Vol.2 – Gold stamp variant

What was the very first variant cover ever produced in history?

Honestly, I don’t know. But one thing is certain, it’s definitely Japanese. And this one, perhaps not the absolute oldest, but damn… it’s OLD.

This is volume 2 of the very first tankobon edition of UFO Robot Grendizer. The difference with the regular version is subtle, almost imperceptible: instead of the usual pink box around the number and on the spine, it’s gold (check last picture). A tiny detail, you might say, but in an archive like this one, where hundreds of variants differ only in the smallest touches, this is very much a variant.

There’s no known information on how it could be obtained. A lottery held by Kodansha? A special edition to celebrate a particular moment? The truth is probably buried beneath the pages of time.

So I’ll ask again: could this be the very first variant ever published in history? I don’t know. But for this site, it certainly is… and it deserves the highest recognition as a rare relic of a very distant era.

A true antiquarian marvel!