2018 Year In Review – Part II

Let’s continue that trip down memory lane for 2018, the middle of last year, covering the months from May through August.

May

Last May we were introduced to Alien Toilet Monsters (yes, it’s the actual title of the comic), You Are Deadpool where you get to choose your adventure all while prepping for Batman’s big day (which I knew deep down would never happen, not sure why so many were surprised Catwoman dumped him at the altar).

So yeah, Alien Toilet Monsters. It was a real thing. I don’t recall ever seeing a #2 as of yet (agentpoyo note after typing this up: oh snap, looks like it’s slated for a 1/9/2019 release date) and don’t recall this one soliciting as a one-shot but we still got it, well, some shops got it as it was pretty much non-existent in my neck of the country. It hasn’t done much since then either.

If you’re really interested and didn’t get a chance last May to read this, it appears to be in stock at Midtown and for under cover price with their 25% off.

We also were blessed with a new Rick Remender book. Death or Glory hit the shelves early last May.

It’s a great read but with Deadly Class show coming up and Seven to Eternity with a few other titles he has going on, we should have expected this one to be sort of neglected. At least we did get an entire first story arc but I hate delays with new books I get into, it really kills their momentum.

I still have high hopes for this one. I think Remender needs to slow down with his ideas until he has time to focus on them one at a time.

Exiles #3 released an awesome We Can Do It Peggy Carter Captain America Game Variant that to date is still selling quite well. For a Marvel 1:10 ratio almost a year later still selling double of what most retailers sold them for I’d call a winner.

It’s definitely one you throw into the personal collection if you do obtain one.

At the same time everyone was looking for the Exiles, we were being introduced to Donny Cates new Venom series. It’s been a wild ride and we’re close to only being about halfway through the ride since I recall Donny claimed in an interview he was hoping to go to 30 or so issues with Venom.

Venom introduced some new plots, new origins for the symbiote, new characters and created some overnight back issue bin spec books.

  

We also lost a Scooby Doo member last year in Scooby Apocalypse #25. The death of Fred, sacrificing his life for the love of his life.

The new Garth Ennis book A Walk Through Hell made it our way from Aftershock. It had the dreaded all black cover B variant (we all love them and hate them at the same time). This was a great read, which is expected from a writer like Ennis. It hasn’t done a whole lot yet on the secondary market (there is a really cool Francavilla variant of #1 if you can find it selling around the $25 range) but with his hit book Preacher on AMC, could be more of the matter of when and not if there’s ever a media option for one of his books.

The book no one could find. Well, I couldn’t find any. If I’m recalling correctly, none of the shops in Austin got a copy of the famous Batgirl #23 Middleton Killer B cover that blew up on the secondary market.

This one is still selling like crazy with most prices at around the $40 or higher for raw copies and CGC slabs going for $110 to $150.

It’s a great cover but Poyo’s gonna be honest, it’s not Middleton’s best work if you ask me.

Around the time this was hitting stands, we were also learning about Walking Dead Day from Skybound (yes, where Kirkman loves to shove his hit comic and show onto the world to make sure we all send him our appreciation of creating the Walking Dead).

We also learned about Analog getting picked up with a media option, causing the floods of #1’s on the secondary market for that book.

I mentioned this last book a week or so back. It’s the Black Panther #1 In-Hyuk Lee 1:25 variant which is still a really awesome variant cover. Grab one for the personal collection if you can find them at the right price.

Another Middleton book grabbed collectors and buyers attention with the Aquaman Jabberjaw Special #1. It did okay on the secondary but this one was way easier to obtain than the BG23 we just mentioned.

Pestilence Story of Satan hit stands after it’s first volume was a success. I really digged this series and was a nice replacement for zombies since this was around the time I was starting to wean myself from Walking Dead due to boredom. Some of the cover art was killer and so lifelike, it makes one do that double look just to make sure they’re not looking at a photograph instead of actual artwork.

Bendis said his official farewell to Marvel to jump on the DC train around this time last year.

June

Zinnober from Scout Comics was probably the first spec win of June. We saw the second cover take off with what was just awesome artwork. Who doesn’t love dragons right?

It’s since cooled off and you can find these at cover price or so. Still a great cover. I can’t even tell you if the series is any good though, I’m still behind on reading and have yet to pick these up to read.

I might just have to pick up the trade to read, but I’ll have to skim issue #1 before drawing a conclusion on buying the trade which I believe hits stands in late January of 2019.

Image debuted it’s new series from the Shirtless Bear Fighter author called The Weatherman.

Such a great and fun read. I just wish it got more credit and appreciation.

Issue #6 saw an awesome Opena variant that still sells well as it was a ghost variant as I don’t think most shops were ordering 20 or so copies of this book.

Stephanie Hans created a beautiful Ms. Marvel #31 Variant for us last June. It really is a cool cover. I can back most of her covers but I’m not a big fan of her interior work, it seems to lose some quality as if it’s rushed. I don’t know, maybe I’m in the minority there.

Teen Titans Special #1 was pushed onto the masses for the really cool new character named Crush. It was all the rave (after what seemed as if DC was doing all the pushing and not the actual market) and 2 months later nobody was even talking about it. I almost completely forgot about this new character until I was writing this recap review.

Moon Girl and Devil Dinosaur was making some ripples as well at the end of June with the first appearance of Princess Fisk, Mayor Fisks daughter.

These sold well initially, jumping and flirting around the $15 range. I think I was dumping the few I had for $10-$12 at the time so wasn’t a terrible quick flip. From the most recent sales, this book is still selling between $8 and $16 (some of those at $14-$16 are free shipping, if done cheap, could still be around $10-$12). Not too shabby for Princess Fisk.

Midtown has them in stock at the $11 price point if you really feel the need to pick up a copy to hold in hopes the character does more down the Marvel Universe beaten path.

  

To top the month of June off, some of the bigger movie news to cause some waves on secondary market sales was the announcement of Silk being developed for the movies.

Silk made her first appearance in Amazing Spider-Man #4 where we saw a nice renewal in secondary market interest as these issues and variants started their slow fizzle.

For all you J. Scott Campbell fans, he did a 3 cover set for issue #4. I must admit, I picked up this set and it paid off as I was able to sell the set for almost $300 raw with one or two of them likely in a 9.4-9.6 type of grade. It would have been way better if it was Silk and not Black Cat on the cover.

July

July was awesome, partly because I went to Hawaii for a week on vacation. Yes, Anthony is kind enough to loosen the dog collar and leash from time to time.

The Batman Wedding came and left. So much hoopla over Bruce and Selina getting married for it all to be staged for a more typical ending that most if not all should have suspected all along. I wonder if any fan boys actually cried about Bruce getting stood up at the altar?

Cosmic Ghost Rider caused such waves after he debuted in the pages of Thanos, of course we were gonna see him with his own mini-series written by his creator, Donny Cates.

Honestly I think this would have blown up more if it was a new original character as Ghost Rider rather than Frank Castle. I think most lost interest after that reveal, I know I did. I just don’t have the justification to buy his real first appearance back in Amazing Spider-Man #129 (Anthony, buy this for me on my Birthday in May).

This next book that hit stands in July is also on Mel’s list of 2018 Variants. Nightwing #46 killer B variant by Ben Oliver is a pretty sweet cover. It sold out pretty quickly online and at retailers.

It did well on the secondary market. It’s pretty much been a steady $6 to $15 book.

Rob Guillory post Chew days brought us his new book Farmhand. If you’re a fan of Chew this one is right up your alley. It wasn’t expected to do much on the secondary market but it’s an entertaining read. I give a lot of credit to those creators who can not only draw but write as well. Rob is great but I still like his art more. I think the one creator who really stands out as both a great writer and artist is Jeff Lemire.

Amazing Spider-Man got another reboot with a new volume. We are now post Dan Slott which is a good thing but since I’m behind on reading, I’ve heard more are not liking Nick Spencer’s take on Spidey than liking. I guess I’ll just have to try and find the time to read as I’m usually liking Spencer’s writing.

Scout Comics introduced a new James Haick book last July. The Mall #1 was pretty successful, it helped that it was almost optioned immediately after it debuted.

There was an awesome Scarface homage variant but these are still selling around the $10 range. If you missed out, now’s the time to try and score one for cheap as it could result in a nice gamble if this ever does turn into anything beyond just the media option.

Where’s are Solar Flare media deal? I’m still waiting..  that’s the one that has show or movie all over it.

August

August seemed to start off a bit slow but soon turned into a great month for secondary market books.

The first book to really capture my attention was Black Badge from BOOM! studios and written by Matt Kindt (who’s a fantastic writer, he’s up there on my favorite’s list for sure).

Great series, great read, art is amazing since it’s done by Tyler Jenkins (they’re the ones who brought us Grass Kings as well, another amazing book).

I still have high hopes for this book and I think a media deal or option will send it flying off the shelves one day. You can still find this one at your local shops and online.

Might even score them for under cover price for the regular covers on the secondary market.

The other book that blew up though the same time Black Badge was hitting stands was the new Red 5 book Riptide.

Such small print runs with some added demand made this book explode, making comic flippers very happy if they scored a few copies for cover.

Next up for indie books was The Rejected One Shot which was impossible to find for most and a dream for flippers. This book quickly shot up in value despite what I’ve heard is horrible writing and sub-par artwork. Nevertheless, that just makes it that much easier to sell right to the willing buyers right?

Recent sales still put this at a $35+ book, at least for the regular cover.

Beyonders from Aftershock was a sleeper hit, particularly Cover B, briefly topping at $20 but quickly died off. It’s selling for cover or less.

Edge of Spider-Geddon #2 quickly heated up to be a solid $15 book with the new or old I can’t recall mech spider whatever you want to call it with the // in it’s name with mech suit getting a symbiote attached to it? Did I get that right? Does anyone actually care? The Cully Hamner variant was the one to get initially but Cover A seems to have come around. These still seem to sell close to the $10 range on a good day.

That pretty much sums up August. There were a few other books that made ripples but not much on the secondary market. We saw Kelly Jones return to Batman on Batman Kings of Fear where the Sienkiewicz variant sort of shot up to around $10 briefly.

There was also a new Devin Dinosaur appearance in Moon Girl that really didn’t take off but could be a sleeper if the show ever comes to fruition by Marvel/Disney, this was changed likely due to “Devil” being in the name as Devin doesn’t sound so evil to those paranoid parents.

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That wraps up Part II. Stay tuned for Part III which is a bunch of books still fresh in our minds since it’s cover the remaining months since September.