All of my life I've loved comic books. Some people date their childhood memories by grade school events, others by their family vacations. Mine are marked by the issues I was buying on the stand. Some of my best times as a kid involved the comics I earned by doing extra chores, comics live Brave and Bold #109 starring Batman and The Demon, with art by Jim Aparo. I remember standing in line at the local Circle K, impatiently waiting to slam down my 21¢ (with tax) on the counter, race home and sequester myself in my room where I could read it cover to cover and enter the magical world of comics.

My interest in comic books has continued to grow over the years, and with it a curiosity about comic story telling, format, design, etc. Of particular interest to me are books that never saw publication due to cancellation, or that have mistakes, or double covers, different back covers, (like the Dell Annuals), or different cover prices (like the Dell and Gold Key price variant familiar to many collectors). That's one of the reasons I noticed the scarce but normal-looking comics discussed in the following paragraphs. In fact, some of them could also be hiding in your collection right now!

Marvel comics started the 1970's with a 15¢ cover price , and closed the decade with a 40¢ cover price. Such changes seemed big at the time, and are, if you consider that comics cost 10¢ until the early 60's and 12¢ until the late 60's, but that's another story. As a quick review, consider the following Marvel cover price timeline:

Some exceptions are Annuals or other Giant Size comics like What If? and Marvel Classics Comics. Another exception is Spidey Super Stories, first published October 1974, which ran with a 35¢ cover price from it's inception. Such ate the facts as we knew them. The first clue that Marvel was releasing comics with different cover prices came in 1979. The Overstreet Comic Book Price Guide #9 (1979) mentions a 35¢ cover variation of a 30¢ comic Star Wars # 1 (July 1977), "35¢ cover price, limited distribution." Then in 1988 Overstreet #18 mentions Iron Fist # 15 with a "35 cent edition." In 1992 Overstreet #22 listed X-Men #106 as " 35¢ issues exist." Sixteen years after the Star Wars #1 listing, Overstreet #25 (1995) listed Star Wars #2-4 (August to October 1977), "35¢ with UPC code; not reprints." Star Wars #1, 35¢ cover, is listed as possibly having "1,500 copies?" I suspect issues #2-4 must be quite uncommon to have taken so long to surface.

Always hoping I would come across something unusual, imagine my excitement earlier this year when I discovered a 35¢ cover variation of Godzilla #2 from September 1977! I knew that there had to be other Marvel titles with 35¢ covers!

Since I just happen to have a few thousand Bronze Age comics laying around, I started looking for more examples. I was stunned to discover that the Champions #15 (September 1977) and The Invaders #21 (October 1977), also exist with a 35¢ cover price!

Marvel Comics was experimenting with a price increase months before they raised the price to 35¢ on all books cover dated November 1977. There is no other reason for such books to exist. I began looking through Marvel comics from 1977 wherever I could, but no new examples were to be found. I wanted to find more, but also knew that in order for these mutant comics to have evaded notice for 20 years, the supply must be thin.

I can already hear comments from some collectors: "So what? Maybe Marvel figured the Star Wars movie was so popular they'd try out 35¢ covers starting in July, and used other minor titles to add a few last minute 35¢ covers on issues cover dated September and October. That doesn't mean there's more of these comics."

I wondered if that were true myself until I traced all their examples to the same purchase! They had come from the same lot of approximately 800 comics. I suddenly remembered that I'd set aside about 150 comics to read from that 800, and that I'd neglected to check through the 150 comics!

My heart beating faster, I went to the closet and pulled out the short box of "readers." Please, I thought, please let there be just one more. I decided to look through the box in three sections of 50 books each. The first group I flipped through was mostly DC and Gold Key, so no help there. The second group has plenty of 1970's Marvels, but all of them had normal 30¢ covers, exactly like the ones in Gerber's Photo Journal Guide to Marvel Comics (that's right, don't bother, I've already checked). I picked up the third pile and began looking, I was only four of five issues in when fate dealt me an Ace of Spades. As it turns out, Star Wars #1, July 1977, is not the first 35¢ cover variation! The third pile had produced the best comic of all: Marvel Two In-One #28 (June 1977), with a 35¢ cover price variant known!

The following list of 184 books and 52 titles are Marvel Comics published between the months of June and October 1977, which might have 35¢ cover variations. Issue numbers in Brackets denote 35¢ price variations confirmed to exist.

All of the 35¢ variations are regular copies on the inside, listed as "30¢ per copy on the title page of the books, showing they were not published with 35¢ as the intended price. Except for Champions, a bi-monthly, all of the titles are monthly. The 35¢ cover books exist of seven different titles. 23 of the 184 comics on the list are reprint comics, but that doesn't exclude them. If you think your collection isn't complete anymore, brace yourself, because it gets worse. The list could grow bigger! Marvel made a lot of changes in 1977, publishing new titles, canceling others. Every month back in time means dozens of issues added to the list as well as new titles in the family of 35¢ variants. May 1977 woud add Weird Wonder Tales #22. April 1977 would add Marvel Spotlight #33, March 1977 would add Werewolf By Night #43. February 1977 would add Ka-Zar #20 and Son of Satan #8. You get the idea.

On the flip side, I'll point out some possibly confusing ads for price variant comics that don't exist. Look inside Marvel's fan publication FOOM #18 (June 1977, page 26) shows Tomb of Dracula # 61 (November 1977) with a 30¢ cover price. FOOM #19 (Fall 1977 shows Howard the Duck #20 (Page 23), Thor #267 (page 30) and Tomb of Dracula #62 (page 31), each dated January 1978 with 30¢ cover prices. Page 29 of that same issue even has a Star Wars #6 (December 1977) with a 30¢ cover price. Finally FOOM #20 (Winter 1978, page 36) shows Tomb of Dracula #63 (March 1978 with a 30¢ cover price.

How do I know these FOOM-advertised books don't exist? Because FOOM was direct advertising for nonexistant things to come. And because I just can't see anyone at Marvel saying, "Gee, I wonder if we can sell these for less than 35¢?" After researching 1977 Marvels to my satisfaction, I questioned a few of the people in the comics industry who I thought might possibly have heard of (or run across) price anomalies. Bill Alexander reminded me of the 35¢ variant of Iron Fist #15. Thanks, Bill! Robert Beerbohm told me that Marvel was definitely testing the market because they didn't want to suffer the same loss in sales that DC comics suffered from the shift to 35¢. Bob saw some of the 35¢ variants , and claims to vaguely remember some 25¢ variants of 20¢ Marvels. Because of the way the Giant printing presses (in Sparta, Illinois) worked at the time, Beerbohm believes that some October 1977 variants may be more common because they might have stopped the presses (on the day of the price increase) and arbitrarily changed the cover price before continuing (presses which printed four to eight comics simultaneously). Marvel probably printed their variants on the same press, which means there are at least four to eight examples of 35¢ variants each month from June to October. Bob thinks the test marketing may have occurred in Dallas, Houston, or St. Louis. Thanks, Bob!

I'm convinced there's more "mutant" price variants out there and the evidence strongly suggests that there is. I'm hoping some CBM reader has (or finds) at least one book that predates Marvel Two-In-One #28. In fact, there may even be other (and earlier) Marvel price variation experiments in existence... perhaps even a 12¢ book with a 15¢ cover variation.

Should you not be a Marvel "True Believer" and dismiss price cover variations as a trivial matter, Don't make the mistake of discussing your view with the army of radical Marvel completists out there. One slip of your tongue and it could be..."clobberin' time!"