Mall Variants of Adventures of Superman 443 - was there ever a DC issue with more variants prior to New 52? 6 6

[Cpt Kirk]

Does anyone know who owns a copy of the Westlake Mall variant of Adv of SM 443?   I know where all the others are, but never found the owner of that one.

[manetteska]

Ordway Mall just hit eBay courtesy of MCS. 

[onlyweaknesskryptonite]

I just saw the same thing and sent a PM about it. Ebay item 133123090226

 

[Lazyboy]

1 hour ago, manetteska said:

Ordway Mall just hit eBay courtesy of MCS. 

Um... that would be:

Adventures of Superman #443
1988
Ordway
Mall Variant
VG 4.0

I'm basing that on onlyweaknesskryptonite's image, since the listing seems to have disappeared.

[onlyweaknesskryptonite]

According to the listing and pictures  this was the Washington Park Mall variant that was listed by Mycomicshop on Ebay and in description said it was a consignment item. They had it listed for less than 2 hours and then removed it . It can still be found in sort by completed listings, but shows as unsold. Here is the link.

https://rover.ebay.com/rover/0/0/0?mpre=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.ebay.com%2Fulk%2Fitm%2F133123090226

 

[onlyweaknesskryptonite]

Although now has me wondering.  After closer inspection of the photos on Mycomicshops listing which states these pictures are of the actual item and comparison of the photo that Kirk has of his copy of the same copy they have the same double crease across top right corner as well as spine ticks in same locations. Think this might be why they removed it. Kirk may already own this copy.. Here are both for comparison.  Kirk's has the carpet and Mycomicshops has the blue bar at top.

[manetteska]

1 hour ago, Lazyboy said:

2 hours ago, manetteska said:

Ordway Mall just hit eBay courtesy of MCS. 

Um... that would be:

Adventures of Superman #443
1988
Ordway
Mall Variant
VG 4.0

I'm basing that on onlyweaknesskryptonite's image, since the listing seems to have disappeared.

Correct. In my haste I thought Ordway Mall was the name of one of the malls. Doh.

The listing i was referring to was the one captured by @onlyweaknesskryptonite for the Washington Park Mall.

Edited July 25, 2019 by manetteska

[manetteska]

9 minutes ago, onlyweaknesskryptonite said:

Although now has me wondering.  After closer inspection of the photos on Mycomicshops listing which states these pictures are of the actual item and comparison of the photo that Kirk has of his copy of the same copy they have the same double crease across top right corner as well as spine ticks in same locations. Think this might be why they removed it. Kirk may already own this copy.. Here are both for comparison.  Kirk's has the carpet and Mycomicshops has the blue bar at top.

In my experience, MCS's consignment items mean they have them in hand. I don't think it's the case of a stolen image.

Most likely taken down from MCS/eBay b/c it was purchased.

[onlyweaknesskryptonite]

10 minutes ago, manetteska said:

In my experience, MCS's consignment items mean they have them in hand. I don't think it's the case of a stolen image.

Most likely taken down from MCS/eBay b/c it was purchased.

While I would tend to agree that may be the case. Wasn't suggesting a stolen image. I was more thinking that this item was mistakenly listed , but had already been previously purchased by Kirk.  They have the same double corner crease on the top right and the spine ticks appear to be in the same places. Which doesn't rule out that these copies may have all suffered damage in the same ways during delivery or distribution.  Just makes me curious. 

[onlyweaknesskryptonite]

Listing shows as unsold. 

[ADAMANTIUM]

2 minutes ago, onlyweaknesskryptonite said:

Listing shows as unsold. 

Maybe it was bought directly from mcs then?

Edited July 25, 2019 by ADAMANTIUM

[manetteska]

5 minutes ago, onlyweaknesskryptonite said:

While I would tend to agree that may be the case. Wasn't suggesting a stolen image. I was more thinking that this item was mistakenly listed , but had already been previously purchased by Kirk.  They have the same double corner crease on the top right and the spine ticks appear to be in the same places. Which doesn't rule out that these copies may have all suffered damage in the same ways during delivery or distribution.  Just makes me curious. 

@mycomicshop

Are you able to say if this item — Adventures of Superman 443 Mall variant 4.0 — was sold on your site?

[Cpt Kirk]

11 hours ago, manetteska said:

@mycomicshop

Are you able to say if this item — Adventures of Superman 443 Mall variant 4.0 — was sold on your site?

I believe I can help solve this mystery.   

I recently traded my spare copy of the Washington Park Mall variant for a variant I wanted really bad, and the person I traded it with must have sold it. 

Funny that @mycomicshop listed it as an "Ordway Mall variant".   "Ordway" is listed at the top of the cover and he was the author of the story (good story in there, by the way).

It is showing as sold on MyComicShop's website when you look at their new arrivals listing.  From the outside looking in, it appears as if someone snatched it up right away at $150.   For whatever it is worth, if it was a mall variant that I needed, I would gladly pay that much for it even in vg condition.  With those mall variants, you can't be picky about condition.  As I said earlier, 10 of the 14 known mall variants have only one known copy.   And only a few of the 11 copies I have are better than FN condition.

Edited July 25, 2019 by Cpt Kirk

[mycomicshop]

Can confirm it was consigned with us, posted for sale yesterday and purchased on our web site a couple hours after it was listed. The web site purchase is why the eBay listing was ended.

Regarding "Ordway Mall Variant"--we have fields in our database that let us give better names to variant issues than just 1A, 1B, 1C, etc. The name of the cover artist is commonly used to distinguish variants, and also if the variants have a commonly understood name that can be used. A couple of examples are the action figure variants by John Tyler Christopher or the baby variants by Skottie Young. We might label those as Christopher Action Figure Variant and Young Baby Variant. (Actually that's not the best example since too many eBay buyers thought the "Action Figure Variants" were actually action figures, so we stopped including the words "Action Figure" in the ebay listing title.)

In this case, since the regular 443 and the mall variant both have the same cover by Jerry Ordway, I wouldn't have included "Ordway" in the name of the variant since it doesn't help distinguish one variant from another. Whoever working for us recorded the name for that variant just didn't do it quite the way I'd prefer. I removed Ordway so it'll be labeled as "Mall Variant" in the future.

[John Jackson Miller]

Kirk asked me what I could find out about this in my files. I expect they would have been ordered by DC, who would have gone to the printer (either Ronald’s or World Color Press, at that point) and had them change out the black plate with paste-ups of the mall logos. The malls likely could not have done it themselves, nor, probably, could an outside jobber. Whoever it was had access to DC’s negatives at the printer.

I have looked through all the issues in that timeframe for Amazing Heroes, Comics Buyer’s Guide, and Capital City’s Internal Correspondence – and found no mention of this promotion. However, I consider it is likely it was connected in some manner with Superman’s 50^th anniversary celebration, which DC sponsored many festivities and special products (including commemorative coins) around. Most events were focused on February 29, 1988, but the celebration extended to the International Superman Exposition in Cleveland on June 16. (Adventures #443 would have hit direct market stands in late April.)

As issues to promote goes, it’s kind of a peculiar choice -- and in fact, what was supposed to be in the book changed right before its release. In this timeframe, DC was throwing all its Direct Market  promo efforts into making Action Comics Weekly a success — ultimately, a futile effort. As originally scheduled, #443 would have actually been a middle chapter of a trilogy of issues, the others being Superman #20 and #21. But then John Byrne quit, and DC quickly shuffled a 30-page Jerry Ordway story into #443.

My guess – and it is only a guess – is that the books were part of some 50^th anniversary year promotion, and that Adventures of Superman was selected because it was a more logical choice for the mass market than Action Comics Weekly, which wouldn’t have been just about Superman. The fact that they’re nonreturnable suggests they weren’t sold by Waldenbooks, but rather offered in some manner by mall management.

That’s all I was able to find on this during a cursory search; I’m certain someone with DC would be able to contribute more.

Edited October 9, 2019 by John Jackson Miller

[Cpt Kirk]

23 hours ago, John Jackson Miller said:

Kirk asked me what I could find out about this in my files. I expect they would have been ordered by DC, who would have gone to the printer (either Ronald’s or World Color Press, at that point) and had them change out the black plate with paste-ups of the mall logos. The malls likely could not have done it themselves, nor, probably, could an outside jobber. Whoever it was had access to DC’s negatives at the printer.

I have looked through all the issues in that timeframe for Amazing Heroes, Comics Buyer’s Guide, and Capital City’s Internal Correspondence – and found no mention of this promotion. However, I consider it is likely it was connected in some manner with Superman’s 50^th anniversary celebration, which DC sponsored many festivities and special products (including commemorative coins) around. Most events were focused on February 29, 1988, but the celebration extended to the International Superman Exposition in Cleveland on June 16. (Adventures #443 would have hit direct market stands in late April.)

As issues to promote goes, it’s kind of a peculiar choice -- and in fact, what was supposed to be in the book changed right before its release. In this timeframe, DC was throwing all its Direct Market  promo efforts into making Action Comics Weekly a success — ultimately, a futile effort. As originally scheduled, #443 would have actually been a middle chapter of a trilogy of issues, the others being Superman #20 and #21. But then John Byrne quit, and DC quickly shuffled a 30-page Jerry Ordway story into #443.

My guess – and it is only a guess – is that the books were part of some 50^th anniversary year promotion, and that Adventures of Superman was selected because it was a more logical choice for the mass market than Action Comics Weekly, which wouldn’t have been just about Superman. The fact that they’re nonreturnable suggests they weren’t sold by Waldenbooks, but rather offered in some manner by mall management.

That’s all I was able to find on this during a cursory search; I’m certain someone with DC would be able to contribute more.

JJM -- I really appreciate your analysis.   Very interesting and helpful!   

I'm sure that a lot of these oddball variants are stuck away in collections and closets, but you sure don't see them come up for sale very much.   Usually they sell for at least $100 when they do.   

[archivist]

On 10/9/2019 at 9:24 PM, John Jackson Miller said:

My guess – and it is only a guess – is that the books were part of some 50^th anniversary year promotion,

 

John,

 

I'm sure you did see the (only) information the internet provides for this topic ? If not, I quote it here:

 

" In the summer of 1988, Superman was celebrating his 50th birthday in a handful of malls across America. My mom worked for Sping Hill Mall at the time. DC sent them copies of Adventures of Superman 443 with a special Spring Hill Mall imprint to give away (for free) as part of the mall’s party. The party also featured a Superman program at center court and a “Super Sidewalk Sale”. This was my first Superman comic book and it sparked a passion! "

[archivist]

On 10/9/2019 at 9:24 PM, John Jackson Miller said:

Whoever it was had access to DC’s negatives at the printer.

 

 

My thoughts exactly, and that's the reason why I contacted the product manager of this time, Bob Rozakis. I thought that he must know about these Mall Variants, since it was the only time it was done in the history of DC. I wrote him and explained what little I/we know about this project. He replied immediately, but had no memory of this special project at DC's.

[archivist]

On 10/9/2019 at 9:24 PM, John Jackson Miller said:

I’m certain someone with DC would be able to contribute more.

 

Yes, my thoughts exactly. That's the reason why I turned to the marketing manager at this time. Since the production manager didn't know about this - and I still am sure he would remember this special doing - I thought that marketing had the idea to create these variants. So I wrote to Bruce Bristow and explained to him what I/we know, but he didn't respond to me (I wrote on October 3rd).

 

Who else could know and remember about creating those copies ?

[RockMyAmadeus]

Bob Wayne might.