Posted By Dan Greenfield on May 29, 2024 | 4 comments

A quartet you will definitely want to grab…

DC at MCM London over the weekend gave a sneak preview of a raft of Facsimile Editions headed your way in the months ahead — a quartet of standard-size issues and two (count ’em two) treasury-size pubs.

You can read about the treasury Facsimile Editions over here — believe me, you’ll want to — but here are the four standard editions:

— Green Lantern #59, featuring the first appearance of Guy Gardner, released in 1968.

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— Flash Comics #1, featuring the first appearance of the Golden Age Flash and Hawkman, released in 1939.

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— Detective Comics #400, featuring the first appearance of Man-Bat, by Frank Robbins and Neal Adams, released in 1970. Also has the first half of a great Robin/Batgirl team-up by Denny O’Neil, Gil Kane and Vince Colletta.

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— Batman #237, the best Halloween comic ever, by Denny O’Neil and Adams, from an idea by Harlan Ellison and featuring characters based on Gerry Conway, Bernie Wrightson, Alan Weiss and Tom Fagan; released in 1971.

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Many thoughts:

— The prices and street dates are not yet finalized. What’s also not yet clear is whether there will be foil covers or sketch covers, but I have to imagine there will be. Regular facsimiles generally run about $4 to $7, depending on page count, with sketch and foil covers a buck or two more. (Can you imagine how great a foil Batman #237 would look? Man!)

— DC frequently publishes three or four Facsimiles in a month, so I imagine this is just a sampling of what’s to come, not even including the ongoing reprinting of Crisis on Infinite Earths.

— Obligatory Price Comparison #1: Green Lantern #59 has been a hole in my GL collection for a long time and so I’m really looking forward to filling it with the Facsimile, much like I did with Marvel’s Amazing Spider-Man #129 (first Punisher). An unslabbed, high-grade original copy recently sold on eBay for about $805, plus hefty shipping.

— Obligatory Price Comparison #2: Good luck finding an unslabbed Flash Comics #1. A slabbed, 5.0 copy sold through Heritage Auctions in 2023 for $192,000, including buyer’s premium.

— Obligatory Price Comparison #3: An unslabbed, mid-grade original Detective #400 recently went for $299 on eBay.

— Obligatory Price Comparison #4: An unslabbed, high-grade original Batman #237 recently sold for $250 on eBay.

— We will have more info for you when DC is prepared to formally solicit these, so keep coming back to 13th Dimension for updates.

— Tip of the cowl to 13th Dimension contributor Walt Grogan, who saw the news buried in a report at Bleeding Cool.

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MORE

— DC Expands TREASURY Facsimile Editions With BATMAN and SUPERMAN vs. WONDER WOMAN Classics. Click here.

— 13 FACSIMILE EDITIONS We’re Surprised DC COMICS Hasn’t Published Yet — RANKED. Click here.