Friday, March 4, 2011

COMICS- THE HOVERBOY BI-ANNUAL

When people who collect rare comics say ‘rare’ they are referring to a scarcity of copies.  Perhaps it’s an old comic and therefore most issues have been lost, tossed or damaged.  Or perhaps or the original print run was very limited. 

These ‘rare’ comics become more coveted and valuable because of their scarcity.  Sometimes irregardless of the quality of the story. 

But Hoverboy Biannual is a comic book that is rare because of it’s print schedule.  It was the only ‘Biannual’ in comic history.  It only came out every second year.



The idea of having 24 months between issues came from an editor at Vengeance comics who overheard a conversation at a party during the 1956 Olympics.  Several of the party-goers expressed the opinion that it was a shame the Olympics were only once every four years.  But others pointed out that it made it that much more valuable and exciting because it was so highly anticipated.

Thus was born Hoverboy Biannual.  Issues featured tag lines like, “Worth the Excruciating Wait!”  “The Waiting Is Over… For Another Two Years”   The issue shown here features, “It’s That Once Every Two Years Kind of Excitement” which was actually used by Hoverboy co-creator Charles Nutt in his application for divorce, in which he claimed his wife had withheld sex from him. 

Like Nutt’s marriage, Hoverboy Biannual was a failure.  Both in terms of marketing and sales.  And the stories weren’t that great, considering they had two years to work on it.  The artwork though was great. Definitely worth having.  And the good news is, if you have the money, you don’t have to wait two years!  (Which is also something Nutt said after his divorce when he was arrested for soliciting an undercover police woman.)

One upbeat note, though it only ran six issues, the print schedule meant that Hoverboy lasted a decade, making it far and away the longest running Hoverboy title.

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