I’ve been looking for these for a while … signed books that were issued with certificates of authenticity from Malibu. So far I know of nine:
All New Exiles: Infinity, 1
Lord Pumpkin: 0
Prime: Infinity, 1
Rune: 1
Rune vs. Venom: 1
Siren: 1
Ultraforce: 1
The Lord Pumpkin is the only one that was issued pre-Black September. The others are all numbered to 2,000.
They are really nice looking books and certs. I pick one up whenever I see a copy selling for a few bucks.
I’m getting a lot closer to a full set of UPC variants. Apart from the Firearm Ultra 5000 book, that is all I need to complete a full set of All Things Ultraverse. I think it is, anyway. I’ve seen a bunch of the UPCs I need on eBay but I just don’t want to pay more than $3 or $4 shipped so I’m just being patient. When I’m down to my last couple I’ll probably pay more.
Anyway, here are the first 10 Sludge books (still not sure if 11 and 12 have a UPC variant) and the Exiles.
The first Ultraverse card binder I found had a tear on the corner as if it had been chewed by chipmunks. I’ve been looking for a better one ever since and finally found it.
The box is a little rough; the outer wrap was torn (I took it all off) and there was a clear plastic cover that had yellowed over the years. But the binder itself is perfect, and it includes the two extra cards that you could only get with this package.
This is a pretty cool little catalog that a friend sent me. It’s from the early days of the Ultraverse, and solved the mystery for me about how a lot of things were distributed (such as watches, shirts, standees, etc.)
It’s a single sheet tri-folded, so I scanned in all six portions. Over the years I’ve collected just about everything here (I picked up the Malibu watch just last week) but now I have a couple more things to keep looking for (two-pocket folders, license plate holders, lithographs).
Click on the thumbnails to see. Enjoy!
Here’s another weird thing I got from eBay. It’s a mock-up for proposed Ultraverse advertising on city buses. It’s not very big, just a couple of inches tall and about seven inches wide.
Here’s how it was described in the auction:
A rare relic salvaged from the fallen Malibu Comics empire… When an ad agency was tasked with creating bus ads for the Ultraverse, they sent Malibu execs this mock-up of how the projected campaign would look.
Recovered from an ex-Malibu employee who was there.
Insanely rare. Only a handful ever made.
Here is a picture of an actual bus advertisement, courtesy of Ultraverse co-founder Tom Mason (he says it came from the advertising agency and is dated from 1994).
You can watch one of the buses in action (sort of) in the 1994 movie The Chase, starring Charlie Sheen. No, seriously, you can watch it on Youtube. At about the 10:50 mark you get a quick glimpse of this:
And at that point you really should quit watching.
I don’t know a heck of a lot about this. Here is what I do know.
You don’t see a lot of Ultraverse shirts for sale … I’m guessing they didn’t make very many. I have seen a few Prime shirts and a couple of white Ultraverse tees, but I had never seen a black one before. I bought this off eBay; the picture with the auction showed it still in a bag, so there was no way to know what was on the back.
I was pretty curious about the back. Was it a bigger logo? A cool image? A cover recreation?
Even though the shipping was $9 (for a shirt!) I bid a bit more than $10 and won.
It took about a week and I got the shirt. I opened it up.
This is the front.
And this is the back.
Doh!
There is a pretty stout list of Ultraverse books that got the “creator autograph” treatment; some distributed by Malibu, some by Dynamic Forces and a few others including Catalyst and Atomic Comics. I’m putting a list together.
But I would put these books at the top of the list just for being cool. They are signed first issues of Strangers and Hardcase, but each certificate includes a hand-drawn sketch by artist Rick Hoberg (Strangers) and Jim Callahan (Hardcase). They are numbered to 200 but I don’t recall seeing these when they were released so I am not sure how they were distributed.
These are authentic. Says so right there. I even erased a tiny bit of one line to make sure it was an actual pencil sketch. Yep, authentic. Should have trusted the certificate.
I paid in the range of $20 each for these (they were in a lot with a few other things). The only difference between them is that the Hardcase book has a special sticker on its cheap plastic sleeve. I will probably take it out of there anyway and put it in a nice bag/board.
I’m going to let you in on a secret. One of the harder-to-find Ultraverse books is the Ultraverse Premiere 0 error edition, which I first read about in the Collector’s Guide to the Ultraverse.
The reason it is so hard to find is that there are only a few hundred of these and I’m not sure how they were distributed. I believe the total print run for Ultraverse Premiere 0 was in the gazilllions (even though it was a premium book that you could only get by sending in coupons); I base this print run number on the fact that I find these damn things everywhere I go. I have about 20 and I never pay more than a buck. Except for the error edtitions. I’ll pay $5-10 for one of those.
Anyway, here is some basic info on the error books. Basically it’s the same book but in the wrong order.
But getting back to my secret. There is an easy way to spot the error books without opening them up, which comes in handy if you are trying to buy one off an auction site. It’s the staples.
Here is the regular edition. Small staples.
Here is the error edition: Bigger staples, and riding higher.
Yeah, I realize those books look a little rough. Sheesh.
I don’t know if this is iron clad or not. I do know that every time I bought a book with the large, higher staples it was the error edition. Every book I have seen with the small staples is not.
Ultraverse Flashback 