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Corrections for August 2022 ComicTom101 Exclusives


Brian Price

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9 hours ago, Brian Price said:

Sengi and Tembo 1-2 should be deleted.  Correct data under 1/A.

Sengi and Tembo 1/A-2 should be deleted.  Correct data under 1/B.

Gambit (8th Series) 1/L should be deleted. Correct data under 1/K.

Actually, Sengi and Tembo 1-2 and 1/A-2 are the correct ones. These are second printings, as indicated in the indicia. (They were also published almost two years after the first printing.) Further, "Millcreek" in those item descriptions should be "Mill Geek."  "Mill Geek" could be added to the 1-2 and 1/A-2 descriptions. 1/A and 1/B should be deleted.

As for Gambit...

58 minutes ago, Steven L. Dasinger said:

I think you mean 1/J and 1/K. (or at those issues appear to be duplicates in my database and AA)

Also, for this issue, one note has 'limited to 2000', one has 'limited to 1000' but I am only finding mention of 'limited to 3000'.


Gambit (8th Series) 1/L should in fact be deleted. The cover under 1/L should be moved to 1/K, the virgin variant. The print count for 1/J should be changed from 2000 to 3000.

Details can be found here: https://www.comictom101.com/post/august-mmc-print-counts
 

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My understanding is that if a book has a different cover it's a variant, and that a variant is often a second or later printing, which can be decades removed from the original printing.  For example, look at classic books like Action Comics, Avengers, The, Fantastic Four (Vol. 1), etc

When I see "1-2", and "1/A-2", I expect 1-2 to have the same cover as the original, and there to be a 1/A issue that 1/A-2 is a second printing of.  If the Sengi and Tembo issues really need to be denoted as second printings, then I would call them 1/A-2 and 1/B-2, but I would still be like, "Where's the 1/A and 1/B issues?"

Yeah, I totally spaced on "Mill Geek".

I did submit a change through the app on Gambit (8th Series) 1/J to change the issue count to 3,000, and submitted a slightly better image of the correct cover for 1/K. 

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13 hours ago, Brian Price said:

My understanding is that if a book has a different cover it's a variant, and that a variant is often a second or later printing, which can be decades removed from the original printing.  For example, look at classic books like Action Comics, Avengers, The, Fantastic Four (Vol. 1), etc

When I see "1-2", and "1/A-2", I expect 1-2 to have the same cover as the original, and there to be a 1/A issue that 1/A-2 is a second printing of.  If the Sengi and Tembo issues really need to be denoted as second printings, then I would call them 1/A-2 and 1/B-2, but I would still be like, "Where's the 1/A and 1/B issues?"

I can follow that logic to a point. I can see why it looks like Sengi and Tembo 1/A and 1/B would be missing from the listing when only 1, 1/A-2, and 1-2 are shown. I agree that it's a little confusing. To me, it would make more sense if they were listed as 1-2/A and 1-2/B, instead of 1-2 and 1/A-2, but that's not how it's been configured to go in ComicBase. (I would also say that this is an odd case, and usually the printing with the most variants is the first printing.)

I can also see how one could look at a group of covers and say that each different cover is a variant, and each variant could then possibly have subsequent printings of its own. That's kind of what the CB numbering implies when it shows 1/A-2 instead of 1-2/A.

But I don't think that's the reality of variant production. These days, new issues are solicited with a whole slew of variants. And then when they go into subsequent printings, each printing often has different covers and variants of its own. It does not make sense to me to disregard that they are different printings and just add them as new variants of the same issue. Nor do I think it logical to list a reprint issued years or decades later as simply a new variant. To me, something printed years later is first and foremost a later printing (regardless of whether it has the same cover as the first edition), and then possibly a variant if that particular printing has multiple versions available, as with Sengi and Tembo.

You're right that the database contains plenty of examples of reprints classified as variants. Two of the titles you cited, Action Comics and Fantastic Four, contain reprints listed both ways--as variants and as subsequent printings. For example, I wouldn't call the new Action Comics #1/D a variant of the 1938 original but a new printing (same with 1/A through 1/C). What makes the one listed under 1/D different from the other replicas and reprints listed as 1-2 through 1-10? Nothing that I can see, except that they were added by different people following different logic. But when I see it listed as 1/D--as "just" a variant and not the 14th printing--it initially implies that it was published as a variant of the original back in 1938, not that it's a new printing in 2022.

It seems to come down to whether one's logic says the printing or the variant cover has primacy. I think the printing should take primacy. Otherwise, items like the second and third printings of Captain Marvel (11th Series) #1, which have different covers than the regular #1, and which are currently listed as 1-2 and 1-3, would have to instead be listed as additional variants (and there are already 31), not as second and third printings. There are thousands of other issues like this.

Perhaps the CB editors could weigh in on what the logic should be, despite the contradictory examples we'll find in the database. I also wonder whether it would be helpful (or even possible) to switch from 1/A-2 to 1-2/A and the like.
 

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17 hours ago, Randall J. Paske said:

I can follow that logic to a point. I can see why it looks like Sengi and Tembo 1/A and 1/B would be missing from the listing when only 1, 1/A-2, and 1-2 are shown. I agree that it's a little confusing. To me, it would make more sense if they were listed as 1-2/A and 1-2/B, instead of 1-2 and 1/A-2, but that's not how it's been configured to go in ComicBase. (I would also say that this is an odd case, and usually the printing with the most variants is the first printing.)

[...]

Perhaps the CB editors could weigh in on what the logic should be, despite the contradictory examples we'll find in the database. I also wonder whether it would be helpful (or even possible) to switch from 1/A-2 to 1-2/A and the like.
 

You make a lot of good points.  I did think about the 1-2/A and 1-2/B solution as well, which I agree is technically correct, but as you say isn't possible with the current CB configuration.  The opinion that this is the correct solution is bolstered by the fact that the indicia itself indicates these are second printings, which I didn't catch until you pointed it out.  I'm also concerned that the nuance between "second printing of a variant" and "variants of a second printing" might be a bit confusing for some, but any confusion stems from the situation itself; however, not from the proposed solution.

As you say, hopefully the editors can weight in on the situation.

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