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Spider-Man and Power Pack (child abuse giveaway) variants
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11 posts in this topic

In 1984, Marvel printed a free giveaway comic, Spider-Man and Power Pack, as an attempt to educate children about child sexual abuse and how to report it. CGC lists this as "Spider-Man & Power Pack", despite "and" being spelled out on the actual cover. Whatever floats their boat.

Marvel reprinted the comic repeatedly, and there are a ton of variants. I'm curious how many. Because ... I am curious about things no one else is, I guess. To avoid confusion, there's at least one totally different (1987+) Spider-Man anti-child abuse giveaway that doesn't include Power Pack (that one was sponsored by 7-Eleven). And the giveaway comic was of course entirely unrelated to the Spider-Man / Power Pack 4-issue limited series in the mid-2000s (which, as an aside, CGC does call "Spider-Man and Power Pack"; thanks, guys).

There are four features of the cover of this comic that vary between printings:

  1. The top banner, above even the Marvel logo. This is not present in all versions.
  2. The "in cooperation" text, below the top banner (if present) but above the title.
  3. The presence or absence of a large black and white FREE at right.
  4. A rectangular box in the bottom right corner. This is also not present in all versions.

So, versions I am aware of...

  • Top banner: "Sponsored by the International Association of Direct Distributions and your local comic retailer"; Cooperation: National Committee for the Prevention of Child Abuse; FREE; Box: National Education Association message. This is almost universally considered the first printing, and regardless is probably the most common of them. I believe this version was distributed via comic retailers. CGC lists 41 slabbed copies of this one... assuming that they broke out other variants correctly.
  • Top banner: none; Cooperation: National Committee for the Prevention of Child Abuse; no FREE; Box: none. I believe this version was the mail-away, as seen on the back cover of several comics (for example: X-Factor #6). CGC lists 3 slabs of the "mail-order edition", which I believe to be this one.
  • Top banner: none; Cooperation: National Committee for the Prevention of Child Abuse; no FREE; Box: Special Citation by President Ronald Reagan. CGC lists this as the "We Care edition", and has graded 3 of them.
  • Specific sponsor editions:
    • Top banner: "A public service sponsored by Foley's / Austin American-Statesman / Pebble Project"; Cooperation: National Committee for the Prevention of Child Abuse; no FREE; Box: National Education Association message. Zero on census.
    • Top banner: "A public service sponsored by Express-News / Foley's"; Cooperation: National Committee for the Prevention of Child Abuse; no FREE; Box: National Education Association message. The "Express-News" here is the San Antonio Express-News. CGC has graded two of these.
    • Top banner: "A public service sponsored by Houston Chronicle / Foley's"; Cooperation: National Committee for the Prevention of Child Abuse; no FREE; Box: National Education Association message. Zero on census.
  • Top banner: none; Cooperation: Prevent Child Abuse America; no FREE; Box: National Education Association message. To my knowledge, this is the most recent version, printed circa 2000. Zero on census.

One of the stories in here ("Secrets") also appears in a coverless, newspaper-sized version printed on newsprint and apparently distributed as a newspaper fold-in by a great many newspapers. While interesting, I'm not really concerned with those; they're not comic books, and I collect comic books.

I know there are more versions than I've listed above. Depending on how many newspapers were involved in this, potentially a lot more. I know that, at a minimum, the Chicago Tribune, Boston Globe, Philadelphia Enquirer, and Kansas City Star were all involved in the project... but I don't know whether they had unique "sponsored by" top banners (or, indeed, whether they only produced the fold-in newsprint versions). I have some circumstantial evidence that the Dallas Morning News distributed copies but did not have a unique printing (although I'm welcome to be proven wrong).

I know that this comic isn't very fun, and it isn't going to be interesting to most folks here, but I'd sure appreciate some crowdsourced help with what exists (and so what I might be looking to acquire depending on the circumstances).

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Good luck.  This project seems like it will keep you busy.  So was Power Pack molested by Dr Doom in this issue or what? They should have had Kid Miracleman do a PSA on how to punish child molesters instead.  Did you ever finish finding your Babylon 5 rarities?  Did Marvel ever put out a comic for seals educating them how not to get raped by Alf?  Inquiring minds want to know.

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1 hour ago, Jasonmorris1000000 said:

Good luck.  This project seems like it will keep you busy.  So was Power Pack molested by Dr Doom in this issue or what? They should have had Kid Miracleman do a PSA on how to punish child molesters instead.  Did you ever finish finding your Babylon 5 rarities?  Did Marvel ever put out a comic for seals educating them how not to get raped by Alf?  Inquiring minds want to know.

No, but pre-Spiderman Peter Parker was molested by his skeevy neighbor. Bet you didn't know that was part of the Marvel canon!

And, no, still hunting for that Babylon 5 DVD pack-in. Did finally snag myself a copy of Echo Echo, though, so making progress on weird niche items that no one else wants!

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I didn’t know about the creepy neighbor.  I’m surprised the experience didn’t turn him into Spider-Punisher.  Do 9.8’s go for a ton of money?  When I was a kid in the early 80’s I bought a Hulk magazine where a homeless Banner was spending the night at a YMCA or Salvation Army (I forget which).  At one point a couple of dudes try to rape puny Bruce.  Needless to say, the sickos don’t get very far.  It definitely made an impression on 9 year old me.

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On 6/19/2020 at 5:45 AM, Qalyar said:

 

I know that this comic isn't very fun, and it isn't going to be interesting to most folks here, but I'd sure appreciate some crowdsourced help with what exists (and so what I might be looking to acquire depending on the circumstances).

http://www.pecokit.com/checklist/usa_g/smg_n_v3.html

http://www.pecokit.com/checklist/usa_g/smg_nni.html

 

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5 minutes ago, Get Marwood & I said:

Well, you're my hero. It's... weird that the only privately sponsored versions recorded are from three newspapers in Texas. I really do wonder if there's undiscovered stuff out there somewhere. And I'm guessing that some of those later printings are distinguished only by the indicia because I don't see any cover differences between the 92/94/95 printings or between the 99/00 ones.

Still, that's a pretty solid list of things to hunt for.

17 minutes ago, Jasonmorris1000000 said:

Do 9.8’s go for a ton of money?

Short answer: mostly, no.

There is very little market history on these, because absolutely no one cares. The direct market version, when it has sold at all, looks to go for about the cost of slabbing, even in 9.8. There have been a couple higher dollar value sales for the mail-away variant (including a $200+ sale that I'm pretty sure must have been on crack), but I honestly wouldn't consider it to be worth that consistently. None of the rest have any real market history. Some of these are probably extremely hard to track down in high grade (and some of my reference pieces are, um, not high-grade books).

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12 minutes ago, Qalyar said:

Well, you're my hero. It's... weird that the only privately sponsored versions recorded are from three newspapers in Texas. I really do wonder if there's undiscovered stuff out there somewhere. And I'm guessing that some of those later printings are distinguished only by the indicia because I don't see any cover differences between the 92/94/95 printings or between the 99/00 ones

I had them all at one point (the comics) and a handful of the newspapers. All long since sold alas. I'll dig out and post some old pictures later. 

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OK, here we go. These are the Power Pack variants I had according to my old files:

pp.PNG.994696097b96ea3d27f843c336ce9088.PNG

 

Here they are in the files:

pp2.thumb.PNG.45ee73fa3950f4ed4752ed933d957574.PNG

 

And here is each of the above images:

342976142_PP1984AUSTIN.thumb.JPG.3efee947f8111bb6e425e8bd9d0f540c.JPG1940268061_PP1984EXPRESSNEWS.thumb.JPG.f96c0c261b3a3dec4d098df95add50b1.JPG1096684031_PP1984HOUSTON.thumb.JPG.ae5df3b4c4c955f9d1c1f4856288e4f6.JPG796829670_PP1984WECANCARE.thumb.JPG.4f7322024a9a2d2dd0d2f779a72ef036.JPG1078885635_PP1992.thumb.JPG.cd50350cbbb7e22dbd67a7f382e0488e.JPG1724121818_PP19942LINEHBIGNEA.thumb.JPG.6e1264b8313c9a165ebbf65fa635e2d3.JPG996832816_PP19952LINEHBIGNEA.thumb.JPG.081fe253b24da24d13937efb45522e79.JPG234813943_PP19991LINEHBIGNEA.thumb.JPG.d03052915d123a3743c30590e100ff29.JPG1282254165_PP20001LINEHBIGNEA.thumb.JPG.e4317341d91888fb4999883da28e3c91.JPG1600006406_PPFREE.thumb.JPG.e8ea4551e29de7764fa832ea6f1a126b.JPG1686327871_PP1984NONEALOGO.thumb.JPG.2eecc5383f6daa7ac2d4df5ac397ce1b.JPG

I've forgotten more than I remember about them to be honest but do remember having a full set as at the point I stopped collecting them

Here are the four newspaper supplements that I managed to get:

1064332621_BristolHerald1.thumb.JPG.b82f9763764ef0e8d54ba559379b99f4.JPG795231736_BristolHerald2.thumb.jpg.5e418e1e2c11142c85b266cf00730cb0.jpg978307682_Newsday1.thumb.JPG.6271e71a2a9f2fbda0456b8693a34aa0.JPG1621853932_Newsday2.thumb.jpg.305a82dbed9725a8a20ace9487cc62ed.jpg1928085563_NoSponsor1.thumb.JPG.bcf196db7a5183e4769942ca2a1d3d66.JPG582037445_NoSponsor2.thumb.jpg.9dfdd98dd24ea92f88caee83c1209a1c.jpg1746025414_PhillyEnquirer1.thumb.JPG.5c9550f3a33b39f1963c99e7f9d08337.JPG245437485_PhillyEnquirer2.thumb.jpg.9190d569453a33a4f679f68eb2a76d8f.jpg

How rubbish were my photography skills back then, eh :eek:

Makes me nostalgic for those days, posting these.

Hope this helped and good luck with the hunt @Qalyar :)

 

 

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....don't stop with those though will you Qaylar.

Storm, Powerman and Smokescreen had even more versions than Power Pack! :grin:

pp3.thumb.PNG.997aa4508d3035303f2af1ee71b62d8e.PNG

 

smoke.thumb.PNG.79de66f0055355c5259adb1af9675f65.PNG

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I have bought a few copies of this book in my attempt to acquire every pre-'93 Power Pack appearance. The original post is quiten informative and interesting to me. I wish I could provide some research here, but I have nothing to add about additional versions of the giveaway book.

It was a disappointment that Skip Westcott evaded punishment in the first story for his crime against Peter Parker. 

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