A group shot of some of Liaton-9000 huge foreign collection
Countries or regions represented here: Spain, Italy, Greece, Mexico, UK, Germany, Hungary, French Canada, Norway.
comic shop called Tramps Books in Saskatoon, SK.
I was browsing through the lines of comic boxes and
I came across one of the books that I was searching
for: Secret Wars #8. I purchased it and went on my
merry way.
Back to 2010: I showed Hector my copy of Secret
Wars #8 and noted the strange font that was used
for the price marking. Instead of the usual 75-cent
price, it had a $1.00 price mark. After a few clicks on
Google, we established that I had in my possession
an uncommon Canadian Price Variant. Hector
wasn’t aware of its existence before this, and he
promptly offered a very generous trade. I walked out
of that deal with a low grade copy of Amazing Spider-Man #129 (the original US edition), a Mexican
Secret Wars #8, and Italian editions of Amazing Spider-Man #129 and Amazing Spider-Man #252. I was
now in possession of four foreign editions, and I was
on top of the world.
And thus, the two of us began a long partnership in
the hunt for foreign comics. We began comparing
notes on a regular basis, always referring to each
other when we had a question or concern, as well
as letting each other know when a comic came up
for sale that the other may be interested in. My initial
focus was quite narrow, limited mainly to the main
Spider-Man valuables: issues #129, 238, 252, 298,
300 (for the most part, these were the issues that
Hector collected, and I was heavily influenced by
that). However, once I started actively researching
the series from which these books came, I discovered that there was an entire world of reprints that I
hadn’t yet tapped – to my wonderment, there was a
Polish Uncanny X-Men #282 (1st Bishop), a Dutch
Amazing Spider-Man #289 (Ned Leeds revealed to
be the Hobgoblin), and the Black Cat’s first appearance (ASM #194) was reprinted across just under a
dozen countries. The possibilities had achieved the
status of limitless.
Spain
Hulk #181
Brazil
Spiderman #129
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email him at
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