Investigating the Good Morty Comic Book and Determining Fakes

This is a fake Good Morty comic book. But do you know why? Read on.

 

 

 

WHAT IS THE GOOD MORTY?

Greetings! I’m here today to talk to you about the Good Morty Comic Book, which is really a mini booklet insert that was packed with season 1 DVD and Blu-ray sets from 2014. The Good Morty is a pamphlet from the Rick and Morty cartoon series featured on Adult Swim. The comic is briefly shown on the episode "Close Rick-Counters of the Rick Kind". This small 3x5 inch mini comic book insert was originally placed loosely inside the season 1 DVD and Blu-ray sets released around late 2014, early 2015. The “first printings” only came in these select movie sets.

To reiterate: if you buy a brand new Rick and Morty: Season One DVD or Blu-ray set on Amazon, Barnes and Nobles, or at a "big box" store, or any retailer that sells brand new movies, you will not receive this mini comic book. Not unless you have a time machine, of course. The only source now would be an unsuspecting seller on ebay, or a used bookstore like "Half Priced Books". Moving on. . . .

 

PURPOSE OF THIS INVESTIGATION

The purpose of this article written today is to educate others out there the differences between a real Good Morty comic book and a fake Good Morty comic book. I'm watching people purchase these fake Good Morty comic books on ebay for $180-$350. Prior to 10/10/2017 there were no Good Morty books for sale on ebay when looking at completed sales in the past 6 months. As evidenced by the rest of this website, and as a true Rick and Morty fan, a diehard fan, I cannot keep watching this unfold as the weeks go by! I would like to thank CBCS forum members BigRig, IntoAnother, Scorpion, shrewbeer, jimmylinguini, Waddly, Krazyflipz, Cynthia Ritchie of CGC, and Steve Ricketts of CBCS for all their efforts in trying to figure this mess out. Thank you!

 

ORIGIN OF THE GOOD MORTY BOOKLET 

The design and concept of the pamphlet is a reference to Chick Tracts, a series of religious comic strips by Christian comic artist Jack Chick. I am almost certain the one named "THE CHOICE" is the original book of choice for Justin Roiland's inspiration.

 

JUSTIN ROILAND'S ASSISTANT POSTS ON REDDIT

 

According to Justin Roiland’s assistant at that time, it was mentioned on a reddit post in 2014 that 250 of them were stamped and signed by co creators Justin Roiland and Dan Harmon.

 

These were randomly inserted in the same original run of inserted movie sets. This was displayed on Justin Roiland’s actual twitter account with a photo. The photo displayed clearly showed a one staple mini comic with the stamps and signatures on the back cover. The black on the cover is pure dark black in hue, with no fading. The back of the same comics being signed in 2014 had a bright red square reading Morty Publications USA on the rear cover. We will get to why I am mentioning such important details here in a second.

 

CGC HAS NOT CONFIRMED FIRST APPEARANCE IN COMICS...YET

It was first announced on October 10, 2017 at a google+ group called the Comic Book Speculation & Investing (CBSI Public). User Negan Grimes writes that CGC claims the Good Morty comic is the first appearance of Rick and Morty in comics. CGC is a third party comic book grading company.

 

Google+ user Negan Grimes original post on 10/10/2017




Google+ user Negan Grimes post comments after 10/11/2017

As of 11/6/2017, there has been no word currently on CGC's website, announcements, forums, or news messagges on social media regarding the Good Morty comic. I'm not even sure they are confirming anything at this point. So far all evidence points to no evidence.

It is noteworthy that I have a CGC graded 9. 8 copy of Rick and Morty #1 and it does not state the first appearance on its label.

My Rick & Morty #1 First Printing CGC 9.8

 

 

CBCS is also another third party comic book grading company who has placed on the labels of 2015 Oni Press RICK AND MORTY #1 as the “First Appearance of Rick and Morty in Comics” on their graded comics prior to this discovery.

 

My Rick & Morty #1 First Printing CBCS 9.8

 

COMIC BOOK REALM

Comic Book Realm is a website where collectors can keep track of their collections. They mention on their website as well that The Good Morty Book is “1st appearance of Rick Sanchez in comics. 1st appearance of Morty Smith in comics. Mini-Comic included with Season 1 DVD . ” : https://comicbookrealm.com/series/37587/0/rick-and-morty-the-good-morty-one-shot.

As of 11/1/2017, www.comicbookrealm.com has since updated their listings on this comic book and now offer 3 versions: NN, NN B, NN MADMAN and NN COUNTERFEIT. NN is the original, NN B is the signed copy limited to 250 copies, NN MADMAN is the Madman Entertainment Australian Foreign Edition Reprint, and NN COUNTERFEIT is obviously the fake ones. Thankfully, they have included the warning signs of a fake Good Morty on their website this morning. Thanks, CBR!

I SUBMIT A FAKE TO CGC, ACCIDENTLY

I sent off my copy I owned to CGC for grading on 10/12/2017. I purchased my clear case 2 DVD sets consisting of Season 1 and Season 2 from Amazon Prime on JULY 8, 2017, 3 months prior to news of this CGC announcement. Both were sealed in plastic with a “COMIC BOOK INSIDE” Portal sticker on the front of both. I thought I purchased my set in January but I went back and checked my amazon prime record of orders placed in the last year.

This are the photos of the one I sent off for grading prior to really knowing what was going on. It hadn’t occurred to me yet that in the world of bootlegging DVDs, just a day later it was announced on the CBCS forums, there were FAKES out there - placed in bootlegged copies! All of us were up in arms over this glaring revelation. Could it be possible? Why on Earth would bootleggers place fake DVD inserts in the cases? It was already a low announced number from 2014. Why go through all the trouble to place them in sets made now in 2016 to sell and pass off as genuine 2014 copies?

 

 

NO WAY TO DETECT...YET

For 3 weeks we all dissected what was going on with these mini comics. Some of us had one staple, some of us had two staples. Others argued that there is no need or monetary value in the mini booklet inserts prior to October 2017 so what is the motivation of bootleggers to make them? Many of us went down a rabbit hole to try and figure this mess out. It didn't make sense to any of use to make a fake dvd insert only available the first year of release.

If you look on ebay right now, there are over 32 search string results for “good morty comic”. Look for yourself:

Prior to 10/10/2017, there are no previous sales of Good Morty comic books on ebay for 6 months going backwards using advanced search criteria. Yet suddenly, the books started showing up on ebay after the aforementioned date. On October 10, 2017, these books were selling for $250, $300, $500 and even $750!

 

"GOOD MORTY COMIC INSIDE" IN TITLES OF EBAY LISTINGS

We all shouted conspiracy and shill bidders immediately. Something funny was going on here…. So I and a few other board members on CBCS decided to try and crack this case wide open. Since there are DVD sets right now on ebay using the actual search terms “Good Morty comic inside” when you are looking for “Rick and Morty season 1 dvd”, then I have to admit something is up. I then look at said sellers who are apparently in the business of selling thousands of other movies when I look at “other items” the seller has to offer. When you are actually using the search term comic inside on a brand new DVD set something is definitely not right here.

 

As the story unfolded, CBCS forum user "JimmyLinguini" made this video on Youtube discussing the fakes and how they were discovered:

https://www. youtube.com/watch?v=eOS2Mhr3j9Q

 

STARTING TO FIGURE OUT THE DETAILS

So looking back at my images above, you can see that I have a dark maroon colored Morty Publications USA square on the back. There is two staples. The black area on the front cover is a dull black. Not sharp and dark black in color. The inside of the comic is hazy or kinda grey in tone. The inks aren’t sharp or clear, either.

 

 

How to obtain a Real Good Morty

The best way to find a real one to compare at a cheap cost would be to find a seller on ebay who was auctioning off random items. So I started with the search term “good morty season 1” and found a pawn shop selling one at 7 day auction! Great Lakes Pawn in Michigan, actually. I watched it and waited my time out for the auction to end. The photos showed the DVD case open with the loose comic inside!I thought this was my best chance if any to grab one unsuspectingly from a seller who clearly didn’t know any better or understand “the hype” behind this Good Morty mini comic inside. I sniped the auction at the last second, and scored the DVD set for $28. I paid with ebay bucks so really it was free. I waited a week and it arrived in the mail. Here are the photos, and keep in mind this is a loose free DVD insert that is knocked around inside the DVD case during shipping and transport:

 

this Blu-ray case matches every unboxing video online from early 2015

 

It would seem that almost all genuine Good Morty copies are inside Blu-ray sets with the large recycle logo cut into the inside left door of the case.

 

YIKES!

It’s in pretty bad shape, as you can tell. But, you can also tell it’s a REAL ONE, too. Single Staple. Morty’s face is brighter and lighter in color. The black square on the front cover is a dark crisp sharp black in color.

Let’s flip it over, shall we?Here’s the back. You can tell it’s real again from the light red square that reads MORTY PUBLICATIONS USA:

 

 

 

The inside shows dark blacks, sharp and clear lines and typeface. The image is centered and the space from the edges is even around all sides of the comic cel frames. On fake counterfeit copies of the Good Morty,you will sometimes see the comic boxes running off, closer to the right edge of the pages.

 

Unboxing Videos from 2015

A person on twitter contacted me with the handle @Krazyflipz on October 25. This person reached out to me and informed me that he's been following our investigation at the CBCS forums for a week or so.

Krazyflipz found 2 videos on youtube from 2014 and 2015 that show real the Good Morty comic books being unboxed from official season 1 sets of Rick and Morty. Notice the color hues and one staple in each video as further proof of what could be considered legitimite copies.

Youtube user ScottVSBox published this video on August 1, 2015

Youtube user Disco Spider published this video on December 10, 2015

Size Matters

A real Good Morty mini comic will also be around 3x5 inches. They can vary from the print stage but overall the book should be exactly 3x5 inches. This one is exactly 5.0" inches wide but 2.90" inches tall. Most will be a little short in height.

 

I had the mini comic pressed by myself as soon as I got the book. I used my pressing techniques outlined here at this link if you are interested in how the process was done: “HOW TO: Press Comic Books with a T-Shirt Heat Press for Beginners by KaptainMyke”

I used steam and humidity treatment and dry cleaning, then finished it with high heat pressing. The mini comic book was pressed twice, and left overnight cold in the press as well. I will call this one “Dimple Morty” because I cannot get the dimple on his face completely out. The rest of the book showed amazing results, though!

 

 

INSPECTING A FAKE ONE

Then, I decided since my fake two staple copy is getting graded right now at CGC, I needed to compare a fake one now with my real one, right?So I went to ebay and bought the first DVD set from the first seller on ebay selling them cheap, at $30. Both season 1 and 2 for DVD format. Another week passes, and here we are now.

I opened this bootleg set and here are photos of the outside:

 

 

 

TWO STAPLES BECOMES ONE STAPLE NOW

I think as soon as the announcement got out about the two staples, the bootleggers wised up suddenly or something magical happened. Maybe the Mandela Effect?This bootleg set contained both comics in both sets. I got the Plumbus manual in Season 2. This one however has one staple.

 

 

A few things to look at in this photo. Morty’s face is darker. The black square on front cover is very dull. It’s not a dark, pure black shade. Let’s look at the back, shall we?

 

The back features a dark red maroon square reading “MORTY PUBLICATIONS USA”. The shade of red is too dark.

 

 

Looking inside this booklet you can see the black colors are dull and greyed out. The black hue is not a pure dark black like the other one, the dimple Morty one.

 

 

Much lighter hues in comparison.

 

Examining a DVD Set Slipcase

Other things to look for on this bootleg case are the following:The top panel is a darker brown than a real one. A real one has lighter hue of tan/brown across the top. The black line under the top panel is not lined up with the panel. You can see a lighter brown hue from the layer being incorrectly printed on rear.

 

 

There is no line of text underneath Beth’s feet.

 

 

This set has Jerry’s feet displayed. Other copies Jerry’s feet is missing. Those are fakes too, because originally that layer had a Blu-ray sticker going across his feet. This particular cover on the slip case however shows the couch walking off the ground as well.

As you can see in this photo provided by "Scorpion" from the CBCS forums. . . this was a printed on "Digital HD Ultraviolet" label that isn't really a sticker because it was actually printed on the slip case. Many of these bootlegged sets simply have no feet and no ultraviolet label at all printed below Jerry's feet.

After using my comic book pressing techniques outlined here at this link, here are the results of the bootleg version of the Good Morty mini comic book:

 

 

Now we are going to dive a little deeper and compare them side by side. A forum member on cbcs forums named “IntoAnother” first discovered the color shade differences. Forum member “shrewbeer” pointed out the staple variations from day one of this discovery. I admit it shrewbeer, my two staple copy is fake. There, I said it. You win!

 

Side by Side Analysis

Back to the comparisons: Can you tell which one is the real one in this photo shown below?

 

The real Good Morty comic book is featured on left. The bootlegged fake copy of Good Morty is on the right. You can tell because Morty’s face is lighter on the left. The black square on front cover is a darker shade of pure black. The one on right is faded. Morty’s face is darker.

 

 

The real Good Morty comic book is featured on bottom. The bootlegged fake copy of Good Morty is on the top. You can tell because Morty’s face is lighter on the bottomThe black square on front cover is a darker shade of pure black. The one above is faded. Morty’s face is darker.

 

 

 

 

Again, for comparison and simplicity sake - The real Good Morty comic book is featured on bottom. The bootlegged fake copy of Good Morty is on the top. You can tell because Morty’s bed is darker shade of grey on the bottom. The black square on bottom is a darker shade of pure black. The one above is faded and lighter print. The blacks are washed out and the greys are lighter.

 

 

Again, for comparison and simplicity sake - The real Good Morty comic book is featured on bottom. The bootlegged fake copy of Good Morty is on the top. You can tell because Morty’s bed is darker shade of grey on the bottom. The black cel lines of the panels on bottomis a darker shade of pure black. The lines are tighter and crisp. The one above is faded and lighter print. The blacks are washed out and the greys are lighter.

 

 

Now let’s look at the back cover side by side.

 

 

The real Good Morty comic book is featured on right. The bootlegged fake copy of Good Morty is on the left. Look closer at the Good Morty book on the left. The left onefeatures a dark red maroon square reading “MORTY PUBLICATIONS USA”. The shade of red is too dark. The one at right has a much lighter shade of pure red for the “MORTY PUBLICATIONS USA” square. The font and typeface is much sharper and crisp on the booklet featured at right, the real one.

 

Burned Blu-Ray Discs?

Forum member at CBCS named “Waddly” contributed to the investigation by submitting his photos of a Blu-ray set he acquired off ebay:

 

 

The Blu-ray logo doesn’t seem right. It does not display the Blu-ray logo or the Ultra Violet logo across top like most of them do.

 

 

As you can see in this blu ray set, Jerry’s feet is missing however there isn’t a blu ray sticker across the top printed on the slip case. That is a warning sign. What tripped us up in this investigation with Waddly’s photos was the line of text under Beth’s feet is preset.

Then Waddly showed us the back of the blu ray disc:

 

 

Blu ray discs are always SILVER. Unless they are burned from a blank disc. This is clearly a bootleg.

 

 

The comic inside had 2 staples, the black square on cover is faded. Morty’s face is darker.

 

The red “Morty Publications USA” square is maroon, dark red in shade. It is not bright red like on a real one.

 

 

The case itself is a off blue color from a regular blu ray case. There is no recycle logo on the left panel either. These were blank blu ray cases bought at wholesale stock.

For my DVD sets that contained bootleg copies, the DVD sets were clear. The disc 1 was mounted on the left door of case. Most real ones have an extra insert disc page with the disc 1 mounted on that and not on the left door of the case.

 

Skin color matters

CBCS forum member "shrewbeer" provided us with this set of photos and another detail about Morty's face on the front cover of these Good Morty books:

"The biggest tell on the good morty, is that on the real one his hair is BROWN and on the fakes it is BLACK, and obviously the real has a single staple while the fake has two.

In ALL these pictures, the real one is in the middle. The darkest morty comes from the fake DVD , while the lightest morty comes from the fake Blu-ray . " - shrewbeer

photos provided by CBCS forum member "shrewbeer"
(the real Good Morty Blu-ray set is in the middle of each photo)

 

 

MADMAN ENTERTAINMENT FOREIGN EDITION PRINTING

I've had a few people email me asking about the "Madman Entertainment" version of the Good Morty comic book. This is a wildcard for sure. Madman Entertainment is a $50 million dollar Austrailian Anime Entertainment company. If you go to www.madman.com.au you will see this is a company that reissues American pop culture trends and rebrands / repackages them over in Australia. According to their website, the mission statement is: "Madman is Australia's leading independent theatrical, home entertainment distribution and rights management company, specialising in the wholesale distribution of DVD and BLU RAY product into sales channels throughout Australia and New Zealand. "

Alledgedly, this is a foreign edition printing in-house with Madman under a license with Turner Broadcasting in 2014. I have no source or print run information to back up this information. This information was revealed to me by user Lucky Baru on the CGC forums. This person filled out the contact form on the Madman website and sent an inquiry on the book.

Madman Entertainment is a wholesale distribution center for DVDs and Blu-rays. Licensed or not, this points to mass production of movie media - either way you slice it. At the bottom of their "about us" page, it even states their production and design team is: "The workhorse of the business, our huge and dedicated production team never fails to amaze us with its ability to deliver finished stock of exceptional quality on time and on budget. Alongside our studio of 25 talented designers, headed up by our highly experienced creative director, the production team are experts in every area of DVD production including: slick and DVD menu design, disc authoring, ad design and art direction, TVC production and much more."

Below is an example of a Madman variant of the Good Morty comic book. It has a bright red Morty Publications USA square on the back of cover. Morty's face is light in color and so is the brown hair. The black square on front is pure black but the cover is glossy. And finally, the last important detail, is the glaring red Madman stamped logo, very precisely stamped in the exact center of the white space on back cover. Most likely, they were all printed and machine stamped at their printing facilities. The paperstock is thick and the cover is semi glossy like a magazine cover. The interor pages are numbered and the print is done very well with high quality inks and pressing material. There is no dither loss or image quality loss and no fading. The lines and text are crisp and sharp, as they should be. These were manufactured sometime in 2014 through the Madman Entertainment namesake as a royalty licensee through Turner Broadcasting, possibly.

Madman Entertainment red stamp on back cover of Good Morty comic

 

As you can see, that is a machine stamped logo on the back of this single staple light colored Good Morty comic book. The stamp is both red and black, which implies a 2 stage, 2 color plate process during the production of this reprint. This may be another first printing production, since it is from a mass production printing company based out of the Richmond province in Victoria, Australia during the same time period as initial release in the United States.

Front of MADMAN Entertainment Good Morty





Side of Madman Good Morty , with one staple and a semigloss cover






Front of Madman Good Morty comic book

 

If you are looking for looking for another edition of the Good Morty comic book, then look for the Australian edition from Madman Entertainment.

 

Search Ebay for used copies

Watch out for fakes and snatch up those low key Blu-ray sets from 2014 with the recycle logo on left door. Your best bet is to find a used bookstore, like Half Priced Books, or even a mom and pop bookstore.

Also look on ebay but use the search string “morty season 1” and buy only from unsuspecting sellers who sell random crap on their “sold” tab under filters for “other items” under advanced search string options.

 

 

A Bootlegger's Conspiracy at Large?

So now at this point, many questions are raised:

 

How to spot a real Good Morty

In summary, this is what you should look for when locating a REAL GOOD MORTY:

 

How to spot a fake Good Morty

 

1. Morty's face has a dark hue or tint in color regarding skin tone. Think of a Mexican Morty?
2. Morty's hair is dark brown, almost black!
3. Book measures 4. 90" inches wide. The book measures 3" inches tall. Some would be 2. 90" tall.
4. The black square on front cover is a lighter shade of black. Not a pure color of black ink.
5. One staple or more commonly two staples, mounted in the approximate center of the book, staple legs appear to be closed loosely.
6. Two staples is a dead giveaway the book is fake.
7. Inside panels are not centered and spaced from the outside edges of book. Right pages have the panels too close to the edge of book.
8. The top red square "MORTY PUBLICATIONS USA on back cover is a darker red, a maroon shade of red.
9. The lower rectangle below that displays the book creators appears light red in hue.
10. The words along bottom of back of book are dull, slightly out of focus, or just not sharp at all.
11. The black lines and border of back of book would appear to be a faded out shade of black ink.
12. Jerry Smith on back of Blu-ray sets can have his feet missing entirely with no ultraviolet hd panel covering the spot at all.
13. Blu-ray discs are black in color, not silver.