The Ugly American Report Column # 5: Market Spotlight

So let’s talk about making money with our comics, because it’s a big part of my life and the concept is about as popular as shooting kittens among comics faithful. It shouldn’t be.

I know why the idea has been stigmatized; I went through 1993 as well, folks. I, too, recall the horrors of strange men never before seen in comics shops prior walking out with 50 copies of Rai & The Future Force # 9,

and lo, I did shudder as you did. A lot of people got duped into buying overprinted garbage, and a lot of comic shops got burnt leveraging too much money into said garbage, and those practices did damage that is still being felt to this day. Nobody has an exact count on how many comics shops were lost in those dark days, but it’s in the thousands. Most never came back.

And I would say that Marvel’s handling of their Heroes World distribution arm had more to do with that calamity than anything, but that’s a digression, and I won’t discount the part that speculation played in that little fiasco.

Speculation, like any tool, can be used wisely and unwisely. Just because a tool was used poorly in the early 1990s does not make the tool “bad”. There is another misconception that comics must either be valued as stories or commodities. It’s a false dilemma. Comics are commercial art, and therefore have always been both, by definition. It is a fool’s errand to try and strip either element from the equation.

But strip we do, from both sides. I remember chuckling to myself reading the letter column of Saga # 2, in which Bryan K. Vaughan petitions readers to clip a questionnaire from the back of the comic and return it completed. “Don’t worry about ruining the value of your comic, dingus!”, says Vaughan. “True value comes from story and art.” That it does, but it isn’t the only value. Saga is a special book, a legend blossoming before our eyes.

It has extra monetary value, (largely because of the story and art) and nobody knows this more than Bryan K Vaughan – will anybody profit more from Saga than him? When he options that “true value” to a movie studio for an exceptional pile of money, will that make him a “dingus”? I say thee nay. That is the nature of The Game.

And listen, I’m not picking on Bryan Vaughan. He didn’t say anything out of line, his heart is in the right place, and we need reminders of our wayward speculative past now more than ever. I believe that there needs to be some kind of balance between the Art and the Commercial elements of commercial art, and when I see 1,000 cover variations on Uncanny Avengers # 1 that sometimes amount to different characters on the cover being colored and some not…the balance has gone a bit wonky.

So balance, yes, but I don’t believe in this farce that says you either read your comics or you profit from your comics, but you can’t do both. In fact, if you show me a successful comics speculator, I’ll show you somebody with intimate knowledge of the comics’ contents. No way to do it with a chart or a formula. Special passion breeds enhanced knowledge, and there’s where your opportunity is born.

Comics as commodities is not a particularly new concept, either. Most associate it with the early 90s or the beginning of the direct market in the 80s at the earliest. Wrong. Check out this DC subscription ad from 1976:

Mailed flat and in mint condition? Who cared about that in 1976? Apparently, the readers of DC comics. This was long before you could head into your local LCS for some bags and boards, by the way. Also, whoever wrote that ad is a big fat liar. I had many comics subscriptions as a youth…not a damn one of my books made it to me in mint condition. Lousy heathen postal workers, grumble, grumble.

This was 1976, and DC was pitching its product as an investment. “Hey, Action Comics # 1 is worth $3,500….might want to take a look at what we have to offer!” Incidentally, they weren’t wrong. If you were to purchase one of those Action # 1s for $3,500 in 1976, you’re pretty happy right now. Like, really happy. Most pros will tell you that the Bronze Age market (aka the 1970s) is not a good place to put your money, (they’re wrong, but that’s a long story for another column, perhaps) at least not compared to the silver age. But that copy of Superman # 300 pictured in the ad went for 30 cents on the rack, and it’s an easy sell at $30 in 9.2 today. OK, you’re not going to retire on that one book, but how many other investments from that era are doing 100:1 on their returns?

So relax, I say. Comics can be worthy investments, it’s been a healthy part of this nutritious breakfast for a long time, and it’s not something we need to light torches and carry pitchforks over. If the fact that I use my love of comics to sell some of them offends you, let’s just say that I’m quite comfortable with that. My job as a comics whore pays for my life as a comics fan, with extra to spare. You can do it, too. I’ll spend some of these columns showing you how.

I make most of my hay selling out-of-print trade paperbacks on Amazon, but I’m getting more and more interested in the floppies these days, and there’s some interesting things happening right now on that front.

Amazing Spider-Man # 698-700

Dan Slott is doing horrible, epic things to Peter Parker right now. I know that’s kind of the standard these days, so it’s difficult to achieve any feeling about anything in this desensitized age of continuous hype. Still, I have a suspicion that we’ll be talking about this particular batch of issues 20 years from now, and it’s hard to remember the last Spider-Man “classic”. Was it Kraven’s Last Hunt, maybe?

I think Spider-Man’s over-saturation and accelerated shipping schedule hurts its ability to produce memorable storylines. It’s always on to the “next big thing”, and that next big thing is going to hit in about 7 minutes. As an example, I think that Joe Kelly’s Rhino stuff from The Gauntlet a while back was really strong, but it’s buried in a quagmire of other “big doings” and it makes it difficult to pluck it out from all the white noise.
Having said that, I like Dan Slott, and I have a feeling that this material is staggering enough to jolt it out of the pack. It’s difficult to advocate anything with a $7.99 cover price as an investment, and that’s exactly what ASM # 700 is going to cost you at full retail. The thing is, Slott is adamant that his most explosive plot stuff is in that issue. I won’t spoil anything, but if 698 is just the warm-up act? Buckle up, kids, it’s going to get crazy around there.

All of this is a very roundabout way of saying that I like ASM # 698-#700 as a long-term investment, but I definitely don’t recommend paying more than cover for them.

Batman: Death of the Family

This arc has a couple of things going for it – Scott Snyder tackling The Joker, primarily. The early returns indicate that the work is strong, and I think a significant chunk of the reading audience will remember this as “their Joker story”, which bodes well for the long term.

I appreciate the enthusiasm, DC, but the die-cut-gatefold covers look, well, stupid. The fact that they’re all nearly identical at first blush waters down the effect as well. Not what I would have done! The key here in the short term is to figure out which of the satellite books was ordered the least, and that appears to be Catwoman #13. Some of these DOTF books are commanding $10-$15, and if you can score that, not a bad idea to do so. The play on most of these “hot” modern items is to get out while the getting’s good.

If I were to try and play the long game, I think the big winner is the Batman #13 Capullo variant. The image is so much more striking, there are fewer available, and if I were to try and play this event, I would snap up all of those I could in condition for $20-$25.

Another option is to speculate on the second prints. I particularly like the Batgirl #13

second print because the Benes cover is infinitely more appealing than that gatefold monstrosity, and as usual, the second print will be in much shorter supply. It’s rare but not impossible for second prints to supersede their first print counterparts. Batman # 708 comes to mind as a precedent.

My tendency is to dismiss any of these “big event” comics because the long-term prognosis is usually not good, largely because the giant print runs contain the demand, and demand is hard to sustain in 2012. (You know anybody looking for Spider-Man “One More Day” comics?) I have a problem dismissing these books out of hand, though, when the Batman # 1s from the New 52 have done so well in the secondary market. Both Batman # 1 and Detective # 1 are easy sales at $25+, and the print runs on those are massive by modern standards. Prevailing wisdom is that those shouldn’t work, and they do. So I’m cautiously optimistic about a Snyder-driven Joker story that sets the tone for a new generation of Joker fans.

Image Giarruso Variants

I don’t put much stock in variant covers as a rule. They do not hold their value, historically, and usually pricey to get into. I’m really enjoying what Image has been doing with the Chris Giarruso variants, though. Many titles are shipping with a Giarruso homage to the first issue. Frankly, they’re kinda adorable. And if Ryan the Robot thinks they’re adorable, than most all humans will be squealing inside with glee at the mere sight of them.

These covers play on a couple of levels – fans of the series will likely want to collect a variant to the iconic # 1 cover they love, and Giarruso fans are going to want them all as well. These are not over-hyped, and scarcity appears to be 1:10, which means many of these books will be legitimately scarce. Sure, the Walking Dead variant will be around, but how many shops are ordering 10 copies of Savage Dragon these days? Not many. At the moment, it’s the Giarruso Chew that seems to be in greatest demand, already commanding $20+ on the secondary market. I like them all, especially my Morning Glories Giarruso.

This is the best kind of investing, actually. I bought something I like, and I’ve yet to pay more than cover for any of my Giarrusos. Worst case scenario, I have some comics that I really enjoy owning. But I believe I’ll have the option of selling these for a decent profit down the road.