How green was my Supreme.
So here’s another comic forgotten by time: the green-hued second printing of Supreme #41, the beginning of Alan Moore’s run on the series:
Here is the first printing’s cover (well, one of them) for comparison:
It had totally slipped my mind that this even existed (the second printing, that is, not the series itself) until I came across it while processing a collection. There aren’t scans of it on the main comic database sites, I haven’t seen any listings for it on the eBay, and it’s not mentioned in the Overstreet price guide. I do sort of remember it now, as Moore’s involvement with the character did result in a bit of an increase of demand, necessitating a reprint of his debut issue. We probably could have used reprints of the next couple of issues, too…though maybe there were, and nobody remembers those, either.
I don’t really have much to say about this, other than wanting to rescue this particular cover variation from obscurity. I do have one specific memory about Alan Moore’s Supreme, in that not long after it started I had a customer complain at length that Supreme had been his favorite Image comic book, and now that it had gone “all weird” (i.e. from typical early Image “gritty/edgy” superhero to Silver Age Superman pastiche) he didn’t like it any more. I don’t know, I thought it was an improvement, but different strokes an’ all that.
Still my favorite Alan Moore run out of all his work. Oh, how I marked out when Pip the Troll cameoed in that one issue!
Ages and ages ago for my own amusement I put together a chronology of the Alan Moore Awesome Universe timeline…this was just for me to keep track of all the flashbacks and events and dates…I sent it to Jess Nevins and he was kind enough to put it on his webpage. That’s my claim to fame.
The whole thing with different colors on different printings scratches a certain itch in my brain. It’s likely nostalgia for a time when comics had multiple printings.