Is My Palomar: The Heartbreak Soup Stories a First Edition?

The points of issue

• Oversized cloth hardcover with dust jacket, Fantagraphics, 2003 (released December 2003), ISBN 1-56097-539-3, about 520 pages, collecting the complete Palomar / Heartbreak Soup stories
• A first printing shows no later-printing statement on the indicia

How Fantagraphics Books marked a first edition

• Book-format collections follow standard book-trade conventions: the copyright page carries a 'First printing' or 'First edition' statement with month and year (e.g. 'First printing: September 2019').
• Subsequent printings update the statement to 'Second printing,' etc.; the absence of any higher-printing statement, together with the original stated month, is the first-printing tell.

Full Fantagraphics Books first-edition guide →

How to verify your copy, step by step

1. Find the copyright page — the verso (back) of the title page.
2. Confirm the first-edition statement — look for “First Edition,” “First Printing,” or the publisher’s equivalent wording.
3. Read the indicia — a first-printing single issue carries no later-printing line; a collected edition is “first thus,” not the true first.
4. Verify this is the world true first — not a later-market or reprint edition.
5. Photograph four things — the front cover, spine, title page, and copyright page — the standard record for identification.

Format & printing

This title first appeared as a single issue / periodical, not a trade book. The true first is the first-printing single issue; later trade paperbacks or hardcover collections are “first thus.” Check the indicia (the small-print publication block) for a printing statement.

Is this the true first?

Stories originally appeared in Love and Rockets (volume one) in the 1980s and 1990s; the 2003 Fantagraphics omnibus is the first single-volume collected edition (first thus).P-010305

Telling it from reprints & book-club editions

No book-club edition.P-010306

Frequently asked questions

Is my copy of Palomar: The Heartbreak Soup Stories a first edition?

A first edition of Palomar: The Heartbreak Soup Stories by Gilbert Hernandez (Fantagraphics Books) is identified by: Oversized cloth hardcover with dust jacket, Fantagraphics, 2003 (released December 2003), ISBN 1-56097-539-3, about 520 pages, collecting the complete Palomar / Heartbreak Soup stories.

How do I tell the first printing from a later one?

Check the copyright page. For a single issue, the indicia shows the printing. Stories originally appeared in Love and Rockets (volume one) in the 1980s and 1990s; the 2003 Fantagraphics omnibus is the first single-volume collected edition (first thus).

Is the book-club edition the same as the first?

No book-club edition.

I have a first edition of Palomar: The Heartbreak Soup Stories — what should I do?

First, document the copy: photograph the copyright page (the number line and any edition statement) and the dust-jacket flap — an unclipped, priced jacket matters. Confirm the points of issue above against your copy, and use the free First Edition Checker to decode the printing. To sell, the author’s collecting guide covers the market. And if you are clearing books in the Albuquerque area, the New Mexico Literacy Project offers free pickup, any condition, and makes sure collectible copies are identified rather than discarded.

Glossary

First edition

Every copy printed from the first setting of type. Collectors usually want the first edition, first printing (the true first).

First printing / impression

A single press run from that setting. The first printing is the earliest and most desirable; later printings are still the first edition but not the true first.

Number line (printer's key)

A row of numbers on the copyright page (e.g. 10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1). The lowest number present is the printing — a line including 1 marks a first printing (Random House deliberately ends at 2).

Points of issue

Specific physical details — a stated edition, a number line, a typo, a jacket state — that identify the true first printing.

Book-club edition (BCE)

A reprint made for a book club. Tells include a blind-stamped dot or square on the rear board and a dust jacket with no printed price. Not the true first.

First thus

The first appearance of a particular version (first paperback, first illustrated, first U.S. printing) — a first of that kind, not the first edition of the work.