Welcome to this weeks spec and drek, where we pick the winners each week we think will be spec worthy, a great read or just cool looking art on the cover. I also dive into the pesky drek, the book you should probably avoid if you can or perhaps not invest so heavily into.
DC Picks
Not a whole lot going on with DC this week for me. Seen the Batgirl #47 and Batman #95 spoilers already over on the forums and both were kind of meh..
But the Dodson Variant B this week got my attention. Just a cool looking cover that makes both she and Joker as if they’re on a poker playing card.
Marvel Picks
Empyre #2 is introducing Carol Danvers (Captain Marvel) becomes the new Accuser. Might be a good idea to pick up a copy or two but I wouldn’t go heavy on this cause this has more things going against it rather than for it. It’s just a title change which we already find out with spoilers she’s not fully onboard with being called The Accuser and secondly, title changes don’t normally last long so the spec on them die out rather quickly. This is also coming out of a cross event title so we all know how these pan out usually.
Strange Academy #1 2nd Printing is out this week as well. Already sold out at most online retailers. This series is seeing a lot of love on the secondary market and it’s only on issue #2 (which has caught fire as well). Genuine interest or people hoping this becomes a show on Disney+, something is fueling the fire so if you see them, grab’em, already selling well above cover on the secondary market.
Probably a good idea to just go ahead and pre-order Strange Academy #3 and the Strange Academy #3 (Character Spotlight Variant) now for pre-order dirt cheap prices. Issue #2 Character Spotlight is already a $25+ book itself on a good day.
And last this week out of Marvel is Thor #2 3rd Printing. It’s gonna end up selling more than cover so you might as well pick up a copy or two.
One sold listing already went for $17.99 with most others now already at the $25 price point.
Indie and Small Publisher Picks
Canto & The Clockwork Fairies One Shot. Great read, too bad it’s only a one-shot so pick it up for the read and collector in you for you Canto fans. The second volume is on the way. One shots, mini-series, ongoing series, they can just keep pumping out Canto stories and I’m onboard more than likely.
Chu #1 is for any Chew fan out there as it was classic Jon Layman at what I think he does best, write Tony Chu and the supporting characters within it.
It’s just too bad Rob! isn’t onboard this round since he’s busy doing his own thing in Farmhand, but we can likely expect some covers from him so that’s a plus.
First issue was a great read. I’m going to try and get some sneek peek previews up before Wednesday, unless ya’ll don’t like them.
Middlewest #18 concludes the great series by Skottie Young and the virgin variant by Young is already seeing love on pre-sales, going for around the $20 range with a few active listings at $25 and another at $50. This was open order so probably best to wait to see if your local shops got this if you didn’t pre-order online.
No Heroine #1 is a new book out from Source Point Press by Frank Gogol. Great read but as it’s seeing some love on the secondary market, so many store variants for this one.
If you missed out on pre-orders, try to nab at cover price at the local shop. If you miss it there, give it time and the price will drop to more normal pre-FOMO type prices more than likely (cause you all remember Dead End Kids right? It was a $20 – $30 book but now you can find for dirt cheap). And in cases like this (indie book, definitely always bet on Cover A if it does heat up for the long term).
Now on with the dreaded “drek” pick, every writer and artists worst nightmare when it comes to selling their hard work. The book to avoid or not fall victim to in buying at ratio inflated prices.
Don’t buy the Empyre #2 2nd Printing (it’s not that hard to come by either, Midtown still has them available at cover) coming out the same day as the first printing. Sure it’s gonna have a smaller print run but in my opinion, it’s already dead on arrival spec wise with Carol taking the mantle of The Accuser, since we all know it won’t last long.
Hooray! New Poyo Drek!
1. I guess if anybody can make the old Batman/Joker playing card gag fresh, it’s the Dodsons!
2. Regardless of Carol’s fate, I’m on board with Empyre and I think it’s worth a read. In Ewing we trust (for now).
3. Tony and I have talked about this, but I think Strange Academy is solid spec. Maybe not at inflated prices, but at cover it definitely was. Upwards of ten to twelve first appearances in one book. If it doesn’t get a Disney+ show, it just needs one popular character to live on in the marvel universe. 2 or 3? All the better. Could take years, but I think at least one of these kids will pan out as a solid fan favorite some day.
I actually preordered all the main Empyres books too… I crap on them for being event books but I still read them.
Events aren’t inherently bad if there’s a good story as a back bone. They get a bad rap from being forced as an annual happening.
Yeah. I try to go in with zero expectations and hope for entertaining read.
And yes, I’ve had Strange Academy on my picks with that good vibe feeling since issue 1. I’m glad were seeing heat on this series.
Doh I pre-ordered 10 copies of Empyre #2 2nd print. Luckily they were only $2.99 each and not full price :/
Heh, good luck. 😉
Same here, but not 10 only 2.
Any idea on how the strange academy Walmart Variant will do?
I’m sticking with Batman so getting all the books, I have empyre #2 on the list but really I want Captain marvel #18 because the nice cover…man these next 2 months are gonna be full of Batman
I sold a still sealed Walmart multipack for $25 + shipping today.
I bought it back in April when covid was going crazy in my state..Walmart was a scary place. And they put the stacks of comics in the checkout isles with the roll playing cards so you can’t get to them without getting within 2 feet of people who are checking out. So I quickly grabbed the stack and went somewhere else to flip though them.
I picked up the two strange academies and two Thor #1s (Cates) Walmart variant multipacks that April afternoon. Haven’t been back to walmart since.
Yea I only got 1 strange academy & a few Thor #1’s mostly because that cover looks better than the LCS cover…now Walmart just has the new DC & a few “7 comics” with the Vader Down blank variant…I know the out mostly unsold so I doubt any of them will have venom, Thor, Thanos hot stuff down the road unless they can no longer sell 2nd, 3rd prints
Oh boy, is marvel really going all in on the second and third printings.! I do like them but now that they are getting more popular I have a feeling the print runs will go up higher than most would expect. I wonder how long it will take before one has to wait for a truly short printed reprint? 5th print? 6th?
My guess is Marvel will have a 3rd print for Strange Academy #1 ready to order soon…Unless they already do and I haven’t seen it.
That playing card cover looks like they are in an “entanglement”. It’s quite off-putting.
looks like Joker is 4′ 7″ and batgirl is balls deep.
Joker better be careful with that cane…
Yeah…getting a little “cheeky” there…
FYI, if you don’t want to pay ebay prices, The Comic. Isn’t is selling them for $7.95.
Two days ago they had them for $3.95…I had 3 in my cart and fell asleep…yesterday morning I woke up to see they were bumped up to $4.95…figures I’d better grab them before they sell out…but by the time I got to checkout they were up to 5.95.
Just now I looked at them they were $6.95…and when I refreshed the page they were $7.95…
Obviously as their inventory is dwindling they have some auto increase for their selling price,..
Still cheaper than eBay prices….I haven’t seen them offered anywhere else online.
Sorry…first sentence had an autocorrect fail.
Thecomicmint is selling them for $7.95
Hey, don’t some comics come out on 7/21 now!
Meh, I’m not putting both dates in my title just for DC’s sake..