| Slot: |
Black Hole (Fantagraphics) 1 Third Printing |
| Item: |
Black Hole #1 Universal |
| Grade: |
CGC 9.6 |
| Cert #: |
3760120001
|
Owner Comments
This is one of a group of books in this set that I purchased as slabs from an online seller who was submitting this series for grading at the same time I was filling in the bulk of the set from my own collection.
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| Slot: |
Black Hole (Fantagraphics) 2 Third Printing |
| Item: |
Black Hole #2 Universal |
| Grade: |
CGC 9.8 |
| Cert #: |
3847395002
|
|
| Slot: |
Black Hole (Fantagraphics) 3 Second Printing |
| Item: |
Black Hole #3 Universal |
| Grade: |
CGC 9.8 |
| Cert #: |
3760120003
|
Owner Comments
This is one of a group of books in this set that I purchased as slabs from an online seller who was submitting this series for grading at the same time I was filling in the bulk of the set from my own collection.
|
| Slot: |
Black Hole (Fantagraphics) 5 Second Printing |
| Item: |
Black Hole #5 Universal |
| Grade: |
CGC 9.8 |
| Cert #: |
3760120005
|
Owner Comments
This is one of two oddities in the series. Black Hole #5 and #9 are the only two books originally published by Fantagraphics that went to a second printing. Why? I really have no idea. There's nothing special about these issues. There's nothing unusual about Diamond's reported ordering numbers. Was there some unusual demand? Did some percentage of the printed first edition copies fail quality control, warranting a reprint? I tried reaching out to Fantagraphics for information -- and to confirm that there are no second printings of #4, #6, or other issues lurking out there -- but never received a response. So it remains one of this series's little mysteries.
There is no reliable method to distinguish the two printings without opening up the book and looking at the indicia. But in any case, the second printing of #5 does not seem particularly scarce.
This is one of a group of books in this set that I purchased as slabs from an online seller who was submitting this series for grading at the same time I was filling in the bulk of the set from my own collection.
|
| Slot: |
Black Hole (Fantagraphics) 6 |
| Item: |
Black Hole #6 Universal |
| Grade: |
CGC 9.6 |
| Cert #: |
3847395003
|
Owner Comments
The thick cardstock covers of this series are prone to manufacturing defects. Folding the semi-gloss printed covers around the books invariably cracks the ink along the spine. Worse, the blades used at Fantagraphics's printer (and Kitchen Sink's before them, frankly) were rarely up to the task of cleanly slicing the heavy stock, so bindery tears at the top and bottom of the spines are common. But this issue seems to have gotten the worst of it. I've seen copy after copy where what started as a bindery tear (mostly at bottom, but sometimes at both ends) has propagated upward, effectively creating an "almost spine split" that extends through about three-quarters of the thickness of the cover stock.
Comichron recorded 5302 ordered copies for this issue.
I'd love to have all these books in 9.8, but I'm just glad that I finally found a sound copy of this issue.
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| Slot: |
Black Hole (Fantagraphics) 7 |
| Item: |
Black Hole #7 Universal |
| Grade: |
CGC 9.8 |
| Cert #: |
3760120008
|
Owner Comments
This cover, perhaps even more than the cover to #1, has become sort of the iconic representative image for the series. It gets included in interviews with Burns or analyses of the series. So perhaps it's only a little surprising that German republisher Reprodukt chose this cover for the first issue of the German-language publication of the series.
Comichron recorded 5255 ordered copies for this issue.
This is one of a group of books in this set that I purchased as slabs from an online seller who was submitting this series for grading at the same time I was filling in the bulk of the set from my own collection.
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| Slot: |
Black Hole (Fantagraphics) 8 |
| Item: |
Black Hole #8 Universal |
| Grade: |
CGC 9.8 |
| Cert #: |
2138810007
|
Owner Comments
Comichron recorded 5269 ordered copies for this issue.
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| Slot: |
Black Hole (Fantagraphics) 9 |
| Item: |
Black Hole #9 Universal |
| Grade: |
CGC 9.8 |
| Cert #: |
3847395004
|
Owner Comments
Comichron recorded 5148 ordered copies for this issue.
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| Slot: |
Black Hole (Fantagraphics) 9 Second Printing |
| Item: |
Black Hole #9 Universal |
| Grade: |
CGC 9.6 |
| Cert #: |
3709501015
|
Owner Comments
This is one of two oddities in the series. Black Hole #5 and #9 are the only two books originally published by Fantagraphics that went to a second printing. Why? I really have no idea. There's nothing special about these issues. There's nothing unusual about Diamond's reported ordering numbers. Was there some unusual demand? Did some percentage of the printed first edition copies fail quality control, warranting a reprint? I tried reaching out to Fantagraphics for information -- and to confirm that there are no second printings of #4, #6, or other issues lurking out there -- but never received a response. So it remains one of this series's little mysteries.
There is no reliable method to distinguish the two printings without opening up the book and looking at the indicia. Even taking that into account, this book (unlike the second printing of #5) is demonstrably rarer than its first printing equivalent. I suspect that is because of the extremely late release date. This printing was produced four years after the initial release of #9, and a full year after the release of #12 and the end of the series. In fact, the hardcover collected edition was released by Pantheon Press in October 2005, so this reprint even post-dates the availability of a compilation! I really have no idea why it exists.
I purchased this copy pre-slabbed from an online seller. At the time, I felt that I fairly aggressively overpaid, especially given the 9.6 grade as opposed to a 9.8 that is achievable for most of the run. At this point, with this copy still tied for top of census, I'm not at all sad about pulling the trigger on it. Along with the 2nd printing of #2, I think this is one of the hardest books in the set.
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| Slot: |
Black Hole (Fantagraphics) 10 |
| Item: |
Black Hole #10 Universal |
| Grade: |
CGC 9.8 |
| Cert #: |
3847395005
|
Owner Comments
Comichron recorded 4836 ordered copies for this issue.
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| Slot: |
Black Hole (Fantagraphics) 11 |
| Item: |
Black Hole #11 Universal |
| Grade: |
CGC 9.8 |
| Cert #: |
3760120012
|
Owner Comments
Comichron recorded 4240 ordered copies for this issue. Solely in terms of US domestic orders placed through Diamond Distribution, this is the rarest first-printing issue of Black Hole.
This is one of a group of books in this set that I purchased as slabs from an online seller who was submitting this series for grading at the same time I was filling in the bulk of the set from my own collection.
|
| Slot: |
Black Hole (Fantagraphics) 12 |
| Item: |
Black Hole #12 Universal |
| Grade: |
CGC 9.8 |
| Cert #: |
3847395006
|
Owner Comments
Comichron recorded 4324 ordered copies for this issue.
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| Slot: |
Black Hole (Kitchen Sink) 1 |
| Item: |
Black Hole #1 Universal |
| Grade: |
CGC 9.8 |
| Cert #: |
2138810003
|
Owner Comments
No reliable information appears to exist regarding the number of copies of this issue ordered through Diamond Distribution, or anywhere else. It's tempting to assume that it was similar to #2 (for which an order index is known) or #4 (for which a reasonable accurate count of domestic orders is known), but that's a pretty tall assumption for a #1 from an indie publisher. There's arguments to be had that the count might be considerably higher... or lower. Whatever the case, there are sufficient copies of this on the general market that I'm comfortable saying initial US orders were over 5000, but probably short of 6000.
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| Slot: |
Black Hole (Kitchen Sink) 2 |
| Item: |
Black Hole #2 Universal |
| Grade: |
CGC 9.8 |
| Cert #: |
2138810004
|
Owner Comments
Comichron reported an order index of 5.3 for this issue; currently, that value cannot be reliably "decoded" to the number of US domestic orders placed through Diamond Distribution, but somewhere around 5500-5700 copies is a reasonable education guess.
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| Slot: |
Black Hole (Kitchen Sink) 3 |
| Item: |
Black Hole #3 Universal |
| Grade: |
CGC 9.6 |
| Cert #: |
2138810005
|
Owner Comments
The original art for the cover to this issue is one of the few major pieces of Black Hole OA to reach the market. In 2019, it sold for a fairly staggering $37,500 at Heritage (not, I should be clear, to me!).
This book, so far as I can tell, does not appear in Comichron's tables of US domestic comic book orders placed through Diamond Distribution. The most likely scenario is that it fell just short of inclusion in the top 300 books for its order month. There's no reason to believe Black Hole #3 had unusually low orders; rather, it probably simply faced a busy market month. Somewhere around 5500-5700 domestic orders were likely placed.
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