Poyo’s Spec and Drek for May 29th, 2019

It’s a 5th Wednesday, which are usually kind of lame for new comic book releases but this one surprisingly looks more exciting than most while also being a little more exciting than the previous weeks in May, particularly for the indies and small publisher books.

Let’s spec and drek!

DC/Vertigo Picks

Batman Last Knight on Earth #1 (of 3) from the DC Black Label is Snyder and Capullo’s last chapter they’re doing for Batman. At least that’s what the solicitations indicate.

But it’s certainly this weeks pick of the week. I expect a big print run. It’s Batman and retailers don’t sleep on these usually.

We can only hope as speculators something big and unsuspecting happens in this issue that creates some demand to make it worth the price tag.

There’s also a Jock Variant available: Batman Last Knight on Earth #1 (Jock Variant).

But if this does heat up, my bet is still on cover A as the overall winner. The Jock is cool but I’d say not his best work.

Marvel Picks

Immortal Hulk #18 is my Marvel pick this week. I think more good things are coming for this series.

Will it heat up like previous issues? Probably not as much as we hope.

The regular cover is a pretty sweet mugshot though. The Immortal Hulk #18 (Jongju Kim Marvel Battle Lines Variant) is a pretty cool Hulkbuster cover as well. That’s a book for the personal collection though as I don’t expect any heat on it.

My other pick goes to War of Realms Spider-Man & League of Realms #2 (of 3).

Issue #1 we saw sell out with a new character introduction and appearance of Fernande. Not a lot of heat yet on the secondary market but it’s definitely a book with characters to keep a watch on.

The regular cover is already selling out online at the time of writing.

Indie Picks

She Said Destroy #1 Cover A from Vault Comics sounds like a silly name for a title but it’s definitely a book I intend on checking out.

Could be a great read, could be a dud. Won’t know until we actually do read it. Vault Comics have been hit or miss as of lately.

They do have a Saga homage variant B cover however that might win over some checking this book out. Could be a book to watch as some die hard Saga fans could seek it out.

Small Publisher Picks

Amber Blake #3 Butch Guice Regular Cover hits stands this week and that means there’s a Nodet variant as well. Someone is already trying to list pre-sales at $125. Sold listings put this one around the $30 range currently.

These have done extremely well on the secondary market, usually you have to list early to maximize profits as these cool off after a bit of time has passed.

With their magazine size, still carrying a $3.99 cover price and quite thin like a normal book, they’re also hard to come by in minty fresh condition.

Most retailers aren’t stocking up heavy on this book either so most miss out on the 10 copy incentive to qualify for the Nodet variants, which are surprisingly quite good.

Other books worth mentioning are Walking Dead #191 (2nd Printing) which is the teaser possible death of Rick Grimes.

Ascender #2 also hits stands and it carries a really sweet cover being a regular cover.

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Now on with the dreaded “avoid” pick, every writer and artist worst nightmare when it comes to selling their hard work.

Remember that book Rags that we talked non-stop about for months at the end of last year? Well, with a huge delay, issue #4 finally hits store shelves and instead of one ratio variant, it comes with two ratio variants. There’s a Rags #4 Main Cover, Rags #4 (Cosplay Variant) and the Rags #4 Crossover Virgin Cover.

Probably over ordered as retailers likely bumped up their orders for this one and also with the controversy of what the creators did, they ruined a good thing they had by flooding the market with self published books.

I can’t blame them though since they did ask patreons who got early issues to not sell or leak them until the Antarctic Press books hit stands. Just poorly executed and handled on their part if you ask me.

If you do pick it up to read, pick the cover you like best and stick with that. Avoid the secondary market though. You can save money currently by buying the Crossover Virgin variant at TFAW for $16 while people are listing them for $25 on eBay.