JAMES JOBE

The Variant Mafia is back with more for all of you variant geeks out there! This time around though, Roger is the one who's responsible. He's the one with the real passion for the black circles, and also the one who's done all the research on them. If you have any questions, send them to him!

Any questions or comments please contact: james@stlcomics.com

ROGER PEREZ

These variants were published by Marvel back in January 1962. Apparently Marvel wanted to up the price on their monthly titles to 12 cents but didn't want to wait for the Februrary 1962 titles to start. So they chose 3 titles from January to start the price increase.... those titles were Gunsmoke Western, Journey into Mystery and Love Romances. All the other titles that month had 10 cent covers (maybe these all came out the last week of the month).

When these titles where printed they initially they had a 10 cent price in a white circle just like all the other titles that month. However, they were supposed to have a 12 cent cover price. The printers evidently discovered their mistake after a good number were already printed. The now incorrectly priced comics were then "fixed" by blacking in the price circle and printing the correct 12 cent price near the circle. Journey into Mystery #76 has the price in the "M" probably because the brown cover near the circle would obscure the price somewhat.

The printers then continued with the rest of the run with the correct 12 cent price in the white circle. There are still some questions left unanwered i.e. were these some kind of price increase variants? Did any of the 10 cent priced versions make it out of the printers? Post any info you might have in the Variant Mafia forum and good hunting.

Any questions or comments please contact: roger@stlcomics.com