WRITER: Ram V. & Simon Spurrier ARTIST: Rafael Albuquerque & Dani $40-50.  This looks like something out of Sandman, right?  I can’t remember the last time a Detective Comics anything was selling well.

WRITER: Jed MacKay ARTIST: Joey Vazquez $15-20. Upcoming series for The Tiger Division is creating some additional interest in this issue. Thanks to my friend Van Denby (check out his Vantage Point article) for the heads up.

WRITER: Stephanie Phillips ARTIST: Flaviano $25-30.  I’m going to be honest, if those were my kids, I’m not sure I would come home from work…

WRITER: Greg Pak ARTIST: Ron Garney A CGC 9.6 sold just a couple of weeks ago for $30. Raw copies are now $50 or more.  Same reasoning as #2 above.  This is what happens when spec is light, books are selling for a lot less, etc.

WRITER: Carrie Lee South ARTIST: Kelly McKernan $15-20.  More band comics, this one from emo/metal/rock band Evanescence led by the haunting voice of Amy Lee.  Looks like this series will be based on their music, which seems to be a trend now.  I thought this band broke up years ago tbh.

WRITER: Bill Jemas ARTIST: M.D. Bright $60+.  First, I can’t believe that Marvel allowed these covers.  B, I don’t understand the appeal. And 3, the foil accents are hilarious.

WRITER: Roy Thomas ARTIST: Barry Windsor-Smith A lot of sales this week, graded copies are only up about 5%, which is odd and expect to pay around $150 for raw VF copies.  This is one of those super weird situations.  50 year old character, that has now cast its lead, but does anyone actually care?

WRITER: Tim Seeley ARTIST: Jody Nishijima $100.  Well, this is what its come to.  Books selling at ratio making the list.  I honestly thought about just leaving this selection blank as there are only books going down in price from here.  List of survival this week lol.

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WRITER: Ta-Nehisi Coates ARTIST: Daniel Acuna The last sale on this was over a month ago for $12.  Sold this week for $75 and all current listings are there or higher.  This is some kind of weird symbiotic N’Jadaka/Killmonger 1st appearance in here, so it does have something in the guts worth the premium.

WRITER: Various ARTIST: Basil Wolverton This is for sure a wild cover by Bernard Baily.  It’s so wild, I don’t even have anything funny to say about it…just a classic cover.  A 2.0 sold for $2600 this week, 20% higher than a 4.0 sold last year.

That Weird Tales cover is great.

Amano did a Superman wall poster for DC about 20 years ago. It is similarly haunting, and also a collector’s item. Marvel still does monthly posters (mostly of current notable covers as opposed to artwork commissioned for the posters themselves), but it looks like DC has given that up entirely. This would make a nice companion poster to the Superman, for sure.

Amano did the first post-main series Sandman book, the Dream Hunters back in ’99. So yes, it looks like something out of Sandman.

I really cannot believe anyone is willing to pay that much for Marville #1. That’s legitimately one of the worst comics of all time. At least #7 is interesting from a historical POV and the couple issues before that had their sales crash. #1 though? Ugh.

I’d also rather drop $150 on a real Batman #423 than a 30+ years later foil reprint, but I get that more than Marville #1 for $60…

Love the shiny crotch shot on that Marville! LOL

Another cover that us oversexualized and surprimg Marvel published it is X-Men Phoenix Legacy of fire 3 issue mini series. Phoenix’s costume is hilarious!

Haha, I’d never seen those, thanks for the laugh! Vampirella, eat your, uh, heart out!

I noticed the first issue of the Phoenix LOF series was rated PG+ in the regular Marvel line, but by issue 2 the very next month, it was the Marvel MAX label with parental advisory. I wonder if that was the result of immediate blowback from the issue 1 cover.

It 100% was. I don’t want to call it a huge controversy, but people noticed, and Marvel received a good amount of criticism for it at the time.

I certainly care about Red Sonja, but you probably already knew that, ha! I’m betting I’m one of the only ones, though. Sigh.

” 50 year old character, that has now cast its lead, but does anyone actually care?”

wow, that’s odd. Red Sonja is legit! She’s more than just a 50 year old comic character….

Collect what you like, fellas. Buy stuff that will last.

That gold foil Batman 423 is an important book – bc comic vendors gotta eat, pay the bills and we need to draw folks to conventions somehow. I get it. But please stop shitting on the real investment grade books – it doesn’t make sense.

Whining again. You seriously need a mirror in your home, buddy.

Aaaannnnd, just found out that people are again upset about book #1 and how it was distributed at Fan Expo yesterday. Please don’t shoot the messenger…

People were concerned with my mental health when I bought a CBCS 2.5 copy of Weird Tales of the Future 7 for way less than this copy sold for back in early 2020 (right when covid was hitting). I said end of the world covers never decrease in value!

“I can’t believe that Marvel allowed these covers. ” “I don’t understand the appeal”

You’ve given yourself the understanding; the controversy you’re pointing to sells.

The Marville covers are not difficult to understand if you take a look at cover art generally from that period of time, the early 2000’s. This was still the post bubble era when runs were miniscule in comparison to 10 years ago, but this was still pre-digital. The internet was just beginning to catch on. They were doing anything to sell a comic book, and nothing sells like GGA. I mean you had Millar, Quietly, Conner, Palmiotti and these other giants of the early 2000’s doing Vampirella books in late 90’s. Land, Cho, Horn, and Hughes are all doing tons of mainstream title covers at this time. We also get the Hentai tentacle cover on heroes for hire in the early 2000s and other racy manga inspired books and titles. Witchblade is still going strong. Bad Girl generally is still going. Then in 2005 Zenescope starts up and their entire business model is GGA, and it works!

In short, this is what happens when you take away the comic code authority but its pretty much all dudes in the comic industry as creators and as customers, and nobody outside comics really cares what’s happening in comics. So they were willing to try pretty much anything.

The internet was “just beginning to catch on in 2003?” Yeah, no offense but this comment is all over the map to make a point.

I was responding to these specific comments in the article: “First, I can’t believe that Marvel allowed these covers. B, I don’t understand the appeal.” If you knew enough about the history of the comic industry you would get the point. How long would you guess it would take to download a digital comic in 2002 on a dial-up modem?

On a spec note I would like to add, that this was an unusual time for comic cover art, not one likely to repeat. GGA is certainly not unusual in modern comics, but its endemic now and publishers have grown smarter in knowing how to reap the financials rewards of the technique without incurring the outrage. That said, these obvious plays at selling sexy comic covers using well known characters, especially from this period when print runs were low, are probably not a bad pick-up.

Uh… so why is Marville on here? There’s about 10 people saying “because sex sells!” Yeah yeah, that would be an explanation why it charted at all 20 years ago. Why is it specifically in the top 10 this week over everything else? First appearance of Bill Jemas in a comic?

Nah… it’s all about the sexy cover and the shiny lady parts!

Also Marvel don’t usually do such covers so in this case it’s not so much sex sells, but controversy sells!

You misunderstand, what I’m unclear on (and seemingly no one else is) is why, this comic, specifically heating up enough to be in the top 10? Over every other controversial, sexy cover ever made? It’s so random.

I identified the source of your confusion. It seems there is quite a bit you don’t understand about this hobby. I said this is a GGA buy as in Good Girl Art. I said nothing about controversy in relation to this cover specifically. This was not an especially controversial comic when it released. This cover is being collected because it is a particularly good GGA cover. There is no exact way to judge good GGA, but if we go by history, specific artists become identified with the technique and Greg Horn is one of those, as was Matt Baker. Add to it it is associated with a popular character, is especially risque, and is a scarce comic as I outlined, and you have all the makings for a collectible GGA cover. This book didnt just suddenly appear on the top 10. It has been steadily appreciating for a few years now as time passes and collectors look back with the benefit of hindsight and grab up these better examples of collectible GGA cover art. No offense, I assumed people reading this page knew the basics.

I’m excited for Red Sonja. Don’t really understand the hate? She’s stood the test of time better than a lot of characters and will continue to live much further past the majority of the new characters marvel creates, even if the movie sucks.

Is there a new schedule for the list these days? Seems to be getting later and later. G-DAMN-IT!!!! I NEED MY HIT!!! Lol. 😂😂😂. This list is always fun every week and sometimes we forget you’re just reporting the sales data. Always get excited when I see a book that I own or see in a bin that I saw here. Probably never going to sell, lol.

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