by Tim Bildhouser
In August of 2011, I embarked on a trip that took
far longer than I ever expected it to take. I had
recently delved into the world of collecting foreign
editions and while researching; I discovered that
Editorial Novaro in Mexico had published an incredible amount of DC material. With the main focus of
my collection being books with art by Neal Adams
and Bernie Wrightson, there was quite an extensive
list of books I wanted to find.
Among those issues were the Mexican editions
of the original Swamp Thing series by Len Wein
and Bernie Wrightson. As luck would have it, I was
browsing eBay one morning and stumbled across a
copy of Relatos Fabulosos #160 (House of Secrets
#92) with a “Buy It Now” price that seemed reasonable. Without even hesitating I jumped at the opportunity to own it. In hindsight, I’m very glad I did. As
of this writing, and about five years later, I’ve only
been able to confirm the existence of
three other copies! It pretty
much goes without
saying that this book
is one of the pride
and joys of my
collection.
Approximately
two months
later I was
Mi Gran Aventura #1 (Swamp Thing #1) with a classic
Bernie Wrightson cover. This one’s almost as elusive as
Relatos Fabulosos #160.
searching eBay again. This time I ran across a
seller who had listed Novaro editions of Swamp
Thing (published in Mexico as Mi Gran Aventura)
#1, 2, and 3. I remember, at the time, thinking that
his price was kind of high but I really wanted these
books though so, again, I hit the “Buy It Now.”
Once they arrived, I was glad I didn’t decide to wait.
I now had four of the eleven issues I was searching
for.
It took between nine and ten months before I was
able to obtain another book for this run. A seller
out of Mexico City started listing books from an
original owner collection on eBay in
the U.S. I was buying books
he was
Relatos Fabolusos #160 (House of Secrets #92) is one
of the most sought after Mexican Bronze-Age keys.
Only about 7 copies have surfaced in as many years.
listing left and right and
checking his auctions
as much as three times
a day to make sure I
wouldn’t miss anything.
Low and behold, after about a month, he
listed some Mexican
Swamp Thing editions.
As I sat there refreshing the screen, they
popped up one by one
. . . #2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8,
9, 11, and so on up to
#24. No #10 though. It
For Mi Gran Aventura #2
didn’t matter, I placed
(Swamp Thing #2) Novaro
bids on the others. I
changed the header background
ended up winning them color to red from the blue that
DC used in the U.S.
all and sent the seller
a message to ask if he mistakenly forgot to list the
#10. He replied that the whole run was in the collection except issues #1 & #10. “No big deal” I
thought, how hard can it be to track that one down?
I found ou t later that it was much harder than anyone might have guessed.
I scoured the Internet for a copy—any copy of
that book. I found a scan on some remote website,
which confirmed that it existed but not a single
copy was anywhere to be found. I put in notices
with every comic seller from Mexico and South
America that I knew of that I wanted a copy of it.
Weeks passed and
nothing. Months
went by. Still nothing.
Months turned into
years. Still nothing.
I raised my offer for
how much I’d pay for
any complete copy
regardless of condition
several times. It didn’t
help. It seemed that
this book was going to
elude me forever.
The header color change to blue
from red on Mi Gran Aventura
#3 (Swamp Thing #3) draws the
eye to image of our tragic hero
in the center of the cover.