Posted in: Bad Idea, Comics, Comics Publishers, Current News | Tagged: bad idea, cgc

CGC Asks Bad Idea To Stop Selling The Slabbed Invisible Comics

In December, Bleeding Cool ran an article on what we were assured was a brand new concept in collectable comic books. A conceptual comic book, Conceptual Funnies #1 by Robert Venditti and Tomas Giorello, a comic book that did not exist. It was an "invisible edition" made of stapled transparent acetate sheets. And yet it had been slabbed by CGC, in a variety of grades.

Yes, there kinda, sorta is a sixth FINAL FIVE comic. No, it will not be widely available. Yes, a copy was brought to San Diego Special Edition, Emerald City Comic Con and C2E2 for some high muckety-muck meetings. No, it was not available to read. Yes, because the rumors are true and every copy of the sixth FINAL FIVE comic has been encapsulated by CGC. No, we'll have you know there was, in fact, a very good reason to encapsulate them. Yes, it was because we thought people would lose them otherwise. No, it doesn't matter if we think people are idiots or not, they would lose them because they are invisible. Except for the staples. Yes, invisible. No, not the staples.

Again, yes, we did actually invent invisibility. Here's what happened — the genius duo of Robert Venditti and Tomas Giorello put together a banger of a story. Such a banger, in fact, that the geniuses at BAD IDEA Labs wanted to put a huge spotlight on the book. They devised a gimmick so earth-shattering, so game-changing, that it would turn the heads of every single comic book reader in the entire world. They invented the invisible comic.

BEHOLD! THE WORLD'S FIRST AND ONLY INVISIBLE COMIC BOOK!! The knuckleheads at BAD IDEA Labs then lost almost the entire damn run! In their defense, the comics are invisible. Thank goodness they invented the invisible comic book and not the invisible staple. After weeks of searching, we managed to locate just 34 solitary copies. The rest, we're afraid, are lost for good. To ensure we don't lose them again, we immediately brought the 34 copies to the amazing people at CGC for grading and encapsulation.

There are examples across art of this sort of thing. From the 4 minutes and 33 seconds of pure silence in the song 4' 33" by John Cage or the more recent empty frame of Jens Haaning's Take The Money And Run. Art that is art because of its absence. Conceptual Funnies #1 is sure to inspire much debate and discussion about art and commerce. So much so that Bleeding Cool understands that they may have to actually commission a visible copy of Conceptual Funnies #1 by Venditti and Giorello… and actually publish it in 2022.

But there was considerable disquiet from comic book collectors that this could be seen as damaging the CGC brand.

On the CGC forums, a representative replied saying "Hey all: Bad Idea approached us at the beginning of 2020 with the idea to create and encapsulate an invisible comic as a way to showcase and promote their new book and writers. Given recent feedback, we have asked Bad Idea to cease selling them, and only use them for promotional purposes."

On Twitter, Middle Earth Comics of Houston messaged Bad Idea's Dinesh Shamdasani saying "Hey Dinesh, what's the word on the invisible book and CGC's stance on selling them? Seeing some things online that they're not exactly behind the idea."

Dinesh replied "What are you seeing? We only built one mechanism for purchasing (and a lot of hoops to jump through!) Demand was insane and all the copies we made available were purchased immediately (on NYE!!). We have 3 big giveaways coming up very soon for copies in 3 promotion partnerships."

So, basically, Bad Idea is happy to stop selling the invisible comics. Because they already sold them all. And we are aware that offers of five figures have been made to those who have copies. We look forward to seeing what happens when the first one hits eBay…

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