Posted in: Comics, Vintage Paper | Tagged: Operation Galactic Storm, quasar

The Mystery of the Quasar #32 Printing Error, Up for Auction

Published Sat, 25 Sep 2021 14:32:08 -0500

The Wendell Vaughn version of Quasar first appeared in Captain America #217 (cover-dated January 1978). Called Marvel Boy in that issue, the character was based on a previous version of Marvel Boy who first appeared in Marvel Boy #1 (December 1950). The character was renamed Quasar in Incredible Hulk #234 (April 1979). This version of Quasar was created by Roy Thomas, John Buscema, and Don Glut. While Thomas and Buscema are well known to Marvel fans, Glut is better known for writing the novelization of The Empire Strikes Back. Glut had been a classmate of George Lucas at USC, and also was an avid amateur filmmaker who made a name for himself with fan films of the likes of Spider-Man (1969) and Superman among many others, and subsequently became a prolific writer for comics and television. Quasar got his own series in 1989, and Quasar #32 (1992) is the first appearance of Korath and also has some rather unusual variants. There's a Quasar #32 Printing Error (Marvel, 1992) CGC NM/MT 9.8 White pages in this week's 2021 September 26-27 Sunday & Monday Comic Books Select Auction #122139 from Heritage Auctions.

As far as I can tell from old discussions on this matter on the CGC boards, this is certainly an unusual variant edition but perhaps not an error… maybe. It seems that Quasar was a direct market-only series, but Quasar #32 was part of the Operation Galactic Storm event. So in order to offer newsstand readers all the parts of the event, a newsstand version of Quasar #32 was sold to newsstand vendors as Quasar Special #1 (though it was not named as "Special" on the comic itself) in order to avoid confusing newsstand outlets as to why they had issue #32 of the series available to them. However, as you will note from the scan here, the cover does not have a UPC code, which indicates that it is a direct market release. The theory here is that Marvel did not want to release a #1 issue only to newsstand vendors, they released a direct market version labeled as #1 as well. So, there are three versions of all of the Quasar parts of Operation Galactic Storm, Quasar #32-34. All this said, CGC has labeled this as a printing error.

There are only 5 copies of Quasar #32 "Printing Error" in CGC 9.8 on the CGC Census. An unusual variant, there's a Quasar #32 Printing Error (Marvel, 1992) CGC NM/MT 9.8 White pages in this week's 2021 September 26-27 Sunday & Monday Comic Books Select Auction #122139 from Heritage Auctions.

#32 Printing Error (Marvel, 1992) CGC NM/MT 9.8 White pages. First appearance of Korath. Manufactured with issue #1 printed on cover. Greg Capullo cover and art. Overstreet 2021 NM- 9.2 value = $4. CGC census 9/21: 5 in 9.8, none higher.

View the certification for CGC Certification ID 3838422002 and purchase grader's notes if available.

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