These were the results. Some of the books sold for a huge discount if they would hold the 9.8 with CGC.

Amazing Spider-Man #300 PSA 9.8 - $2196 (GPA 90d $2557)

Batman Beyond #1 newsstand copy PSA 9.8 - $1952 (last GPA sale $4999 in Jan 2025 but likely lower now)

Incredible Hulk #340 newsstand copy PSA 9.8 - $1647 (last GPA sale $2805 in Feb 2025 but likely lower now)

New Mutants #98 newsstand copy PSA 9.8 - $1464 (90d GPA $1897)

Aliens #1 PSA 9.8 - $1220 (90d GPA $1950)

Secret Wars #8 newsstand copy PSA 9.8 - $854 (90d GPA $1440)

New Mutants #98 newsstand copy PSA 9.6 - $594 (90d GPA $538 so a win for PSA)

I'll start it off with this one that just arrived back on my doorstep today, this ASM classic:  #298, first McFarlane Spidey!  I knew 9.8 wasn't going to happen but this ended up where I realistically thought it might. 

One thing though - take a look at the thin line in the lower left over the Spidey face towards the web line.  That's string or hair or something caught in the slab!  This is the scan CGC made, so you know it was there when they did that.  What the heck?  Has this happened to any of you guys?

I can't think of a better way to start this thread than with the book that started the book that started it all: Gobbledygook.

To date, these are my only CBCS slabs. There's a bit of history on the grading. For many years, CGC maintained a stance that they would not graded Gobbledygook #1 or 2 because they could not adequately authenticate them. Kevin Eastman and Peter Laird only made 50 copies of this book and they were on such a shoestring budget at the time that they had to Xerox all the copies and staple them together by hand. This coupled with the fact that the book is 100% black and white caused CGC to just stay clear of this book.

This book is notable because the back cover contains the very first ad for the first issue of Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles; pre-dating the first issue. The front cover features Fugitoid, an ally of the TMNT and a personal favorite of mine. A book with a front and back cover that were worth displaying, I really wanted to get these books graded so I could look at them and show them off without fear of damage. One year I was at the Baltimore Comic Con and I stopped by the CBCS table to see if they'd grade these, explaining that CGC wouldn't. CBCS explained that they could slab these as pieces of art since Eastman signed them (on the inside), hence the "ART" label.

In the years since, CGC has changed their stance and will grade copies of Gobbledygook that Kevin Eastman himself has authenticated. I will likely do that when I get a chance. For now, I'm happy to have them protected.

This thread will start a re-read of that epic Marvel Series. I will start to reread that series from issue one in chronological order including the primary title, along with the yearbooks, and special mission books.

If you would like to read along with me please do and offer comments after I post a review of each issue. There are plenty of readalong sites out there. Along the way I may offer posts of original artwork from my small collection of Marvel Joe pages that I have accumulated over the years.

Enjoy the ride.

Dave, unbeknownst to him, will be kept on as an unpaid consultant for all things CPV

For those of you who don't know Dave, please refer to the following resources.

A visual reference library.

https://www.comics.org/searchNew/?q=thor%20canadian e.g Thor CPV's

The mighty @valiantman Greg Holland's CGCdata.com (filtered for CPV issues)

http://www.cgcdata.com/cgc/search/title/:canadian:/desc/no/comicyearstart/1982/comicyearend/1987/label/all/orderby/alphabetical/variants/yes/census/250513/

Rare Comics wordpress site by Ben Nobel, specialising in Canadian Price Variants, Australian Price Variants, Pence Price Variants, with annual CPV Price Guide's.

Rare Comics

So, without further ado, welcome to the run that gave us Arcade teaming up with Doctor Doom, Caliban, the Brood, Carol Danvers as Binary, Paul Smith art, Madelyn Pryor, the Morlocks, Rogue as an X-Man, and punk rock Storm.

A Nightmare on Elm St #1: first appearance and origin of Freddy Krueger in comics

Marvel Super Special #18: first appearance of Indiana Jones in comics

Rust #12: first appearance of the Terminator in a 5 pages preview

Terminator #1: first full appearance of the Terminator in comics

Terminator #12: first appearance of John Conner in comics

Terminator 2 Judgement Day Magazine: first appearance of T-1000, Sarah Conner and CSM-101; came out two weeks before the three issue mini series

Terminator All my futures past #1: first appearance of Kyle Reese in comics

When though does the Copper Age start? Why there?

And its variant:

...which, according to retailers at the time, showed up in their orders as a complete surprise, and some didn't quite know what to do with it.

Now, to be fair, some will claim "Hey! TMNT #3 "Laird's Photo" in white came out before this!" This is true. However...TMNT #3, as Kevin Eastman has stated, was not a purposely made variant, but a printing error (missing the third shade of blue) that, instead of scrapping they decided to take 500 copies and give them away at a New York comic convention/store signing? (anyone please feel free to clarify; @Turtle ?)

Adventurers #1 was the first "on-purpose, we meant to do this" variant comic book. It was shortly followed by the "Direct" and "newsstand" (which is a bit of a misnomer, since both versions were available through the Direct market, with Direct market trade dress) of Man of Steel #1:

...but only this cover was available on the newsstands.

This cover:

...was only available at comics specialty stores, aka the "LCS." Printed with fancy metallic silver ink, too!

Marvel followed up the next year with their own version of the Direct vs. Newsstand variant, with Amazing Spiderman Annual #21:

Only, in this case, unlike Man of Steel #1 from the previous year, Marvel did NOT release the "villians vs. heroes" version with a Direct market version of the same cover, as DC had with MOS #1. So, those who only bought from just one source never would have seen the other version, and wouldn't even know it existed at the time of publication unless they followed trade publications. So, yes, absolutely a variant, but not technically a VARIANT variant; that is, where the buyer had the option of choosing one or the other (or both, as the publishers hoped) at the same time, from the same retailer.

Of course, earlier generations would have scoffed at the idea of being coerced, however gently, into buying two copies of the exact same comic book, just because one had a different cover. The very idea seems ludicrous in the context of Golden, Silver, or even Bronze age comics, Gold Key/DC/Whitman (which was merely a function of their different methods of distribution) aside.

Some people call the Golden Records Reprints of the 60s "variants", but I disagree: first, they were reprints, and while, as noted above, reprints now routinely have different cover art and/or logo design/coloration, the GRRs weren't made as "variants"...that is, they weren't created with variations specifically to attracted additional sales. These books were published 3-5 years after the originals, employing a different format (the included record, of course.) They were not intended to be "variants" in the sense that they are known today.

They weren't universally called "variants" until the early to mid 2000s. Prior to that, you see phrases like "limited edition" or "special edition" or they were simply called by their specific variation, like the Valiant "Gold" and "Platinum" editions. CGC has had labeling inconsistencies from the start, deliberately choosing to ignore variants on many, many books, opting instead to go with "X different cover versions exist", but for about the last 20 years, they've opted to use the phrase "variant edition", which is by far the most common descriptor for these books.

Variants weren't an instant hit, and they only trickled into the market slowly. For DC and Marvel, there were only a handful of variants created, and for various reasons. DC had their logo variant Justice League #3 and Fury of Firestorm #61, published in 1987, and then created the "later printing variant" with the Killing Joke 2nd print "pink logo" version in 1988, and then the "multiple color outer cover" versions of Legends of the Dark Knight #1 in August of 1989, at the very height of that year's Batmania.

This was the first blatant variant cash grab; designed exclusively to get collectors to buy all four copies of the exact same book. No one needed all four versions, but many, many people bought them all anyway.

(A note on the "logo variants" above: as has been reported for decades, these were "test" variants in the same way that the price variants of the previous decade were. They were designed to test reception of the new "Superman Comics" logo that DC was flirting with. However...what is unclear is how they were distributed. They WERE sold on newsstands, but it is still unclear if they were sold at select newsstands by themselves [some say California got them all], or if they shared rack space with their standard newsstand version counterparts. However, since they were designed to see if the "new logo" concept would be a success, then technically they are variants in the sense that I use the word here...which is especially true if they stood, side-by-side, with the regular versions.)

Marvel was a bit slower on the uptake, however, and didn't publish their first official variant until 1990's Spiderman #1. To be sure, there were slight variations before this (Ghost Rider #1, second print, for example, has a Ghost Rider head in the UPC, rather than a Spidey head/code for Direct/Newsstand respectively), but this was their first mainline, official "we're publishing two different versions of this book to take more money from you!" variant. And, Marvel would introduce another innovation in variants with Spiderman #1: the retailer "thank you" version. This was a specially printed book on heavy cardstock (it took the name "platinum" because the logo and elements of the cover art were printed in metallic silver ink, but there was already a "silver" version, so the new name was coined), and mailed to retailers, one per distributor account, to thank them for making Spiderman #1 the "most successful in history" (it wasn't. Not even close.)

Of course, this immediately created a backlash by angry fans who felt robbed; after all, the RETAILERS didn't buy all those copies...the customers did! Demand soared for this "incredibly limited book", and by the early months of 1991, it was being reported as selling for as much as $500 (at a time when you could buy a nice Fine copy of X-Men #1 for the same price.) This would, for a while, be the only such "retailer thank you" variant that existed, but others would follow, including Superman #75 (also called "platinum" for the special "sparkly" embossed cover used), Adventures of Superman #500 platinum, Batman #492 platinum, and a whole host of special variants for the launch of DC's Vertigo imprint in 1993 (Swamp Thing #140, Death: The High Cost of Living #1, Black Orchid #1, the Books of Magic #1, Jonah Hex #1, and others.)

Marvel would go utterly insane with the "metallic ink" variants for their second printings, starting with Spiderman #1 which was reprinted almost immediately in June or July of 1990. This was followed up by an avalanche of such books, including New Warriors #1, Ghost Rider #5, New Mutants #87, X-Force #1, a second AND third printing, in gold, then silver, ink for New Mutants #100, X-Factor #71, among others. Marvel understood their market; they printed these books because they realized that collectors would be compelled to buy them, even if they already owned the originals, and it was also a way to get now-expensive copies of books into the hands of readers. But make no mistake: unlike past eras of reprints, which were published to get out-of-print (and often expensive) stories into the hands of readers, the collector was the target of these books; the casual reader was usually just an afterthought.

Other publishers, too, began creating their own variants during this time. Arrow Comics (and later Caliber), for example, was an early adopter and began publishing "tame" and "for mature readers" variant versions of Deadworld beginning with issue #5 in September of 1987. Linsner and Monks took advantage of their reprints to publish entirely different cover art variants for Cry For Dawn #1 and #5. Jeff Smith's Cartoon Books aggressively reprinted issues of Bone, and distinguished them by a parade of different logo colors.

What few of these publishers did, however, was recognize the marketing potential these books had. They were content to sell their variants at standard cover prices, through standard distribution channels, with very few exceptions. There are a tiny handful of exceptions (Faust, Omega, and Northstar premiere books, for example)...but most publishers, certainly not DC or Marvel, would never consider offering these variants in any other way.

Then came Valiant.

And Valiant changed the game for variants in ways that echo down to today, nearly 35 years later. While Valiant didn't invent the "gold metallic ink" variant (that would be the aforementioned Spider-Man #1 in 1990), they created an entire class of variants that were decidedly NOT available for purchase by regular comics fans at their local comics stores. At first, Valiant tried to do a "free giveaway" by including coupons in their books (Magnus #1-8 and Harbinger #1-6) that buyers could clip and send away for a special book that was marketed as the "only way to obtain!" Of course, buyers did not want to cut up their comics, so Valiant abandoned this, and instead opted for the "gold ink" variant. There are test versions of books like Solar #5 of this concept, to see what it would look like (even though Marvel had been publishing their gold ink versions for a couple of years by this point), and the first official "gold variant" was Archer & Armstrong #0, published in the late spring of 1992.

But you, dear reader, were not allowed to buy this book at your local comic shop. In fact, you weren't allowed to buy it ANYWHERE. No, no! Valiant decided that this book (followed shortly the next month by Eternal Warrior #1 gold and a red logo version of Unity #0, and then the month after by both a gold AND a platinum version of Unity #1) and ALL of their "special edition" books would ONLY be available by "doing extraordinary things" to promote Valiant, whether retailer or just a comic book fan. Letters of comment deemed worthy would receive one, stores would host special "Valiant" days and receive one, fans would show up in Valiant costumes at conventions and receive one...it was all up to the discretion of the Valiant staff.

IF you were lucky, you could buy one on the aftermarket at a convention or a store. You certainly could not buy them from Valiant; they refused to sell them (the "oopsie" Eternal Warrior #1 gold being the very odd exception.) And they achieved their intended effect: demand for the product, both the variants AND the regular line was immense. And while collectors were initially annoyed that they would have to "pay up" if they wanted these books, eventually they gave up and accepted it as the new reality.

And now the genie was unleashed, and there was no going back. Special variants only accessible through certain channels would become standard in the industry; while the "ordering incentive" variant didn't exist (and wouldn't until the very late 90s/early 00s), the "retailer rewards" would increase, and those retailers would turn around and offer them, at very high prices, to customers who wanted them. Diamond Comics created, in the early 90s, the "Retailer Reward Program", or "RRP", whereby they convinced publishers to print special versions of their books to hand out to those retailers who made the trek to their annual conferences. Publishers, themselves, got into the act, and created their own "retailer summits" where they handed out special books (Superman: the Wedding Album RRP" being a notable example.)

Eventually, variants would become ubiquitous, available through a variety of ways, whether published and sold for standard cover price through normal distribution channels, or given away at retailer summits, or sold at conventions, or created and sold exclusively for specific store or store chains, or created for special events, or available for purchase as an incentive for ordering X amount of copies of the standard version, it just depended on the publisher and what they chose to do. Variants, sadly, have become a driving force in comic book publishing, with seemingly every issue having a variant or 50 attached to it. It gives the appearance that comic book publishing has collapsed and instead has morphed into comic print publishing, where the only concern is for the cover art, and not the art and story inside. We'll see what the future brings.

© 2025 Jay Howard

Here are all the covers that I have been able to track down, Direct, Newsstand, Book of the Month Club, and Foreign versions.

Helpful Information due to inaccurate descriptions on E-Bay (This applies mainly to US and UK editions)

1.  First print is green and only green.  If it is not green it cannot be a 1st Printing.  There is no Newsstand edition of the 1st print.

2.  Printings that have UPC stickers placed on them are not Newsstand Editions.  As of now, only 6th, 11th, and 13th printings are they only ones with verified Newsstand Editions.

3.  There is no Brian Bolland Variant.  He was the artist, and only artist, to draw the covers on the 1st thru 14th printings.

4. Hardcovers will not be graded by CGC, so, any listing saying to "CGC IT" is WRONG.

5.  There are no "color" variants.  Ink levels dropped during printing, so, some covers are lighter than others.

6.   2nd Printing is Pink, not Orange.

7.  6th Printing is Dark Orange, not Red.

8.  3rd, 7th, 10th, 11th, 12th, and 13th prints are all Yellow.  You can tell the differences by looking for certain things

  A. 3rd Print is the only one that costs $3.50 and does not have the Mature Reader warning on the back cover.  No UPC
  B.  7th print cover price is also $3.50, but, has the Mature Reader warning on the back cover.  No UPC
  C. 10th and 11th printings have the ISBN number on the lower left front corner.  Both have cover price of $4.95
  D.  10th print has the same UPC code as the 9th print (7 61941 20212 00119)
  E.  11th print UPC is 7 61941 20212 00121
  F.  12th and 13th print cover price is $5.95
  G.  12th print UPC code is 7 61941 20212 00122.  13th print UPC code is 7 61941 20212 00124

9.  Unless someone has print numbers, no, one really knows which is the rarest print.  Just because a listing says so, does not make it true.
     Many listings for the 9th print claim it is the rarest.  Again, no one knows if this is true right now.

10.  CGC grades this book hard.  Pay close attention for scratches and finger prints on the back cover.  This will drop the grade regardless of what the front looks like.

I hope this helps everyone that is shopping for these books.  Good Luck!

Foreign Editions

Arabic (Egypt)                                                                                                                                                   

  Argentina   

 c

Brazil (2 versions)

Bulgaria (Only found pics of 2 Hardcover)

Writing at top of cover different between the two covers

China (Only found pics of 2 Hardcover)

Croatia (2 different versions)

Czech

Czechia (Hardcover)

Denmark (1 Paperback)               Denmark (1 Hardcover)

 Finland

France (4 paperback) (There are also 3 Hardcover – not pictured)

Georgia

Germany (4 Paperback) (At least 1 Hardcover – not pictured)

Greece – (Think this one is a Hardcover due to the Tim Burton comments at upper left corner)

Hungary                                          Hungary (Bootleg Edition)

I wanted to share some obscure pieces in the collection. I was going through one of the many crevices where I keep turtle stuff and found them the other day.

Samurai Raph watch and bootleg switchblade. Watch out- it’s sharp!! You don’t see these everyday!

Star Comics was an imprint of Marvel Comics that began in 1984 and featured titles that were aimed at child readers and were often adaptations of children's television series, animated series or toys.^[1] The last comic published under the imprint featured a May 1988 cover date, although the Star Comics Magazine continued through December 1988. Some of the titles continued after that, being published directly by Marvel. Several of the original titles consciously emulated the house writing and visual style of then-recently defunct Harvey Comics titles such as Richie Rich.

The imprint's signature titles were Peter Porker, The Spectacular Spider-Ham and Heathcliff, its longest running title. The imprint was also known for its Star Wars titles, Droids and Ewoks (based on the animated television series).^[2] Artists who worked on the line include Warren Kremer^[3] and Howard Post.^[4]

Background

For a number of years, the industry had benefited from an "age stepladder" whereby comics readers could ascend naturally from children's titles by Gold Key Comics (Disney and Looney Tunes licensee) and Harvey, upward to the Archie Comics titles for preteens, and finally graduating to the Marvel and DC titles (or to independent comics) for teens and older readers. In 1983, Gold Key ended its licensed kids' lines.^[3]

Marvel had never published a successful children's line,^[3] although prior to the existence of the Star imprint, they had released a few miniseries based on licensed toy and cartoon properties, such as Rom The Spaceknight, The Smurfs, and Starriors. In 1977, Marvel had also published several licensed Hanna-Barbera titles including Dynomutt, The Flintstones, Scooby-Doo, Yogi Bear, and Laff-a-Lympics.^[5] In 1983, Marvel also published a one-shot, Marvel Tails, in which Spider-Ham debuted.^[6]

By the early 1980s, Marvel Comics was in negotiations with Harvey Comics to assume publication of some of their characters. Harvey editor Sid Jacobson, along with the other Harvey staff, were interviewed by Mike Hobson, Marvel's group vice-president of publishing (de facto publisher). As part of the process, Jacobson created several new characters which were well received by Hobson and effectively sealed the deal. Marvel Editor-in-Chief Jim Shooter appointed editor Tom DeFalco as Executive Editor to coordinate with the Harvey staff, who were hired by Marvel. On the day Marvel was set to take over the Harvey publications, Harvey Comics pulled out of the deal due to an internal disagreement among the Harvey brothers. Harvey subsequently ceased publishing their comics in 1982.^[3] With the loss of the Harvey characters, the Marvel staff re-evaluated their publishing plan and decided that their new line of all-age comics would be published under a different imprint.^[3]

History

Peter Porker, the Spectacular Spider-Ham #1 one of the first titles published by the imprint.

Star Comics was the name selected early on in the revamp of the publishing plan. The first comic published was the first issue of a three-issue movie adaptation of The Muppets Take Manhattan, in July 1984.^[3] Marvel's existing titles, based on licensed toy lines such as G.I. Joe: A Real American Hero and Transformers, remained under the Marvel banner.

The ongoing titles did not appear in stores until five months later and were launched over a two-month period with three original and six licensed titles. Fraggle Rock, Heathcliff, Planet Terry and Strawberry Shortcake were released in the first month while The Ewoks, Get Along Gang, Muppet Babies, Royal Roy and Peter Porker, the Spectacular Spider-Ham followed in the second month. Top Dog and Wally the Wizard were also early Star comic titles.^[3]

In late 1985, Harvey Comics sued Marvel for copyright infringement, claiming that Royal Roy was a blatant copy of Richie Rich.^[7] Thus, the title was canceled after six issues due to this similarity.^[3]

Millie the Model, who had starred in her own title in 1945, during Marvel's Timely Comics era, and ran until 1973, appeared in a spin-off mini-series titled Misty starred Millie's niece Misty Collins.^[8] Marvel Productions' animated series were sourced for Star Comics titles including Defenders of the Earth and Inhumanoids.^[9]

The lines' two Star Wars titles crossed over in Droids #4 and Ewoks #10.^[10]

At the end of 1987, Marvel dissolved the Star imprint and absorbed several Star titles under the main Marvel banner and continued to license new properties, such as ALF, Captain Planet and Police Academy.^[5] Some of the Marvel-owned original characters (Top Dog, Planet Terry, Royal Roy and Wally Wizard) have since been seen in various Marvel titles such as X-Babies and Drax.^[11]

The third box was all Dark Horse, Valiant and Image (a few Spawns). Lots of Predator books, Wildstar, Ash and all of these Trencher books. The Trencher #1 was signed by Giffin (9.4-9.6). The Trencher #2 and 3 books are all solid 9.8s. There are no Trencher #3s on the CGC Census so it is hard to know if anyone even wants them. How many Warriors of Plasm #1 is too many? lol