House of Secrets #92s.
So this week DC is releasing a new facsimile edition (including all the original ads an’ such) of House of Secrets #92 from 1971, featuring the first appearance of Swamp Thing by Len Wein and Bernie Wrightson. Here are the different flavors you can pick up:
You can get the plain ol’ version with a standard comic cover:
You can get the “blank sketch cover” in a lovely shade of green, upon which you can get your favorite artist to draw, I don’t know, the Heap or Man-Thing or whatever:
You can get the shiny foil-covered edition, and the scan I made ain’t the greatest, but if you’ve been in a comic shop lately, you know what this particular enhancement should look like:
And most surprisingly, in a bit of collaboration between Warner’s comic book division and those other divisions that make theoretically money, we get a version of this comic with a cardstock cover plugging the forthcoming Beetlejuice Beetlejuice sequel (art by Kelley Jones):
Yes, that means four more versions of this comic to add to my collection of House of Secrets #92 reprints and, of course, my original copy of the actual thing.
A long, long time ago (about 18 years now!) I did post here listing all the versions of this comic that I own. I keep meaning to update it, and have occasionally listed new reprints of the story here and there in subsequent posts. Thus, the plan is this: creating a new page on this site devoted solely to House of Secrets #92, with notes on the various reprints in either single comic book form or in trade paperback/hardcover.
This is kind of a last second decision, so I have nothing ready to go just yet, since I kind of have to track down where all my copies of these reprints have gotten off to. My collection at home remains in some disarray, though I’ve been making progress in getting it under control of late. But I do want to gather together all my reprints, do fresh new scans, and put ’em all in one standalone place that I can point to and say “look upon my works, ye mighty, and despair.”
So there we go…nearly 21 years of doing this site, and I can still find ways to make my life more difficult. But at least it’s additional incentive to get my comic act together at home.
That Betelgeuse variant is pretty clever.
It could also be fun for Warner Bros. to tap into its vast inventory of old film posters and use altered versions of them for some variant covers.
For instance, a variant cover for a facsimile edition of Detective Comics no. 1 where instead of the “Yellow Peril” stereotype villain, the poster art for Warner Bros. “The Maltese Falcon” featuring Humphrey Bogart as Sam Spade is used, but with the “Detective Comics” trade dress replacing the words “The Maltese Falcon.” I would buy a copy of that! Or they could use the poster art for Bonnie and Clyde featuring Warren Beatty and Faye Dunaway as a variant cover for a facsimile edition of that Silver Age Superboy comic where he meets Bonnie and Clyde. Or the poster art for “Rebel Without a Cause” featuring James Dean and Natalie Wood as a variant cover for a facsimile edition of a Silver Age DC romance comic. There are quite a few possibilities.
We definitely need a Swamp Thing/Beetlejuice comic. Or, maybe even better, a John Constantine/Beetlejuice comic.
When I think of all the exhaustive, fun, ridiculous effort and energy I’ve put into cataloging, organizing, inventorying, sorting, displaying, and JUST PLAIN MOVING my collection over the past four-and-a-half decades, I realize one truism about this nutty hobby: IT NEVER ENDS.
Wait, doesn’t Mike also have a collection of homages to the cover of House of Secrets #92? Does he need two copies, or is it like the Hall of Presidents where there’s only one Cleveland?
IT’SSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSS SHOWTIME!!!
ExistentialMan: “IT NEVER ENDS.”
“Nothing ever ends, Adrian”.
I just learned last week that they’re putting variant covers on facsimile editions. There must be a much bigger market for those than I thought. It looked like Marvel Super Heroes Secret Wars #8 had like 8 or 10 covers.
I like the lime green “blank” cover on this facsimile. That’s going to look really good with a black Sharpie sketch on it.