As a result of talking with other collectors and continuing to research 1970's Marvel's, I decided to look for other, earlier variant Marvel comics, and boy am I happy I did! It turns out there are more of them out there, maybe a lot more! But first I would just like to clarify, and add to, a few items from "The 35¢ Price Puzzle" in CBM # 51. the 1984 Overstreet first mentions under Daredevil #148 that "35 cent issue exists," so there are 11 comics and eight different titles with 35 ¢ variants known to exist. The Champions, Daredevil, and the X-men are all bi-monthly titles, not just the Champions, so it seems the frequency of issues was not a factor in Marvel's price variant experiments. And although Marvel Two-in-One #28 is the earliest 35¢ variant known to exist, it is not the first Marvel Comic with a price variant cover Marvel Comics published from May '74 to August '76 have 25¢ cover prices, with a few intriguing exceptions. In 1980 Overstreet first mentions Eternals #1 with a 35¢ cover price, and adds that the "Price changed from 25¢ to 30¢ during the run of #1." Then 1983 Overstreet notes that Invaders #6 has "Two cover prices, 25¢ and 30¢." Next came the 1988 Overstreet, which mentions that "25¢ and 30¢ issues of [X-Men] #98 & 99 exist." Then the 1992 Overstreet lists Avengers #146 and notes that 25 & 30¢ variants exist." Avengers #146 and X-Men #98, both cover dated April 1976, are the earliest 30¢ cover variants known to exist (Champions #5 and Fantastic Four #169 now share that honor). The Overstreet Guide suggests that Eternals #1 has two cover prices because the price went up during printing, but I believe that isn't so. Eternals # 1 is cover dated July 1976, and issue #2 is cover dated August 1976. The Overstreet explanation is a reasonable guess, but it couldn't be true unless Marvel had printed Eternals #1-2 on the same day, both with 25¢ covers, and then changed both to 30¢ covers. Otherwise, the 25¢ Eternals #2 couldn't exist. I believe the real explanation is that Marvel had been test marketing a price increase with issues cover dated as early as (and possibly earlier then) April 1976!

The following list of 183 books and 57 titles are Marvel Conics published between the months of April and August 1976 which might have 30¢ cover variations. Numbers in brackets [] denote issues confirmed to exist.

All of the 30¢ variations are regular copies on the inside, and amazingly listed as "25¢ per copy: on the title page of the books, showing they were not published with 30¢ as the original price.

45 30¢ cover variants exist from 28 different titles. 38 of the 183 books are reprint comics, but that doesn't necessarily exclude than, because there is one known reprint variant, Marvel Tales #68 and 70. No reprint variants have yet surfaced for 30¢ (1976) or 35¢ (1977) variants (although it is hoped that this will change as more collectors keep an eye out for them). Marcel made a lot of changes in 1976, publishing new titles, canceling others. Although both the 30¢ and 35¢ variants known to exist predate by five months the official price increases that occurred with all issues cover dated 9/76 and 11/77 respectively, it is certainly possible that earlier variants do exist. Every month back in time means dozens of issues that could be added to the list (as well as new titles) in the family of 30¢ variants for instance.. March 1976 would add My Love #39. February 1976 would add Our Love Story #38. You get the idea. After checking the Gerber Photo Journal Guide to Marvel Comics, I thought I'd dicovered two more variant issues, Inhumans #6 and Ka-Zar #16, Both cover dated June 1976 and priced at 30¢. Upon checking my own inventory, I was surprised to find three copies of Ka-Zar #16 with a 30¢ cover! I began to wonder if some of these variants were as scarce as I'd assumed. I decided to check George Olshevsky's Marvel Comics Index, and was disappointed to find that volume 2, the one with Ka-Zar listed, was published March 1976, and fell short by listing only up to issue # 15. However, volume 8B does show Inhumans #6 and like the one in Gerber the book has a 30¢ cover price. I realized that Marvel was experimenting in a different way. Inhumans #6 and Ka-Zar #16 exist only as 30¢ editions, and are listed as "30¢ per copy on the inside, hence the omission of both books from the list. It seems that Marvel was able to test the entire market's resistance to 30¢ comics at a minimal financial risk with two secondary titles, and spot-test mainstay titles in limited numbers. This approach was certainly clever from a marketing standpoint. DC comics raised their price to 30¢ with all comics cover dated March 1976, and Marvel feared the dip in sales DC suffered, so they likely "played" with the price before committing to it. The 30¢ variant possibilities list contains surprisingly few "key " issues, unless you want to recognize a book like Iron Man #86 for the first appearance of Blizzard.. Not so with 35¢ variants. Iron Fist #15 (a fun issue and a John Byrne X-Men crossover) definitely exists, as does Star Wars #1. Other key 35¢ variant possibilities include Logan's Run #6 (first Thanos story), Omega #9 (first full appearance 2nd Foolkiller), 2001:A Space Odyssey #8 (first Machine Man), and Iron Fist # 14 (first sabretooth).

Of the eight 35¢ variants and five 30¢ variants noted in Overstreet #27, four of them are Star Wars #1-4, three are X-men #98-99, and #106 and the eighth is Iron Fist #15. That's right, two out of three are popular, high visibility, high demand comics. Only four others have been noticed and referred to by Overstreet in the last 20 years! It makes sense that variant comics have remained virtually unknown until now, when you consider that they are nearly impossible to notice or detect. unless you know what to look for (and when to look for it). Thor #248 (with a blue price box) and Ka-Zar #17 (with an orange colored price box), and six others with yellow colored price boxes are the only known exceptions. With such an odd appearance, these really jump out at you. Other than that, 30¢ variations can be identified by noticing the price is surrounded by a black box in the center of Marvel's jagged "the price is going up soon" balloon, which is unusual because normally Marvel prices sit alone in the balloon without the black box. The 35¢ variants can only be identified by the price difference, and appear perfectly normal in all other respects.

Although some may not agree, I personally feel variant comics are highly collectible. I also believe that the majority of variants will prove hard-to-find. Perhaps they are scarce and seemingly undervalued because few have been paying attention to them and even fewer have documented them. As the emphasis on Bronze Age continues to grow, I feel certain all that will change.

The 35¢ variant Star Wars #1 now sells for about ten times the regular edition, while variants of Star Wars #2-4 are valued in Overstreet the same as regular editions. (I'm unclear why this is, but I suggest a reexamination of the values). I know Star Wars comics are collected much more vigorously than Sabretooth comics because non-comic collector Star Wars completists want the comics too. The real question for serious collectors seems to be "is an Iron Fist #14 variant worth the same as a regular edition?" and if it isn't, what multiple is applicable?

Demand for the book (if it exists) among X-Men collectors would likely be high, because the ratio of non-variant to variant editions is (I believe) as high as 100 to 1, and probably much higher. As it does in other areas of the hobby, I feel that the scarcity of this material will prompt the market to place a higher price on these books than the standard issues. Consider for example Iron Fist #14. A non-variant edition sells for 3-4 times Star Wars #1. A variant of Iron Fist #14 (if one exists) just might bring a record for a Bronze Age comic.

For now, there's no way of knowing exactly how many exist, but it's safe to say that they aren't identified or offered all that often... and that makes the already difficult task of finishing runs for hard core completists just that much tougher. And we haven't yet investigated the 75¢ price variants that are known to exist (see the Thor #338 variant listed in Overstreet as an example). There's obviously much more of the price variant puzzle left for collectors to explore.

Special thanks to Bill Alexander, Charles Wood, and Doug Sulipa for variant information.