Zap #4 true 1st printing question

[50Cent #II (1st print)]

The heavy cover stock info. comes from the Kennedy guide, but I haven't ever seen anyone say they have a #4 that has a definite HEAVY cover stock (70#) like the #3 and 2 first prints.  Think it was erroneous info.

[over40artist]

It seems really strange to me that they went through 5-6 printings of the 50 cent cover (with no copyright yet and then ran off another printing with copyright) and nobody raised the price?!?!   I would have thought if the book was selling that quickly, the price would jump up a dime.   Wasn't it the 4th printing before the price went up?   Where did the info about the heavy cover stock for Zap#4 come from?  Has anyone ever seen one?                                         

Well, there were plenty of other UG comics that went through several printings around that time without raising the price from 50 cents. Young Lust #1: 6 printings at 50 cents. Freak Brothers #1: 10 printings at 50 cents. Home Grown Funnies: 11 printings at 50 cents. Motor City Comics #1: 5 printings at 50 cents. Mr. Natural #1: 6 printings at 50 cents. Etc., etc.

Bear in mind, 50 cents was really an outrageous price for a comic book back in the early '70s, when mainstream comics were selling for 15 cents. After prices rose from 25 and 35 cents for the earliest undergrounds, the 50 cent cover was pretty much the standard until the mid-'70s, when prices crept up to 60 cents and quickly to 75 cents.

The heavy cover myth probably began with Kennedy's guide, since he listed it that way. But it wasn't the only error he had on Zap #4. He stated there were "an unknown number of printings and copies prior to the Print Mint's first printing in July, 1969." There weren't any. Print Mint was the only printer of the early editions of Zap #4 before Last Gasp took over for more recent editions.

None of my dozen 50 cent printings of Zap #4 has anywhere near as heavy a cover stock as the first printing of Zap #3.

[oldmilwaukee6er]

amazing discussions!   

[mrbillscomix]

That's interesting. Thanks for that info, over40...  I knew 50 cents was a high price at that time for a book...  I swore that I wouldn't buy new comics if they went to 35 cents back then. That oath didn't last long. I wonder how many got tagged with that damn sticker they put over the original price tag? I wasn't aware that there were that many of the same issue number on some of those other books without a price change.
Don must have pulled aside that first print of Zap#4 to be sure of the staple placement.  If all those other staple placements are different printings, I'm sure that may be one of the unsolved mysteries that even Leonard Nimoy can't solve.