FORTRESS OF BAILEYTUDE

I have mentioned in the past that while I started collecting comics on a regular basis in the spring of 1987 I didn’t start paying real attention to the culture of my chosen addiction until about 1994.  There were exceptions to be sure.  For a few years I was a faithful reader of Comics Scene Magazine and learned about a wide variety of new and interesting books but looking back I bought it mainly for the articles on the movie and television adaptations that were coming out at the time.  Not that there’s anything wrong with that.  It is just where my head was at when I was twelve to sixteen years old.

Because of the tunnel vision I had at the time and maybe because I didn’t hit the comic shop on a weekly basis I missed out on some things involving the Death of Superman.  One of them was a magazine called Comics Values Monthly.  I have been able to find precious little about the history of this magazine but from I have seen it started in 1986.  I have managed to get my hands on three issues and from the looks of it CVM was one of the many price guide type magazines that were so popular in the early nineties.  What I would like to know is if CVM started out as a price guide when it began publication in 1986 because if that is the case it beat Wizard: The Guide to Comics to the punch by five years.

CVM definitely had it over Wizard in terms of having a special dedicated to Superman out around the time Superman #75 hit the stands.  Wizard would eventually put out a flashy Superman related special but that was published closer to when Reign of the Supermen was about to start.  While I can’t find an exact date of publication CVM‘s special was solicited in the same edition of Previews as Superman #75 and they even included a really keen ad for it.

The cover is by Tom Grummett and Doug Hazlewood and is a cropped version of their cover to Adventures of Superman #499.

This cover is almost meta when you think about it.  The magazine is a memorial to Superman while the cover depicts people visiting a memorial to Superman.  That’s kind of deep but I am going with the assumption that CVM chose it because it is a striking image.  Either way great cover.

On the inside front cover is the tombstone ad for Superman #75.  After the table of contents we have what is called Dialogue Balloons and Captions, which is essentially the opening message from Neil Hansen, the editor of the magazine.  It is an interesting read as such opening messages go.  Hansen discusses Superman’s place in the world of comics and pop culture as well as his personal connection to putting out a magazine about Superman.  In 1983 Hansen co-created a magazine for Krause Publications called Comics Collector and the first issue was a spotlight on Superman’s 45th anniversary.  That made me smile because I actually have the first issue of Comics Collector thanks to my former comics dealer Chuck Sheffey.

For grins, here is a scan of the cover to that first issue.

It is always weirds me out when one seemingly random piece of my Superman collection is connected to another seemingly random piece of my Superman collection.

After Hansen’s opening comments we get to the articles which include:

• Golden Age of the Man of Steel by Ron Goulart.  Thi is a two page history of Superman in the Golden Age.  By the way Goulart wrote the foreword to the second volume of the Superman Archives in addition to The Great Comic Book Artists and The Encyclopedia of American Comics.
• An Interview with Super-Creators Siegel and Shuster by Thomas Andrae.  This is a reprint of an interview from the second issue of Nemo which was published by Fantagraphic Books in 1983.  I have heard about this interview for years but this is the first time I have gotten a chance to read it.
• Dave Tendlar, Super-Animator by Jay Sumsion.  As the title suggests this is an interview with Dave Tendlar who has the distinction of pulling off an animated Superman hat trick by working for the Fleisher Studios, Filmation and Hanna-Barbera.  That is some resume to have.
• Superman’s Pal Curt Swan by Neil Hansen, transcribed by Steve Thomas.  This is a pretty thorough interview with Swan and even includes his thoughts on other Superman artists.
• Super-Discussions With John Byrne and Marv Wolfman by Neil Hansen.  A two part discussion with Byrne and Wolfman with some great insights from both men.
• Danny Fuchs: Super-Collector by Jim Main.  This man had (and I hope still has) an impressive Superman collection.
• Superman Collectibles.  A price guide of Superman related books, toys, clothing, models and such.
• Superman on the Screen.  A comprehensive listing of Superman’s movie and television appearances.  This thing is very thorough when it comes to listing episode names to the various series.  It has everything up to the syndicated Superboy series.
• He’s Such a Card, That Superman by Jim Main.  A comprehensive listing of the various Superman trading card sets.
• Superman Trading Cards. A listing and price guide for Superman trading cards.  They even include the cards featuring Superman artists and writers from the Famous Comic Book Creators set put out by Eclipse Enterprises.
• Superman Chronology.  Major milestones in the life of the Man of Steel.
• Superman in the Comics. A Superman comic book price guide.
• Who Really Killed Superman? by Neil Hansen.  This is a fantastic article featuring interviews with Mike Carlin and the rest of the Superman creative team of the time.  It even includes a page from Jurgen’s written plot for Superman #75.

And that is it.  As you can see the people at Comics Values Monthly put out a detailed and exhaustive look at Superman’s history.  I am very happy that I found this in my research on the Death and Return of Superman.  It was fairly cheap too if you want a copy for yourself.  I paid like $2 plus shipping for mine, which was a lot less than I thought I would have to pay.  I cannot recommend this magazine enough if you are a fan of the Man of Steel.

Next time: Death of Superman house ads!

More to follow…

In December of 1992 DC released the second issue of Who’s Who in the DC Universe Update ’93 #2.  Until a few years ago I didn’t even know that that there was a Who’s Who in the DC Universe Update ’93 series at all, which was a face palm worthy moment.  It goes to show how much I wasn’t paying attention to comics around this time period.  Sure I went to the shop on a fairly regular basis and I would buy Comics Scene Magazine but my ear was far from the ground when it came to new series and such.  So I missed out on the follow-up to my favorite version of Who’s Who (the loose leaf edition, for those not in the know) when it was published and have it only because a certain online auction site exists.

When the copies I won off of eBay finally arrived in the mail I was pleased to discover that the Superman side of the DCU had a nice presence over the two issues.  In the first installment there were entries for Agent Liberty, Cerberus, Lord Satanus and Mister Z.  In the second issue you had entries for the Atomic Skull, Lex Luthor II, the Linear Men…

and Doomsday!

This is a seriously awesome picture of Doomsday.  I like the fact that he is busting through a wall like the Superman Aurora kit box art from the sixties.  I also like the fact that he is still wearing the majority of the restraints we first saw him in.  I always preferred that look to the bare chested, shorts and boots wearing Doomsday we saw towards the end of the storyline.

And apparently Doomsday has nipples.  Good to know.  Weird, but good to know.

So the obvious question is how in the heck do you write a Who’s Who entry for a character that has only been around for a few months and was not given an origin before he died fighting Superman?

The answer; lots of empty space.

I am guessing they included an entry for Doomsday because the Death of Superman ended up becoming such a media event.  Maybe they thought including Doomsday would sell a few extra copies of the second issue.  Maybe this was the plan all along.  No matter the reason that is a lot of blank space for a Who’s Who entry.

Oh well.  I am glad they decided to give Doomsday his own entry.  It is neat to have.

Next time: A breakdown of the Comics Values Monthly Superman Memorial Issue.

More to follow…

Today I am finally getting around to an entry I meant to post nearly two weeks ago but wasn’t able to because there were delays in scanning and/or photographing the materials I needed to be as complete as I could be with the subject matter.  That is all behind me now and at last I can present the various editions of Superman #75.

In addition to being the issue where Superman died Superman #75 was also one of the first instances of a comic book being released in more than one edition at the time of publication.  While it is true that Spider-Man #1 (1990) had multiple editions and X-Men #1 (1991) had five different covers and X-Force #1 (1991) came bagged with one of five different trading cards (collect them all, kids) Superman #75 did all of that and even upped the ante with the idea of a specific, collector’s edition of the book.  From a marketing standpoint it was a pretty neat idea and it was a way for DC to have their cake and eat it too.    While there were definitely going to be people flipping open the phone book and seeing if there was a comic shop nearby after hearing or reading about the death in the media there were going to be other people that either couldn’t get to the shop, didn’t have one in their area or just didn’t care enough to be bothered to track one down.  Also this was a time where comics had a decent representation on newsstands and spinner racks and while the collector’s edition of Superman #75 probably would have sold in those venues it was a safer bet to have a more standard version for the newsstands and leave the collector’s edition to the specialty stores.  DC would go even further by putting together an ultra rare variant of the book for retailers but I will get to that in a minute.  For the moment let’s focus on what I and many others call the Newsstand version of Superman #75.

If I have my facts straight the Newsstand edition was the reason Superman #75 sold over three million copies.  This makes sense when you consider the fact that this was the edition that went into multiple printing.  As Jeffrey pointed out in our coverage of the issue over at From Crisis to Crisis there were at least four printings of this version with Roman numerals and slight color variations in the logo to separate them.  I would love to show you scans of the various printings but I don’t have all of them and with this particular entry I wanted everything I posted to be from my own collection.

Beyond all of that I like this cover quite a bit.  The tattered cape “billowing” in the wind as Lois, Jimmy and Perry look on from the background makes for a powerful image.

Next on the agenda the Platinum Edition of Superman #75.

This version of the issue was a retailer incentive that was sent exclusively to comic shops.  I don’t know if you had to order a certain number of copies to get one (or more) but it is certainly the rarest of the various editions.  I have no idea if the book itself is different and as much as I want to be thorough in my coverage of this material I only have one copy of this so that will be a mystery for the moment.  What I do know is that the back cover looks different from the other two editions or at least it looks different through the clearer parts of the back of the bag.  Instead of having the ad that both the Newsstand and Collector’s Edition had it looks as if they carried the tombstone effect I am about to discuss all the way around, which is interesting.

Frankly I am shocked I even have one.

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