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Okay we thought those reports of how hot a ticket AMAZING SPIDER-MAN #583 was going to be might be a tad overblown — after all, it’s just a kinda dopey five-page comic book story. But it seems that crowds around the nation braved brutal sub-zero temperatures to get their copies.

The line outside Midtown Comics began forming before the store opened at 10 a.m. Bronko Spaleta, 38, and “frostbitten, but otherwise good,” stood at the front door, ushering those in line into the store, which can only accommodate about 20 customers at a time because of fire and building safety codes.

Each customer was allowed to buy only one copy of the Obama comic book (and one copy of the one without the variant Jimenez cover). “It’s one of each cover,” Mr. Spaleta told those waiting on line. “Please do not jump back in the line.”


Newsarama has a roundup of other local reports, and this hot ticket item definitely warmed up a cold day across the nation, with numerous sellout reports. In fact,, the second printing is sold out, but Marvel is rushing out a THIRD printing to meet demand. And yes, that is an actual picture of people lined up to buy a comic book.

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Update: Joe Field sent us his own report from Flying Colors .

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1 COMMENT

  1. Well, it’d be much more truthfully accurate to say ‘that is an actual picture of people are lined up to buy a Barack Obama collectible.’ Obama collectibles are selling, whether the product is a hat, or a t-shirt, or a poster, or a commemorative plate, or even five pages in an overpriced comic book. Insert your own joke about how the sales of Obama merchandise will lift us out of the Republican recession here.

  2. Anyone got pics of people waiting in line in Minnesota, where the temperature went south into the DOUBLE DIGITS (and the kids still had to walk to school!) yesterday? (Currently -20F in the Twin Cities.)

    Good for Marvel. Good for Mark Waid and everyone else who gets royalties from this issue. Good for the retailers, who most likely will sell out of the second printing of an issue which left many angry at Marvel.

    Now, does anyone care to comment on the regular cover, or is it okay for Peter to use a derogatory term in reference to his dates? (I thought he had more class than that…)

  3. I don’t think there was anybody lining up in Minnesota, but not so much because of the temperatures. I called around to stores in the Twin Cities that likely would’ve had it because I had the day off and was actually contemplating driving up to the Cities to get one, and of the main stores that would’ve had it: Big Brain didn’t have it (I don’t know whether they sold out, or just didn’t bother with the requirement necessary to order the first print), Hot Comics & Collectibles said their delivery truck had broken down and they wouldn’t be getting their shipment until today, and The Source said their shipment was completely lost.

    So, at least I *hope* no one was lining up yesterday. No idea if people will be lining up today in front of Hot Comics & Collectibles today, but…I kind of hope not!

  4. This comment contains spoilers for FINAL CRISIS #6! Highlight the text to read it, or just move on if you don’t want to know the details.
    -AARON H, humble intern.


    . . . and in other comic book news today: Batman dies! No, really! This time for sure-ish!

    “Where? Whounnit? Why?” you ask.

    Where? in Final Crisis #6.

    Whodunnit? Darkseid.

    How? Omega Beams leap from Darkseid’s eyes, hit him and leave the dessicated Bat-corpse for Superman to carry out of the rubble.

    Why? Who the hell can tell? Grant Morrison wrote it.

  6. Looks like the Obama issue of Amazing Spider-Man is going to be the best selling comic book of the year. I predict over 500,000 copies.

  7. Oh, PS: In case I blew it for anybody who didn’t expect to see it here, if a tech monkey could turn the color of the lettering for that post to white and add in new black text “SPOILER ALERT: This post discusses Final Crisis #6. Highlight if you want to read, but you may not want to go there if you understand Grant Morrison and haven’t read the book yet.” that would be keen.

  8. Sorry, Alan. I posted my PS just as you were posting your reply. Obviously, it took me about 10 minutes to have second thoughts. In retrospect, I’d still do it if I were able to change the color of the text to white and add the Spoiler Warning.

  9. I read something in the WAPO the other day about Obama’s chief of staff saying their will likely be a crackdown on Obama merch (using his image and/or the Presidential seal) once he takes office.

  10. No wonder when you tell people that you buy comic books, they look at you like you are retarded! Is there anybody out there who is intelligent and sophisticated, who claims to be a comic book collector?

  11. I was fortunate enough to walk into The Laughing Ogre in Columbus, Ohio yesterday around noon and get a first printing copy. They marked the price up to $4.25 (minus my standard 10% discount) but that’s certainly better than some of the prices I’ve been seeing elsewhere.

  13. Ugh. The shop where I work wound up giving away the four copies we had left after filling subs just to keep the non-reader barbarians at the gate from storming the place. Having to call the cops out to prevent a riot over a friggin’ comic book did not make for a great start to the day.