Valiant Nintendo and WWF books added to cover library

magnusr · Post by **magnusr** » Mon May 08, 2006 10:33:11 am

Edit: bad scan not needed, look below for link from Daniel Jackson. Ad exists in many places, I saw it on the back inside cover of the black version:

It says "Only one man can save the future". The comic is marked "Collectors edition Book one of seven US $7.95 CAN $9.75" It also says "On sale Aug 16th!"

/Magnus

slym2none · Post by **slym2none** » Mon May 08, 2006 10:42:45 am

magnusr wrote:Isn't Spanish the official language of USA (ducks).

/Magnus

BA-ZING!

-slym

greg · Post by **greg** » Mon May 08, 2006 2:35:28 pm

magnusr wrote:Here's the ad, from back inside cover of the black version:
<<image>>

/Magnus

Ps, bad picture quality. It says "Only one man can save the future". The comic is marked "Collectors edition Book one of seven US $7.95 CAN $9.75" It also says "On sale Aug 16th!"

Interesting...
this is the cancelled "trade paperback" that's still mentioned in Overstreet.

I guess by the time the yellow cover was published, it was either after Aug 16th,
or they had already decided to cancel that line (of seven).

qrnd · Post by **qrnd** » Mon May 08, 2006 3:24:42 pm

That great Magnus ad is in the NCS #1 TPB. I was going to scan it for my page but did not want to ruin the cover of my copy. If anyone has a reader copy of this book, a 300dpi or so scan of that ad would be appreciated.

greg · Post by **greg** » Mon May 08, 2006 3:27:47 pm

qrnd wrote:That great Magnus ad is in the NCS #1 TPB. I was going to scan it for my page but did not want to ruin the cover of my copy. If anyone has a reader copy of this book, a 300dpi or so scan of that ad would be appreciated.

I think Magnusr found it in the back cover of NCS #2 TPB,
and doesn't find it in the back cover of NCS #2 TPB Variant.

Daniel Jackson · Post by **Daniel Jackson** » Mon May 08, 2006 3:31:07 pm

It's also in one of the Captain N books.

viewtopic.php?t=9994

ckb · Post by **ckb** » Mon May 08, 2006 3:31:27 pm

I want to chime in and thank Greg for this addition to the site. I am a big van of the pre-Hero Valiant stuff, and I think it belongs here at valiantcomics.com.

As soon as I can get a handle on some things I have going, I will turn my attention to the Nintendo/WWF content that was added and see if I can add to or clarify the information there.

Thanks, Greg!

Shadowmatt · Post by **Shadowmatt** » Mon May 08, 2006 4:55:14 pm

Excellent additions! I was curious if these would ever be added in.

Shadowmatt · Post by **Shadowmatt** » Mon May 08, 2006 4:58:15 pm

Arrrgh... hit post too soon!

I had a bunch of these books when they were coming out, especially the WWF and Legend of Zelda comics. But man... Game Boy sure was a stinker!

Zero · Post by **Zero** » Mon May 08, 2006 4:59:54 pm

ckb wrote:I want to chime in and thank Greg for this addition to the site. I am a big van of the pre-Hero Valiant stuff, and I think it belongs here at valiantcomics.com.

As soon as I can get a handle on some things I have going, I will turn my attention to the Nintendo/WWF content that was added and see if I can add to or clarify the information there.

Thanks, Greg!

Ditto!

gowaltrip · Post by **gowaltrip** » Mon May 08, 2006 10:02:02 pm

Glad to see you adding this stuff Greg, as I find the pre-hero Valiant era very interesting and highly collectable.

Any chance these books will one day be added to the price guide?

A reliable source like yourself is hard to come by on these books. The more info the better! Thanks for the update!

COMICKINGS · Post by **COMICKINGS** » Mon May 08, 2006 10:34:05 pm

NICE ADDITION! Are there any estimates on print runs for these issues? I'm curious to know the difference from 1st issues to the last issues,especially at the end of the runs. Also,I seem to remember some variant covers to some of the books. I 'm pretty sure I've got some. Just gotta dig'em out of the rat hole!

sonicdan · Post by **sonicdan** » Mon May 08, 2006 10:38:29 pm

I'd be very curious about print runs as well.
Some of these I have seen bulk stacks of.
Others it took me years to track down a single copy.
I have been buying and selling Nintendo books for awhile now
and have a fairly good idea what the price ranges would be.
DAN

ckb · Post by **ckb** » Mon May 08, 2006 10:47:41 pm

sonicdan wrote:I'd be very curious about print runs as well.
Some of these I have seen bulk stacks of.
Others it took me years to track down a single copy.
I have been buying and selling Nintendo books for awhile now
and have a fairly good idea what the price ranges would be.
DAN

I think the best information we have is that the print runs were very large on all the books. Many were sold outside of the normal distribution channels, though, and that's why you cannot get a reading on it from the distributor numbers.

The print runs may be inconseqential, since they were sold to kids and non-comic people. These are all thrown away or where they are unlikely to make it back onto the market.

As much as I hate to do it, I use Mile High as a barometer on stuff like this. The guy buys so much bulk that if there were lots of these around and available, he would end up with more than his share. And the cost at the web site would be MUCH lower. The relative prices at Mile High is a great indicator on the relative rarity of any set of issues with an even demand.

Vault-Keeper · Post by **Vault-Keeper** » Mon May 08, 2006 11:21:27 pm

ckb wrote: As much as I hate to do it, I use Mile High as a barometer on stuff like this. The guy buys so much bulk that if there were lots of these around and available, he would end up with more than his share. And the cost at the web site would be MUCH lower. The relative prices at Mile High is a great indicator on the relative rarity of any set of issues with an even demand.

I agree with using Mile High as a barometer on these. I also use them on the Acclaim Imprint issues. It is surprising that some of these issues have seemingly high values. Definitely more than cover price or less listed in Overstreet. Some of the Magic TPBs go for $25, when you can even find one in stock. Some of this imprint stuff can be very hard to find, especially in HG, because much of it was overlooked or even despised by many VH-1 only Valiant collectors. I picked up some Magic issues when they came out, but there were many I never added to my collection until years later.---Steve

magnusr · Post by **magnusr** » Mon May 08, 2006 11:30:55 pm

Daniel Jackson wrote:It's also in one of the Captain N books.

viewtopic.php?t=9994

Thanks Daniel, I had missed your thread when travelling. That's a great scan.

/Magnus

Zero · Post by **Zero** » Tue May 09, 2006 9:05:10 am

I've never seen that variant yellow cover tpb. Never heard of it... I've also only ever heard about the no cover price Zelda 1. I didn't know there were others...

Anybody have any of those to sell or trade? Thanks, ~Pete

x-omatic · Post by **x-omatic** » Tue May 09, 2006 9:07:33 am

Thank you Greg.

Now I have more books to track down.

greg · Post by **greg** » Tue May 09, 2006 9:25:25 am

The "no cover price" versions of Zelda #1 and also Captain N #1
were possibly from the Nintendo Comics System "3-Pack".
This has not been proven, however, and strangely the front book on the pack,
"Super Mario Bros #2" still has its cover price.
http://qrnd.com/vf/pag/var.html

If those "no price" variants didn't come from this 3-pack,
then there's an even tougher mystery to solve.

greg · Post by **greg** » Tue May 09, 2006 9:42:38 am

As far as print runs go, some of the direct market numbers are available
for the cardstock cover books ($1.95 cover price versions), however,
the largest majority of these books were not sold through the direct market.
They were "enormous successes" (enormous amounts) outside of direct market.

Let's go to the source for a better answer:

-----------------------------------
Interview with Jim Shooter conducted by Vinnie Bartilucci in January 1992.

VB: When you started off, your first titles were the Nintendo comics and the
WWF wrestling books. These did not exactly get embraced by fandom,
in fact, they met with quite a bit of derision. Were you just trying to
raise capital at that point, or was there more to your thinking?

JS: Well, there's more to the world than the direct market. The direct market
is a very small market. People don't realize it, but our Nintendo and
WWF books are among the best selling comic books of all time. But to the
direct market, it didn't even make the charts. The reason being that our
Nintendo titles are being sold in mass market outlets. At Toy stores, at
the wrestling events...our stuff is in venues that comics can't usually
reach. So they were enormous successes in markets where they belonged.
Like any promotional stuff, they have a lifespan. We came in at kind of
the end of the Nintendo rush, but still did very well with them. Sold a
lot of those books, sold them in every format known to man-hardcovers,
children's books, color deluxe comics, regular newsstand format, you
name it. We licensed them overseas to a dozen different companies. They
were extremely successful comics. And they helped us set up the
organization and helped us grow to the level where we are now. The WWF
books...we did them in a children's book format that sold enormous
numbers. Pays a lot of bills, buys a lot of art tables.

I don't think of them as any less valid than the superhero comics.
We're also doing custom comics, as promotions and premiums for companies,
on a commission basis. We just did a project for a client where they
bought a million copies of a book we did expressly for them.

-----------------------------------

I'm assuming that the "million copies" mentioned above was for the Kenny Kid (KFC) comic...
though I don't think that was a million English version. Possibly a million in Spanish?

Here's that interview archived on the site:
http://www.valiantcomics.com/valiant/vinnie1.asp

ckb · Post by **ckb** » Tue May 09, 2006 10:38:07 am

greg wrote:The "no cover price" versions of Zelda #1 and also Captain N #1
were possibly from the Nintendo Comics System "3-Pack".
This has not been proven, however, and strangely the front book on the pack,
"Super Mario Bros #2" still has its cover price.
http://qrnd.com/vf/pag/var.html

If those "no price" variants didn't come from this 3-pack,
then there's an even tougher mystery to solve.

I have a three pack but there is no way I'm going to open the sucker. I will see if I can tell without opening it.

ckb · Post by **ckb** » Tue May 09, 2006 10:41:28 am

Erskine71 wrote:I've never seen that variant yellow cover tpb. Never heard of it... I've also only ever heard about the no cover price Zelda 1. I didn't know there were others...

Anybody have any of those to sell or trade? Thanks, ~Pete

You want to contact Walter Wang for the variant and regular oversized TPB. He (probably) still has quantities of both from when he cleaned out the Valiant offices. I got mine from him. He also probably has lots of the WWF stuff and the Kenny Kid if you ask him. He has been very solid on his pricing in the past despite the quantities he has. I don't know if he has softened up any.

Daniel Jackson · Post by **Daniel Jackson** » Tue May 09, 2006 3:50:45 pm

magnusr wrote:
Daniel Jackson wrote:It's also in one of the Captain N books.

viewtopic.php?t=9994
Thanks Daniel, I had missed your thread when travelling. That's a great scan.

/Magnus

I was wondering why you were missing from the thread since you and I are both such big Magnus fans.

greg · Post by **greg** » Wed May 10, 2006 3:10:28 pm

If you guys are watching for these books on Ebay,
and can't tell whether a book is a "Volume 1" or "Volume 2",
obviously, the $1.95 (Volume 1) and $1.50 (Volume 2) cover prices are a clue,
but if you can't see the cover price because the scan is too small,
you can check the location of the UPC.

UPC on the right = $1.95 (Volume 1) with cardstock cover and white pages
UPC on the left = $1.50 (Volume 2) with "flimsy" cover and newsprint pages

Zero · Post by **Zero** » Wed May 10, 2006 6:08:16 pm

ckb wrote:
Erskine71 wrote:I've never seen that variant yellow cover tpb. Never heard of it... I've also only ever heard about the no cover price Zelda 1. I didn't know there were others...

Anybody have any of those to sell or trade? Thanks, ~Pete
You want to contact Walter Wang for the variant and regular oversized TPB. He (probably) still has quantities of both from when he cleaned out the Valiant offices. I got mine from him. He also probably has lots of the WWF stuff and the Kenny Kid if you ask him. He has been very solid on his pricing in the past despite the quantities he has. I don't know if he has softened up any.

Thank you sir! That worked out pretty well.

ValiantFans.com Board - Since 2004

Valiant Nintendo and WWF books added to cover library

Re: Valiant Nintendo and WWF books added to cover library

Re: Valiant Nintendo and WWF books added to cover library

production numbers