When did comics start directly airming for collector's market?

[Tzigone]

There was a recent discussion where someone talked about comics going from cheap, disposable entertainment to heavily appealing to collectors. Variant covers and first appearances were mentioned. I'm wondering when publishers started directly courting collectors, rather than when people started collecting. One thing that prompted this question was someone posting a cover of New Teen Titans #1. I don't pay much attention to covers, so despite having read it, this was when I first really noticed the "1st Collector's Item Issue" printed on the cover. So, just how old is the trend of overtly aiming at collectors?

EDIT: If anyone with the ability to edit titles wants to correct my typo, feel free to do so.

[married guy]

I reckon the 90's was when the 'collector' mentality really took off. (and almost killed the industry!)
Chrome covers, acetate covers, nude variants, glow in dark variants - you name it, publishers printed 'em!
I cannot think of a variant cover appearing anytime in the 70s or 80s.

[Twice-named]

I cannot think of a variant cover appearing anytime in the 70s or 80s.

Remember in ‘89 when DC put out a bunch of different colored covers for Legends of the Dark Knight #1? I can’t remember if there were any variants before that.

[MRP]

Remember in ‘89 when DC put out a bunch of different colored covers for Legends of the Dark Knight #1? I can’t remember if there were any variants before that.

Man of Steel #1 by Byrne had 2 covers, a newwsstand and direct edition a couple years before that.

-M

[MRP]

There was a recent discussion where someone talked about comics going from cheap, disposable entertainment to heavily appealing to collectors. Variant covers and first appearances were mentioned. I'm wondering when publishers started directly courting collectors, rather than when people started collecting. One thing that prompted this question was someone posting a cover of New Teen Titans #1. I don't pay much attention to covers, so despite having read it, this was when I first really noticed the "1st Collector's Item Issue" printed on the cover. So, just how old is the trend of overtly aiming at collectors?

EDIT: If anyone with the ability to edit titles wants to correct my typo, feel free to do so.

If you are including Marvel,

their 60's reprint series was called Marvel Collector's Item Classics.

As early as the mid to late 70s, they were touting first issues like Nova #1 and Ms. Marvel #1 as "Fabulous First issues" on the cover

and both Micronauts Annual #1 (1979) and Savage She Hulk #1 (Feb 1980) beat New Teen Titans to the stands with Collector's Item blurbs on them...



and the Marvel Treasury editions were billed as Deluxe Limited Collections on the cover starting with the first issue...



while the Famous First Edition reprints had the blurb Limited Collector's Blue Ribbon Series.



So the idea of them being marketed as collector's items was ingrained in the industry much early than the 80s and 90s.

-M

[MRP]

More DC targeted at Collector's...

The Superman II Treasury is marketed as a Collector's Album...



Amethyst 1



Rima the Jungle Girl from 1974...




so that collector's item tag for 1st issues or even reprint books has a long history in comics.

-M

[MRP]

And the idea of first issues was already in place by '72, as DC was promoting their first Tarzan issue (which kept the Gold Key numbering and was #207-mostly for postal reasons to qualify for second class postage for subscriptions) was touted as a first issue for DC...



something they did with Joe Kubert's Tor as well...




and which they did even on books that didn't have a previous publishing history...



so marketing first issues to get collector's attention is an old gambit.

-M

[MRP]

And this isn't a cover, but an ad from the 70s in DC Comics from I believe Heroes World that is already targettingthe collector's inthe market to sell recent DC 1st issues as back issues and collector's items....



so the mentality is already present enough in the customer base to start getting targeted in the 70s.

-M

[Vampire Savior]

That started sometime probably in the late 80s and it was going strong by the early 90s. Prior to that, the industry as a whole wasn't aiming for collectors, but general readers. Sure, the publishers may have put some blurb on covers here or there, but the appeal to collectors and only hardcore fans is more a matter of practice, like putting out a bunch of variant covers, having nonstop strings of events and constant relaunches just for the sake of potting out another number 1 issue, and killing and/or breaking key characters on a fairly regular basis for shock value. Basically, a lot of flash with comparatively little substance, because the publishers are too impatient/unskilled to build up real gripping stories and true investment in readers, so they keep jolting the readers who are falling asleep by doing something "shocking" or doing a relaunch. That type of thing won't appeal to regular readers, by and large. Those types are drawn in by good stories and are often confused by the conventions mainstream comics always fall back on these days.

[MRP]

That started sometime probably in the late 80s and it was going strong by the early 90s. Prior to that, the industry as a whole wasn't aiming for collectors, but general readers. Sure, the publishers may have put some blurb on covers here or there, but the appeal to collectors and only hardcore fans is more a matter of practice, like putting out a bunch of variant covers, having nonstop strings of events and constant relaunches just for the sake of potting out another number 1 issue, and killing and/or breaking key characters on a fairly regular basis for shock value. Basically, a lot of flash with comparatively little substance, because the publishers are too impatient/unskilled to build up real gripping stories and true investment in readers, so they keep jolting the readers who are falling asleep by doing something "shocking" or doing a relaunch. That type of thing won't appeal to regular readers, by and large. Those types are drawn in by good stories and are often confused by the conventions mainstream comics always fall back on these days.

A lot depends on how you define collectors. Is a collector the fan who stays a comic purchaser over a long period time collecting runs of books, buys back issues, etc.? Or is a collector a speculator or someone who treats comics as collectibles and is not concerned with content? I tend to define it as the first. Collectors are interested in collecting comics over a long period of time. They are not a causal general audience who buy comics when they are accessible and they have opportunity/interest.

Of you use the definition of collector as fan/long-time acquirer of comics, I think you have to look at the types of stories being produced and not the covers or trade dress to really determine when they started aim for that audience. When fans started becoming creators, the shift in stories aimed towards fans/collectors started, and the signs of that is tightening of continuity and expanding of shared universe as the focus of stories. . If you are aiming at a general audience, your content is geared towards casual readers-shorter non-continued stories, less focused on overall continuity etc. Those are things that interested fans/collectors, not a general audience, and when those things become the focus of the stories that you are producing, you are targeting a fan/collector audience and not a general audience. And that happened much earlier than the 90s.

-M

[DrNewGod]

I think MRP nailed it. Those huge format special editions, almost all reprints of first issues or specific runs (i.e. Spider-Man v. the Sinister Six, All-Star Comics#3, Batman's early run-ins with some of his most iconic foes) were the earliest attempt I can recall at going after collectors.

Image.jpg Image.jpg Image.jpg

Boy I loved those things! They were gigantic, and look at those cover prices! Today it'd be 50 bucks.

If you are including Marvel,

their 60's reprint series was called Marvel Collector's Item Classics.

As early as the mid to late 70s, they were touting first issues like Nova #1 and Ms. Marvel #1 as "Fabulous First issues" on the cover

and both Micronauts Annual #1 (1979) and Savage She Hulk #1 (Feb 1980) beat New Teen Titans to the stands with Collector's Item blurbs on them...



and the Marvel Treasury editions were billed as Deluxe Limited Collections on the cover starting with the first issue...



while the Famous First Edition reprints had the blurb Limited Collector's Blue Ribbon Series.



So the idea of them being marketed as collector's items was ingrained in the industry much early than the 80s and 90s.

-M

[Tzigone]

I think MRP nailed it. Those huge format special editions, almost all reprints of first issues or specific runs (i.e. Spider-Man v. the Sinister Six, All-Star Comics#3, Batman's early run-ins with some of his most iconic foes) were the earliest attempt I can recall at going after collectors.

It's interesting to see the idea those are aimed at collectors. I'd sort of thought of them as the opposite - that no one would think reprints would have value in the future and instead they were just a way for fans to get to read the stories since they weren't available anymore. That's certainly why I bought those when I was younger - I didn't care about collecting at all (still don't), I just wanted to read the stories and see how the characters got started or read stories I'd heard about but had no access to. Easier and cheaper than trying to find originals to buy.

[CaptCleghorn]

It's Marvel again, but...

[Jim Kelly]

The tabloid size books started at DC before the Famous First Editions. The first one was an unnumbered RUDOLPH THE RED-NOSED REINDEER coming out in late 1972. There was then or about the same time THE AMAZING WORLD OF SUPERMAN [Official Metropolis Edition]. Then came LIMITED COLLECTORS' EDITION, the first of these numbered C-21 featured SHAZAM! reprints of Marvel Family stories from their Fawcett days. The first "Famous First Edition" tabloids--starting with the facsimile of ACTION COMICS No.1, subtitled "Limited Collectors' Golden Mint Series"--was numbered as C-26. It wasn't until the fourth facsimile edition that these tabloids were retroactively numbered as their own series, that being FAMOUS FIRST EDITION F-4, which reprinted WHIZ COMICS No. 2.

[iron chimp]

Obviously you have to be richer than god to have a golden age superman and batman run but does DC have anything comparable to hulk 181, new mutants 87, spiderman 127 (? Is that first punisher?) - bronze age andlater books which command big prices amongst collectors?