Lemme explain.
At the San Diego con in 1995, I stumbled across a reasonably-priced copy of this issue. As a Legion fan, it was my "holy grail" of comics. Here's how I recounted it a couple years later:
I got mine at the 1995 San Diego con, just beating out Jim Drew for the right to buy it. A dealer (Mike Carbonaro) had bought a large collection to sell at SDCC and pulled out the top books to display. They didn't really get a chance to look at everything closely, the guy said. Jim and I passed by the booth and I noticed it in a display case, the first time I had ever seen a copy. It was way more than I wanted to spend for the convention, but I rationalized it as a Congressional "off-the-budget" purchase. I was still wavering, and Jim told me that if I didn't buy it, he would. So I had to buy it. :) Of course, I didn't look at it closely enough until I got home, only to find out that (a) it had been restored (rice paper strengthening the cover, new staples, minor color touchups) and (b) the centerfold was missing. I wound up contacting him and getting a rebate the next year (which I wound up spending on Adventure 267 and Action 267 from him anyway).
(If anyone here was reading Usenet or the LSH-L mailing list in 1995, this is the infamous "milkshake copy".)
So for 11 years I had my copy of Adventure Comics 247, missing a centerfold. Someone sent me scans of what I was missing (a Little Pete gag page, a two-page ad, and the first page of the Green Arrow story), but I was always on the lookout for a spare centerfold from the issue. Of course, those never show up, so I eventually started looking for crappy beat-up copies with the centerfold intact, thinking I'd cannibalize the issue. And whaddaya know, this summer I finally found the right candidate. For the grand sum of $35, I bought a copy that was missing the cover and the first wraparound (which is the first two pages of the Legion story, and two ads) and had a detached centerfold. Score! (The seller threw in a copy of the Silver Age Classics issue too.)
But what do I do with rest of the issue? The pages (that are left) are in decent condition, considering it's nearly 50 years old. If I were to put it up on eBay, the selling price would barely cover my listing fees - per Overstreet rules, it's probably worth about ten bucks.
I figured that since November 8th is my one-year blogiversary here at the Omnicom, I'll just give it away as a celebration gimmick. But how and who? That's where you guys come in - I'll let my readers (about 150-200 per day) figure it out. It's not a beg-a-thon and I'm not asking for anything in return. How should I get rid of this issue and who should I give it to? If you want it, tell me why you should get it. Bribery is an option but not a guarantee.
For the winner, I'll also throw in that Silver Age Classics reprint and a CD with scans of the missing pages. Absolutely free, I'll even pay for postage.
To Freedom, Friendship, and Frunt!
I really haven't been able to come up with a good contest for this one. Mind you, the definition of "good contest", for my purposes, is "one I can win without being too obvious."
ReplyDeleteIn the Bribe department, I can do somewhat better: I'll offer you (or whoever wins) to trade my F/VF extra copy of All-New Collectors' Edition C-55 (AKA "That Damned Tabloid") for your prize package, straight up. I'm willing to bet that's actually wanted to finally read by more people than an incomplete, coverless copy of Adventure #247, to be honest.
As to the simple "why I should get it" answer: It's one of only two major Legion appearances I'm missing the originals of; along with Adventure #304. And two of my others are coverless; Action #267 and Superman Annual #4. So you would know it's going to a good home and somebody who would appreciate it. Which isn't a great reason, perhaps. But it's not a bad one, either.
In any case, a cool idea for a contest; and thank you for your blog.
Well, you know I don't need one because I have one. My only suggestion is to give it to someone who'll love it as much as we do:)
ReplyDeleteYou should give it to Wil Wheaton, in return for a publicity photo of him swearing that, in return, he will never again let Wesley Crusher save the entire universe.
ReplyDeleteI only wish I could come up with a good contest for this. Adventure 247 is one of the few issues of "pre-boot" Legion I'm missing. Well, ok, I have at least 2 reprints, but.... :-)
ReplyDeleteThis probably sounds lame, BUT...
ReplyDeleteHow about having people submit an essay of 247 words on what the Legion means to them? You could publish the winner.
And you have 200 people/day? You TOTALLY rock!!
Have you given it away already?
ReplyDelete(I can't seem to sign in as me, for some reason...)
You could have a scavenger hunt. First set up a brand-new blog just for the contest, with only one outgoing link -- to your latest post. Then hand-pick a bunch of cronies (anybody who already owns a copy?), and have 'em each post a different scan of a Legionnaire on their site on some specified day. Maybe the 8th? (The Legionnaires in question can be thematically-related somehow or not, it doesn't matter.) Then have each crony also provide one not-too-hard clue of their choice to the location of one other (and only one other) participating crony-blog, along with a magic letter that will form part of a bigger clue later on.
Start from your own blog, and a post that tells people how many total Legionnaires they'll have to collect in order to have everything they need to win. Tell them which Legionnaire's picture starts the clue-chain. Tell them each Legionnaire in the chain also comes with one of those aforementioned magic letters, which they have to put "in order" to learn the address of the new contest blog you've set up. Then turn 'em all loose to track down where the first clue is. Don't help them any more than that! They'll figure it out...
Finally, once a contestant has visited all the participating crony-blogs, he or she arranges the magic letters in the order in which the scanned Legionnaires they were attached to became members (or died, or visited Superboy in the past, or whatever other order you choose), puts an "http://" in front of it and a ".blogspot.com/" on the end of it, and zips off to your contest-blog. First person to click the link back to you from there wins.
Too much?
Yeah, I really should get a hobby...