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Collecting every appearance of a character
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64 posts in this topic

I've been collecting appearances with Hal Jordan as Green Lantern. Granted I'm fine with Omnibuses of his early appearances, and I'm a little narrowing in only collecting stories where Hal was central to the story (otherwise I'd have a whole run of JLAs where Hal is nothing more than a sidekick).

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1 hour ago, Scrooge said:

Do these share the same interior? I ask since your definition and my definition are likely difference. When I say I have every appearance, that means every different story the character is in. When you say every appearance, you see to include alternate editions of the same story. With my lens, an exhaustive set of Spawn appearances is probably a lot easier than through your definition. Plus, I'll admit it, I know nothing about Spawn.

It would still be very, very, very difficult to compile "every appearance" even using your definition. There is nothing remotely easy about it in the slightest. Some people (not you, necessarily) think, "Oh, Spawn! A modern age comic. There are millions of these available and they are probably all in 9.8 condition."

Not even close.

Trent over at Spawnworld has compiled an exhaustive, comprehensive list of all the Spawn appearances. Take a quick browse, if you're curious, and see what's out there. It's insane.

HERE is a list of guest appearances, for example...this isn't counting the hundreds of other issues in which Spawn has made an appearance...

 

 

Edited by newshane
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8 hours ago, DocHoppus182 said:

About 10 years ago I started trying to get every Hulk appearance.  I had all of the Tales to Astonish and most of 102-200.  Had 1-6, minus a 2.  After that, I just kinda lost interest I suppose.  Other series started to get my attention and maybe that's what ended it?  In a weird way, I feel guilty for not sticking with it.  

I had completed my Hulk collection. I had the 1-6, TTA 59-101, 102-474, annuals, Hulk V2, all the Defenders, all his appearances: FF12, 25, 26, 112, 166-167, ASM 14, 119-120, Dazzler, DD, etc. Magazines, I had all of it. It became very hard to keep going, especially when the writers keep perversing the universe with so many Hulks and so many versions of Hulks.

The last straw for me was Totally awesome Hulk. I just do not care to read about a teen kid as the Hulk.

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4 hours ago, Scrooge said:

You forgot Conan!

I have most (missing just a couple) Tarzan appearances: Dell, Gold Key, DC, Marvel, Dark Horse ... but stopped when Dynamite published some stories recently :p

I believe I have all of Conan's appearances: comics, mags, Marvel, Dark Horse.

I am pretty close to having all of the Conan comics and magazines but every once in awhile I encounter something that I don't have.

Example is Foom 14. I don't have it and recently learned of it.

I am also not branching out to cups, calendars, statues, etc. Comics and magazines only.

Edited by Artboy99
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I have all Metal Men appearances through their 2008 mini, all Darkhawk, all original Guardians of the Galaxy until the new team showed up, all Warlock until his revival in the 90’s, all Killraven, all original Spider-Woman and several other minor characters I don’t remember right now. 

 

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I just want to make it clear that I applaud anyone who goes after a complete run, regardless of one's definition of complete. I think it shows true love and a sense of dedication to the character and the hobby itself. To complete any sort of deep run is a true challenge and an immense undertaking. Some runs are easier than others, but that doesn't make the pursuit any less worthwhile. Part of my love for the registry, despite its flaws, is the opportunity to explore the collections of others and share the collections of my own. It's also great to see scans of raw runs from collectors on the board. I'm a big fan of collecting runs, but I will never again try to collect a 9.8 graded run of any sort. No way. I've been broken.

But my next goal is to put together a raw Iron Man run. Looking forward to it!

As much as I love keys, I always seem to go back to the torture of putting together runs.

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This very much aligns with how I approach collecting a character. I really enjoy villains as much as the hero, I like the unique way a villain will challenge a hero physically, mentally, and emotionally. As such I tend to collect heroes by selecting a villain I am very fond of, going after all those appearances and then filling in gaps from there to approach building a run. I believe I own all Scarecrow appearances aside from World's Finest 3 at least up until 2000. As my profile picture suggests I'm quite a fan of Loki (and Thor/Norse myth in general) working on JiM 83-Thor 400 has been my main run focus, which I have a little over a half of. I probably could have it complete if I focused solely on it, aside from the 83, but I enjoy having a variety of characters to read too much so its something I work at a little at a time. I have recently begun to approach collecting Superman/Action through Brainiac appearances.

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Poison Ivy.   At one point, I had most of her appearances but have since sold off runs like Suicide Squad, Secret Society of Super-Villains and Super Friends.  Man that is alot of S title runs.    Once N52 started, I stopped collecting comics but I still pick up the occasional PI cover. 

For comic runs, I wanted to collect all the DC animated series.  I love those comics but honestly, I don't have the room for them all.  In the past two years, I am considering selling my runs for the trades.  Then I look at my lack of JLU and JLA full runs and want to get all the single issues.   It is a sickness. 

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Cool thread @FineCollector! I've mentioned this elsewhere, but back in the day I tried and almost completed a full collection of Spider-Man books - all titles, all variants and all appearances. It was a huge task, and I enjoyed it, but with the benefit of hindsight I wouldn't do it again, or recommend others to try it. The main reason is that a very, very large percentage of appearances are in, for want of a better term, poor quality books. Your collection ends up 20% great books (the books that made you love the character in the first place, if you're honest) and a whole host of what people on these boards often refer to as 'drek' (not a word us Englanders often use in my experience).

You can take it to extremes too. Do you stop at continuity appearances or extend to alternate universe appearances? How do you define an appearance - full story involvement, a single panel, a reference (e.g. your character on a poster in the background)? Do they have to be in a suit, or do civvies count? I used to have debates with a few collector friends about what constitutes 'every appearance' and we always had differing views.

Maybe if you went for a lesser established character, you could build a full, satisfying set. But if you go for one of the big guns, who is still appearing in new comics today, you'll be in the hunt for thousands of books (I had 8,000 Spideys at my peak with around 100 left to get before I could say I had my definition of 'everything'). At some point, you may look at the unsatisfying bulk and wish you'd spent the money on other great books instead. Or you might love your selection of Spidey appearances in Power Pack! Whatever makes you happy is the right thing to do I suppose, if you're lucky enough not to be constrained by time, money, space or a combination of the three (thumbsu

 

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15 hours ago, newshane said:

HERE is a list of guest appearances, for example...this isn't counting the hundreds of other issues in which Spawn has made an appearance...

I had a look. It looks like the list has about 270 books (I included all items on the list though it seems some are variants). What did you mean by "this isn't counting the hundreds of other issues in which Spawn has made an appearance". If this is the list of guest appearances you linked to, are the hundreds of others the main Spawn series? Is there another pot of appearances I am missing?

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5 hours ago, Scrooge said:

I had a look. It looks like the list has about 270 books (I included all items on the list though it seems some are variants). What did you mean by "this isn't counting the hundreds of other issues in which Spawn has made an appearance". If this is the list of guest appearances you linked to, are the hundreds of others the main Spawn series? Is there another pot of appearances I am missing?

That list of "270 books" is just one category out of ten on the website. You're welcome to continue perusing the complete site if you wish.

My point is that the accomplishment of collecting "every appearance" is not nearly as "doable" as what you claimed. I'm also not sure why you made the claim in the first place, after freely admitting you know next to nothing about the character.

Edited by newshane
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I was going to go for every Kitty Pryde cover appearance, but  I couldn't find a list of the books she's on. Also, I haven't bought a comic in over a year for personal reasons. I was trying to sell what I have but I'm not sure I want to anymore.

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4 hours ago, newshane said:

I'm also not sure why you made the claim in the first place, after freely admitting you know next to nothing about the character.

So I can learn and you provided me with the resources to do so. This is working out. I'll have a further look at the other pages on the site.

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4 hours ago, newshane said:

That list of "270 books" is just one category out of ten on the website. You're welcome to continue perusing the complete site if you wish.

Well, 60% of those categories are irrelevant to having every appearance and those "270" books are actually only around 150 books. Also, why is Superman (v.2) 84 not on the "Parodies and References" list?

4 hours ago, newshane said:

My point is that the accomplishment of collecting "every appearance" is not nearly as "doable" as what you claimed. I'm also not sure why you made the claim in the first place, after freely admitting you know next to nothing about the character.

Spawn is only 25 years old. Are there really any actual Spawn appearances that are difficult to obtain? The quantity obviously makes it harder than some minor character with only a handful of appearances, but other than that, it seems easily doable.

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On 11/10/2017 at 4:03 PM, Artboy99 said:

I am pretty close to having all of the Conan comics and magazines but every once in awhile I encounter something that I don't have.

Example is Foom 14. I don't have it and recently learned of it.

I am also not branching out to cups, calendars, statues, etc. Comics and magazines only.

There are tons of foreign Conan books that are not just foreign editions of the stories printed in the U.S.  This is a character that seems to resonate around the world.

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