Batman, buttons, and Inferno, oh my!

§ July 14th, 2008 § Filed under Uncategorized Comments Off on Batman, buttons, and Inferno, oh my!

Hey, remember when this was a problem?


It’s seem strange to me now, that a Batman button set with a print run of 10,000 units wouldn’t be enough to meet demand…but this is from a DC Comics order form from the late 1980s, when Batfever was in the air.

This is the set being solicited here…eventually I’ll replace that link with, er, a scan of my own copy of this set. I don’t recall off the top of my head if they had to go to a second printing on this set or not…memory tells me “no,” and that the first set in this series was the only one that had a second printing. If someone out there recalls better than I do, please chime in.

At any rate, for a while there we were seeing these sets pop up in every collection that was brought into the shop through the 1990s. Unopened, dusty, the buttons unworn and unloved. I wonder how many of these button sets ever were actually opened up.

None of these Bat-button sets really sell for anything anymore, so don’t ask me what they’re worth, as the answer will be “diddly squat.” (Or, in this case, seventy-nine cents.)


From another late ’80s retailer solicitation form, this time from Marvel Comics:


It’s nice that Marvel warned that this was going to be a “Red Skies” crossover, with little or nothing to do with the main “Inferno” storyline. Didn’t stop ’em from throwing the “Inferno” logo on the cover, but…well, can’t blame ’em too much, I guess. I imagine that this singling-out of Doctor Strange #2 in the solicits regarding its Inferno connection may have encouraged extra orders from some retailers as much as it may have discouraged them from others. Probably leaned more toward “encouraged,” which likely helped this then-new Doctor Strange series lessen its second-issue order dip from its first issue numbers.

Again, I don’t really recall our experience, exactly…it’s been nearly 20 years, after all. I do remember that this Doctor Strange series was a bit of the hot item, at least locally, with the first issue acquiring some demand. The first issue still sells, on occasion. The second “Inferno” ish…not so much.

Comments are closed.