Set Description:
When I started reading and collecting comic books as an 11-year-old in early 1994, my priority was on the four monthly Superman titles in publication at the time, and I was desperately trying to catch up on all of the Death and Return of Superman issues from 1992 and 93. As I made my way to the Batman books, the “Knightquest” storyline was concluding, I tried to get all the “KnightsEnd” issues as they were released but missed some of them. I had my work cut out for me in trying to catch up. Like the Death and Return of Superman, I missed “Knightfall” and only found a handful of those issues from sealed multipacks at Toys ‘R Us. It would be another 20 years before I was able to read the complete Kinghtfall saga (in the mid 2010s), including “Venom” from Batman: Legends of the Dark Knight #s 16-20 (1991), the Sword of Azreal miniseries (1992), the Knightfall prelude issues in Batman and Detective Comics, “Knightquest: The Search”, and the epilogue, “Trioka”. This was all done through various trade paperbacks and back issues. DC finally collected everything in a nine volume set for the 25th anniversary of Knightfall - it’s a lot of reading.
I’ll be taking the scenic route with this set, focusing on self submissions for the first printings of the Knightfall and Knightquest issues (mostly the early issues). As of this writing, I’m in no hurry and I do not have any ambitions for a complete registry set. I’m also interested in the multiple printings, I’ll be keeping an eye out for CGC 9.8 examples, as these issues are more difficult (but not impossible) to find for raw grading candidates.
I had a Knightfall registry set previously, with several of the harder to find later printings. In 2020 when I found myself working from home, I decided to spend more time at Home Depot than at my LCS. As I got more into home improvement, landscaping and buying new furniture, I decided to sell off my graded Batman collection to make up for my 2020 spending.
In October of 2021, I found a raw copy of Batman: Vengeance of Bane Special #1 for only $4.00 at my LCS. I couldn’t believe the price, I scooped it up right away. The book was in decent shape but had a lot of non color breaking imprints on the front and back cover. I submitted the book to CCS for pressing, not really expecting much. After a year of waiting (CCS was ready backed up then), I got a pleasant surprise when the book received a 9.8. grade. Submitting the Bane book and the 30th Anniversary of “Knightfall” rekindled my desire to rebuild this registry set.
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