How can you tell a first printing of Hokuto no Ken?

Start with the publisher, end with the colophon. The book tells on itself, in that order.

A first printing of a Hokuto no Ken tankōbon is a Shueisha Jump Comics book from the original run, and the edition system makes fakes of identity easy to avoid: every later edition says so on its spine. The aizōban (1991 to 1992) and bunkoban (1997 to 1998) are 15-volume Shueisha sets; the kanzenban is Shogakukan, 14 volumes, 2006; the Kyūkyokuban is Tokuma Shoten, 18 volumes, 2013 to 2014, with visibly new cover paintings. If the book in hand is not a 27-series Jump Comics volume, it is a reprint edition by definition, whatever its printing.

Within the Jump Comics run, check the ISBN block: volumes 1 to 20 carry the sequence 4-08-851661-3 to 4-08-851680-X, volumes 21 to 27 the sequence 4-08-851824-1 to 4-08-851830-6. Then read the colophon (the printing notice at the back): a first printing’s first-printing date matches the volume’s release date, which for this series is documented to the day, from March 9, 1984 for volume 1 to March 10, 1989 for volume 27. Later Jump Comics printings keep the ISBN but advance the printing date.

Condition of the package matters to value as much as the printing line: the obi, the paper band around the dust jacket, survives on a minority of copies and is the first thing the market asks about after the printing itself.

THE CHECKS, IN ORDER

Publisher, ISBN, colophon, obi

1 · The spine

Jump Comics banner and Shueisha: the original edition. Any other publisher’s name means a later edition, valuable on its own terms but not a first printing of the tankōbon.

2 · The ISBN

Volumes 1 to 20: 4-08-851661-3 rising to 4-08-851680-X. Volumes 21 to 27: 4-08-851824-1 to 4-08-851830-6. A mismatch means the book is not what its cover claims.

3 · The colophon

The back-page printing notice. First printing date equals the release date: volume 1, March 9, 1984; volume 27, March 10, 1989; the full dated list is on this archive’s editions page.

4 · The obi

The promotional paper band. Intact obi on a first printing is the premium configuration, and the band’s copy often dates the copy to a specific campaign or anime milestone.

THE USUAL CONFUSIONS

Settled

New covers do not mean new printings

The Kyūkyokuban’s 2013 Hara paintings are a new edition, not late printings of the 1984 books. Likewise the English Master Edition’s new covers belong to Gutsoon’s edition alone.

A 27-volume set is not automatically first printings

Jump Comics kept these books in print for years. A uniform set can mix printings volume by volume; the colophon, not the shelf, decides.

How can you tell a first printing of Hokuto no Ken?

THE CHECKS, IN ORDER

THE USUAL CONFUSIONS

THE FIRST WORD