Popular Post Cpt Kirk Posted December 31, 2018 Popular Post Share Posted December 31, 2018 (edited) Shown here are nine variations of Batman 414 (up until the recent explosion of Batman New 52 and Batman Rebirth variants, Batman 414 had more variants than any other Batman comic book that I can think of). The variants shown from right to left are 1st printing direct, 1st printing newsstand, Canadian price variant, 2nd, 3rd, 4th, 5th, 6th and 7th printings. Edited January 2, 2019 by Cpt Kirk FlyingDonut, mr_highgrade, BishopT and 4 others 7 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
FlyingDonut Posted December 31, 2018 Share Posted December 31, 2018 2 hours ago, Cpt Kirk said: Shown here are nine variations of Batman 414 (up until the recent explosion of Batman New 52 and Batman Rebirth variants, Batman 414 had more variants than any other Batman comic book that I can think of). The variants shown from right to left are 1st printing, newsstand, Canadian, 2nd, 3rd, 4th, 5th, 6th and 7th printings. Killing Joke. 17(?) printings that I can think of. Cpt Kirk 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Cpt Kirk Posted December 31, 2018 Author Share Posted December 31, 2018 5 hours ago, FlyingDonut said: Killing Joke. 17(?) printings that I can think of. Ah yes, great point! I remember it well (but not well enough to mention it on my posting above). Thanks! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
F For Fake Posted January 2, 2019 Share Posted January 2, 2019 Killing Joke has more printings, but it's also a stand-alone issue. Are there any other in-run issues that can come close to 414? That's pretty amazing, @Cpt Kirk! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Carl Elvis Posted January 2, 2019 Share Posted January 2, 2019 Very interesting! Why so many printings? What made this issue so special? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jaeldubyoo Posted January 2, 2019 Share Posted January 2, 2019 Which would be considered the more scarce? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
F For Fake Posted January 2, 2019 Share Posted January 2, 2019 3 hours ago, Carl Elvis said: Very interesting! Why so many printings? What made this issue so special? I'm wondering if it's because this issue was out around the same time that so many different multi-packs were being distributed, so maybe it was easy to just keep going back to press on it? I have zero actual information, just speculating. Cpt Kirk 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
divad Posted January 2, 2019 Share Posted January 2, 2019 Well, my First printing is your Seventh??? What are you using as identifiers? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
divad Posted January 2, 2019 Share Posted January 2, 2019 (edited) Btw, this is from an OO collection which is completely devoid of anything but first prints. My apologies, I see now that you list from right to left. Edited January 2, 2019 by divad Cpt Kirk 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
valiantman Posted January 2, 2019 Share Posted January 2, 2019 57 minutes ago, divad said: My apologies, I see now that you list from right to left. I missed that note too. I was about to ask how a newsstand doesn't have a barcode (2nd from the left). Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
valiantman Posted January 2, 2019 Share Posted January 2, 2019 Maybe this will keep people from being confused like me. Cpt Kirk and divad 1 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Cpt Kirk Posted January 3, 2019 Author Share Posted January 3, 2019 2 hours ago, valiantman said: Maybe this will keep people from being confused like me. thanks guys. After I created the posting, I was afraid that "right to left" might be confusing. Your labeling above is correct! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bird Posted January 3, 2019 Share Posted January 3, 2019 @Cpt Kirk is there a way to distinguish 5th 6th & 7th printings from the cover or must you look at the indicia? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Cpt Kirk Posted January 3, 2019 Author Share Posted January 3, 2019 19 minutes ago, Bird said: @Cpt Kirk is there a way to distinguish 5th 6th & 7th printings from the cover or must you look at the indicia? Yes, you must look at the indicia. But it is a more complicated than just that. The printings were not all labeled correctly in the indicia, so you also have to look at the date that the ads originally appeared in the first printings of DC Comics in order to actually figure out the order of the release of these comic books. You can see that they finally figured out the correct order of printings when they made the 6th and 7th printings. Here's what the what appears in the UPC box, indicia, and back cover ads for each of the comic books shown above. Printing order: UPC box on cover: Indicia and back cover ads: 2nd printing Barcode multipack reprint edition, copy right 1989 DC Comics, back cover = WWF 3rd printing DC Bullet sticker over barcode third printing c 1989 DC comics inc, back cover = WWF 4th printing Bat Symbol in white box Second Printing, DC Multi-pack, back cover = TSR AD&D 5th printing DC Comics Aren't Just for kids third printing, Inside BC = WWF, back cover = NEC 6th printing DC Comics Aren't Just For Kids 6th Printing, back cover = TSR Unicorn 7th printing DC Comics Aren't Just For Kids 7th Printing, back cover = TSR Unicorn For whatever it is worth, I have the original 3-packs that all these comic books originally came from. I had to open those packs to determine what printings were contained in each pack. Bird and Stronguy 1 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Cpt Kirk Posted January 3, 2019 Author Share Posted January 3, 2019 9 hours ago, jaeldubyoo said: Which would be considered the more scarce? None of these variants are super hard to find. It just takes some time and persistence. The 1st printing direct and 1st printing newsstand issues are really easy to find (very common). Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Cpt Kirk Posted January 3, 2019 Author Share Posted January 3, 2019 12 hours ago, F For Fake said: Killing Joke has more printings, but it's also a stand-alone issue. Are there any other in-run issues that can come close to 414? That's pretty amazing, @Cpt Kirk! I love that question. I am a completionist on only 5 titles, but I have found just about every single variant of every single issue of those 5 titles (namely, Batman, Detective, Superman, Action Comics and Justice League of America). Those variations include direct sales, newsstand, additional printings, variant covers, Mark Jewelers variants, etc. I've stayed away from foreign variants. Of those titles, following are some of the issues with the most amount of variations: Adventures of Superman 443: There are 12 known variants with different mall symbols in the UPC box (for a total of 15 variations if you also count direct, newsstand and Canadian variants). Batman 415 and 416: If you count direct, newsstand, Canadian, and 2nd thru 6th printings, you have a total of 8 variations (just one less than Batman 414) Following is a listing of other in-run issues with 4 or more variants (if you count both direct and newsstand editions) Batman 1 Batman 298 Batman 302 Batman 307 Batman 352 Batman 356 Batman 357 Batman 362 Batman 394 Batman 397-399, 401-403, 409-411, 423 Batman 457 Batman 491, 492, 497 Batman 500 Batman 515, 531, 532 Batman 535, 608, 619, 655, 676, 677, 681, 686, 700 Detective 27 Detective 38 Detective 225, 327, 359 Detective 474 Detective 519 Detective 561 Detective 659, 660 Detective 675, 682, 694, 702, 704 Detective 854, 871 Superman 1 Superman 322 Superman 379 Superman 409 Superman 418 Adv of SM 497, 498 Adv of SM 500, 505 Adv of SM 539 Action 1 Action 252 Action 481 Action 484 Action 495 Action 526 Action 683, 684, 685 Action 695, 700, 726 Action 844, 858, 890, 900 Justice League 217 Justice League 249 Furthermore, many New 52 and Rebirth issues in the titles above contain more than 4 variants. In the case of Batman (Rebirth) #50, there were more than 100 variants (yikes!) F For Fake 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Cpt Kirk Posted January 3, 2019 Author Share Posted January 3, 2019 11 hours ago, Carl Elvis said: Very interesting! Why so many printings? What made this issue so special? I don't know why DC chose Batman 414 to make so many printings. But what I do know is this: Most of the additional printings that occurred in Batman comic books from issue #397 through #497 came from 2-packs, 3-packs and, toward the end, 20-packs. Most of these packs were produced during the crescendo of popularity, speculation, and hoarding that occurred during the early to mid-1990s. Packs containing reprints were sold in stores like Kay-Bee Toys, Toys-R-Us, and Costco to meet that demand. I also remember an explosion in the number of comic book shops at the time. Batman 414 just happened to come out during this hey-day and was included in several different packs. F For Fake and Carl Elvis 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
divad Posted January 3, 2019 Share Posted January 3, 2019 Well, it was also Starlin's first Dark Knight, and very dark indeed. sd2416 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Cpt Kirk Posted January 3, 2019 Author Share Posted January 3, 2019 6 hours ago, divad said: Well, it was also Starlin's first Dark Knight, and very dark indeed. good point! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
RCheli Posted January 3, 2019 Share Posted January 3, 2019 13 hours ago, Bird said: @Cpt Kirk is there a way to distinguish 5th 6th & 7th printings from the cover or must you look at the indicia? This is all you need in your life: more multi-printing Copper Age books! Your house will be filled with these variants, leaving no room for furniture! Cpt Kirk 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
