The EVIL of Pence Variants

So as promised, here is my Ebay story.

I received this in the post and I was a tad upset. Like furiously upset.

Advertised as a 'Fine' condition comic book and had a picture that was nothing like what you see here. Thing was I paid £20 for what was photographed as a Fine condition Daredevil #168 Cent Variant. I eagerly waited for over two weeks for this thing to arrive in a diabolically shoddy, second hand 'Play.com' envelope. Upon opening the envelope it slowly dawned on me that I had been screwed over... Condition wasn't that great, and something worse...

You see, I suffered the biggest problem us British American comic book collectors have to deal with: the Accursed Pence/Cent Variant Switcheroo.

I had decided pretty early on in collecting comics, that if I was going to collect comic books, and especially the proper Key books, then these comic books must be Cent variants. The reason, I justified, is that these are American comic books, and to feel truly genuine they need to have American currency values on the cover. Sad I know, but that's my rule and I have to stick to it. And I am not alone in the UK in upholding this rule.

I have discovered over the years that the Pence Variant is a dominant feature of the UK direct market certainly around 1981, I'm pretty sure that there are others eras earlier than this, but this is the one that is proving extremely problematic for me. And for those wondering, from what I can tell the ONLY difference between a Cent edition and a Pence edition is the actual price denomination (there are no British adverts to take the place of 'X-Rey Spex' adverts!). For me, it just looks wrong.

There's also a monetary value at play here also. Take Iron Man #129 'Demon In The Bottle' issue, you can pick up a high grade, pence variant copy of this book for a couple of quid (and it looks great in frame near your wine rack), but to buy this as a Cent variant in the same condition is treble that. And this is the apex of my rage at Daredevil 168, and the reason I think I got shafted by the seller, who (and this doesn't feel too harsh) either MISLED me into thinking what I was buying was what I was buying. Or upon discovering that his REAL DD#168 didn't make the price he thought it ought too, switched it to the lesser valued variant. And hoped I wouldn't notice.

How this relates to the Batman Quest is this: I'm going to have to bite the bullet and go directly Stateside to pick up a lot of early 1980's Batman. As this is the time where the problematic pence variants appear in the local, UK market. In short, I think it will be really hard to get hold of a cent copy of Detective Comics 505 in the UK than I thought it would originally be. Which kind of sucks in one way.

Or it means that a holiday is called for.

I properly threw my toys of the pram over my Daredevil #168. The seller had the gall to claim that as he was a 'comic dealer' (which his eBay feedback didn't support, although he has sold some Mint copies of 'Pirate' and 'Private' to a bloke in Germany) he would regularly use 'stock photo's', and that this was simply a mish-take, rather than a misdirection. Of course he disputed the condition, which is, as always, totally subjective but after nearly a month and daily emails, I got my money back.

Truthfully, I had to get my money back, by being a totally belligerent and gratuitous pain in the arse.

So beware people. If you have think something is too good to be true, it probably is.

Beware of the Evils of the Pence Variant.

The Quest ... in Swindon!

My relationship with Swindon is like Carlos Tevez's with Manchester. Yes, I made a living there, but at the end of the day I always thought it was a shithole. A place that heaped misery and misfortune on me in equal measure. In short, I wouldn't go back there unless I was forced too.

And I was forced to, so I decided to pop into Swindon's only redeeming feature: Swin City.

Swin City sits behind the main shopping area, opposite a huge car park in the New Town's shopping area. And you can't really miss it. How many shops will have a giant, green Hulk painted on the side of the building (probably the only thing of cultural value in New Town)? Believe me, in the UK this sort of blatant marketing behaviour is frowned upon. Especially if you are a sole trader.

Swin City is a small shop that is split over two floor. The main entrance and ground floor, which features new comics, trades and a whole manner of figures. They also sell American candy, if you're interested by that kind of thing. Which I have only tried once (this stuff instantly caused cavities and several fillings).

Upstairs is where the back issues sit, not many for sure. However there is a reasonable number of reasonably priced 'name' books of which Batman is a reasonable percentage. Swin City is also the UK's proudest pusher of 10p comics books. Hell, they work on the philosophy that if it ain't shifting after a year or so, reduce it so it will be sold. And over the years they have done this and I have always left the shop knowing that I have got a few cheapo bargains. If there is one downside to this area is that their prime, key comic books that are hanging on the wall are beginning to become very sun-bleached (and if I was in charge of this place that would be a major issue I would rectify). Occasionally, you can pick up a bargain: I picked up a few early Miracleman issues for a song years ago. As a result there are very good reasons to make rare, repeated visits (should you get past the ridiculous Magic Roundabout, that Swindon is 'famous' for), as you never too sure what new stock might turn up.

The staff are pretty pleasant. You get the impression that these are guys that like a good night out as much as they like their comics. Mind you, being inebriated and inducing any other form of escapism must be a necessity if you have to live and work in this awful town.

Swin City is a shop that is proudly growing (as coverage in the local press attests), and good luck to them. I know that the owner is obviously a shrewd entrepreneur as he managed to acquire another shop in the affluent, student city of Bath (used to be American Dream Comics, never been there but I feel I ought to). The entrepreneurial spirit is also best shown by the importation of American candy, so be mindful of sugar-crazed kids on Swindon's High Streets.

As for my haul, got a couple of Batman back issues. But I mainly picked up a load of 10p back issues that make the trip worthwhile.

And the Hulk on the back of the building? That is really the only decent thing to look at in Swindon.

Visited Manchester Comic Con, Meh...

Maybe I'm getting old.

Maybe I'm not down with the kids anymore.

Maybe I was expecting something a bit more, what's the word, Awesomer.

So I went to Manchester Comic Con on the 30th July and was terribly underwhelmed.

It started well. The security/crowd control was totally first rate outside Manchester Central...

Then I got into the Con.

Look, I wasn't expecting San Diego to be thrown deep into north-west England. And I am not by any stretch of the imagination a veteran at these things (virginity broken, I think, in Cardiff about a billion years ago), I was just expecting something that wasn't this.

So, I'll try to take the positives out of the experience. Firstly, I'd pre-arranged with Incognito Comics (highly recommended for those looking for cool stuff online in the UK) to pick up a bag of goodies, and pay for it there. And then I got to meet John McCrea and he got this done for me! He did, though, subtly asked to leave him alone so he could finish it...

And then I struggled to spend any more money. So my Con experience lasted approximately three hours and this included the cup of coffee I had outside. And I was dragging it all out.

So, me being the kind of guy I am, these would be my recommendations to the organisers of this thing next year (and I promise that I won't take a consultancy fee);


1. More room at the venue. I thought it was small, I know I'm six foot of testosterone-filled muscle, but avoiding guys with capes and women with tails, with my natural poise and gracefulness becomes tiring after a while. The event space was laughably bad.

2. More exhibitions. They really struggled to get anyone in and it showed. There were the regular guys you'd expect to see at these things (Craig Charles, and the bloke who was in R2-D2 for example), some older footballer and some stalls. Diamond were exhibiting (Well I think they were exhibiting, it was like seeing a car showroom with no cars). Couldn't the organisers rustle up some help from other UK comic players? No 2000AD? no D.C. Thomson? no FP?

3. Manga dominated this event, which is fair enough. But, I was itching to burn some cash on American comic books, and walked away with two cheapo X-Men hardbacks. Maybe, it's just me: but aren't Comic Con's supposed to be about, y'know, comics. All comics. I could think of at least three comic retailers that would've loved to take up a few tables if they had been asked.

4. More and better creators. While I appreciate the British big players tend to do San Diego and other American Cons, it can't have taken a genius to look around and find some UK based talent. Meeting John McCrea was cool, but the other didn't exactly inspire me. I'd have loved to met any of the following: Pat Mills, John Wagner, Sean Phillips, Warren Ellis, Alan Grant, Warren Ellis, Alan Moore, Kevin O'Neill or Simon Bisley. One of those must have been available?

5. C'mon guys! A television showing trailers is not an exhibition. That's just laziness.

I know that this sounds like a total bitching here. But the organisers really missed a true opportunity to make this Manchester show really awesome. And I think that I might not be the only one with a sour taste in my mouth. God knows what the guys who waited over an hour, in the boiling sun, to get in must have thought of the experience later that day.

It reminded me of a company that I used to work for. This company, based inside the
M25, somehow got it into it's head that there was no culture, no interest and no money outside of London. This meant that nothing cool in the range ever came to other parts of the country, parts of the country that were crying out for this stuff. Basically the company cost themselves an awful lot of money by not being ambitious enough, although they kept telling everybody (in their usual standard, uncaring way) that they were always testing the market (although blatantly ignoring their own staff about the said market).

And this is what this event felt like: just an experiment. The event organisers must have group-thunk themselves into thinking that people outside London had very little reading ability. That people in the north still walk around in flat-caps with their whippets. That we still use imperial money.

The trouble they have here is that I won't go next year, because this show was so really, really underwhelming. I was originally exited before the event, as were a few others in the Que, and this excitement was not fully rewarded.

Well, at least I got an original Hitman out of it!