Wolverine Back Issue Talk, Part Five: What I Do Best Isn’t Very Nice.

filed under Categories wolverine 8 Comments

First, get your 2025 comic industry predictions in! Come back in January 2026 to see how you did! …Well, I mean, keep reading my site ’til then, of course.

Next, to Mike Loughlin, I can get to those Wolverine-adjacent titles as an addendum to this series. I certainly have something to say about those comics.

And lastly, I’m sure I’ll miss some Wolverine issue or ‘nother in my overview here. You can bring ’em up in the comments, but I may or may not get to them. Nothing personal, but I only intended this to be, like, two installments, and here we are on five! Ah well, What Can You Do™?

So we move on with our discussion of Wolverine that still attract (or had attracted) interest in the back issue market, and their possibility of continuing to do so in the future.

First up is Wolverine #59 (1992), featuring the artwork of Darick Robertson and Joe Rubenstein:


I suspect the reasons for interest in this issue are self-evident, going back to, as Andrew said, reasons solely related to the cover. This Terminator-esque look for our favorite furball is a consistent eyecatcher, but not necessarily one that always results in a sale from the back issue bins. But it does sell, so I’ll give it the middling Two Claws rating…still gets attention and will likely receive attention in the years to come, but not a book that’s an insta-grab for your typical back issue hound.

Next up is Wolverine #67 (1993), art by Mark Texeira:


Texeira had a little run of Wolverine comics around this time, but this is probably the cover of the bunch. Certainly the most (here comes that word again) iconic. Now there was a bit of time some years ago when Texeira art had this measure of, well, “hotness” about it, goading sales along of any comics that featured it. That’s not quite the case now (Mike Loughlin, this probably answers one of your questions), which isn’t a comment on Texeira’s art or anything, which is certainly dynamic and attention-grabbing.

I would also give this issue the Two Claws ranking, as it does sell at a higher frequency than the issues around it, and I think as time wears on, it’ll continue as a consistent, if not high demand, item.

And here we are, the first Wolverine cover with a hologram glued to it…#75 from 1993, with art by Adam Kubert and Mark Farmer:


This is part of a storyline in which Wolverine loses the adamantium bonded to his bones. Specifically, Magneto uses his powers to pull out the adamantium, an event that happens in the previous chapter of this crossover story, the similarly hologrammed X-Men #25.

Of the X-comics that comprised this storyline, dubbed “Fatal Attractions,” it was (and still is) X-Men #25 that commands the most attention. That had been because of the events within, and maybe still because of them, but now mostly sell because of the demand for back issues for this X-Men series. (The Uncanny X-Men issue of this crossover sells at a high rate too, also because of demand for thos back issues.)

Yes yes, but what of Wolverine #75? I’m going to be a tad wishy washy on this, by giving this the most marginal of a Three Claws rating. Yes, it certainly sells, but sometimes…it takes a bit. It’s not an immediate grab ‘n’ slab (ugh, I’m sorry) for most folks diving into the old comics bins, like other Three Claw rankers. It’s definitely not in as much demand as X-Men #25. I don’t get calls from people desperately looking for it or anything. I think orders on this issue were particularly high, and it’s fairly common. But, priced right and put in front of the proper customer, it’ll move. And that hologram will continue to grab eyeballs in the future, making it stand apart from its non-gimmicked brethren.

On a related note, here’s a post I wrote long ago about just how these “Fatal Attractions” comics were shipped to us, and what the printer did to protect those precious hologram.

• • •

That’s probably it for Wolverine talk for this week…unless I’m stuck for a topic on Friday and I dive back in. Thanks for reading, pals, and I hope everyone has a safe New Year celebration!

Sometimes I wonder about the first three demoncats.

filed under Categories question time, swamp thing 19 Comments

It’s that weird time between Christmas and New Year’s Day, when all crime is legal, so I’m gonna hold off on Wolverine Talk for a tiny bit. Do I have more to say about Wolverine comics? Oh yes indeedy I do.

I also wanted to remind everyone that I’m looking for your comics industry predictions for 2025! I haven’t been hitting the reminders too hard either here or on social media, so I don’t have much of a turnout yet. Hopefully I’ll get a few more submissions, especially once I start reviewing the predictions from last year…that always seems to goose the numbers.

Now let’s go ahead and wrap up the last couple of inquiries from the most recent Question Time post:

Bob Stec goes this way with

“What is Swamp Thing’s middle name?”

Leonard. Or Bernard. Or both. “Swamp Leonard Bernard Thing, Esq.” So sayeth me, Michael Ricardo Anatoly Sterling!

• • •

And wrapping up that Question Time post is demoncat_4, with another Swamp Thing question

“if dc ever finaly mostly as a tie in to james gunn future swamp thing film finaly publishes the infamous swamp thing meets jesus issue swamp thing 88 how many issues will you order for your store and how many for your self.”

That…is an interesting question, actually. The art, by the late Michael Zulli, is pretty much done (judging by some photocopies I may or may not have seen, I admit nothing). And given some of the shenanigans DC has published in the interim (including Preacher, where the main antagonist is, well, God), the relatively reverent Swamp Thing meets Jesus story would hardly cause a ripple now, I think.

At the time the comic was supposed to be published, in the late ’80s, the industry was in the midst of getting more attention from the general public, laying the groundwork for the ’90s boom. That meant more sales and more presence in “real world” media…both good and bad. And DC, with a Bat-movie in hand and possibly more on the way, and with plenty of zealots and blame-placers ready to find simple reasons for their kids being assholes, comics became a real target.

Not saying it doesn’t happen now, but with your comic readership being, on average, about equal to the number of people who read my grocery lists (and stop doing that, you weirdos), the Usual Suspects have moved on to new targets that will get them more publicity. And this planned cover for the issue might have raised an eyebrow or two from the naysayers then:


…I suspect it would fly more under the radar now. (If the story gets mixed in with other reprints in a trade paperback, it’ll definitely slide on by, but let’s contiue assuming a single-issue release.)

Let’s say DC said “okay, the time is nigh for us to finally publish this comic” and they put out a “facsimile” of a comic that never was, Swamp Thing #88, The Tale Too Hot for TV. Who would buy this now, about 35 years on.

Well, if they go with this cover:


…I suspect they’d fly off the shelves, and not just into the hands of elderly Swamp Thing fans, such as myself. So, yeah, I’d probably order a pretty good number of these for the shop.

And speaking of me, as I so rarely do here…how many would I buy? Well, one of each cover, natch…the regular cover, the foil cover, the 1 in 25 variant cover. That would suffice.

• • •

And that’s that! I’ll be back to Wolverine Talk next week, probably, and in the meantime…give me more predictions!

Wolverine Back Issue Talk, Part Four: Back Off, Bub!

filed under Categories question time, wolverine 7 Comments

Well, I said last week I was going to skip the Wolverine talk for a day or two, but just when I thought I was out, they pull me back in! I’ll do my best to keep it brief (uh oh, you know what that means) but I wanted to address a couple of things before Christmas hit.

First, there’s a comment or three that have been left on the Wolverine posts that I promise I will get to, once 1) I’m through with the main posts in the series, or 2) when I actually take a brief break from posting about specific Wolverine comics. So if you left a question recently, don’t worry, I haven’t forgotten you.

Second, I still have a couple of responses due for the most recent Question Time post. Haven’t forgotten those either! I’ll get to them soon.

Okay (phew) how ’bout some Wolverine?

Speaking of comments, Joe Gualtieri gives me a poke with

“No mention of #27? Its Jim Lee cover was used for the box art of the Wolverine NES game and seems to be at least as expensive as the other issues mentioned here.”

Well, Joe, there’s a perfectly good explanation for the omission, and that is…um, I forgot.

Here’s the cover under discussion, straight outta 1990:


That is indeed Mr. Jimothy Lee on art duties for that almost literally striking cover there. And all I can say is that the reason I forgot about this cover is that…I haven’t had one in my evil retailer hands in many a moon. Or if I did it sold so quickly that it left no impression on what’s left of my mind that I even had one around.

As such, I don’t have specific sales data I can give you all for this issue. I can make some assumptions, both from sources like the Hot Comics App and looking at sales on the eBays. It does seem to sell for a little more than your average issue of Wolverine from around this period, excluding the crazy-talk prices for the “professionally-grade” ones slabbed in their little plastic coffins.

So, what to rate this, on my scientifically-rigorous Three Claws Scale of Current and Possible Future Demand, 1 = “might sell under the right circumstances, eh” and 3 = “only hosers wouldn’t buy this” with 2 being somewhere between those two extremes.

And I think I’m going to rate Wolverine #27 at…a provisional Three Claws, until I get more more hands-on data with in-store sales. I mean, it’s a Jim Lee cover, it seems to sell online when priced right (I see a few sales at lower prices versus the higher priced copies that haven’t sold as of yet), and I don’t have any in stock. That seems to point to continual demand. I’ll pay more attention the next I have copies of this around, and maybe provide an update someday.

Next up, 1992’s release of the extra-sized issue #50, complete with the requisite gimmick cover:


The gimmick? See those “slashes” across the cover there? As if someone with a three-clawed hand left ragged cuts across this dossier? Those are actually die-cut gaps into the stiff cardstock cover, leaving three vertically oriented holes through which you can see the images printed on the page beneath.

As it turns out, those die-cuts were kind of a pain in the ass to rack at my previous place of employment, which at the time had wall-mounted wire racks. The comics were backed into the metal slots…not tightly, ideally, but it created kind of a pocket into which comics would slide in and out. Most comic covers were smooth, so that wasn’t a problem. But with literal ragged holes on the cover…pulling things out usually wasn’t a problem, but if someone removed a copy and decided against it, shoving the book back into the slot could mean catching the die-cuts and tearing the cover.

Our solution to this at the time (which we did with other die-cut covers, of which there thankfully weren’t too many) was to put comic bags on all our copies, thus creating that smooth surface necessary to prevent any catching. The other alternative was to have just one display copy out that customers could look at, and have the rest at the counter. Or we could get rid of the wire racks entirely and replace them with something sensible, but we wouldn’t do that for a while yet after this comic came out.

The comic was bit of a hot commodity for a while, and sold out of the back issue bins on a regular basis, mostly due to the gimmick cover and that it was one of the “anniversary” multiples-of-fifty special issues that always attract extra attention. It’s slowed down of late, at least for me, but I’ll give it a Two Claw rating as because it is a special issue, it will always be likely to have some measure of demand, even if it doesn’t fly out the door.

• • •

Andrew says

“It seems to me that longevity depends on the cover and issue number, and very little on the story content.”

Sure seems that way, in a lot of cases. At first the Byrne issues were sought after because they were, well, Byrne issues. People wanted the content. But as tempus fugit-ed and people forgot about Byrne, all that was left to attract people to those comics were the covers. Also, don’t forget the Sabretooth issues…those continue to be bought because people want to see Wolverine fight that guy.

There were some periods in the history of the Wolverine series where demand was story driven, such as during those brief Peter David and Warren Ellis arcs. But otherwise, yeah, Andrew, in many cases you are correct in your assertion.

That said, I have a couple of examples coming in the Very Near Future of Wolverine seeing demand, if even only for a while, because of what’s between the covers and not on them. We’ll see when we get there!

Thanks for reading, everyone, and I hope everyone enjoys whatever holiday they’re enjoying! I’ll probably have a short message on Christmas (shorter than this post, certainly…remember when I said I’d be brief?) and be back on Friday for more shenanigans. See you then.

Wolverine Back Issue Talk, Part Three: Why Not Try Your Luck Against — Me!

filed under Categories wolverine 7 Comments

So before I jump into part three of our Wolverine discussion, let me remind you that I’m taking your comic industry predictions for 2025 right here! Get ’em in preferably before 2025 really gets goin’, so you slide in the first couple of weeks of January, that’ll probably be fine.

Also, the new Superman trailer is up. And before you say anything, this is a Pro-Krypto Household and I will not accept any complaints about the Super Good Boy.

Okay, now on to “Wolverine: Which Issues Will People Continue Caring About?” already in progress:

In the late 1970s/early 1980s, Wolverine experienced a burst in popularity, largely in part to Chris Claremont and John Byrne’s run on Uncanny X-Men. When Byrne left the book in 1981, there was some measure of anticipation among fans as to when he’d return to the characters. Aside from a brief appearance or two during Byrne’s run in Alpha Flight, he mostly stayed busy with other projects. However, when it was announced that he would be taking over the Wolverine series in 1989, that garnered excitement and gave a boost to sales on a book that, well, wasn’t hurting but could use a new influx of excitement.

His first issue was #17 here, with (and I’ve been using this term a lot in this series of posts, I realize) an iconic cover:


I mean, that’s pretty much the Platonic ideal of a Wolverine picture, along with the cover to Incredible Hulk #340, or Art Adams’ variations on the pose seen here in this Wolverine standee pic I stole from eBay:


…and I’m sure many of you recognize this standee from the cover to the Crazy 8s album “Doggapotamus World,” of course.

Anyhoo, Byrne’s short run on the book was a relatively popular one over all at the time, and lived on in strong back issue sales for a while afterward, eventually the bloom’s off the rose, Byrne’s superstardom fades, and the run became Just More Wolverine back issues.

Except that #17. That cover still sells the book. Whenever I get them in, they sell almost immediately. And people aren’t really buying the other issues Byrne did, which is telling me people are buying this only because it’s a cool cover, not because they’re interested in Byrne’s storytelling. So, using the three-clawed scale of Wolverine’s Continuing Hotness, as established in previous installments of this posting series, I give this issue the rarefied rating of Three Claws. It was in demand demand, in demand now, and will continue to be in demand so long as people love Wolverine and, well, comic fans exist.

One exception to the “only Byrne issue that sells” thing is #21, which, well, just look at it:


Maybe not an “iconic” image, to throw that word around again, but certainly a striking one that grabs the fancy of the occasional back issue bin peruser. Still sells, and may continue to sell, but it’s getting the Two Claws rating simply because it doesn’t move like its lower-numbered partner.

Now let’s jump ahead to the far flung future of 1991, when Wolverine #41 was unleased upon an unsuspecting public:


Now, this book, featuring another clash between Wolverine and Sabretooth, was “hot” for a while, mostly because of a particular revelation within:


Oh no, what? There were rumors and I think even a hint or two in earlier comics that there was a familial relationship between Sabretooth and Wolverine, and this issue seemed to confim it.

At least until the second part of the story came out:


…and a S.H.I.E.L.D. tech tells Wolvie, nah, Sabretooth ain’t your dad:

…though Nick Fury adds “but he totally thought he was your father!” and I haven’t read enough Wolverine comics to tell you whether or not Sabretooth’s misconception was ever addressed again.
Thus, possibility brought up, possibility almost immediately shot down, though with just enough wiggle room to maybe leave some questions…but regardless, this was a Hot Book for a brief time, specifically the first part, because of Sabretooth’s spurious claim. Issue #41 even got a second printing, there was so much demand for it. Used to sell out of the back issue bins right away, along with #42, but it’s slowed down in recent years.

These two books still sell, but mostly because it’s Wolverine Vs. Sabretooth more than because of any semi-controversy stirred up by Sabretooth’s supposed parentage. Once a Three-Claw rater for its immense demand, it’s more a Two Claw rating now. Not a dead book, but not leaping out of back issue bins into people’s hands like it used to either.

• • •

Am I going to continue this series, now that a week has passed? But of course, there are still a few Wolvie books to go, like those with die-cut covers, not to mention holograms, holograms, holograms! It’s not going to be every single day I’m posting — I’ll try to write about something else on Monday, we’ll see — but I’m not done yet! Thanks for reading, pals, and I’ll see you next time.

“We drive into the future using only our rearview mirror.” — Marshall McLuhan.

filed under Categories predictions 40 Comments

Whoops, almost forgot in the midst of all this Wolverine talk that it’s time to take your comic industry predictions for 2025!

Just leave ’em in the comments to this very post, but please adhere to these simple yet necessary rules:

1. Don’t read the other predictions before entering your own.

2. Don’t criticize other people’s predictions.

3. Don’t predict any real person’s death.

4. Limit of three predictions per person! VERY VERY IMPORTANT! You can only do one or two if you’d like, but NO MORE THAN THREE PLEASE!

Starting sometime in January, I’ll start going over the predictions y’all made for 2024 last year and see how you did. No prizes awarded, just a fun way to see how the industry has played out vis-à-vis our expectations.

As always, thanks in advance for participating!

Wolverine Back Issue Talk, Part Two: You’ve Taken Yer Best Shot!

filed under Categories wolverine 4 Comments

So in Part One, we started to take up the gauntlet thrown down by philfromgermany as to which Wolverine comics may or may not retain demand as the years carry on.

Now I should say, I’m writing these articles from the perspective of one longtime funnybook retailer — your pal, me — and the local marketplace to which I’ve been selling for the past smidgen-over-three-and-a-half decades. Other retailers’ mileage may vary. But I started working in comics retail about the same time the first ongoing Wolverine series began in 1988, so I got to see the waxing and/or waning of new and secondary market sales of the series, one issue at a time, one month at a time, in real time.

And speaking of which, in 1989 we saw this two part story guest-starring a certain large grey-skinned gentleman of some note:


Without checking actual numbers or bugging my former boss about it, I’m presuming Wolverine was outselling Incredible Hulk at the time. That said, Incredible Hulk was in the midst of Peter David’s tenure as writer on the title, and selling at least reasonably well. Not sure if there was any significant transfer of readership from one title to another, but I know I wasn’t a regular follower of the Wolverine title. I was a fan of the Hulk, so Wolverine did at least get a couple extra sales out of me for the duration of this storyline.

It’s been a long time, so I don’t recall what the impetus was for the plot, but the premise of Wolverine in his “secret” identity as “Patch,” encountering the Hulk, in his grey-hued persona as Las Vegas enforcer “Joe Fixit,” was an amusingly clever one.

Now I haven’t shown you the cover to part two of the story yet, so here it is now:


…and that’s sort of gone down in comics history as one of the classic iconic covers featuring the two characters during this somewhat oddball period in both of their lives. Even the Overstreet Price Guide has it notated as a “classic cover.” And it is a good’un…John Buscema, you’ve done it again!

And of the two, it’s that second issue that commands Big Prices, much more than the first part. Obviously people are just buying this for the cover (and presumably many of these are trading in those Officially Graded sealed plastic slabs, so the cover’s the only bit you could enjoy anyway). Not to say that #7, the first half o the story, doesn’t sell reasonably well, but the prices it can command aren’t anywhere close to those of the second part.

Going back to my nigh-patented Wolverine’s Claws rating sale, one claw being “eh, it’ll occasionally sell out of the box” to the three-clawed “it’ll always be in demand,” I would give issue #8 the coveted Three Claws rating. This comic always has been, and will likely continue to be, desired by collectors. That is a good and, it bears repeating, iconic image.

Issue #7 I’m giving the middling Two Claws rating, which means, well, something. It will sell is the buyer is interested in reading the story, but if buyers are pickin’ and choosin’ and just looking for cool covers, they’re taking #8. The cover to #7 is no slouch, but I can see it being overshadowed and forgotten by collectors.

Also in 1989, we got this issue, #10, featuring Wolverine versus his arch-nemesis Sabretooth:


This is a standalone issue featuring a flashback to a conflict between the two. “Wolverine Versus Sabretooth” was kind of a thing, and this issue, with its striking Bill Sienkiewicz cover, attracted a lot of attention at the time. And it continued to be a persistent back issue seller for years afterwards…until it wasn’t.

Now, again, this may just be a local market thing, but I haven’t seen any demand on this for a very long time. Even as people ask to poke through my Wolverine back issues, that particular number doesn’t move. The price guides and the Hot Comic Apps still have it at a premium, but I just don’t see that being realized here in the real world.

If I had to put the Wolverine Claws rating on this issue, I’m probably going for Two Claws again. It’s a nice vaguely defined value, in this case meaning “once hot, now not, but potentially could be again” if only because it is a classic Wolvie/Sabrie battle. It theoretically could find an audience again.

• • •

What’s coming next time? A couple issues out of a once-high profile creator’s run, and a return visit from one of the above guest-stars? Maybe!

Wolverine Back Issue Talk, Part One: I’ve Got Claws, I Can Use ‘Em!

filed under Categories wolverine 9 Comments

Going back to philfromgermany’s comment, asking “whither the demand for [assorted books]?” And in this post, I’m going to look at Wolverine comics. That is, comics actually titled “Wolverine,” versus Incredible Hulk #180-#182, which I think we all understand that, as those issues comprise the initial appearance of Len Wein, Herb Trimpe and John Romita’s creation, they have no trouble selling in any condition. Boy howdy, how I’ve sold those in any condition.

Now, philfromgermany wondered if any Wolverines after the 1982 mini-series by Chris Claremont and Frank Miller would continue having any demand. And I’d say “sure, there are a few.”

Well, let’s look at the Wolverine mini first, since you mentioned it:


Just within the last week, I acquired a couple of copies of this first issue in…less than pristine condition, but it didn’t matter since they both sold immediately anyway.

Here’s a funny thing about trying to buy these from folks who bring them into the shop…a thing that, to be fair, usually applies to almost any comic or collection brought into my shop for sale, but it especially applied to the Wolverine mini. And that thing is the seller’s belief that the comic is worth far more than it actually is.

I mean, yeah, it can be a pricey comic. In nice shape. Which is the trick. The copies i usually see where like the two I had just within the last few days…one of those was in Very Good Minus, the other just a straight-up Fair. These were part of a large bulk sale of items, so there wasn’t any haggling over the prices I offered for those particular ones.

But when those Wolverine mini-series is the only comic a person’s got to sell, they don’t want to hear that they’re in worn condition and won’t go for high prices. Invariably I get the “I’ll hold onto them [‘I’ll sell them on eBay’ implied]” because they think their $8 Wolverine #1 in Fair is actually worth hundreds if not thousands. I offer real money they can have right now, they prefer fantasy money they’ll never see outside of their heads.

Ah well, What Can You Do™ as I say probably too often. Usually I have pretty good luck explaining price versus condition to someone unfamiliar wit the hobby, but that mini-series is like a force field against my cunning retailer powers.

Hoo boy, I can already tell this is going to run long. Is this going to be “Wolverine Back Issue Week” here on Progressively Ruinated Dot Edu? Maybe, but I think we should discuss at least one more Wolverine comic with potential collectible staying power. And that comic is…the very first issue of the original ongoing Wolverine title from 1988:


Well, yeah, sure, just look at that. It’s one of the most iconic covers featuring the ol’ Canucklehead ever produced, in this case by John Buscema and Al Williamson. And you’ll find in my ongoing list of “Wolverines What Still Sell for Money” that in a lot of the cases we’re about to look at, it’s the cover that makes the comic desirable.

It’s also the first issue of the first ongoing Wolverine series, and on-go it did for nearly 200 issues, before the dreaded “Relaunch with a New #1 for That Temporary Boost in Sales” strategy got applied and we got a whole lotta “ongoing” Wolvies over the decade or two that followed. Up until a new #1 just a few months ago, in fact!

But I’ll shout at the clouds about those later. Let’s get back to this #1 from 1988. Iconic cover, first issue of what we all thought at the time would be the one and only continuing title until the end of all things. And as that series plugged along every month, that gave collectors jumping on the Wolverine train a little late inspiration to fill in back numbers, including that elusive first issue, driving up demand and price.

Another point to note is that the cover is colored largely in black, so that imperfections (like chips or color-breaking spine breaks) are easier to both acquire and spot. That gives a little extra boost to the premium for high-grade copies, as presumably they’d be harder to track down.

Demand as such remains high for Wolverine #1 (1988). It’s a perennial mover for me and I have no trouble finding buyers for it, and I don’t expect that to change anytime soon. On a scale of 1 to 3 Wolverine Claws, 3 being highest, I’ll give this a 3. I get one in the shop, it’s unlikely to spend the night.

• • •

Okay, that’s Part One of this nonsense…philfromgermany, what have you wrought? Anyway, pop back in next time as I discuss a couple more early issues in this run of Wolverine, including a two-parter with a big grey guest star, and a once-hot book that guest-stars a long-time adversary!

Don’t worry, I’ll have more to say about Wolverine back issues next time.

filed under Categories collecting, retailing 6 Comments

Going back to my ramblings about the influx of back issues of a certain age from newly unearthed collections:

philfromgermany has some germane thoughts

“These Byrne X-Men books always command high prices and I don’t count on ’em dropping off a whole lot. It’s great reading and if you get into collecting chances are you will want as many of these as you can.”

There are few perennials in the back issue comics market, but it seems like the Byrne-era X-Men books (and the Cockrum ones that just preceded) are always in demand. Even at my previous place of employment, with had a much larger backstock than I’ve yet to achieve at my own store, our Byrne issues were running a bit thin near the end of my tenure there a decade ago.

So…I may have been “worst case scenario-ing” the idea of a sudden price drop caused by people’s collection suddenly being dumped in the marketplace. I can see maybe a local price fluctuation given a large enough pile of a certain comic showing up at a particular outlet. (“What am I going to do with 1,000 copies of Unicycle Tragedy #14? Well, fifty cents each on ’em, I guess.”) It’s gonna take a warehouse find like the Heroes, Inc. thing I mentioned last time, with just thousands upon thousands of units showing up in a back issue market that couldn’t absorb them.

I think at this point it seems unlikely an Uncanny X-Men #142 treasure trove, many times the size of the batch I received, is still lurking in some as-yet-unexcavated storage until. But one can’t be entirely sure that’s the case.

“But is all that Venom/Carnage spec gonna remain strong? Early Wolverine after the mini? Signal? Gwenpool? Ghost Rider Punisher or Weapon H?”

That’s the continual question about “hot” books, how long ’til they cool down a bit? In most cases it’ll be a conditional thing…Punisher’s first appearance in Amazing Spider-Man #129 will likely always be in demand. However, I’ve told the story before about, at the previous place of employment, slashing the prices on our giant stack of this issue as they were gathering dust following the 1990s decline of interest in Punisher.

At this point, though, that #129 has passed some…event horizon, I guess, moving from “conditional hot book” to “perennial,” both as a Key First Appearance of a Major Marvel Character, and as a Bronze Age Amazing Spider-Man issue. Barring an overall industry crash relegating all comics to be of interest only to people who need paper after all the trees have died out, interest and prices will probably remain high.

The Venom thing has its own likely perennial, Amazing Spider-Man #300 (pictured above, if you couldn’t guess) with the first full-length appearance of that large-jawed, big-tongued adversary. Plus it’s got the extra perks of being 1) Amazing Spider-Man, 2) an anniversary issue, 3) an anniversary issue with that striking cover, and 4) a comic with Todd McFarlane artwork.

Later Venom/Carnage appearances may wax and wane, but that #300 feels like it will always be in demand. Maybe slightly less certain is the first appearance/storyline with Venom tie-in character Carnage, also appearing in Amazing Spider-Man. I mean, demands high now, but will that stick? Well, to be fair, 30 years on the kids still like Carnage comics, and hearing a kid that can’t even pronounce his “Rs” yet ask for “Cawnage comics” never fails to slay me. Anyway, I successfully talked myself into thinking that, yes, that first Carnage story will likely retain its interest and collectability.

Those other characters, though? Well, pretty much any first appearance turned into hot commodities, especially during the opening years of the COVID pandemic and speculation was rampant on just about everything that hit the racks and even slightly looked like it had a first appearance of someone in it. And…have people been looking for Weapon H books? hat’s new on me and I sell these darn things.

In short, some in-demand comics stand the test of time, some don’t. And some just remain pricey despite the reason for its value being pretty much negated (like that one issue of Uncanny X-Men with “The Death of Colossus” who, I’m pretty sure, is hale and hearty now).

I still have my copy of the original.

filed under Categories mad magazine 2 Comments

So the new issue of the still-going-despite-reports-of-death MAD Magazine has this as its back cover:


Which is a good gag, playing off of this infamous cover from 1974:


When this cover hit the stands 50 years ago, the stands hit back, resulting in copies being returned and apologies made, though decades later, if I recall correctly, original copies were given away to new subscribers for a time.

It’s too bad this new iteration wasn’t the front cover of the new issue, but if they couldn’t get away with it back then, it seems unlikely they could get away with even this altered version now. It’s a good gag landing a solid blow on A.I. in arts, which you and I know is a problem but perhaps Johnny Q. Public could use a reminder.