly selected remaindered comics, and priced differently according to the year of release:

https://www.mycomicshop.com/search?TID=423931

https://www.mycomicshop.com/search?TID=429531

Maybe they didn't sell well the first time around at $1.25, so they tried again a year later at .98?

Edited August 15, 2017 by jools&jim

[comicwiz]

Edited: yes I see what you are referring to now. Interesting. So the $1.25 copies seem to be first or earlier prints?

Edited August 15, 2017 by comicwiz

[thirdgreenham]

never seen these before, very cool.

[143ksk]

53 minutes ago, jools&jim said:

Looks like these were cobbled together from randomly selected remaindered comics, and priced differently according to the year of release:

https://www.mycomicshop.com/search?TID=423931

https://www.mycomicshop.com/search?TID=429531

Maybe they didn't sell well the first time around at $1.25, so they tried again a year later at .98?

Correct

[comicwiz]

Can anyone elaborate on the "remaindered" and "cobbled" together copies suggestion - these are larger than a regular comic, at least by height. These would have needed to be printed with a larger printer aspect ratio and templates.

[jools&jim]

No clue.

Here's what Doug Sulipa has to say about them in general...

Quote

ARCHIE ALL-STAR SPECIAL - SERIES; (Archie Pub; 1975-1976; 164 Pages, including cover; Square-Bound in Trade Paperback Format; High $1.25 Original Cover Price, thus poor sellers upon release; Softcover; Full Color; Each Issue contains FIVE comics Re-Bound with New STIFF Outer-Covers; Covers damage easily & are thus VERY SCARCE in strict FN/VF or Better; LOW PRINT runs & SCARCE in ANY condition)...
 

 

[aardvark88]

Fairly scarce. Think I have 2 including the pink covered one. Got mine from a Fresno, CA con dealer.

[Brock]

This is idle speculation on my part, but between about 1975 and 1980, the Quebec-based publisher Editions Heritage was producing some English language squarebound books, including Archie's. Could this be one of their products? They weren't distributed in LCS's or on newsstands - more through discount retailers.

They were also binding remainders at that time... I recently came across a number of their French-language books (Batman, etc.) that had been bound this way.

Edited August 15, 2017 by Brock

[Brock]

Aaaaand I just looked at the MCS listing, which says they were published by Modern, which was doing Chralton reprint pre-packs at the time, as well as a reprint of Marvel's Battlestar Galactica treasury.

[comicwiz]

22 minutes ago, Brock said:

This is idle speculation on my part, but between about 1975 and 1980, the Quebec-based publisher Editions Heritage was producing some English language squarebound books, including Archie's. Could this be one of their products? They weren't distributed in LCS's or on newsstands - more through discount retailers.

They were also binding remainders at that time... I recently came across a number of their French-language books (Batman, etc.) that had been bound this way.

I know exactly which ones you are referring to. Those are more mag-sized, square bound. I had several of them, and remembered a few being DC's as well. These are different dimensions. I'll see if I can take a picture of them side-by-side with a regular Archie comic.

Edited August 15, 2017 by comicwiz

[comicwiz]

My phone is charging so they are about a half inch taller than a regular Archie comic. I understand from the descriptions that there are 5 comics in one of these, but I quickly scanned the pages and only found the first page with the indicia, so I'm not certain these were remaindered. They were certainly printed on a template specific to this format. They might have been marketed for their value like the digests are in terms of containing a number of issues to make them a better bang for your buck, but I'm not sure these were bound volumes containing 5 indvidual comics as an approach to remainder unsold regular Archie comics.

Edited August 16, 2017 by comicwiz

[143ksk]

Here's what I know about them. They are remaindered books. If you look through your copy again, you should see indicia for several issues throughout the book. I checked my copies of both the $1.25 and 98c versions and both are clearly made up of remaindered issues. These books are the same size as other Archie books of the period.

As far as I can tell from my limited sample size, the $1.25 issues are rebound 1975 Archie titles and the contents seem to be the same within each cover (ie my two copies of Giant Grab Bag Comics have exactly the same interiors). Back cover ads of the $1.25 issues state you can order them through Modern Promotions. 

The 98c versions are made up of rebound 1976 Archie titles and were available through Bogart Productions per the ad on the back covers.

[comicwiz]

1 hour ago, 143ksk said:

Here's what I know about them. They are remaindered books. If you look through your copy again, you should see indicia for several issues throughout the book. I checked my copies of both the $1.25 and 98c versions and both are clearly made up of remaindered issues. These books are the same size as other Archie books of the period.

As far as I can tell from my limited sample size, the $1.25 issues are rebound 1975 Archie titles and the contents seem to be the same within each cover (ie my two copies of Giant Grab Bag Comics have exactly the same interiors). Back cover ads of the $1.25 issues state you can order them through Modern Promotions. 

The 98c versions are made up of rebound 1976 Archie titles and were available through Bogart Productions per the ad on the back covers.

Great info, thanks!

Are the inside covers on yours blank as well?

[143ksk]

45 minutes ago, comicwiz said:

Great info, thanks!

Are the inside covers on yours blank as well?

yes

[Semicentennial]

Very cool.   I've been collecting Archie for quite some time and have never seen these books. 

[comicwiz]

On 16/08/2017 at 7:36 AM, 143ksk said:

Here's what I know about them. They are remaindered books. If you look through your copy again, you should see indicia for several issues throughout the book. I checked my copies of both the $1.25 and 98c versions and both are clearly made up of remaindered issues. These books are the same size as other Archie books of the period.

As far as I can tell from my limited sample size, the $1.25 issues are rebound 1975 Archie titles and the contents seem to be the same within each cover (ie my two copies of Giant Grab Bag Comics have exactly the same interiors). Back cover ads of the $1.25 issues state you can order them through Modern Promotions. 

The 98c versions are made up of rebound 1976 Archie titles and were available through Bogart Productions per the ad on the back covers.

I did have some time to go through them, and I did find in both cases, there were only two indicia pages. In both cases, they were at the front, and the very last comic. I was wondering why there wasn't an indicia for each of the 5 comics, but I then I noticed there was something resembling an indicia on the back page which showed an ad.  FWIW I still see a slight difference in height between my two copies when compared to Archie's from the same time period, but it probably could be chalked up to a different manufactured cut on my examples. What I did notice is some staples along the far left edge of the first page, but if you look at the bind from both the top and bottom edges, it looks like what you would expect to see in a square bound comic (i.e. no separation, and a seamless binding of all remaindered comics used for each of the issues).

[143ksk]

38 minutes ago, comicwiz said:

I did have some time to go through them, and I did find in both cases, there were only two indicia pages. In both cases, they were at the front, and the very last comic. I was wondering why there wasn't an indicia for each of the 5 comics, but I then I noticed there was something resembling an indicia on the back page which showed an ad.  FWIW I still see a slight difference in height between my two copies when compared to Archie's from the same time period, but it probably could be chalked up to a different manufactured cut on my examples. What I did notice is some staples along the far left edge of the first page, but if you look at the bind from both the top and bottom edges, it looks like what you would expect to see in a square bound comic (i.e. no separation, and a seamless binding of all remaindered comics used for each of the issues).

What issues were they and which books did they contain? I'd like to compare them to what I have.

[comicwiz]

53 minutes ago, 143ksk said:

What issues were they and which books did they contain? I'd like to compare them to what I have.

The Giant Grab Bag and Giant Spectacular (see images posted above), both of mine have the $1.25 cover price . I'm away for a few days at the cottage, but will check for the issues they contain when I return.