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Top Ten Bleeding Hot Comics – From Chew #1 To Thor TPBs…

1) Chew #1 First Print

John Layman, Rob Guillory, Image Comics, 2009

$60 recent sale price, $2.99 cover price

The little Image book that could. Sold out of both first and second print, with a third on the way (and a second print of #2 coming too), this is the surprise hit of the decade, about a psychic detective who can read what he eats, in a world where chicken is prohibited and a crime syndicate has set up around its distribution.

2) New Mutants #98

Fabian Nicieza, Rob Liefeld, Marvel comics 1995

$40 recent sale price, $1 cover price

One of the "hot" Liefeld books that plummeted in value over the last few years now has a resurgence for the first appearance of Deadpool in light of the planned movie. Might be a time to shift those other Deadpool comics that are clogging up the attic. Keep the Joe Kelly ones though eh? They're the best!

3) The Goon 1

Eric Powell, Avatar Comics, 1999

$170 recent sale price, $2.99 cover price

Powell may have been unhappy with the print job Avatar did on this comic ten years ago. But the first appearance of this cult character with a movie in the works hasn't stopped people paying silly money for this original apperance. This comic now goes for over three times what it was selling for last year.

4) Walking Dead #1

Robert Kirkman, Image Comics, 2003

$150 recent sale price, $2.99 cover price

A 25% increase since last year, as the series continues to sell and pick up sales as it goes. There are few titles that have managed to maintain a readership and build on it like this, and Walking Dead joins the ranks of Sandman, The Boys, Preacher and one other book in this list. Threats of an HBO series or the like probably also help.

5) Invincible #1 $68

Robert Kirkman, Cory Walker , Image Comics, 2003

$68 recent sale price, $2.99 cover price

And there's the other one. As Robert Kirkman's influnce in Image Comics continued to increase so does the price of the first issue of his superhero comic, a character who's prominence has been increased by the Image United project. Strangely there's no similar love for the character's first appearance in Savage Dragon. A matter of time?

6) Nightwing: Rough Justice TPB

Chuck Dixon, Scott McDaniel and Karl Story, DC Comics, 1999

$75 recent sale price, $11.95 cover price

There are a number of out-of-print trade paperbacks that cause prices to rise but of late, the second Nightwing collection written by Chuck Dixon is the one that is setting bookshelves on fire. Events in recent Batbooks have concentrated on the events in this run, but it's the unavialability and seemingly unwillingness of DC to reprint these titles that is causing the increase.

7) Grimm Fairy Tales 1

Joe Tyler, Ralph Tedesco, Joe Todd, Zenescope, 2005

$45 recent sale price, $2.99 cover price

This bad-girls-meets-fairy-stories series has been easily dismissed by some, including me, but actually makes for a good companion piece to the likes of Fables. The hotness is principally down to the boobage though. I don't think anyone would debate that too much.

8) Preacher Preview

Garth Ennis, Steve Dillon, DC/Vertigo, 2005

$81 recent sale price, FREE cover price.

A comic shop giveaway to help promote the upcoming Preacher comic book, many of these were dumped and even thrown away which means – yes! It's collectable! Ta da! And this first Preacher appearance in the light of still continued TV/movie deals and a solidly moving backlist mean that, well, it's a lot of money for a very slim pamphlet indeed…

9) Thor Vol 2: Lord Of Asgard TPB

Dan Jurgens, Marvel Comics 2003

$50 recent sale price, $12.99 cover price.

Part of Dan Jurgens run on the book, collected but now forgotten – by the beancounters at least, in favour of promoting other runs on the book. Well, nature abhors a vacuum and in this case pumps up the prices, for all books in this line although, just as with Nightwing, it's the second volume that gets the lion's share of attention.

10) Amazing Spider-Man #583 Obama cover 1st print

Mark Waid, Zeb Wells, Barry Kitson, Todd Nauck, Marvel, 2009

$80 recent sale price, $3.99 cover price

Okay, this is one of those variant cover exceptions, in that it was made available in unlimited numbers to certain retailers who jumped through hoops making it a reasonably proportioned variant, and was pushed by mainstream press. At its peak it was double the price it is now, but has faired favourably well since. That Obama keeps making headlines I guess.

Bubbling under are the likes of Acme Novelty Library #13, Dime Press #4, Kramers Ergot #1, Cherry Deluxe #1, Elseworlds Eighty Page Giant, GI Joe #55, Deadpool #54, Hulk Dead Like Me TP, Hack/Slash TPBs #3 and #5 and lots of #2s of the above #1s, and vice versa. And hot tips for the future?

Well, Wednesday Comics #1 comes out next week, it's probably underordered due to retailer nervousness over size issues, but it has work by Neil Gaiman, Paul Pope and others. Getting an unfolded flat copy would be very good indeed.

Also X-Factor #45. This series has been selling out of late but hasn't really bothered the aftermarket. The last page full on snog between Rictor and Shatterstar may change this however.

Also, Mark Millar comics will likely see an upswing with the Kick Ass movie furore. I'm not saying buy a load of Mark Millar comics to capitalise on it yet, but I would wait before clearing out those you do have for pennies.

And who knows what the Ultimate Comics line relaunch and new Marvel Zombies books will do for the original #1 issues that have been slipping of late…

Rules: 1) Bleeding Hot Comics looks at comics that are going up in price, that there is current activity around and maybe, just maybe might make money for someone if they find them in a fifty cent bin. 2) We discount the kind of artificial scarceness of 1:100 variant comics or retailer promotional comics. Unless there's a really good reason not to. 3) This column is wrong already, there's stuff I don't see and haven't seen. Tell me how wrong I am in the comments and see your selection in the updated version. 4) I am not condoning anyone who tries to make an actual living at speculation. As this column shows you'd have had to have been very lucky to have speculated on these comics on publication. Anything promoted as being collectable – usually won't. Comic shops are built on pulped copies of X-Force #1 and Superman #75. And Chew #1 is actually a rather good comic…

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