Set Description:
Diablo is, without question, one of the most successful and influential video game series of all time. Blizzard North had a modest outlook for the release of the first game in 1997. Co-designer Max Schaefer has been quoted as saying they would have initially considered it a success if it sold 100,000 copies. Instead, it ultimately sold over 2.5 million. Diablo II sold 4 million copies in its first year alone. Diablo III sold 3.5 million copies in its first day. In addition to boasting such impressive sales figures, the main games of the series have been generally very well-reviewed. Diablo and Diablo II have both been on many, many lists of "best games ever" from reputable reviewers. In general, it's hard to overstate the impact the series has had, to the point where many other action RPGs released since 1997 have been dismissed as mere "Diablo clones".
The setting for the games, the world of Sanctuary, seems ready-made for comic book adaptations. Humans, it turns out, are the descendants of angels and demons who fled the Eternal War between Heaven and Hell, opting instead to live in a backwater material world away from the carnage. Until, of course, Sanctuary is discovered, and becomes a new battleground. So, of course, the comic adaptations made the same sort of genre-defining impact in this industry that the original video games made in theirs, right?
Right?
Not... so much, actually. The Diablo comics that have been released are generally well-presented. They're fairly well-written. They're illustrated by skilled artists. But they didn't attract much attention at all. They didn't sell. Especially on the scale of other modern comics published at the same time, every single Diablo comic adaptation is surprisingly scarce for a title paired with such a behemoth of a property. In fact, DC's 2012 Diablo limited series sold so poorly that that last two books dropped off the bottom of Comichron's index of orders placed through Diamond Comic Distributors. And that's still a better fate than befell the 2018 series from Titan Comics. Although at least the first issue was apparently completed, and several variant covers prepared and solicited for preorders, Blizzard ultimately decided to cancel the series entirely (the general belief is that some element of the story conflicted with the plotline then-in-development Diablo IV). No copies have ever emerged, and I rather suspect that it never saw print at all. |
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| Slot: |
Diablo: Tales of Sanctuary nn |
| Item: |
Diablo: Tales of Sanctuary nn Modern |
| Grade: |
CGC |
| Cert #: |
4027621001
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Owner Comments
Comichron shows 6,126 Previews orders were placed for this issue.
I was surprised by the opportunity to upgrade my previous copy to this one in 9.8. With relatively limited distribution and fairly low interest in the 20+ years since it was printed, copies aren't exactly raining from the sky. The all-black cover and squarebound binding make high grade copies particularly pretty elusive.
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| Slot: |
Diablo: Tales of Sanctuary nn Variant Cover |
| Item: |
Diablo: Tales of Sanctuary nn Modern |
| Grade: |
CGC |
| Cert #: |
4274418001
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Owner Comments
Following the success of Diablo II and its expansion, Diablo II: Lord of Destruction, Blizzard released a compilation box set called the Diablo Battle Chest. Initially, this box set included CDs for the original Diablo, Diablo II, and Lord of Destruction along with BradyGames's nearly 300-page Ultimate Strategy Guide, and the manuals for both Diablo II and its expansion. All for -- originally, at least -- $39.99. It was a pretty good deal if you were newly jumping into the franchise. As time went on, Blizzard made multiple revisions to the Diablo Battle Chest, resulting in a surprisingly large number of... well, variants:
- Variant A: The first version of the Battle Chest had a portrait-oriented box; this release is referred to as the "Tall Box" by video game collectors. The Tall Box is not particularly common, and especially unopened copies have fairly substantial demand on the secondary market. There are rumors that one or more of the chain stores the drove the video game market at the time -- perhaps GameStop or Best Buy -- objected to the Tall Box because it didn't fit easily in their intended displays for the game. We'll never know for sure.
- Variant B: The Tall Box was replaced with the Wide Box, which is a landscape-oriented product. The Wide Box would be the basic design for the rest of the Battle Chest's lifespan. This first version of the Wide Box used the original covers to all three games and the strategy guide as its cover art. Importantly, these covers had some overlap. The center image, the cover to Diablo II covered part of the logo of the cover to its left, that of Lord of Destruction: the "O" in "Diablo" on the expansion cover is entirely concealed. Inside, the game CDs for this version of the box set came in jewel cases. Remember those? There are no production numbers available, but based on the secondary market, this is by far less common than the next two versions, and is comparable in rarity (or perhaps even more so) than the original Tall Box.
- Variant C: Someone at Blizzard decided that it was bad form for them to partially obscure the logo of their game on, you know, their games, and had the box art for the Battle Chest redesigned, spreading the reproduced covers apart a little better and leaving everything clearly readable. Inside, the jewel cases were gone as a cost-saving measure, replaced with black cardboard sleeves.
- Variant D: Faced with some compatibility problems as Windows versions marched on, Blizzard dropped the original Diablo from the Battle Chest, despite continuing to advertise it as "The Complete, Award-Winning Diablo Saga". Oops. Regardless, this version is easy to identify because the original game was also summarily excised from the box art, leaving only the covers of the sequel and its expansion and the strategy guide. This is -- by far -- the most common version of the Battle Chest. As of this writing, copies (even sealed copies) are readily available in the secondary market.
What does all of this have to do with a Dark Horse comic book? Well, although the normal version of Diablo: Tales of Sanctuary was indeed released normally by Dark Horse, this version has no cover price and was never distributed independently. Instead, it was a pack-in with the Diablo Battle Chest. Or, rather, with some Diablo Battle Chests. Specifically, this comic was only included in Variant B of the box set -- the first, and rarest, Wide Box edition. Evidently, the cost-cutting measures that led to the jewel cases being replaced with black cardstock sleeves also saw the removal of the pack-in promotional comic book from subsequent releases. Indeed, I've read some unconfirmed reports that suggest that not all Variant B box sets contained the book either! Although there's a possibility that those reports confused international releases of the Diablo Battle Chest with US Variant B boxes; for some time, they used the same cover art.
At the time of this writing, this 9.4 copy is the second highest graded example (of, admittedly, a population of two!) behind a single 9.6. I had gone through around a half-dozen raw copies of the variant looking for one suitable for encapsulation. I don't honestly think any of them could have even gotten a 7.0. A lot is stacked against this book. The contents of the Diablo Battle Chest were not well secured, so these comics were banging around in a box with three jewel cases, two game manuals, and a giant strategy guide. Many of them were casualties before the boxes were even opened. Additionally, the market for this product was not comic book collectors, and -- as with many video game pack-ins -- the survival rate is generally poor. Finally, I just do not think there were ever very many produced. Typically, there is perhaps 1 copy of the variant available in online secondary markets for every 5 or so copies of the normal comic. And remember, that's a normal comic that's also fairly scarce for such a high-profile modern book, with only a little over 6000 copies initially ordered (as per Comichron). Even if we assume that 6000 number is low because of other distribution channels, reorders, and whatnot -- perhaps the real number is closer to 7500 -- napkin math based on the availability ratios suggests that there might have only been something like 1500 of this version. Honestly, anything between 1000 and 2000 is believable. The bottom line is that this is a surprisingly rare book, especially in anything like collectible grade!
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