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It used to be that when you waited in line, you took a number and waited until you were called.  Delis had them.  Post Offices had them.  They were everywhere.  Things have changed and the number dispensers aren’t as prevalent anymore.  What I liked about the number counts was that you knew where you stood.  The numbers were all sequential.  They didn’t skip a number.  They called them all in order.

Comics used to be that way too.  It used to be that when you held issue #1 of a series you knew that this was the first issue that had ever been printed.  Things changed.  The character had to be rebooted, reimagined, or reintroduced to new readers.  #1 issues sold better than issue #135 with a brand new artist or writing team.  DC Comics has done it.  They rebooted almost their entire line after Crisis on Infinite Earths.  Superman was rebooted to issue #1.  Wonder Woman, the Flash and Justice League all were bumped back to the beginning.   Marvel renumbered a lot of their big titles back to number #1 and keep the original numbering underneath it in smaller print only to change a few years later.

Just when we got used to adjusting to comics restarting at #1 and trying to remember what volume our favorite title was on, companies started seeing value in retaining the high numbers.  When Adventures of Superman was canceled, Superman kept the numbering system leaving many confused customers asking what happened to all the issues in between.  Recently, Marvel Comics has had a number of titles that turned #600.  Captain America, Incredible Hulk, Amazing Spider-man, and Thor.  Only Amazing Spider-man actually has had a numbering system that has gone straight through to 600 without creating separate volumes (although they did reboot to #1 and reclaimed the number later).  Some of the calculations are a little shakey especially when they calculated the Incredible Hulk.  Did they count the issues when Incredible Hulk became Incredible Hercules as Incredible Hulk issues?  It’s enough to make my head hurt.

Shawn Demumbrum
SpazDog Comics
www.spazdogcomics.com

Email: shawn@spazdogcomics.com
Twitter: www.twitter.com/SpazDog
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