Posted in: Recent Updates | Tagged: jonathan ross, wossy

Speculator Corner – What's Hot To Trot?

This is a dangerous game. Looking at just published or just-about-to-be published books and making predictions for the speculator market as to what comics will go up in value. And which won't. If anyone starts putting any actual money into it, they could most likely come a cropper. And more fortunes have been lost on this kind of thing that could ever be gained.

Still, in for a penny, in for a pound. This is the Bleeding Cool look at comic books that might be going up in value in the near future.

1. Walking Dead #70, Image – Walking Dead #61 and Walking Dead #63 have had an aftermarket bump as a result of first running a black and white preview of Chew, then a reprint of the first issue in black and white in the back. Well new Image comic Turf, from Jonathan Ross and Tommy Lee Edwards will be getting a colour preview in the back of this comic, an announcement that was made after the Final Order Cutoff date for the comic. This will be the official first appearance of Turf. And feels like a very strong return-on-investment.

2. Turf #1, Image – I also understand that there will be a Turf preview in the back of Image United #0 – which should put Turf previews in the hands of an awful lot of people. This could well be a huge book. America may not know Jonathan Ross, but in the UK he's a cross between David Letterman and John Stewart and certainly one of the most famous broadcasters in TV and radio. The UK press will go crazy for this, which will lead the US press to report that – first as an object of curiosity, then as the book that Hollywood are reading. Jonathan regularly has the Hollywood A-list on his show but is also UK's most prominent film reviewer. A lot of retailers will not have ordered high enough, and the previews in Walking Dead and Image United will bring in a lot of new readers who just get intrigued by the comic.

3. American Vampire #1, DC Vertigo – retailers seem to be treating this new Vertigo series as they do Marvel's Stephen King comic books. The big difference is that Stephen King is actually writing one half of American Vampire – his first original comic book, and more comic pages than he has written before. There is a stack of publicity and press on this book, and I can't imagine the week of publication won;t se articles in major outlets. Expect a metric ton of Stephen King fans to descend on comic stores for this one. And I hear talk of a very special variant cover that will only increase demand. If the stores don't step up, then expect the aftermarket to go wild.

4. Kill Shakespeare #1, IDW – this is one of those high concepts that feels unfailable. The cast of Shakespeare's leave the world of fiction to take down their creator. This is a very easy hook for any journalist to write about – "Kerpow! Forsooth! From The Stage To The Comic Page! The Works Of Shakespeare Take On Their Master! To Be A Comic Or Not To Be A Comic!" It's just too easy, If any outlet does see the possibility, expect instant sellout for a relatively minor comic from IDW.

5. X-Men Nation X, Marvel. The UK and Canadian Amazon prices have returned from their mass 70+% discounts in line with the USA price, but this still offers the opportunity to purchase a few copies of Marvel's Nation X hardcover at a better-than-retail discount and then sell them on once the book goes out of print, as sucgh hardcovers are wont to do with Marvel.

And The Speculator Stinker? Brightest Day #0. It's returnable, retailers will up their orders to get that option and the variants attached, odds are they'll be giving copies away by San Diego time. Buy it to read, sure, but don't be fooled by the stellar creative team into thinking this will pay for your retirement home. Unless you build it out of returned copies that is…

And by the by… Chase Variant  One Shot. Yes, I know, I know, how self serving – but you can't argue with eBay. The reviews have been fairly good but some shops have sold out (if they ever had copies), while some do have enough stock. Which means there must be opportunity for a keen eyed fellow to fill the gap. I expect this is a momentary bubble caused by distribution disparity, it's not going to be another Chew. Well, not unless people find out about the Angeline Jolie-starring adaptation, of course. An interesting twist is that while the standard comic is going for up to $15 on eBay, the Rob Liefeld variant is just $10. It probably also doesn't help that by choosing a comic called "Chase Variant", I made it a pig to search for on eBay…

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