Wednesday, the best day of the week, new comic book day. It is like your birthday in the middle of each week (well, one where you buy your own presents.)
We open things up to hear from you. A free for all.
The 214th edition of the open forum!
As always we also want to hear about your weekly pickups.
So, What were your pick ups?
What had disappeared off the shelves?
What was sitting on the shelves?
What back issue deals did you grab?
20 thoughts on “Wednesday Open Forum”
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I know I’m getting all my packages late. I’m guessing because it Xmas season. I’m still waiting on last weeks order to show. Hopefully conspiracy doesn’t lose any steam.
it seems that every 4 out of 10 comics…well maybe not that high… seems to go to 2nd printings. never been keen on variant covers or multiple printings. when was the last 2nd print that had some value?? batman 608 gargoyle cover?? oh well. at least the industry is doing well.
Captain Marvel 17 2nd Print.
That’s only because MBS buys all the copies and stores them in a Saudi palace with dead journalists.
Marvel and some indie companies are bankin’ on the 2nd prints these days. Im sure none of those issues that got a 2nd, actually needed it. I have been doing modestly well selling Venom #3 2nd and 3rd prints.
It is nice to see the industry doing as well as it seems it is doing. Ive noticed an uptick in buyers on eBay with little to no feedback on their profiles. To me, that indicates a bunch of new faces coming into the comic game. I also heard on a comic podcast that the middle of the Diamond sales charts, like spots 80-150 of the top 300 selling books each month, are reaching numbers that havent been seen in 20-25 years. Strong sales/orders for mid/low tier titles. To me that means readers, not collectors (one person can be both). Which bodes well for the industry as a whole.
Has anyone read Middlewest yet. I thought it was great. Looking forward to issue #2.
One book I was pleasantly surprised by is Marvel Action Spider-Man, the new kid-friendly title from IDW. It’s a book that just made me feel good reading it. Recaptured a lot of the wonder I had reading Spidey as a kid. Kid-friendly titles tend not to be well cared for and wind up hard to find later in high grade (just ask anyone who has tried to put together a run of Batman Strikes or any of the other animated books from 1999-2008, easy to find in 6.0, ghosts in 9.6+). Between the video game and the Spider-Verse movie (which btw has a 100% rating on Rotten Tomatoes), there are going to be a LOT of people looking for comics that are similar to what they’ve seen on screen, and the IDW title is a dead on match with Peter, Miles, and Gwen all working together and all teenagers.
I expect the title to blow up. And it couldn’t happen to a nicer book.
It’s odd that IDW have been publishing Marvel titles…… Marvel is very close to the vest with their properties. Think about it…. IDW is doing Disney books, Star Wars Adventures, which is youth oriented, and now Spider-Man. I know Archie is publishing Marvel Digests, but seems like Marvel and IDW are closer than people may think.
I was thinking the same thing today. I was thinking that having IDW print the books and pay the talent to create them, is a good way to cut costs for Marvel Publishing while still collecting money for use of the characters. Its also a cheap way for Marvel to get some of their characters into the hands of younger readers. However, I had two shops by me who ordered super heavy on this book, snd one shop actually did an exclusive for this book. I saw a bunch of 1:50, 1:25 variants for this book today. They werent moving very fast, if at all.
There’s definitely no quick flip potential here. But I wouldn’t be surprised if there’s a huge disparity with some shops in the 55% discount bracket ordering just 5 copies and other shops in that same bracket ordering 250 copies. IDW made them nominally returnable (20 cent restock fee) so you will have some dealers who planned to order 50 extra intending to “pay” $10 in return charges to get 5 free 1 in 10s, 2 free 1 in 25s, and a 1 in 50. If you’re sufficiently capitalized and can afford to loan Diamond the initial cost of books you will eventually return, you’re effectively buying the variants at $1.25 a piece.
So the distribution numbers will be VERY skewed initially, but after a big chunk of the print run is destroyed, I would not be surprised to see the regular cover go on a run as people trying to collect the full series realize there aren’t as many to go around as previously thought.
I’m just happy that, for once, if a customer comes in after loving a movie they just watched, I actually have a chance to point them at a similar title on the rack. It’s brutal having to answer questions like “My 9-year-old loved that Thor Ragnarok movie, what comics can I buy for him that are like that?”
My shop put a copy in my box since I’m a Spidey fan. I decided to take a chance and was also impressed. Very well done book & I thought the art & coloring (especially the colring) were exceptional. Quality & I’ll continue to support it in the hipes it does reach some new fans.
Was grateful that this wasn’t a huge week for purchases after last week.
Pick ups for this week:
Daredevil 612 (TV variant)
Judge Dredd Final Judgment #2 with Jock cover
Batgirl #29 (Middleton)
Darth Vader #24
Wonder Woman #59 (Frison)
Die!Die!Die! #4 (really liking this series)
Spec pick ups:
Daredevil #606 (2 copies for cover)-don’t know if this will heat up, but what the heck
Last week a few shops had some great Black Friday sales that I was able to get out and take advantage. One store had 5-6 long boxes of $1 books and I was able to score the following:
Exiles #3 (Sharon Carter variant)
Power Rangers #24 Prelude
Captain America #15 Dell Otto 1st print-beautiful cover and a favorite of mine
Edge of Spider-Verse #5 (1:25 Land variant)-1st Peni Parker!!
Good hunting everyone!
Score on that evso variant
Just 2 books for my reading list today. Die Die Die is the one I’m looking forward to the most. I’ve been loving the over the top violence of this book. It almost feels like a throwback book in some ways. It’s been a fun ride.
Since I keep hearing everyone talking about Immortal Hulk I’m just picking up back issues to see what it’s all about.
Same here. Grabbed issue 2 today fo $12. That’s the hot one right now. Also gabbed a couple copies of #3 as I see that one has been selling for 2x cover or more…not sure exactly why yet.
Shop had #1 as well, but not in the best of shape. I figure that one isn’t so hard to find given its print run and will look for a better copy before I start reading the series.
Also grabbed some back issues of daredevil, 606 (x2), 607 and 608. I haven’t read daredevil since the Matt Faction / David Aja days…stories just haven’t interested me, but this one looks like it could be a good read. Not sure if I’ll continue after 612, though.
Haven’t stepped foot in a comic store in a couple of weeks, so I’ll have to stop in today. I think there is a Strangers in Paradise, Invader Zim, and a Rick & Morty waiting for me in my box.
However, I did receive my Fireball Island Kickstarter game in the mail. Never had it as a kid. Debating whether to open it now or wait for Christmas. My wife opened the Christmas present she bought herself, a Roomba. Metallica concert with the kid is next week.
I hope you don’t have dogs. My roomba mead a terrible disaster when my wife’s dog had an issue downstairs we were not aware of. It was a disaster. A Jackson Pollock painting in brown. Needless to say,, we just got a new one as well.
Slightly bigger week of pulls for me, although I missed out on Warning #1. Not sure if that is a hot book or if the LCS just didn’t get that many copies, but I landed everything else on my list:
Action Comics #1005 (Cover B Francis Manapul)
Aquaman Justice League Drowned Earth #1 (Cover A Francis Manapul)
Aquaman Justice League Drowned Earth #1 (Cover B Dale Keown Aquaman Movie Variant)
Batgirl #29 (Cover B Joshua Middleton)
Batman Beyond #26 (Cover B Dave Johnson)
Batman Kings Of Fear #4 (Of 6)
DC Nuclear Winter Special #1
Detective Comics #993 (Cover A Carmine Di Giandomenico)
Detective Comics #993 (Cover B Mark Brooks)
Flash #59
Heroes In Crisis #3 (Of 7)(Cover A Clay Mann)
Justice League Odyssey #3 (Cover A Stjepan Sejic)
Justice League Odyssey #3 (Cover B Terry Dodson & Rachel Dodson)
Old Lady Harley #2 (Of 5)
Silencer #11
Terrifics #10
Titans #30 (Cover B Yasmine Putri)
Wonder Woman #59 (Cover B Jenny Frison)
Redneck #17
Regression #13
Warning #1
Bitter Root #1 Cover B
Dead Man Logan #1 (Of 12)(Cover A Declan Shalvey)
Marvel Two-In-One #12 (Cover A Paul Renaud)
Old Man Hawkeye #11 (Of 12)
Spider-Girls #2 (Of 3)(Cover A Yasmine Putri)
Star Wars Darth Vader #24
Thanks to Agent Poyo and Anthony for the quick delivery (and free shipping) of the items I purchased from the CHU Black Friday extravaganza. Happy to add these books to the collection.
Couldn’t find a clean copy of the DD TV variant, every one I saw was mangled beyond belief.
Picked up an amazing R Crumb “original owner” collection which included many 1st printings: Uneeda, Despair, XYZ, SF Comic Co #3 and more plus my non-Crumb want list filler, an original copy of Mickey Rat #1. Sad that the Zap #1 was a 3rd print but they’re all so damn clean!
Hit one of my spots today and scored All-New Wolverine #2 1:25 variant and Silk #3 JSC variant for $15 ea. Off to CGC they go because I have car repair bills coming