X-MEN

Take a right turn at Tannu Tuva, and head due south.......MARVELous stamp promotion may help give hobby high profile.

What does Marvel Comics' card-tossing super hero Gambit have in common with a Bactrian camel and a bicycle-riding chimpanzee? All are pictured on various stamp issues of Mongolia, the central Asian republic situated between Siberia and China. Mongolia, a former China dependency with strong Russian influence, has been releasing its own rather exotic stamps since 1924.

Later this month Mongolia will be the first of several countries to have stamps and other philatelic products released on its behalf related to the ever-popular Marvel Comics group. In this case the product is a sheetlet of eight different stamps picturing the popular super hero mutants, the X-Men, and a two-stamp souvenir sheet featuring a battle between the two main Marvel X-Men adversaries. Preliminary artwork for these issues is pictured in the color illustrations accompanying this article and on the cover.

While its true that comparatively few X-Men stamps will actually see postal use in Mongolia, they are, nonetheless, officially sanctioned issues that are valid for postage. And , the marketing approach used for this series, as well as its comparatively low cost, may well help attract more collectors over time. at any rate, to those of us who were comic fans as kids, this new series is a refreshing and welcome change. : Current new issue collecting is not exactly a study in postal purity, but it can be fun.

Now, for a little about the stamps. Designed by Marvel artists David Williams and electric crayon, the main sheetlet of eight stamps contains individual stamps featuring some of the more popular or prominent X-Men characters. These include Bishop, Beast, Rogue, Gambit, Cyclops, Storm, Professor X and Wolverine. The souvenir sheet features specially created artwork depicting a battle scene between Wolverine and Magneto, an evil mutant villain. Each stamp ranges in face value from 20 Tugrik to 200 Tugrik.

The X-Men began appearing in the Marvel Comics group during the early 1960s, called by many the Silver Age of comics. The X-Men are good-hearted mutants gathered together by Professor X, a telepath confined to a wheelchair.Saddled by the stigma of being mutants in a world seeking to eliminate them, the X-Me must face personal problems as they come to terms with not being normal. In fact, their capabilities are well beyond the range of normal, but their abilities are not seen as an asset. Despite society's rejection of all mutants, X-Men protect the citizenry by fighting off evil mutants and must protect themselves from enormous sentinel robots created to destroy them. Although the core group of X-Men has changed somewhat over the past 30 years, the X-Men have remained a strong force in comic book circles and have enjoyed a tremendous resurgence of interest with preteen and young adults during the past several years.

Larry Greenwald and Alan Gordon of Comic Images have been working with Marvel Comics to produce a set of inexpensive stamps and stamp products that will receive distribution through most of the comic book shops in this country and others, as well as probable distribution through retail giants such as the Toys-R-Us and K-Mart chains. Such distribution which should not be underestimated, will reach many millions of children and younger adults with a predisposition to collecting. This is an audience that has been virtually unreachable to stamp collecting for more than a generation.

Is it a longshot? Yes, but due to the subject matter of the stamps, they will be assured strong sales. The bonus is that if even a tiny fraction of those who start out with comic stamps convert to mainline stamp collecting, they could bring a nice boost to the hobby.

Here's the deal. The two X-Men items will be approximately the same size, 168 millimeters by 172mm. Gordon told Scott that sales to collectors will consist primarily of mint bulk copies of both sheets at face value--without additional materials.

Sales to comic book fans, who already are collectors in a manner, will consist of a kit. this kit will feature the mint stamps, packaged in a standard sized comic sleeve, with mounts and a comic sized X-Men mini album in which the stamps can be mounted. The front of the album greatly resembles the cover of a comic book. Also included with this kit is some basic stamp collecting information and tips for collectors.

The third version of the product will be for sale through the large retail chains. Unlike both the stamp and comic book collector versions, the retail chain version will contain canceled-to-order stamps to provide a less-expensive alternative to the novice collector or child. However this version also is a different type for collectors as well, as the cancellation will be printed as part of the origin press run.

Included with the CTO stamps will be an activity center and very basic care and preservation tips for the absolute beginner. However, as Gordon told Scott, if an individual wishes, he can use the stamp as stickers in this album, rather than save them as collectibles.

An additional product will be a set of eight different first-day covers, each featuring one of the stamps, a full-color X-Men cachet and cancel.

Unlike many new issues, the X-Men stamps, which will have their own appeal to a devoted group of collectors, is not aimed primarily at topical collectors.In fact, very few traditional topics are found on either item.

To keep the product before the public, Comic Images plans to release about three to four sets of comic stamps per year, through several different countries. The goal of each is to be inexpensive, while engaging enough to attract those with an interest in completing sets of the characters depicted. For example, the next set due later this year, will feature Spiderman and his changing appearance through the years since his appearance in the early 1960s. Spiderman, like the X-Men, is an extremely popular mutant super hero. He obtained his special powers after having been bitten by a radioactive spider. the set should primarily appeal to a number of different people ranging in age from 8 through 50.

In addition to having a good time with the X-Men stamps, I am looking forward to seeing the Spiderman and future issues, as well as tracking the potential effects of such stamps in the comic and general markets. Longer term, I also will be watching for new stamp collectors.