Free STAR WARS Comics Ultra Rare SPIDER-MAN Variants Howdy! Today's newsletter is going to be a bit longer than usual, as I am going to follow up my traditional Mile High Comics news and special offers with a short essay on Star Wars. Before I get to that point, however, I want to begin today by letting everyone know that the 60 signed Todd McFarlane prints that I offered in Wednesday's newsletter sold out in less than 12 hours. I apologize for this remarkably quick sell-out, but it does happen on occasion. In a nutshell, that is why I urge you to order immediately if you are interested in one of the special opportunities that I offer via this newsletter. As much as I wish it were otherwise, once we sell out of an item, we can almost never restock. STAR WARS #39 All of the above having been said, I have four special opportunities to offer you today. I will begin with the easiest, which is a free copy of the original Marvel STAR WARS (1977) #39. Printed in 1980, STAR WARS (1977) #39 was the first installment in Marvel's adaptation of THE EMPIRE STRIKES BACK. We long ago sold out of some of the other issues of this epic storyline, but I did manage to hold on to 100 extra copies of this key issue. If you would like a copy of this great marvel Bronze Age comic book for free, simply place any minimum $40 order with us, and request your free STAR WARS (1977) #39 in the "notes" section of our online order form. MARVEL SUPER SPECIAL #27 My second offer to you today is for a free copy of MARVEL SUPER SPECIAL #27. This is the special issue which features the complete comics adaptation of RETURN OF THE JEDI. Place any minimum $100 order with us this weekend, and you can then request a free copy of this beautiful magazine. Please do bear in mind, however, that each of our free offers requires a separate minimum be met, so if you would like free copies of both the STAR WARS (1977) #39 and MARVEL SUPER SPECIAL #27, you will need to place a minimum $140 order. AMAZING SPIDER-MAN: RENEW YOUR VOWS (2015) #5 QUESADA B Moving on to an amazing offer of some incredibly rare variant issues from the Marvel Universe, our head new comics buyer, Will Moulton, was just able to obtain for us a few copies of the two Joe Quesada "B" variants to SPIDER-MAN: RENEW YOUR VOWS #5. What makes these two variants so significant is that they both feature Stan Lee on the cover, and that they were unbelievably hard to obtain when they were first released. The color variant required a purchase by retailers of a minimum of 150 copies of the standard edition of SPIDER-MAN: RENEW YOUR VOWS #5, while the black and white edition had a 250 copy! minimum. Simply put, these variants are so scarce that the only place I have ever seen them for sale was in Stan's booth, at October's COMIKAZI convention. AMAZING SPIDER-MAN: RENEW YOUR VOWS (2015) #5 QUESADA B SKETCH COVER My offer to you on these SPIDER-MAN: RENEW YOUR VOWS variants is as follows: you can help us to cover our out-of-pocket cost for these variants by purchasing the color edition for the bargain rate of only $49.95, or the scarcer B&W edition for $74.95. Or, if you wish, you can order a set of both variants for only $99.95. OR, you can obtain a set entirely for FREE as a reward for placing any minimum $500 order via our website over this upcoming weekend. As was the case with our Todd McFarlane prints, however, we only have limited supplies on hand of these two ultra-rare variants. All orders will be filled on a first-received basis. 'Nuff said. I will close the standard portion of today's newsletter with a quick reminder that our 50% off HOLIDAY! steep discount codeword sale is still in effect for you on all ten million of our back issue comics and magazines. We also have all 250,000 of our backlist graphic novels, trade paperbacks, and hardcover books discounted for you right on our website at 40%-50% off. Only new comics and books, a few variants, and our CGC-graded issues are excluded from this very generous HOLIDAY! codeword sale. Please do enjoy these wonderful bargains with the sincere thanks of everyone in the Mile High Comics family for your kind support of our efforts during 2015. Happy collecting! Chuck Rozanski, President - Mile High Comics, Inc. December 18, 2015 P.S. Here are my thoughts on the release of STAR WARS: THE FORCES AWAKENS: I am very happy to report that this morning that all of the reviews I have seen for STAR WARS: THE FORCES AWAKENS have been very upbeat and positive. Even my friends who are not particularly fond of the Star Wars phenomenon have admitted that they enjoyed the film very much, and thought that it was extremely well made. Those accolades for the movie especially warmed my heart, as they were the last element I felt that I needed to validate the projections that I had made earlier this year that the launch by Marvel of its new Star Wars line of titles was the single most important event in the history of the company, since their 1961 release of FANTASTIC FOUR #1. That perspective may still seem overly enthusiastic, but it is important to remember that print run numbers on all of the mainstream Marvel titles have dipped below 100,000 copies recently, with some major Marvel superhero characters only selling in the 40,000 - 50,000 copies range. Meanwhile, with sales on ALL of the Marvel Star Wars titles remaining well above 100,000 copies per issue (#1 has sold over one million! copies), Marvel has clearly been able to successfully reach an entirely new audience of comic book readers. Many of these new comics readers had no interest in the traditional Marvel Universe, so it seems true that we are now putting comic books in the hands of entirely new fans. As much as those of us who love the world of comics publishing may wish otherwise, it has been a long, long time since any of the comics publishers have managed to reach a major new group of comic book buyers. Without any hesitation, I am delighted at Marvel's success! Returning to the subject of last night's extremely positive reviews, I could easily see this new audience of Star Wars comic book readers growing substantially now that the movie is a hit, especially overseas. All other considerations aside, the stories and art in all of the Marvel Star Wars titles have been superb. With four more feature-length Star Wars films scheduled for release of the next 48 months, I think that sales on all of the Marvel Star Wars titles are (at the very least) going to hold steady, and might rise vigorously. The online ticket website, Fandango, was already reporting last evening that STAR WARS: THE FORCES AWAKENS had already sold more tickets through its website in advance sales, than any other movie in history had managed to sell throughout its entire run. It just doesn't get much better than that. For those of you who are fans of the Marvel superhero titles, this success of the new Star Wars line is all good news. Spreading out the general operating and overhead costs of Marvel over a wider group of (successful) titles may mean that fewer cover price increases will be needed, and that there will be money left over in the budgets for such fan-favorite programs as convention appearances. We might even see a small bump in readers of Marvel Universe titles as a direct result of all these new Star Wars fans visiting our shops on a regular basis. Finally, whether you like Star Wars or not, all those additional Star Wars fans helping to generate sales in your favorite comics shop just make the difference between that outlet remaining open for you, or closing. In my experience some comics shops are always doing very well, but the vast majority of comics retailers eke out a living by riding oftentimes temporary waves of popularity in given products. If Star Wars can help to provide an underpinning for local comics retailers around the world, then all of us will benefit! I will close this essay with a plea that everyone support their favorite comics retailer over the next few days. With holiday sales providing a substantial portion of most retailers earnings, the period between December 1st - December 31st is critical to our annual success. We would certainly appreciate any support you could send us at Mile High Comics, but we also view your helping any comics retailer as a good thing to do. Merry Christmas! Current Newsletter