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.