What’s going on here?

I like Astro City comics. By having just one person build the Astro City Universe over 25 years has given it a depth and cohesion lost with other titles that have had multiple creators passing through, changing stuff and then others changing stuff back. Many places and street names in Astro City are based on the names of old comicbook writers/artists which is a nice touch.

Anyway, I finally got round to reading my copy of Astro City 35 purchased in 2016. I read the first 7 pages. Then I realized the next 7 pages were identical to those first 7. Was this intentional or not? At page 15 the story continued for a further 7 pages. Then damn me but the last 7 pages of story in the comic repeated the 7 I had just read. I seemed to have half a comic but with technically the correct number of pages. I’m pretty sure I’d purchased that comic brand new at the time. The cover was flat and the staples in the middle were perfect and hadn’t been tampered with. Over the years I’ve had a handful of comics with double covers but in 50 plus years I’ve never seen half a comic get through production and out into the world in the shape this comic is in.

There was only one thing to do. Head over to eBay and buy another issue to see just what the real book was supposed to look like. Luckily one was available although at a slightly higher price than I’d usually pay for a second hand comic. Now I can compare and contrast to work out what exactly had gone wrong with my copy.

So, now I see what’s going on. Most current comics have a cover and 8 sheets folded and stapled in the middle to make 32 pages or 36 pages if you count the cover. My odd variant comic is missing the first 4 sheets but has the second 4 sheets twice instead. How on earth did this comic get out into the wild and into a comic shop? And is it unique or are there hundreds of this mis-pressing in circulation? In the old days before things went digital I’ve seen the odd case of a colour not printing correctly,or mis-alligned staples and sometimes comics sporting two covers but I have never ever seen a comic quite like this one before.