NEW TITANS #50 (Dec 1988)

BOB MCLEOD RETURNS
Aug 6, 2005, 06:40
By Leroy Douresseaux

(excerpt)

After New Mutants, Star Wars, and Spider-Man, I lose track of what you did for the rest of the 1980's. What were you doing?
BOB: I inked 6 issues of JEMM, SON OF SATURN over Gene Colan, for DC after Klaus Janson bailed out of the series. I pencilled and inked a fill-in on POWER PACK for my friend June Brigman, inked a couple issues of SPITFIRE (one over [Herb] Trimpe, one over McFarlane), and inked a lot of GI JOE covers. I then inked several issues of WONDER WOMAN over [George] Perez breakdowns, then inked several issues of the NEW TITANS over Perez breakdowns, inked a NEW MUTANTS ANNUAL over Brigman breakdowns, inked New Mutants #75 over [John] Byrne breakdowns, and then inked that horrible 12-issue SUB-MARINER series over [Rick] Buckler, which almost stalled my career again. That's when I decided to move back up north to rejuvenate my career, and being back in NYC made a big difference in the assignments I got. I started inking the HULK over Dale Keown, then quit that when I got an offer to pencil SUPERMAN.

The New Teen Titans, The New Teen Titans or The *NEW* Teen Titans?
Did you Know...?, Scoop, Friday, May 14, 2004

NEW TITANS #50 (Dec 1988)

For the purposes of this article, we're going to say that the truly authentic New Teen Titans were the ones that cropped up in the 1980s.

See, the first Teen Titans appeared in the 1960s. Then they experienced a minor lull and underwent a semi-reinvention in the '70s, adding characters like the Joker's Daughter, The Bumblebee, Bat-Girl and Golden Eagle.

But it wasn't until 1980 when DC Comics emerged under an official The New Teen Titans comic title that the transformation was complete. Previewed in DC Comics Presents #26, this fresh-faced crew fused the older standbys like Robin, Wonder Girl and Kid Flash with entirely original characters like Cyborg, Starfire, Raven, Terra and Changling.

The major difference between this camp and its band of '60s predecessors was that, this time, the Teens were no longer sidekicks. They'd finally emerged from the shadows of their mentors (with the aid of gradual age progression) to become their own men... and women. This time around, they were confident enough in their own ability to bust the bad guys without having to play second fiddle or beg an assist from their older superheroic counterparts.

Under this title, Wonder Girl married and Robin graduated college. Then, in 1988, the comic title evolved, dropping the "Teen" from its name to become The New Titans, and crimefighting business went on as usual for another eight years.

But any channel-surfing animated series enthusiast knows that yet another group of New Teen Titans airs regularly on the Cartoon Network. So will the newest New Teen Titans one day become passe, only to be usurped by another newer New Teen Titans crew? Well, if history is any indication, we'd guess so....

WOLFMAN, PEREZ, AND THE TITANS: GAMES
11-21-2003 07:20 PM
posted by MattBrady

(excerpt)

NEW TITANS #50 (Dec 1988)

As announced at today’s WizardWorld Texas DCU panel, 2004 will see the release of Marv Wolfman and George Perez’s long (and we mean long) awaited Titans graphic novel, Games. Newsarama caught up with Perez, Wolfman, and even a surprised Mike Lovitz to get the story of this legacy project and see some art.

First, a little history on the graphic novel. The setting for Games is just after the “deluxe” or “baxter” series changes its name from The New Teen Titans to The New Titans, circa 1988. “The Judas Contact” was a memory, Dick Grayson had become Nightwing, the Wildebeast was around, Perez had left the series, and had just come back with issue #50, the “Who is Wonder Girl?” four-part arc.

Actually – there’s a funny story about that arc. As it turns out, Games is the second Titans graphic novel.

“The irony of all of this is that the ‘original’ Titans graphic novel was going to be the ‘Who is Wonder Girl?’ story that ended up being issues #50 to #54 of The New Titans when I came back to the book,” Perez said. “Marv and I had already started that as a graphic novel, but when I came back, we decided that we could put the story into continuity, and get it out of the way. But that was the original graphic novel, so when that was printed, we had to start fresh with a whole new story, and that became Games - so, if you want to get technical about it, this is my second Titans graphic novel.”

So – on to Games.

It was originally started sometime between 1986 and 1989, when Wolfman was in New York visiting the then Titans editor Barbara Kesel. “Barb and I were going to meet at George's house in Jamaica, Queens to discuss doing the first Titans graphic novel,” Wolfman recalled. “When I got there I told them the rough basics of what I thought might make a good story, and then we sat down and plotted out the novel. George fleshed it all out and went to work drawing what I thought was some of absolute best Titans material he had ever done.”

The book is called THE STANDARD CATALOG OF COMIC BOOKS (ISBN 0-87341-916-2), and is written by the same people who edits and publishes COMIC BUYERS GUIDE. It is a little expensive at $34.95, but it's worth it if you're a collector as it is a good price guide and checklist, and for the fact that it's 1237 pages long.

Although, in most guides, they do tend to miss certain variant comics and/or just plain inaccurate. I just checked the 31st Edition to OVERSTREET'S COMIC BOOK PRICE GUIDE, which is the latest version, and it still lists DARK HORSE #50 as having a Pérez story (see "Settlements").

Anyway, in addition to a summary of some titles, SCCB also list, in some cases, Diamond Preorder numbers and Capital City's order numbers. What I found very interesting is that THE NEW TEEN TITANS: THE JUDAS CONTRACT TP is quite rare! According to this book, Capital City only received and shipped 2,500 copies (note this number does not include Diamond Distribution).

Compare this number to some other, like ACTION COMICS #643 (Capital City: 35,100), BATMAN #400 (Capital City: 27,650), THE NEW TITANS #50 (Capital City: 18,750), PRIME #15 (Capital City: 14,450), CRISIS #3 (Capital City: 42,050), CRIMSON PLAGUE #2 (Diamond Preorders: 23,680), and WONDER WOMAN #168 (Diamond Preorders: 27,185).

I am saving the last bit for AVENGERS #1 (vol 3), which they listed the following:

AVENGERS #1 (vol 3)

Circulation Statement: 166,903
Diamond Preorders: 194,439
Statement, filed 10/1/97,; avg print run 209,391; avg sales 163,342; avg subs 2,704; avg total paid 166,046; samples 270; office use 125; max existent 166,441; 21% of run returned

The book was actually designed as a price guide, but I mostly find the circulation statements more interesting than the actual list value. Personally, I always think a value of a comic book is based on the buyer's wants and needs (not dictated by a book). I disagree with some of the prices on the catalogue - just like you'd find WIZARD's pricing ridiculous.

The induction of Comics Guaranty LLC (CGC) in the price guide, I find a little annoying. I don't believe in CGC and I find the people buying them at extraordinary prices a little crazy. For about $600 for a perfect "10" SPAWN #1, you can get a pretty cool three figures unique George Pérez artwork, or heck, get yourself a new digital camera. Basically, the guide lists how many comics were CGC'ed and what the highest number it got. For instance, INHUMANS #1 there were 32 sent in to be graded and the best of the lot is a grade of 9.6. According to this guide, we're supposed to multiply 7 to its worth (which is valued at $8), so a CGC 9.6 INHUMANS #1 should fetch about $56.

As always, opinions expressed here are strictly my own. Buy this book, it's worth it!