Post
by ashmie » Thu Mar 21, 2013 2:11 am
To celebrate finding a new job I treated myself to more books. I seem to be a book worm these days rather than a painter, books are easier to pick up and put down. Anyway, I ordered Black Wings 2 an ST Joshi anthology of Lovecraftian Horror fiction. New authors. Also Fighting Fantasy Books 7 and 9 in the original print run. Now here's the thing, I have the first 10 now but they all with different colour spines. They were printed so many times it seems difficult to track them down in either their 6th format of printing (green spines) or first edition different colours. A very boring topic but interesting to me so I thought I'd post it here for future reference. Once again anyone that has the 80s publications of these books let me know. I'm collecting these now above anything else gaming related.
FIGHTING FANTASY
PUFFIN
Many people like to keep their collection to the same cover style. The books were originally published by Penguin Books under their Puffin Label. The seven different cover versions are pictured to the right.
The ORIGINAL COVER features an illustrated spine, the book is un-numbered.
The FIRST COVER VARIANT featured multi-coloured spines which differed with each book and the number of the book was printed in an asterisk on the front cover.
The SECOND COVER VARIANT featured a regular green spine common to all titles with the book number printed upon it, the cover featured a banner at the top with the book number in the top right hand corner above a green Final Fantasy Logo.
The THIRD COVER VARIANT features the regular green spine which is numbered, the logo has moved to the bottom right hand corner of the cover and the book number is in a yellow oval in the top right hand corner. The lettering of the author's name is rendered in a metallic bronze effect.
The FOURTH COVER VARIANT features the regular green spine without a number, the logo is in yellow in the bottom right hand corner of the book. The number has been removed from the cover. The author's name is rendered in a metallic bronze effect.
The FIFTH COVER VARIANT features the regular green spine with the number, the logo is in yellow in the bottom right hand corner of the book. There is no number on the cover.
The SIXTH COVER VARIANT is the same as the fifth except the author's name is in black ink.
Steve Jackson did a separate series of four books called SORCERY!, these were a little more complex and did not sell as well initially.
WHAT TO COLLECT?
In order to have all books all with identical variants it is only possible to collect the sixth cover variant and there is thus a small premium on these prints. The other popular choice is to collect the FIRST PRINTS of each book (or the cover variant that was in place during the initial release), whilst Warlock of Firetop Mountain was publish 18 times under the first cover variant this was chiefly due to the size of the print runs and unexpected success of the book. A true first print in good condition is thus a remarkably rare item.
Reprints were made by DELL in the US format, WIZARD BOOKS in 2000 by popular demand the old classics were dusted off, smartened up and sent back into circulation by Wizard Books. The numbering of the books has changed. Note that the print runs on some of these books will far exceed the original Puffin first print run, particularly on The Warlock of Firetop Mountain. They are of course more likely to be in much better shape. A subsequent reprinting was undertaken under the ICON BOOKS imprint.
Fighting Fantasy Role Playing Game was originally published by Puffin and comprises the following titles: Fighting Fantasy, Riddling Reaver, Titan, Out of the Pit, Dungeoneer, Blacksand!, Allansia
Fighting Fantasy Novels have also been converted for use with the d20 RPG system produced by Hasbro/Wizards of the Coast by Myriador Publications.
And a series of paperback stories were written by Steve Jackson based in the world of titan.
Forget about yesterday, don't worry about tomorrow because all that matters is today.
Minis painted in 2017: 13
Minis painted in 2018: 45