tant issues from the foreign run. The satisfactory high of owning almost every one of a key issue’s foreign variant is probably a big reason for this type of collection. There are probably more combinations and types of collecting foreign books. The two types stated above are probably the most common however, and the most easily identifiable.
Why foreign books?
Why would an American collector concern himself with comic books he cannot read? This is an interesting debate, and the conversation is filled with many differing points of view. For some it might be the completionist mindset, a kind of OCD vision of collecting. For some it’s the thrill of "the hunt” - the hunt being the actual search for the books to add to one’s collection. After speaking with one collector, I was told that the hunt is almost paramount to the book itself. In a day and age where all one needs is money to
Cultural idiosyncrasies?
Superman #298 (American), (Norwegian)
find most any comic book desired, it’s actually pretty rare to find yourself in a situation where you just don’t have a viable option from a buyer’s perspective. And some hunts, according to collectors I have talked to, have taken years to find just one tough, and rare issue! The quest for foreigns scratches a different collecting itch. The buyer not only has to have money for the purchase, but must have the contacts, or the right middleman, and in some cases, access to the local auction sites for any given country. After all of this, one still needs to find a way to cross the language barrier with sellers. The Internet has made this possible, but for many collectors the trouble of finding foreign books removes them totally from this niche of collecting. Only the linguistically brave with good social skills and patience have the ability to tackle “the hunt.” Yet for others, it’s the cultural idiosyncrasies of the books. It’s the idea that we are a global world. And in the manufacture of our American heroes there is a social study to be had in how other countries choose to print and display those heroes. Or could it be a simple desire to connect through comic books with the rest of the global community? The amount of foreign companies reprinting American material is staggering. Often times the stories about some of these companies are just as interesting as the comic books they printed, this however is a whole other article for a future time. This concludes part one of the article about this particular focus. Join us in the next issue where we delve deeper into the rabbit hole of foreign variant awareness. Points of note for next week: desirability, condition factors, indigenous bias, classification and the end result of foreign awareness from this writers humble perspective.
Notice how the Norwegian cover art has been significantly altered. Particularly the background carnage. Planes crashing into buildings, a man being shot in the back, and a derailing subway car complete with victims falling to thier deaths. Someone in the publishing process deemed these images to violent for the youth of Norway. There are many other examples of American cover art that has been changed or altered to better fit with a countries lexicon. Like removing a woman who appeared to sexualized or altering covers to better represent specific localized values.
There are 21 known variants both domestic and foreign