While I was at Berkeley, there were two great comic book stores in the area -- Comics and Comix down on Telegraph, and Comic Relief on University. In my later years, these comic book stores became more dangerous once I started working, as I had income, and I might pass them on the way home, or from my comings and goings on the BART.
My interest during that period was not in mainstream American comics at the time, but rather the ever increasing popularity of manga during this time period -- Nausicaa, after many years on hiatus had begun releasing the last issues, both Ranma and Maisson Ikokku releasing monthly in a format more similar to single-issue American comics. At Comic Relief, the area devoted to manga was minuscule, amounting to about a shelf, and consisted of Ranma, Maisson, and Antartic Press' comics, and Robotech. At Comics and Comix, the fare wasn't a whole lot better, but they did have a rack for back issues, which made their manga section about 5 times larger than Comic Relief's. Comics and Comix also had an incredible two bookcases devoted to Sandman and DC/Vertigo material in the back corner of the store, which rivaled the amount of space for mainstream Marvel and DC titles. More out of curiousity than anything else, I flipped through the Sandman offerings, the contents within which didn't impress me as much as the cool covers on the books. The covers of Sandman are the work of artist Dave McKean, when I heard that he was doing a limited edition Tarot set, I bought one. I remember at the time thinking that for $50, it was a rather expensive item, but if I was disappointed I could always resell it.
This limited edition was a print run of 5000, and I remember already realizing at the time that limited editions weren't all that limited at all, but that it did mean that if I saw this at any comic shop, I should pick it up, as it meant that at most, any shop would only have a few of these.
Apparently, there were many fans of Dave McKean (more than 5000), and the first edition of the Tarot set sold out quickly enough that the aftermarket price was almost twice what I paid for it. I held onto it, more as an art fan than a Tarot practitioner, and felt fortunate that I managed to find a set before they became absurdly expensive.
Six years later, in 2001, DC/Vertigo re-issued the Tarot set, although this time with a different box, and a different book cover, and at $30 about $20 cheaper. I picked this one up as well, intending to sell my original and just keep the reprint to play with; but sadly, I never had time to open it, much less play with it.
Of course, here we are in 2008, and DC/Vertigo has just announced that they'll be reprinting the Vertigo Tarot set again, in honor of the 20th Anniversary of Sandman. It's $10 more than the version offered in 2001, but it includes a velvet-like bag, and gold foil stamping denoting the 20th Anniversary of Sandman. Despite this being the third printing, I expect these to disappear quickly, and as their release in November coincides with the holiday shopping season, and I expect these to be gone very quickly, as it seems that no matter how many they print, demand always surpasses supply.
Elsewhere.org has a full scans of all the Vertigo Tarot cards, and many of the Major Arcana are characters from the DC/Vertigo imprint, such as Death from Sandman and Tim Hunter from Books of Magic as the Magician.
While I'm not a major fan of licensed goods, I must admit that some of the items coming out of DC/Vertigo these days (such as The Sandman and Death bookends are pretty cool.
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