Ask the Professor #32 — Three Recent Questions

As usual, the Professor’s let a few questions pile up, so let’s check the mailbag and get ’em answered. The first, from Jan. 17th, asks a math question:

how many star wars comic books are there?

Answering his one gives the Professor a chance to plug one of his favorite websites, the Grand Comics Database (at www.comics.org), which offers cover scans and story credits for just about every comic book ever published. Typing “Star Wars” into their search engine yields over a thousand individual issues — but if we limit ourselves to American editions (Marvel and Dark Horse), and eliminate reprints (like Dark Horse doing a trade edition of one of the mini-series, or those Marvel Treasury Editions that reprinted the original six comics of the movie adaptation), then the Professor’s calculator yields an answer of: 841 separate issues. Mind you, there’s a new one or two every week, so that number’s probably a few comics shy of the total right now — and it’ll keep going up, too. That’s a lot of light sabres and uses of the Force, and a pretty hefty chunk of change for any collector wanting all of them.

Next, an email from Jan. 27:

What’s the story behind Deadpool issue numbered at 900? A friend had posed this question to me, and I did not have an answer.

Well… it’s Deadpool: what did you expect, something normal? This actually stems from the “anniversary issues” of the other Marvel comics we’ve seen lately — Amazing Spider-Man #600, Thor #600, etc. Apparently, someone that it would be funny to get Wade into the act, too — and to trump all the other titles by acting like he’d actually run through 899 issues of his own title up to now. They even included one of those all-the-past-issue-covers-stacked-together-by-hundreds page sets. Most were fake, of course — part of the joke — although it’s interesting that, what with the various mini-series, combo titles (Cable/Deadpool, etc.) and all, they were almost able to get to 200 issues without cheating (only needing to bring in some alternate covers right at the end). This is the same warped Deadpoolian logic that led them to release Deadpool Team-Up as an ongoing series, starting at issue #900, and counting backwards from there — so that the fifth issue, which came out this week, is #896. Take that, obsessively-categorizing comics fans!

Finally, we have a question from Jan. 30:

what do you think were the best years of conan the barbarian?

The Professor’s old-school, so of course he’s going to go with the Barry Smith/Roy Thomas run of the original series (including the “Red Nails” story in Savage Tales #2-3, certainly the best Conan comic story anywhere, ever), and also encompassing the first few John Buscema years. Let’s call it 1970-1975, with ’72-’73 being the high-water mark….

About Phil

With 40 years of experience in comic reading, collecting and reviewing, English Professor Phil Mateer has an encyclopedic mind for comics. Feel free to ask Phil about storylines, characters, artists or for that matter, any comic book trivia. He will post your questions and answers on the AABC blog. His knowledge is unparalleled! He is also our warehouse manager, so if you are looking for that hard to find comic book, ask Phil!
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2 Responses to Ask the Professor #32 — Three Recent Questions

  1. Joseph Pais says:

    Professor I am wondering what you feel is the best way to get your self published indie title into stores? I ask because I am working on a title that is going to give 100% of all profits to cancer research.

    I am also wondering if you have any tips on attending comic book conventions? Like how many of a title do I print and what types of things stand out to people and make them want to stop and purchase?

    Thank you,

    Joseph Pais

  2. Aaron Curry says:

    I was wondering about Canadian price variants. Is there a list of all the comics that were published by marvel and DC during the 80’s where these infamous cover price variants. Also what is the rarity of the issues to their US counterparts? Any help would be great! Thanks for your time.

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