Identifying JC Penney Variants

[grendeljd]

Anyone here know much about the JC Penny reprint comics from the 90’s? I’ve been picking away at collecting the Neal Adams X-Men issues and did not realize that some of them were reprinted in the 90’s… I’m a little concerned about accidentally paying too much and ending up with one of those instead of the originals. Seems hard to tell from the few photos I’ve seen of them… I’d like to know what to look out for if anyone can enlighten me!

[SwiftMann]

Easiest way to tell is the UPC boxes on the later issues. All the JCP ones have swinging Spider-Man 30th anniversary boxes.

For the Adams era reprints, it's all about the ads. Modern ads throughout and an X-Men animated (I think) video tapes as on the back covers.

[IMJ]

There is an Iron Man vol 1 variant from the Armor Wars II era that I've been looking for for years.

[grendeljd]

Easiest way to tell is the UPC boxes on the later issues. All the JCP ones have swinging Spider-Man 30th anniversary boxes.

For the Adams era reprints, it's all about the ads. Modern ads throughout and an X-Men animated (I think) video tapes as on the back covers.

Thanks man, that’s a big help. I had seen a few of the reprint Adam’s X-Men issues listed on eBay that *did* state they were JC Penny reprints - but they didn’t show any pictures except for the front cover, which seems to be a totally faithful reprint of the original one without even a modern price.

[IMJ]

My understanding is that they interior advertisements are "modern" to when the JCP edition was published - so the ads are different inside from the original printings.

[grendeljd]

My understanding is that they interior advertisements are "modern" to when the JCP edition was published - so the ads are different inside from the original printings.

I’ll keep an eye out for listings that only show the front and back covers at the very least on eBay. It’s actually pretty unusual that a ‘modern’ reprint didn’t change anything on the cover - especially the price. Were these all free giveaways at the time? That’s the only reason I can think of offhand for not changing the cover price.

[SwiftMann]

Were these all free giveaways at the time? That’s the only reason I can think of offhand for not changing the cover price.

I THINK they were catalog only sets.

[IMJ]

I THINK they were catalog only sets.

That's my understanding as well.....

[grendeljd]

I THINK they were catalog only sets.

That's my understanding as well.....

That’s interesting - although I’m not entirely sure I understand what you guys mean by catalog only sets? Did they come with JC Penny catalogues, or do you mean something like Diamond Distributors of the era?

[IMJ]

I THINK they were catalog only sets.

That's my understanding as well.....

That’s interesting - although I’m not entirely sure I understand what you guys mean by catalog only sets? Did they come with JC Penny catalogues, or do you mean something like Diamond Distributors of the era?

My understanding is that you could order a "Pack of Comic Books" from the Christmas catalog as a Christmas Present. The pack had however many books, I don't know, but they were all reprints of older comics with new ads on the ads pages as the only discerning difference. So you'd get a Pennies catalog and flip through it looking at the new G.I. Joes and toys and what not, and one of the listings to order through the catalog was like "Marvel Comic Pack" or something like that.